Papers by Varadaraj Velamoor
International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 2009
Background: Prefrontal leucotomy was widely used from the late 1930s to early 1950s as a treatmen... more Background: Prefrontal leucotomy was widely used from the late 1930s to early 1950s as a treatment for disorders involving obsessive agitation. Comparatively few studies of the enduring behavioural effects of such surgery exist, while data on mortality and cognition have been better reported. Aims: We contrast the psychosocial functioning of older individuals with schizophrenia who had undergone prefrontal leucotomy with two groups of their peers who had not undergone such surgery. Method: A total of 87 individuals (one female) with a mean age of 70.3 years ( SD = 6.84) were evaluated twice 25 months apart using a standardized rating scale. Twenty of the residents, all with schizophrenia, had undergone prefrontal leucotomy approximately 45 years previously. All diagnoses of schizophrenia were confirmed by multiple psychiatrists using DSM-III criteria at the time of the ratings, which were completed by two care staff who knew the residents well. Results: Repeated measures comparisons...
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1994
The neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is a rare but potentially fatal disorder characterized b... more The neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is a rare but potentially fatal disorder characterized by mental-status changes, muscle rigidity, hyperthermia, and autonomic dysfunction. Systematic examination of early signs and the progression of symptoms in NMS may be worthwhile to facilitate prompt recognition and interventions to abort the syndrome in its incipient stage. The authors present the results of a preliminary review of the temporal sequence of the four predominant signs of NMS as described in 340 clinical reports of NMS in the literature. Of all order implications, 70.5% were consistent with the sequence of mental-status changes, rigidity, hyperthermia, and autonomic dysfunction. Changes in either mental status or rigidity were the initial manifestations of NMS in 82.3% of cases with a single presenting sign and were significantly more likely to be observed before hyperthermia and autonomic dysfunction. Methodological limitations of these data and clinical implications are d...
Psychiatric journal of the University of Ottawa : Revue de psychiatrie de l'Universite d'Ottawa, 1990
The purpose of the study was to compare the perceptions of twenty unemployed and thirty employed ... more The purpose of the study was to compare the perceptions of twenty unemployed and thirty employed British patients recovering from an attempted suicide as regards motives for self poisoning, intent to die, presence of warning, past history of attempts, history of psychiatric treatments, and types of problems reported as antecedents to the suicide attempt. Their key relatives/friends were also interviewed concerning their views of the emergency. Analysis of the responses failed to show significant differences between the employed and unemployed. The implications of these findings as regards further research is discussed.
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
overwhelmed with feelings and acting inappropriately, and also the danger of becoming disassociat... more overwhelmed with feelings and acting inappropriately, and also the danger of becoming disassociated from his feelings as a defense. He describes how the demands of object relations work puts pressure on the therapist; he experiences the frank expression of the projective identification and must confront the patient, attack the premise on which the patient builds the relationship with the therapist and address the metacommunications. He concludes this chapter by describing the satisfactions of object relations work. A summarizing chapter with a detailed description of the progress made in one case would a be very useful addition. Chapter Nine gives examples of splitting in adults' and children's literature and an object relations approach to the cinema. It is an interesting subject from a psychologica point of view, but is superficial and adds little to the real value of the book, disrupting the book's otherwise logical sequence. A summarizing chapter with conclusions would be more welcome. Despite the above criticisms, this is an excellent book which presents important concepts in a simple manner. It is a much needed book on an important subject about which not enough has been written. Unfortunately, the author does not make clear until Chapter Four that this book is really a description of the application of object relations theory to individual psychotherapy and not to psychoanalysis. The author has applied this theory in a variety of treatment settings including therapy for adults and adolescents and marital and group therapy. One weakness is that it is unclear how long and how intensive a treatment the author is writing about. Much of the work this author describes can be done in psychoanalytic therapy over a period of years. It is not clear whether he is also proposing that this approach be used for brief intensive psychotherapy, which would be much more difficult to do. This is a well written book that is easy and enjoyable to read. It provides an approach to modern psychotherapeutic technique that is accessible to the general psychiatric reader. The theory and techniques are clearly set out; one danger is that they cannot be memorized by the neophyte therapist and then automatically applied. The author acknowledges his heavy debt to Ogden (1). Cashdan uses only brief vignettes; an ongoing description of the treatment of a single patient would have supported his objectives better. I highly recommended this book, especially for therapists in training. The author is clearly competent in the area and, it is a subject of great interest. The volume is attractive in layout and free from productive errors, and the price at $22.95 is reasonable. This writer was somewhat chagrined to see this book had already been written; I would have liked to write something like it myself.
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie, 1991
European Journal of Medical and Health Sciences
Background: There is a lack of data on the frequency and neuropsychological correlates of tinnitu... more Background: There is a lack of data on the frequency and neuropsychological correlates of tinnitus in distinct clinical populations such as persons injured in high impact motor vehicle accidents (MVAs). Method: Tinnitus severity and frequency were analyzed statistically in de-identified data of 106 post-MVA patients (mean age=39.5, SD=13.1; 31 males and 75 females). Correlations of tinnitus to the patients’ scores on the Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire, Subjective Neuropsychological Symptoms Scale (SNPSS), Brief Pain Inventory, Insomnia Severity Index, PTSD measure (PCL-5), and to ratings of depression, anger, and anxiety on the Whiplash Disability Questionnaire were evaluated. The patients were interviewed an average of 53.6weeks (SD=39.9) after their MVA; all continued to suffer from post-MVA symptoms requiring therapy. Results: Tinnitus was reported by 70 of the 106 post-MVA patients (66%). Slightly less than a half of the 70 rated their tinnitus as “frequent” or...
European Journal of Medical and Health Sciences
Background: Formication is the sensation or feeling as if insects were crawling on or under the s... more Background: Formication is the sensation or feeling as if insects were crawling on or under the skin. It is observed in a variety of clinical situations including drug intoxications, multiple sclerosis, and diabetic neuropathy, among many others. Furthermore, it can be associated with injuries incurred during motor vehicle accidents (MVAs). We examined the frequency of reports of formication in a normal control sample as well as in a sample of motorists who sustained concussive and whiplash injuries following high impact MVAs. We also evaluated the correlations of the formication to measures of pain, insomnia, and of various post-accident neuropsychological symptoms. Method: De-identified data on 23 injured motorists (mean age=38.0 years, SD=12.8) and on 20 normal controls (mean age 42.8 years, SD=19.9) were available. All motorists responded to the following True/False item: “I have pain in my body which seems to feel like bugs crawling under the surface of my skin.” Their data wer...
Asian Journal of Psychiatry
European Psychiatry
IntroductionNeuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) requires prompt recognition for effective manage... more IntroductionNeuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) requires prompt recognition for effective management, but there are no established diagnostic criteria.ObjectivesTo validate the recently published international expert consensus (IEC) diagnostic criteria for NMS, which assign priority points based on the relative importance of each criterion for diagnosing NMS.AimsDetermine optimal diagnostic cutoff for priority point score.MethodsData were extracted from 221 archived telephone contact reports of clinician-initiated calls to a national telephone consultation service from 1997–2009; each case was given a total priority point score based on the IEC criteria. DSM-IV-TR research criteria, in original form and modified to accept less than ‘severe’ rigidity, served as the primary diagnostic reference standard. Consultants’ diagnoses served as an additional reference standard. The optimal priority point cutoff score was determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis...
Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2016
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 01688639608408269, Jan 4, 2008
Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 1992
Ninety-six British patients retrospectively rated the intent underlying their recent suicide atte... more Ninety-six British patients retrospectively rated the intent underlying their recent suicide attempt: 36.5% indicated the intent was “to die”, 17.7% “not to die”, and 45.8% “did not mind”. These three groups did not differ with respect to a variety of socioanamnestic variables except the following: those wishing “to die” more frequently left a suicide letter than those who “did not mind”. The ratings of the patient's suicide intent (along the same 3 categories) by significant others were also unrelated to the socioanamnestic variables except history of psychiatric treatment: those with a psychiatric history were more frequently perceived as intending “to die” than “not to die”.
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Papers by Varadaraj Velamoor