Standardized Assessment Battery Research Articles

Lamotrigine Monotherapy Improves Depressive Symptoms in Epilepsy: A Double-Blind Comparison with Valproate

Depressive symptoms are highly prevalent in patients with epilepsy. The antiepileptic drug lamotrigine has been shown to be an effective treatment for the depressive phase of bipolar disorder and to enhance mood and well-being in epilepsy patients. The effects of lamotrigine monotherapy on depressive symptoms in epilepsy have not been evaluated to date in a controlled clinical trial. A recently completed double-blind epilepsy trial comparing the effects of lamotrigine monotherapy and valproate monotherapy on weight change incorporated a battery of standard mood assessments. Mean screening Beck Depression Inventory scores showed that both lamotrigine and valproate groups suffered from mild depression at baseline. Lamotrigine monotherapy was reliably associated with earlier and larger improvements than valproate in mood assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory, the Cornell Dysthymia Rating Scale, and the Profile of Mood States. Considered in the context of other data showing lamotrigine's antidepressant efficacy in bipolar depression, these results suggest that lamotrigine improves mood in mildly depressed patients with epilepsy. Lamotrigine may be particularly useful in treating epilepsy patients with comorbid depression, the most common psychiatric illness in epilepsy.

A preventive program for community-dwelling elderly at risk of functional decline: a pilot study

A program has been designed to assess and survey community-dwelling elderly over 75, identified at risk of functional decline by a postal questionnaire. The objectives were to verify the acceptability and the feasability of the program and to explore its impact, mainly on the functional status. A randomized controlled study took place in an urban community where 99 participants were drawn from those having responded positively to two or more of the six questions asked in the postal questionnaire, previously studied in Sherbrooke, in 1992. The program consisted in a home visit by a nurse who administered a standardized assessment battery on risk factors identified specifically for functional decline. When problems were identified, experimental subjects were referred to their general practitioner or to other health professionals for diagnosis and interventions. The control subjects received the usual health services. Both process and outcome measures were utilized in the study. The process measures allowed to know whether the program was acceptable or not to subjects and if it was feasible when using the existing health care services. The outcome measures included the number of eliminated risk factors, the functional autonomy level, the general well-being, the perceived state of health and the social support. The results showed that the program was feasible to implement and acceptable by the subjects and by health professionals. After 6 months, study subjects did not loose autonomy whereas the control ones significantly declined ( P<0.001). If preventive programs could be effective in reducing the loss of autonomy, the use and cost of health care services could also be reduced and the other health and wellfare problems could be also prevented.

Why Has Musical Aptitude Assessment Fallen Flat? And What Can We Do About It?

Tests of musical aptitudes are reviewed. Despite decades of research and at least modest evidence for the validity of such tests (particularly regarding their ability to assess a mechanical-acoustic factor), the objective assessment of musical aptitudes is not part of the standard career assessment battery. Reasons for this situation are suggested. A renewed effort to develop musical aptitude tests is recommended, particularly along the lines already established through the research programs of Karma (1994), Dowling and Harwood (1986), and Vispoel (1992).

Symptom Overreporting in Combat Veterans Evaluated for PTSD: Differentiation on the Basis of Compensation Seeking Status

We examined the role of compensation-seeking status on response patterns to self-report inventories of acute psychopathology and psychological distress in a group of 165 combat veterans evaluated for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at a Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Medical Center. Veterans completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Revised, Beck Depression Inventory, Mississippi Scale for Combat-Related PTSD, a fixed-response format version of the Dissociative Experiences Scale, and Impact of Events Scale as pan of a standard assessment battery. Results showed that compensation-seeking veterans endorsed dramatically higher levels of psychopathology across measures and produced sharply elevated fake-bad validity indices as compared to non-compensation-seeking veterans. Differences between the two groups on most scales and indices exceeded effect sizes of 1.0, even when effects of income, global assessment of functioning, and clinician-rated severity of PTSD were controlled for. It is suggested that the availability of VA disability compensation for combat-related PTSD impedes accurate initial assessment of veterans presenting for treatment and may impair estimation of long-term therapeutic outcome in this population.

Neurological Signs, Aging, and the Neurodegenerative Syndromes

To identify the prevalence of neurological signs said to be associated with "normal" aging in subjects 75 years and older. To examine the association of these signs with age, stroke, the neurodegenerative diagnoses (dementia, cognitive impairment, gait ataxia, gait slowing, and parkinsonism), and systemic diseases. Subjects participated in a standardized clinical history, examination, neurological evaluation, and neuropsychological assessment battery. A linear regression model that allowed the simultaneous consideration of multiple parameters was used to assess the independent contribution of age and disease to the presence of the signs. Correlations between the signs and age in the subgroup free of neurological diagnoses were performed. Community-based study in Sydney, Australia. A random sample of 647 community-dwelling subjects older than 75 years. Standardized neurological examination in 537 subjects. With the exception of impaired vibration sense (beta = .009, P < .01), loss of upward gaze (beta = .005, P < .01), and bradykinesia (beta = .005, P < .01), all signs were associated with the neurodegenerative syndromes and stroke. Analysis of the subgroup free of neurological diagnoses confirmed these findings. Apart from impaired vibration sense of the thumbs (r = 0.22, P < .01) and gait instability (r = 0.20, P < .05), no significant associations with age were identified. It is not aging to which many neurological signs should be attributed, but rather to the neurodegenerative syndromes that accompany aging.

Calculation and number processing in mild Alzheimer's disease.

Calculation and number processing abilities in 17 patients suffering from a mild form of dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT) were studied by means of a standardized multitask assessment battery, the EC301 (Deloche et al., 1994). Patients were selected from a larger sample by using a specific visuo-perceptive task to control the confounding effects of deficits in analysing digit serial order. Language and memory skills were evaluated by means of standardized testing procedures. The EC301 overall score showed impaired performance in 12 cases. Calculation and number processing scores were highly correlated with Mini-Mental State Examination and language performance. However, multiple single-case analyses indicated heterogeneous patterns of preserved/impaired abilities with respect to the three cognitive areas under investigation (calculation, memory, and language) and to the different components of the calculation and number processing system.

Profiting from controversy: Lessons from the person^situation debate.

Profiting from controversy: Lessons from the person^situation debate.

Development of Problem Severity Scales for the Assessment of Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Abuse

The Chemical Dependency Adolescent Assessment Project was established to develop a standardized assessment battery to provide a multidimensional description of problems associated with alcohol and drug use by adolescents that can assist in the identification, referral, and treatment of adolescent alcohol and drug abuse. This paper provides an overview of the development of the portion of the assessment battery that addresses problem severity of alcohol and drug abuse. Scale construction procedures, scale characteristics, and relationships of scales with external variables are discussed.

Extramarital sex: impact on depression and commitment in couples seeking marital therapy.

The effects of extramarital sex on depression and commitment were examined in couples seeking marital therapy. One hundred and twenty couples completed a standard assessment battery which assessed level of depression, level of commitment and demographic variables. Couples presenting extramarital sex as an issue reported higher rates of depression and lower levels of commitment to their marriages. In fact, all couples presenting extramarital sex indicated either lowered commitment, elevated depression, or both. Interestingly, it was the spouse engaging in extramarital sex who was most likely to show higher levels of depression and/or lower levels of commitment than other same sex spouses presenting for marital therapy. The need for individual sessions with the spouse engaging in extramarital sex as a preliminary step in marital therapy is discussed.

Validity of a Configural Interpretation of the Intellectual Screening and Achievement Scales of the Personality Inventory for Children

One hundred children (61 males, 39 females), ages six to fifteen (M = nine years, seven months), were given a WISC-R and Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT), as part of a standard assessment battery (when they were evaluated at a university psychological teaching clinic for a variety of educational and/or emotional problems) for screening relative to programs for bright and gifted children, or as non-clinical clients. A parent of each child completed the Personality Inventory for Children (PIC). PIC Achievement and Intellectual Screening scales were related to IQ scores on the WISC-R and to standard scores on the WRAT by using correlational and multiple regression analyses. The Achievement scale was found to be a more powerful predictor of every WISC-R IQ score and of every WRAT standard score than was the Intellectual Screening score. Implications for interpretation are discussed.