A study involving 83 college students, 83 community residents, and 103 patients was conducted to establish cutoff scores on the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IPP) (L. Horowitz and others, 1988) for judging clinically significant improvement in interpersonal functioning. The IPP could distinguish among students, patients, and an asymptomatic…

Confirmatory factor analyses were used to study whether the structure of Weinberger Adjustment Inventory subscales would be comparable across clinical patient and nonclinical samples of youth, young adults, and adults (six samples, 1,486 subjects). Results suggest little need to use different measures of general adjustment when studying children…

Nonfluent and fluent dysphasic subjects (N=22) and nondysphasic subjects (N=20) were assessed on tasks of word fluency and picture-naming. Results showed that clinical language examinations should utilize contexts other than naming tasks for detecting the presence of word retrieval problems and for differentiating the two polar types of dysphasia.…

Analysis of completed questionnaires from 192 individuals with newly diagnosed epilepsy found that half the sample had experienced only 3 seizures or less since onset, but 91% reported at least some adjustment problems, most frequently concerning fear of seizures, fear of stigma in employment, or problems with accepting the diagnosis. (DB)

Two studies involving 164 employed adults and 30 brain-injured and 30 noninjured patients investigated a modification of the Cognitive Estimation Test of Shallice and Evans (1978). The normative and clinical data serve as a starting point for further validation of the newly developed measure. (SLD)

The relationship among the nine clinical syndrome scales of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II) and clinical scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) was studied with 108 psychiatric inpatients. Results indicate convergent validity of only the MCMI-II Axis I scales. (SLD)

Methodological considerations in conducting research on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), the most widely used clinical personality instrument, are reviewed, with reference to the original MMPI and the version for adolescents (MMPI-A). Potential pitfalls in personality testing and personality assessment research are…

Comparison of 19 adult females reporting childhood ritualistic sexual abuse with 27 adult females reporting sexual abuse without ritualism found that women reporting ritualistic abuse scored significantly higher on measures of childhood sexual and physical abuse severity. Neither posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnostic status nor PTSD…

The Paired-Associate Recognition Test (PART) was developed to test declarative memory using Wisconsin Card Sorting Test stimuli. The reliability and construct validity of the PART were studied with 55 healthy adults. Overall results indicate that the PART can be administered reliably and that it requires declarative memory processes. (SLD)

The characteristic features of psychogenic stuttering of adult onset are reviewed, and four cases of this disorder are presented. Psychogenic stuttering of adult onset is classified as a conversion reaction, and tentative criteria for this diagnosis are proposed. (Author/JDD)

Discusses the diagnosis and management of "non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome," a form of cyclic insomnia to which people who are totally blind are prone. Covered are incidence and clinical features, formal diagnostic criteria, the biological basis of circadian sleep disorders, circadian rhythms in blind people, pharmacological entrainment,…

A study investigated the incidence of autism in 20 patients with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). The prevalence of autistic disorder was conservatively estimated at 20%. Data suggest a possible association between both hypsarrythmia and TSC-related cardiac abnormalities with autism in this subgroup of individuals with TSC. (Author/CR)

This article discusses Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS), a disability in which the individual has visual hallucinations that are complex, persistent, or repetitive, retains full or partial insight into the unreality of the hallucinations, does not have hallucinations in other modalities, and does not have delusional ideation. (Contains 12…

Discusses the definition of dyslexia, reintroduces the concept of marker variables, proposes a strategy for developing an updated marker variable system, presents a preliminary working set of dyslexia marker variables, and calls for eventual adoption of this or similar marker variable systems to facilitate future research efforts. (Author/CR)