On the synthesis of information from psychological tests.

This paper evaluated research concerning the synthesis or integration of information from Wechsler intelligence, Rorschach, and Thematic Apperception tests, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory in the process of personality assessment. Five methodological issues were considered in evaluating the extent to which the results contributed to the statistical prediction of clinical status: the method of measuring the clinical criteria, the status of participants or the groups tested, whether results were estimated for specific diagnostic groups, whether there were estimates of incremental validity for different psychological tests, and if diagnostic group status was predicted on the basis of test scores as opposed to the report of differences on tests between diagnostic groups. Few studies met as many as four of these methodological criteria; several provided information relevant to the process of statistical prediction.

The influence of elevated F scales on the validity of adolescent MMPI profiles.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventories (MMPI) of adolescent outpatients were examined to determine whether characteristically elevated F scales indicated an exaggeration of psychopathology. A treatment condition designed to reduce the motivation to exaggerate psychopathology did not lower scores of the F and F-K indices when subjects were administered a second MMPI. Similarly, actuarial interpretations for the second protocols were not more frequently selected by therapists as more valid, regardless of treatment condition and elevation of the F and F-K indices on the first MMPI profile. Elevations of Scales F, Pd/4, and Sc/8 characterized the adolescent MMPI profiles.

Personality assessment with children of superior intelligence: divergence versus psychopathology.

The perceptual and cognitive functioning of children with intelligence quotients greater than 135 was examined with the Rorschach Inkblot Test. A criterion measure, the Child Behavior Checklist, was also administered so as to determine whether deviations for Rorschach variables from age-appropriate norms indicated the presence of psychopathology or were evidence of nonentrenched, novel, or creative styles of encoding and processing information. Rorschach variables indicative of intellectual sophistication, nonentrenched thinking or inaccurate reality perception, and cognitive slippage were reliably elevated for this sample versus norms. Results for the Child Behavior Checklist demonstrated that the incidence of psychopathology in the intellectually superior and average samples were comparable. There was a lack of covariance between Rorschach makers of inaccurate reality perception, cognitive slippages, and schizophrenia, and the sum of behavior problems on the Child Behavior Checklist. Results for the Rorschach and Child Behavior Checklist variables were comparable for children with intelligence quotients greater than 150 versus between 136 and 140. It was concluded that the intellectually superior children did process the Rorschach stimuli in a manner that was nonentrenched and reliably different from norms, but that these differences should not routinely be considered as indications of psychopathology.

Evaluación prospectiva de pacientes con SDRA con sospecha de infección por influenza a H1N1 en terapia intensiva. Seguimiento a los 30 días del alta / Prospective evaluation of patients with ARDS with suspected H1N1 influenza infection in intensive therapy. Follow-up 30 days after discharge

El objetivo del presente es la caracterización de pacientes en terapia intensiva en el hospital de alta complejidad, y portadores de insuficiencia respiratoria aguda con requerimiento de asistencia ventilatoria mecánica, a su vez, el comportamiento de pacientes con infección por el virus influenza H1N1 que desarrollan síndrome de dificultad respiratorio agudo (SDRA).