Saturday, November 12, 2011

GW Psychological Testing and Paranoid Schizophrenia: The Incontrovertible Facts

In March 1996 I was administered the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test by a psychiatry resident (Ramin Mojtabai, M.D. under the supervision of Robert Jenkins, Ph.D.) at the George Washington University Medical Center.

I scored six errors. "[S]ix errors represent the best score possible."  Matthew M. Kurtz, Ph.D., Sarah B. Jeffrey, B.A., and Jennifer Rose, PhD, "Elementary Neurocognitive Function, Learning Potential and Everyday Life Skills in Schizophrenia: What is Their Relationship?" Schizophrenia Research, 116(2-3): 280, February 2010.

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test requires the individual to change strategy continually in response to feedback.

In February 1996, my then treating psychiatrist at GW (Dimitrios Georgopoulos, M.D.) diagnosed me with paranoid schizophrenia.

In September 1992 I had been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, a mood disorder, by Napoleon Cuenco, M.D., at GW.   In February 1993 my then treating psychiatrist (Suzanne M. Pitts, M.D., deceased) prescribed lithium for bi-polar disorder.

3 comments:

My Daily Struggles said...

To the best of my knowledge paranoid schizophrenia is not considered a mood disorder.

The view of paranoid schizophrenia as a mood disorder has been proposed as an hypothesis, however.






http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/6/1151.abstract

My Daily Struggles said...

Mr. Callet, this one's for you!

"[S]ix errors represent the best score possible [on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test]." Matthew M. Kurtz, Ph.D., Sarah B. Jeffrey, B.A., and Jennifer Rose, PhD, "Elementary Neurocognitive Function, Learning Potential and Everyday Life Skills in Schizophrenia: What is Their Relationship?" Schizophrenia Research, 116(2-3): 280, February 2010.

I would dispute the statement that "[S]ix errors represent the best score possible [on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test]."

In fact, an individual can score less than 6 errors, but that will be pure chance. So the correct phrasing is "Six errors represent the lowest meaningful score on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test."

My Daily Struggles said...

"The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test requires the individual to change strategy continually in response to feedback."

Maybe I have talent as a litigator!!