Goldstein 1998

Question 1

what were the aims?

Answer 1

• to see if there are gender differences with regard to the re-hospitalisation of people with SZ and the length of their stays
• to consider social factors present before diagnosis, to see if they had an impact on the course of the disorder regarding gender
• too look at DSM II & DSM III diagnosis to see if there were differences and test the DSM for rel. and val.

Question 2

procedure part 1 (testing reliability)

Answer 2

• Goldstein re-diagnosed 199 patients diagnosed with SZ under the DSM-II
• criteria for the disorder from DSM III were used
• to test rel. of re-diagnoses, a small sample of patients were diagnosed by an independent expert to see if diagnoses matched
• 169 of patients were re-diagnosed with SZ, DSM III is reliable.

Question 3

how may patients were re-diagnosed by Goldstein using the DSM-II?

Answer 3

199

Question 4

how many patients were re-diagnosed by the expert using the DSM-III?

Answer 4

169 - DSM III is reliable

Question 5

procedure part 2 (the main study)

Answer 5

• main part of study followed 90 hospitalised patients, followed for 10 years
• chosen based on being diagnosed with SZ using DSM-II
• aged 18-45 and had no other mental conditions (or alcohol / drug abuse)
• had all been hospitalised for less than 6 months before returning to families.

Question 6

how many patients were there?

Answer 6

90, followed for 10 years

Question 7

how old were the patients?

Answer 7

18-45 years old

Question 8

how was info. about symptoms gathered?

Answer 8

• gathered by trained interviewers using specially-developed questions
• focused on hallucinations, paranoia, isolation, depression

Question 9

how was premorbid functioning measured?

Answer 9

• a questionnaire given by interviewers
• dealt with isolation, peer relationships, interests when younger, marital status etc.
• rated on a 6-point scale

Question 10

how was social functioning measured?

Answer 10

• using details about the patient after they received the diagnosis
• e.g. marital status, employment

Question 11

how was course of the illness operationalised?

Answer 11

• counting no. of re-hospitalisations experienced and duration of hospital stays

Question 12

what was the mean number of re-hospitalisations over 10 years?

Answer 12

• male = 2.24
• female = 1.12

Question 13

what was the mean number of days in hospital?

Answer 13

• male = 417.83
• female = 206.81

Question 14

what percentage of the gender effect on re-hospitalisations was due to premorbid functioning?

Answer 14

13%

Question 15

what percentage of the gender effect on hospitalisations was due to social functioning?

Answer 15

4.3%

Question 16

what percentage of gender effect on length of stay was due to premorbid functioning?

Answer 16

4.2%

Question 17

what percentage of gender effect on length of stay was due to social functioning?

Answer 17

11.3%

Question 18

what were the conclusions?

Answer 18

• Goldstein concluded that her study reinforced what other studies had found, supporting her hypothesis that women have a less serene experience of SZ than men (men had longer stays & more hospitalisations)
• DSM-III was a reliable tool but some diagnostic differences 169/199 re-diagnosed with same disorder

Question 19

how can we use Goldstein as an example interview?

Answer 19

• she used trained interviews to gather data about the symptoms of the patient
• used questionnaires administered by an interviewer to gather info. about premorbid functioning, past histories etc.

Question 20

how can we use Goldstein as an example of a longitudinal study?

Answer 20

• an example of a longitudinal study looking at gender differences in SZ in terms of their experiences and how they coped with everyday life