Forty-one subjects diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were recruited from across the United States. Regressions were conducted to evaluate the relation among stress, depression, anxiety, anger, and SLE symptom complaints. Negative weighting of major life events predicted symptom history. Significant hierarchical regressions using negative weighting of major life events, impact of daily stress, depression, anxiety, and anger were found for severity of joint pain, abdominal distress, and rash. Analyses using 1-day-lagged predictors yielded similar results. Within-subject analyses suggested that there was much individual variability in the strength of the stress-illness relation. Thus, some individuals appeared to be stress responders, while others did not. Findings for impact of minor life events and depression were consistent across the different levels of analyses. It was concluded that stress, depression, anxiety, and anger are associated with, and may exacerbate, self-reported symptomatology of SLE patients.

The clock drawing test (CDT) is usedfor a variety of diagnostic purposes, including screening for dementia. Individuals have relied on subjective judgments in distinguishing between normal and abnormal clocks. This studyproposesaformal, objective scoring procedure called the Clock Scoring System (CSS). The CDTwas administered to 23 dementia patients and 27 normal, elderly controls. The inter-rater reliability estimates of the CSS rangedfrom 82 to .98 across diagnostic groups. Scores discriminated between the patient and comparison groups, even after controlling for age and education. A discussion of the usefulness of this measure as well as ftture research directions is presented.

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