- Email: [email protected]
Response variability to psychotropic drugs
721
BOOK REVIEWS E. BONIFAZ: El Origen Genetic0 de la Lucha de Clases (The Genetical Origin of Class Struggle). Quito, Ecuador (1983).
Author’s
publication,
This book written by a psychologist in Ecuador, undertakes to show certain contradictions and incongruities of sociological reductionism. To this end the author sets up scientific evidence gathered by geneticists, sociobiologists, evolutionists and ethologists against a number or Marxist hypotheses as developed by Otto Kuusinen et al. (1964). Jensen, Eysenck and Lynn’s research work on individual differences provides the background against which regional findings are evaluated. The author operates under the assumption that environmentalism is related to left-wing political preferences, which is not necessarily true, as the research work on genetic differences carried out in the U.S.S.R.. Poland and E. Germany prove (Eysenck, 1982). Bonifaz avoids technical jargon, but constantly refers back to an earlier book on the Indians from the Ecuadorian highlands (Bonifaz, 1982). This means that it is difficult to assess the kind of tests used or the adequacy of sampling procedures. The two first chapters are devoted to contradicting, on theoretical grounds, the Marxist theory of class struggle. Chapter 3 deals with IQ differences and the concluding pages argue for the role of biological factors in the determination of social attitudes. It is claimed that some 600,000 people in Ecuador (i.e. almost 10% of the total population) have an IQ below 70. This appears to be particularly common among Indians from northern Ecuador and it is said that apart from biological factors the IQ is lowered by a chronic lack of iodine and endemic hypothyroidism. From his research among South American Indians and African Bantus, the author concludes that prelogical attitudes constitute the rule rather than the exception among these people. This is a good book in the context of Latin American psychological literature, but interested readers would be advised to read it in conjunction with the author’s previous work in order to obtain fuller methodological details. BRUNO GIORGI
References Bonifaz E. (1982) Los Indigenas de Altura de1 Ecuador. Author’s publication, Quito, Ecuador. Eysenck H. J. (1982) The sociology of psychological knowledge, the genetic interpretation of IQ, and Marxist-Leninist ideology. Bull. Br. psychol. Sot. 35, 449-451. Kuusinen 0. et al. (1964) Manuel de Marxismo-Leninismo. Editorial Fundamentos, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
J. E. JANKE (Ed.):
Response
Variabilily to Psychotropic Drugs.
Pergamon
Press,
Oxford
(1983).
303 pp.
The variation in response to psychotropic drugs is a fascinating but much-neglected topic. The essence of the problem is that it is rarely possible to predict the intensity, or even the quality of a drug response merely from a knowledge of drug parameters, This book, which is based upon papers presented at a psychology conference in Leipzig in 1980. is one of the few works to address the question. The two main perspectives from which the contributors view the problem are pharmacology and psychology. For pharmacologists, the important sources of drug-response variabilit) tend to include such factors as drug metabolism and elimination, resorption and tissue distribution, and specific drug effects and receptor sites. For psychologists, the problem touches centrally upon theories of personality. The book contains 14 chapters by different contributors. Because of their varied interests, this leads to markedly different approaches to the problem. For instance, the first chapter details the pharmacokinetic factors that influence drug response, and faces the reader with matters of membrane transport, gastric emptying, hydrolysis of esters and conjugation reactions. In some contrast, Chapter 2, by Janke, gives an overview of relevant psychological factors (environmental and situational factors, traits and states). In this, there lies a potential danger that the reader could become confused rather than enlightened by the range and diversity of approaches. However, the problem itself is one of considerable complexity and it is hardly the fault of the editor that it refuses to remain within fixed academic boundaries. The psychologists’ attention may be most drawn to the chapter by Eysenck in which he outlines his Drug Postulate linking personality and the effect of certain drugs. Other psychological contributions include those of Claridge (sedation threshold) and Warburton (smoking). However, the psychologist would be well advised not to neglect the pharmacological factors outlined for instance in the chapters by K. J. and P. Netter. This book may not represent any dramatic leap forward in our understanding of drug response variability, but it offers a useful and very welcome synthesis of the work being done by psychologists and pharmacologists in this area. MICHAEL Gosso~
M. E. LAMB and B. SUTTON-SMITH (Eds): Sibling Relationships: Their Nature and SigniJicance Across the Lifespan. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, N.J. (1982). xii +401 pp. E19.95. Conventional birth-order research is presently in disrepute, but sibling studies continue. One of the editors of this volume observes that since birth-order effects “have relatively little power in accounting for psychological outcomes. it remains a puzzle that so many thousands of studies have been devoted to such minimal ends.” The failure of conventional birth-order research has ushered in three major changes in sibling studies. First, sibling relationships
BOOK REVIEWS E. BONIFAZ: El Origen Genetic0 de la Lucha de Clases (The Genetical Origin of Class Struggle). Quito, Ecuador (1983).
Author’s
publication,
This book written by a psychologist in Ecuador, undertakes to show certain contradictions and incongruities of sociological reductionism. To this end the author sets up scientific evidence gathered by geneticists, sociobiologists, evolutionists and ethologists against a number or Marxist hypotheses as developed by Otto Kuusinen et al. (1964). Jensen, Eysenck and Lynn’s research work on individual differences provides the background against which regional findings are evaluated. The author operates under the assumption that environmentalism is related to left-wing political preferences, which is not necessarily true, as the research work on genetic differences carried out in the U.S.S.R.. Poland and E. Germany prove (Eysenck, 1982). Bonifaz avoids technical jargon, but constantly refers back to an earlier book on the Indians from the Ecuadorian highlands (Bonifaz, 1982). This means that it is difficult to assess the kind of tests used or the adequacy of sampling procedures. The two first chapters are devoted to contradicting, on theoretical grounds, the Marxist theory of class struggle. Chapter 3 deals with IQ differences and the concluding pages argue for the role of biological factors in the determination of social attitudes. It is claimed that some 600,000 people in Ecuador (i.e. almost 10% of the total population) have an IQ below 70. This appears to be particularly common among Indians from northern Ecuador and it is said that apart from biological factors the IQ is lowered by a chronic lack of iodine and endemic hypothyroidism. From his research among South American Indians and African Bantus, the author concludes that prelogical attitudes constitute the rule rather than the exception among these people. This is a good book in the context of Latin American psychological literature, but interested readers would be advised to read it in conjunction with the author’s previous work in order to obtain fuller methodological details. BRUNO GIORGI
References Bonifaz E. (1982) Los Indigenas de Altura de1 Ecuador. Author’s publication, Quito, Ecuador. Eysenck H. J. (1982) The sociology of psychological knowledge, the genetic interpretation of IQ, and Marxist-Leninist ideology. Bull. Br. psychol. Sot. 35, 449-451. Kuusinen 0. et al. (1964) Manuel de Marxismo-Leninismo. Editorial Fundamentos, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
J. E. JANKE (Ed.):
Response
Variabilily to Psychotropic Drugs.
Pergamon
Press,
Oxford
(1983).
303 pp.
The variation in response to psychotropic drugs is a fascinating but much-neglected topic. The essence of the problem is that it is rarely possible to predict the intensity, or even the quality of a drug response merely from a knowledge of drug parameters, This book, which is based upon papers presented at a psychology conference in Leipzig in 1980. is one of the few works to address the question. The two main perspectives from which the contributors view the problem are pharmacology and psychology. For pharmacologists, the important sources of drug-response variabilit) tend to include such factors as drug metabolism and elimination, resorption and tissue distribution, and specific drug effects and receptor sites. For psychologists, the problem touches centrally upon theories of personality. The book contains 14 chapters by different contributors. Because of their varied interests, this leads to markedly different approaches to the problem. For instance, the first chapter details the pharmacokinetic factors that influence drug response, and faces the reader with matters of membrane transport, gastric emptying, hydrolysis of esters and conjugation reactions. In some contrast, Chapter 2, by Janke, gives an overview of relevant psychological factors (environmental and situational factors, traits and states). In this, there lies a potential danger that the reader could become confused rather than enlightened by the range and diversity of approaches. However, the problem itself is one of considerable complexity and it is hardly the fault of the editor that it refuses to remain within fixed academic boundaries. The psychologists’ attention may be most drawn to the chapter by Eysenck in which he outlines his Drug Postulate linking personality and the effect of certain drugs. Other psychological contributions include those of Claridge (sedation threshold) and Warburton (smoking). However, the psychologist would be well advised not to neglect the pharmacological factors outlined for instance in the chapters by K. J. and P. Netter. This book may not represent any dramatic leap forward in our understanding of drug response variability, but it offers a useful and very welcome synthesis of the work being done by psychologists and pharmacologists in this area. MICHAEL Gosso~
M. E. LAMB and B. SUTTON-SMITH (Eds): Sibling Relationships: Their Nature and SigniJicance Across the Lifespan. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, N.J. (1982). xii +401 pp. E19.95. Conventional birth-order research is presently in disrepute, but sibling studies continue. One of the editors of this volume observes that since birth-order effects “have relatively little power in accounting for psychological outcomes. it remains a puzzle that so many thousands of studies have been devoted to such minimal ends.” The failure of conventional birth-order research has ushered in three major changes in sibling studies. First, sibling relationships