Date of Award
2008
Publication Type
Doctoral Thesis
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Psychology
Keywords
Psychology, Neuropsychological, Prednisone, Steroid, Transplantation
Supervisor
Dr. Baird
Supervisor
Dr. McArthur
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Thirty-nine participants, 17 in a chronic steroid group (CS) and 22 in a steroid avoidance group (SA) were compared with regard to their cognitive performance. It was predicted that participants in the SA group would outperform those in the CS group on the domains of declarative memory and complex attention. For participants in the CS group, age and prednisone duration but not dose were predicted to significantly contribute to the score on the declarative memory composite score. Group-wise comparisons were not significant for the domains of declarative memory, complex attention, or processing speed. The CS group outperformed the SA group on the domain of simple attention. Regression analysis, for the CS group, indicated that duration of dialysis prior to transplant accounted for a significant portion of the variance in the declarative memory composite score. After controlling for months since transplant, prednisone dose also accounted for approximately 26% of the variance in the declarative memory score. Patients maintained on 5 mg of prednisone performed relatively worse than those maintained on 2.5 mg with regard to declarative memory. The clinical and theoretical significance of the findings relative to recent literature is discussed.
Recommended Citation
Koushik, Nikhil S., "Neuropsychological functioning post-renal transplantation: A prospective comparison of a steroid avoidance and a steroid maintenance protocol in relation to chronic prednisone therapy" (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 8247.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/8247