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

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.

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