Premium
Effects of psychotropic drugs and psychiatric illness on vocational aptitude and interest assessment
Author(s) -
Helmes Edward,
Fekken G. Cynthia
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(198607)42:4<569::aid-jclp2270420405>3.0.co;2-h
Subject(s) - aptitude , vocational education , normative , psychology , psychiatry , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , pedagogy , philosophy , epistemology
This study examined the vocational aptitude and interest scores of 326 inpatients at a large urban psychiatric hospital. The inpatient group performed significantly below the adult normative mean on eight of nine General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) aptitude measures; the single exception was Verbal Aptitude. Further, GATB aptitude scores (adjusted for age and education) were significantly lower for patients who were receiving ( N = 210) psychotropic medication than for patients who were not receiving ( N = 114) psychotropic medication, again with the exception of Verbal Aptitude. Differentiation of patients into subsamples who were receiving particular drugs or drug combinations indicated that phenothiazines in combination with Anti‐Parkinsonians were associated with the poorest GATB performances. Interestingly, self‐reported vocational interests were not related in any systematic fashion to receiving medication. A variety of explanations that may account for these findings, including drug side‐effects and severity or type of psychiatric disorder, were investigated. Implications for vocational counselors were discussed.