bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A Preliminary Assessment of Behavioral Problems in Children with Mastocytosis
Authors: McFarlin K. E. , Kruesi M. J. P. , Metcalfe D. D. 
Published: May 2005

Objective: The objectives of this study were to 1) review mastocytosis in terms of the behavioral pathology in adults, and 2) to assess a group of pediatric patients with mastocytosis to determine if similar behavioral pathology is evident. Method: Twelve children ages two to eleven referred to the NIH, a tertiary referral center for mastocytosis, were studied. Questionnaires were mailed for assessment of the child's behavior: parents completed the Childhood Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and children four years of age or more were evaluated by their teachers via the Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher Report form. Scores were compared to published normative data and to published data from other medically ill pediatric groups. Pathology was defined as present if the child scored greater than two standard deviations above published age and sex-matched norms. Results: Mean factor scores on the CBCL for children with mastocytosis did not differ significantly from published norms, but individual ratings by parents were significantly elevated in four of ten subjects. Moreover, CBCL ratings by parents were similar to those seen in other medically ill pediatric groups. None of the teacher ratings were in the pathological range. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that no clear excess of pathology exists in children with mastocytosis. Individual children treated with antihistamines for mastocytosis seem to have a nonspecific increase in behavioral difficulties at rates similar to other medically ill groups. No unique behavioral pattern implicating histamine overproduction was identified.
Defense Mechanisms in a Community-Based Sample of Female Adolescents with Partial Eating Disorders
Authors: Stein Daniel , Bronstein Yifat , Weizman Abraham 
Published: May 2005

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess whether female adolescents diagnosed with partial eating disorders (EDs) will show less adaptive defense mechanisms compared to female controls with no-ED. Methods: The following questionnaires were administered to 423 female high-school students: The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ), and Life Style Index (LSI) (both tapping defense mechanisms), and a structured questionnaire assessing eating-related issues. Weight and height were also recorded. Partial anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) were defined with the combination of a maladaptive EAT score and fulfillment of adapted DSM-IV criteria. Results: Compared to non-ED controls, participants with partial AN and partial BN used more immature defenses, including the DSQ-immature defense style (only those with partial BN) and LSI-regression, as well as more neurotic defenses, namely the DSQ-neurotic defense style, and LSI-compensation and displacement. Conclusions: The combined use of immature and neurotic defenses may be associated with a greater risk to develop a partial ED in adolescent females.
Risperidone in the Treatment of Delusions of Infestation
Authors: De Leóan Ovidio A. , Furmaga Kevin M. , Canterbury Andrea L. , Bailey La Genia 
Published: May 2005

Objective: The aim of this study is to describe the efficacy and safety of risperidone, in the treatment of delusions of infestation. Method: The authors present a three-case series in which risperidone was used to treat delusions of infestation. Results: All three patients responded to risperidone and experienced no extrapyramidal side effects. Two of our patients had failed treatment with haloperidol and another had failed treatment with pimozide. Conclusions: Risperidone was an effective and safe treatment in three cases of delusions of infestation. It is possible that 5-HT2 antagonism is essential for therapeutic benefit in this condition.
Factors Influencing the Type of Health Problems Presented by Women in General Practice: Differences between Women's Health Care and Regular Health Care
Authors: Van Den Brink-Muinen Atie , Bensing Jozien M. 
Published: May 2005

Objective: Differences between health problems presented by women (aged 20–45) to female “women's health care” doctors and both female and male regular health care doctors were investigated. This article explores the relationship of patients' roles (worker, partner, or parent) and the type of health care, controlling for education, to the presentation of psychological, social, and purely somatic problems in general practice. Method: Data was derived from a “women's health care” practice and twenty-one group practices providing regular care. The doctors registered detailed information about all patient contacts during a three-month period. Logistic regression analysis was used in order to calculate the likelihood of women attending their doctor to present with psychological, social, or somatic health problems. Results: We found that the effect of education was much stronger than the effect of roles. Women attending women's health care presented more psychological and social problems and less somatic problems than women visiting regular health care doctors. Patients of female and male doctors providing regular care did not differ in this respect between each other. Conclusions: This study showed that patient characteristics, like roles and education, are related to the type of health problems presented to general practitioners. The type of health care was also important in explaining differences in the problems presented to them. Future research in primary care should include doctor characteristics to better understand how these characteristics might relate to patient outcomes.
Antecedents of Substance Use among Mexican American School-Age Children
Authors: Zapata Jesse T. , Katims David S. 
Published: May 2005

This article describes a study designed to examine the association of demographic, psychological, and environmental characteristics of a sample of low socioeconomic status, Mexican American students in elementary and middle school and their reported use of nine substances. Students in grades four, five, and six ( N = 2295; males 52% and females 48%) located in a metropolitan school district in South Texas were surveyed in order to ascertain information pertaining to the initiation and/or ongoing use of substances. Regression analyses were employed to determine the relative contribution of variables measured to lifetime use of both minor and major substances. Results indicate that a specific combination of variables were predictive of both minor and major substance use for the subjects surveyed. Implications for future research and substance intervention are included.
Anxiety and Poor Glycemic Control: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Literature
Authors: Anderson Ryan J. , Grigsby Allison B. , Freedland Kenneth E. , De Groot Mary , McGill Janet B. , Clouse Ray E. , Lustman Patrick J. 
Published: May 2005

Objective: To determine whether anxiety is associated with poor glycemic control in adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Method: MEDLINE, PubMed, and PsycINFO databases were used to locate studies that measured the association of anxiety with glycemic control. Meta-analytic procedures were used to convert the findings to a common metric, compute effect sizes (ES), and statistically analyze the collective data. Results: The search procedures identified 12 studies, 11 (92 percent) of which satisfied the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis. In this overall group, anxiety was not associated with glycemic control ( p = 0.19), although the ES was marginally statistically significant (ES = .09, 95 percent CI = 0.04 to 0.14). In studies that determined anxiety from diagnostic interviews, anxiety was associated with hyperglycemia ( p = 0.003) and the ES was also statistically significant (ES: 0.25, 95 percent CI = 0.10 to 0.38). Conclusions: The existing literature suggests that anxiety disorders are associated with hyperglycemia in diabetic patients. Additional studies are required to confirm the magnitude of the relationship, to elucidate moderating and causal factors, and to determine whether successful treatment of anxiety improves glycemic control.
The Physician's Work and Marriage
Authors: Derdeyn Andre P. 
Published: May 2005

Medicine and personality characteristics of its practitioners pose for physicians unique hazards to emotional health and marital satisfaction. The attempt to meet too many emotional needs in work may preclude adequate attention to personal and family problems. The physician should be more aware of his own and his family's emotional needs, and be less threatened by less-than-perfect adjustment in himself or other family members. Suggestions include: teaching psychiatry on a developmental and adaptational model; offering marital groups in medical school; and encouraging the process of marital contracting and the use of marital therapy when emotional problems arise in either spouse. The understanding and resolution of emotional distress of one marital partner often requires the involvement of both, as people intimately attached to each other tend to have neither problems nor solutions in isolation.
Hypochondriasis: The Patient's Perspective
Authors: Persing J. Scott , Stuart Scott P. , Noyes Russell , Happel Rachel L. 
Published: May 2005

Objective: The purpose of this investigation was to learn how patients with hypochondriasis view their physicians and medical care. Method: To accomplish this, we identified 20 patients with DSM-III-R hypochondriasis and 26 nonhypochondriacal patients from a general medicine clinic. Using a semistructured interview, we obtained information from patients about their recent health problems and medical care. The investigators then reviewed transcribed interviews and assigned comments to a series of categories. Results: Hypochondriacal and non-hypochondriacal patients made equal numbers of positive comments, but hypochondriacal patients made significantly more negative comments about physicians' professional characteristics, characteristics of the patients themselves and total negative comments. Many viewed physicians they had seen as unskilled and uncaring. They indicated that, in many instances, their relationships with physicians had suffered from poor communication and collaboration. Conclusion: Since successful management of patients with hypochondriasis rests upon positive relationships, ways must be found to improve the frustrating and costly situation that currently exists.
Death Concerns in Differential Levels of Consciousness as Functions of Defense Strategy and Religious Belief
Authors: Rosenheim Eliyahu , Muchnik Benjamin 
Published: May 2005

This article explores the relationships between two independent variables, defensive style (repression-sensitization) and Jewish religiosity, and death concerns in the context of differential levels of awareness: conscious, preconscious and unconscious. The sample consisted of sixty-four Israeli students, ages nineteen to twenty-seven, of both sexes. Methodologically, the study attempts to establish the usefulness of a multifaceted design, as compared to static, single variable relationships, in the study of death fear and anxiety. Empirically, it was found that the personality attribute of defensive style was linked systematically to death concern at all levels of consciousness, as predicted, in specific directions: sensitizers were more consciously fearful, while the opposite was true at nonconscious levels, in which repressors were more anxious about death. Religiosity was found to be less dominant in determining death concerns. Only unconsciously was there a difference between religious and nonreligious participants, the former being less anxious than the latter.
Reweaving the Social Fabric: Antecedents of Social Support Facilitation
Authors: Pilisuk Marc , Chandler Susan , D'Onofrio Carole 
Published: May 2005

Contemporary society leaves many individuals without a continuing support group. Continued integration into a network of supportive social relationships is demonstrably related to the prevention of breakdown in health in the widest variety of mental and physical forms. Yet the task of assuring continuity of supportive relationships has not been central to any professional discipline. The facilitation of social support is likely to become more central to community health education. To address this issue we examine seven different forms of intervention which address the problem of augmenting supportive relationships. The goal is to extract the essence of the professional role in the provision of social support and to suggest its relevance to community health education.
Interactions of Pathogens and Irritant Chemicals in Land-Applied Sewage Sludges (Biosolids)
Authors: Lewis David L. , Gattie David K. , Novak Marc E. , Sanchez Susan , Pumphrey Charles 
Published: May 2005

Fertilization of land with processed sewage sludges, which often contain low levels of pathogens, endotoxins, and trace amounts of industrial and household chemicals, has become common practice in Western Europe, the United States, and Canada. Local governments, however, are increasingly restricting or banning the practice in response to residents reporting adverse health effects. These self-reported illnesses have not been studied and methods for assessing exposures of residential communities to contaminants from processed sewage sludges need to be developed. Methods: To describe and document adverse effects reported by residents, 48 individuals at ten sites in the United States and Canada were questioned about their environmental exposures and symptoms. Information was obtained on five additional cases where an outbreak of staphylococcal infections occurred near a land application site in Robesonia, Pennsylvania. Medical records were reviewed in cases involving hospitalization or other medical treatment. Since most complaints were associated with airborne contaminants, an air dispersion model was used as a means for potentially ruling out exposure to sludge as the cause of adverse effects. Results: Affected residents lived within approximately 1 km of land-application sites and generally complained of irritation (e.g., skin rashes and burning of the eyes, throat, and lungs) after exposure to winds blowing from treated fields. A prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus infections of the skin and respiratory tract was found. Approximately one in four of 54 individuals were infected, including two mortalities (septicemia, pneumonia). This result was consistent with the prevalence of S. aureus infections accompanying diaper rashes in which the organism, which is occasionally found in the lower human colon, tends to invade irritated or inflamed tissue. Conclusions: When assessing public health risks from applying sewage sludges in residential areas, potential interactions of chemical contaminants with low levels of pathogens should be considered. An increased risk of infection may occur when allergic and non-allergic reactions to endotoxins and other chemical components irritate skin and mucous membranes and thereby compromise normal barriers to infection.
Tangled in the Web: Countertransference in the Therapy of Factitious Disorders
Authors: Feldman Marc D. , Feldman Jacqueline M. 
Published: May 2005

Objective:Patients who simulate or actually self-induce illnesses to assume the “sick role” present a number of imposing psychotherapeutic challenges. The purpose of this article is to discuss the countertransferential reactions that are mobilized in therapy with these patients.Method:Literature searches of the MEDLINE and HEALTH databases were performed using the term “factitious disorder.” The resulting citations were examined for descriptions of the potential and actual countertransference responses in therapy with such patients. The few citations with relevant material were supplemented with other clinical literature on countertransference as well as observations from cases in which the authors have served as therapists or consultants.Results:Once the medical dissimulation has been exposed, the most conspicuous difficulty is in persuading the patient to agree to therapy. When therapy does take place, both the patient's overt behaviors, such as actual bodily damage, and his or her underlying emotional issues can mobilize particularly intense reactions in the therapist.Conclusions:Recognition and management of the countertransference reactions likely to emerge in therapy with factitious disorder patients are particularly important if the therapy is to be maximally effective.
Religion, Race, and Breast Cancer Survival
Authors: Van Ness Peter H. , Kasl Stanislav V. , Jones Beth A. 
Published: May 2005

Objective: The study investigated whether any of four measures of religiousness predicted longer survival for 145 African-American and 177 White women diagnosed with breast cancer in Connecticut between January 1987 and March 1989. Method: Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models included a religious predictor and sociodemographic, biomedical, treatment, behavioral, and medical care covariables. Results: The no denomination group had a hazard ratio (HR) of 4.39 (95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.42, 13.64). Other measures of religiousness did not yield statistically significant results but showed a consistent pattern of nonreligiousness being more strongly and negatively related to breast cancer survival in African Americans than in Whites. Conclusions: Exploratory models confirmed that lack of religiousness was associated in this sample with poor breast cancer survival among African American women.
Benjamin Franklin's Contributions to the Development of Technical Communication
Authors: Gresham Stephen L. 
Published: May 2005

Addressing the professional communicator, the technical writing teacher and the interested student, this article discusses Benjamin Franklin's major contributions to the development of technical communication. While the article centers on Franklin's technical writing style as a model for today's technical communicator, it also outlines Franklin's philosophy of technical communication and his incisive views of the scientist's role in society.
Psychopathology in the Pediatric Hospital: Implications for the Pediatrician
Authors: Stocking Myron , Rothney William , Grosser George , Goodwin Rhoda 
Published: May 2005

A study of the incidence and range of psychopathology in a random sample of admissions to a pediatric hospital revealed: (a) an unexpectedly high incidence of children manifesting psychopathology or difficulties in emotional adaptation considered by the child psychiatrist to warrant psychiatric consultation (63.7 percent); (b) the pediatric staff requested consultation on nine of fifty-one of these children (17.6 percent) considered to manifest difficulties in emotional adaptation. Factors including the acuteness of medical illness, its treatability, the age of the child, and the nature of the emotional disorder were found to be related to the pediatrician's failure to recognize the need for consultation. The usefulness of random screening procedures is considered as a teaching device to alert pediatricians to the existence of psychopathology which they otherwise might not recognize.
Impending Proliferation of Asbestos
Authors: Castleman Barry I. , Vera Manuel J. Vera 
Published: May 2005

The international asbestos industry is under considerable pressure in some countries to control dust exposures in the workplace and restrict pollution. In addition, major firms in the United States face mounting compensation costs for past failures to protect asbestos workers. At the same time, however, the asbestos industry is expanding in developing nations, largely on the strength of sales of asbestos-cement construction materials. This report describes problems encountered with the use of asbestos-cement in schools and low-income housing in Puerto Rico, resulting in the condemnation of these buildings and the relocation of over 1,000 families at public expense. The manufacturer of the asbestos-cement panels, a Colombian affiliate of the European-based multinational Eternit, escaped all liability. The issue is presented as a needless, expanding threat to public health worldwide. Safe, economic alternatives exist, such as the use in some cases of crop waste fibers in place of asbestos as a cement binder. There have also been major advances in the commercialization of asbestos-free brake and clutch friction products.
Drought and Dependence in the Sahel
Authors: Ball Nicole 
Published: May 2005

The relationship between human activity and environmental degradation has been documented in numerous studies. With regard to West Africa, E. P. Stebbing was already warning of ecological degradation due to overcultivation and overgrazing in the 1930s. Less well documented are the reasons why people who understand many of the requirements of ecologically sound farming and herding nonetheless mismanage natural resources to the point of disaster. An examination of the 1968–1973 drought in the Sahel zone of West Africa (formerly French West Africa) suggests that the lack of economic autonomy for Sahelian countries is a major cause not only of their economic stagnation and underdevelopment but equally of the degradation of their ecosystems. Specific policies, initiated during the colonial period and continued by independent governments, can be identified as reducing the ability of West African farmers and herders to exploit their environment with an adequate safety margin. Largely as a result of the 1968–1973 drought, there has been an upsurge of interest in the Sahel on the part of international and national aid agencies. However, it is very possible that the programs devised by these groups will promote neither economic autonomy nor ecological stability for the countries in that region. A development strategy based largely on self-reliance, on the other hand, could be more successful in protecting both the populations and the ecology of the Sahel.
Detection and Management of Depressive Disorders in Primary Care in Spain
Authors: Aragonès Enric , Piñol Josep Lluís , Labad Antonio , Folch Sílvia , Mèlich Núria 
Published: May 2005

Objective: Many patients with depression who attend primary care are not detected and are unaware of the benefits of therapeutic intervention. Our aim is to evaluate the recognition and management of depressed patients presenting in primary care in Spain. Methods: This was a two-phase cross-sectional study in primary care centers in Tarragona (Spain). In the first phase, we screened 906 consecutive patients using the Zung's Self-Rating Depression Scale. In the second phase, all 209 patients whose results were positive and 97 patients whose results were negative (1/7 at random) were given the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders, a series of questionnaires, and the judgment of the physician about the presence of depression was determined. In the 120 patients with major depression and/or dysthymia, predictors of detection and treatment of depression were determined. Results: Seventy-two percent of depressed patients were detected. The detection was associated with educational level, severity of the depression, level of impairment, and the complaint of explicit psychological symptoms. Thirty-four percent were receiving treatment with antidepressants. Antidepressant treatment was associated with marital status, severity of and impairment from the depression, frequency of visits to the family physician, and the patients' complaint of psychological symptoms. Conclusion: Many depressed patients are not detected, but these are often the patients who present with the mildest forms of depression and for whom the benefits of detection are far from clear. Although treatment was associated with the severity of depression, most depressed patients, at any level of seriousness, do not receive appropriate treatment.