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Biomedical subjects

B Behrman

Publications and source records attributed to B Behrman.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Implications of mainstream classrooms for adolescents with spina bifida.

This study examined the social and academic implications of mainstream, mainstream and special (combined) or special-class education for 31 adolescents with spina bifida, and for their primary caretakers. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the UCLA Loneliness Scale (adolescents) and the Personality Inventory for Children (caretakers) were administered. Adolescents in mainstream classes had the most normal scores for academic and social skills, those in combined classes had intermediate scores and those in special classes had the lowest scores. Paradoxically, adolescents in combined classes reported the least loneliness. This study suggests that even among students with relatively good social skills, mainstream placement is associated with greater subjective experience of loneliness than is combined placement.

Adolescent

Scoliosis associated with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

This study evaluated the age-related and ambulation-related incidence of scoliosis among boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and the relationship between wheelchair dependency and scoliosis. Charts of 88 DMD boys were reviewed retrospectively. The relationships between age and both wheelchair dependency and scoliosis were graphed as cumulative distributions with increasing patient age. The relationship between ambulation status and scoliosis was analyzed with a stepwise series of chi square analyses, assuming increasing time intervals between wheelchair dependency and scoliosis. Wheelchair dependency and scoliosis were both age-related phenomena. The relationship between ambulation status and scoliosis became significant only after 3.5 years of wheelchair dependency. It should be noted that 24% of boys with scoliosis developed their curves before cessation of ambulation. While development of scoliosis among DMD boys is clearly an age-related phenomenon, its previously assumed relationship to ambulation requires reevaluation.

Adolescent