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Biomedical subjects

G J Connors

Publications and source records attributed to G J Connors.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

Racial factors influencing college students' ratings of alcohol's usefulness.

Efforts to understand alcohol use and abuse among young adults necessarily require attention to drinkers' motivations to drink. In the present study, dose-related reasons for drinking were assessed to determine the extent to which expected effects of alcohol are correlated with race and gender among college students. A consistent association between endorsements of alcohol's usefulness (i.e., Useful for Feeling Better, Useful for Feeling in Charge, Useful for Relieving Emotional Distress) and race, gender, and volume of alcohol rated was found. In particular, black female college students (relative to white females and black males) tended to ascribe much stronger utility to higher amounts of alcohol. A similar tendency was found for white males relative to white females. There were few group differences on usefulness ratings provided for lower amounts of alcohol. These findings indicate that the perceived usefulness of alcohol in this population of college students varies considerably according to race, gender and amount of alcohol, with the effects pronounced among black females.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Alcoholic and spouse concordance on attributions about relapse to drinking.

The purpose of this paper is to report a descriptive study of the degree of concordance between male alcoholics' and their wives' perceptions of the alcoholics' relapse to drinking within two years of their participation in an outcome study of behavioral marital therapy for alcoholism. At the end of a two-year follow-up period, the 23 alcoholics who had relapsed and their wives were independently interviewed. The results showed that both the alcoholics and their spouses reported both intrapsychic and situational determinants of the relapses. Among types of determinants, the situational spouse was reported disproportunately more often by patients and disproportunately less often by spouses. Furthermore, the concordance between patient and spouse reports was low. Use of these findings for marital therapy in the treatment of alcohol abuse is discussed.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1987

Freshman and senior medical students' attitudes toward the elderly.

The authors' purpose in the present study was to examine attitudes toward the elderly among medical students and the impact of medical education on such attitudes. Questionnaires first used in a similar study in the 1960s were administered to freshman and senior medical students in 1981 and 1984 at one medical school. Comparison of these two groups indicated that the seniors viewed the elderly more positively than did the freshmen in certain areas, namely the productivity, social significance, and sexuality of the aged. To control for potentially confounding shifts in cultural values in society as a whole and in medical school selection variables, the two freshman groups were compared, and the two senior groups were compared. Results of these analyses indicated few, if any, differences between the freshman classes of 1981 and 1984 or between the senior classes of the same years. Finally, a longitudinal analysis was performed to contrast the attitudes of the students first sampled as freshmen in 1981 to their perceptions as seniors in 1984. Further, the results of the present study were compared with those of a similar study in the 1960s. Taken together, these results indicate that attitudes toward the elderly are becoming more favorable in society in general and in medical schools in particular and that the medical education process was responsible for the more favorable attitudes expressed by the senior medical students.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Dose-related effects of alcohol among male alcoholics, problem drinkers and nonproblem drinkers.

Cognitive variables, such as expectancies regarding the usefulness of alcohol, have been receiving increased attention in recent years because these expected effects can influence decisions to drink and mediate responses to alcohol. In the present study, alcohol expectancies were assessed using the Alcohol Beliefs Scale, a measure that yields dose-related data on expected effects of alcohol. The subjects were male alcoholics, problem drinkers and nonproblem drinkers. The central finding was that drinker group membership and rated dose level interacted in predicting subjects' estimates of the usefulness of alcohol for them. On the "useful for feeling better" factor, the greatest benefit was expected from a moderate dose, particularly among alcoholics. On the "useful for relieving emotional distress" factor, usefulness ratings increased with dose, with alcoholics expecting the greatest rate of increase. A similar pattern was found for the "useful for feeling in charge" factor, except that the ratings for problem drinkers and alcoholics paralleled each other. These findings have implications for our efforts to understand drinkers' motivations to initiate and continue drinking.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1986

Alcohol expectancies among male alcoholics, problem drinkers, and nonproblem drinkers.

Drinkers' expectancies regarding alcohol effects are cognitive factors hypothesized to affect decisions to drink and responses to alcohol. Recent research in this area has yielded descriptive data mostly on nonalcoholic drinkers' motives for drinking and alcohol expectancies. Much less attention has been focused on assessing the extent to which these findings generalize to a broader array of drinkers. Alcohol expectancies were assessed in this report among 260 alcoholics, 79 problem drinkers, and 81 nonproblem drinkers (all subjects were male) using a comprehensive alcohol expectancy measure. Alcoholics almost uniformly scored higher than the problem and nonproblem drinkers in their endorsements of alcohol's effects in different domains (e.g., alcohol acts as a global positive transforming agent, enhances physical and social pleasure, engenders assertiveness, reduces tension). Problem drinkers also tended to score higher than the nonproblem drinkers in these domains. A multiple discriminant analysis yielded two functions which together were moderately successful in classifying these subjects according to drinker group. Taken together, these data suggest that important individual differences exist in drinkers' expectations regarding alcohol's utility, and that alcohol expectancies vary considerably as a function of problem drinking severity. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Effects of drinking pattern on neuropsychological performance among alcohol misusers.

To investigate neuropsychological performance among alcohol misusers as a function of drinking pattern, duration of problem drinking and age, 297 alcohol dependent inpatients who were chemically free approximately 10 days were studied. An analysis of variance design was used with age (less than 40 years, greater than or equal to 40 years), drinking pattern (bout, daily) and length of problem drinking (short-term, 0-4 years; middle-term, 5-10 years; long-term, greater than 10 years) serving as the between-subjects factors. Results showed that bout drinkers performed significantly better than daily drinkers on measures of short-term memory, internal scanning and visuospatial-visuomotor performance. Duration of problem drinking appeared to exert a much weaker effect on test performance, but age was a critical variable in predicting subjects' vulnerability to neuropsychological deficits.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1986

Contrasting binge and continuous alcoholic drinkers using demographic and drinking history variables.

While it is quite common for researchers and clinicians to categorize alcoholics as binge or continuous drinkers, relatively little is known about the characteristics of these two potentially distinct clinical populations. In the present study, binge and continuous alcoholics were evaluated on a number of demographic and drinking history variables. Binge drinkers were found to be significantly more likely than continuous drinkers to have been treated for liver problems and more likely to have reported parental alcoholism. They also tended to describe a greater number of alcohol-related arrests and hospitalizations. Six of the variables taken together yielded a discriminative function that was only moderately successful in classifying these drinkers. The potential clinical importance of objectively identifying binge versus continuous drinkers is discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Addictive behaviors among hospitalized psychiatric patients.

A survey was conducted to assess the extent of alcohol abuse, drug abuse, obesity, and smoking among patients hospitalized on other than substance abuse treatment wards of a large psychiatric hospital. The results revealed extensive addictive behavior problems in the sample with nearly 90% of the patients having at least one of the problems. Prevalence rates for smoking and alcohol abuse substantially exceeded, and for obesity was equivalent to, the prevalence of these behaviors in the general population. Drug abuse was the least frequent problem and comparisons to the general population could not be made. Another major finding was that a relatively small proportion of patients was receiving any treatment for their addictive problems that was likely to be effective. For the most part, it seemed that patients receiving treatment were cases in which the addictive problem caused a serious immediate danger to the patient or others on the ward or seriously disrupted the ward routine.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Applying behavioral contracting to alcohol abuse in a spinal cord injured patient.

While there have been studies of the use of contingency contracting with several populations of alcohol abusers, the application of alcohol-related contracting to non-psychiatric environments and patients without primary alcohol diagnoses has not been illustrated. A behavioral contract, which included the use of a time out detoxification room, scheduled communication sessions, and a drinking checklist was employed to reduce the inappropriate drinking, verbal and physical abuse of a spinal cord injured patient during a 12-month intervention/follow-up period. The contract's features and methods for improving its effectiveness are discussed.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1979

Effects of alcohol, instructions, and consumption rate on affect and physiological sensations.

Sixty-four male normal drinkers participated in a study designed to assess the effects of alcohol, instructions that one has consumed alcohol, and rate of alcohol consumption on self-reports of affect and physiological sensations. Subjects were instructed that they would be consuming either an alcoholic or a nonalcoholic beverage, were actually administered either an alcoholic or a nonalcoholic beverage, and consumed their beverages at either a slow or rapid rate. The results showed that consumption of a moderate dose of alcohol induced positive affect and produced a variety of changes in physiological sensations. Instructions and consumption rate also selectively influenced some affects and sensations. These results suggest the need for controlling instructions and consumption rate in future research on alcohol's effects on affect and physiological sensations.

Adolescent↗