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J L Freedman

Publications and source records attributed to J L Freedman.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1994

Beliefs about the causes of substance abuse: a comparison of three drugs.

Respondents were randomly assigned to one of three conditions and completed a questionnaire asking about their beliefs regarding the causes of alcohol abuse, cocaine abuse, or cigarette smoking, and about their humanitarian attitudes toward substance abusers. Three major findings emerged: (a) compared to the other substances of abuse, the disease concept was most strongly endorsed for alcohol abuse, the sin conception for cocaine abuse, and the habit conception for smoking; (b) for alcohol abuse only, endorsement of the disease concept was positively related to humanitarian attitudes; and (c) for all three substance types, the sin conception was negatively related to the expression of humanitarian attitudes. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Informational needs of parents of sick neonates.

Sixty-one parents of 43 neonates in a neonatal intensive care unit were interviewed within 3 days of their first conference with the neonatologist to assess their needs for medical information. The conference with the physician and the interview with the investigator were audiotaped. Information given by the physician and information recalled by the parents was categorized and rated by the investigator. The physicians gave very detailed information about diagnosis in 77% of cases whereas 39% of the parents recalled diagnostic information in great detail. Respective percentages for prognosis were 16 and 33; for current management (eg, investigation, therapy), 28 and 66; and for cause of illness, 16 and 18. The statistical significance of the differences between the very detailed information int he physician-parent conferences and in the parent-investigator interviews was, by category, less than .002, less than .041, less than .004, and not significant, respectively. Information in the respective categories was described as "most helpful" by 20%, 67%, 90%, and 8% of parents. All but one of the parents stated that they wanted the whole truth. Physician uncertainty in providing information was significantly associated with severity of illness. It is concluded that while parents wanted information in all categories, they paid most attention to that relating to management. Physician-parent discordances with respect to information about management, diagnosis, and prognosis suggest directions for future investigation of the optimal content of information for parents in this context.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Workers' compensation reform: 180 days in Massachusetts.

While not the usual Occupational Medicine review article, this description of the 1991 workers' compensation reforms in Massachusetts reveals some of the difficulties and possibilities inherent in such an undertaking.

Health Care Reform↗