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Biomedical subjects

J Silverman

Publications and source records attributed to J Silverman.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources
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Affective instability and impulsivity in borderline personality and bipolar II disorders: similarities and differences.

OBJECTIVES: many studies have reported a high degree of comorbidity between mood disorders, among which are bipolar disorders, and borderline personality disorder and some studies have suggested that these disorders are co-transmitted in families. However, few studies have compared personality traits between these disorders to determine whether there is a dimensional overlap between the two diagnoses. The aim of this study was to compare impulsivity, affective lability and intensity in patients with borderline personality and bipolar II disorder and in subjects with neither of these diagnoses. METHODS: patients with borderline personality but without bipolar disorder (n=29), patients with bipolar II disorder without borderline personality but with other personality disorders (n=14), patients with both borderline personality and bipolar II disorder (n=12), and patients with neither borderline personality nor bipolar disorder but other personality disorders (OPD; n=93) were assessed using the Affective Lability Scale (ALS), the Affect Intensity Measure (AIM), the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory (BDHI) and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-7B). RESULTS: borderline personality patients had significantly higher ALS total scores (P<0.05) and bipolar II patients tended to have higher ALS scores than patients with OPD (P<0.06). On one of the ALS subscales, the borderline patients displayed significant higher affective lability between euthymia and anger (P<0.002), whereas patients with bipolar II disorder displayed affective lability between euthymia and depression (P<0.04), or elation (P<0.01) or between depression and elation (P<0.01). A significant interaction between borderline personality and bipolar II disorder was observed for lability between anxiety and depression (P<0.01) with the ALS. High scores for impulsiveness (BISTOT, P<0.001) and hostility (BDHI, P<0.05) were obtained for borderline personality patients only and no significant interactions between diagnoses were observed. Only borderline personality patients tended to have higher affective intensity (AIM, P<0.07). CONCLUSIONS: borderline personality disorder and bipolar II disorder appear to involve affective lability, which may account for the efficacy of mood stabilizers treatments in both disorders. However, our results suggest that borderline personality disorder cannot be viewed as an attenuated group of affective disorders.

Adult↗
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What public school teachers teach about preventing pregnancy, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.

Ninety-three percent of public school teachers in five specialties-biology, health education, home economics, physical education and school nursing--who teach grades 7-12 report that their schools offer sex education or AIDS education in some form. Almost all the teachers believe that a wide range of topics related to the prevention of pregnancy, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) should be taught in the public schools, and most believe these topics should be covered by grades 7-8 at the latest. In practice, however, sex education tends not to occur until the ninth or 10th grades. Moreover, there is often a gap between what teachers think should be taught and what actually is taught. For example, virtually all the teachers say that school sex education should cover sexual decision-making, abstinence and birth control methods, but only 82-84 percent of the teachers are in schools that provide instruction in those topics. The largest gap occurs in connection with sources of birth control methods: Ninety-seven percent of teachers say that sex education classes should address where students can go to obtain a method, but only 48 percent are in schools where this is done. Forty-five percent of teachers in the five specialties currently provide sex education in some form. The messages they most want to give to their students are responsibility regarding sexual relationships and parenthood, the importance of abstinence and ways of resisting pressures to become sexually active, and information about AIDS and other STDs.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
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The characteristics and prior contraceptive use of U.S. abortion patients.

Hispanic women are 60 percent more likely than non-Hispanics to have an unintended pregnancy that they terminate by abortion, but they are less likely than nonwhites to do so. Women who profess no religion have a higher abortion rate than do women who report some religious affiliation; among the latter, Catholics are about as likely to obtain an abortion as are all women nationally, while Protestants and Jews are less likely to do so. One in six abortion patients in 1987 described themselves as born-again or Evangelical Christians; such women are half as likely as other American women to obtain abortions. Unmarried cohabiting women are nine times as likely as married women living with their husbands to have an abortion, and separated women are also at high risk. Other characteristics associated with an above-average likelihood of abortion are current school enrollment, current employment, low income, Medicaid coverage, intention to have no more children and residence in a metropolitan county. Half of all abortion patients in 1987 were practicing contraception during the month in which they conceived, and a substantial proportion of those who were not doing so had stopped using a method only a few months before becoming pregnant. The majority of abortion patients who had stopped using a method prior to becoming pregnant said they had most recently used the pill. Nonuse of a method of birth control among abortion patients is greatest for those who are young, poor, black, Hispanic or less educated.

Abortion Applicants↗