Forty-nine nonalcoholic cirrhotic patients, on whom cranial CT scans were available, were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests. Although none of the subjects exhibited clinical signs or symptoms of hepatic encephalopathy, quantification of the CT scan image implicated cerebral edema and cortical atrophy. In addition numerous significant correlations were observed between the CT variables and neuropsychological test performance. The findings are conjectured to reflect previously unrecognized cerebral morphologic changes associated with chronic subclinical portal-systemic encephalopathy.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Coping capacity in female adolescent substance abusers.

Female adolescents who qualified for a DSM-III-R diagnosis of Psychoactive Substance Use Disorder were not distinguishable from depressed and conduct disorder subjects on measures of coping but were differentiable from normal controls. Age of onset of substance use, interval between age of first use and age of diagnosis of abuse, and severity of substance use involvement did not correlate with coping capacity. These findings indicate that deficient coping is not specifically related to drug abuse but rather, where present, is concomitant to comorbid psychopathology among females who have a substance abuse disorder.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Prepubertal sons of substance abusers: influences of parental and familial substance abuse on behavioral disposition, IQ, and school achievement.

In order to better understand the transgeneration liability for a substance abuse disorder, we investigated the impact of parental and familial substance abuse disorders on prepubertal boys. Specifically, the influence of each parent's substance abuse history and the effects of significant family aggregation of substance abuse disorders were tested as predictors of the child's behavioral disposition, IQ, and school achievement scores, while controlling for socioeconomic status (SES). Sons of substance abusing fathers were found to have higher externalizing and internalizing problem-behavior scores, lower IQ scores, and lower school achievement scores. Internalizing and externalizing problem-behavior scores were most strongly associated with bilineal parental substance abuse, whereas SES and paternal substance abuse were most strongly associated with IQ and school performance scores. The results are compatible with the hypothesis that although paternal substance abuse has an adverse impact on the son's functioning, bilineal parental substance abuse is associated with the greatest behavioral deviancy among prepubertal males and is associated with a greater liability for substance abuse.

Achievement↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Psychometric evaluation of the Situational Confidence Questionnaire in adolescents: fitting a graded item response model.

Self-efficacy theory has been extensively applied to alcoholism treatment, theories of relapse, and relapse prevention. Most empirical studies of perceived self-efficacy to resist heavy drinking have used the Situational Confidence Questionnaire (SCQ). Among adults, this instrument has been shown to be psychometrically sound. Little is known, however, about the psychometric properties of the SCQ in the adolescent population. We administered the SCQ to a sample of 662 adolescents to evaluate its psychometric properties. Each of the eight subscales was found to be unidimensional. Invariance of the item parameters across different groups was also examined. The reliability coefficients, based on item response theory (marginal reliability) and classical measurement theory (Cronbach alpha), were found to be high. These results demonstrate that the SCQ is appropriate for use among adolescents.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Concordance between verbal report and urine screen of recent marijuana use in adolescents.

This study compared the concordance of self-report for recent marijuana use with results obtained from urine drug screen. The sample consisted of adolescent sons of fathers with DSM-III-R lifetime substance use disorder (SUD) [high average risk (HAR); N= 75] and sons of fathers with no Axis 1 psychiatric or SUD [low average risk (LAR); N= 125]. To avoid recall bias, and to ensure that the timeframe for accurate detection was restricted to promote accuracy, urine drug screen results were compared to self-reported marijuana use during the prior 48 h using an interview format. The HAR group of adolescents reported a higher rate of recent cannabis use and also had a higher rate of cannabis detection as measured in urine. The two groups did not differ with respect to either over or under-reporting marijuana use. Overall, of 19 participants who obtained positive urine cannabis results, six (31.5%) verbally denied that they used marijuana within the previous 2 days. Among the 181 participants who obtained a negative urine drug screen, 20 subjects (11.5%) inaccurately asserted that they had used marijuana within the prior 2 days. In total, 13% of the participants (26/200) inaccurately reported recent cannabis use. These results underscore the need for caution in interpreting the results of self-report methods documenting the prevalence of drug use among youth.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Learning achievement in sons of alcoholics.

Adolescent sons of alcoholics, equated to sons of nonalcoholics on age, intelligence, and grade level, performed significantly more poorly on a standardized test of educational achievement. Family environment and rated behavioral disturbance were not systematically correlated with educational achievement. Upon controlling for the effects of psychopathology, the highest and most numerous correlations were found between neuropsychological performance and educational achievement. These findings suggest that cognitive impairment may be associated with the vulnerability for alcoholism.

Achievement↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Evidence for impersistence in young male alcoholics.

This investigation compared a group of 30-year-old male Veterans Administration inpatient alcoholics with an IQ, age, and education matched comparison group of nonpsychiatric VA outpatients or blue collar employees on three measures of persistence: Matching to Familiar Figures Test (MFFT), Retarded Rotation Test (RRT), and Mirror Tracing (MT). Alcoholics were found to make significantly more errors on the MFFT and MT tasks, but didn't differ significantly from nonalcoholics on the RRT. The alcoholics were also differentiated from the nonalcoholics on an overall index of persistence based on a combination of the three measures. The ramifications of the findings for understanding the etiology of the neuropsychological deficits manifested by alcoholics are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Static ataxia: a possible marker for alcoholism.

Adolescent sons of alcoholic, depressed, and normal fathers were compared on a measure of static ataxia, or body sway. It was found that the young males at risk for developing alcoholism were more ataxic than the sons of depressed fathers and normal controls. The possibility that static ataxia may be a premorbid marker for detecting males at heightened risk for alcoholism is discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Adolescent sons of alcoholics: neuropsychological and personality characteristics.

Adolescent sons of alcoholics and nonalcoholics were compared on a battery of intellectual, neuropsychological, personality, and behavioral measures. The former group demonstrated certain neuropsychological deficits in perceptual-motor ability, memory, and language processing. They also had auditory and visual attentional impairments and a lower level of achievement in reading comprehension. In addition, the sons of alcoholics presented a more neurotic personality profile than sons of nonalcoholics. They were, however, less impulsive than the comparison group. More development and familial problems were noted in the alcoholics' offspring as well. The implications of these findings for understanding the causes and consequences of alcoholism are discussed.

Adolescent↗