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PubMedDate not supplied

The relationship of object relations and reality testing deficits to outcome status of methadone maintenance patients.

Impairments in the ability to form and maintain meaningful interpersonal relationships and in the ability to distinguish between internal and external stimuli are related to an individual's psychological health. The Bell Object Relations and Reality Testing Inventory (BORRTI) scores of 146 methadone patients were used to evaluate whether transitory (TI) or chronic impairments (CIs) in object relations and reality testing were related to more severe drug use, family and social problems, psychological distress, as well as more time in treatment, seeking additional treatments, or taking psychiatric medication. The results showed no significant relationship between BORRTI scores and family or social problems, time in treatment, or the months of heroin use between follow-up evaluations. However, severity of drug use was related to an impairment in a specific dimension of object relations-egocentricity. There was a significant relationship between TIs and CIs in object relations and reality testing with levels of psychological distress and the likelihood of taking psychiatric medication.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

The relative performance of diverse measures of alcohol abuse and dependence in a community sample.

There is broad diversity among the ways in which alcohol abuse and/or dependence are defined and operationalized by researchers. In a community survey of 1,257 adult males and females, eight different measures of alcohol abuse or dependence were used. For analysis, each measure was dichotomized at its usual cutoff point. A factor analysis of distance scores between pairs of measures gave only one interpretable factor representing drinking patterns and social problems. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated for each measure with respect to abuse or dependence, as measured by the DIS-III-R. High maximum levels of drinking and social problems were moderately sensitive and specific to DIS-III-R. These relationships varied, though, for subgroups of age and gender. DSM-III-R alcohol abuse and dependence are widely respected variables but relatively expensive to measure. Alternative approaches for various survey purposes are discussed. Measures to be regarded as alternatives to the DIS-III-R are found to perform better in that role in samples limited by age and gender.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Talking with juvenile offenders about gay males and lesbians: implications for combating homophobia.

Violence against gay males and lesbians, much of it perpetrated by young people, has emerged as a significant social problem. Thirty-one juvenile offenders were asked a series of structured questions in order to elucidate the functions their attitudes toward homosexuals serve. In addition, responses were examined for evidence of social-structural and cognitive variables which mediate offending behaviors. Juvenile offenders were found to hold attitudes toward homosexuals characterized by negativity, ambivalence, and defensiveness. These attitudes were maintained by particular myths and stereotypes about gay and lesbian culture, and were related to Opportunism, Impulsivity, Role-Taking Inability, and Disabilities in Social Problem Solving. Specific recommendations for combating homophobic attitudes and behaviors in juvenile offender populations are discussed.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1992

Alcohol-related problems encountered by Japanese, Caucasians, and Japanese-Americans.

Using population-based survey data, personal-problematic and socioproblematic factors were examined among Japanese in Japan, Japanese-Americans in Hawaii, and Japanese-Americans; Caucasians in California were analyzed as a control group. Caucasian males were more likely to exhibit drinking-related social problems, whereas Japanese males showed more personal-problematic symptoms. Japanese-American men, both in Hawaii and California, were least likely among the three ethnic groups to have personal-problematic symptoms and were more likely to have socioproblematic symptoms than Japanese men. These differences might be explained by differences in the perception of social problems.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Variability in symptom expression among sexually abused girls: developing multivariate models.

Examined which of several apparent risk variables were predictors of internalizing and externalizing problems in 48 girls who were referred for therapy after disclosing sexual abuse. Specifically, the effects of abuse characteristics, support from nonoffending parents, victims' coping strategies, and victims' cognitive appraisals on symptomatology were assessed. As hypothesized, results indicated that internalizing and externalizing problems were associated with different sets of predictor variables. Victims' self-reports of depression and anxiety were related to lower perceived support from nonoffending parents, more use of cognitive avoidance coping, and more negative appraisals of the abuse. These results were partially replicated when using parent-report measures of depression, but were not replicated for parent reports of victim anxiety. Incest was the only variable that was significantly related to parent-reported anxiety. Parent-reported aggressive behaviors were predicted by level of abuse-related stress; and aggression, social problems, and sexual problems were all related to the tendency to cope by controlling others. Social problems were also related to coping by self-distraction. Regression analyses were done for each dependent variable to examine which predictors accounted for unique variance when controlling for other significant zero-order correlates. Implications of these results for understanding variability in symptom expression among sexual abuse victims are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1999

[Comparison of the quality of life of patients treated by surgery or radiotherapy in epidermoid cancer of the penis].

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of our work is to examine how partially or totally radical surgery and radiotherapy can weigh on quality of life in patients with squamous carcinoma of the penis, considering whether quality of life can be a good criterion in treatment options. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We have interviewed 17 patients alive and disease-free (average follow-up 69.43 months) after surgical treatment or radiotherapy for cancer of the penis (emasculation, 2; total amputation of the penis, 2; partial penectomy, 11; radiotherapy, 2). Tests used: General Health Questionnaire (G.H.Q.-12 by D. Goldberg); Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (H.A.D.S.); Social Problem Questionnaire (S.P.Q.); Overall Sexual Functioning Questionnaire (O.S.F.Q); Family APGAR Questionnaire (F.A.Q.); Performance Status ECOG. RESULTS: Thirty-five per cent of the patients presented limitations in their state of health and social problems. Anxiety was evident in 29.5% of the patients and depression in 6%. The global sexual function was compromised in 76.5%. CONCLUSION: The profile of quality of life resulted compromised in the patients who had undergone radical surgical treatment. The sexual function was the most altered component. The impact of the pathology and its treatment on the other domains of quality of life proved less significant.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The social hygiene problems in the operator work of hydroelectric power station workers and the means for enhancing work capacity].

Weight, tension and harmfulness of professional activity, peculiarities of labour conditions and characteristics of work, shift dynamics of operative personnel's working capacity were studied in the course of 8-hour working day currently accepted at hydroelectric power stations (HEPS) and experimental 12-hour schedule. Working conditions classified as "admissible", positive dynamics of operators' state, their social and material contentment were a basis for 12-hour two-shift schedule to be recommended as more appropriate. At the same time, problem of optimal shift schedules for operative personnel of HEPS remains unsolved and needs to be further explored.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Social support, adversities and emotional distress in an Italian community sample.

The association of social support with emotional distress in relation to adversities such as social problems, physical health and undesirable life events was assessed in an Italian community sample of 222 men and 224 women. Univariate comparisons and logistic regression analyses showed that neither the quality of a confiding core relationship nor social support from kin confidants was related to adversities. In women only, social support from friend confidants exerted a statistically significant independent main effect together with social problems and undesirable life events in producing a greater probability of emotional distress. The implications of these findings are discussed considering the socio-cultural characteristics of Italian families and individual coping strategies.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

[Social medical cooperation after discharge from the hospital].

This article accounts for how general practitioners and a group of neuromedical patients experience cooperation with hospital, social workers and the social authorities after discharge from hospital and their own wishes on this subject. The investigation reveals that communication is not optimal and that it should be intensified. The frequency of contact between the general practitioner and the patients is considerable and half of the patients desire follow-up treatment by the general practitioners. The majority of the general practitioners are willing to undertake follow-up treatment. The majority of the patients want their own general practitioner to be involved in solution of the social problems and the majority of the general practitioners want to be told by the social worker attached to the department about the problems which neuromedical patients may encounter on discharge from hospital. Less than half of the letters of discharge are sent to the patient's general practitioner within two weeks of discharge. By and large, the content of the letters of discharge is satisfactory with the exception about the information given to the patients. Although the patient clientele has serious social problems, cooperation between the general practitioner and the social authorities is defective. The general practitioners emphasize lack of special knowledge and defective understanding of the problems which neuromedical patients experience and defective interest in suggestions made by general practitioners to persons in the social administration. More than one third of the general practitioners would prefer cooperation with the social worker from the department during the follow-up period.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Denmark↗
PubMed1998

Biology as technology.

In this paper we have emphasised the technological dimension of the biosciences, especially the biosciences of our time. As a straight forward fact this dimension is less controversial than the question of its relevance is. We have argued that the existence of this dimension is a consequence of the empirical character of the biosciences (as well as of the sciences in general). Knowledge of nature can be achieved only if the subject of knowledge is able to gain access to natural phenomena, and technological means have become increasingly necessary for achieving this. The more that is already known, the greater the technological investment required to produce new knowledge. Therefore there is an interrelationship between the advancement of knowledge and the amount and complexity of the research technology required. It would be short sighted to conclude from this observation that human imagination and inventiveness have become superfluous. Nevertheless the growing preponderance of technological means for progress in science is undeniable. A particularly important insight is that this process not only involves a quantitative increase in technology within science. Our main hypothesis is that there is a close relationship between the type of means used, the type of subject required for performing research, the kinds of objects investigated in science, and the nature of the results that are generated. We have tried to illustrate this by distinguishing between three different types of bioscience: (a) a descriptive type, (b) an experimental type, and (c) and an industrial type. Without pretending this provides a universal key to the history of the biosciences and to understanding of the way science works today, we hope that such a distinction may open up new avenues of thought. We hope that this approach will provide us with a more realistic picture of science. The propositional view reduces science to its theoretical results, in particular to the theories emanating from basic research. Science is seen as a special kind of philosophy; its central aim is to provide us with a 'true' view of the world. Thus the social problems which result from scientific inquiry and from the application of its results seem to be something external to the very essence of science and thus only of secondary importance. We believe, therefore, that this picture of science is both theoretically unsatisfactory and socially misleading. An appropriate account of science cannot ignore the fact that basic research represents only a very small part of the science system of our time. It cannot neglect the fact that science today is steeped with technology and to a great extent also industrialised. And it cannot treat the social problems of science as something merely 'external'. To view science as an activity in the sense outlined in this paper permits one to integrate these different aspects into one coherent and realistic picture. 1. It is obvious that technology plays a crucial role in determining the social reality of science. This is mainly because of the high costs of contemporary research technology that science can no longer be performed by gentleman scientists like Alexander von Humboldt or Charles Darwin, who not only financed their own living but the cost of their own research too. Science today is a profession, and in many cases it can be performed only in large groups or institutions financed by the state or by private companies. At the same time this means that it is more and more dependent upon decisions made outside science. Scientific activities have assumed the economic form of wage labour. The internal structure of science is characterised by a division of labour and hierarchical forms of decision making. 2. From a more traditional point this may seem to be a development 'external' to science, without any relevance for its 'essence'. The aim of science, it may be said, is to discover the truth about the external world, and the ways of reaching it a

Biological Science Disciplines↗
PubMed2004

Long-term outcome after internal sphincter myectomy for internal sphincter achalasia.

Anal internal sphincter achalasia is a rare cause of refractory constipation. It is usually treated by internal sphincter myectomy (ISM). The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term outcome of patients who had undergone ISM for internal sphincter achalasia. Bowel habits, fecal continence, and quality of life were evaluated using a questionnaire. Fecal continence was quantitatively assessed by a score described by Holschneider. A questionnaire was sent to 13 patients (11 male, two female) operated on by ISM for intractable constipation caused by internal sphincter achalasia between 1983 and 1993. Ten patients responded and were included in the study. At the time of the study, three of the 10 patients required oral medication for constipation and had one to three bowel movements per week. One of the 10 patients had three to five bowel movements per day, and the others had one to two bowel movements per day. Four patients had normal and six patients had good continence scores. Four of the patients reported mild social problems, and one had problems associated with sports. Refractory constipation in the majority of patients with internal sphincter achalasia can be treated by ISM. However, in the long term, a significant number of patients suffer from soiling-related social problems.

Adolescent↗