Examined contingent methadone take-home privileges for effectiveness in reducing supplemental drug use of methadone maintenance patients. Assigned 53 new intakes to begin receiving take-home privileges after 2 consecutive weeks of drug-free urines or to noncontingent procedure in which take-homes were delivered independently of urine results.…

Reanalyzed data from 1983 prospective study of suicide in cohort of 4,800 psychiatric inpatients using logistic regression. Results were same as in previous study: too few of the subsequent suicides were identified and there were too many false positives to make procedure useful. Additional artificial logistic regression analyses helped but fell…

Contrasts dreams of suicidal patients to those of nonsuicidal, depressed patients. Notes that dreams of suicidal patients often reveal wishes for revenge, punishment, reunion, fusion, and rebirth and that confusions between patient's body and that of others are suggested by dreams of some suicidal patients. Discusses phenomenon of transparency in…

Interviewed 80 social workers in 36 acute care hospitals concerning amount of time they spent on and importance of 73 discharge planning tasks. Findings suggest that discharge planning comprises primarily concrete resource provision with counseling component focused on decision making. Time spent on tasks was influenced by prospective payment…

Reviews roots from which Halstead began his investigations, significance of his original collaboration with neurological surgeons, and long-term implications of his practical approach of observing brain-damaged patients in their everyday living situations to identify problems and limitations they experienced. Describes development of…

Subtest specificities were determined for each of the 11 subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale--Revised (D. Wechlser, 1981) for a sample of 200 psychiatric inpatients. Seven subtests were judged to have adequate to ample specificity; four subtests were found to have inadequate specificity for ipsative interpretation. (SLD)

Guided reflection by six nurses who completed a counseling and health course supported the distinction between using counseling skills and practicing counseling. In a nursing context, counseling means assisting patients in exploring feelings and discovering coping strategies for their focal problems. (SK)

Clients (N=32) who were involuntarily hospitalized in a psychiatric facility were assessed for borderline personality disorder (BPD) using an interview and two self-report questionnaires. The majority (53.1%) met criteria for BPD on all three measures, 18.8% on two measures, and 18.8% on only one measure. Implications of these findings are…

A help card and letter were sent to a random sample of outpatients before their medical appointment to encourage them to prepare and prioritize questions to ask the doctor. Results highlight the difficulties outpatients have in asking questions and discussing topics fully at their initial consultation, even when they have thought of the questions…

Studied whether adding Functional Assessment Measure (FAM) (K. Hall, 1992) scores to those from the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) adds to the FIM range. Results from 376 Canadian patients suggest that using the FAM as an adjunct to the FIM reduces test efficiency and adds minimal benefits. (SLD)

The purpose of this study was to determine whether social work intervention would reduce nonemergent visits to the emergency department and increase scheduled pediatric visits. A high-risk repeater group of 104 pediatric patients with three or more emergency department visits was randomly selected to receive social work intervention. Control and…

Objective: To compare the efficacy of a skills-based treatment protocol to a supportive relationship therapy for adolescents after a suicide attempt. Method: Thirty-nine adolescents (12-17 years old) and parents who presented to a general pediatric emergency department or inpatient unit of a child psychiatric hospital after a suicide attempt were…

Objective: To examine the steady-state pharmacokinetic properties of bupropion sustained release (SR) and their potential developmental differences in youths. Method: Eleven boys and eight girls aged 11 to 17 years old were prescribed bupropion SR monotherapy for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (n = 16) and/or depressive disorders (n =…

Purpose: This study was designed to examine the factors associated with the preferences of Alzheimer's disease patients to participate in a decision to use an Alzheimer's disease-slowing medication and how involved their caregivers would let them be in this decision. Design and Methods: Interviews were conducted with 48 patients in the…

This study examined the effects that the acoustic-phonetic structure of a stimulus exerts on the processes by which lexical candidates compete for activation. An auditory lexical decision paradigm was used to investigate whether shortening the VOT of an initial voiceless stop consonant in a real word results in the activation of the…