Administered Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) to clinically depressed and nondepressed inpatients, and compared scores from its Depression scale with scores from the Beck Depression Inventory. Demonstrated a positive linear relationship between the two measures and their ability to discriminate between depressed and nondepressed…

Advocates employing former mental patients to staff mental health centers. Reveals evidence that patients can help each other. Reviews the special contributions that former patients can make (e.g., offering a consumer point of view, making appropriate demands, and being a role model). Identifies problems that may be expected. (DMM)

Examined the degree to which depression predicted pain and pain behavior. The Beck Depression Inventory was administered to 207 low back pain patients. Depression and physical findings were the most important predictors of pain and pain behavior. Depression proved significant even after controlling for important demographic and medical status…

Individuals admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit for an immediately preceding parasuicide, with current suicidal ideation, or for nonsuicidal psychiatric reasons, were compared with each other on the types of problems they reported as being most significant in their current lives. Parasuicidal patients reported problems with significantly…

Psychiatric inpatients (N=59) were interviewd concerning psychological and environmental events that occurred in the 24 hours prior to their hospitalization. Suicide attempters were more likely to have used alcohol or marijuana and less likely to have contacted a health care professional than suicide ideators, even when past history of suicide…

The author describes the development of a pet therapy program at a rehabilitation unit of a hospital. She discusses documentation of the success of pet therapy programs, picking out the right pets, responsibilities of caring for the pet, training the pet, patient response, and program policies. (CT)

The Practice Integrated Learning Sequence (PILS) process was used in an educational program on hypertension management involving 1,013 physicians. Data suggest that PILS can help physicians assess practice needs by evaluating practice behaviors. Results indicate the importance of designing programs that facilitate physicians' development of…

Compared pre- and posttreatment Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory profiles of female inpatients (N=12) with anorexia nervosa. Results showed change after treatment, and found that pretreatment profiles obtained at a different hospital were remarkably similar, which suggests a common constellation of personality characteristics in…

Synthesizes the results of studies of case management with case management literature to summarize factors influencing case management services. Discusses characteristics of individuals providing case management, the clients they serve, the design of their jobs, and the services network in which they work. (Author/BH)

Provides new American age norms for Raven's Progressive Matrices, based on screening of 500 vocational counseling and 2,992 psychiatric veteran patients newly admitted to hospital. Reliability data were acceptable, but indicated need for revision of the Raven. Within limits set by current reliability, validity data presented were positive.…

An overview is provided of the ways in which psychosocial group work is being used in health care settings as an adjunct to medical treatment. (Author)

Examined which memory dimensions deteriorate with increasing age and examines the construct validity of the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) (N=1,264 males and 1,141 females at six age intervals). Visual-spatial memory tasks, remembering stories, and learning pairs of associated words proved more difficult with advanced age. (JAC)

Evaluated the effects of increased methodological rigor on the validity of the Observation Scale of Behavioral Distress and on findings concerning whether children habituate to painful procedures. Data were scored with and without refinements. Results indicated that children do habituate but that refinements had little effect on validity. (BH)

Projects utilization history of a synthetic cohort of nursing home admissions in 1976 by normalizing length of stay (LOS) specific discharge rates derived from life tables to an estimated 1.1 million persons. Results focus on the LOS distribution, discharge status, and total days of nursing home care used. (Author/JAC)

Used a cloze procedure to measure 75 female patients' level of reading of a patient package insert for an oral contraceptive. Results showed three of four patients would need assistance in comprehending the information. Age and schooling had a significant effect on the cloze test scores. (JAC)