Preventive medical services among patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: To assess the degree to which patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) receive health maintenance and preventive care procedures recommended by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a government appointed independent expert panel whose recommendations are based on a systematic review of the evidence of effectiveness of clinical preventive services.

Methods: Clinical data from 1987 to 1995 were abstracted from the complete (inpatient and outpatient) medical records of a population based sample of patients with RA (defined using the 1987 American College of Rheumatology diagnostic criteria). We assessed probability of receiving 6 preventive medical services: blood pressure testing (once every 2 years), lipids profile (once every 5 years), flu vaccination (once a year for persons over 65), pneumococcal vaccination (one time for persons over 65), as well as mammograms (biennially for ages 40-49 and annually for those 50 and over) and cervical cancer screening (once every 3 years).

Determinants of patient satisfaction in chronic illness.

Objective: To determine whether primary care provided by generalists versus subspecialists resulted in different levels of patient satisfaction among persons with chronic illness.

Methods: A survey containing the Primary Care Provider Questionnaire and the Health Status Questionnaire (HSQ) was mailed to 2 population-based cohorts of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or diabetes mellitus (DM). All subjects were at least 35 years old and Rochester, Minnesota residents.

Adverse gastrointestinal effects of NSAIDs: consequences and costs.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are some of the most widely consumed medications. They are available by prescription and 'over the counter'. The same pharmacological properties which make them effective in the treatment of a variety of painful and/or arthritic conditions are responsible for a variety of adverse gastrointestinal effects, ranging from relatively mild dyspepsia to potentially lethal gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding and perforated ulcers.

Are general dentists' practice patterns and attitudes about treating Medicaid-enrolled preschool age children related to dental school training?

Purpose: The purpose of this study were to investigate the willingness of general practitioners to provide dental care for preschool-aged children, and to explore the relationship between dental school experiences and practitioners' attitudes about treating Medicaid-enrolled children 3 years of age and younger.

Methods: A survey was mailed to 3,559 randomly selected general dentists in Texas. Respondents were asked to answer questions about their willingness to provide specified dental procedures for children of different ages, their dental school experiences with pediatric dentistry and whether these experiences were hands-on, lecture or no training, and their attitudes concerning treating Medicaid-enrolled children 3 years of age or younger.

Reliability of the Terry: a mental health cartoon-like screener for African-American children.

Test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the Terry, a cartoon-based child mental health screener developed for African-American children, were measured in 36 boys (age 5 1/2 to 13) in a test-retest design. Reliability of the diagnosis (0.70 < or = k < or = 0.

Reliability of the Dominic-R: a young child mental health questionnaire combining visual and auditory stimuli.

Reliability of the Dominic-R, a questionnaire combining visual and auditory stimuli, was tested in 340 community children aged 6 to 11 years. Test-retest reliability of symptoms of, and symptom scores of, DSM-III-R disorders including simple phobias, separation anxiety disorder, overanxious disorder, depression/dysthymia, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder was assessed. Most symptoms yielded kappas greater than .

The Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (PC-DISC v.3.0): parents and adolescents suggest reasons for expecting discrepant answers.

To identify reasons for discrepancies between parent and child reports of child/adolescents's psychiatric symptoms, parents and adolescents (51 pairs) were asked to guess what the other would answer to questions from the PC-DISC about the adolescent's psychiatric symptoms, and to explain why they expected disagreement when the answer they provided for the other was different from their own. Adolescents' explanations for expecting (1) parental denial of symptoms the adolescent reported were: the parent was unaware of, forgot about, assumed the adolescent could not have, or trivialized the symptom; and (2) parental report of symptoms the adolescent denied were: the parent misread or exaggerated the adolescent's symptom, had too high expectations for the adolescent's behavior, put a negative label on or did not trust the adolescent. Parents' reasons for expecting their children to (1) deny symptoms the parents reported were: the adolescent did not remember how s/he felt, lied, did not recognize or minimized the importance or frequency of the symptom; and (2) report symptoms the parents denied were: the adolescent lied, exaggerated the importance of or interpreted the symptom differently.

Prevalence of mental illnesses in adult offspring of alcoholic mothers.

Recognition of maternal alcoholism as a risk factor for mental illness in adult offspring is important. Using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS), adult offspring of a clinical sample of alcoholic mothers were assessed for selected lifetime psychiatric disorders. Elevated adjusted odds ratio (OR) of alcohol abuse/dependence (OR 6.

Gender differences in lifetime psychiatric disorders between sons and daughters of alcoholic mothers: a pilot study.

Lifetime prevalence of selected psychiatric disorders was assessed in 24 independent pairs of adult siblings (brother-sister) with an alcoholic mother, using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule. Adult females were as likely as adult males to have had one or more lifetime diagnosis of psychiatric disorder. Lifetime prevalence of affective disorders was the same in male and female siblings.

Cannabinoid receptor-regulated cyclic AMP accumulation in the rat striatum.

The present study demonstrates that desacetyllevonantradol, a synthetic cannabinoid analog, reduces cyclic AMP levels in rat striatal slices stimulated with vasoactive intestinal peptide or SKF 38393, a D1-dopamine agonist. Desacetyllevonantradol and the D2 agonist LY 171555 both inhibited D1-stimulated cyclic AMP accumulation in the striatum. Spiperone, a specific D2-dopamine antagonist, fully reversed the inhibitory effect of LY 171555 but not that of desacetyllevonantradol, indicating that this cannabinoid response is not occurring through a D2-dopaminergic mechanism.

The cannabinoid receptor: biochemical, anatomical and behavioral characterization.

The actions of the active principle of marihuana, delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol, are mimicked by synthetic cannabinoid agonists showing high potency and enantio-selectivity in behavioral assays. These drugs have been used to characterize cannabinoid receptor binding, biochemistry and pharmacology, leading to a better understanding of the effects of cannabinoids in the CNS of humans and experimental animals.

Cannabinoid receptors and modulation of cyclic AMP accumulation in the rat brain.

The mechanism by which cannabinoid compounds produce their effects in the rat brain was evaluated in this investigation. Cannabinoid receptors, quantitated by [3H]CP-55,940 binding, were found in greatest abundance in the rat cortex, cerebellum, hippocampus, and striatum, with smaller but significant binding also found in the hypothalamus, brainstem, and spinal cord. Using rat brain slice preparations, we evaluated the effect of desacetyllevonantradol on basal and forskolin-stimulated cyclic AMP accumulation in the regions exhibiting the greatest cannabinoid receptor density.

Muscarinic pharmacology of the inhibition of adenylate cyclase in N18TG2 neuroblastoma cells.

This study characterizes the muscarinic cholinergic receptors associated with the inhibition of adenylate cyclase on N18TG2 neuroblastoma cell membranes. Agonists could be divided into two classes: oxotremorine, acetylcholine, carbachol and arecoline exerted the most efficacious and potent inhibition, while McN-A343, bethanechol and AHR-602 were partial agonists. Both quinuclidinyl benzilate and atropine maximally antagonized the inhibitory effect of McN-A343, carbachol and oxotremorine.