The social predictors of adolescent alcohol misuse: a test of the social development model.

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the ability of the social development model (SDM) to predict alcohol misuse at age 16 and to investigate the ability of the SDM to mediate the effects of alcohol use at age 14 on alcohol misuse at age 16.

Method: The sample of 807 (411 males) is from the longitudinal panel of the Seattle Social Development Project which, in 1985, surveyed all consenting fifth-grade students from 18 elementary schools serving high-crime neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington. Alcohol use was measured at age 14, predictors of alcohol misuse were measured at age 15 and alcohol misuse was measured at age 16.

Group interventions and the limits of behavioral medicine.

A wide range of interventions has been devised to address health hazards in the social and physical environment. The authors propose a 2-dimensional matrix to organize these interventions. The timing of interventions is divided into 4 stages: preventing exposure to hazard (proactive primary prevention), preventing symptoms from appearing (reactive primary prevention), preventing early symptoms from becoming chronic or leading to disease (secondary prevention), and managing the disease (tertiary prevention).

Investment in a rural residency program: a case study.

Rural hospitals have used numerous strategies over the past several decades to recruit and retain physicians. These have included providing physicians economic incentives, immigration status, professional and technical support and establishing rural training tracks (RTT) in family practice residency programs. This paper presents the experience of an isolated rural region in southwestern New York state that has employed each of these strategies in the past decade.

The effect of capitated financing on mental health services for children and youth: the Colorado experience.

Objectives: This study tested 2 propositions concerning the effect of capitated financing on mental health services for Medicaid-eligible children and youth in Colorado. The first is that capitation reduces costs. The second is that shifting providers from fee-for-service to capitated financing will increase their efforts to prevent illness.

Does the disbursement of income increase psychiatric emergencies involving drugs and alcohol?

Objective: To determine if the incidence of psychiatric emergencies involving drugs or alcohol supports the argument that mentally ill persons contribute to elevated mortality during the days following disbursement of private earnings and public income transfers.

Study Design: Interrupted time-series using Box-Jenkins methods.

Data Collection/extraction Methods: Daily counts of adults admitted to psychiatric emergency services in San Francisco after using drugs or alcohol were derived from medical records for the period January 1 through June 30, 1997.

Growth factors and embryo development.

In this review are cited and discussed the possible roles of growth factors on preimplantation embryo development of different species. In first term, is considered the mRNA detection in early stages of development. The distribution pattern was not uniform for the different peptides evaluated.

Early adult outcomes of adolescent binge drinking: person- and variable-centered analyses of binge drinking trajectories.

Background: Many studies of the consequences of binge drinking take a variable-centered approach that may mask developmentally different trajectories. Recent studies have reported qualitatively different binge drinking trajectories in young adulthood. However, analyses of developmental trajectories of binge drinking have not been examined for an important period of drinking development: adolescence.

Developmental risk factors for youth violence.

Purpose: To replicate earlier research findings on risk factors for youth violence and to explore the effects on violent behavior of constructs shown to increase risk for other problem behaviors, within a developmental frame.

Methods: Data were from the Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP), a prospective study involving a panel of youths followed since 1985. Potential risk factors for violence at age 18 years were measured at ages 10, 14, and 16 years.

The dynamics of alcohol and marijuana initiation: patterns and predictors of first use in adolescence.

Objectives: This study, guided by the social development model, examined the dynamic patterns and predictors of alcohol and marijuana use onset.

Methods: Survival analysis and complementary log-log regression were used to model hazard rates and etiology of initiation with time-varying covariates. The sample was derived from a longitudinal study of 808 youth interviewed annually from 10 to 16 years of age and at 18 years of age.

Management of cancer treatment-related diarrhea. Issues and therapeutic strategies.

The cancer treatment-related diarrhea caused by acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and chemotherapeutic agents, particularly fluoropyrimidines and irinotecan, significantly affects patient morbidity and mortality. The mechanisms causing cancer treatment-related diarrhea are not fully understood, but histopathologic evidence points to a multifactorial process that causes an absorptive and secretory imbalance in the small bowel. Cancer treatment-related diarrhea could be life-threatening, yet assessment and treatment are not currently standardized.

Opening the black box: using process evaluation measures to assess implementation and theory building.

The past decade has seen increasing recognition in prevention science of the need to move away from a black box approach to intervention evaluation and toward an approach that can elaborate on the mechanisms through which changes in the outcomes operate (Chen & Rossi, 1989; Durlak & Wells, 1997; Spoth et al., 1995). An approach that examines issues of program implementation is particularly critical in the design of efficacy studies of school-based preventive interventions.

The ecological effect of unemployment on the incidence of very low birthweight in Norway and Sweden.

Little attention has been paid to the ecological effects of unemployment, despite strong theory suggesting that being socially or economically connected to unemployed persons can induce illness. Theory suggests, for example, that the labor market experience of adult males should affect maternal and infant health. We advance this line of inquiry by testing the hypothesis that quarterly increases in unemployment among Norwegian and Swedish males were associated with increased incidence of very low weight births from 1973 through 1995.

An experimental intervention with families of substance abusers: one-year follow-up of the focus on families project.

Aims: Children whose parents abuse drugs are exposed to numerous factors that increase the likelihood of future drug abuse. Despite this heightened risk, few experimental tests of prevention programs with this population have been reported. This article examines whether intensive family-focused interventions with methadone treated parents can reduce parents' drug use and prevent children's initiation of drug use.

Gaps in service utilization by Mexican Americans with mental health problems.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to ascertain the degree of underutilization of services for mental health problems among urban and rural Mexican American adults.

Method: A probability sample (N = 3,012) was used to represent the Mexican American population of Fresno County, California, and face-to-face interviews were conducted with the use of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to analyze the data on diagnosis and service utilization.

Unemployment and foster home placements: estimating the net effect of provocation and inhibition.

Objectives: This study sought, first, to explain and reconcile the provocation and inhibition theories of the effect of rising unemployment on the incidence of antisocial behavior. Second, it tested the hypothesis, implied by the provocation and inhibition theories, that the relationship between unemployment and foster home placements forms an inverted "U."

Methods: The hypothesis was tested with data from California for 137 months beginning in February 1984.

Measuring community mobilization in the Seattle Minority Youth Health Project.

This article assesses the validity and reliability of the approach used to measure community mobilization in the Seattle Minority Youth Health Project (MY Health), a neighborhood-based program to prevent drug use, violence, teen pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Two constructs were measured: neighborhood cooperation in solving problems, and sense of pride and identification with the neighborhood. The convergent validity of the measurement approach was assessed by comparing several independent measures of community mobilization generated from surveys of key neighborhood leaders, youth, and parents.

Psychiatric emergencies: the check effect revisited.

Federal income support to persons with alcohol and drug related disabilities was ended in 1997. The argument for ending the programs was that recipients were using their benefits to purchase drugs and alcohol. This supposedly led to the "check effect," an increase in psychiatric emergencies in American communities in the days following the receipt of disability benefits.

Preventing adolescent health-risk behaviors by strengthening protection during childhood.

Objective: To examine the long-term effects of an intervention combining teacher training, parent education, and social competence training for children during the elementary grades on adolescent health-risk behaviors at age 18 years.

Design: Nonrandomized controlled trial with follow-up 6 years after intervention.

Setting: Public elementary schools serving high-crime areas in Seattle, Wash.

Drug use predictors of partner violence in opiate-dependent women.

This paper examines the use of specific drugs as longitudinal predictors of violence between domestic partners in a sample of women in methadone treatment for opiate addiction. Crack cocaine use, use of other forms of cocaine, and tranquilizer use are each modestly to moderately positively associated with partner violence victimization. Women who were heavy users of these drugs were more likely to be hit, slapped, or shoved by their partners than light users or nonusers of these drugs.

Changing teaching practices to promote achievement and bonding to school.

An intervention to modify teaching practices in grades five and six was evaluated. Results showed that higher levels of teacher implementation of the modified practices favorably influenced students' levels of classroom opportunity, involvement, reinforcement, and bonding to school. Levels of academic achievement were also increased.

Recommended guidelines for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced diarrhea.

Purpose: Management of chemotherapy-induced diarrhea (CID) has customarily involved symptomatic treatment with opioids in conjunction with supportive care. Alternatively, patients refractory to conventional therapy have been given octreotide, a somatostatin analogue. Although this agent has been effective against CID, no widely accepted treatment guidelines that incorporate its use currently exist.

Lifetime prevalence of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders among urban and rural Mexican Americans in California.

Background: The Mexican American Prevalence and Services Survey presents lifetime prevalence rates for 12 DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders in a sample of 3012 adults of Mexican origin by place of residence and nativity, and compares these results with those of population surveys conducted in the United States and Mexico.

Methods: The stratified random sample included non-institutionalized persons aged 18 to 59 years of Mexican origin, who were residents of Fresno County, California. Psychiatric disorders were assessed using a modified version of the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview in face-to-face interviews.

A meta-analysis of predictors of continued drug use during and after treatment for opiate addiction.

Aims: Many people treated for opiate addiction continue to use drugs during and after treatment. It may be possible to improve outcomes by addressing patient characteristics that predict continued drug use. This review uses meta-analytic techniques to identify risk factors for continued drug use in patients treated for opiate abuse.

Unemployment and the likelihood of detecting early-stage breast cancer.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that unexpectedly high unemployment in a community is associated with reduced odds that registered breast tumors are local.

Methods: The hypothesis was tested with data from San Francisco for the 132 months beginning with January 1983.

Results: Registered breast tumors were less likely to be local during periods of unexpectedly high unemployment (8% less likely among non-Hispanic White women and 24% less likely among African-American women).