Internal validity, dimensionality and performance of the Body Shape Questionnaire in a group of Brazilian college students.

Objective: To adapt the Body Shape Questionnaire for use in the Brazilian population; to study the internal validity and the dimensionality of the scale when used in a non- clinical Brazilian population.

Method: A cross- sectional study was accomplished comprising 164 students in the first 3 years of the School of Medicine conveniently selected at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo. The 34- item Body Shape Questionnaire version and a questionnaire to assess demographic and anthropometric information were used.

Evolutional pattern of drug use by medical students.

Recent use of psychoactive substances among 456 medical students throughout the six grades was surveyed by way of a self-report questionnaire using World Health Organisation criteria. Among male medical students, the most frequently used substances were alcohol (80.5%), cannabis (25.

Factors associated with the use of solvents and cannabis by medical students.

Introduction: The use of alcohol and other drugs among medical students has been a theme of growing interest and concern on the part of researchers, teaching institutions and medical associations since the decade of the 1960's.

Objective: Recent use of alcohol, tobacco, tranquillisers, amphetamines, cannabis, organic solvents, and cocaine among 456 medical students was surveyed.

Method: Assessment was done by means of a self-report questionnaire according to World Health Organisation guidelines.

Effectiveness of time-limited psychotherapy for minor psychiatric disorders: randomised controlled trial evaluating immediate v. long-term effects.

Background: Psychotherapy research rarely has studied outcome in the longer term.

Aims: To evaluate the effectiveness of brief group dynamic psychotherapy (BGDP) intervention in patients with minor psychiatric disorders compared with the usual clinical management shortly after treatment termination and to investigate whether intervention would show a differential effect at 2-year follow-up.

Method: Patients were allocated randomly to an experimental or control group.