Pediatric cancer patients encounter painful medical procedures on a routine basis. Extreme anticipatory anxiety and behavioral distress are exhibited by these children prior to and during the procedures. This study investigated the relationship between children's distress and a number of psychosocial, medical, and demographic variables. Results indicated that the observation scale used to measure distress was a reliable, valid instrument. The three variables most highly predictive of children's distress included the age of the child, the number of previous medical procedures experienced by the child, and parental anxiety in relation to the medical procedures. A number of other significant variables are discussed and implications for intervention are reviewed.Painful medial procedures must be administered during the course of diagnosis and treatment of the pediatric cancer patient, which exacerbate the emotional and physical distress inherent in the disease itself. Of these procedures, bone marrow aspirations are reported by both parents and their parents to be the most painful and traumatic events in the entire therapeutic regimen. Bone marrow aspirations are diagnostic procedures in which a needle is inserted into the bone and marrow is extracted to determine the presence or absence of cancer cells.The anxiety produced by anticipation of these procedures can be so severe that patients (and sometimes parents) may report symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, skin rashes, and insomnia days before procedures are scheduled.

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Prediction of premorbid intellectual ability in brain-injured patients was investigated using two sets of regression equations and the Intellectual Correlates Scale (ICS). Eighty subjects completed the WAIS-R and the ICS. The four subject groups included a control group and right-hemisphere, left-hemisphere, and diffuse brain-injured groups. As expected, brain-injured groups obtained lower IQs than controls. Also, estimated IQs approximated obtained IQs for controls, while overestimating IQs for brain-injured groups. Support was provided for the continued use of the Barona, Reynolds, and Chastain (1984) and the Barona and Chastain (1986) regression equations as measures of premorbid intellectual functioning. Previous findings (Schlottmann & Johnsen, 1991), suggesting the ICS may also serve as a measure of premorbid intellectual functioning, were not replicated.