The purpose of this study was to identify a combination of variables that could predict rehospitalization among a sample of 150 geropsychiatric inpatients. Logistic regression analyses testing a modified model identified risk factors for geropsychiatric rehospitalization and correctly classified approximately 80% of inpatients who were rehospitalized for subsequent treatment. Patients' psychiatric diagnosis (mood or schizophrenic disorder), poor general psychiatric functioning, depressive and agitated behavior at discharge, little or no supervision in living arrangements following discharge, limited social support, change in the social support system preceding hospitalization, and maladaptive family functioning could significantly predict geropsychiatric rehospitalization. The strongest independent predictor was maladaptive family functioning.
Suicide can be an act of despair, anger, or escape from intolerable pain associated with prior bonding disturbances within the family system, interpersonal loss, and current perceived lack of social support. Using a variety of online databases, the authors examined the research on the family's role in preventing suicide from an attachment and family systems perspective. They found relevant articles describing how to make use of family support in suicide prevention. From a study of the literature, the authors outline three new family concepts in suicide prevention: family cohesion, family adhesion, and formation of a new family. Therapists should use every familial resource to avoid premature closure and to expand perception of support options. The authors suggest specific practice recommendations to successfully involve families in suicide prevention based on the outlined family conceptual framework, and they recommend research investigation to determine empirical validation of these tentative formulations.
This study proposed that the low-order-correlations reported in the literature between externality and two indices of pathology would be heightened if the externality construct was differentiated into defensive and congruent externality. Defensive externals, who have low expectations of success in achieving valued goals and adopt external beliefs as a defense against feelings of personal failure, should be prone to anxiety; congruent externals, with their sincere belief that reinforcement is not contingent upon their own behavior, fit into the "learned helplessness" paradigm and should become depressed. Sixty male and female college undergraduates were selected as Internal, Defensive External, and Congruent External subjects on the basis of their scores on Levenson's Internal, Powerful Others, and Chance scales, and administered the Self-rating Depression Scale and the Achievement Anxiety Test. Results of the study are equivocal. Congruent externality does manifest a significant positive correlation with depression, but this correlation is low. Defensive externality is significantly positively correlated with debilitating anxiety, but the correlation is greater for congruent externality. Internality is significantly negatively correlated with both depression and debilitating anxiety.
The Early Alert Alzheimer's Home Screening Test (AHST) is a variant of the Smell Identification Test (SIT) and the Cross-Cultural Smell Identification Test (CC-SIT), and recently became available for purchase by the general public. The validity and the practical utility of routine screening for individuals with asymptomatic cognitive impairment has not been established. There are considerable specific methodological concerns regarding the use of the AHST including the association of olfactory impairment with (a) age in the absence of cognitive impairment, (b) numerous acute and/or chronic medical conditions, and (c) lifestyle habits and social and/or demographic variables. General public misunderstanding of the difference between a screening and a diagnostic test, primary care physicians' frequent confusion about follow-up mechanisms for newly diagnosed patients with dementia, the possible lack of perceived counseling options for those self-diagnosed, and abuse of test findings create distinct possibilities for misuse of this test. The marketing of the AHST and its general use without appropriate public health educational safeguards is inappropriate and may be unethical.
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