NICHD research initiative in newborn screening

Recent changes in genetics research have created new opportunities to improve the scope and quality of newborn screening services. Changes in newborn screening should be supported and directed by an organized program of research. The NICHD Research Initiative in Newborn Screening includes the development of systematic methods to identify additional conditions appropriate for newborn screening; development and testing innovative interventions and treatments to improve outcomes; education of the provider workforce; development and implementation of appropriate information and communication systems for parents and providers; and, sponsoring an ongoing program of research and research training. Future needs will include the development of a national translational research infrastructure, prevention research and research into behavioral and social sciences issues. The NICHD Research Initiative in Newborn Screening is expected to be an ongoing and vital initiative that adapts itself to new scientific findings, technological developments, changes in the public and personal health care system, and our evolving understanding of the needs of affected individuals, families and the community.     

Panic disorder and suicide attempt in the National Comorbidity Survey

Clinical and some epidemiological data conflict concerning the likelihood of suicide attempt in individuals with panic disorder (PD). The purpose of this study was to illuminate the panic disorder-suicide attempt association in the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS; R. C. Kessler et al., 1994). Specifically, suicide attempt histories of those 5,872 respondents answering "yes" or "no" to the suicide attempt question were regressed against lifetime diagnostic histories. Lifetime PD history, in the presence of other disorders, was unrelated to elevated risk of suicide attempt and did not account for additional variance. PD respondents who had made a suicide attempt were characterized by Comorbidity. Epidemiological respondents with lifetime histories of PD alone are not at heightened risk for self-reported suicide attempt.     

Evaluation of behavioral skills training to prevent gun play in children

This study evaluated behavioral skills training (BST), in a multiple baseline across subjects design, for teaching firearm safety skills to 6 6- and 7-year-old children. Similar to previous research with 4- and 5-year-olds, half of the children acquired the safety skills following BST and half acquired the skills following BST plus in situ training.     

A New Representation Theorem for Contranegative Deontic Logic

The logic of an ought operator O is contranegative with respect to an underlying preference relation if it satisfies the property Op & (¬p)(¬q) Oq. Here the condition that is interpolative ((p (pq) q) (q (pq) p)) is shown to be necessary and sufficient for all -contranegative preference relations to satisfy the plausible deontic postulates agglomeration (Op & OqO(p&q)) and disjunctive division (O(p&q) Op Oq).     

Evaluation of behavioral skills training for teaching abduction-prevention skills to young children

This study examined the effectiveness of individual behavioral skills training in conjunction with in situ training in teaching 13 preschool children abduction prevention skills. Children's performance was measured during baseline, training, and at 2-week, 1-month, and 3-month follow-ups using in situ assessments in which abduction prevention skills were measured in naturalistic settings. Results revealed that all the children learned the skills and all the children available at the 2-week and 1-month follow-ups maintained the skills at criterion level. All but 3 children's criterion-level performances were maintained at the 3-month follow-up as well.     

Teaching safety skills to children to prevent gun play: an evaluation of in situ training

This study evaluated behavioral skills training with added in situ training for teaching safety skills to prevent gun play. Following baseline, each child received two sessions of behavioral skills training and one in situ training session. Additional in situ training sessions were conducted until the child exhibited the safety skills (don't touch the gun, get away, and tell an adult). All children acquired and maintained the safety skills at a 3-month follow-up. In addition, of the 7 children assessed in a dyad situation, all exhibited the correct skills in the presence of another child.     

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times: doctoral students' experiences of family therapy research training through alternative forms of data representation

In this study, we interviewed 14 doctoral students from 10 COAMFTE-accredited doctoral programs to learn more about how they experienced their research training and what they might suggest to strengthen the research culture in their training programs. We solicited somewhat unconventional data--metaphors, poetry, free associations, critical experiences--to (a) tap into our participants' underlying thought processes, (b) capture the multifaceted nature of their doctoral research training, and (c) represent the richness of our participants' subjective experiences. The themes we identified reflect both positive and negative research training experiences and suggest several ways that family therapy program faculty might improve their programs' research training and culture.     

Eating disorder NOS (EDNOS): an example of the troublesome "not otherwise specified" (NOS) category in DSM-IV

The “Not Otherwise Specified” (NOS) category within DSM-IV is designed for disorders of clinical severity that are not specified within broad diagnostic classes. “NOS” diagnoses are intended to be residual categories and they tend to be neglected by researchers. This can be inappropriate. The problems associated with certain NOS diagnoses are well illustrated by “Eating Disorder NOS” (sometimes termed EDNOS), which is the most common category of eating disorder encountered in routine clinical practice yet it has barely been studied. Indeed, there has been no research on its treatment. Interim and longer-term conceptual and practical solutions to the anomalous status of eating disorder NOS are proposed including the creation of a new diagnosis termed “mixed eating disorder”. Several of these solutions are of relevance to NOS categories in general. All the solutions should fulfil criteria for clinical utility.     

Refining the experimental analysis of academic skills deficits: Part I. An investigation of variables that affect generalized oral reading performance

Experimental analyses for improving reading fluency deficits have rarely targeted generalized increases in academic responding. As a consequence, the variables that may help students to generalize newly learned forms of academic responding like reading are not well understood. Furthermore, experimental analyses of reading fluency interventions have not systematically examined difficulty level as a variable that may affect instructional outcomes. The experiment reported in this paper expands (a) the measurement of the dependent variables to include generalized increases across tasks (reading passages) and (b) the combination of independent variables used to produce measurable generalized increases. The results demonstrate the importance of combining reward and instructional variables (including difficulty level) to produce generalized increases and how those variables can be meaningfully investigated prior to making treatment recommendations.     

The processing of pseudohomophones by adults with a history of developmental language disabilities

Psuedohomophones are nonwords that sound like real words (e.g., BRANE). These items were used to gauge phonological access in adults who have experienced developmental language processing deficits (DLD). The standard effect for these items in lexical decision is an increase in response times over nonpseudohomophone nonwords. This disadvantage reflects phonological processing. In our first experiment the DLD group did not produce this pseudohomophone effect whereas in a second experiment they showed semantic priming effects when pseudohomophones were used as primes in lexical decision. The results therefore indicate that phonological processing of nonwords by adults with DLD can be uncovered under certain carefully controlled experimental conditions.