Psychologists and alcoholic women

Alcoholism among women often has been treated using a model based on research with alcoholic men. Women react differently to alcohol than men both physiologically and psychologically and their drinking patterns are different from men's. Treatment facilities for alcoholism have not been as available for women as for men and treatment must be individualized for the differences between men and women problem drinkers and for the differences among alcoholic women.     

Intercorrelations among general arousability, emerging and current sexual desire, and severity of sexual dysfunction in women

Intercorrelations among general trait arousability, emerging sexual desire, current sexual desire, lack of sexual desire perceived as a problem, and sexual dysfunction were assessed in 65 women currently involved in marital or de facto heterosexual relationships. The Stimulus Screening Test was used to measure general arousability and the Assessment of Sexual Function and Dysfunction Questionnaire was used to measure emerging sexual desire, current sexual desire lack of sexual desire, and sexual dysfunction. Analysis showed that arousability was positively associated with current levels of sexual desire which was negatively associated with sexual dysfunction. There was a curvilinear relationship between arousability and sexual dysfunction, with women experiencing both high and low levels of arousability being more likely to score higher on measures of sexual dysfunction than those experiencing medium levels of arousal. The possible implications of these results are discussed.     

Self-reported expected emotional changes as a function of alcohol intoxication by alcoholic men and women

80 alcoholic men and women registered for counseling at different Swedish outpatient units volunteered to complete semantic differential scales related to emotional expected effects of alcohol intoxication. Analyses indicated that alcoholics expect large doses of alcohol to increase pleasure, dominance, and arousal. These results were discussed in comparison with the results from previous related studies with nonalcoholic samples.     

Length of survival and lymphocyte percentage in women with mammary cancer as a function of psychotherapy

50 patients suffering from terminal mammary cancer and visceral metastases received chemotherapy, and in addition half of them received psychotherapy, while half did not. A lymphocyte count was undertaken seven times in all, once before initiation of chemotherapy, the others after six applications of the therapy. As hypothesized, the 25 women who received psychotherapy lived longer and had significantly higher lymphocyte counts on Occasions 5, 6 and 7 than did the 25 women who did not receive psychotherapy. Of the types of psychotherapy employed, a specially designed form of behaviour therapy was significantly more helpful than dynamic psychotherapy in prolonging life.     

Semantic memory in Alzheimer's disease

Patients with Alzheimer's disease have been suggested to have a semantic memory impairment not present in the normal old. This article reviews the performance of Alzheimer patients on tests of various aspects of semantic memory, including word finding, knowledge of the semantic attributes, and associates of concepts, as well as their category membership. The effect that semantic context has on cognitive processes such as lexical and semantic priming and memory encoding is also reviewed. Finally, the ability of theoretical constructs such as implicit memory and automaticity to explain intertask variability in Alzheimer patients' semantic performance is discussed.     

Smoking, body weight, and their effects on smoking behavior: a comprehensive review of the literature

This article provides a comprehensive review of the research on smoking and body weight. The relationships between smoking and body weight are evaluated in 70 cross-sectional and longitudinal investigations. The mechanisms responsible for differences in body weight are discussed, the weight-related issues that promote smoking behavior are reviewed, methods for reducing postcessation weight gain are summarized, and future research directions are proposed. A proposed working research model for studying the relationship between smoking, energy balance, and weight gain is offered. It is concluded that smoking and body weight relationships are closely related and pose significant challenges for smoking researchers.     

Self-esteem, depression, and alcohol dependency among high school students

123 high school students completed the short form of the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory-School Form and its Lie scale, Beck's Depression Inventory, and an Alcohol Dependency Scale. Analyses of variance (2 x 4) showed boys had higher mean Lie scores than girls, and freshmen had lower mean alcohol dependency scores than sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Correlations between self-esteem scores and depression scores were significant and negative, but values were significant and positive between self-esteem and lie scores and between depression and alcohol dependency scores. Much work is required to understand better the relations among depression, self-esteem, and drug and alcohol dependency in high school students if interventions are to focus upon prevention.