Molecular carrier testing for the fragile X syndrome: Issues for genetic counselors

Molecular analysis of the fragile X (FMR-1) gene identifies female fragile X carriers, but appropriate genetic counseling can only be provided if the limitations of the testing methods are understood. Molecular analysis of this gene is achieved with both the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Southern blot techniques. PCR is faster and can determine the actual number of CGG repeats, which modifies genetic counseling substantially. However, for a sizeable percentage of women, PCR alone is not conclusive, and Southern analysis is necessary to complete the study. While this procedure takes longer, it is usually conclusive. Women who present for genetic counseling and carrier testing in the second trimester of pregnancy need this information quickly, and for them the turn-around time is paramount. It is critical that genetic counselors understand these methods so that they can educate their clients and facilitate appropriate follow-up.     

Interpersonal Skills Training to Reduce Aggressive and Delinquent Behavior: Limited Evidence and the Need for an Evidence-Based System of Care

The prevention of aggressive and delinquent behavior during childhood and adolescence is one of the highest priorities for public health and crime prevention. The most common approach to preventing or treating these conduct problems has been to provide interpersonal skills training to the affected youth. This paper reviews all randomized controlled trials evaluating interpersonal skills training programs as an intervention to reduce conduct problems. Research shows that such programs have weak empirical support as isolated interventions. An alternative evidence-based system of care is described. Such a system would include behavioral parent training and behavioral classroom-based interventions for young children at risk of developing problems, as well as multisystemic family therapy or multidimensional treatment foster care for chronic delinquents. Within such a network of services, interpersonal skills training could play an important supportive role. Such a system holds the greatest promise for reducing the prevalence of aggressive and delinquent behavior in communities.     

Vicarious and direct counterconditioning of test anxiety through individual and group desensitization

Vicarious and direct desensitization were compared for individual and group treatment of test anxiety. Fifty seventh-graders were assigned by stratified random sampling to the following treatment conditions: direct-individual; vicarious-individual; direct-group; group-observing-group; group-observing-model. Twenty-one eighth-graders served as no-treatment controls. Upon completion of the experimental phase, all subjects were administered a measure of test anxiety and a reading test. As predicted, experimental subjects improved significantly, relative to controls, on both outcome measures; as further expected, the experimental variations did not produce significantly different outcomes among treatment conditions. Neither sex of subject nor assignment to alternative therapists qualified the findings.     

Social Misperception and Its Implications for Counseling

This article explores social misperception, a unique way of viewing the behavior problems of children. While the emotional-disturbance label is usually given to behaviorally disordered youngsters, it inaccurately reflects the social learning problems of children. Explored are the characteristics of social misperception (both verbal and nonverbal), its historical foundations (taken from the psychological and educational literature), and its relation to learning disabilities and to emotional disturbance; a differential diagnostic system is offered. Counselors are given techniques by which they can assist teachers with remediation, a task that helps the counselor to assist classroom teachers to become socially sensitive to the emotional needs of children.     

The Heart of the Reformation Faith

Abstract: This historical and theological study of Reformation theologians, principally Martin Luther and John Calvin, examines three dimensions of faith: (1) faith as belief; (2) faith as trust; and (3) faith as the indwelling presence of Christ. To the question, “how does faith justify?,” the answer is found in the third, the indwelling of Christ, wherein the justness of Christ is present in the sinful person.     

Outlined objects in a Mach pattern create illusions: further evidence of a frequency code for size

In two experiments, new illusions of size were created using stimuli composed of nine trees, otoscopes, pens, hourglasses, hands, or mailboxes. The size of the nine objects varied across space in accordance with a Mach pattern. At the small side of the stimuli where there were three objects of identical size, the object at the inflection point was seen as smallest; at the large side of the stimuli where there were also three objects of equal size, the object at the inflection point was seen as largest. In Exp. 3, isolated objects and objects at the inflection points of the Mach stimuli were compared. When the stimuli were oriented to place the judged objects at the inflection points near the isolated object, figures with both pens and otoscopes at the small side of the pattern were underestimated and the figures of pens and otoscopes at the large side of the pattern were overestimated. These illusions resemble Brigner and Kauffman's Mach lines illusion and appear to result from interaction among visual neurons which are encoding the size of complex objects by frequency of their response.     

Passive-aggressive (negativistic) personality disorder: a population-based twin study

The objective of this study was to investigate the familial aggregation of passive aggressive personality disorder (PAPD), and explore issues regarding PAPD raised by the DSM-IV Personality Disorder Work Group. Two thousand seven hundred and ninety-four Norwegian twins from the population-based Norwegian Institute of Public Health Twin Panel were interviewed with the Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality (SIDP-IV). Because of the rarity of the twins meeting full diagnostic criteria for PAPD a dimensional representation of the disorder was used for the analyses. Overlap with other axis II disorders was assessed by polychoric correlations, while familial aggregation was explored by structural equation twin models. Overlap was highest with paranoid (r = 0.52) and borderline personality disorder (r = 0.53), and lowest with schizoid (r = 0.26). Significant familial aggregation was found for PAPD. The twin correlations and parameter estimates in the full model indicated genetic and shared environmental effects for females, and only shared environmental effects for males, but the prevalence of endorsed PAPD criteria in this community sample was too low to permit us to conclude with confidence regarding the relative influence of genetic and shared environmental factors on the familial aggregation of PAPD.