Psychotropic Medication Practices for Youth in Systems of Care

Concerns have been raised about the quality and appropriateness of psychiatric medication treatment for youth treated in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems. Unfortunately there is a lack of empirical research to indicate whether there are indeed widespread problems related to psychopharmacologic treatment for youth served by public sector systems. This exploratory study utilized data from a national survey of social workers to examine differences in reports on medication type, processes, and perceived outcomes for adolescent clients in the juvenile justice and/or child welfare system (n = 90) versus non-systems clients (n = 305). Relevant clinical and demographic factors were controlled in hierarchical binary logistic and linear regression analyses. The results indicated that social workers referring to systems cases were more likely to report the use of highly potent medication (antipsychotics, mood-stabilizers, and poly-pharmacy), less likely to report that clients were receptive to or involved in the decision to utilize medication, and less likely to report beneficial medication outcomes. However, these reported differences, suggesting that medication treatment for systems youth tends to be less participatory and beneficial, were largely accounted for by differences in clients’ level of functional impairment and rate of disruptive behavior disorders. Implications for further research are discussed.     

The Opposite of Human Enhancement: Nanotechnology and the Blind Chicken Problem

Nanotechnologies that have been linked to the possibility of enhancing cognitive capabilities of human beings might also be deployed to reduce or eliminate such capabilities in non-human vertebrate animals. A surprisingly large literature on the ethics of such disenhancement has been developed in response to the suggestion that it would be an ethically defensible response to animal suffering both in medical experimentation and in industrial livestock production. However, review of this literature illustrates the difficulty of formulating a coherent ethical debate. Well structured arguments for disenhancement can be made on the basis of mainstream views on the basis of ethical obligations to animals, but these arguments have not been persuasive against the moral intuition that disenhancements are unethical. At the same time, attempts to ground these intuitions in a coherent philosophical doctrine have been plagued by logical fallacies and question begging assertions. As such, the debate over animal disenhancement forecasts an enduring conundrum with respect to the core question of transforming the nature of sentient beings, and this conundrum is logically independent of claims that relate either to the distinctive of human beings or to issues deriving from the emphasis on enhancement.     

Meadow voles, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Microtus pennsylvanicus</Emphasis>, have the capacity to recall the “what”, “where”, and “when” of a single past event

Some non-human animals may possess the ability to recall the “what”, “where”, and “when” of a single past event. We tested the hypothesis that male meadow voles posses the capacity to recall the “what”, “where”, and “when” of a single past event associated with mate selection in two experiments. Briefly, male voles were allowed to explore an apparatus that contained two chambers. One chamber contained a day-20 pregnant female (24 h prepartum). The other chamber contained a sexually mature female that was neither pregnant nor lactating (REF female). Twenty-four hour after the exposure, the males were placed in the same apparatus, which was empty and clean. At this time, the pregnant female would have entered postpartum estrus (PPE), a period of heightened sexual receptivity. Males initially chose and spent significantly more time investigating the chamber that originally housed the pregnant female (now a PPE female) than the chamber that originally housed the REF female. Male voles also explored an apparatus containing a chamber with a PPE female and one chamber containing a REF female. Twenty-four hour later, males were placed into an empty and clean apparatus. The males did not display an initial choice and they spent similar amounts of time investigating the chamber that originally housed the PPE female (now a lactating female) and the chamber that originally housed the REF female. The results of these and additional experiments suggest that male voles may have the capacity to recall the “what”, “where”, and “when” of a single past event, which may allow males to remember the location of females who would currently be in heightened states of sexual receptivity.     

Does self-consciousness increase or decrease priming effects? It depends

Self-consciousness has been shown to both increase and decrease the magnitude of prime-to-behavior effects. In this paper, we decouple the facets of self-consciousness into internal state awareness and self-reflectiveness and show that self-consciousness can be associated with multiple influences on automatic behavior. Specifically, we conducted an experiment demonstrating that increased internal state awareness decreased the magnitude of the prime-to-behavior effect, whereas increased self-reflectiveness amplified the effect. These effects operated independently of self-monitoring and suggest a multiple process approach to understanding prime-to-behavior effects.     

不同亚型ADHD儿童的视通道时距估计能力

本研究选取ADHD混合型儿童11名,ADHD注意缺损型儿童13名以及正常儿童15名,通过"平均估计长度"、"平均估计误差百分比"、"估计变异值"三个指标,考察不同亚型ADHD儿童在时距复制和言语估计上的稳定性和精确性。研究发现,在视觉刺激条件下,ADHD儿童的时距估计缺损并不受时距长度的影响;ADHD混合型儿童在多项任务中所表现的稳定性和精确性都差,而ADHD缺损型儿童只是稳定性差,说明ADHD混合型是ADHD中更严重的亚类型;ADHD儿童在时距估计任务中稳定性差,反映了其状态调节能力的落后。     

自尊的神经生理基础

自尊是社会心理学领域的经典核心概念之一, 近年来也备受认知神经科学领域的关注。已有的脑成像与神经分泌研究结果显示, 特质性自尊和情境性自尊拥有既各自独立又相互共享的神经机制, 更为重要的是, 特质性自尊会通过影响个体在社会排斥情境中的大脑活动与神经内分泌反应, 调制他们的情境性自尊。为了全面而系统地揭示自尊的内涵与机制, 未来的研究亟需一个整合性的理论框架, 能够将不同类型的自尊, 应激反应模式, 以及大脑特征间的关系加以综合分析。     

高中生的情绪状态及其影响因素研究

采用情绪状态量表(POMS),对273名高中生的情绪状态进行了问卷调查。结果显示：(1)有较高比例高中生的情绪处于不良状态;(2)男高中生的自尊感显著高于女高中生;(3)不同年级高中生的情绪状态有显著差异;(4)学校类型、学校期中考试对高中生的情绪状态没有产业显著影响。     

简单与复杂物理问题解决及状态元认知

本研究采用认知作业分析及问卷法,研究了中学生简单与复杂物理问题解决的表征机制及状态元认知结构。结果显示：(1)物理问题解决是对问题的表征状态不断转换的过程,其受认知主体信息的提取、转换、整合能力及状态元认知的影响;(2)中学生物理问题解决中的状态元认知主要由他的自我效能感、自我监测、策略系统三种成分构成;(3)复杂问题解决的关链是正确提取范畴性知识以形成对问题的深层表征。     

Children's Cooperation at School: The Comparative Influences of Teacher Responsiveness and the Children's Home-Based Behavior

Examined the school social interactions of 33 child-teacher dyads who volunteered to participate in a 1-hr classroom observation. Observers coded child compliance, aggregate measures of the children's responsiveness and negativity, and the teachers' responsiveness to the children. In addition, observers coded the same three child behaviors in 1-hr observation sessions in the children's homes. Based on a state-trait model of social behavior, correlational analyses were used to predict the children's school behavior using measures of the children's home behavior and teacher responsiveness. Results showed that teachers' responsiveness covaried with children's responsiveness and negativity, and the children's home behavior also accounted for significant variance in their school behavior. When these home and school predictors were compared, teachers' responsiveness accounted for most of the variance in the children's classroom negativity, but children's home responsiveness was the better predictor of their responsiveness in the classroom. The findings were discussed within a state-trait model of children's social behavior.     

脑卒中的康复治疗

讨论和研究了遵循生物-心理-社会医学模式,从生物功能、心理功能、社会功能三个纬度综述脑卒中的康复治疗理论.一个以躯体生物功能损害为突出表现的脑卒中患者,要综合考虑他的受损的躯体功能、心理状态和社会功能,三者不宜偏废.