Hypnotic trance. The old and the new

SCFE is the most common hip abnormality in adolescence. The subsequent development and severity of degenerative changes is related to the degree of slippage and to delay in diagnosis. Awareness of this diagnostic possibility in the population at greatest risk and knowledge of subtle and early radiographic findings will allow prompt diagnosis and treatment of SCFE. Follow-up radiographic examination should be used to evaluate for physeal fusion and any complications, including progression of the slip, hardware complications, chondrolysis, avascular necrosis, and secondary osteoarthritis.     

The old homeless and the new homelessness in historical perspective.

In the 1950s and 1960s, homelessness declined to the point that researchers were predicting its virtual disappearance in the 1970s. Instead, in the 1980s, homelessness increased rapidly and drastically changed in composition. The "old homeless" of the 1950s were mainly old men living in cheap hotels on skid rows. The new homeless were much younger, more likely to be minority group members, suffering from greater poverty, and with access to poorer sleeping quarters. In addition, homeless women and families appeared in significant numbers. However, there were also points of similarity, especially high levels of mental illness and substance abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The WISC-III: Everything old is new again.

Studied the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-3rd Edition (WISC-III), the most recent of the tests in the Wechsler series. Like its predecessor, the WISC—Revised (WISC—R), the WISC-III is structured into verbal and performance sections, but unlike other Wechsler tests, a procedure is provided for calculating factor scores. The materials are an improvement over the WISC—R. They are colorful, contemporary, easy to administer, and appear enjoyable to children. The standardization is excellent, as is reliability. However, weaknesses exist in the factor structure, especially the inclusion of a freedom from distractibility factor, and calls for caution in interpretation. Treatment validity remains a problem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Of old philosophies and new kids on the block.

Discusses articles by D. E. Polkinghorne (see record 1985-07630-001), G. S. Howard (see record 1985-07626-001), and M. J. Patton (see record 1985-07629-001), in which they find the philosophy of science undergirding contemporary research in counseling psychology to be deficient. Their criticisms are reviewed and evaluated within the context of the present author's own view that the purpose of scientific activity is the construction (construing) of reality. The present author challenges the new philosophy to prove itself. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An old problem for the new psychosemantics: Synonymity.

Notes that although synonymity has long been an important problem in semantics, recent reviews on psychosemantics have had little or nothing to say about the topic, probably because the relevant research has been buried in the literature of many diverse areas. The present article reviews most of the psychological studies that have used synonyms and relates the findings to current data and theory in psychosemantics. Results indicate that comprehension of synonymity between words is similar to comprehension of other semantic relationships. Moreover, synonym relationships are covertly elicited in a multitude of different situations. Finally, it is shown that, psychologically, synonymity may depend on more factors than have been considered by traditional semantics. (5 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The ethics of prevention: old twists and new

The medical profession's tendency to equate 'the greatest good for the greatest number' with proactive care is here challenged; and the idea that we can always get more for our money with an ounce of prevention than with a pound of cure is scrutinized from an ethical point of view. It is suggested that preventive measures are often exempted from such scrutiny because they make medicine appear selfless and are aimed at the postponement of death-always an urgent matter. Indeed, our screening efforts can assume the proportions of a crusade against life's natural termination and we must make sure that they do not emanate from the needs of medical science for publicity and funding. The costs of what has been called 'healthism', something that has almost become a new morality, are frequently underestimated and its side effects overlooked. There are conditions for which effective palliation, sometimes enormously expensive, is available. The automatic assumption that money spent on such palliation could be better used for, say, immunization, is not warranted.     

The short bowel syndrome: what's new and old?

Conditions which resulted in colonic preservation such as strangulated hernia, intestinal volvulus, and mesenteric infarction were once the main reasons for a major intestinal resection leading to the short bowel syndrome. Now Crohn's disease is the most common underlying diagnosis; such patients often have a jejunostomy. A measurement of the residual jejunal length from the duodenojejunal flexure makes possible predictions of patient outcome. Patients with a jejunostomy and less than 100 cm jejunum usually need long-term parenteral support, whereas 50 cm or more of jejunum usually suffices for adequate oral nutrition if the colon is preserved. While patients with and without a colon have problems with nutrient absorption, those with a jejunostomy also have problems of water, sodium and magnesium losses. Stomal losses may exceed oral intake and all such patients ('secretors') need parenteral supplements. Fluid and sodium losses can be reduced by octreotide, omeprazole or H2 blockers but not sufficiently to avoid the need for intravenous supplements. Colonic preservation increases the incidence of calcium oxalate renal stones (20%). Patients with and without a colon have a high prevalence of gallstones (40%). Clinically important intestinal adaptation occurs in those with a colon but not in those with a jejunostomy. Many surgical techniques, including small bowel transplantation, have been suggested to improve absorption, but as the quality of life of most patients with a short bowel is good with current treatments, they are not at present recommended.     

Hemophilia. A new approach to an old disease

The history of hemophilia diagnosis and therapy has been a turbulent one. We are coming full circle, back to the use of genetics as the main diagnostic tool for this disease. Therapeutically, the retroviruses that ravaged one generation of hemophiliac patients now may participate in the cure for the next generation. The hemophilia community hopes that the future of hemophilia care will follow a course guided by this modified quote from James Russell Lowell: "New times demand new measures, and men [and women]. As the world advances and in time outgrows the laws that in our fathers' [and mothers'] days were the best, doubtless after us some purer scheme will be shaped out by wiser man [and women] than we, made wiser by the steady growth of truth."     

Atopic dermatitis. Current concepts support old therapies and spur new ones

With diligent care, most patients with atopic dermatitis markedly improve within a very short period. Avoidance of exacerbating factors and use of a mild topical corticosteroid preparation generally bring relief in all but the most extreme cases. Most of the newer, more intrusive therapies remain too expensive, too toxic, or too burdensome to warrant general support. Resistant cases often relate more to failure to pay appropriate attention to simple details (eg, avoidance of excessive contact with water and irritants) than to lack of sufficient potency in the medications chosen. Practitioners serve their patients best by taking adequate time to educate them and their families on the fundamental aspects of the disease, the importance of using common sense in caring for themselves and thus avoiding problems, and the need to relinquish the hope for a miracle cure, since none exists.     

Expandable rings. A new solution to an old problem

A number of solutions are presented for the problem of over-tight rings particularly in patients with deforming arthropathies of the hand. Rings can be adapted by various methods to allow them to be worn on deformed fingers. An illustrative case is reported.     

Visual marking: Dissociating effects of new and old set size.

Visual marking makes it possible to ignore old items during search. In a typical study, old items are previewed 1 s before adding an equal number of new items, one of which is the target. Previewing half of the items reduces the search slope relating response time (RT) to overall set size by half. However, this manipulation sometimes only reduces overall RT but not search slope (Experiment 1). By orthogonally varying the numbers of old and new items, Experiment 2 shows that old and new set sizes interactively affect visual marking. Given a constant new set size, the size of the old set has negligible effect on RT. However, increasing the new set size reduces the preview benefit in overall RT. Experiment 3 shows that this reduction may be restricted to paradigms that use temporal segregation cues. Studies should vary old and new set size orthogonally to avoid missing a visual marking effect where one may be present. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Historical antecedents of psychology: The recurrent issue of old wine in new bottles.

Reiterates the widely felt but often ignored distinction between anticipations and foundations in the history of psychological ideas. Anticipations are viewed as those ideas that are historically anterior and substantively similar to, but effectively discontinuous with, subsequent formulations. Foundations are characterized as having priority, similarity, and demonstrable continuity in relation to later developments. Examples from psychological literature are used to explicate the distinction and to indicate some problems in the search for historical roots of topical ideas. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recollection and familiarity through the looking glass: When old does not mirror new.

The authors use the qualitative differences logic to demonstrate that 2 separate memory influences underlie performance in recognition memory tasks, familiarity and recollection. The experiments focus on the mirror effect, the finding that more memorable stimulus classes produce higher hit rates but lower false-alarm rates than less memorable stimulus classes. The authors demonstrate across a number of experiments that manipulations assumed to decrease recollection eliminate or even reverse the hit-rate portion of the mirror effect while leaving the false-alarm portion intact. This occurs whether the critical distinction between conditions is created during the test phase or manipulated during the study phase. Thus, when recollection is present, it dominates familiarity so that the hit-rate portion of the mirror effect primarily reflects recollection; when recollection is largely absent, the opposite pattern associated with the familiarity process emerges. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The vitality of old ideas.

Responds to the comments of N. Shpancer (see record 1998-00006-001), R. L. Richmond (see record 1998-00005-001), and J. R. Browning (see record 85-00001) on the article of J. Kagan (see record 83-35876) that discusses the psychological assumptions of: the influence of early experience, the generalizability of psychological processes, the primacy of sensory pleasure, and the issue of the relevance of animal studies and language to the human mind. Addressing Shpancer, Kagan reaffirms his stance on the assumption of the influential nature of early experience, by referencing the February 3, 1997, issue of Time magazine in which there appeared a supportive article entitled "How a Child's Brain Develops." Kagan agrees with Richmond's suggestion that language is unique to the human condition, however, he suggests that human guilt and shame are probably more relevant. Finally, Kagan addresses Browning's suggestion that self-esteem is a motivational variable in social psychology by noting that one cannot know if a behavior does maintain or increase a person's self esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The patient-staff community meeting: old tools, new rules

1. Psychiatric inpatient units with rapid turnover and acutely ill clients are vulnerable to the development of antitherapeutic trends, including destructiveness, disorganization, dysphoria, deviance, and dependency. 2. Inpatient therapists can apply the principles and techniques of milieu therapy, with certain modifications, to establish a therapeutic environment. 3. The patient-staff community plays a central role in this transformation, if it is structured to promote experiences of safety, order, support, involvement, and validation. 4. To accomplish these goals, the leaders of the meeting should establish clear rules and healthy norms, energize and guide participation, and focus discussion on topics relevant to unit events and to the processes of treatment and recovery.