Psychosocial Pathology Research Articles

A hospital-based treatment programme for male mentally handicapped offenders.

The paper describes a special hospital-based treatment programme for male mentally handicapped offenders, comprising a package of practical and personal skills training coupled with a socialisation programme based on token-economy strategies within a controlled and structured environment. Twenty patients admitted to the programme and followed up after discharge for an average of 3.3 years were studied in detail. All had committed serious or persistent offences and showed a high level of psychosocial pathology. A good or fair response to the treatment programme was made by 85%, and 65% were judged well adjusted or reasonably well adjusted at last follow-up contact. A good outcome was associated with more than two years' in-patient care, a good response to the treatment programme and stable residential placement, regular occupation and regular supervision and support in the community. Offenders against the person (sex and assault) had a better prognosis than and showed other interesting differences from property offenders (property and arson).

The appeal and behavior of the ku kiux klan in object relations perspective

Abstract The conspicuous and peculiarly ruinous behavior of the Ku Klux Klan may provide an example of psychosocial pathology that can be usefully analyzed via an extension of object relations theory. This largely theoretical paper employs the concept, pioneered by Klein, of the split maternal presence and advances the theoretical hypothesis that this split is projected into social life. Some deprived and psychologically damaged adults experience the “maternal presence” of society as split and have special requirements for group support. Under certain circumstances, groups like the KKK may meet those requirements. In addition, the eruption of group violence of the KKK type may be explainable by analyzing the psychodynamics of group regression to an infantile level and the accompanying arousal of the “unmanageable mother.”

An analysis of fifteen childhood asthma fatalities

There is evidence from pediatric tertiary care centers in the United States that childhood deaths from asthma in hospitalized patients are becoming increasingly rare, while asthma mortality outside the hospital appears to be on the rise. 15 When a young outpatient with asthma dies, the event is apt to be sudden and unanticipated and the victim is likely to be a preadolescent or adolescent who has suffered from asthma most of his or her life and who, despite ongoing bronchodilator therapy, requires hospitalizations for treatment of status asthmaticus. Patients in this age cohort have a strong tendency to underuse, overuse, or neglect to use prescribed medications, possibly as a gesture of emerging independence or because of the depression engendered by a chronic illness. In some instances serious psychosocial pathology accounts for noncompliance. For a patient with chronic asthma with a high-risk profile, any departure from an ongoing treatment regimen may result in respiratory failure. Pathologic complications of asthma may also act to upset the precarious physiologic equilibrium these patients have established. Unsuspected chronic pneumonia may lead to further increases in a chronically high degree of oxygen desaturation. Hypoxic seizures during an asthma attack may precipitate pulmonary edema. Tension pneumothorax has an even greater fatality potential for high-risk patients with asthma than it has for other patients with asthma, and pulmonary hypertension with cor pulmonale may develop because of chronic hypoxia. Some sudden deaths in children with chronic, severe asthma are unassociated with any of the above, making it necessary to entertain still other hypotheses. One such hypothesis based on experiences with near deaths in hospitalized children and adults is that of sudden profound airway narrowing, which in hospital settings has proved reversible with prompt resuscitative efforts.

A profile of survival

This article examines the extent to which a general understanding of an individual's reaction to extreme stress situations and patterns of coping can help in the understanding of personal and situational factors which are crucial for successful coping and survival of abused children. During a 14-year follow-up study. abused children who managed to survive the trauma of their childhood and grow up to be well-adjusted individuals were compared with a matched group of children who show, after 14 years, a high degree of psychosocial pathology. The variables which distinguished the two groups were fatalism, self-esteem, cognitive abilities, self-destructiveness. hope and fantasy, behavior patterns and external support. There were no significant differences between the groups as to difficulties in emotional expression in object relations and in their high degree of aggression. Lazarus' model of stress and coping was used to show the dynamics by which children utilize their personal and situational characteristics to survive and avoid future psychological and developmental damage. Implications of the findings for treatment and therapeutic assignments are indicated.

Comparative Psychosocial Pathology: A Human Model of Primate Abusive Behavior

Comparative Psychosocial Pathology: A Human Model of Primate Abusive Behavior

Clinical spectrum of pharyngeal gonorrhea in children and adolescents: A report of sixteen patients

Pharyngeal gonorrhea in children and adolescents is probably increasing. During a 1-year period, 16 patients were diagnosed and treated for pharyngeal gonorrhea. This was the result of a search among a high-risk group, consisting of victims of sex abuse, patients suspected of homosexual practices, and adolescents with symptoms or signs suggestive of sexually transmitted diseases. Of the 16 positive throat cultures, 75% represented pharyngeal colonization while only 25% had clinical symptoms. Pharyngeal gonorrhea was found to be a marker in screening for psychosocial pathology, leading in two-thirds of the cases to the discovery of instances of incest, sexual abuse, chaotic family situations, or severe depression, all of which had been previously denied, ignored, or neglected. The purpose of this article is to alert health care providers to the clinical spectrum of pharyngeal gonorrhea in children and adolescents.

Kidney transplantation in children: Psychosocial follow-up study on child and family

In 35 children treated for end-stage kidney disease with hemodialysis and transplantation, the psychosocial attributes of child and family were studied for their impact on long-term rehabilitation. Data were processed by a computerized system. The children's personalities and family function, although severely stressed during acute treatment, usually had returned to preillness equilibrium within a year and were comparable to a control group of other chronically ill children. Fear of rejection of the kidney and damaged self-esteem were prominent. Personality tests confirmed clinical diagnoses concerning psychosocial pathology and occasionally preceded such diagnosis. Personality testing prior to treatment of end-stage kidney disease may aid in predicting rehabilitation potential.

A study of some aspects of psycho-social pathology of juvenile delinquency.

This study purported to assess and to describe the family background and parents' behaviour characteristics of a randomly selected group of 30 delinquent children committed to a correctional home in Pondicherry.