Review Of Scholarly Literature Research Articles

The ethical basis of psychiatric research: Conceptual issues and empirical findings

The study objective was to clarify the ethical basis of psychiatric research by outlining conceptual issues and empirical findings related to the ethics of human experimentation. A systematic review of scholarly and empirical literature covering three decades was performed. The ethics of human research has come to be understood in relation to the principles of respect for persons, beneficence, justice, and the ideal of informed consent. Subjects who cannot fully participate in informed-consent processes are especially vulnerable to exploitation. Current dilemmas stem from insufficient attention to the vulnerabilities of mentally ill research participants, problems in applying ethical concepts and guidelines to psychiatric research, and claims of research misconduct. Empirical studies indicate that (1) psychiatric symptoms significantly affect informed consent, (2) psychiatric patients may possess certain strengths with respect to research involvement, (3) proxy decision-making is problematic, (4) informed consent is also difficult to attain with the medically ill and others, (5) patients are motivated to participate in research by the hope of personal benefit, (6) ethical aspects of research are poorly documented, and (7) institutional review processes may not be adequate to protect vulnerable subjects. Psychiatric research can be performed ethically, according to standards set throughout the biomedical and behavioral sciences, so long as researchers and institutions are respectful of special ethical issues in human experimentation and strive to include vulnerable study participants fully in research decisions. However, many gaps in the empirical literature exist regarding the specific nature and implementation of ethics principles in psychiatric research. Efforts to advance both science and ethics, including the study of ethical dimensions of human research itself, are essential for the future of psychiatry.

Well Testing and Interpretation for Horizontal Wells

The use of transient well testing for determining reservoir parameters and productivity of horizontal wells has become common because of the upsurge in horizontal drilling. Initially, horizontal well tests were analyzed with the conventional techniques designed for vertical wells. During the last decade, analytic solutions have been presented for the pressure behavior of horizontal wells. New flow regimes have been identified, and simple equations and flow regime existence criteria have been presented for them. The flow regimes are now used frequently to estimate horizontal and vertical permeabilities of the reservoir, wellbore skin, and reservoir pressure. Although the existing tools and interpretation techniques may be sufficient for simple systems, innovation and improvement of the present technology are still essential for well testing of horizontal wells in many reservoirs with different geological environments and different well-completion requirements.

School Psychology in Brazil

This article discusses the infrastructure of school psychology in Brazil and reviews the nature of scholarly literature relevant to school psychology. Basic features of Brazil, its culture and its educational characteristics are briefly described in order to provide a context for understanding the status of school psychology's research infrastructure in Brazil. The review of scholarly literature discusses the ages and other personal characteristics of subjects, common sources of data, typical data analyses, psychological variables examined and other research and publishing characteristics. Relative to the five stages that seemingly characterize the development of psychology in Third World nations, Brazil is within the third stage and is emerging into the fourth in which Brazilian psychologists are conducting and publishing more research relevant to its culture and society.

Post-traumatic Neurosis: From Railway Spine to the Whiplash

This is a terrific little book. It is a scholarly literature review spanning over 200 years (intensively, almost 150 years), which is enjoyable reading because of the author's excellent use of the English language and historical, exciting evolutionary perspectives. There are a few photographs, illustrations, tables, and graphs, which are expertly used to augment the text. After a stimulating introduction and the recounting of a 1776 case history, the author begins a systematic description of the literature regarding spinal and head injuries of the CNS. The author's sufficiently objective view presents the reader with the historical progression of the medicolegal debate: is post-traumatic neurosis a meaningful reality or a disguise for the malingerer? In sequence, the contributors and their work appear, names ranging from the famous to the modest. Some are associated with neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry, others with surgery, basic science, and other areas of medicine. In chapter 3,

Children of Sick Parents: Maudsly Monograph No. 16.

Programs for community mental health, crisis intervention, and brief hospitalization are now common in the United States. These programs have created opportunities for preventative psychiatry on a large scale. The scope of this opportunity underlines a responsibility that must accompany it: a responsibility to base procedures on a maximum of currently available knowledge. Michael Rutter's outstanding book<i>Children of Sick Parents</i>, which was compiled from research done at Maudsly Hospital in London, is a major contribution to knowledge in this area. The book poses pertinent questions derived from a scholarly review of literature, analyzes clinical data in a creative yet statistically rigorous manner, and carefully arrives at interesting, sometimes unexpected, conclusions. The study was designed to determine how and to what degree parents' psychiatric disorders, physical illnesses, and deaths correlated with emotional disturbances in their children. Close to 750 records of neurotic and conduct-disordered children