Special Stresses Research Articles

Group Therapy for Parents of Mentally Retarded Children*

Parents of mentally retarded children face many special stresses. They have traditionally been offered information about their children but little opportunity to explore their own needs and difficulties. Such an opportunity was offered to parents, as couples, in group settings. The leaders concluded that the most effective approach was an eclectic one including Rogerian reflection, Freudian interpretation, Ellis' reality therapy, Gestalt techniques, and learning theory‐based behavior modification. Most parents proved to be compassionate and insightful group members with a great deal to offer each other.

Locked doors in the management of disturbed psychiatric patients

The temporary closure of the locked ward within a psychiatric hospital provided an opportunity for the investigation of the attitudes of nursing and medical staff to patient management, and of the changes in staff and patient behaviour on the wards. Violent and aggressive behaviour places special stresses on nursing staff and appears to be an important variable leading to locking the ward door. The relationship of absconding, and staff/patient ratio to locked doors is also discussed.

The psychotherapist's search for self-renewal.

The role of psychotherapist carries with it special stresses to which many professionals react with depressive feelings, particularly in mid-life. Psychotherapists who participated in small group sessions at two annual institutes of the American Group Psychotherapy Association revealed their depressive feelings in a striking way. Some were able to relate these feelings to early family dynamics that motivated their choice of a caretaking career. The groups concluded that there is a continuing necessity for the caretaker to acknowledge and seek care for his emotional needs. Planners of continuing professional education for psychotherapists should make these needs a central concern.

Reconstituted families: the second marriage and its children.

The frequency of second marriages involving children is very high. There are inevitable and special stresses in the integration of such a family system. Mistrust, fear of failure, and sense of vulnerability are almost always present. The therapist needs to expect and help deal with certain recurrent issues characteristic of the problems encountered in treating a reconstituted family.

Family Structure and Treatment in the Military

This paper elucidates the special stresses and supports experienced by military families and their relation to individual decompensation, which is viewed as an expression of family disequilibrium and is often best treated in the family. Periodic separations, frequent moves, and rigid hierarchy present difficult problems that tax the resourcefulness of the military and its families. Healthy and maladaptive patterns are discussed.

Electromyography and cinematography of leg and foot ("normal" and flat) during walking.

AbstractElectromyography with fine‐wire electrodes and special equipment for synchronized motion pictures were used to study six muscles of the leg and foot during walking in five different ways in ten “normal” and ten flatfooted subjects. Detailed analyses and comparisons of the two groups are described and discussed.Tibialis Anterior has two peaks of activity at heel‐strike and toe‐off of the stance phase; is inactive during mid‐swing and middle of the stance phase; is active at full‐foot in flatfooted subjects, and generally more active during toe‐out and toe‐in walking. Tibialis posterior is inactive through the swing phase. In flatfooted persons it becomes activated at heel‐strike and more active at full‐foot during level walking. The toe‐out position reduces its activity. Flexor hallucis longus is most active in mid‐stance; during toe‐out walking, activity increases in both phases, generally being more active in “normal” persons. Peroneus longus is most active at mid‐stance and heel‐off and generally more active in flatfooted persons. Abductor hallucis and Flexor digitorum brevis are generally more active in flatfooted persons. An important regular pattern of inversion and eversion during the walking cycle is described. Contingent arch support by muscles rather than continuous support is the rule, muscles being recruited to compensate for lax ligaments and special stresses during the walking cycle.

A Forward Stride in Occupational Health

JF MAN and his environment are to be comprehended as an entity, rather than as separate and conflicting systems, those who are expert in the study of man and those who are expert in the study of environment must work in close association. Perhaps nowhere is this more essential than in the field of occupational health, which is such an important component of environmental health. The question is sometimes asked: Why, when provision has been made for intensive study of the health aspects of air, water, food, and radiation, is it necessary to set up another study category-occupational health-which to some extent involves all these other areas? The answer is, of course, that man doesn't organize his various activities within the neat classifications of the physical scientist. Work is as characteristic of man as flight of a bird. Man clusters around his occupations in definable groups set in definable environments. Within these groupings, he encounters special stresses, performs special activities, and develops special interactions. Far from merely duplicating studies of air, water, food, and radiation, occupational health cuts a revealing cross section which is not merely valuable but essential for comprehension in depth of the natural interactions between the basic environmental factors. That such interactions preexist, and have strong needs and claims of their own for separate investigation, is fortunate indeed. Occupational health is concerned with that part of the individual's total health which is closely associated with his employment. But the development of occupational health as an entity is dictated by many factors. Employment presents special environmental influences and risks. The worker's life revolves around the central focus of his work. Employment creates groups of people whose health can be observed over specific periods of time. Health enters importantly into employeremployee relationships, and the products of industry in turn affect wide segments of the general population. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to disassociate occupational health from environmental health. Workers spend some 40 hours a week on the job as compared with 128 hours off it. Not only have the health effects of the off-duty environment increased over the decades as the hours of the workweek have diminished; in today's world, off-duty health risks are sometimes greater for workers than on-duty risks. One of the first groups in this country to undertake research in the field of occupational health was, logically enough, the Public Health Service. Its first studies were made in 1910 in the mining and steel industries. These were followed by investigations of unsanitary conditions and high tuberculosis rates among garment workers. In 1914, the Service established, in Washington, a special health activity for the prevention and control of disease of occupational origin. It was called the Office of Industrial Hygiene Dr. Anderson is Assistant Surgeon General and chief, Bureau of State Services, Public Health Service. This paper is excerpted from a talk presented on October 8, 1962, at the open house ceremonies held in Cincinnati, Ohio, on completion of the expansion and remodeling of a Public Health Service Occupational Health Research and Training Facility.

Adrenocortical activity in psychiatric disorders.

<h3>Introduction</h3> Whether there is or is not an altered adrenocortical activity in schizophrenic patients has been a subject of controversy for many years. Many attempts have been made to demonstrate a difference in adrenocortical activity between schizophrenic and normal subjects. Over a number of years, Pincus and Hoagland^1-5have obtained evidence which suggested to them that there is an altered adrenocortical activity in schizophrenia. Their evidence, based on a total response index composed of weighted urinary parameters—17-ketosteroids, neutral reducing lipids, uric acid, potassium, sodium, and inorganic phosphate—suggests that schizophrenic subjects exhibit a decreased adrenal responsivity to experimental stress. It has been observed by these workers, on the other hand, that chronic schizophrenic patients not subjected to special stresses show little difference in their adrenocortical secretion from that of normal controls. However, all investigators have not observed decreased adrenocortical responsivity in schizophrenics.

The theory of the dislocation processes and its application to the Pacific Region

This paper deals with the mechanism of earthquakes according to dislocation theory. An attempt is made to explain the dislocation processes in the region of troughs and ridges. A preliminary comparison of the proposed dislocation mechanism with the Pacific Region data is discussed. For the sake of simplification the seismic processes are considered only in a plane which plays the part both of the hypocentral and the dislocation plane. Two factors are of special interest, namely, stresses and inhomogeneities. In the stress field we can describe the inhomogeneities by loop-type dislocations. The stress field influences their extent and movement by which the greater dislocation elements are formed. These elements may in approximation be regarded as pairs of two unlike linear dislocations. We may therefore assume the existence of pair creation areas. By the parting of the dislocation lines of a pair the dislocation area enclosed by them is increased. There may occur the junction of two or more extending dislocation areas. This junction is accompanied by release of the energy accumulated around the dislocation limiting lines, which are thus annihilated. Similarly, when the dislocation reaches the earth's surface a discharge of its dislocation energy occurs.

The Design of Capacitor units for Series Connection

The fundamental possibilities of adapting the design of capacitors to meet the special stresses encountered in series capacitors are reviewed. The design of the Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget units in the Swedish State Power Board's series capacitor at Alfta and of a new 50,000-kva bank now under production is described Possibilites of future improvements are outlined.