Biomedical subjects

B Dugoni

Publications and source records attributed to B Dugoni.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1994

Personality characteristics of young adult offspring of substance abusers: a study highlighting methodological issues.

Our study sought to demonstrate the importance of attending to methodological issues in the study of personality characteristics of offspring of substance abusers (OSAs). A 4 x 2 factorial design, Parental Mental Health (no known psychological problems, substance abuse, other psychological problems, or dual diagnosis) x Exposure to Abuse/Neglect (present or absent), was used to examine depression proneness, neuroticism, alexithymia, self-esteem, self-concept, and locus of control in young adults. Results of this study demonstrated that in order to determine whether characteristics of OSAs are uniquely related to parental substance abuse, a psychiatric control group is needed. Also, the importance of separating the influences of other family environment variables (e.g., exposure to abuse/neglect) was demonstrated. None of the differences between groups in this study could be attributed to parental substance abuse per se; rather, the concomitants of substance abuse (i.e., exposure to abuse/neglect) were found to be more strongly related to poorer adjustment in OSAs. Finally, it was shown that the proportion of treatment-seeking subjects included in the sample affected the level of pathology observed. These results are discussed in relation to previous findings, and recommendations regarding methodology are made for future studies.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Predicting depression using earliest childhood memories.

In order to investigate the utility of earliest childhood memories (EMs) in clinical assessment, this study investigated the value of EMs in predicting naturally occurring depressive mood states. Of interest were those features of EMs that discriminate depressed from nondepressed individuals. Subjects were 212 undergraduate volunteers who completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the Profile of Mood States, and a self-administered EM questionnaire. Utilizing thematic predictors derived from cognitive and psychodynamic theories of depression, depressed subjects were differentiated from nondepressed subjects at a rate significantly greater than chance, p less than .001, with a highly respectable estimate of cross-validation shrinkage. The findings demonstrate the phenomenon of mood dependent recall in autobiographical memory, namely, that memory attributes are strongly influenced by current mood state. Consistent with psychodynamic theories of depression and in contrast to cognitive theory, depressive mood states appear to facilitate retrieval of memory schemas involving deprivation and disturbing human interaction. Schemas involving loss of control, failure, or reactions to noncontingent reinforcement (perceptions of the self as agent) appear less salient than relationship schemas (perceptions of the self as related) in depressive experience.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Services research outcomes study: overview of drug treatment population and outcomes.

The study examined a representative sample of the 1,060,000 individuals discharged from drug user treatment in the United States in the 12 months before September 1990, and compared self-reports of behavior 5 years before to 5 years after treatment. Self-reports about recent drug use were compared with urine samples, and the agreement between self-report and drug-test results was high. The key findings are that the number of alcohol and drug users declined markedly, ranging from one-seventh to more than one half; those who continued using drugs after treatment used them less frequently than before treatment; criminal behavior fell between one-quarter to one-half, and primary criminal support fell by one third; full-time employment did not change; homelessness, drug injection, and suicide attempts decreased by more than one-third.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Services research outcomes study: explanation of treatment effectiveness, using individual-level and programmatic variables.

This article examines the explanatory power of programmatic and individual-level variables, using the first nationally representative sample of both treatment facilities and clients. Multivariate statistical models accounted for almost half the variance in post-treatment heroin, marijuana, and any illicit drug use and about one-third the variance in crime. Use of any illicit drug during treatment, even after controlling for pretreatment use, was predictive of every type of drug use after treatment and three of the four major crimes analyzed. In addition, longer lengths of stay decreased the likelihood of alcohol/illicit drug use and criminal behavior after treatment. However, treatment variables added little explanatory power beyond the sociodemographic and pre-treatment variables.

Adolescent↗