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Biomedical subjects

H S Cutter

Publications and source records attributed to H S Cutter.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Marital interactions and the duration of alcoholic husbands' sobriety.

Recent studies of the family interactions of alcoholics have suggested that the alcoholic's general drinking adjustment may influence marital interactions. The present investigation examined the marital interactions of 30 male alcoholics who had maintained continuous sobriety for various lengths of time ranging from a few days to over 7 years. It was predicted that longer periods of sobriety would be associated with less conflict and fewer struggles for control between husbands and wives. The findings supported the hypothesis, in that the duration of the husbands' sobriety was significantly negatively correlated with the number of statements of disagreement emitted by husbands and wives. Also, there were trends for duration of sobriety to be negatively associated with the frequencies of question-asking and aggressive behaviors by husbands, and positively associated with the amount of talk time by husbands. Contrasts of 11 high sobriety couples (duration of sobriety: 2 years or longer) and 11 low sobriety couples (duration of sobriety: less than 4 months) revealed that high sobriety husbands asked fewer questions, stated fewer disagreements, and emitted fewer aggressive behaviors than husbands in the low sobriety group. In addition, high sobriety husbands displayed a trend toward more active talk time, and their wives showed a trend toward asking fewer questions than their low sobriety counterparts. The results suggest that marital functioning is superior in couples with longer periods of sobriety. The need for examining possible causal links in this relationship is emphasized.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Behavioral marital therapy couples groups for male alcoholics and their wives.

This article presents in detail the clinical procedures for a behavioral marital therapy (BMT) couples group for male alcoholics. Methods used to recruit and prepare couples for therapy are presented. In the BMT couples group, therapists use behavioral rehearsal and weekly homework assignments to help couples decrease drinking and alcohol-related interactions by making an Antabuse Contract and discussing relapse prevention; plan shared recreational activities; notice, acknowledge, and initiate daily caring behaviors; learn communication skills of listening, expressing feelings directly, and the use of planned communication sessions; and negotiate desired changes using positive specific requests, compromise, and written agreements. Methods for dealing with resistance and noncompliance in the group are also described. Finally, modifications in the BMT treatment package presented here that may be helpful in other settings are described.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1984

Relationship between reasons for drinking and customary drinking behavior.

In 80 subjects (28 women), a factor-analytic investigation of the relationship between the reasons for drinking and customary drinking behavior revealed that solitary drinking is associated with drinking in order to forget personal shortcomings, drinking to forget problems and disappointments, and drinking to be less concerned with what others think. Positive skewness proved to be a valid index of deviant drinking practices and motives. Some incidental findings indicated that heavy beer consumption occurs most among young men.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

A Closeness to Divorce Scale for wives of alcoholics.

A 15-item Guttman scale, Closeness to Divorce, was developed to describe and quantify how close an alcoholic's wife is to divorce at a given point in time. A detailed precoded interview schedule guided extensive interviews with 60 women, varying in marital status, who were current or former wives of men treated of alcoholism in Veterans Administration Hospitals. The interview contained 24 items on various aspects of marital stability gathered from the literature and from pilot interviews. These items were factor analysed and 15 items, loading 0.40 or better on the first principal component, were chosen for further analysis. A Guttman scale computer program was used to arrange the 15 items to form a Closeness to Divorce Scale, i.e. a unidimensional, cumulative scale with divorce at the endpoint and sequential psychological, interpersonal, geographic and legal steps toward divorce as the other items. Preliminary evidence of construct validity, potential clinical and research uses for scale, its limitations, and suggestions for future studies are described.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1981

Alcohol Control Policies, Alcohol Consumption, and Alcoholism.

This study evaluates the implications of two alcoholism prevention models. The single distribution (log-normal) model posits that the average level of consumption in a society is sufficient to account for the rate of alcoholism; the sociocultural model suggests that variables other than consumption account for alcoholism. Factor analysis and multiple regression were used to assess interstate differences in average alcohol consumption and alcoholism rates. Consumption, controlling for alcoholism rate, was found not wholly to be an economic phenomenon but rather was predicted by urban conditions (a factor measuring unintegrated foreign-born and minority groups and external social control) and two alcohol availability factors. Alcoholism rate was predicted by urban conditions and a social isolation factor, isolated females. Consumption was not a significant predictor of alcoholism in this multivariable analysis. It was concluded that it is an oversimplification to view alcoholism merely as an extension of heavy drinking. Availability is not a unitary dimension and appears, furthermore, to have little potential utility in controlling consumption of alcoholism. Neither of the two availability factors was related to alcoholism; bootlegging appears to be a compensatory mechanism for offsetting low legal availability. The results imply that alcohol control policies and alcoholism prevention need to be directed toward alleviating anomie and social isolation. A variety of efforts toward these ends are suggested: senior citizens programs, minority employment programs, English enhancement training for the foreign-born, etc.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1980

Family experience and the motives for drinking.

Family socialization experience as reported by 128 students was posited to be related (both linearly and curvilinearly) to the seriousness of the reasons or motives for drinking. A correlational analysis, following orthogonalization of the independent variables, indicated that the frequency of intoxication by the mother was linearly and positively related to the number of reasons checked by students for drinking. Extreme closeness and extreme distance between the parents was related to drinking for personal effects (i.e., to improve self-esteem), while neutral or ambiguous attitudes toward drinking by the father were related principally to moderately serious personal and interpersonal reasons for drinking. The findings suggest that college students are at risk of becoming problem drinkers to the extent their family socialization experience included maternal deviant drinking, weak or fuzzy paternal norms about drinking, and extreme closeness or distance between parents. Family conditions that lead to poor self-esteem were seen as a necessary but not sufficient cause of problem drinking. Suggestions are made for future research and for a new, conceptually related alcoholism-prevention program.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1979

Pain as a joint function of alcohol intake and customary reasons for drinking.

Nonalcoholics who, on a problem drinking inventory, responded "yes" to items reflecting a psychological dependence on alcohol, tended after alcohol ingestion to report a decrease in pain experienced in a cold pressor test. Conversely, those whose responses indicated no psychological dependence on alcohol tended to report pain increases after the consumption of alcohol.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1977

Prediction of treatment effectiveness in a drug-free therapeutic community.

Treatment effectiveness for drug dependance is evaluated and compared with success rates reported in the literature. Program differences and varying follow-up procedures make assessment difficult. Identical pre- and posttreatment quantitative adjustment indices are recommended in order to improve the measurement of improvement. Education and length of stay in treatment are among the most important predictors of posttreatment drug usage and work akjustment. Education and improved treatment success with lower class youth are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Mood, primary heroin withdrawal, and acute methadone administration.

This study was designed to: describe the internal state of addicts undergoing primary withdrawal, determine how the internal state is altered by the alleviation of withdrawal stress through an acute dose of methadone, and to determine a predictor of the probability of a patient completing detoxification. Sixty-seven male and female heroin addicts accepted for methadone detoxification were administered a 65-item Profile of Mood States (POMS). Forty-nine of the Ss were tested immediately prior to receiving their initial dose of methadone and again 45 minutes later, while the remaining 18 Ss were only tested 45 minutes after receiving their methadone in order to control for the effects of repeated testing. Each of the subscales measured by the POMS showed a significant decrease in mood disturbance following methadone administration (p less than .0001); these differences could not be attributed to the effects of repeated testing. Factor analysis of pre- and post-methadone treatment scores indicated a two-factor structure prior to receiving methadone and a single unified mood state after the alleviation of primary withdrawal stress. The Anger subscale, administered immediately prior to receiving methadone, was a highly significant predictor of the completion of detoxification (p less than .005). Further implications of the results were discussed.

Adolescent↗