Biomedical subjects

L Kirisci

Publications and source records attributed to L Kirisci.

43 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Prepubertal sons of substance abusers: influences of parental and familial substance abuse on behavioral disposition, IQ, and school achievement.

In order to better understand the transgeneration liability for a substance abuse disorder, we investigated the impact of parental and familial substance abuse disorders on prepubertal boys. Specifically, the influence of each parent's substance abuse history and the effects of significant family aggregation of substance abuse disorders were tested as predictors of the child's behavioral disposition, IQ, and school achievement scores, while controlling for socioeconomic status (SES). Sons of substance abusing fathers were found to have higher externalizing and internalizing problem-behavior scores, lower IQ scores, and lower school achievement scores. Internalizing and externalizing problem-behavior scores were most strongly associated with bilineal parental substance abuse, whereas SES and paternal substance abuse were most strongly associated with IQ and school performance scores. The results are compatible with the hypothesis that although paternal substance abuse has an adverse impact on the son's functioning, bilineal parental substance abuse is associated with the greatest behavioral deviancy among prepubertal males and is associated with a greater liability for substance abuse.

Achievement↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Psychometric evaluation of the Situational Confidence Questionnaire in adolescents: fitting a graded item response model.

Self-efficacy theory has been extensively applied to alcoholism treatment, theories of relapse, and relapse prevention. Most empirical studies of perceived self-efficacy to resist heavy drinking have used the Situational Confidence Questionnaire (SCQ). Among adults, this instrument has been shown to be psychometrically sound. Little is known, however, about the psychometric properties of the SCQ in the adolescent population. We administered the SCQ to a sample of 662 adolescents to evaluate its psychometric properties. Each of the eight subscales was found to be unidimensional. Invariance of the item parameters across different groups was also examined. The reliability coefficients, based on item response theory (marginal reliability) and classical measurement theory (Cronbach alpha), were found to be high. These results demonstrate that the SCQ is appropriate for use among adolescents.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Clinical profile of comorbid major depression and alcohol use disorders in an initial psychiatric evaluation.

This study evaluated the clinical profile of patients who presented with both DSM-III major depression (MD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) as compared with that of patients with either diagnosis alone. Comparison of these three groups (MD without AUD, AUD without MD, and comorbid AUD-MD) selected from a large sample (8,139) of general adult psychiatric patients showed that the historical, cross-sectional, and dispositional profile of AUD-MD patients occupied an intermediate position between that of the other two groups. The symptomatology of AUD-MD patients was somewhat closer to that of MD patients, whereas the premorbid personal and social history and dispositional status were more similar to those of AUD patients. AUD-MD patients had a strikingly higher rate of suicidal indicators as compared with AUD or MD patients.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Correlates of mental health service utilization and unmet need among a sample of male adolescents.

The authors sought to identify the correlates of mental health services utilization and unmet need for these services among a sample of adolescent males. We hypothesized that our findings would replicate and extend those of the recent Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders (MECA) study, which found that parental factors play a major role in their children's unmet mental health care needs. Our study involved an evaluation of mental health service utilization and unmet need during the prior 2 years, as reported by the subjects at a follow-up assessment at age 16. Four factors were found to predict increased mental health services utilization, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) among the adolescent males, the father's alcohol use disorder, and the mother's amphetamine use disorder. One factor was found to predict decreased utilization, the father's cannabis use disorder. Four factors significantly predicted unmet treatment need, including conduct disorder, the mother's amphetamine use disorder, a higher number of siblings, and a parental history of having had a childhood anxiety disorder. The results of this study suggest that parental psychopathology, parental substance abuse, the presence of conduct disorder, and an increased number of siblings act as barriers to adequate mental health treatment among adolescents. These findings confirm the crucial role that parental factors play in the treatment utilization and the unmet treatment need of their children, and also suggest that an increased number of siblings can also be associated with unmet treatment need.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Characterizing female bipolar alcoholic patients presenting for initial evaluation.

This study examined gender differences of age and race-matched group of bipolar disorder (BPO) patients with comorbid alcohol dependence (AD; n = 65; males = 35, females = 30) to a group of BPO patients without comorbid AD (n = 61; males = 22, females = 39). The two groups were also similar on marital status and frequency of BPO subtypes. The results revealed that female bipolar alcoholic patients were more likely to report depressive symptoms as compared to either male bipolar alcoholics or both male and female non-alcoholic bipolar patients. When compared to male bipolar alcoholics, they had higher frequency of depressed mood, slow motor behavior, low self-esteem, decreased libido, decreased appetite, and higher general anxiety symptoms. On the other hand, female bipolar alcoholics differed from female non-alcoholic bipolar patients on reports of mood lability, depressed mood, low self-esteem, suicidal indicators, decreased libido, and general anxiety symptoms. These results raise the question of whether alcohol increases the frequency of depressive symptoms among female bipolar patients.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Concordance between verbal report and urine screen of recent marijuana use in adolescents.

This study compared the concordance of self-report for recent marijuana use with results obtained from urine drug screen. The sample consisted of adolescent sons of fathers with DSM-III-R lifetime substance use disorder (SUD) [high average risk (HAR); N= 75] and sons of fathers with no Axis 1 psychiatric or SUD [low average risk (LAR); N= 125]. To avoid recall bias, and to ensure that the timeframe for accurate detection was restricted to promote accuracy, urine drug screen results were compared to self-reported marijuana use during the prior 48 h using an interview format. The HAR group of adolescents reported a higher rate of recent cannabis use and also had a higher rate of cannabis detection as measured in urine. The two groups did not differ with respect to either over or under-reporting marijuana use. Overall, of 19 participants who obtained positive urine cannabis results, six (31.5%) verbally denied that they used marijuana within the previous 2 days. Among the 181 participants who obtained a negative urine drug screen, 20 subjects (11.5%) inaccurately asserted that they had used marijuana within the prior 2 days. In total, 13% of the participants (26/200) inaccurately reported recent cannabis use. These results underscore the need for caution in interpreting the results of self-report methods documenting the prevalence of drug use among youth.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Early adolescent gateway drug use in sons of fathers with substance use disorders.

This study determined the relevance of preadolescent psychopathology and substance use for predicting early adolescent alcohol and cannabis involvement in boys of fathers with and without substance use disorders (SUD). Fathers of preadolescent boys (ages 10 through 12 years) were recruited to represent families of boys with paternal SUD (High Risk or HR: N = 102) and boys without paternal SUD (Low Average Risk or LAR: n = 166). These boys and a parental informant participated in semistructured diagnostic interviews at baseline and 2-year follow-up assessments (ages 12 through 14 years). Preadolescent tobacco experimentation and early adolescent regular alcohol use were more prevalent in HR than in LAR subjects. Logistic regression analyses were utilized to develop prediction equations. The presence of oppositional defiant disorder and the absence of anxiety disorders predicted preadolescent tobacco use. Preadolescent conduct disorder predicted early adolescent regular alcohol use. Preadolescent tobacco use and conduct disorder were highly predictive of early adolescent cannabis use, achieving 100% sensitivity with 76% specificity. Children with tobacco use prior to adolescence, as well as those with disruptive behavior disorders, may be important to target for interventions to prevent cannabis use.

Adolescent↗