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Biomedical subjects

L P Lipsitt

Publications and source records attributed to L P Lipsitt.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Adolescent problem behaviors as predictors of adult alcohol diagnoses.

Young adult alcohol problems based on DIS/DSM III diagnoses were predicted from a number of adolescent risky/antisocial behaviors in a sample of 693 subjects. The number of times an individual was intoxicated before his/her sixteenth birthday was the best indicator of adult alcohol "abuse" and /or dependence, with adolescent fighting, arrests, and lack of participation in religious activities also serving as important problem behavior predictors. Results of correlational and principal-components analyses of adolescent problem behaviors are similar to previous work on Problem Behavior Theory. The results suggest that prevention efforts should begin before adolescence, prior to the time when individuals are exposed to, or begin practicing, adult health-threatening activities.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Young heavy drinkers and their drinking experiences: predictors of later alcohol use.

This study illustrated the impact of late adolescent and young adult alcohol experiences on current level of alcohol use. Additional factors investigated include reported age of problem onset, initial age of alcohol use, marital status, and life-span risk-taking behavior. A stepwise discriminant analysis was used to determine the importance of various subtypes of drinking experiences and combinations of these subtypes. Correct classification of current light and heavy alcohol drinkers by use of these experiences was 83.7% for late adolescent experiences and 77.5% for young adulthood experiences. The results suggest that early drinking experiences are useful predictors of future drinking patterns.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

A retrospective study of risk-taking and alcohol-mediated unprotected intercourse.

The search for possible causal mechanisms leading to unprotected intercourse in males is the current focus of a great deal of psychosocial research. A retrospective questionnaire study of male undergraduate students (N = 332) examined the role of alcohol use and risk-taking behavior as a contributor to unprotected intercourse. Respondents' degree of risk-taking behavior during various periods of their life, and their alcohol use patterns and unprotected intercourse during their freshman and senior years of college were analyzed by a structural model. Results indicate a good model fit and suggest that older adolescent/young adult males may engage in riskier sexual behavior when using alcohol. Additionally, specific early behavior patterns appear to be the best predictor, from the variables in our model, of subsequent behavior. The findings of this study and other studies demonstrate that safe-sex instructional techniques designed for adolescents and young adults may benefit by focusing partly on responsible alcohol use.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1990

Learning processes in the human newborn. Sensitization, habituation, and classical conditioning.

Data have been presented to document that the human newborn is a conditionable organism. Babies in the first days of life possess sensitivity to stimulation in all sensory modalities, an unconditioned repertoire of responses to some of these sensory stimuli, and a capacity for associating simultaneously presented stimuli. Thus a perceived but previously neutral stimulus with respect to the elicitation of some particular behavior can itself become an effective stimulus through paired associations with an effective stimulus, and may now produce a response similar to the initially effective stimulus. For such a phenomenon to occur, the organism must be capable of remembering. The duration of memory is empirically demonstrable through probes or tests with the neutral stimulus, at various time intervals following the last experience of the pairing. Besides engaging in classical conditioning involving transfer of elicitability from an effective stimulus to a previously ineffective stimulus (or its converse, as in extinction), demonstrating that human newborns do learn, babies are also demonstrably capable habituators. They exhibit diminution of response intensity or frequency to repetitively presented, and particularly closely spaced and essentially innocuous, stimuli. Newborns also exhibit generalized sensitization to stimulation such that, when neonates are aroused, stimuli will nondiscriminatively elicit behaviors. It is thus important that appropriate controls for nonconditioning processes, which may also involve change in behavior through experience, be included in any demonstrations that purport to show the conditionability of the newborn.

Conditioning, Classical↗
PubMed1990

Early identification of developmentally disabled and at-risk preschool children.

This study examined child-centered data (from birth to 7 years) and familial factors as possible predictors of disabilities in adolescence. The sample was taken from original participants in the National Collaborative Perinatal Project in Rhode Island who were also judged as handicapped after school entry. Results of the current study indicated that parental traits (i.e., maternal education) are more accurate predictors of adolescent status than the child's own behavior from birth to 3 years, whereas child-centered skills assessed at 4 and 7 years of age are better predictors than are familial factors. Overall, data suggest that early identification models which focus upon developmental delay or adverse medical events from birth to 3 years of age are inadequate in fully identifying children eventually judged to be handicapped. Screening initiatives must be developed that are multivariate (child and family focused) and account for differential weights of risk factors over time.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Relationship of maternal and perinatal conditions to eventual adolescent suicide.

In an investigation of a possible relationship between falling perinatal mortality and rising rates of adolescent suicide, 46 risk factors from the prenatal, birth, and neonatal records of 52 adolescents who committed suicide before age 20 and 2 matched controls for each subject were analysed blind. The results showed statistically significant differences between the suicide victims and each of the controls and no difference between the controls. Three specific risk factors were shown to have a powerful capacity to differentiate the suicides from the controls: (i) respiratory distress for more than 1 h at birth; (ii) no antenatal care before 20 weeks of pregnancy; and (iii) chronic disease of the mother during pregnancy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Classical conditioning and retention of the infant's eyelid response: effects of age and interstimulus interval.

Independent groups of 10-,20-, and 30-day-old infants were subjected to a classical eyelid conditioning procedure involving either a 500- or a 1500-msec interstimulus interval (ISI). Ten days later, all received a second conditioning session. A reliable increase in conditioned responding was observed at all ages but only by infants receiving the 1500-msec ISI. Although age was not a significant factor in any conditioning measure except final performance level, which was greater for the oldest than for the youngest group, it did influence long-term retention. A reliable memory component was observed in the Session 2 performance of infants initially trained at 20 and 30 days but not at 10 days. These data demonstrate the importance of temporal parameters in the formation of conditioned associations very early in infancy and provide evidence for the long-term behavioral consequences of those associations.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1980

Somatic growth of children of diabetic mothers with reference to birth size.

In this study of the effects of maternal diabetes on the growth of offspring, 52 diabetic mothers were enrolled prenatally in the Providence cohort of the Perinatal Collaborative Study during 1960-1963. Among the offspring, there were 12 perinatal deaths. We were able to enroll 34 survivors and 34 matched controls in an adolescent follow-up study. Of the 34 diabetic mothers, six were insulin dependent, six had chemical diabetes, 13 had gestational diabetes, and nine were suspects. As part of the Collaborative Project, sequential follow-up evaluations had been done at four months, one year, four years, and seven years. A positive relationship was found between maternal pre-pregnant weight, weight gain during pregnancy, and the neonatal weight/height index in both diabetic and control subjects. At 7 years of age, eight of 19 offspring of diabetic mothers who were large for gestation at birth were obese, whereas only one of 14 infants who were appropriate for gestation at birth were obese (P < 0.05). Adolescent obesity (weight/height index greater than or equal to 1.2) was more likely in infants who had been LGA at birth. These data suggest that macrosomia in infants of diabetic mothers may be a predisposing factor for later obesity.

Adolescent↗