Rita Beck Black

Behavioral problems and social competence in children with epilepsy.

Summary: The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate relationships between seizure type in general, degree of interictal limbic system dysfunction in particular, and social competence and behavioral pathology in children with temporal lobe (n= 21), primary generalized (n= 21), and focal nontemporal epilepsies (n= 14). The three groups were closely matched on several variables and compared on the mean Aggression, Total Social Competence, and Total Behavior Problems scale scores derived from a standardized behavioral rating instrument (The Child Behavior Profile). On the Aggression scale, the focal nontemporal group scored significantly lower than the temporal lobe group but did not differ significantly from patients with primary generalized epilepsy. On the Total Behavior Problems and Total Social Competence scales, the three seizure groups did not differ significantly from one another. The results are discussed in terms of the psychologic risk for specific behavioral problems associated with epilepsies varying in their probability of interictal disruption of limbic system functioning.

Seeing the baby: The impact of ultrasound technology.

This paper reports results of a study of prenatal diagnosis patients who underwent ultrasound examinations and lost their pregnancies through miscarriage or elective terminations. The majority of the women felt that viewing the ultrasound image influenced their relationship to the fetus and their coping with the pregnancy loss. The women commented on the power of ultrasound to make their pregnancies more real as well as the painful yet sometimes beneficial consequences of seeing the fetus. Clinical implications are considered for health professionals who provide prenatal diagnostic services or counseling after pregnancy loss.This paper reports results of a study of prenatal diagnosis patients who underwent ultrasound examinations and lost their pregnancies through miscarriage or elective terminations. The majority of the women felt that viewing the ultrasound image influenced their relationship to the fetus and their coping with the pregnancy loss. The women commented on the power of ultrasound to make their pregnancies more real as well as the painful yet sometimes beneficial consequences of seeing the fetus. Clinical implications are considered for health professionals who provide prenatal diagnostic services or counseling after pregnancy loss.

Pychosocial Issues in Reproductive Genetic Testing and Pregnancy Loss

This paper considers the psychosocial experience of women undergoing reproductive genetic testing, with attention to the impact of pregnancy loss after testing. New directions for research are called for to provide more in-depth understanding of the meaning of these experiences for women and their male partners.

Book ReviewsSocial Work and Health Care Policy. Edited by LumDoman. Totowa, New Jersey: Allenheld, Osmun & Co., Publishers, Inc., 1982. 224 pp. Cloth,

mapping, and other useful devices for transmitting concepts and ideas. I do not feel qualified to judge the practical aspects of the authors contribution, but I find her major point-that the remarried family constitutes a special kind of family-especially insightful. It has, in addition, another possible impact. It will make all of us, researchers and policy makers alike, more acutely aware of what is happening to families in , .,. society today.