Zena Stein

Characteristics of women with recurrent spontaneous abortions and women with favorable reproductive histories.

Women with a history of recurrent spontaneous abortions (repeaters) are compared with women who have had live births and no spontaneous abortions (multiparae) and women who have had live births and only one spontaneous abortion (sporadics) to identify characteristics of the women and their abortuses that might predict subsequent fetal loss. A number of risk factors for recurrent spontaneous abortion have been identified: the loss of a chromosomally normal conception, loss after the first trimester of pregnancy, a delay in conceiving prior to the study pregnancy, a diagnosis of cervical incompetence, and a history of very low birthweight deliveries. The odds ratios associated with being a repeater vary from 1.4 to 5.6 depending on the number of characteristics present.

A Trial of Conditioning Therapy in Nocturnal Enuresis

A controlled trial of conditioning by alarm and of amphetamine for the treatment of enuresis was planned. The experimental group was to consist of 118 enuretic schoolchildren of 8 years and over, detected in a community survey, but only 37 could be enrolled for the trial; 57 had remitted spontaneously or improved before appointments could be made, 15 defaulted, and 9 were rejected as unsuitable. The 37 cases were allocated at random to the two treatments. Assessments were made six months later, by which time 4 further cases had been lost to the trial. Among 33 cases remaining, 16 on alarm and 17 on amphetamine, the results for the alarm were significantly better; this was more so among the 23 cases whose treatment was considered adequate. Amphetamine had no greater effect than the natural remission‐rate.

Nocturnal Enuresis as a Phenomenon of Institutions

Nocturnal enuresis was shown to be more common among children who have been placed in the care of others because of the inability of their own families to care for them than among children living in their own homes.

Families of Enuretic Children Part I: Family Type and Age Part II: Family Culture, Structure and Organisation

The distribution of enuresis was found to vary with social class and family setting. A model of enuretic survivors illustrates that general factors connected with social class seem most relevant to children of an age to enter school, family deviance to pre‐pubertal schoolchildren, and discontinuous family relationships to pubescent children.