ABSTRACT
In previous research adapted versions of the Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (SMAST) have been employed to assess an individual's father's (F-SMAST) and mother's alcohol abuse (M-SMAST). However, to date psychometric information on these forms has been limited. In order to more broadly assess the psychometric properties of these forms, several critical issues in five related studies were addressed. The samples for the five studies were drawn from a college population at a large midwestern university. Overall, the reliability and validity of the adapted SMASTs appears to be quite good. The F-SMAST demonstrated high reliability (from the standpoint of internal consistency, temporal stability, and reliability across siblings) as well as validity (both in respect to convergence with an interview measure and with father's own report on a parallel instrument). Furthermore, shortening both of these instruments to nine-item versions appears to improve their reliability and validity. For researchers and clinicians interested in assessing parental history of alcoholism, the F-SMAST and M-SMAST would appear to be a reliable and valid paper-and-pencil measure.
Subject(s)
Alcoholism/genetics , Child of Impaired Parents/psychology , Personality Inventory/statistics & numerical data , Alcoholism/psychology , Fathers/psychology , Humans , Mothers/psychology , Psychometrics , Reproducibility of Results , Risk FactorsABSTRACT
Thirteen checkers and twelve noncheckers, identified on the basis of their responses to the checking subscale of the Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory (MOCI; Rachman and Hodgson, 1980), were recruited from a sample of 99 consecutive admissions to the outpatient department of a community mental health center. Consistent with our previous research with nonclinical samples of college students (Sher et al., 1983, 1984), checkers were found to show deficits in memory, especially recall for recently completed actions, compared to noncheckers. This result demonstrates the replicability of our previous findings across different types of samples and implicates deficits in memory for actions as a potentially important determinant of checking behavior. Assessment of spontaneous imagery associated with the anamnestic process suggested that checkers utilized less imagery, especially visual imagery, when recalling biographical information. Additional measures collected at the time of testing indicated that checkers were more neurotic and reported more psychological distress than noncheckers.
Subject(s)
Amnesia/psychology , Imagination , Memory , Mental Recall , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder/psychology , Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Psychological TestsABSTRACT
A 31-year-old black male experienced severe recurrent urticaria and angioedema during meals. An abnormal sialographic pattern indicated submandibular sialoadenitis, and surgical excision of the gland resulted in complete resolution of the urticaria. This report describes the association of sialoadenitis and urticaria and possible mechanisms involved.
