The relationship between pre-, during-, post-treatment factors, and adolescent substance abuse behaviors.

This study examines the relationship between pre-, during-, post-treatment variables, and treatment outcome by using a secondary data analysis of the 6- and 12-months posttreatment follow-up data from 2,317 adolescent subjects. Pre-treatment variables included in this study are psychosocial, family-related, substance abuse, and special event variables. During-treatment variables are length of stay and parental participation in treatment. Post-treatment variables cover the attendance of subsequent treatment/continuing care, such as AA/NA and CD aftercare, and parental attendance of subsequent treatment. Results from discriminant function analyses indicated that during- and post-treatment variables could differentiate the abstinence status at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. It was also shown that the post-treatment variable group exhibited the best classification accuracy among the three variable groups across both follow-up periods. Limitations in applying research findings and their implications for adolescent substance abuse treatment are also discussed.

Psychiatric emergency services: evolution, adaptation and proliferation.

This paper traces the dramatic rise of psychiatric emergency services (PES) and crisis intervention services over recent decades. It examines three processes--the evolution of such services, their adaptation to diverse settings, and the striking increase both in the number of programs and their utilization. PES first evolved along three disparate lines--makeshift psychiatric emergency care in the emergency room of the general hospital, ad hoc after-care services in the psychiatric hospital, and the community mental health movement. Community mental health legislation of the 1960s not only provided funds for PES but led to the merging of the three lines. PES have adapted to and are found in a great variety of settings. The latter include small general hospitals and huge medical centers; county, state, and private mental hospitals; free clinics; telephone hot-lines, and others. Their adaptability appears due to their flexible personnel requirements and lack of need for an elaborate technology. Although fewer than 160 facilities were known to offer PES in 1963, their number exceeded 2000 by the early 1980s. Available piecemeal data indicate constantly increasing utilization of PES. This is a result of many factors, including deinstitutionalization. Although PES were initially visualized as resources for acute mental health care and continue to serve as such, they have become increasingly chronicized, consequent on the deinstitutionalized abandonment of many chronically ill persons. Changes are also occurring in the social and demographic characteristics of persons utilizing PES and in the ways in which the services are perceived and utilized. The early development of unlabeled and makeshift psychiatric emergency care in the general hospital's emergency room and the psychiatric hospital were instances of 'evolutionary planning'.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Subseabed disposal of nuclear wastes.

Fine-grained clay formations within stable (predictable) deep-sea regions away from lithospheric plate boundaries and productive surface waters have properties that might serve to permanently isolate radioactive waste. The most important characteristics of such clays are their vertical and lateral unifomity, low permeability, very high cation retention capacity, and potential for self-healing when disturbed. The most attractive abyssal clay formation (oxidized red ciay)covers nearly 30 percent of the sea floor and hence 20 percent of the earth's surface.

Shaping of the continental rise by deep geostrophic contour currents.

Geostrophic contour-following bottom currents involved in the deep thermohaline circulation of the world ocean appear to be the principal agents which control the shape of the continental rise and other sediment bodies.