ABSTRACT
This study extends a program of research investigating the effectiveness of Brief Strategic Family Therapy to engage and retain families and/or youth in treatment. The study contrasted Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) with a Community Comparison (CC) condition selected to represent the common engagement and treatment practices of the community; 104 families were randomly assigned to BSFT or CC. Results indicate that families assigned to BSFT had significantly higher rates of engagement (81% vs. 61%), and retention (71% vs. 42%). BSFT was also more effective than CC in retaining more severe cases. Post hoc analyses of treatment effectiveness suggest that BSFT was able to achieve comparable treatment effects despite retaining more difficult cases. We discuss these results from a public health perspective, and highlight the study's contribution to a small but growing body of literature that suggests the benefits of a family-systems paradigm for engagement and retention in treatment.
Subject(s)
Child Behavior Disorders/therapy , Family Therapy/methods , Psychotherapy, Brief/methods , Substance-Related Disorders/therapy , Therapeutic Community , Adolescent , Analysis of Variance , Child , Child Behavior Disorders/prevention & control , Family/psychology , Female , Humans , Male , Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care , Program Evaluation , Research Design , Substance-Related Disorders/prevention & controlABSTRACT
In the present study, 48 high school juniors selected their best same-sex and opposite-sex friends for a videotaping of 10-minute face-to-face interactions together. Females felt more comfortable during same-sex interactions than during opposite-sex interactions, and they rated their same-sex partners more positively than did males. Although second-by-second codings of the videotapes yielded no group differences on the percentage of time the dyads were in interested or animated states, females were in more playful states during their same-sex interactions and males were more playful during their interactions with females.
Subject(s)
Adolescent Behavior/psychology , Interpersonal Relations , Adolescent , Female , Humans , Male , Personality Assessment , Videotape RecordingABSTRACT
A model was developed to study the role of leukocytes in the development of vascular lesions. Implantation of an endotoxin-soaked cotton thread in the adventitia on the ventral side of the rat femoral artery resulted in leukocyte migration into the vessel wall exclusively in the ventral half of the vessel. Leukocyte migration occurred from both the luminal and adventitial side and consisted of neutrophils and mononuclear cells. Smooth muscle cell rich intimal lesions localized to the ventral half of the vessel were first observed 1 week after implantation. Lesions remained localized to the ventral half of the vessel wall through the 6th week. When leukocyte migration into the vessel wall was inhibited by treatment with dexamethasone, lesion development did not occur. These results suggest that leukocytes can stimulate smooth muscle cell migration into the intima and result in intimal lesion formation.
Subject(s)
Leukocytes/pathology , Vascular Diseases/etiology , Animals , Arteriosclerosis/etiology , Cell Movement/drug effects , Dexamethasone/pharmacology , Endothelium, Vascular/pathology , Endotoxins , Femoral Artery/pathology , Male , Microscopy, Electron , Muscle, Smooth, Vascular/pathology , Rats , Rats, Inbred Strains , Vascular Diseases/pathologyABSTRACT
This investigation tested the effect of anti-inflammatory agents acting at different levels of the arachidonic acid cascade on leukocyte migration into the vessel wall. An animal model of vasculitis was used in which leukocytes stimulate migration of smooth muscle cells from the media into the intima resulting in formation of intimal lesions. In this model, an endotoxin-soaked thread is implanted in the adventitia along the ventral side of the rat femoral artery. At 2 days, subendothelial and medial leukocyte accumulation occurs exclusively in the ventral half of the vessel. At 14 days, intimal lesions composed primarily of smooth muscle cells are localized to the ventral half of the vessel. Treatment with neither the lipoxygenase inhibitor L-651,392 nor the dual cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase inhibitor BW755C affected leukocyte migration into the vessel wall or subsequent lesion formation. Treatment with the cyclooxygenase inhibitor diclofenac sodium greatly reduced both leukocyte accumulation and lesion formation, whereas leukocyte migration and lesion formation were nearly totally inhibited by treatment with dexamethasone. Thus, it has been demonstrated that although leukocyte accumulation in the vessel wall stimulates intimal lesion formation, pharmacologic inhibition of leukocyte accumulation prevents lesion formation.
