Psychosexual changes associated with the perimenopausal period.

The perimenopausal period is often a frustrating time for the woman who is experiencing it and for the health care professional who provides care for her. Although menopause is a universal experience for women, how it is experienced is not universal. Physiology, anatomy, social support systems, culture, expectations, and the woman's attitudes (especially her self-image) all have an influence on how easy or difficult the perimenopausal transition period is for an individual. This paper discusses psychosexual aspects of the perimenopausal period and suggests how nurse-midwives or other health professionals can make this often difficult period easier.

Personality factors in failure to adapt to the military.

As technical training costs increase in the military, it is increasingly important to identify and eliminate as soon as possible individuals unwilling or unable to adapt to the demands of the military. The present study compares three groups of enlisted personnel below the rank of E-4: a group having adjustment problems but motivated to remain in the military, a group having adjustment problems and seeking a discharge, and a well-adjusted group. Two scales of a personality inventory were found to differentiate the groups and suggest potential value for screening of military applicants.

Recent innovations in childbirth. Dangerous proposals, harmless fads, or wave of the future?

In recent years, consumers have become increasingly involved in their own health care and increasingly assertive vis à vis the medical profession. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the area of childbirth. A number of individuals both within and outside of the medical profession have advocated changes in traditional childbirth practices. This article focuses upon these proposed changes and discusses both the true issues and the pseudo-issues involved. Problems in existing research are described and the type of research that is needed is outlined.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder apparently related to abortion.

This case study presents a young woman who developed a severe obsessive-compulsive disorder after a routine medical procedure. It is suggested that this procedure brought back repressed guilt from three abortions and thus led to the onset of symptoms. The case is discussed in relationship to available research and theory.

PIP: Although the majority of women experience no long-term significant psychopathology following an elective abortion, up to 5% exhibit severe psychiatric sequelae. Reported here is the case of a woman with an obsessive-compulsive disorder apparently related to abortions at ages 14 and 15 years of age. In her mid-20s, during her fourth marriage, the woman became convinced that she had been impregnated by a physician in the course of a pelvic exam and a proctosigmoidoscopy. At the time, she was obsessed that she would sabotage her marriage by becoming pregnant with a man other than her husband. The obsession later expanded to include a fear of contracting a sexually transmitted disease. In psychotherapy, the etiology of this disorder was linked to the patient's guilt and fear of punishment connected to her early abortions. The invasiveness of the sigmoidoscopy procedure triggered memories of these abortions and was subconsciously viewed as another pregnancy termination. A review of this woman's history revealed most of the factors considered to promote psychiatric problems after abortion, including young age, unmarried status, passivity, lack of social support, reservations about the abortions, parental pressure to abort, immaturity, and unstable relationships with the fathers. Counseling before and after abortion for women identified as having risk factors for emotional problems is recommended.

Rorschach comparisons of male juvenile sex offenders and nonsex offenders.

Published research is limited on the psychological characteristics of juvenile sex offenders as a subgroup separate from other juvenile delinquents. This study compares 45 male adolescent sex offenders on the Rorschach with a matched group of nonsex adolescent offenders. The two groups differed in total number of responses. Eliminating those protocols of questionable validity due to low productivity in combination with a high lamba, a statistically significant difference in the number of anatomy responses given by the two groups was found. With this exception, the personality characteristics of adolescent sex offenders were similar to those of adolescents who commit only nonsexual crimes. It should be noted, however, that the scoring categories analysed were not exhaustive and that the groups may differ on more recently proposed Rorschach subscales.

Effect of test order on Rorschach human and movement responses.

Clinicians have traditionally tended to administer the Rorschach last in a test battery, despite some concern that projectives may be particularly susceptible to the influence of immediately preceding stimuli, including other tests. Research in this area has suffered from methodological problems and has produced equivocal results. In the present study the effect of administration of the Hand Test immediately before or immediately after the Rorschach was investigated. Each group consisted of 50 subjects, both children and adults, and matched for age, sex, IQ, examiner, and responsivity on the Rorschach. There were no significant differences on any of the Rorschach categories investigated between subjects who received the Rorschach first and those who received the Hand Test first. This suggests that the Rorschach may not be as susceptible to test order effects as some have feared.