Risk-taking behavior of college students and social forces.

We surveyed 1,900 first-year students at the University of Virginia 1 month after arrival. We looked at drinking and driving practices. Men drank more and they drank more often than women. Our data suggest that in defining frequent heavy drinkers, one should consider body weight. We now define frequent heavy drinking as five or more drinks in a row at least weekly for men, and for women we use three to four drinks or more in a row at least weekly. Frequent heavy drinkers and dangerous drivers appeared disproportionately among students planning to join fraternities and sororities. We believe correction of alcohol abuse and addiction by college students must focus, at least in part, on social organizations, especially fraternities and sororities. Also, we must attend to characterologic features that predispose to alcohol abuse and dependence and dangerous driving practices.

Alcohol and cocaine use among first-year college students.

We surveyed 1528 first-year students at the University of Virginia, 1 month after their arrival on campus, who had used alcohol at some time in their lives. Our survey was designed to identify alcohol and cocaine use, and related psychosocial patterns. Men drank more and more often than women. Our data suggest that body weight should be considered in defining those who drink heavily and often. We define 'frequent heavy drinking' as five or more drinks in a row each week for men and three to four drinks or more in a row each week for women. Frequent heavy drinkers, cocaine users, and students with psychosocial problems appeared disproportionately among students planning to join fraternities and sororities. Although first-year students used cocaine infrequently, its users followed the patterns of frequent heavy drinkers. We believe efforts to correct alcohol and cocaine misuse by college students should be directed, in part, at social organizations such as Greek-letter societies. Also, we must attend to psychosocial features that predispose to alcohol and cocaine misuse.

Psychosocial inventory among first-year college students by patterns of alcohol use.

We surveyed 1703 first-year students at the University of Virginia one month after arrival who used alcohol at some time in their lives. Our survey looked at drinking practices and psychosocial patterns. Men drank more and more often than women. Our data suggest that in defining frequent heavy drinkers, one should consider body weight. Now, we define frequent heavy drinking as five or more drinks in a row at least weekly for men, and for women, we use three to four drinks or more in a row at least weekly. Frequent heavy drinkers and students with psychosocial problems appeared disproportionately among students planning to join fraternities and sororities. We believe efforts to correct alcohol abuse and addiction by college students must focus, at least in part, on social organizations, especially fraternities and sororities. Also, we must attend to psychosocial features that predispose to alcohol abuse and addiction.

Seasonal stability of water balance among schizophrenic patients subject to water intoxication.

1. Diurnal weight gain, afternoon hyponatremia, and polyuria were assessed for one year among eight male schizophrenics subject to water intoxication. 2. The authors normalized the diurnal weight gain (NDWG) as a percentage by subtracting the 7 a.m. weight from the 4 p.m. Weight, multiplying the difference by 100, and then dividing the result by the 7 a.m. weight. 3. NDWG ranged between 2.69 +/- .99 and 3.34 +/- 1.32 percent (F [3, 5] = .885, p = .509) during the four seasons of the year. 4. The seasonal decrease in afternoon serum sodium compared to its morning counterpart ranged between 4.23 +/- 1.96 and 6.14 +/- 2.82 mmol/l (F [3, 5] = 2.212, p = .205). 5. Seasonal polyuria ranged between 8.2 +/- 3.5 and 8.8 +/- 3.2 liters (F [3, 5] = .228, p = .873). 6. Among schizophrenics subject to water intoxication, the seasonal stability in our three parameters of water imbalance suggest they may be used to follow patients with altered water homeostasis over time. This finding has both clinical and research implications.

Depression of delayed hypersensitivity responses in patients with pertussis.

Components of Bordetella pertussis cause impairment of cell-mediated immunity in experimental animals and children with acute pertussis have been shown to have a reduced prevalence of positive tuberculin skin tests (13). Furthermore, secondary infection is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in this disease. On the basis of these observations, we have studied delayed hypersensitivity responses in children with B. pertussis infection and compared the results with responses elicited in the same patients one to three months later, as well as with responses in control children. During acute illness, each patient was tested for 48 hour delayed hypersensitivity response to seven antigens (tetanus and diphtheria toxoids and tuberculin, candida, streptococcus, trichophyton and proteus antigens) and glycerol control. Responses were quantitated by total number of antigens positive (greater than or equal to 2 mm) and total millimeters of response. The control group (N = 11) had 4.2 +/- 1.0 positive antigens and 13.3 +/- 2.7 total mm of response. In contrast, the patients with acute pertussis, (N = 6) had significantly reduced responses, with only 1.5 +/- 1.0 positive antigens and 5.4 +/- 3.2 total mm of response (each different from control, p less than 0.001). That this difference was due to the acute infection with B. pertussis is supported by the responses demonstrated on retest 1-3 months later. At that time, the convalescent patients had 3.3 +/- 1.0 antigens positive and 11.0 +/- 1.7 mm of induration, not significantly different from the control group. Four of the six pertussis patients were outpatients throughout their course and all recovered uneventfully.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)