Social Dysfunction and Diet Outcomes in People with Psychosis.

This analysis aimed to examine the association of social dysfunction with food security status, fruit intake, vegetable intake, meal frequency and breakfast consumption in people with psychosis from the Hunter New England (HNE) catchment site of the Survey of High Impact Psychosis (SHIP). Social dysfunction and dietary information were collected using standardised tools. Independent binary logistic regressions were used to examine the association between social dysfunction and food security status, fruit intake, vegetable intake, meal frequency and breakfast consumption. Although social dysfunction did not have a statistically significant association with most diet variables, participants with obvious to severe social dysfunction were 0.872 (95% CI (0.778, 0.976)) less likely to eat breakfast than those with no social dysfunction p < 0.05. Participants with social dysfunction were therefore, 13% less likely to have breakfast. This paper highlights high rates of social dysfunction, significant food insecurity, and intakes of fruits and vegetables below recommendations in people with psychosis. In light of this, a greater focus needs to be given to dietary behaviours and social dysfunction in lifestyle interventions delivered to people with psychosis. Well-designed observational research is also needed to further examine the relationship between social dysfunction and dietary behaviour in people with psychosis.

Ethical Gambling: a commitment to preventing gambling addiction from the political and social standpoints

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"Juego Ético": un compromiso en la prevención de la adicción al juego desde el ámbito político y social / No disponible

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The evolution of human warfare.

Here we propose a new theory for the origins and evolution of human warfare as a complex social phenomenon involving several behavioral traits, including aggression, risk taking, male bonding, ingroup altruism, outgroup xenophobia, dominance and subordination, and territoriality, all of which are encoded in the human genome. Among the family of great apes only chimpanzees and humans engage in war; consequently, warfare emerged in their immediate common ancestor that lived in patrilocal groups who fought one another for females. The reasons for warfare changed when the common ancestor females began to immigrate into the groups of their choice, and again, during the agricultural revolution.

Mother abuse: a matter of youth justice, child welfare or domestic violence?

International evidence suggests that in advanced welfare states the abuse of parents, most particularly mothers, by their (most frequently male) adolescent children is increasingly prevalent. In the United Kingdom, however, child-to-mother abuse remains one of the most under-acknowledged and under-researched forms of family violence. Although it is an issue shrouded in silence, stigma, and shame, the authors' work in the youth justice sphere, focusing on interventions to deal with anti-social behaviour, suggests that adolescent violence toward mothers is a topical and prevalent issue. We identify different ways of conceptualizing it in the policy realms of youth justice, child welfare, and domestic violence. The behaviour of both child/young person and mother is constructed in ways which inform the assignment of blame and responsibility. The paper highlights the silence that surrounds the issue in both the policy and wider academic spheres, hiding the failure of service providers to respond to this very destructive form of intimate interpersonal violence.

Tales of deviance and control: on space, rules, and law in squatter settlements.

In Latin American cities, around a third of the urban population lives in tenure situations that can be designated as informal, yet variation in the ways and extent to which these arrangements do not comply with law is extensive. Furthermore, informal dwellers often employ a variety of strategies to legitimize and ultimately legalize their tenure, implying a dynamic rather than a static relationship between illegality and legality. Conceiving of land tenure in dichotomous terms, as simply being either legal or illegal, therefore, fails to reflect this diversity, nor does it capture the evolving nature of the relationship between informal settlements and the state system. Drawing from the development of squatter settlements in Buenos Aires, this article proposes an alternative perspective and shows how settlements alternate strategies of noncompliance with adaptation to the state legal system to gradually increase their legality.

"Screen and intervene": governing risky brains.

This article argues that a new diagram is emerging in the criminal justice system as it encounters developments in the neurosciences. This does not take the form that concerns many "neuroethicists" -- it does not entail a challenge to doctrines of free will and the notion of the autonomous legal subject -- but is developing around the themes of susceptibility, risk, pre-emption and precaution. I term this diagram "screen and intervene" and in this article I attempt to trace out this new configuration and consider some of the consequences.

The politics of partnerships: a study of police and housing collaboration to tackle anti-social behaviour on Australian public housing estates.

This paper draws on the findings from a research project on partnership arrangements between the police and housing departments on three Australian public housing estates to tackle problems associated with illicit drug activity and anti-social behaviour (ASB). The analysis focused on the setting up of the partnerships and the interactions that followed from these institutional arrangements. The assumption that informs the paper is that when studying partnerships there is a need for a more critically framed analysis. The temptation to posit "a successful model" of what partnership entails and then to judge practices in relation to this model is considerable, but it inevitably falls into the trap of constructing a narrative of partnership success or failure in terms of individual agency (that is, the degree of commitment from individuals). The analysis undertaken in this paper has therefore sought to fathom a more complex set of organizational processes. Rather than confine the discussion to issues of success and failure, the study foregrounds the subjective accounts of individuals who work within partnership and the constraints they encounter. The paper therefore makes explicit the cultural tensions within and across agencies, contestation as to the extent of the policy "problem," and the divergent perspectives on the appropriate modes of intervention.

La profilaxis del viento. Instituciones represivas y sanitarias en la Patagonia argentina, 1880-1940 / In wind prophylaxis. Repressive and sanitary institutions in Argentina´s Patagonia, 1880-1940

Este artículo avanza sobre el significado de las tecnologías y discursos del denominado «control social» en el interior argentino, haciendo hincapié en los Territorios Nacionales de La Pampa, Neuquén y Río Negro, entre 1880-1940. En esos espacios, de jurisdicción federal, se tomará en cuenta la conformación de instituciones represivas como policía y cárceles y sanitarias, como hospitales y asilos, así como la aplicación de metodologías positivistas para el estudio y el establecimiento de grillas clasificatorias de demarcación de la anormalidad. Una dependencia mayor del Estado nacional podría haber significado atención al desarrollo económico y social, a partir de las instituciones centrales para el proyecto modernizador y positivista. Pero un examen más profundo de las formas y los procesos históricos, que incluyen las dificultades para su implementación en su formación, el sostén presupuestario y los problemas permanentes de funcionamiento, implica una revisión de las capacidades de acción y las posibilidades reales de establecimiento de un programa general de control social en Argentina, como han sostenido muchos historiadores concentrados en el caso de Buenos Aires (AU)

This article focuses on the study of some social control technologies and discourses, displayed in Argentina’s provinces between 1880 and 1940, with particular reference to the so-called ‘Territorios Nacionales’ of La Pampa, Río Negro and Neuquén, which were submitted to a direct federal authority. The main purpose is to analyze —within these areas— the building of repressive and sanitary institutions (i. e., police, prisons, asylums, hospitals) as well as the enforcement of positivists studying and classifying methodologies, intended to identify ‘abnormality’. A straight and permanent rule of these ‘Territorios Nacionales’ on the federal State could have meant a longer attention to their social and economic development through a direct and intense presence of national, modernizing, positivist institutions. However, a deeper historical study of repressive and sanitary institutions allows to arrive to completely different conclusions. The sources show that these institutions had numerous daily problems, were frequently and severely under-budgeted, and were obliged to develop not originally foreseen functions and tasks. These situations imply revising not only these institutions’ real regulation capacities but also the very existence of a generalized, efficient social control programme in Argentina at the beginning of the 20th century, as many scholars focused on Buenos Aires’s study case have already argued (AU)

[The wind prophylaxis. Repressive and sanitary institutions in Argentina's Patagonia, 1880-1940]. / La profilaxis del viento. Instituciones represivas y sanitarias en la Patagonia Argentina, 1880-1940.

This article focuses on the study of some social control technologies and discourses, displayed in Argentina's provinces between 1880 and 1940, with particular reference to the so-called 'Territorios Nacionales' of La Pampa Río Negro and Neuquén, which were submitted to a direct federal authority. THe main purpose is to analyze - within these areas- - the building of repressive and sanitary institutions (i.e., police, prisons, asylums, hospitals) as well as the enforcement of positivists studying and classifying methodologies, intended to identify 'abnormality'. A straight and permanent rule of these "territorios Nacionales' on the federal State could have meant a longer attention to their social and economic development through a direct and intense presence of national, modernizing, positivist institutions. However, a deeper historical study of repressive and sanitary institutions allows to arrive to completely different conclusions. The sources show that these institutions had numerous daily problems, were frequently and severely under-budgeted and were obliged to develop not originally forseen functions and tasks. These situations imply revising not only these institutions' real regulation capacities but also the very existence of a generalized, efficient social control programme in Argentina at the beginning of the 20th century, as many scholars focused on Buenos Aires's study case have already argued.

Epidemiologic trends and costs of fragmentation.

The data that were reviewed in this article documented that in health systems, which manage behavioral health disorders independently from general medical disorders, the estimated 10% to 30% of patients with behavioral health service needs can expect (1) poor access or barriers to medical or mental health care; (2) when services are available, most provided will not meet minimum standards for expected outcome change; and (3) as a consequence of (1) and (2), medical and behavioral disorders will be more persistent with increased complications, will be associated with greater disability, and will lead to higher total health care and disability costs than will treatment of patients who do not have behavioral health disorders. This article proposes that these health system deficiencies will persist unless behavioral health services become an integral part of medical care (ie, integrated). By doing so, it creates a win-win situation for virtually all parties involved. Complex patients will receive coordinated general medical and behavioral health care that leads to improved outcomes. Clinicians and the hospitals that support integrated programs will be less encumbered by cross-disciplinary roadblocks as they deliver services that augment patient outcomes. Health plans (insurers) will be able to decrease administrative and claims costs because the complex patients who generate more than 80% of service use will have less complicated claims adjudication and better clinical outcomes. As a result, purchaser premiums, whether government programs, employers, or individuals, will decrease and the impact on national budgets will improve. Ongoing research will be important to assure that application of the best clinical and administrative practices are used to achieve these outcomes.

Twenty-month effectiveness of a non-aversive, long-term, low-cost programme for persons with persisting neurobehavioural disability.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To examine the effectiveness of a programme developed for persons with persisting neurobehavioural/ neuropsychiatric disorders. RESEARCH DESIGN: Descriptive study of a programme that has a philosophy of normalization, respect, non-confrontation, positive engagement, support and functional and behavioural skill development. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Participants were the 40 clients admitted during the initial 20 months of operation. Prior to admission clients had recurrent placement failures secondary to behavioural disregulation and typically were housed at County or State Hospitals. An expanded version of the Overt Aggression Scale Modified for Neurorehabilitation was used to provide detailed descriptions of assaults. MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Over the 20-month period, 49 incidents of client-to-client aggression occurred representing a rate of 0.11 incidents per client month. Thirty-five of 40 clients remained at the end of 20 months, with only three discharges due to behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: A long-term, stable living environment has been provided for individuals who had been intractable management problems elsewhere.

Mr. ATOD's wild ride: what do alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs have in common?

All researchers agree that individuals can become intoxicated by and dependent on alcohol, tobacco, and other psychoactive drugs. But they have disagreed over whether, and to what extent, drug pathologies comprise a unitary medical problem. Most critically, does addiction have a biological common denominator? Consensus on this question has shifted back and forth. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, physicians often studied and treated various drug addictions together, working under the "inebriety" paradigm. By the mid-twentieth century the inebriety paradigm had collapsed. Tobacco and alcohol had split off, both in the medical research community and in western popular culture. This article argues that neuroscientific, genetic, epidemiological, and historical evidence helped to reunify the addiction field in the late twentieth century. A new unifying paradigm emerged, variously called chemical dependency, substance abuse, or simply ATOD -- alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.

Estudio clínico-epidemiológico del sindrome de perturbación de la atención e hiperactividad en niños atendidos en el Hospital Escuela, Tegucigalpa / Study clinical-epidemiologist of syndrome of disturbance of the attention and hyperactivity in children taken care of in the Hospital School, Tegucigalpa

ANTECEDENTES. El Síndrome de preturbación de atención/hiperactividad incluye trastornos que se caracterizan por limitación en la atención sostenida, a menudo acompañados de hiperactividad. OBJETIVOS. Determinar las caracteristicas clínico-epidemiológicas de niños atendidos en el Hospital Escuela con trastornos de atención/hiperactividad y evaluar su capacidad mental y rendimiento escolar. MATERIALES Y METODOS. Estudio descriptivo transversal de 120 niños entre 5 y 14 años de edad evaluados durante septiembre de 1999 a septiembre del 2001. Se realizó una entrevista inicial que incluyó anamnesis y examen físico, seguida de evaluación psiquiátrica en la consulta externa y aplicación de cuestionarios a padres y maestros. RESULTADOS. el 80 por ciento de los pacientes tenía entre 6 y nueve años de edad, 86 por ciento era del sexo masculino y 88 por ciento procedía de la región central del país. El 72 por ciento procedía de familias con ingreso económico menor de L. 2000.00/mes, el 33 por ciento convivía con ambos padres, el 67 por ciento presentó rendimiento escolar bueno y el 90 por ciento tenía un nivel mental normal a superior. El diagnóstico informado con mayor frecuencia por el psiquiatra fue el subtipo combinado de défict de atención/hiperactividad 94 por ciento. La conducta predominante detctada por los padres fue la hiperactividad (70 por ciento), la detectada por los maestros fue déficit de atención (46 por ciento)e hiperactidad (38 por ciento). CONCLUSION. A pesar de los trastornos de atención y la hiperactividad, la mayoría de los tenía buen rendimiento escolar y nivel mental normal a superior. El manejo de estos niños debe involucrar familiares maestros