Report of the Task Force on Residency Training Information (2000-2001), American Board of Emergency Medicine.

The American Board of Emergency Medicine gathers extensive background information on emergency medicine residents and the programs in which they train. We present the fourth annual report on the status of US emergency medicine residency programs.

Predicting cognitive performance in alcoholics and nonalcoholics: specification of affective, childhood behavior disorders, and antisocial variables.

Glenn, Errico, Parsons, King, and Nixon (1993) reported that composite indexes of childhood behavior disorders, current affective distress, and lifetime antisocial behaviors predicted different aspects of neurocognitive functioning in abstinent male and female alcoholics and in peer nonalcoholics. To make the results more pertinent to clinical assessment, we have: (a) identified the components of the composite indexes that were the best predictors, (b) added new data predicting overall impairment, and (c) conducted within-group male and female comparisons. In alcoholics, the depressive symptoms component of the affective distress composite index predicted set-shifting and overall impairment scores; the childhood attention deficit disorder behaviors component of the childhood behavior disorders composite predicted lower verbal performance. For nonalcoholics, childhood attention disorder behaviors predicted verbal, visuospatial, set-shifting, and overall impairment scores. Results for men and women were generally consistent with overall group analyses. The results have implications for cognitive assessment in alcoholic and nonalcoholic persons.

Report of the Task Force on Residency Training Information (1999-2000), American Board of Emergency Medicine.

The American Board of Emergency Medicine gathers extensive background information on emergency medicine residents and the programs in which they train. We present the third annual report on the status of US emergency medicine residency programs. [American Board of Emergency Medicine. Report of the Task Force on Residency Training Information (1999-2000), American Board of Emergency Medicine. Ann Emerg Med. May 2000;35:481-498.]

Report of the Task Force on Residency Training Information (1998-1999), American Board of Emergency Medicine.

The American Board of Emergency Medicine gathers extensive background information on emergency medicine residents and the programs in which they train. We present the second annual report on the status of US emergency medicine residency programs. [American Board of Emergency Medicine: Report of the Task Force on Residency Training Information (1998-1999), American Board of Emergency Medicine. Ann Emerg Med May 1999;33:529-545.]

Report of the Task Force on Residency Training Information, American Board of Emergency Medicine.

The American Board of Emergency Medicine gathers extensive background information on emergency medicine residents and the programs in which they train. Before the compilation of this report, this information has not been widely available.

Organization of psychological functions in alcoholics and nonalcoholics: a test of the compensatory hypothesis.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the compensatory hypothesis that cognitive deficits in sober alcoholics would reveal differences in the organization of their cognitive structures or functions relative to nonalcoholic peers with no deficits. METHOD: Following the method of Tracy and Bates, who tested a similar hypothesis in light versus heavy social drinkers, we used structural equation modeling (SEM: LISREL) to test the compensatory hypothesis. Alcoholics (n = 131, 83 male) and peer nonalcoholics (n = 83, 47 male) were given tests of verbal, visual-spatial and abstracting/problem-solving skills. RESULTS: LISREL analyses indicated that the three factors (latent variables) representing the three skills and the loading of the tasks on these factors were invariant (i.e., similar) across groups. However, factor variances and covariances were noninvariant. Analyses identifying the sources of these differences revealed similarities between the heavy social drinkers of Tracy and Bates' study and our alcoholic sample. CONCLUSIONS: Results from the present study on cognitive organization in alcoholics, as well as our interpretation of Tracy and Bates' findings on the same in heavy social drinkers, support the notion of compensation and reorganization of cognitive function; however, other explanations cannot be ruled out.

Pathways into risk: temperament and behavior problems in three- to five-year-old sons of alcoholics.

Evidence suggests that a child with a difficult temperament, reared in an alcoholic family, is at high risk for the development of behavior problems that antedate the emergence of antisocial behavior, alcoholism, and coactive psychopathology. However, the causal linkage between difficult temperament and problem behavior in childhood, and antisociality and alcohol abuse in adulthood is far from certain, in part because few studies assess emergent behavior patterns in young children of alcoholics. In this study, we investigated the temperament-behavior problem relationship in 191 3- to 5-year-old boys, 149 of whom were being reared in high-risk alcoholic, low socioeconomic environments. Boys were classified as high in problem behavior or not based on standardized clinical cut-off scores for Total Behavior Problems from the Child Behavior Checklist. Results indicated that boys rated in the clinical range for total behavior problems exhibited more characteristics of difficult temperament than boys who were not rated in the clinical range. Parents of the boys in the clinical group had significantly more alcohol-related problems, higher levels of antisociality, and significantly lower levels of socioeconomic status, income, and education. Results are consistent with the supposition that the difficult temperament-behavior problem relationship flourishes in the context of an antisocial, alcoholic family environment.

Predictors of behavior problems in three-year-old sons of alcoholics: early evidence for the onset of risk.

We investigated risk factors in a population-based sample of alcoholic (father) and comparison families with 3-year-old sons. Alcoholic and comparison parents did not differ in socioeconomic status (SES), education, years married, family size, or cognitive functioning. Antisocial behavior and depression were significantly greater in alcoholic parents. High risk children were more impulsive than comparison children, but there were no differences in developmental age, IQ, or behavior problems. A higher percentage of high-risk children were rated in the extreme clinical range for behavior problems than were comparison children. For alcoholic families, mothers' ratings of their children's total behavior problems, externalizing behavior problems, and internalizing behavior problems were predicted by mothers' lifetime alcohol problems, current depression, and family SES. Father variables failed to predict children's behavior problems. Maternal variables were stronger predictors of their 3-year-old sons' problem behaviors than were paternal variables.