The value of children to young and elderly parents.

A sample of elderly parents in the state of Florida was contrasted with a national sample of parents in their childbearing years with respect to the satisfactions and dissatisfactions of having children. For both groups, children were most commonly seen as satisfying the needs for love and companionship and fun and stimulation. The Older group was more likely than the younger to report that children fill economic-utility needs. The older group was also more likely to indicate that there were no disadvantages to having children, and they were less likely to specifically mention disadvantages such as restrictions on freedom or financial costs. This study found that elderly parents are actually more likely to be giving financial help to their children than receiving it, and that contact with children was frequent despite geographical barriers.

Consumer information about prenatal and obstetric drugs.

This study investigated the amount of information that mothers have about the drugs to which they are exposed during pregnancy and childbirth as well as the correlates of this information, in particular perceived and actual control over life and health-related events. Subjects were 304 randomly chosen inpatients interviewed within 48 hours after childbirth. The results show that mothers know very little about the medications they took prenatally and even less about the medications they were administered during labor and delivery. Failing adequate information, a large number of mothers and babies were exposed to drugs with teratogenic or toxic potential. With but one exception, these drugs had not been approved by the F.D.A. for use in pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Scores on the Rotter Locus of Control Scale reliably predicted prenatal drug information.

PIP: Investigated the amount of information that mothers have about the drugs to which they are exposed during pregnancy and childbirth as well as the correlates of this information, in particular perceived and actual control over life and health-related events. Subjects were 304 randomly chosen inpatients in a Florida hospital interviewed within 48 hours after childbirth. Results show that mothers know very little about the medications they took prenatally and even less about medications they were administered during labor and delivery. Failing adequate information, a large number of mothers and babies were exposed to drugs with teratogenic or toxic potential. With but 1 exception, these drugs had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, (FDA) for use in pregnancy, labor, and delivery. Scores on the Rotter Locus of Control Scale reliably predicted prenatal drug information.

Prenatal drugs: patient information and its source.

Pregnant women consume numerous medications, some of which are potentially harmful to the fetus. It is especially important that these women are provided with information about these drugs. This study was undertaken, in part, to document the amount of information pregnant women have about the drugs they consume and the sources of their information. Study participants were 304 women selected at random from the postpartum inpatients at a teaching hospital. Mothers were interviewed to obtain drug exposure data and to determine what, if any, information they had about the drugs. The source of information for each drug consumed was also determined. Results show that pregnant women have little information for each drugs they consume. Mothers most often cited primary medical personnel (physicians and nurses) as sources of information about specific drugs. In contrast, only six patients cited the pharmacist as a source of information about specific drugs. However, patients ranked the pharmacist high as a source of general drug information. This report emphasizes the need for more drug information for pregnant women and highlights the role of the pharmacist in providing such information.

Circumcision, gender differences, and neonatal behavior: an update.

As a test of the hypothesis that gender differences in neonatal behavior may be linked to circumcision, we reviewed 38 recent studies which provide relevant information. No strong data exist to support the hypothesis or to document the existence of gender differences in neonatal behavior.

Stability of motor OR and heart rate habituation rates of infancy.

The stability of the OR habituation rate as an individual difference trait was investigated in 2 studies. The 1st focused on motor OR's to auditory stimuli at 3 ages within the 1st month of life, and the 2nd examined the HR responses to auditory stimuli at 4 and 8 months. The results indicate that motor OR's did not differ significantly with age and were moderately stable across ages. The stability decreased with age across consecutive days but increased across consecutive weeks. The cross-age correlation for HR responses was moderate. The results were compared with similar findings on other parameters of the OR.

Early behavioral differences: gender or circumcision?

In human studies, the possible long-term effects on behavior of early physical insult or pharmacological agents have received little attention. We present both circumstantial and direct evidence that circumcision of male infants leads to behavioral changes. In some American studies using circumcised infants, reported gender differences may instead be the result of the altered behavior of circumcised males. We suggest that circumcision requires more study in its own right, and that it requires description if not control in all neonatal and infancy studies.

The development of response to continuous auditory stimulation in rats treated neonatally with 6-hydroxydopamine.

This study investigated biochemical substrates of the continuous stimulation effect, i.e. the developmental phenomenon whereby continuous stimulation depresses arousal level. Neonatal rats were injected intracisternally with 6-hydroxydopamine. Motility, heart rate, and brain amines were measured in theses animals, as well as in injected and noninjected control animals, at 14 and 28 days of age in an own-control design with and without continuous auditory stimulation. Brain norepinephrine was significantly and inversely related to the magnitude of the continuous stimulation effect and experimental-control differences increased with age. These results indicate that an intact catecholaminergic system is necessary for the mediation of increased arousal during stimulation.

Continuous stimulation and arousal level in infancy: effects of stimulus intensity and stress.

The effectiveness of continuous stimulation in lowering arousal level, as indexed by state and heart rate, was studied in 30 uncircumcised males, 30 circumcised males, and 30 female subjects. The continuous-stimulation effect was shown to be directly related to auditory stimulus intensity. It is more complexly related to preexisting stress, operationally defined as subjects' circumcision status.