Professionals' preferences for support systems for the bereaved family.

Health-care-related professionals rated the appropriateness and preferred timing of various community intervention strategies for assisting the bereaved individual. Results indicated: (a) agreement about the general need for such assistance programs, but no concensus as to which were most appropriate; (b) endorsement of the "resumption of activity" ethic; (c) belief that the most desirable period in which to intervene is within six months from the death; and (d) the lesser perceived suitability of therapeutic modalities that involve social contact with nonfamily members immediately following the death. Earlier introduction of family therapy and multiple family counseling was advocated by respondents with greater experience treating the bereaved.

Sexual functioning in patients with chronic renal failure.

There is little information on the sexual activity of patients with end-stage renal failure in spite of its being mentioned as a common side effect of kidney disease and chronic hemodialysis. In this report 32 married, male dialysis patients, 19 of whom had also received renal homografts, were interviewed and a detailed sexual history obtained. Twenty per cent of this population had no decrease in sexual functioning after the onset of kidney disease or the institution of dialysis, 45 per cent had reduced sexual potency after the onset of kidney disease, and another 35 per cent after beginning dialysis. Forty per cent of those patients receiving a kidney transplant had a subsequent increase in sexual potency.