The effects of psychiatric hospitalization on behaviorally disordered children: a preliminary evaluation.

The importance of outcome research in the field of children's mental health treatment has increased in recent years because of enhanced consumer awareness, a decrease in available resources, and payers' demand for accountability. The present study evaluated the treatment program of a child psychiatric unit in a public university hospital in the southeastern United States. The research used a single-group, pre- and post-test design and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) as the outcome measure. Children receiving inpatient psychiatric treatment demonstrated statistically significant improvements in CBCL scores. The strengths and limitations of this study are discussed.

Differences in cyclophosphamide-induced suppression of cricket predation in selectively bred strains of taste-aversion prone and resistant rats.

Cyclophosphamide-induced conditioned suppression of cricket predation was observed in taste-aversion-prone (TAP) but not in taste-aversion-resistant (TAR) rats. These TAP and TAR strains had been selectively bred for efficient or inefficient acquisition of cyclophosphamide-induced saccharin taste aversions (TAs). Equivalent preconditioning cricket predation was practiced by nonfasted subjects of both strains. TAR rats that ate crickets before a cyclophosphamide injection were thereafter voracious predators as were saline-injected and pseudoconditioning controls of both strains. However, conditioned TAP rats subsequently displayed a marked suppression of cricket predation. Predation can provide a deprivation-free and species-natural consummatory response for studies of strain differences in TA conditionability of TAP and TAR rats. In addition, the present results indicate that TAP and TAR strain differences in TA conditionability are not restricted to the saccharin solution that was the conditioned stimulus basis of prior strain development.

Dissociation of copulation from ovulation in pregnant rabbits.

Experiments were designed to determine why copulation in the pregnant rabbit does not terminate pregnancy while treatment with ovulatory doses of luteinizing hormone (LH) human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) or luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) is known to do so. Pregnant rabbits (Day 8) were mated or were injected with hCG (25 IU/doe) or LHRH (1, 10 micrograms/kg). Serial blood samples were collected over the next 72 h and analyzed for content of LH, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and progesterone. At sacrifice, uteri and ovaries from these animals were examined for viability of the embryos and for signs of recent ovulation. Injection of hCG or LHRH into pregnant animals led to ovulation and to patterns of LH, FSH and progesterone secretion like those which precede ovulation in estrous rabbits. However, mating the pregnant does did not lead to ovulation or to any changes in the circulating hormones. To investigate whether the elevated levels of progesterone during pregnancy were responsible for the dissociation of coitus from ovulation, nonpregnant rabbits were injected with progesterone (2 mg/kg) and then mated or injected with hCG or LHRH. In virtually every respect, the numbers of ovulations and the patterns of hormone secretion in the progesterone-treated, nonpregnant rabbits mimicked those observed in the 8-day pregnant animals; injection of hCG or LHRH caused ovulation and hormonal surges while hCG caused ovulation only. Mating did not lead to ovulation or any change in blood levels of LH, FSH or progesterone. Taken together, the results show that the elevated circulating levels of progesterone, characteristic of pregnancy, are probably responsible for the dissociation of copulation from gonadotropin release in pregnant rabbits.