Animal learning and motivation and addictive drugs.

Highlights of a systematic analysis of the abstracts of over 1700 publications dealing with addictive drugs (primarily alcohol) in the context of animal learning and motivation are summarized under two main headings. The behavioral effects of drugs vary with the nature of the drug, the dosage, and the behavioral baseline; behavioral tolerance frequently results from continued practice in the drug state. The paradigmatic effects show that drugs can function effectively as conditional stimuli, unconditional stimuli, responses, and reinforcers. As a result, drug habits develop their own motivational support, leading to conditioned tolerance and conditioned addiction. It is contended that principles of animal behavior can provide a basis for a theory of human drug use and abuse, but that voluntary control of addictive behavior requires uniquely human cognitive processes.

Children with haemophilia: same or different?

Haemophilic children's perceptions of their own social and school function and their concerns about illness and expectations for the future were compared with those of diabetic and healthy children of the same age and social background. All three groups had similar anticipations about making friends, getting married, finding satisfactory employment and having children. Haemophilic and diabetic children were no more concerned than healthy children about being ill in the future and worried less about passing an illness on to others. Haemophilic, but not diabetic, children felt they were less able to run and play than others. The small sub-group of HIV-positive haemophiliacs differed only in that none of them envisaged having children.

Sexual free behavior in male rats (Rattus norvegicus).

Male rats (Rattus norvegicus) were given continuous access to estrous female rats for 24 hr each day for 10 days. During the first 12 hr, the rats achieved an average of 10 ejaculations, followed by a 1- to 2-day recovery period with little sexual activity. During the last 7 days, the rats maintained a reasonably stable equilibrium level of 3 ejaculations per day. These occurred predominantly during the dark phase of the diurnal cycle, they frequently occurred in a cluster, and they usually occurred shortly after the introduction of a novel estrous female. Except for quantitative differences, these results are generally consistent with conventional research but systematically extend the generality of the results to the context of the free behavior situation. The availability of sexual activity had no appreciable effect on food and water intake, but it did decrease the amount of running activity.

Psychological disturbance in children with haemophilia.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the need for formal psychotherapeutic intervention in children attending a children's haemophilia clinic after some of them had been diagnosed as positive for HIV. DESIGN: Comparison of haemophiliac children with matched control groups of diabetic and healthy children. SETTING: The West of Scotland Children's Haemophilia Centre, Glasgow. PATIENTS: 43 Children aged 3 to 16 years with mild, moderate, and severe clotting disorders were matched with control groups of 46 diabetic children and 42 physically healthy children. INTERVENTIONS: Parents of children aged 3-5 years were interviewed with the behaviour screening questionnaire. Children aged 6 to 16 were assessed by parental and teacher report using standardised questionnaires and self report using a computerised depression inventory. All were scored numerically according to the presence of symptoms of emotional and behavioural problems. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The groups were compared for mean scores on each rating device and for number of children achieving scores within the pathological range. RESULTS: In the 6-16 age group five haemophiliac children, five diabetic children, and three healthy children scored in the pathological range on the parent questionnaire, as did two, three, and five respectively on the teacher questionnaire and four, four, and eight on the depression inventory. There was no significant difference across the three groups. Analysis of mean scores similarly showed no significant difference across groups. In contrast, the single measure used for younger children showed an increase in behavioural difficulties among the diabetic children. CONCLUSION: Haemophiliac children attending the West of Scotland Centre were no more disturbed than their diabetic or healthy peers despite the identification of HIV infection within the clinic and the widespread adverse publicity associated with AIDS and HIV infection.