Without Parental Consent: Conducting Research With Homeless Adolescents

ISSUES AND PURPOSE. To identify the ethical and legal implications of conducting research with homeless adolescents and to discuss guidelines for conducting research without parental consent.
CONCLUSIONS. Ethical principles of capacity, risk, postponement, and truthful disclosure within the context of the rights of minors to consent to healthcare treatment form the basis of the argument for allowing adolescents to consent to participate in research without parental consent when there is minimal risk or when such consent could place them at increased risk for harm.
PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS. Adolescents who are the target population for clinical research or who are intended recipients of nursing care should be involved in setting priorities, purposes, and protocols. Parents and other adults from their communities should be included in developing strategies to protect their confidentiality and privacy while helping them achieve autonomy in making informed health-related decisions.     

Coming of age: critical challenges to the future development of pediatric psychology

Described five professional challenges that will affect the future development of pediatric psychology: specialization and professional identity, relationships with other professions, securing resources necessary for effective functioning, the conflict between clinical service delivery and prevention, and development of training models. To meet these challenges, pediatric psychologists need to maintain strong connections with other psychologists, develop new models of collaborative training, practice, and research, emphasize prevention activities, and enhance the scientific basis of pediatric psychology through innovative training programs and support for faculty development.     

La douleur peut-elle être perçue et cherchée plus « vivement » dans une culture postmoderne en perte de sens ?

The perception of the pain, and the “work of pain” which ensues from it, bound to the notion of trauma-hurt to subjects presenting a thought operating and a depression main part, sign a physical fixation for an object psychically not representable. These subjects have a real incapacity to perceive and symbolize the affect of psychic suffering as well borderline teenagers (self-harm). Having reminded the Freudian and psychoanalytical conceptions on the pain, the operating functioning and the self-harm behaviour, the authors will refer to certain sociological works describing certain characteristics of our post-modern social, cultural and linguistic organization to underline the impact of these in the increase of the behaviour of search for the pain to borderline patients or with the perception of the pain as only sign of a mental suffering impossible to symbolize. So, we notice that the loss of symbolic structuring of our post-modern civilization, the ascent in power of the thought operating, the social and domestic disorganizations, have a real cost on our contemporaries psychic and somatic health, particularly on the most numerous among them as teenagers.     

后现代心理学概观

后现代心理学家反对以往的心理学理论和流派把心理或行为看作是一个独立于研究者的“实体”。后现代心理学的典型特征是反对基础主义和本质主义。它认为心理现象并不是一种“精神实在” ,而是一种文化的社会建构。后现代心理学的理论基础是社会建构论 ,多元文化论、后现代女性心理学都是后现代心理学的重要形式。     

Local anesthesia for inguinal hernia repair in adolescents

Background Many centers use local anesthesia for adult inguinal hernia surgery in the setting of day-case surgery. There are no reports on, or guidelines for, use of anesthesia for inguinal hernia surgery in adolescents. We describe our initial experience with the use of local anesthesia and intravenous sedation for inguinal hernia surgery in adolescents in the setting of a day-surgery facility. Methods The charts of 14 consecutive adolescent patients (aged 12–17) who had inguinal hernia surgery from July 2004 to March 2005 were reviewed retrospectively. Intravenous sedation was administered 1–3 min before injection of local anesthetic. Sedation consisted of midazolam 0.085 mg kg⁻¹ and either fentanyl 0.85 μg kg⁻¹ or ketamine 0.085 mg kg⁻¹, according to the preference of the anesthesiologist. Additional sedation with half the initial dose was administered if required. Local anesthesia using a combination of lignocaine and bupivacaine was administered by the surgeon with infiltration in the skin and deep tissues. Results Fourteen adolescents aged 12–17 years (mean 14.8 ± 1.37), weighing 34–100 kg (mean 61.2 ± 16.5), had 15 inguinal hernia repairs with sedation and local anesthesia. All the patients were male. All completed the surgery with sedation and local anesthesia. None required conversion to general anesthesia. There were no immediate or subsequent complications. Mean time from the end of surgery to discharge home was under 2 h (mean 106 ± 36 min). Examination of patient charts did not reveal any complaints regarding the surgery or the postoperative course at the postoperative follow up visit. Conclusions The use of local anesthesia with intravenous sedation for inguinal hernia repair in the adolescent age group seems feasible and requires further prospective study.     

Functional correlates of verbal memory deficits emerging during nicotine withdrawal in abstinent adolescent cannabis users.

BACKGROUND: Cannabis remains the most widely used illicit substance by adolescents and is typically consumed by this population in the context of ongoing tobacco use. Human studies have shown that both cannabis and tobacco exert effects on cognitive function; however, little is known about possible interacting effects of these drugs on brain function and cognition during adolescent development. METHODS: Verbal learning and memory were assessed in 20 adolescent users of tobacco and cannabis and 25 adolescent tobacco users with minimal history of cannabis use. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine brain function and functional connectivity while a subset of these subjects performed a verbal working memory task. RESULTS: Delayed recall of verbal stimuli deteriorated during nicotine withdrawal among cannabis users but not among comparison subjects. During high verbal working memory load, nicotine withdrawal selectively increased task-related activation of posterior cortical regions and was associated with disruption of frontoparietal connectivity in adolescent cannabis users relative to comparison subjects. CONCLUSIONS: These observations suggest that cannabis use during adolescent development may disrupt neurocircuitry supporting verbal memory formation and that deficits associated with disruption of these neurocircuits are unmasked during nicotine withdrawal.     

青少年特发性胸椎侧凸后路凸侧胸廓成形术的并发症分析

目的:探讨青少年特发性胸椎侧凸患者后路凸侧胸廓成形术的并发症发生原因及预防措施。方法:自1999年1月～2006年9月,共有410例青少年特发性胸椎侧凸患者在我科施行脊柱侧凸后路矫形内固定术,同时行同一切口下的凸侧胸廓成形术,男86例,女324例。年龄11～18岁,平均14.7岁。术前剃刀背畸形15°～48°,平均32°。统计并发症发生情况。结果:凸侧胸廓成形的肋骨切除数平均4.2根,术后剃刀背畸形0°～14°,平均6°。无手术死亡病例。24例(5.8%)术中发生壁层胸膜穿孔,6例(1.5%)术后胸腔积液,3例(0.7%)术后气胸,1例(0.2%)术后呼吸困难需间歇性吸氧,34例(8.3%)术后有局部反常呼吸,17例(4.1%)术后诉不同程度的胸壁疼痛,9例(2.2%)诉局部皮肤麻木或感觉减退,3例(0.7%)早期手术的患者术后肋骨残端突出明显,1例(0.2%)皮下血肿,1例(0.2%)皮肤压疮。经相应处理后,患者大多恢复满意。319例平均随访28个月,仅4例仍残留有胸壁皮肤感觉减退。结论:凸侧胸廓成形术是一种安全、有效的改善"剃刀背"畸形的手段。提高手术技巧,术后积极处理,可以减少甚至避免相关并发症的发生。     

青少年Pilon骨折的治疗

目的探讨青少年Pilon骨折的特点、治疗方法及其并发症。方法对1990年4月～2003年12月期间治疗的13例青少年胫骨Pilon骨折病例进行随访分析。按Merv—Letts分型：Ⅰ型5例，Ⅱ型6例，Ⅲ型2例。骨牵引治疗2例，有限内同定8例，有限内固定结合外固定支架3例。结果所有患者平均随访24个月，按Helfet踝关节功能评价：优8例，良4例，差1例，优良率92．3％。并发症：皮肤坏死2例，创伤性关节炎4例，骨骺早闭3例，畸形愈合1例，骨延迟愈合1例，外固定支架钉道感染1例，总体并发症38．5％。结论青少年Pilon骨折应根据其分型采用不同的治疗方案：疗效与创伤程度有关：Ⅲ犁骨折有较高的并发痹。     

Effect of environmental and clinical factors on lung function and respiratory symptoms in adolescents with α1-antitrypsin deficiency

Individuals identified in the Swedish neonatal α₁-antitrypsin (AAT) screening study were followed prospectively from their first to their eighteenth year of life. The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of environmental factors, i.e. active and passive smoking, and of clinical factors on lung function and the occurrence of respiratory symptoms in AAT-deficient adolescents. The study group consisted of 88 protease inhibitor (Pi)ZZ and 40 PiSZ adolescents. Medical history including respiratory symptoms, and active and passive smoking were recorded at each follow-up up to the age of 18 y. Lung function tests were performed at the present check-up. At the age of 18 y, both forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV₁) and FEV₁/vital capacity (VC) were significantly lower in the smoking than in the non-smoking subgroup, and significantly more smokers than non-smokers reported the presence of phlegm. The mean FEV₁/VC ratio was lower for those presently exposed to parental smoking. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that clinical liver disease in early life, active smoking and parental smoking were independent determinants of FEV₁/VC. The results suggest that marginal deviations in lung function and the symptom of phlegm among AAT-deficient adolescents occur characteristically early in the subgroup of smokers. Parental smoking may contribute to decreased lung function     

中医五色理论在现代色彩心理学及疗法中的佐证初探

[目的]探讨中医五色理论在现代色彩心理学及色彩疗法方面的证据。[方法]以中医五脏生理功能为线索,结合现代色彩心理学及色彩疗法,对中医五色理论在视觉刺激方面的应用加以探讨。[结果]现代色彩心理学理论以及色彩疗法,在很大程度上为中医五色理论在视觉刺激方面的应用提供了有力的证据。[结论]对根据中医理论辨证施以中医色彩疗法的探讨与研究具有相当的可行性与必要性。