Danazol in the treatment of mammary dysplasia.

While employing danazol in the management of women with endometriosis, a voluntary comment patients frequently offerd was that breast pain, nodularity and premenstrual engorgement were alleviated. Because of this unexpected finding, our attention was directed to the treatment of women with mammary dysplasia, particularly fibrocystic disease of the breast. Since the incidence of mammary cancer increases rapidly with age, we obtained xerommamograms in all suspected cases to exclude such a possibility. Danazol was employed in dosages varying from 100 to 400mg per day for 3 to 6 months, depending on the severity of the disorder. More than 75% of patients experienced marked improvement or elimination of the nodularity and engorgement, and many women were spared unnecessary surgery. When surgical interference was deemed necessary in cases of multiple nodosities, danazol treatment helped to identify for biopsy a dominant nodule that did not respond to therapy. Danazol has much to offer in the treatment of benign breast disease, and represents an important advance over 'traditional' hormonal regimens proposed in the past.

The beneficial effects of volunteering for older volunteers and the people they serve: a meta-analysis.

The current political-economic climate, which is generally supportive of both private and public sector down-sizing, increasingly demands that human service workers assess, engage, and creatively use consumer strengths and resources. This meta-analysis of thirty-seven independent studies provided the means of inferring not only that elder volunteers' sense of well-being seemed to be significantly bolstered through volunteering, but also that such relatively healthy older people represent a significant adjunct resource for meeting some of the service needs of more vulnerable elders, as well as those of other similarly vulnerable groups such as disabled children. Averaging across studies, 85 percent of the "clients" who received service from an older volunteer (e.g., peer-counseling of nursing home residents) scored better on dependent measures (e.g., diminished depression) than the average person in comparison conditions did (U3 = .847 [Cohen, 1988], combined p < .001). The policy implications of such beneficial effects among both older volunteers and the people they serve are discussed.