Hemodynamic effects of intravenous amiodarone.

Amiodarone is a potent antiarrhythmic agent that is effective in controlling both atrial and ventricular arrhythmias. Recently, intravenous administration was demonstrated to be effective in the acute management of rhythm disorders and, in addition, appeared to shorten the loading period normally required for oral drug administration. This investigation examined the hemodynamic effects of amiodarone after both acute intravenous bolus and continuous intravenous administration. Patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction greater than 0.35 experienced improved cardiac performance due to both acute and chronic peripheral vasodilation. However, patients with a lower ejection fraction developed a 20% decrease in cardiac index and clinically significant elevation of right heart pressures after acute bolus administration; these changes were variably compensated for by peripheral vasodilation when the drug was administered intravenously over 3 to 5 days continuously. Therefore, intravenous amiodarone can result in significant impairment of left ventricular performance in patients with preexisting left ventricular dysfunction.

Behavioral correlates of maternal depressive symptomatology in conduct-disorder children.

We contrasted two predictive models of the impact of maternal depressive symptomatology on child behavior in a study of 51 mothers and their conduct-disorder children. Relations between global measures of maternal distress and child adjustment and observational measures of mother-child interaction were examined. Children of distressed mothers were more maladjusted than children of nondistressed mothers, when maladjustment was measured on the basis of a global rating, but "better" adjusted when measured on the basis of interactional measures. Measures of maternal indiscriminate responding to the child may account for these findings. Results suggest that (a) although conduct-disorder children are generally more maladjusted when their mothers are distressed, they display this maladjustment in a selective fashion, and (b) maternal distress acts as an adverse contextual factor that maintains mother-child interactional difficulties by disrupting the attentional and monitoring skills required for contingent responding.

Eyelid conditioning and intellectual deficit: role of CS duration, US intensity and US mode.

When two separate and independent organizations must work together to accomplish a mutual task, difficulties often arise which remain poorly understood. The analysis of intergroup phenomena involves an exploration of interaction within and between groups; such relationships include problems arising from differences in tasks, structure, and culture of the two groups, definition of the intergroup task, choice of group representatives, and the possibilities and problems of dual group membership for the negotiators. While the literatures on group process and organization development contain some work on intergroup phenomena (e.g., Aldrich, 1971; Baker and O'Brien, 1971; Klein et al., 1971; Mills, 1975; Walton, 1972), much conceptual work remains to be done. We will focus upon one type of intergroup relationship--that between a traditional human service organization and a social movement group--in which dual membership is a particular problem, and in which conflict may be neutralized by the form of the negotiations. A case example of an interaction between a mental health center and a women's liberation group will provide one example of such negotiations. The analysis is presented within the framework of the open system model of Miller and Rice (1967) and Ric's general model of intergroup relations (1965, 1969).