An assessment of hostility in a population of adolescents.

In the course of an epidemiological survey of adolescents, the Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire was administered to 6,709 persons aged 13 to 18 years, representing 89% of secondary school students in Hobart, Tasmania. Extrapunitiveness was found to decrease substantially between the ages of 15 and 17 years in both sexes. Intropunitiveness also decreased, although to a lesser extent. Girls were less extrapunitive and more intropunitive than boys over the whole age range. These findings are discussed in relation to their clinical relevance and to the understanding of psychiatric disorder in adolescents.

Haemophilia - its medical management.

The name haemophilia was coined by a German, Schonlein, about 150 years ago but it is only really in the last decade that the patient with this disorder in one of its more severe forms has had any real hope of leading something approaching a normal life.

Health in the community.

Years ago, one of Mark Twain's characters summarized the attitude towards health held by the vast majority of Australians, when he stated "The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd druther not".

Humanizing paediatric care.

This paper deals with the development of a paediatric team approach to the care of children in the 70 bed paediatric unit in the Royal Hobart Hospital in Tasmania, Australia, and describes the measures used to help children and their parents adapt to life in hospital with a limited budget. The staff includes paediatricians and pediatric surgeon, resident staff, nurses, teachers, social worker, physiotherapist and pharmacist. There are no visiting hours but the wards are open to parents and relatives at any time. Parents are encouraged to stay in hospital and their accommodation is either in flats at the end of wards or in single or double bed wards using foldup beds. Each young child has a personal details form completed and placed on the end of the cot allowing a nurse to discover likes, dislikes, methods of feeding and sleeping, etc. Parents are asked to complete questionnaires at the time of the child's discharge, asking for their assessment of the standards of care their child received. Playleaders are rostered for evenings and weekends and they work with, and direct Red Cross volunteer ladies. Two full-time teachers cooperate with the child's school in maintaining the child's educational progress. Volunteer visitors entertain children whose relatives are unable to visit or stay in hospital. The methods used to raise the standards of paediatric nursing are also described. Community groups, particularly kindergarten and primary school children, are encouraged to visit the paediatric unit and each group is usually given a brief health education talk by a member of staff.

The changing scene: dieting, vitamins, analgesics, alcohol, smoking, and Hobart secondary school students.

A comparison of the results of surveys conducted in 1971 and 1977 involving secondary school students in Hobart has been made. It revealed an increasing intake of alcohol and vitamins but a decrease in analgesic usage in both sexes. Female students were smoking more frequently and more heavily and more of them were on weight-reducing diets. These results indicate that the kinds of health education in use at present are not effective.

Management of grieving after stillbirth.

This article is based upon a detailed series of interviews, some of which continued from up to two years, with 18 women who had suffered a stillbirth and with 11 of their husbands, and upon briefer interviews with a further eight women. No suggestion is made that the individuals involved are a representative sample. The crises and natural history of grieving after stillbirth are described and suggestions are made concerning the monitoring and guidance of the bereavement process.

The herpesvirus 8-encoded chemokine vMIP-II, but not the poxvirus-encoded chemokine MC148, inhibits the CCR10 receptor.

The viral chemokine antagonist vMIP-II encoded by human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) and MC148 encoded by the poxvirus - Molluscum contagiosum - were tested against the newly identified chemokine receptor CCR10. As the CCR10 ligand ESkine / CCL27 had the highest identity to MC148 and because both chemokines are expressed in the skin we suspected MC148 to block CCR10. However, in calcium mobilization assays we found MC148 unable to block CCR10 in micromolar concentrations in contrast to vMIP-II. (125)I-MC148 was only able to bind to CCR8, but not to CCR10, CCR11, CXCR6 / BONZO, APJ, DARC or the orphan receptors BOB, EBI-II, GPR4, GPR17, HCR or RDC1. We conclude that MC148 is a highly selective CCR8 antagonist conceivably optimized to interfere with NK cell and monocyte invasion, whereas the broad-spectrum antagonist vMIP-II protects HHV8 by blocking multiple receptors.

Mental health and the use of alcohol, tobacco, analgesics and vitamins in a secondary school population.

A survey of mental health in relation to patterns of alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical drug use and reducing diets was carried out in six Hobart high schools and matriculation colleges. A response rate of 89% was achieved, yielding a sample of 2,419 teenagers. Psychiatric disorder was assessed by the 60-item General Health Questionnaire. A statistically significant association was found between the probability of psychiatric disturbance and the use of alcohol, cigarettes, analgesics, vitamin supplements and weight-reducing diets.

Longitudinal growth study of tasmanian children. The ten-year-olds.

The data obtained at the 10-year examination of children in a longitudinal growth study are presented. The heights and weights of children appear to be comparable with those of children in other regions, but certain ethnic, social and economic factors as well as elapsed time have to be considered. From the percentages of overweight boys and girls at each of various years of the child's development--namely, birth, one year, three years, seven years and 10 years--it is shown that there is no one period in which children are likely to become overweight. Birth weight was found to be of minor importance in determining a child's weight at 10 years of age. Many children have wrong concepts about their own weight status.