Delayed processing of blood samples influences time to positivity of blood cultures and results of Gram stain-acridine orange leukocyte Cytospin test

We investigated in vitro whether storage of blood samples influences the time to positivity used for the calculation of the differential time to positivity (DTP) and the results of the Gram stain-acridine orange leukocyte Cytospin (AOLC) test. A 24-hour storage of blood samples at room temperature may lead to false-negative DTP and false-positive Gram stain-AOLC test results, whereas storage at 4 degrees C does not.

[Therapy motivation of young prisoners]

OBJECTIVES

Therapy adherence was examined within a sample of 145 imprisoned male juveniles with regard to factors of influence, structure and predictability.

METHODS

Predictors included biographic data, expectations with regard to therapy, personality traits (measured with the FPI-R) and psychological impairment (investigated by means of the Symptom Checklist). Therapy adherence as a criterion can be divided into the following dimensions: affliction, dissatisfaction, requests for change and help, and expectations of success.

RESULTS

Within the sample a clear impairment of biographical and psychological data, as well as of personality traits was found. Values were average for expectations regarding therapy and therapy adherence, while two thirds of the sample were willing to undergo treatment during imprisonment.

CONCLUSIONS

Therapy adherence proved to be a one-dimensional construct, best predicted by emotional instability, followed by the symptom score, expectations regarding therapy and inhibition. Dividing the entire sample into subgroups, significant differences were found mainly for psychological test data and less so for the construct of therapy adherence.

[Therapy motivation of young prisoners]

OBJECTIVES

Therapy adherence was examined within a sample of 145 imprisoned male juveniles with regard to factors of influence, structure and predictability.

METHODS

Predictors included biographic data, expectations with regard to therapy, personality traits (measured with the FPI-R) and psychological impairment (investigated by means of the Symptom Checklist). Therapy adherence as a criterion can be divided into the following dimensions: affliction, dissatisfaction, requests for change and help, and expectations of success.

RESULTS

Within the sample a clear impairment of biographical and psychological data, as well as of personality traits was found. Values were average for expectations regarding therapy and therapy adherence, while two thirds of the sample were willing to undergo treatment during imprisonment.

CONCLUSIONS

Therapy adherence proved to be a one-dimensional construct, best predicted by emotional instability, followed by the symptom score, expectations regarding therapy and inhibition. Dividing the entire sample into subgroups, significant differences were found mainly for psychological test data and less so for the construct of therapy adherence.

[Attributional style of psychiatrically and somatically ill adolescents]

The results of an investigation of adolescents with an attributional-style-questionnaire for real-life-situations are presented. Between the two clinical groups with neurotic respectively antisocial problems and the control group of adolescents with different somatic diseases only few significant differences were found corresponding to the attributional style; important differences were found according to the significance the groups ascribe to the different situations. The results are discussed and implications for the clinical therapeutic work are derived.

[A social pedagogic oriented therapy unit in a clinic for child and adolescent psychiatry]

At first the conception and working modalities of a ward in a Child and Adolescent Department that includes social work are presented. Then the work done up to today is analyzed corresponding to admissions, patients' variables such as age and diagnosis, length of treatment and discharge criteria. Two thirds of the 122 treated patients on the described ward, with the special task to prepare discharge after having being treated on another therapeutic ward, were discharged into their original families and former living conditions.