Faculty Bibliography

This study was undertaken to provide an initial characterization of the current status of patients admitted to an alcoholism treatment program in Iceland. Consistent with the Minnesota Model, 12-step facilitation has been a central component of the program since its inception. Of the 94 patients assessed in this study, 67% were male and 40% had attended over 90 AA meetings prior to admission. The mean number of drinking days during the month prior to admission was 15.51 days and the mean length of hospital stay was 12.32 days. At time of hospital discharge, 39% were referred to residential treatment. Significant predictors of referral to residential treatment included having attended less than 90 AA meetings prior to admission and length of stay

Spirituality is important to many psychiatric patients, and these patients may be moved toward recovery more effectively if their spiritual needs are addressed in treatment. This, however, is rarely given expression in the psychiatric services of teaching hospitals. In order to develop this potential area of improved care, we (1) evaluated the differential attitudes of patients and psychiatric trainees toward the value of spirituality in the recovery process, (2) established a program of group meetings conducted by psychiatric residents and staff where patients can discuss how to draw on their spirituality in coping with their problems, and (3) established related training experiences for psychiatric residents. The results and implications of these three initiatives are presented

This paper reviews a body of findings in order to define the nature of spirituality from a biopsychosocial perspective and to illustrate its relevance to the field of psychiatry. The emergence of spirituality within the common culture is described, after which a number of sociobiologically related studies are presented to illustrate how its component dimensions can be defined. These are evolutionary adaptation, affectional ties, subjective experiences, and positive psychology. The relevance of spiritually related issues in psychiatric diagnosis are illustrated, along with examples of their role in symptom relief. The paper concludes with a description of a program implemented to integrate the issue of spirituality into resident training and into group support for hospital-based patients

We tested the hypothesis that there is a mediational pathway from parental alcohol use during the participants' adolescence to the participants' psychological symptoms in young adulthood. This pathway includes the participants' alcohol use and their psychological symptoms, both during adolescence. The participants are inner city African American and Puerto Rican early adolescents followed until young adulthood. They reported their own and their parents' behavior. Structural equation modeling showed that parental alcohol use was related to early adolescent alcohol use, which was associated with late adolescent alcohol use. Late adolescent alcohol use was related to psychological symptoms in late adolescence, which predicted young adult psychological symptoms. Males reported more alcohol use and more psychological symptoms than females in late adolescence and more psychological symptoms in young adulthood. Findings suggest that parents' and adolescents' alcohol use should be a focus in interventions designed to prevent or treat psychological symptoms in late adolescence and young adulthood. (Am J Addict 2010;00:1-9)