Enhancing Adolescent Compliance with Medical Regimens

Factors influencing compliance with medical regimens among adolescents have been the subject of few studies. Much current knowledge is either the product of conventional wisdom or the subject of debate. Direct and indirect methods are available to measure compliance. Models used to study patient compliance include the individualistic model, the health-belief model, and the physician-patient relationship model. This article itemizes a host of characteristics influencing poor compliance and describes a series of interventions to enhance compliance. Overall, it is important that the physician assess the adolescent's level of psychosocial development and the environmental factors that can influence compliance

Helping Families Deal With Adolescent Sexuality

Developing an independent sexual identity is one of the psychosocial tasks of adolescence. The only recent change in adolescent sexual activity is an increased percentage of teenage girls having intercourse. Coitus carries the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. It is also an area of conflict with parents. There are healthy and unhealthy approaches to these problems. Family physicians must demystify adolescent sexuality. They must give the adolescent non-judgmental, confidential, and comprehensive care. They must pursue the many possible underlying causes for parental conflict with their teenagers over sexuality. Community involvement is very important in this aspect of practice

Nuclear Inclusions in the Liver Cells of the Golden Hamster

Intranuclear inclusion bodies were observed in the liver cells of 21 of 104 hamsters. The cause of these inclusions remains unknown but they probably represent infoldings of the nuclear membrane in which the cytoplasm has become segregated. An account is given of the age incidence, morphology and histo-chemical features of these inclusions

Production d'un Syndrome Débilitant chez le Hamster après L'inoculation de Matériel Leucémique Bovin

Wasting disease was observed in hamsters inoculated at birth with a cell-free bovine leukemic extract. The autopsy and histological examination of the runted hamsters revealed visible lesions in the lymphoid tissues. These lesions consisted mostly in depletion of lympocytes in the spleen and in the cortex of the lymph nodes and in atrophy of the Peper's patches. Thymic lesions were also observed. Anemia and a decrease of circulating lymphocytes were observed in the peripheral blood

Epidemiological Studies on Rubella

Serological surveys of rubella antibody were carried out using the hemagglutination-inhibition test, with a view to studying the distribution of seroimmune individuals according to age and intermingling with other populations. Specimens were collected from different age groups including infants, children and adults, among the inhabitants of Montreal from 1963 to 1968. From the results obtained it was possible to establish the pattern of rubella antibody development in this urban community. Surveys were also conducted among the inhabitants of Les Iles de la Madeleine, a Canadian island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and among the population of Easter Island, an isolated island in the South Pacific remote from any large land mass

An Adolescent Medicine Service: A Role for a Family Physician in a Pediatric Teaching Hospital

A family physician was appointed director of the Adolescent and Youth Medicine Service at the Montreal Children's Hospital. He was assigned a leadership role in the adolescent outpatient clinics and the adolescent inpatient ward. As team leader, he coordinates the work of allied health professionals and provides personal ongoing care to patients, fostering a comprehensive care approach in service, teaching and in links with the community. There are of course certain conceptual and practical problems in the situation of a primary care physician in a tertiary care setting; university departments of family medicine must face the challenge of altering consultants' thinking about their role