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About 20% of pregnant women will drink alcohol, even though no universally safe level of prenatal alcohol consumption has been established. This study of 123 alcohol screen-positive pregnant women receiving a brief intervention in the 16th week of gestation examines the relationship of drinking goals, reasons for the goals, recognition of situations increasing risk of drinking, and subsequent antepartum consumption. While women who named abstinence as their antepartum drinking goal were more likely not to be consuming alcohol at the time of study enrollment (x(super 2) = 16.80, df = 1, p = .001), current drinkers who named abstinence as their goal did reduce subsequent prenatal alcohol use (X(super 2) = 10.04, df = 1, p = .002). All current drinkers who indicated fetal alcohol syndrome as a reason not to drink reduced their subsequent alcohol consumption (X(super 2) = 11.04, df = 1, p = .001). Future efforts may include the partners and support systems of pregnant women in education or intervention programs to reduce prenatal alcohol consumption to enhance their effectiveness.

The reservations expressed about the accuracy of patient self-reports of drinking may be heightened when obtaining information about prenatal alcohol consumption, which may be subject to fears of social or medical disapproval. Thus, clinicians may seek collateral reports to confirm patients' reports during this critical time. The purpose of this study is to compare the self and collateral reports of antepartum alcohol consumption by 247 pregnant women, obtained shortly after the initiation of prenatal care, and again after delivery. Collateral reports of subjects were exceeded by the subjects' self-reports of alcohol consumption before pregnancy and in the antepartum. Keywords - prenatal alcohol use; self report; collateral.

The hindlimbs of 51 preserved specimens of northern flicker, Colaptes auratus, were dissected to determine intraspecific variation in the musculature of the lower extremities in this species. Results reveal significant variation in three muscle groups, the iliofibularis, the pubo-ischio-femoralis and the flexor perforatus digiti. These variations may have been brought about by atavism, adaptive variation or random variation.

This study investigated the relationship between preabuse factors and psychological symptomatology in sexually abused girls. Ninety-four sexually abused girls, 89 clinical controls, and 75 normal controls comprised the subject population. All subjects were ages 6-12. Preabuse information was obtained with the Developmental, Psychiatric, and Medical History (DPM). Symptom measures included the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL parent version). Results indicated that the sexually abused and clinical control groups had significantly more prior developmental and psychiatric problems and significantly more past stressors on the DPM than the normal control group. In addition, in examining the sexually abused group only, prior developmental and psychiatric problems were clearly associated with increased behavioral and emotional problems (CBCL), self-reported depressive symptoms (CDI), and lower self-esteem (Piers-Harris). Parallel results were found in the clinical control group, although correlations were higher in the sexual abuse group. Findings are interpreted to support the notion that there are a multitude of variables that may affect the psychological adjustment of sexually abused children, including preabuse and post-abuse factors and the trauma of the abusive experience itself.

Objective: The TWEAK is a screening instrument used to identify women who are risk drinkers. Potential limitations of previous studies of the TWEAK in the prenatal setting include indirect administration of the instrument to minority, indigent pregnant women. The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy of the TWEAK when it is given directly to a sample of pregnant women of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Method: The original TWEAK, with two different tolerance questions, was administered to a sample of 135 pregnant women enrolled in a study of alcohol use during pregnancy at the obstetrics practices of the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Results: The TWEAK, using the first tolerance question (number of drinks before feeling the first effects of alcohol) with the cut point set at more than two drinks, had the best predictive ability for lifetime alcohol diagnoses and risk drinking. The sensitivity of the TWEAK can be increased if the cut point for the first tolerance question is set at two drinks, with some loss of specificity and predictive ability. Medical record assessment was the least sensitive but most specific method of identifying alcohol use by pregnant women. Conclusions: The TWEAK has promise as a screening instrument for identifying risk drinking during pregnancy. Future work should include testing in other clinical populations. (J. Stud. Alcohol 60: 306-309, 1999), Improving the identification of alcohol use during pregnancy is particularly timely since the overall rate of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in 1993 (6.7 per 10,000) was more than six-fold higher [...]