This review of assessment strategies for handicapped populations is intended to provide counselors with assessment perspectives as well as specific suggestions. The review emphasizes the counselor's role as a member of a diagnostic team and the need to consider a variety of information in formation of meaningful intervention strategies. (Author)

Examines the effects of mental illness on parenting in a sample of women with serious mental illness. Diagnosis had a small but significant effect on parenting attitudes and behaviors. However, current symptoms mediated the effects of diagnosis and chronicity on parenting stress, and current symptomatology and community functioning partially…

This literature review addresses how the mental health professions view and use communication behaviors in their own diagnostic framework, focusing on cooccurrence of communication and psychiatric disorders, and psychiatrists' consideration of communication disorders as only one of a number of neurobehavioral systems. (JDD)

Reviews research on learning disabilities. Evaluates the adequacy of the knowledge base. Discusses the implications for social policies regarding the definition, diagnosis, treatment, and education of learning disabled children. (Author/BJV)

Reviews literature examining family variables associated with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa and family systems treatments for these eating disorders. Presents definitions of and diagnostic criteria for anorexia and bulimia, and discusses prevalence of these disorders. Reviews role played by psychopathological, sociological, and…

This article reviews 19 common myths in voice therapy. Issues examined include developmental factors, iatrogenic voice disorders, breathing habits, optimum pitch, palate training, and etiology based on perceptual cues. More referral, assessment, and decision making are needed, as well as development of standards for the management of voice…

The comprehensive management of epilepsy in people with mental retardation requires consideration of four aspects of care: diagnosis and classification, anticonvulsant drug treatment, safety and protection from injury, and psychosocial functioning. This paper outlines what is known and unknown in these four areas and introduces articles in this…

Future dental practice is seen to include not only the electronic dental record (EDR) but a fully electronic clinical dental documentation package, computer-assisted diagnostic support, and digital imaging. The EDR's development since the 1970s is reviewed. Specific suggestions are made concerning hardware, software, administration, and practical…

Discusses the diagnosis and management of "non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome," a form of cyclic insomnia to which people who are totally blind are prone. Covered are incidence and clinical features, formal diagnostic criteria, the biological basis of circadian sleep disorders, circadian rhythms in blind people, pharmacological entrainment,…

Presents evidence to show variability across states in the use of the severe-emotional-disturbance designation for students and the frequency of comorbid and trimorbid cases being classified as learning disabled. Findings are presented from ongoing projects to illustrate differential profiles for comorbid children. (Author/CR)

Provides guidance to counselors who are referred identified and alleged sex offenders for psychosexual evaluations. Reviews the critical legal, ethical, and clinical issues that counselors should consider when responding to these referral requests. This article can be used to educate referral sources about the indications of evaluations of this…

Reviews relevant literature to assist counselors in conducting quality clinical assessments of child victims and adult survivors of child maltreatment. Discusses guidelines, such as knowledge of abuse literature, the assessment process, ecological approaches, and standard quality assessment principles. Outlines standardized self-report measures…

Explores the incidence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among gifted students, the effects of drug therapy, and environmental conditions that may cause or influence ADHD-like behaviors in high ability students. Diagnostic and intervention strategies are suggested to counteract environmental contributors to the problem. (Author/CR)

Discusses the definition of dyslexia, reintroduces the concept of marker variables, proposes a strategy for developing an updated marker variable system, presents a preliminary working set of dyslexia marker variables, and calls for eventual adoption of this or similar marker variable systems to facilitate future research efforts. (Author/CR)

The DSM-IV categorizes 10 personality disorders, long-term patterns of personality traits that result in impairment of social and occupational functioning. The author details steps in the recognition and diagnosis of personality disorders, with emphasis on using the DSM-IV diagnostic framework. (Author)