Purpose: A longitudinal cohort of adolescents who initiated drinking before age 15 were studied to determine which factors distinguished between early initiators who continued to drink (persisters) from those who stopped drinking (desisters). There were 308 early initiators in the total sample (n = 917); 247 were persisters, and 61 were desisters.…

This study examined the rates of special education placement during middle school grades (sixth through eighth) among children who participated in the Linda Ray Intervention Program (LRIP) center-based and home-based learning modalities. The study sample included 113 children in Miami Dade County Public Schools who had gestational cocaine exposure…

Clinical research during the pregnancy period is maximally beneficial for participants if it is positive, inclusive, and therapeutic. We describe our ongoing study of ethnically diverse, low-income pregnant women and fathers-to-be that leverages participants' benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) and promotes insight to counteract mental health…

Effects of sex and handedness on the production of spontaneous and click-evoked otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) were explored in a non-hearing impaired population (ages 17-25 years). A sex difference in OAEs, either produced spontaneously (spontaneous OAEs or SOAEs) or in response to auditory stimuli (click-evoked OAEs or CEOAEs) has been reported in…

Background: The study of gene-environment interactions (G by E) is one of the most promising strategies to uncover the origins of mental disorders. Replication of initial findings, however, is essential because there is a strong possibility of publication bias in the literature. In addition, there is a scarcity of research on the topic originated…

Background: Term fetuses discriminate their mother's voice from a female stranger's, suggesting recognition/learning of some property of her voice. Identification of the onset and maturation of the response would increase our understanding of the influence of environmental sounds on the development of sensory abilities and identify the period when…

There is some evidence for sex differences in habituation in the human fetus, but it is unknown whether this is due to differences in central processing (habituation) or in more peripheral processes, sensory or motor, involved in the response. This study examined whether the sex of the fetus influenced auditory habituation at 33 weeks of…

Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke is suggested as a potential risk factor for autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Previous epidemiological studies of this topic have yielded mixed findings. We performed a case-control study of 3,958 ASD cases and 38,983 controls nested in a large register-based cohort in Sweden. ASD case status was measured using a…

Objective: To investigate the direct effects of prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) on adolescent drug use, while controlling for other predictors of adolescent use. Method: Data are from a longitudinal study of PCE in which women and their offspring were assessed throughout childhood. Adolescents were interviewed at 15 years about their age at…

This paper explores the idea of possible proto-experiences of the prenatal child in the context of Bion's model of container/contained. The physical configuration of the embryo/foetus contained in the maternal uterus represents the starting point for an enquiry into the unborn child's possible experiences of its state of being contained in a…

Most people have 23 pairs of chromosomes; one set from the mother and one from the father. However, nondisjunction errors during meiosis can lead to a case of trisomy, where there are three rather than two chromosomes. Although such events are not uncommon, they are usually lethal, and account for a high proportion of spontaneous abortions. There…

Neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) graduates, a group at risk for attention problems and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, performed an intradimensional shift card sort at 34, 42, 51, and 60 months to assess executive function and to examine effects of individual risk factors. In the "silly" game, children sorted cards…

It is still under debate whether the reported effects of opioid maintenance therapy (OMT) on child behaviour are a direct effect of prenatal exposure, or whether other factors are involved. This prospective cohort study investigated three models: the teratogenic risk model, the maternal risk model, and a combined risk model in a group of 35…

I examine the impact of prenatal total suspended particulate (TSP) exposure on educational outcomes using county-level variation in the timing and severity of the industrial recession of the early 1980s as a shock to ambient TSPs (similar to Chay and Greenstone 2003b). I then instrument for pollution levels using county-level changes in relative…

Health disparities in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are of high importance to American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. We conducted focus groups and interviews with 21 AI/AN women and key informants in Southern California to modify a brief, Web-based program for screening and prevention of prenatal alcohol use. This process…