No abstract

Background:  This research investigated parent reports of pre‐admission psychotropic medication histories of psychiatrically hospitalised children in the United States. The emphasis was on identifying factors related to potentially overzealous medication use. Method:  Diagnosis, insurance type, and demographics for 170 consecutive admissions were assessed via research case conference and chart review. An extreme group of children with lengthy medication histories (n = 20) was also identified, and prescription and diagnostic patterns for this group were compared to other medicated children in the sample (n = 100). Cumulative medication history, rather than specific polypharmacy, was examined. Results:  Psychopharmacotherapy was common (71%). Privately insured children, children with previous psychiatric hospitalisations, and children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and the specific comorbidities of ODD/ADHD, and ODD/Parent Child Relational Problems had more past medication trials. Depressed children had fewer. Analyses of the extreme group suggest that young, privately insured, oppositional children with parent‐child relationship problems were at highest risk for overmedication (including multiple trials of stimulants, as well as mood stabilisers, central adrenergic agonists, and antipsychotics). Conclusions:  Results raise important questions about the role of health care pressures on clinical practice in the United States.

The function of an odour may be reflected in its fade‐out time in the environment. In this study, we investigated fade‐out times of two specific odours, the anogenital area scent and that of the posterolateral region. These two odours support opposite‐sex preferences in male and female meadow voles, Microtus pennsylvanicus, but convey nonidentical information to conspecifics during the breeding season. The first experiment tested whether meadow voles respond preferentially to scents that were aged for 15 min (fresh) to 30 d. Males preferred female anogenital area scent to male anogenital area scent if both scents were ≤ 10 d old. By comparison, females preferred male anogenital area scent to female anogenital area scent if the scents were ≤ 25 d old. However, male and female voles preferred the posterolateral scent of males to that of females if the scents were ≤ 1 d old. Thus, fade‐out times for these two scents differ for males and females, suggesting different functions. In the second experiment, male and female voles preferred fresh anogenital area scent and fresh posterolateral region scent compared with those same scents that were older. This result suggests that older scents may have lost information over time about the sex of the donor. Overall, data from both experiments indicate that voles may use specific scents for communication in different social contexts.