Search

This study examined whether individual differences in perception of the quality of professional support available at a time of stress may be associated with security of attachment. We developed a new measure of parents' perceptions of emotional and practical support provided by a wide range of professionals involved in the treatment of infants with cleft lip. It showed good internal reliability and stability over 4 months. Mothers of 102 infants with cleft lip, with or without cleft palate, completed the measure at 2 and 6 months, together with the Parental Bonding Instrument and the General Health Questionnaire. Mean scores reflecting how much they could trust or talk frankly, or share their worst fears, with professionals, and the extent to which they saw them as a source of useful information or practical help, were lower among mothers with recollections of low maternal care in childhood, or high control. This was the case at 2 and 6 months, and there were some indications of an increasing contribution of low maternal care from 2 to 6 months. The associations were not explained by current depression. Further research is needed to clarify the role of attachment processes in parents' responses to serious medical conditions in their children, and into the implications for the way professionals in paediatric services provide support.

A total of 134 patients with biliary tract disease were studied. Of these 94 patients were operated in Karachi (Pakistan) and 40 at Aylesbury (England). The age and sex incidence, clinical features and laboratory investigations were studied and compared in the two groups. It is concluded that biliary tract disease occurs at a much younger age in women of child bearing age in Karachi. The incidence of common bile duct stones appears to be low. Carcinoma of the Gall-bladder was recorded in 6.3 per cent in Karachi group.