The first results from a scan of the world's largest collection of DNA samples from families affected by autism point to two new genetic links that may predispose people to the brain disorder. Nature Genetics reports the study's findings in its Feb. 18 online edition.
The five-year study was led by the Autism Genome Project, an international consortium involving scientists from 50 institutions in 19 countries. Founded in 2002 with funding from the nonprofit Autism Speaks and the National Institutes of Health, the group shared DNA samples, data and expertise in a coordinated effort to identify autism-susceptibility genes.
"This degree of collaboration is an unprecedented effort in autism research and demonstrates that a genetic approach is a powerful way to deepen understanding of the disease," said Dr. Daniel Geschwind, director of the Neurogenetics Program at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, one of the study's 13 research centers.
"This large-scale study reveals that autism is an extremely diverse condition," Geschwind noted. "Our findings suggest that autism has numerous genetic origins, rather than a single or few major causes."
The consortium used gene-chip technology to search for genetic commonality in autistic individuals from nearly 1,200 families. The scientists also scanned DNA from these families for variations in gene copy numbers -- tiny genomic insertions and deletions that scientists believe might be involved with autism.
"The large number of families in this study permitted us to organize autistic children with similar features of this disorder into smaller groups, where gene linkages may be more easily detected," observed Rita Cantor, professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Results of the two-pronged approach implicated a previously unidentified region of chromosome 11; and neurexin 1, a member of a gene family believed to play a key role in communication between brain cells. The neurexin finding highlighted a group of brain cells called glutamate neurons and the genes affecting their development and function, suggesting that they play a critical role in autism spectrum disorders.
"We are excited by the results from this large-scale study," said Dr. Stanley Nelson, professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, "At the same time, we must greatly increase the number of autistic persons in our genetic analysis in order to fully describe heredity's role in the disease."
"We hope that identifying these genes will provide new insights into what underlies autism," added Geschwind. "We are optimistic that this approach will lead to improved interventions for autistic children and better quality of life for their families."
In 1997, the citizens' group Cure Autism Now (CAN) created a gene bank in order to advance genetic research on autism. UCLA partnered with CAN to add more than 400 families to the gene bank, called the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange, which contributed one-third of the clinical data and samples analyzed by the Autism Genome Project in this study.
The UCLA families who participated had more than one member diagnosed with one of three genetically related diseases: autism, pervasive developmental disorder or Asperger's syndrome. Earlier this month, CAN merged with Autism Speaks to pool their efforts to fund and advance autism research. Autism is a complex brain disorder that strikes in early childhood, often as young as 2 or 3. The condition disrupts a child's ability to communicate and develop social relationships, and is often accompanied by acute behavioral challenges. While the cause remains unknown, scientists suspect the disease is highly hereditary.
Naming autism as a national public health crisis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that one in 150 American children is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Affecting four times as many boys as girls, the diagnosis of autism has expanded tenfold in the last decade.
The UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment provides diagnosis, family counseling and treatment for patients with autism. Its research focuses on understanding the origins of the disorder's social, communicative and language deficits, and designing and testing new treatments to help autistic children and adults. The center also centralizes autism resources at UCLA and builds partnerships within the autism community.
UCLA is one of eight centers in the NIH-funded Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment network, and one of 10 original Collaborative Programs for Excellence in Autism. For more information, see http://www.autism.ucla.edu.
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences
924 Westwood Blvd., Ste. 350
Los Angeles, CA 90095
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May 7, 2007
Largest Genomic Search Finds Genes That May Contribute To Autism
An international team of researchers from 19 countries has identified one gene and a previously unidentified region of another chromosome as the location of another gene that may contribute to a child's chances of having autism.
The findings, based on genetic samples from nearly 1,200 families with two or more children who have autism, were published today in Nature Genetics by more than 120 scientists from Europe and North America who make up the Autism Genome Project.
The project was launched in 2002 by scientists at 50 institutions to share data, samples and expertise in an effort to speed up the process of identifying susceptibility genes, those that heighten a child's risk of having the developmental disorder. Seven University of Washington researchers are coauthors of the paper including lead project investigators Gerard Schellenberg and Geraldine Dawson.
The research was funded by Autism Speaks, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing awareness of autism and raising money to fund autism research, and the National Institutes of Health.
The consortium scientists utilized statistical power from the largest set of autism-related genetic material yet examined. The researchers found neurexin 1, part of a family of genes that plays a role with the neurotransmitter glutamate, and a still-to-be-pinpointed gene on chromosome 11 to be likely susceptibility genes for autism.
"Neurexin 1 is a highly likely candidate," said Schellenberg, a researcher at the Puget Sound Veterans Affairs Medical Center and a research professor of medicine at the UW. "It is a protein that enables one neuron to contact another neuron. Often you don't have any idea of what a gene does, but in this case we know neurexin 1 is involved at sites where the neurotransmitter glutamate is released. Glutamate is a brain chemical that has been previously implicated in autism. The new finding suggests that the gene is potentially important in autism.
"As for the chromosome 11 location, we think there is another susceptibility gene there and we are actively pursuing it. We are in the neighborhood and have a plan to find it."
Dawson, who directs the UW's Autism Center and is a professor of psychology, said the identification of neurexin 1 is important because glutamate is known to be involved in learning. By identifying this gene it begins to allow researchers "to go from gene to brain to behavior in a way we haven't gone before," she said. "This is a pretty big step and is a precedent showing that autism will require this kind of collaboration to make progress. It is doubtful that any single laboratory could have come up with this kind of finding. This is just the beginning of the fruits from this collaboration."
The Autism Genome Project used two techniques to examine the DNA of the nearly 1,200 families with a history of autism. Researchers used so-called "gene chip" technologies to look for genetic similarities among these family members. In addition, the team scanned the same DNA for what are called copy number variations. These are submicroscopic insertions and deletions of genetic material that scientists believe may be involved with autism and other common diseases.
Schellenberg said copy number variations are fairly common in the human genome and many of them are believed to be benign. "But until you know the function, you don't know what happens when there is an insertion or deletion of this genetic material," he added.
Scientists believe that there may be five or six major genes and perhaps as many as 30 other genes involved in autism. Inheriting more of these genes or certain ones is thought to increase a child's likelihood of being born with autism or a more severe form of the disorder, just as there are genes that heighten a person's chances for inheriting breast cancer or heart disease.
Autism is actually a spectrum of disorders that inhibits a person's ability to communicate and develop social relationships. It is often accompanied by extreme behavior challenges. Autism Spectrum Disorders are diagnosed in one of 166 children in the United States and affect four times as many boys as girls.
"These findings are a piece of the puzzle. As we identify these genes we will be able to screen young children for autism at an early age and begin interventions earlier, which can have a dramatic effect for some children," Dawson said.
A second phase of the Autism Genome Project also was announced today to continue the effort to discover the genes that cause the disorder. This $14.5 million phase is being funded by Autism Speaks, the British Medical Research Council, the Health Research Board of Ireland, Genome Canada and its partners, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center, and the Hilibrand Foundation.
Other UW researchers who contributed to the research are Annette Estes, Jeff Munson, Elena Korvatska, Ellen Wijsman and Chang-En Yu.
University of Washington
Box 351207 Gerberding Hall
Seattle, WA 98195
United States
http://www.washington.edu/
The findings, based on genetic samples from nearly 1,200 families with two or more children who have autism, were published today in Nature Genetics by more than 120 scientists from Europe and North America who make up the Autism Genome Project.
The project was launched in 2002 by scientists at 50 institutions to share data, samples and expertise in an effort to speed up the process of identifying susceptibility genes, those that heighten a child's risk of having the developmental disorder. Seven University of Washington researchers are coauthors of the paper including lead project investigators Gerard Schellenberg and Geraldine Dawson.
The research was funded by Autism Speaks, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing awareness of autism and raising money to fund autism research, and the National Institutes of Health.
The consortium scientists utilized statistical power from the largest set of autism-related genetic material yet examined. The researchers found neurexin 1, part of a family of genes that plays a role with the neurotransmitter glutamate, and a still-to-be-pinpointed gene on chromosome 11 to be likely susceptibility genes for autism.
"Neurexin 1 is a highly likely candidate," said Schellenberg, a researcher at the Puget Sound Veterans Affairs Medical Center and a research professor of medicine at the UW. "It is a protein that enables one neuron to contact another neuron. Often you don't have any idea of what a gene does, but in this case we know neurexin 1 is involved at sites where the neurotransmitter glutamate is released. Glutamate is a brain chemical that has been previously implicated in autism. The new finding suggests that the gene is potentially important in autism.
"As for the chromosome 11 location, we think there is another susceptibility gene there and we are actively pursuing it. We are in the neighborhood and have a plan to find it."
Dawson, who directs the UW's Autism Center and is a professor of psychology, said the identification of neurexin 1 is important because glutamate is known to be involved in learning. By identifying this gene it begins to allow researchers "to go from gene to brain to behavior in a way we haven't gone before," she said. "This is a pretty big step and is a precedent showing that autism will require this kind of collaboration to make progress. It is doubtful that any single laboratory could have come up with this kind of finding. This is just the beginning of the fruits from this collaboration."
The Autism Genome Project used two techniques to examine the DNA of the nearly 1,200 families with a history of autism. Researchers used so-called "gene chip" technologies to look for genetic similarities among these family members. In addition, the team scanned the same DNA for what are called copy number variations. These are submicroscopic insertions and deletions of genetic material that scientists believe may be involved with autism and other common diseases.
Schellenberg said copy number variations are fairly common in the human genome and many of them are believed to be benign. "But until you know the function, you don't know what happens when there is an insertion or deletion of this genetic material," he added.
Scientists believe that there may be five or six major genes and perhaps as many as 30 other genes involved in autism. Inheriting more of these genes or certain ones is thought to increase a child's likelihood of being born with autism or a more severe form of the disorder, just as there are genes that heighten a person's chances for inheriting breast cancer or heart disease.
Autism is actually a spectrum of disorders that inhibits a person's ability to communicate and develop social relationships. It is often accompanied by extreme behavior challenges. Autism Spectrum Disorders are diagnosed in one of 166 children in the United States and affect four times as many boys as girls.
"These findings are a piece of the puzzle. As we identify these genes we will be able to screen young children for autism at an early age and begin interventions earlier, which can have a dramatic effect for some children," Dawson said.
A second phase of the Autism Genome Project also was announced today to continue the effort to discover the genes that cause the disorder. This $14.5 million phase is being funded by Autism Speaks, the British Medical Research Council, the Health Research Board of Ireland, Genome Canada and its partners, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center, and the Hilibrand Foundation.
Other UW researchers who contributed to the research are Annette Estes, Jeff Munson, Elena Korvatska, Ellen Wijsman and Chang-En Yu.
University of Washington
Box 351207 Gerberding Hall
Seattle, WA 98195
United States
http://www.washington.edu/
Autism Expert Creates Innovative Intervention Program
Autism is the fastest growing disability in the United States, and public school systems are trying to catch up. One out of every 166 children is diagnosed with autism, making it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined.
The Autism Support Services: Education, Research, and Training (ASSERT) program at Utah State University is a state-of-the-art preschool program that uses research-based techniques to address the individual needs of autistic children. USU's pioneer site has opened the doors to a new world for children with autism and is a model training classroom for professionals in the Intermountain region.
Early intervention is key to helping children with autism, and the ASSERT program at Utah State serves as the training grounds for the educators who will make a difference in classrooms. The program offers children a chance to receive help at a young age.
Thomas Higbee, director of USU's Autism Support Services, spent more than 10 years researching and developing cutting-edge ideas that sparked the birth of the ASSERT program. Research has shown that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) do not learn readily in typical environments, so Higbee fashioned an atmosphere ideally constructed for ASD treatment.
ASSERT provides consultation services and curriculum to school districts. Higbee and his graduate students frequently visit sites in school districts to provide in-depth training and ensure that students are getting the best instruction possible.
"The hard work has really paid off and we have seen dramatic positive changes in our students," said Higbee.
This individualized educational program has been improving the lives of children with ASD since 2003. What started as a 10-week summer course has become a highly-successful year-round preschool program that continues to revolutionize the way children with autism are educated.
This innovative program serves children three to five years in age. Each child has a personal instructor to work with for 20 hours a week and is given an individualized plan tailored to their needs.
"Intensive behavioral intervention for young children with autism is important because the earlier you work with the children, the bigger positive impact you can have on their progression," Higbee said.
The preschool program also teaches social skills and encourages leisure and play activities with structured peer-play interactions. Functional behavioral assessment and intervention techniques are used to address challenging behaviors.
"Learning doesn't stop at the classroom threshold," Higbee said.
Family training and participation is critical to the success of the program. Families receive periodical professional training and home visits by a team leader twice per month to learn how to continue the program at home.
Fawn Rigby's four-year-old son Zac is a student in the ASSERT program. This education has affected young Zac's life dramatically, and his mother is enthusiastic about ASSERT.
"It's amazing," Rigby said. "ASSERT has given Zac the personal attention he needed. After just a few months, the progress I've seen in him is remarkable."
Higbee has been very satisfied with the outcome of the program and the positive change in the students.
"The life-changing improvements we have expected from our students are happening," Higbee said.
The impact on the students and significant changes can be credited to the intense training and professional caliber of the instructors. Graduate and undergraduate students at USU can apply to work in the program and earn either university credit or compensation while learning how to effectively teach students with ASD.
Higbee said the ASSERT success comes from the rigorous training and satellite program. USU's ASSERT classroom serves as a training site for current and future special education teachers and professionals in related areas such as psychology and speech pathology.
"A big part of our students' success is due to our collaboration with ASSERT," said an aid at a local preschool. "The staff training and continual on-site visits have been vital in keeping our staff qualified to serve our students."
Through ASSERT training, professionals are able to learn behavioral intervention techniques and demonstrate knowledge of behavior principles and how to apply them.
"I have seen a tremendous amount of growth in each child, and I attribute it to the intensive individual programs that are implemented daily," a teacher at a local school said.
ASSERT also provides training to school district personnel on effective educational and behavioral strategies for students with autism. ASSERT continues to help students after preschool and throughout their experience in the public education system.
Dr. Thomas S. Higbee is a national expert on both assessment and intervention strategies for people with autism. He has published 15 research studies and given more than 50 presentations at state and national conferences on the topic. He is Director of the program Autism Support Services: Education, Research, and Training (ASSERT), which he founded in 2003. Over the past 10 years, he has worked with children with developmental disabilities in home-, center-, and school-based programs. He has trained teachers in school districts in California, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. Dr. Higbee is an assistant professor in the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation at Utah State University where he has worked since 2002. Before coming to USU, Dr. Higbee served for three years as Senior Clinician at Spectrum Center for Educational and Behavioral Development in Berkeley, Calif., a non-profit agency that operates non-public schools for students with severe disabilities and behavioral disorders.
Utah State University
0500 Old Main Hill
Logan, UT 84322-0500
United States
http://www.usu.edu/ust
The Autism Support Services: Education, Research, and Training (ASSERT) program at Utah State University is a state-of-the-art preschool program that uses research-based techniques to address the individual needs of autistic children. USU's pioneer site has opened the doors to a new world for children with autism and is a model training classroom for professionals in the Intermountain region.
Early intervention is key to helping children with autism, and the ASSERT program at Utah State serves as the training grounds for the educators who will make a difference in classrooms. The program offers children a chance to receive help at a young age.
Thomas Higbee, director of USU's Autism Support Services, spent more than 10 years researching and developing cutting-edge ideas that sparked the birth of the ASSERT program. Research has shown that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) do not learn readily in typical environments, so Higbee fashioned an atmosphere ideally constructed for ASD treatment.
ASSERT provides consultation services and curriculum to school districts. Higbee and his graduate students frequently visit sites in school districts to provide in-depth training and ensure that students are getting the best instruction possible.
"The hard work has really paid off and we have seen dramatic positive changes in our students," said Higbee.
This individualized educational program has been improving the lives of children with ASD since 2003. What started as a 10-week summer course has become a highly-successful year-round preschool program that continues to revolutionize the way children with autism are educated.
This innovative program serves children three to five years in age. Each child has a personal instructor to work with for 20 hours a week and is given an individualized plan tailored to their needs.
"Intensive behavioral intervention for young children with autism is important because the earlier you work with the children, the bigger positive impact you can have on their progression," Higbee said.
The preschool program also teaches social skills and encourages leisure and play activities with structured peer-play interactions. Functional behavioral assessment and intervention techniques are used to address challenging behaviors.
"Learning doesn't stop at the classroom threshold," Higbee said.
Family training and participation is critical to the success of the program. Families receive periodical professional training and home visits by a team leader twice per month to learn how to continue the program at home.
Fawn Rigby's four-year-old son Zac is a student in the ASSERT program. This education has affected young Zac's life dramatically, and his mother is enthusiastic about ASSERT.
"It's amazing," Rigby said. "ASSERT has given Zac the personal attention he needed. After just a few months, the progress I've seen in him is remarkable."
Higbee has been very satisfied with the outcome of the program and the positive change in the students.
"The life-changing improvements we have expected from our students are happening," Higbee said.
The impact on the students and significant changes can be credited to the intense training and professional caliber of the instructors. Graduate and undergraduate students at USU can apply to work in the program and earn either university credit or compensation while learning how to effectively teach students with ASD.
Higbee said the ASSERT success comes from the rigorous training and satellite program. USU's ASSERT classroom serves as a training site for current and future special education teachers and professionals in related areas such as psychology and speech pathology.
"A big part of our students' success is due to our collaboration with ASSERT," said an aid at a local preschool. "The staff training and continual on-site visits have been vital in keeping our staff qualified to serve our students."
Through ASSERT training, professionals are able to learn behavioral intervention techniques and demonstrate knowledge of behavior principles and how to apply them.
"I have seen a tremendous amount of growth in each child, and I attribute it to the intensive individual programs that are implemented daily," a teacher at a local school said.
ASSERT also provides training to school district personnel on effective educational and behavioral strategies for students with autism. ASSERT continues to help students after preschool and throughout their experience in the public education system.
Dr. Thomas S. Higbee is a national expert on both assessment and intervention strategies for people with autism. He has published 15 research studies and given more than 50 presentations at state and national conferences on the topic. He is Director of the program Autism Support Services: Education, Research, and Training (ASSERT), which he founded in 2003. Over the past 10 years, he has worked with children with developmental disabilities in home-, center-, and school-based programs. He has trained teachers in school districts in California, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. Dr. Higbee is an assistant professor in the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation at Utah State University where he has worked since 2002. Before coming to USU, Dr. Higbee served for three years as Senior Clinician at Spectrum Center for Educational and Behavioral Development in Berkeley, Calif., a non-profit agency that operates non-public schools for students with severe disabilities and behavioral disorders.
Utah State University
0500 Old Main Hill
Logan, UT 84322-0500
United States
http://www.usu.edu/ust
Characteristics Of Patients At Increased Risk For Compulsive Gambling Associated With Taking Parkinson's Meds
Patients with Parkinson's disease who are younger when they develop the condition, have a personality trait known as novelty-seeking or whose personal or family history includes alcohol abuse may be more likely to develop pathological gambling as a side effect of medications used to treat their condition, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Behaviors associated with impulse control Including compulsive shopping, hypersexuality, binge eating and pathological gambling have been associated with dopamine agonists, medications used to treat Parkinson's disease. In studies examining the relationship between dopamine agonists and compulsive gambling, the likelihood of gambling problems was unrelated to the medication dosage. This suggests that an underlying trait may interact with the drugs and make an individual more vulnerable to this adverse effect.
Valerie Voon, M.D., National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Md., and colleagues compared the characteristics of 21 patients with Parkinson's disease who developed pathological gambling habits after beginning to take dopamine agonists with 42 patients with Parkinson's disease who did not develop compulsive behaviors. The participants, who all visited a clinic in Toronto, Canada, between June 2003 and October 2005, were examined by neurologists and completed assessment scales that measured their levels of impulsivity, substance abuse, mood and anxiety disorders. An additional inventory measured the extent to which the patients displayed novelty-seeking traits, characterized by impulsive and risk-taking behavior and excitement in response to new experiences.
"In keeping with our hypothesis, patients with Parkinson's disease who developed pathological gambling when receiving dopamine agonists had a younger age at Parkinson's disease onset, higher novelty-seeking scores, a personal or immediate family history of alcohol use disorders and impaired planning on an impulsivity scale," the authors write. "A robust association was found with medication-induced mania [a psychiatric disorder involving excessive physical and mental activity and impulsive behavior]." Pathological gambling was also weakly linked to younger age, Parkinson's disease that began in the brain's left hemisphere and a high score on a scale measuring the impulsiveness of behaviors
"Screening for such features and advising those at higher risk may be warranted," the authors conclude.
(Arch Neurol. 2007;64:212-216. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://www.jamamedia.org)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
American Medical Association (AMA)
515 N. State St.
Chicago, IL 60610
United States
http://www.ama-assn.org
Behaviors associated with impulse control Including compulsive shopping, hypersexuality, binge eating and pathological gambling have been associated with dopamine agonists, medications used to treat Parkinson's disease. In studies examining the relationship between dopamine agonists and compulsive gambling, the likelihood of gambling problems was unrelated to the medication dosage. This suggests that an underlying trait may interact with the drugs and make an individual more vulnerable to this adverse effect.
Valerie Voon, M.D., National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Md., and colleagues compared the characteristics of 21 patients with Parkinson's disease who developed pathological gambling habits after beginning to take dopamine agonists with 42 patients with Parkinson's disease who did not develop compulsive behaviors. The participants, who all visited a clinic in Toronto, Canada, between June 2003 and October 2005, were examined by neurologists and completed assessment scales that measured their levels of impulsivity, substance abuse, mood and anxiety disorders. An additional inventory measured the extent to which the patients displayed novelty-seeking traits, characterized by impulsive and risk-taking behavior and excitement in response to new experiences.
"In keeping with our hypothesis, patients with Parkinson's disease who developed pathological gambling when receiving dopamine agonists had a younger age at Parkinson's disease onset, higher novelty-seeking scores, a personal or immediate family history of alcohol use disorders and impaired planning on an impulsivity scale," the authors write. "A robust association was found with medication-induced mania [a psychiatric disorder involving excessive physical and mental activity and impulsive behavior]." Pathological gambling was also weakly linked to younger age, Parkinson's disease that began in the brain's left hemisphere and a high score on a scale measuring the impulsiveness of behaviors
"Screening for such features and advising those at higher risk may be warranted," the authors conclude.
(Arch Neurol. 2007;64:212-216. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://www.jamamedia.org)
Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
American Medical Association (AMA)
515 N. State St.
Chicago, IL 60610
United States
http://www.ama-assn.org
April 16, 2007
Children Who Believe Intelligence Can Be Developed Perform Better
Research on how junior high school students' beliefs about intelligence affect their math grades found that those who believed that intelligence can be developed performed better than those who believed intelligence is fixed.
The findings come from two studies conducted by researchers at Columbia University and Stanford University, and are published in the journal Child Development.
One study looked at 373 12-year-olds over two years of junior high school. Although all students began the study with equivalent achievement levels in math, students who believed that their intelligence could be developed outperformed those who believed their intelligence was fixed. Furthermore, the researchers found, the gap between these two groups widened over the two-year period.
Researchers concluded that the difference between the two sets of students stems from the fact that students who believed their intelligence could be developed placed a higher premium on learning, believed more in the power of effort, and had more constructive reactions to setbacks in school.
A second study looked at 91 12-year-olds in two groups, both of whom had shown declines in their math grades. One group was taught the expandable theory of intelligence as part of an eight-session workshop on study skills. Another group participated in the same workshop, but did not receive information on the expandable intelligence qualities of the brain. The students who learned about the intelligence theory reversed their decline and showed significantly higher math grades than their peers in the other group, whose grades continued to decline.
"These findings highlight the importance of students' beliefs for their academic progress," said Carol Dweck, one of the researchers and professor of psychology at Stanford University. "They also show how these beliefs can be changed to maximize students' motivation and achievement."
###
Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement Across an Adolescent Transition: A Longitudinal Study and an Intervention, by Blackwell, LS (Columbia University), and Trzesniewski, KH, and Dweck, CS (Stanford University). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development
The findings come from two studies conducted by researchers at Columbia University and Stanford University, and are published in the journal Child Development.
One study looked at 373 12-year-olds over two years of junior high school. Although all students began the study with equivalent achievement levels in math, students who believed that their intelligence could be developed outperformed those who believed their intelligence was fixed. Furthermore, the researchers found, the gap between these two groups widened over the two-year period.
Researchers concluded that the difference between the two sets of students stems from the fact that students who believed their intelligence could be developed placed a higher premium on learning, believed more in the power of effort, and had more constructive reactions to setbacks in school.
A second study looked at 91 12-year-olds in two groups, both of whom had shown declines in their math grades. One group was taught the expandable theory of intelligence as part of an eight-session workshop on study skills. Another group participated in the same workshop, but did not receive information on the expandable intelligence qualities of the brain. The students who learned about the intelligence theory reversed their decline and showed significantly higher math grades than their peers in the other group, whose grades continued to decline.
"These findings highlight the importance of students' beliefs for their academic progress," said Carol Dweck, one of the researchers and professor of psychology at Stanford University. "They also show how these beliefs can be changed to maximize students' motivation and achievement."
###
Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement Across an Adolescent Transition: A Longitudinal Study and an Intervention, by Blackwell, LS (Columbia University), and Trzesniewski, KH, and Dweck, CS (Stanford University). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development
Parents' Genes, Not Parents' Arguing, May Cause Children's Conduct Problems
Children's conduct problems--skipping school, sneaking out of the house, lying to parents, shoplifting, or bullying other children--are a major source of concern for parents and teachers. As a potential cause of these problems, parents' marital conflict has received a lot of research attention. Now a new study finds that parents' fighting may not be to blame but rather that parents who argue a lot may pass on genes for disruptive behavior to their children.
The findings are published in the journal Child Development.
A group of researchers from the University of Virginia and several other universities looked at this question, studying 1,045 twins and their 2,051 children. Some of the parents were identical twins and shared all of their genes and some were fraternal and shared only half of their genes. The study found that parents' fighting is not likely a cause of children's conduct problems. On the other hand, parents' genes influenced how often they argued with their spouses and these same genes, when passed to their children, caused more conduct problems.
"This study suggests that marital conflict is not a major culprit, but genes are," said K. Paige Harden, the lead researcher and professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. "Our findings have potential implications for treating conduct problems: Focusing on a child's parents, as is common in family therapy, may not be as effective as focusing on the child."
###
The study was supported, in part, by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression.
Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Marital Conflict and Conduct Problems in Children-of-Twins, by Harden, KP, Turkheimer, E, and Emery, RE (University of Virginia), D'Onofrio, BM (Indiana University), Slutske, WS (University of Missouri), Heath, AC (Washington University, St. Louis), and Martin, NG (Queensland Institute of Medical Research). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
###
Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development
The findings are published in the journal Child Development.
A group of researchers from the University of Virginia and several other universities looked at this question, studying 1,045 twins and their 2,051 children. Some of the parents were identical twins and shared all of their genes and some were fraternal and shared only half of their genes. The study found that parents' fighting is not likely a cause of children's conduct problems. On the other hand, parents' genes influenced how often they argued with their spouses and these same genes, when passed to their children, caused more conduct problems.
"This study suggests that marital conflict is not a major culprit, but genes are," said K. Paige Harden, the lead researcher and professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. "Our findings have potential implications for treating conduct problems: Focusing on a child's parents, as is common in family therapy, may not be as effective as focusing on the child."
###
The study was supported, in part, by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression.
Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Marital Conflict and Conduct Problems in Children-of-Twins, by Harden, KP, Turkheimer, E, and Emery, RE (University of Virginia), D'Onofrio, BM (Indiana University), Slutske, WS (University of Missouri), Heath, AC (Washington University, St. Louis), and Martin, NG (Queensland Institute of Medical Research). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
###
Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development
Study Questions 'One Size Fits All' Approach When Measuring Income's Effect On School Readiness
A lot of research has examined the effect of a family's income on children's readiness to start school. A new study suggests that adopting a "one size fits all" approach - that is, measuring material hardship, parenting, and school readiness in the same way for white, black, and Hispanic children - may obscure the toll that lower income takes on ethnic minority children as well as the strengths that some families show in coping with poverty-related disadvantages.
These findings come from researchers at the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, and New York University, and are published in the journal Child Development. The research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
The study looked at children enrolled in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99, a nationally representative study of more than 21,000 kindergarteners. The researchers found that a common yardstick of school readiness has been used in measuring pre-academic and socio-emotional skills among ethnic minority and white children. But they found that the same yardstick in measuring parenting and stressors related to poverty yields different answers, depending on families' race and ethnic identity. This suggests that researchers think twice before assuming that "one size fits all" in such studies.
Despite these findings, however, when the researchers looked at models of how low income might affect parenting and children's readiness for school, they found similarities across racial and ethnic groups. Regardless of race and ethnicity, lower family income was associated with increased hardship, higher levels of stress, less positive parenting behavior, and more problematic behavior in kindergartners.
"We can conclude, on the one hand, that low income affects all families similarly, regardless of the sociocultural contexts in which families live," says C. Cybele Raver, associate professor in the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. "On the other hand, the differences we found in how certain aspects of hardship and parenting are measured suggest that the sociocultural context of minority families alters the meanings of these constructs among families."
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Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Testing Equivalence of Mediating Models of Income, Parenting, and School Readiness for White, Black, and Hispanic Children in a National Sample, by Raver, CC (University of Chicago), Gershoff, ET (University of Michigan), and Aber, JL (New York University). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development
These findings come from researchers at the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, and New York University, and are published in the journal Child Development. The research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
The study looked at children enrolled in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99, a nationally representative study of more than 21,000 kindergarteners. The researchers found that a common yardstick of school readiness has been used in measuring pre-academic and socio-emotional skills among ethnic minority and white children. But they found that the same yardstick in measuring parenting and stressors related to poverty yields different answers, depending on families' race and ethnic identity. This suggests that researchers think twice before assuming that "one size fits all" in such studies.
Despite these findings, however, when the researchers looked at models of how low income might affect parenting and children's readiness for school, they found similarities across racial and ethnic groups. Regardless of race and ethnicity, lower family income was associated with increased hardship, higher levels of stress, less positive parenting behavior, and more problematic behavior in kindergartners.
"We can conclude, on the one hand, that low income affects all families similarly, regardless of the sociocultural contexts in which families live," says C. Cybele Raver, associate professor in the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. "On the other hand, the differences we found in how certain aspects of hardship and parenting are measured suggest that the sociocultural context of minority families alters the meanings of these constructs among families."
###
Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Testing Equivalence of Mediating Models of Income, Parenting, and School Readiness for White, Black, and Hispanic Children in a National Sample, by Raver, CC (University of Chicago), Gershoff, ET (University of Michigan), and Aber, JL (New York University). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development
Conscience, Religion Alter How Doctors Tell Patients About Options
Many physicians feel no obligation to tell patients about legal but morally controversial medical treatments or to refer patients to doctors who do not object to those treatments, report researchers from the University of Chicago in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The medical profession appears to be divided, the researchers note, not just in its attitudes about providing controversial practices such as terminal sedation, abortion or birth control for teens, but also in its judgments about what doctors should do when patients request a legal procedure to which their doctor objects.
The study found that although 86 percent of doctors did feel obliged to present all options in such cases, only 71 percent said they would feel obligated to refer the patient to a doctor who did not object to the requested procedure, and 63 percent believed it is ethically permissible for a doctor to describe his or her objection to the patient.
This affects millions of people, the authors note. "If physicians' ideas translate into their practices, then 14% of patients - more than 40 million Americans - may be cared for by physicians who do not believe they are obligated to disclose information about medically available treatments they consider objectionable. In addition, 29% of patients - or nearly 100 million Americans - may be cared for by physicians who do not believe they have an obligation to refer the patient to another provider for such treatments."
"Our survey data point to a basic dilemma facing patients and physicians in our plural democracy," said study author Farr Curlin, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and a member of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. "Because patients and physicians come from many different moral traditions, religious and secular, they will sometimes disagree about whether a particular medical intervention is morally permissible."
The researchers mailed a 12-page questionnaire to 2,000 physicians from all specialties; 1,144 (63 percent) responded.
They asked physicians if they had objections to three controversial clinical practices. Only 17 percent objected to terminal sedation (sedating dying patients to the point of unconsciousness), but 42 percent objected to prescription of birth control to teenagers without parental consent, and 52 percent objected to abortion for failed contraception.
They also asked physicians about their sense of obligation when patients request such procedures. Should physicians "present all possible options?" May a physician who objects to a procedure "plainly describe why?" If the physician objects, does he or she "have an obligation to refer the patient to someone who does not object?"
The study found that the answers to those questions were highly associated with doctors' sex, religious characteristics and whether or not they personally object to one or more controversial clinical practices. Male physicians, those who were more religious (particularly Catholics and Protestants) and those who personally objected to controversial clinical practices were all more likely to believe that doctors may describe their objections to patients. They also were less likely to believe that physicians must present all options or refer patients to someone who does not object to the requested procedures.
In the past, researchers have consistently found that religious physicians are more likely to personally object to a range of different controversial clinical practices, Curlin said. "This study suggests that those most likely to be asked to act against their consciences are the ones most likely to say physicians should not have to do so."
While 86 percent felt obliged to present all possible options, six percent were undecided and another eight percent felt no such responsibility. Sixty-three percent felt it was ethical to "plainly describe" why they objected to a requested procedure. Eighteen percent felt no obligation to refer a patient to another doctor who did not object, and another 11 percent were undecided about their responsibility to refer.
Such situations raise basic philosophical questions, said co-author John Lantos, M.D., professor of pediatrics and medicine and associate director of the MacLean Center. "Is there room within the profession for radically different approaches to care based on moral or religious opinions? Should doctors leave their personal religious beliefs at the door, or are those beliefs such a central element of personal identity that the very notion of leaving them at the door is incomprehensible?"
When the authors mentioned their results to colleagues they drew widely varied reactions. A few physicians thought patients had no right to expect morally objectionable treatments, Lantos said. Others thought that doctors who would deny beneficial treatments had no business practicing medicine. But most took to the middle ground. "They felt that doctors had the right to follow their conscience," Lantos said, "and patients had a right to legal, medically approved treatment."
This middle ground places a lot of the burden onto patients, the authors admit. "Patients should know that physicians are divided on this issue," Curlin said. They may want to "talk to their physicians up front to find out where they stand. If they anticipate areas of moral disagreement, they should try to negotiate acceptable accommodations before a crisis develops."
###
The Greenwall Foundation, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program funded the study. Additional authors were Ryan Lawrence and Marshall Chin of the University of Chicago.
Contact: John Easton
University of Chicago Medical Center
The medical profession appears to be divided, the researchers note, not just in its attitudes about providing controversial practices such as terminal sedation, abortion or birth control for teens, but also in its judgments about what doctors should do when patients request a legal procedure to which their doctor objects.
The study found that although 86 percent of doctors did feel obliged to present all options in such cases, only 71 percent said they would feel obligated to refer the patient to a doctor who did not object to the requested procedure, and 63 percent believed it is ethically permissible for a doctor to describe his or her objection to the patient.
This affects millions of people, the authors note. "If physicians' ideas translate into their practices, then 14% of patients - more than 40 million Americans - may be cared for by physicians who do not believe they are obligated to disclose information about medically available treatments they consider objectionable. In addition, 29% of patients - or nearly 100 million Americans - may be cared for by physicians who do not believe they have an obligation to refer the patient to another provider for such treatments."
"Our survey data point to a basic dilemma facing patients and physicians in our plural democracy," said study author Farr Curlin, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and a member of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. "Because patients and physicians come from many different moral traditions, religious and secular, they will sometimes disagree about whether a particular medical intervention is morally permissible."
The researchers mailed a 12-page questionnaire to 2,000 physicians from all specialties; 1,144 (63 percent) responded.
They asked physicians if they had objections to three controversial clinical practices. Only 17 percent objected to terminal sedation (sedating dying patients to the point of unconsciousness), but 42 percent objected to prescription of birth control to teenagers without parental consent, and 52 percent objected to abortion for failed contraception.
They also asked physicians about their sense of obligation when patients request such procedures. Should physicians "present all possible options?" May a physician who objects to a procedure "plainly describe why?" If the physician objects, does he or she "have an obligation to refer the patient to someone who does not object?"
The study found that the answers to those questions were highly associated with doctors' sex, religious characteristics and whether or not they personally object to one or more controversial clinical practices. Male physicians, those who were more religious (particularly Catholics and Protestants) and those who personally objected to controversial clinical practices were all more likely to believe that doctors may describe their objections to patients. They also were less likely to believe that physicians must present all options or refer patients to someone who does not object to the requested procedures.
In the past, researchers have consistently found that religious physicians are more likely to personally object to a range of different controversial clinical practices, Curlin said. "This study suggests that those most likely to be asked to act against their consciences are the ones most likely to say physicians should not have to do so."
While 86 percent felt obliged to present all possible options, six percent were undecided and another eight percent felt no such responsibility. Sixty-three percent felt it was ethical to "plainly describe" why they objected to a requested procedure. Eighteen percent felt no obligation to refer a patient to another doctor who did not object, and another 11 percent were undecided about their responsibility to refer.
Such situations raise basic philosophical questions, said co-author John Lantos, M.D., professor of pediatrics and medicine and associate director of the MacLean Center. "Is there room within the profession for radically different approaches to care based on moral or religious opinions? Should doctors leave their personal religious beliefs at the door, or are those beliefs such a central element of personal identity that the very notion of leaving them at the door is incomprehensible?"
When the authors mentioned their results to colleagues they drew widely varied reactions. A few physicians thought patients had no right to expect morally objectionable treatments, Lantos said. Others thought that doctors who would deny beneficial treatments had no business practicing medicine. But most took to the middle ground. "They felt that doctors had the right to follow their conscience," Lantos said, "and patients had a right to legal, medically approved treatment."
This middle ground places a lot of the burden onto patients, the authors admit. "Patients should know that physicians are divided on this issue," Curlin said. They may want to "talk to their physicians up front to find out where they stand. If they anticipate areas of moral disagreement, they should try to negotiate acceptable accommodations before a crisis develops."
###
The Greenwall Foundation, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program funded the study. Additional authors were Ryan Lawrence and Marshall Chin of the University of Chicago.
Contact: John Easton
University of Chicago Medical Center
Extra Cortisol Protects Women's Mood Under Stress
German researchers have found additional evidence that the stress hormone cortisol can have positive effects in certain situations. Although chronic stress, which brings long-term elevations of cortisol in the bloodstream, can weaken the immune system and induce depression, this new study adds to mounting evidence that cortisol given near in time to a physical or psychological stress may lessen the stressor's emotional impact. Psychologists are especially interested in what this means for preventing and treating post-traumatic stress disorder. The findings appear in the February issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, which is published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Psychologists Serkan Het, MSc, and Oliver Wolf, PhD, of the University of Bielefeld, enlisted 44 healthy women for a double-blind study, in which neither researchers or participants knew the condition to which the women were assigned. One hour before a psychosocial stress test, participants were given either a 30 mg. dose of oral cortisol or a placebo. That 30 mg. dose is considered high, translating to a severe stressor. Experimenters tracked participant mood through self report, and measured their cortisol levels with a simple swab check of their saliva, before and after the psychosocial stress test.
Participants were asked to give five-minute oral presentations as if interviewing for their dream job, focusing on their personal strengths and weaknesses. For the next five minutes, they had to count backwards by 17s from a very high number; every time they made a mistake, they had to start over. During both tasks, participants faced a "committee" of one man and one woman, both of whom acted cold and reserved without actually being unfriendly or rude. To heighten discomfort over being evaluated, participants spoke into microphones and knew they were being videotaped.
Het and Wolf measured mood five times using two self-report questionnaires, 15 and 45 minutes participants arrived at the lab, and 1, 45, and 60 minutes after the stress test. Afterwards, the cortisol-treated women developed, on average, less negative mood states as a result of the stress-producing activity when compared with placebo-treated women. The high dose of cortisol seems to have worked as a buffer.
Wolf says that whereas chronically elevated cortisol levels can be damaging to both mood and immunity, a short spike in cortisol levels may be protective. He comments, "The difference between acute cortisol elevations and chronic cortisol hyperactivity appears to be important."
Prior research has suggested that low-dose treatment with cortisol can offer relief from the core symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition, in patients with social phobia exposed to a social stress situation, pre-treatment with cortisol has reduced anxiety. This new study in healthy participants adds to the growing body of evidence that cortisol may be a useful clinical tool. Says Wolf, "Our study suggests that when it comes to the negative effects of stress on the emotions, an anticipatory rise in cortisol levels prior to a stressor might help someone to cope with the stressor more efficiently. This might have implications for treating and preventing post-traumatic stress and other anxiety disorders."
Article: "Mood Changes in Response to Psychosocial Stress in Healthy Young Women: Effects of Pretreatment with Cortisol," Serkan Het, MSc, and Oliver T. Wolf, PhD, University of Bielefeld; Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol. 121, No. 1.
The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 150,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.
American Psychological Association (APA)
750 First St., NE
Washington, DC 20002-4242
United States
http://www.apa.org
Psychologists Serkan Het, MSc, and Oliver Wolf, PhD, of the University of Bielefeld, enlisted 44 healthy women for a double-blind study, in which neither researchers or participants knew the condition to which the women were assigned. One hour before a psychosocial stress test, participants were given either a 30 mg. dose of oral cortisol or a placebo. That 30 mg. dose is considered high, translating to a severe stressor. Experimenters tracked participant mood through self report, and measured their cortisol levels with a simple swab check of their saliva, before and after the psychosocial stress test.
Participants were asked to give five-minute oral presentations as if interviewing for their dream job, focusing on their personal strengths and weaknesses. For the next five minutes, they had to count backwards by 17s from a very high number; every time they made a mistake, they had to start over. During both tasks, participants faced a "committee" of one man and one woman, both of whom acted cold and reserved without actually being unfriendly or rude. To heighten discomfort over being evaluated, participants spoke into microphones and knew they were being videotaped.
Het and Wolf measured mood five times using two self-report questionnaires, 15 and 45 minutes participants arrived at the lab, and 1, 45, and 60 minutes after the stress test. Afterwards, the cortisol-treated women developed, on average, less negative mood states as a result of the stress-producing activity when compared with placebo-treated women. The high dose of cortisol seems to have worked as a buffer.
Wolf says that whereas chronically elevated cortisol levels can be damaging to both mood and immunity, a short spike in cortisol levels may be protective. He comments, "The difference between acute cortisol elevations and chronic cortisol hyperactivity appears to be important."
Prior research has suggested that low-dose treatment with cortisol can offer relief from the core symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition, in patients with social phobia exposed to a social stress situation, pre-treatment with cortisol has reduced anxiety. This new study in healthy participants adds to the growing body of evidence that cortisol may be a useful clinical tool. Says Wolf, "Our study suggests that when it comes to the negative effects of stress on the emotions, an anticipatory rise in cortisol levels prior to a stressor might help someone to cope with the stressor more efficiently. This might have implications for treating and preventing post-traumatic stress and other anxiety disorders."
Article: "Mood Changes in Response to Psychosocial Stress in Healthy Young Women: Effects of Pretreatment with Cortisol," Serkan Het, MSc, and Oliver T. Wolf, PhD, University of Bielefeld; Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol. 121, No. 1.
The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 150,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.
American Psychological Association (APA)
750 First St., NE
Washington, DC 20002-4242
United States
http://www.apa.org
Children's Perceptions Of Their Parents' Antisocial Behavior May Lead Them To Be Antisocial
Children who grow up in antisocial families are more likely to be antisocial themselves. Much of the research into why this is so has focused on parents' behavior. A new study finds that the way children perceive their parents' behavior provides clues as to why children of antisocial parents may grow up to be antisocial.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, appears in the journal Child Development. The research was funded in part by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute of Mental Health.
In an effort to determine how antisocial behavior in one generation is transmitted to the next, researchers looked at 430 adolescents and their biological parents across the children's high school years. Specifically, the study examined the adolescents' level of antisocial behavior, the level of such behavior in parents, and the teens' general perceptions of their parents' behavior. Antisocial behavior was defined in terms of substance use, recklessness and breaking laws, arguments and conflicts with others, and lying. The study examined if the effect of parents' antisocial behavior on the teens' antisocial behavior could be explained by the teens' perceptions of their parents as antisocial, as well as by disrupted parenting practices, such as poor monitoring, hostility, and harsh and inconsistent discipline.
The researchers concluded that the children learned antisocial behavior by observing and interpreting their parents' antisocial behavior. Parents' behavior provides children with a model for their own behavior, and children's perception that a parent is antisocial may be a key component in choosing and validating their own behaviors, giving children permission to engage in this type of behavior. For the teenagers in this study, the recognition of antisocial behavior in their parents played an important role in increasing their risk for similar conduct; in fact, it played more of a role than the teens' assessment of their parents' parenting abilities.
Furthermore, the findings were the same for the effect of both fathers' and mothers' antisocial behavior and parenting on the development and growth of boys' and girls' antisocial behavior. A notable finding was that the strongest influence on a child's antisocial behavior in the 12th grade was that child's own level of behavior in 9th grade. This indicates that there is stability in antisocial behavior through adolescence, and that the processes reported in this study are well under way by the 9th grade.
"These findings suggest that focusing on how children perceive mom and dad's behavior and the origin of these perceptions could facilitate family-centered interventions designed to reduce the risk for problem behavior," according to Shannon J. Dogan, the study's lead author and a research assistant at the University of California, Davis. "Further, identifying antisocial parents would assist in early identification of at-risk families. Interventions that reduce parental antisocial behavior and improve parenting practices should also reduce levels of problem behavior among teens."
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Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Cognitive and Parenting Pathways in the Transmission of Antisocial Behavior from Parents to Adolescents, by Dogan, SJ, and Conger, RD (University of California, Davis), Kim, KJ (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), and Masyn, KE (University of California, Davis). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, appears in the journal Child Development. The research was funded in part by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute of Mental Health.
In an effort to determine how antisocial behavior in one generation is transmitted to the next, researchers looked at 430 adolescents and their biological parents across the children's high school years. Specifically, the study examined the adolescents' level of antisocial behavior, the level of such behavior in parents, and the teens' general perceptions of their parents' behavior. Antisocial behavior was defined in terms of substance use, recklessness and breaking laws, arguments and conflicts with others, and lying. The study examined if the effect of parents' antisocial behavior on the teens' antisocial behavior could be explained by the teens' perceptions of their parents as antisocial, as well as by disrupted parenting practices, such as poor monitoring, hostility, and harsh and inconsistent discipline.
The researchers concluded that the children learned antisocial behavior by observing and interpreting their parents' antisocial behavior. Parents' behavior provides children with a model for their own behavior, and children's perception that a parent is antisocial may be a key component in choosing and validating their own behaviors, giving children permission to engage in this type of behavior. For the teenagers in this study, the recognition of antisocial behavior in their parents played an important role in increasing their risk for similar conduct; in fact, it played more of a role than the teens' assessment of their parents' parenting abilities.
Furthermore, the findings were the same for the effect of both fathers' and mothers' antisocial behavior and parenting on the development and growth of boys' and girls' antisocial behavior. A notable finding was that the strongest influence on a child's antisocial behavior in the 12th grade was that child's own level of behavior in 9th grade. This indicates that there is stability in antisocial behavior through adolescence, and that the processes reported in this study are well under way by the 9th grade.
"These findings suggest that focusing on how children perceive mom and dad's behavior and the origin of these perceptions could facilitate family-centered interventions designed to reduce the risk for problem behavior," according to Shannon J. Dogan, the study's lead author and a research assistant at the University of California, Davis. "Further, identifying antisocial parents would assist in early identification of at-risk families. Interventions that reduce parental antisocial behavior and improve parenting practices should also reduce levels of problem behavior among teens."
###
Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Cognitive and Parenting Pathways in the Transmission of Antisocial Behavior from Parents to Adolescents, by Dogan, SJ, and Conger, RD (University of California, Davis), Kim, KJ (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), and Masyn, KE (University of California, Davis). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development
Parents' Reaction To Material Hardship Found To Be Key To How Income Affects Children
We've long known that children who live in families with adequate financial resources tend to do better than children who live in poverty. It's less clear why this is so.
A major new study sheds light on how family income affects children, finding that it is how parents experience material hardship - not income alone - that affects children's cognitive skills and their social and emotional competence. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, New York University, the University of Chicago, and Columbia University, is reported in the journal Child Development. The research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Researchers looked at 21,255 American kindergartners, drawing from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 1998-99. In the study, parents provided information about their families' economic situation, their own parenting, and their children's behaviors. Teachers provided additional information about children's behaviors in school, and children's cognitive skills were measured by standardized tests.
The study identified two ways family income affects children. First, parents who make more money are better able to buy more cognitively stimulating materials, such as books, and provide enriching experiences, such as visits to museums, that support their children's academic achievement. Second, the material hardship experienced by many low-income families, such as not having enough to eat, can lead parents to be depressed and fight with one another. This, in turn, can cause parents to show less affection toward their children, leaving the children depressed or more likely to misbehave.
By considering material hardship and family income together, the study's results challenge the well-established finding that family income is directly associated with parents' stress. The researchers found that only when increases in income were accompanied by decreases in families' experiences of hardship did income lessen parents' stress levels; added income alone was not enough. This distinction is important because the same level of family income can mean hardship in some parts of the country, such as large, urban cities, but not in other areas, such as small, rural towns.
"Our results suggest that a goal of enhancing the cognitive abilities of children from low-income families might be effectively served by interventions that provide such enriching materials or experiences when parents are financially unable to do so," according to Elizabeth T. Gershoff, the study's lead author and a professor of social work at the University of Michigan. "If the goal is reducing behavior problems, then reducing hardship through provision of in-kind goods and services, and in turn reducing parent stress, may have the greatest impact."
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Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Income Is Not Enough: Incorporating Material Hardship into Models of Income Associations with Parenting and Child Development, by Gershoff, ET (University of Michigan), Aber, JL (New York University), Raver, CC (University of Chicago), and Lennon, MC (Columbia University). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development
A major new study sheds light on how family income affects children, finding that it is how parents experience material hardship - not income alone - that affects children's cognitive skills and their social and emotional competence. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, New York University, the University of Chicago, and Columbia University, is reported in the journal Child Development. The research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Researchers looked at 21,255 American kindergartners, drawing from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 1998-99. In the study, parents provided information about their families' economic situation, their own parenting, and their children's behaviors. Teachers provided additional information about children's behaviors in school, and children's cognitive skills were measured by standardized tests.
The study identified two ways family income affects children. First, parents who make more money are better able to buy more cognitively stimulating materials, such as books, and provide enriching experiences, such as visits to museums, that support their children's academic achievement. Second, the material hardship experienced by many low-income families, such as not having enough to eat, can lead parents to be depressed and fight with one another. This, in turn, can cause parents to show less affection toward their children, leaving the children depressed or more likely to misbehave.
By considering material hardship and family income together, the study's results challenge the well-established finding that family income is directly associated with parents' stress. The researchers found that only when increases in income were accompanied by decreases in families' experiences of hardship did income lessen parents' stress levels; added income alone was not enough. This distinction is important because the same level of family income can mean hardship in some parts of the country, such as large, urban cities, but not in other areas, such as small, rural towns.
"Our results suggest that a goal of enhancing the cognitive abilities of children from low-income families might be effectively served by interventions that provide such enriching materials or experiences when parents are financially unable to do so," according to Elizabeth T. Gershoff, the study's lead author and a professor of social work at the University of Michigan. "If the goal is reducing behavior problems, then reducing hardship through provision of in-kind goods and services, and in turn reducing parent stress, may have the greatest impact."
###
Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Income Is Not Enough: Incorporating Material Hardship into Models of Income Associations with Parenting and Child Development, by Gershoff, ET (University of Michigan), Aber, JL (New York University), Raver, CC (University of Chicago), and Lennon, MC (Columbia University). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development
Young Adolescent Girls' Depression Is Tied To More Stressful Life Events
Children's conduct problems--skipping school, sneaking out of the house, lying to parents, shoplifting, or bullying other children--are a major source of concern for parents and teachers. As a potential cause of these problems, parents' marital conflict has received a lot of research attention. Now a new study finds that parents' fighting may not be to blame but rather that parents who argue a lot may pass on genes for disruptive behavior to their children.
The findings are published in the journal Child Development.
A group of researchers from the University of Virginia and several other universities looked at this question, studying 1,045 twins and their 2,051 children. Some of the parents were identical twins and shared all of their genes and some were fraternal and shared only half of their genes.
The study found that parents' fighting is not likely a cause of children's conduct problems. On the other hand, parents' genes influenced how often they argued with their spouses and these same genes, when passed to their children, caused more conduct problems.
"This study suggests that marital conflict is not a major culprit, but genes are," said K. Paige Harden, the lead researcher and professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. "Our findings have potential implications for treating conduct problems: Focusing on a child's parents, as is common in family therapy, may not be as effective as focusing on the child."
The study was supported, in part, by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression.
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Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Marital Conflict and Conduct Problems in Children-of-Twins, by Harden, KP, Turkheimer, E, and Emery, RE (University of Virginia), D'Onofrio, BM (Indiana University), Slutske, WS (University of Missouri), Heath, AC (Washington University, St. Louis), and Martin, NG (Queensland Institute of Medical Research). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development
The findings are published in the journal Child Development.
A group of researchers from the University of Virginia and several other universities looked at this question, studying 1,045 twins and their 2,051 children. Some of the parents were identical twins and shared all of their genes and some were fraternal and shared only half of their genes.
The study found that parents' fighting is not likely a cause of children's conduct problems. On the other hand, parents' genes influenced how often they argued with their spouses and these same genes, when passed to their children, caused more conduct problems.
"This study suggests that marital conflict is not a major culprit, but genes are," said K. Paige Harden, the lead researcher and professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. "Our findings have potential implications for treating conduct problems: Focusing on a child's parents, as is common in family therapy, may not be as effective as focusing on the child."
The study was supported, in part, by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression.
###
Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Marital Conflict and Conduct Problems in Children-of-Twins, by Harden, KP, Turkheimer, E, and Emery, RE (University of Virginia), D'Onofrio, BM (Indiana University), Slutske, WS (University of Missouri), Heath, AC (Washington University, St. Louis), and Martin, NG (Queensland Institute of Medical Research). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development
Involvement Of Nonresident Fathers May Protect Low-Income Teens From Delinquency
Many American children live without their biological fathers. A substantial proportion of fathers who live apart from their children have lost touch with them and therefore don't provide consistent parenting. A new study has found that when nonresident fathers are involved with their adolescent children, the youths are less likely to take part in delinquent behavior such as drug and alcohol use, violence, property crime, and school problems such as truancy and cheating.
The study, by researchers at Boston College, is published in the journal Child Development. The research was funded, in part, by the W.T. Grant Foundation, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation, Administration on Developmental Disabilities, Administration for Children and Families, Social Security Administration, and the National Institute of Mental Health.
Researchers looked at a representative sample of 647 youths who were 10 to 14 years old at the start of the study and their families over a 16-month period, gathering information from the adolescents and their mothers. The families were primarily African-American and Hispanic, and most lived in poverty.
Taking into consideration adolescents' demographic and family characteristics, the researchers found that when nonresident fathers were involved with their children, adolescents reported lower levels of delinquency, particularly among youth who showed an early tendency toward such behavior.
They also found that adolescent delinquency did not lead fathers to change their involvement over the long-term. But in the short-term, as teens engaged in more problem behaviors, fathers increased their involvement, suggesting that nonresident fathers may be getting more involved in an effort to stem their children's delinquency. This finding was most prevalent in African-American families and contrasts with the pattern in two-parent, middle-class, white families, where parents often pull away and become less involved in the face of adolescent delinquency.
"Nonresident fathers in low-income, minority families appear to be an important protective factor for adolescents," said Rebekah Levine Coley, professor of applied development and educational psychology at Boston College and the study's lead author. "Greater involvement from fathers may help adolescents develop self control and self competence, and may decrease the opportunities adolescents have to engage in problem behaviors."
###
Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Reciprocal Longitudinal Relations Between Nonresident Father Involvement and Adolescent Delinquency, by Coley, RL, and Medeiros, BL (Boston College). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development
The study, by researchers at Boston College, is published in the journal Child Development. The research was funded, in part, by the W.T. Grant Foundation, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation, Administration on Developmental Disabilities, Administration for Children and Families, Social Security Administration, and the National Institute of Mental Health.
Researchers looked at a representative sample of 647 youths who were 10 to 14 years old at the start of the study and their families over a 16-month period, gathering information from the adolescents and their mothers. The families were primarily African-American and Hispanic, and most lived in poverty.
Taking into consideration adolescents' demographic and family characteristics, the researchers found that when nonresident fathers were involved with their children, adolescents reported lower levels of delinquency, particularly among youth who showed an early tendency toward such behavior.
They also found that adolescent delinquency did not lead fathers to change their involvement over the long-term. But in the short-term, as teens engaged in more problem behaviors, fathers increased their involvement, suggesting that nonresident fathers may be getting more involved in an effort to stem their children's delinquency. This finding was most prevalent in African-American families and contrasts with the pattern in two-parent, middle-class, white families, where parents often pull away and become less involved in the face of adolescent delinquency.
"Nonresident fathers in low-income, minority families appear to be an important protective factor for adolescents," said Rebekah Levine Coley, professor of applied development and educational psychology at Boston College and the study's lead author. "Greater involvement from fathers may help adolescents develop self control and self competence, and may decrease the opportunities adolescents have to engage in problem behaviors."
###
Summarized from Child Development, Vol. 78, Issue 1, Reciprocal Longitudinal Relations Between Nonresident Father Involvement and Adolescent Delinquency, by Coley, RL, and Medeiros, BL (Boston College). Copyright 2007 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved.
Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development
Selectivity Is Ultimate Aphrodisiac
Speed daters who romantically desired most of their potential partners were rejected quickly and overwhelmingly, according to a new Northwestern University study.
Conventional wisdom has long taught that one of the best ways to get someone to like you is to make it clear that you like them. Now researchers have discovered that this law of reciprocity is in dire need of an asterisk in the domain of romantic attraction.
The more you tend to experience romantic desire for all the potential romantic partners you meet, the study shows, the less likely it is that they will desire you in return. (Think too desperate, too indiscriminate.)
In contrast, when you desire a potential partner above and beyond your other options, only then is your desire likely to be reciprocated. (Think hallelujah, finally, someone really gets me.)
In the past, social psychologists have had a difficult time observing initial romantic attraction in action, but the speed-dating methodology used in this study allowed the investigators to take a serious look at the chemistry that has been at the center of so much literature, art and imagination throughout the ages.
"Potential partners who seem undiscriminating are a definite turnoff, and those who evoke the magic of feeling special are a big draw," said Paul W. Eastwick, the lead author of the study and a Northwestern graduate student in psychology. "The wild part is that our speed-daters were negotiating all of these subtleties with only four minutes for each date."
"Selective vs. Unselective Romantic Desire: Not All Reciprocity is Created Equal," by Eastwick and Northwestern's Eli J. Finkel, assistant professor of psychology, will be published in the April issue of the journal Psychological Science. Also contributing to the report are Daniel Mochon and Dan Ariely of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"How this all happens is a bit of a mystery," Finkel said. "Put yourself in the position of a speed dater. You're not only able to pick up something about the degree to which that person likes you, but you're able to pick up -- in four minutes -- the degree to which that person likes you more than their other dates. It's amazing."
To explore dynamics in the opening minutes of romantic attraction, the researchers set up seven speed-dating sessions for a total of 156 undergraduate students. Participants had four-minute speed dates with nine to 13 opposite-sex individuals. Immediately following each date, they completed a two-minute questionnaire, answering items such as "I really liked my interaction partner" and "I was sexually attracted to my interaction partner."
After returning home, they recorded on the study Web site whether they would be interested in meeting each person they had speed-dated again in the future. Mutual "yeses" were given the ability to contact one another.
"People who like everyone, unlike in a friendship context where they generally are liked in return, may exude desperation in a romantic context," Finkel said.
"It suggests to us that romantic desire comes in two distinct flavors: selective and unselective," Eastwick added. "If your goal is to get someone to notice you, the unselective flavor is going to fail, and fast."
The need to feel special or unique could be a broad motivation that stretches across our social lives, the study concludes. "Just as this need plays an important role in intimate relationships and friendships, the present study reveals a distinctive anti-reciprocity effect if this need is not satisfied in initial encounters with potential romantic partners."
###
Contact: Pat Vaughan Tremmel
Northwestern University
Conventional wisdom has long taught that one of the best ways to get someone to like you is to make it clear that you like them. Now researchers have discovered that this law of reciprocity is in dire need of an asterisk in the domain of romantic attraction.
The more you tend to experience romantic desire for all the potential romantic partners you meet, the study shows, the less likely it is that they will desire you in return. (Think too desperate, too indiscriminate.)
In contrast, when you desire a potential partner above and beyond your other options, only then is your desire likely to be reciprocated. (Think hallelujah, finally, someone really gets me.)
In the past, social psychologists have had a difficult time observing initial romantic attraction in action, but the speed-dating methodology used in this study allowed the investigators to take a serious look at the chemistry that has been at the center of so much literature, art and imagination throughout the ages.
"Potential partners who seem undiscriminating are a definite turnoff, and those who evoke the magic of feeling special are a big draw," said Paul W. Eastwick, the lead author of the study and a Northwestern graduate student in psychology. "The wild part is that our speed-daters were negotiating all of these subtleties with only four minutes for each date."
"Selective vs. Unselective Romantic Desire: Not All Reciprocity is Created Equal," by Eastwick and Northwestern's Eli J. Finkel, assistant professor of psychology, will be published in the April issue of the journal Psychological Science. Also contributing to the report are Daniel Mochon and Dan Ariely of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"How this all happens is a bit of a mystery," Finkel said. "Put yourself in the position of a speed dater. You're not only able to pick up something about the degree to which that person likes you, but you're able to pick up -- in four minutes -- the degree to which that person likes you more than their other dates. It's amazing."
To explore dynamics in the opening minutes of romantic attraction, the researchers set up seven speed-dating sessions for a total of 156 undergraduate students. Participants had four-minute speed dates with nine to 13 opposite-sex individuals. Immediately following each date, they completed a two-minute questionnaire, answering items such as "I really liked my interaction partner" and "I was sexually attracted to my interaction partner."
After returning home, they recorded on the study Web site whether they would be interested in meeting each person they had speed-dated again in the future. Mutual "yeses" were given the ability to contact one another.
"People who like everyone, unlike in a friendship context where they generally are liked in return, may exude desperation in a romantic context," Finkel said.
"It suggests to us that romantic desire comes in two distinct flavors: selective and unselective," Eastwick added. "If your goal is to get someone to notice you, the unselective flavor is going to fail, and fast."
The need to feel special or unique could be a broad motivation that stretches across our social lives, the study concludes. "Just as this need plays an important role in intimate relationships and friendships, the present study reveals a distinctive anti-reciprocity effect if this need is not satisfied in initial encounters with potential romantic partners."
###
Contact: Pat Vaughan Tremmel
Northwestern University
New Insurance Legislation Would End Discrimination Against People With Mental Health Disorders
Today, the United States Senate took an important step toward meeting the mental health needs of tens of millions of Americans by introducing new legislation to end discrimination against people with mental health disorders and assure treatment is available for those who need it. The Mental Health Parity Act of 2007, introduced by Sens. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Michael Enzi (R- Wyo.), would provide mental health insurance coverage equivalent to physical health coverage, benefiting 113 million Americans in large group health plans.
"Having a mental health disorder can be as serious as having a heart attack or any other debilitating, life-threatening physical health disorder. In addition, there is a clear connection between mental health disorders and physical ailments," says Russ Newman, PhD, JD, APA executive director for professional practice. "With the passage of this bill, insurers may no longer arbitrarily limit the number of hospital days or outpatient treatment sessions, or use higher copayments or deductibles for people in need of psychological services."
This new legislation, modeled on the current Federal Employee Health Benefits Program covering 8.5 million federal employees, strengthens provisions in the original Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 and closes loopholes in this law. The 2007 bill requires that copayments for office visits, deductibles, limits on number of visits, out-of-network and in-network services for psychological services be treated the same as physical health services. It also includes coverage for substance abuse and chemical dependency services. In addition, the bill preserves existing state laws requiring diagnoses coverage.
According to APA consumer research, 85 percent of Americans say health insurance should cover mental health services. And 87 percent say it's lack of insurance coverage that most keeps them from seeing a mental health professional.
"Health care coverage in this country needs to catch up with what people increasingly understand...the mind and body are linked inextricably," says Newman. "Congress can help improve access to mental health services and end insurance discrimination against those suffering from mental health disorders by passing the Mental Health Parity Act of 2007."
The American Psychological Association (APA), located in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 150,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its 54 divisions and its affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science and profession, and as a means of promoting health, education, and human welfare.
American Psychological Association
http://www.apa.org
"Having a mental health disorder can be as serious as having a heart attack or any other debilitating, life-threatening physical health disorder. In addition, there is a clear connection between mental health disorders and physical ailments," says Russ Newman, PhD, JD, APA executive director for professional practice. "With the passage of this bill, insurers may no longer arbitrarily limit the number of hospital days or outpatient treatment sessions, or use higher copayments or deductibles for people in need of psychological services."
This new legislation, modeled on the current Federal Employee Health Benefits Program covering 8.5 million federal employees, strengthens provisions in the original Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 and closes loopholes in this law. The 2007 bill requires that copayments for office visits, deductibles, limits on number of visits, out-of-network and in-network services for psychological services be treated the same as physical health services. It also includes coverage for substance abuse and chemical dependency services. In addition, the bill preserves existing state laws requiring diagnoses coverage.
According to APA consumer research, 85 percent of Americans say health insurance should cover mental health services. And 87 percent say it's lack of insurance coverage that most keeps them from seeing a mental health professional.
"Health care coverage in this country needs to catch up with what people increasingly understand...the mind and body are linked inextricably," says Newman. "Congress can help improve access to mental health services and end insurance discrimination against those suffering from mental health disorders by passing the Mental Health Parity Act of 2007."
The American Psychological Association (APA), located in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 150,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its 54 divisions and its affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science and profession, and as a means of promoting health, education, and human welfare.
American Psychological Association
http://www.apa.org
Using Octopuses To Understand Depression
Researchers often use animals to help them resolve problems that can be applied to people. Dr. Jean Boal, a biology professor at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, is developing a new and unique way to research the causes and effects of depression with the help of octopuses.
Boal, along with Dr. Anne-Sophie Darmaillacq, a visiting postdoctoral fellow from Universite de Caen in France, is performing behavioral experiments with octopuses. Darmaillacq will be working with Boal through February 16.
"Along with biology student, Katherine Heldt, we will be researching the effects different conditions have on the octopuses to gain information on depression," explained Boal.
She explained that the first part of the research will include training the octopuses to distinguish between white and black rods and reward it with food if it goes to one rod and no reward if it goes to the other. Next, for two weeks they will house half the octopuses in enriched conditions and the other half in impoverished conditions and then reverse the housing for another two weeks.
"My prediction is that if the octopuses are like rats (or people), the octopuses moved from impoverished to enriched conditions should be 'happy' and 'optimistic,'" said Boal. "The octopuses moved from enriched to impoverished conditions should be 'sad' and 'pessimistic.' We can test this by presenting them with rods that have black-and-white stripes. Optimistic animals will see the striped rods as like the ones they were rewarded with. Pessimistic animals will see the striped rods as like the ones that had no reward."
"Darmaillacq's primary goal is to collaborate with me on these behavioral experiments," said Boal. "Her secondary goals are perfecting her English and getting to know the United States."
Boal will be traveling to France this summer to work with Darmaillacq in her home setting. They will conduct the same type of studies, but with cuttlefish instead of octopuses.
Along with their student collaborator, they will present the results of their experiments at an international behavior meeting and publish their results in a peer-reviewed journal.
Millersville University
http://www.millersville.edu/
Boal, along with Dr. Anne-Sophie Darmaillacq, a visiting postdoctoral fellow from Universite de Caen in France, is performing behavioral experiments with octopuses. Darmaillacq will be working with Boal through February 16.
"Along with biology student, Katherine Heldt, we will be researching the effects different conditions have on the octopuses to gain information on depression," explained Boal.
She explained that the first part of the research will include training the octopuses to distinguish between white and black rods and reward it with food if it goes to one rod and no reward if it goes to the other. Next, for two weeks they will house half the octopuses in enriched conditions and the other half in impoverished conditions and then reverse the housing for another two weeks.
"My prediction is that if the octopuses are like rats (or people), the octopuses moved from impoverished to enriched conditions should be 'happy' and 'optimistic,'" said Boal. "The octopuses moved from enriched to impoverished conditions should be 'sad' and 'pessimistic.' We can test this by presenting them with rods that have black-and-white stripes. Optimistic animals will see the striped rods as like the ones they were rewarded with. Pessimistic animals will see the striped rods as like the ones that had no reward."
"Darmaillacq's primary goal is to collaborate with me on these behavioral experiments," said Boal. "Her secondary goals are perfecting her English and getting to know the United States."
Boal will be traveling to France this summer to work with Darmaillacq in her home setting. They will conduct the same type of studies, but with cuttlefish instead of octopuses.
Along with their student collaborator, they will present the results of their experiments at an international behavior meeting and publish their results in a peer-reviewed journal.
Millersville University
http://www.millersville.edu/
Penn Study Based On Abu Ghraib Suggests Military Veterans Highly Tolerant Of Detainee Abuse
In a study that appears in the current issue of Military Medicine, William C. Holmes, MD, MSCE, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and lead author of the paper, assesses veterans' tolerance for detainee abuse and variables associated with it.
In the study, three scenarios of detainee abuse, taken directly from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, were presented to veterans. After each scenario, zero tolerance -- or the belief that abuse is "completely unacceptable" regardless of who the detainee is -- was assessed for the described abuse. Holmes, who is also an investigator at the Center for Health Equity Resesarch and Promotion at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, found that:
* Only 16% of veterans indicated zero tolerance for detainee exposure and deprivation
* Only 31% indicated zero tolerance for detainee exposure and sexualized humiliation
* Not even half (48%) indicated zero tolerance for detainee rape
"The level of tolerance exhibited by these findings is surprising, but may not be true for all veterans and certainly cannot be said to be representative of active-duty military," says Holmes. He adds, "These findings do indicate, however, the value of assessing tolerance for abuse, and for using scenario-based assessment to do that; it provides an argument for similar work being done in active-duty military, particularly those who are heading to Iraq to become involved in sensitive, oversight positions."
The study was completed by administering paper questionnaires to 351veteran volunteers at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center's Mental Health Clinic, Primary Care Clinic, and Women's Health Center. Participants were asked a number of sociodemographic questions (e.g., age, sex) and other questions (e.g., period of service, service in a war zone). Symptoms of depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were also assessed.
Although every questionnaire administered the three increasingly-severe abuse scenarios, there were three questionnaire versions used: all scenarios of one version ended by stating that the abusing soldier was not ordered by a superior to treat the detainee in this way; all scenarios of the second version ended by stating that the abusing soldier was ordered by a superior to treat the detainee in this way; and all scenarios of the third version ended by stating that a second soldier stated, "This treatment is wrong," and reported it.
In general, veterans' tolerance for abuse was least when soldier-initiated, and greatest when superior-ordered. Tolerance for abuse also was high when a whistleblower was involved.
The strongest, most consistently significant variable related to tolerance was depression and co-morbid depression/posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Those with depression alone and those with comorbid depression/PTSD exhibited odds that were approximately two and three times more tolerant of abuse than those with neither depression or PTSD. Sex of the respondent also was related to tolerance. Men exhibited odds that were ~4 to 20 times more tolerant of abuse than women.
Holmes notes that future studies using scenario-based questionnaire methods are warranted in generalizable war zone samples. "If our results are replicated in active-duty soldiers," he challenges, "one could imagine the use of scenario-based questionnaires of this type to provide risk stratification of a soldiers' likelihood for abuse upon entry into a sensitive oversight position. The frequent development of depression and PTSD in soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq would suggest that completion of the questionnaire occur intermittently during their tour of duty as well."
###
PENN Medicine is a $2.9 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and high-quality patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Penn's School of Medicine is ranked #2 in the nation for receipt of NIH research funds; and ranked #3 in the nation in U.S. News & World Report's most recent ranking of top research-oriented medical schools. Supporting 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic medicine.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System includes three hospitals, all of which have received numerous national patient-care honors [Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital; and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center]; a faculty practice plan; a primary-care provider network; two multispecialty satellite facilities; and home care and hospice.
Contact: Kate Olderman
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
In the study, three scenarios of detainee abuse, taken directly from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, were presented to veterans. After each scenario, zero tolerance -- or the belief that abuse is "completely unacceptable" regardless of who the detainee is -- was assessed for the described abuse. Holmes, who is also an investigator at the Center for Health Equity Resesarch and Promotion at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, found that:
* Only 16% of veterans indicated zero tolerance for detainee exposure and deprivation
* Only 31% indicated zero tolerance for detainee exposure and sexualized humiliation
* Not even half (48%) indicated zero tolerance for detainee rape
"The level of tolerance exhibited by these findings is surprising, but may not be true for all veterans and certainly cannot be said to be representative of active-duty military," says Holmes. He adds, "These findings do indicate, however, the value of assessing tolerance for abuse, and for using scenario-based assessment to do that; it provides an argument for similar work being done in active-duty military, particularly those who are heading to Iraq to become involved in sensitive, oversight positions."
The study was completed by administering paper questionnaires to 351veteran volunteers at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center's Mental Health Clinic, Primary Care Clinic, and Women's Health Center. Participants were asked a number of sociodemographic questions (e.g., age, sex) and other questions (e.g., period of service, service in a war zone). Symptoms of depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were also assessed.
Although every questionnaire administered the three increasingly-severe abuse scenarios, there were three questionnaire versions used: all scenarios of one version ended by stating that the abusing soldier was not ordered by a superior to treat the detainee in this way; all scenarios of the second version ended by stating that the abusing soldier was ordered by a superior to treat the detainee in this way; and all scenarios of the third version ended by stating that a second soldier stated, "This treatment is wrong," and reported it.
In general, veterans' tolerance for abuse was least when soldier-initiated, and greatest when superior-ordered. Tolerance for abuse also was high when a whistleblower was involved.
The strongest, most consistently significant variable related to tolerance was depression and co-morbid depression/posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Those with depression alone and those with comorbid depression/PTSD exhibited odds that were approximately two and three times more tolerant of abuse than those with neither depression or PTSD. Sex of the respondent also was related to tolerance. Men exhibited odds that were ~4 to 20 times more tolerant of abuse than women.
Holmes notes that future studies using scenario-based questionnaire methods are warranted in generalizable war zone samples. "If our results are replicated in active-duty soldiers," he challenges, "one could imagine the use of scenario-based questionnaires of this type to provide risk stratification of a soldiers' likelihood for abuse upon entry into a sensitive oversight position. The frequent development of depression and PTSD in soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq would suggest that completion of the questionnaire occur intermittently during their tour of duty as well."
###
PENN Medicine is a $2.9 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and high-quality patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Penn's School of Medicine is ranked #2 in the nation for receipt of NIH research funds; and ranked #3 in the nation in U.S. News & World Report's most recent ranking of top research-oriented medical schools. Supporting 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic medicine.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System includes three hospitals, all of which have received numerous national patient-care honors [Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital; and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center]; a faculty practice plan; a primary-care provider network; two multispecialty satellite facilities; and home care and hospice.
Contact: Kate Olderman
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Does A Doctor's Style Of Dress Impact A Patient's Perception Of Care? Apparently Not
Often first impressions matter, and sometimes your clothing choices can speak volumes about you. But does that hold true for a doctor when striving to make a good first impression upon a patient? Is the patient's perception about the quality of care influenced by what a doctor wears?
A Cooper University Hospital high-risk obstetrician answered these questions in his research appearing in the February issue of The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a peer-reviewed publication.
"Our hypothesis held true. Our study determined that patient satisfaction is unrelated to physician attire, " said Richard L. Fischer, M.D., a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Co-Division Head of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Cooper University Hospital and lead researcher of the study. "Patients weren't any less satisfied and didn't perceive any difference based on how their doctors appeared. "
The question of how a doctor should dress has been widely debated within the medical community. Doctors traditionally choose clothing based on their personal preferences, comfort levels and the impressions they want to convey. The physician wants to instill in the patient a high level of confidence in both bedside manner and professional competency.
Some physicians choose a white coat to suggest a sense of cleanliness, professionalism and authority while others choose more informal attire in the hope of breaking down barriers, improving communications and creating a more equal physician-patient relationship, the study notes.
The research involved 20 full-time faculty members in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J. During a three-month span between September and November 2005, doctors were randomly assigned to wear business attire, casual clothing or scrub suits for a week at a time. The study meticulously outlined for each doctor what constituted the differences among the styles of clothing. For instance, a buttoned white coat was required for business attire, prohibited while wearing scrubs and generally discouraged for casual attire, although permitted as long as it was unbuttoned.
Patients who were meeting one of the doctors for the first time and their appointment lasted at least 10 minutes were asked to complete a survey. This was to avoid any bias from previous interactions. Each form included 10 questions about the physician's competence and professionalism, the patient's sense of comfort and confidence in the physician, and whether they would return to or recommend the doctor to others. No statements referred to the provider's clothing. Of the 1,116 patients involved in the study, 375 were exposed to physicians in business attire, 373 to casual attire and 368 to scrub attire. The study found identical satisfactions levels among all three apparels, regardless of the questions asked.
"This contradicts the longstanding belief that attire affects the level of patient comfort or the patient's perception of physician competence and professionalism," Fischer said.
Cooper University Hospital
3 Executive Campus
Suite 240-B
Cherry Hill, NJ 08002
USA
http://www.cooperhealth.edu
A Cooper University Hospital high-risk obstetrician answered these questions in his research appearing in the February issue of The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a peer-reviewed publication.
"Our hypothesis held true. Our study determined that patient satisfaction is unrelated to physician attire, " said Richard L. Fischer, M.D., a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Co-Division Head of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Cooper University Hospital and lead researcher of the study. "Patients weren't any less satisfied and didn't perceive any difference based on how their doctors appeared. "
The question of how a doctor should dress has been widely debated within the medical community. Doctors traditionally choose clothing based on their personal preferences, comfort levels and the impressions they want to convey. The physician wants to instill in the patient a high level of confidence in both bedside manner and professional competency.
Some physicians choose a white coat to suggest a sense of cleanliness, professionalism and authority while others choose more informal attire in the hope of breaking down barriers, improving communications and creating a more equal physician-patient relationship, the study notes.
The research involved 20 full-time faculty members in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J. During a three-month span between September and November 2005, doctors were randomly assigned to wear business attire, casual clothing or scrub suits for a week at a time. The study meticulously outlined for each doctor what constituted the differences among the styles of clothing. For instance, a buttoned white coat was required for business attire, prohibited while wearing scrubs and generally discouraged for casual attire, although permitted as long as it was unbuttoned.
Patients who were meeting one of the doctors for the first time and their appointment lasted at least 10 minutes were asked to complete a survey. This was to avoid any bias from previous interactions. Each form included 10 questions about the physician's competence and professionalism, the patient's sense of comfort and confidence in the physician, and whether they would return to or recommend the doctor to others. No statements referred to the provider's clothing. Of the 1,116 patients involved in the study, 375 were exposed to physicians in business attire, 373 to casual attire and 368 to scrub attire. The study found identical satisfactions levels among all three apparels, regardless of the questions asked.
"This contradicts the longstanding belief that attire affects the level of patient comfort or the patient's perception of physician competence and professionalism," Fischer said.
Cooper University Hospital
3 Executive Campus
Suite 240-B
Cherry Hill, NJ 08002
USA
http://www.cooperhealth.edu
Males Have Adapted To Battle With Competing Sperm
In the context of sexual reproduction, natural selection is generally thought of as a pre-copulation mechanism. We are drawn to features of the human body that tell us our partner is healthy and will provide us a fighting opportunity to carry on our genetic lineage. But a new article appearing in the February issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science suggests that the human male has evolved mechanisms to pass on his genes during post-copulation as well, a phenomenon dubbed "sperm competition."
In their article, Todd Shackelford and Aaron Getz at Florida Atlantic University describe sperm competition as "the inevitable consequence of males competing for fertilizations."
For a monogamous species, sperm competition may seem unlikely. But according to the authors, extra pair copulations (i.e. affairs) appear to be a significant part of our ancestral history and could, evolutionarily speaking, spell disaster. Ultimately, a male whose female partner engages in extra-pair copulation is at risk of unwittingly investing his resources into a genetically unrelated offspring.
Competition may also affect sperm count, say the authors. When men spend more time away from their partners (time that their partners could have spent with other males), the number of sperm in their ejaculate increases upon their next copulation. In one study, the authors note, simulated phalluses that most closely resembled the human penis removed an ejaculate-like substance from an artificial vagina. This could potentially signify that that the penis developed its shape to act as an anatomical squeegee.
But sperm competition does not solely take place in the realm of our biological makeup. According to the authors, many sexual behaviors such as deep copulatory thrusting may function to remove rival sperm. Accordingly, sexual partners report that men thrust more deeply and quickly into the vagina following allegations of infidelity. The same periods of separation that increase sperm number in male ejaculates may also help to explain the increasingly lustful feelings human males develop after long periods of time apart from their mate. That is, the human male may want to copulate as soon as possible as insurance against possible extra-pair copulation.
As sperm competition comes to light as yet another facet of sexual adaptation, it raises the question of how many other ways have humans evolved in a world dictated by "survival of the fittest?" "Sexual conflict between males and females," Shackelford and Goetz describe, "produces a coevolutionary arms race between the sexes, in which an advantage gained by one sex selects for counteradaptations in the other sex." Thus future research may move beyond male adaptations and, for example, attempt to identify mechanisms in which females increase retention of sperm inseminated by men with the most favorable genes.
###
Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science publishes concise reviews spanning all of scientific psychology and its applications.
Contact: Todd Shackelford
Association for Psychological Science
In their article, Todd Shackelford and Aaron Getz at Florida Atlantic University describe sperm competition as "the inevitable consequence of males competing for fertilizations."
For a monogamous species, sperm competition may seem unlikely. But according to the authors, extra pair copulations (i.e. affairs) appear to be a significant part of our ancestral history and could, evolutionarily speaking, spell disaster. Ultimately, a male whose female partner engages in extra-pair copulation is at risk of unwittingly investing his resources into a genetically unrelated offspring.
Competition may also affect sperm count, say the authors. When men spend more time away from their partners (time that their partners could have spent with other males), the number of sperm in their ejaculate increases upon their next copulation. In one study, the authors note, simulated phalluses that most closely resembled the human penis removed an ejaculate-like substance from an artificial vagina. This could potentially signify that that the penis developed its shape to act as an anatomical squeegee.
But sperm competition does not solely take place in the realm of our biological makeup. According to the authors, many sexual behaviors such as deep copulatory thrusting may function to remove rival sperm. Accordingly, sexual partners report that men thrust more deeply and quickly into the vagina following allegations of infidelity. The same periods of separation that increase sperm number in male ejaculates may also help to explain the increasingly lustful feelings human males develop after long periods of time apart from their mate. That is, the human male may want to copulate as soon as possible as insurance against possible extra-pair copulation.
As sperm competition comes to light as yet another facet of sexual adaptation, it raises the question of how many other ways have humans evolved in a world dictated by "survival of the fittest?" "Sexual conflict between males and females," Shackelford and Goetz describe, "produces a coevolutionary arms race between the sexes, in which an advantage gained by one sex selects for counteradaptations in the other sex." Thus future research may move beyond male adaptations and, for example, attempt to identify mechanisms in which females increase retention of sperm inseminated by men with the most favorable genes.
###
Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science publishes concise reviews spanning all of scientific psychology and its applications.
Contact: Todd Shackelford
Association for Psychological Science
A Simple Test Distinguishes Between Bipolar Disorder And Depression
Type II bipolar disorder is an underdiagnosed disease which can be easily confused with depression. Contrarily to what happens in type I bipolar disorder, depressive symptoms and, above all, manic symptoms alternated in this form of the disease are not evident and difficult to identify. In fact, patients suffering from it usually go to the doctor because they are depressed, without thinking that they have also had slight manic episodes (euphoria and other cognition disorders). Medical centre lack tools to identify successfully this pathology, which can take 8-10 years to be correctly diagnosed. Furthermore, antidepressant treatment can be counterproductive in patients with type II bipolar disorder. Dr. Eduard Vieta, of the group Biological Basis of the Psychic Disorder and Nuclear Psychiatry of the Institut d'Investigacions BiomГЁdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), has coordinated a study in order to validate the Spanish version of the test Hypomania symptom check list (HCL-32), which is being developed in an ample international collaboration.
The last issue of Journal of Affective Disorders published results confirming the usefulness of this simple questionnaire of 32 questions to distinguish major depression from bipolar disorder. In 2005, researchers from IDIBAPS collaborated in the international design of this test (J Affect Disord, 2005; 88(2):217-33). The main difference between HCL-32 and the test used until today - the Mood disorder questionnaire (MDQ)- is the open character of the questions, facilitating the patient's sincerity. In these questions lay essential information to assess retrospectively the energy/activity levels of patients and problems of disinhibition, self-control and attention they have suffered in the past. This new study compares the sensitivity of both questionnaires, and concludes that the HCL-32 is more precise than the MDQ in the identification of type II bipolar disorder patients. This work has been supported by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and had the participation of PSYNCRO, a neuropsychological research enterprise, located in the Parc CientГfic de Barcelona (PCB), which has worked in collaboration with the Department of Psychology of the Universitat de Girona.
A total of 237 people from 15 different psychiatric departments (see annex list), filled out the HCL-32. Except those belonging to the control group (60), the rest were correctly diagnosed, stable and receiving a correct treatment for their pathology, which could be type I (62) and type II (56) bipolar disorder, or major depression (58). This test was able to identify more than 80% of patients with bipolar disorder. Although it could not distinguish between types I and II, this decision is relatively easy to take from the clinical data of the patient. For the first time, a tool to identify bipolar disorder is available for patients going to the medical centre claiming depression. Although it is necessary to go on with studies in patients of wider populations, the HCL-32 test can provide very useful information to psychiatrists and even to primary-care physicians.
###
Further information please contact:
ГЂlex ArgemГ, Sientific writer,
Institut d'Investigacions BiomГЁdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS)
Marc de Semir,
Head of Communication,
Communication Department
Annex
List of involved health centres:
* Programme of Bipolar Disorders. Institut ClГnic de NeurociГЁncies. Hospital ClГnic, IDIBAPS, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona Stanley Foundation Center. Barcelona.
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital Universitario "MarquГ©s de Valdecilla". Santander
* Institute of Psychiatric Care, Mental Health and Toxicomanic Hospital del Mar. Barcelona
* Psychiatry Department. Hospital Virgen Macarena. Sevilla,
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital General y Universitario. Guadalajara.
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital MГєtua de Terrassa. Terrasa (Barcelona).
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital Regional Universitario Infanta Cristina. Badajoz.
* Mental Health Centre. Mieres (Asturias).
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital Universitario San Juan. Alicante.
* Psychiatry and Mental Health Unit. Hospital General de Vic. Vic (Barcelona).
* Psychiatry Unit II. Hospital General Universitario Gregorio MaraГ±Гіn. Madrid.
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital Donostia. San SebastiГЎn (GuipГєzcoa).
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital ClГnico. Salamanca.
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital de la Princesa. Madrid.
* Unit of Psychiatric Hospitalisation. Hospital General de Jerez de la Fontera. Jerez de la Frontera (CГЎdiz).
* Neurosciences Area. Medical Department. GlaxoSmithKline S.A. Tres Cantos (Madrid) * University of Zurich, Switzerland
Contact: ГЂlex ArgemГ
IDIBAPS - Institut d'Investigacions BiomГЁdiques August Pi i Sunyer
The last issue of Journal of Affective Disorders published results confirming the usefulness of this simple questionnaire of 32 questions to distinguish major depression from bipolar disorder. In 2005, researchers from IDIBAPS collaborated in the international design of this test (J Affect Disord, 2005; 88(2):217-33). The main difference between HCL-32 and the test used until today - the Mood disorder questionnaire (MDQ)- is the open character of the questions, facilitating the patient's sincerity. In these questions lay essential information to assess retrospectively the energy/activity levels of patients and problems of disinhibition, self-control and attention they have suffered in the past. This new study compares the sensitivity of both questionnaires, and concludes that the HCL-32 is more precise than the MDQ in the identification of type II bipolar disorder patients. This work has been supported by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and had the participation of PSYNCRO, a neuropsychological research enterprise, located in the Parc CientГfic de Barcelona (PCB), which has worked in collaboration with the Department of Psychology of the Universitat de Girona.
A total of 237 people from 15 different psychiatric departments (see annex list), filled out the HCL-32. Except those belonging to the control group (60), the rest were correctly diagnosed, stable and receiving a correct treatment for their pathology, which could be type I (62) and type II (56) bipolar disorder, or major depression (58). This test was able to identify more than 80% of patients with bipolar disorder. Although it could not distinguish between types I and II, this decision is relatively easy to take from the clinical data of the patient. For the first time, a tool to identify bipolar disorder is available for patients going to the medical centre claiming depression. Although it is necessary to go on with studies in patients of wider populations, the HCL-32 test can provide very useful information to psychiatrists and even to primary-care physicians.
###
Further information please contact:
ГЂlex ArgemГ, Sientific writer,
Institut d'Investigacions BiomГЁdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS)
Marc de Semir,
Head of Communication,
Communication Department
Annex
List of involved health centres:
* Programme of Bipolar Disorders. Institut ClГnic de NeurociГЁncies. Hospital ClГnic, IDIBAPS, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona Stanley Foundation Center. Barcelona.
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital Universitario "MarquГ©s de Valdecilla". Santander
* Institute of Psychiatric Care, Mental Health and Toxicomanic Hospital del Mar. Barcelona
* Psychiatry Department. Hospital Virgen Macarena. Sevilla,
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital General y Universitario. Guadalajara.
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital MГєtua de Terrassa. Terrasa (Barcelona).
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital Regional Universitario Infanta Cristina. Badajoz.
* Mental Health Centre. Mieres (Asturias).
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital Universitario San Juan. Alicante.
* Psychiatry and Mental Health Unit. Hospital General de Vic. Vic (Barcelona).
* Psychiatry Unit II. Hospital General Universitario Gregorio MaraГ±Гіn. Madrid.
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital Donostia. San SebastiГЎn (GuipГєzcoa).
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital ClГnico. Salamanca.
* Psychiatry Unit. Hospital de la Princesa. Madrid.
* Unit of Psychiatric Hospitalisation. Hospital General de Jerez de la Fontera. Jerez de la Frontera (CГЎdiz).
* Neurosciences Area. Medical Department. GlaxoSmithKline S.A. Tres Cantos (Madrid) * University of Zurich, Switzerland
Contact: ГЂlex ArgemГ
IDIBAPS - Institut d'Investigacions BiomГЁdiques August Pi i Sunyer
Fifth Annual Conference On College Depression
Every year, more than a thousand college students die by suicide, and thousands more attempt to kill themselves. Tens of thousands of other students struggle with depression, bipolar disorder and related problems such as addiction, prescription drug and alcohol abuse, anorexia and bulimia, and self-mutilation or "cutting".
Colleges and universities across the country are working to help students understand these issues and get help. On March 19 and 20, representatives from many campuses will gather at the University of Michigan to share information about what has worked for them and to get the latest research results.
The fifth annual Depression on College Campuses Conference, organized by the University of Michigan Depression Center in collaboration with many U-M schools and colleges, takes place at a time when new national statistics suggest that suicide is on the rise among teenagers, and when parents are worried about the safety of treating depressed young people with antidepressant medications.
At the same time, colleges are struggling with an ever-increasing demand for counseling services, and with legal issues involving suicidal students.
The conference will begin with a first-person account of what it's like to develop and get help for depression while in college, from Aimee Belisle, who sought treatment for depression while a student at Bentley College, and later made depression awareness her platform during her time as the 2004 Miss Rhode Island. She is now a member of the American Psychiatric Association's Presidential Task Force on Mental Health on College Campuses. Other students will also share stories of their own experience with depression in college during a special panel on March 20.
The conference will also feature speakers from around U-M, and from institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, Penn State and New York University. John Greden, M.D., executive director of the UMDC and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the U-M Medical School, will give opening and closing remarks.
Several conference sessions will focus on treatment options including talk therapy, carefully monitored medication regimens, Internet-based tools, and telemedicine consultations with psychiatrists for students at rural colleges. Panel discussions will examine University policies and protocols for helping severely distressed students, and also identify key sources of data on student mental health which can be used to help determine appropriate programs and services.
Much of the conference is designed to give college personnel, mental health professionals, student group organizers and others the kind of specific information they need to bring about change on their own campuses. Special breakout sessions for academic advisors, campus administrators, mental health clinicians, faculty, student housing officials and students will foster that sharing.
The conference will also include presentations about current research. For example, Daniel Eisenberg, Ph.D., a member of the UMDC and assistant professor in the U-M School of Public Health, and other researchers, will discuss surveys that are trying to accurately assess how many college students are experiencing or getting treatment for depression, anxiety and related issues. Eisenberg leads the Healthy Minds Study, which will be fielded at nine schools around the country this spring. (For more information, visit http://www.healthymindsstudy.net/)
Another highlight of the conference will be the presentation of the first-ever Student Mental Health Advocate Award during a banquet lunch on March 19. Student advocates around the country have poured their energy into raising awareness of depression symptoms, suicide warning signs, and treatment options among their fellow students, and the award was created to recognize those who have made the greatest impact.
The award will be presented by Kathy Cronkite, an author and advocate who has spoken publicly of her own struggle with depression. Nominations are being accepted until Feb. 16 at http://www.med.umich.edu/depression/docc/award.htm.
Registration for the conference is free for students, including physicians in training. The fee for all others is $99 before March 1, and $115 afterward. Group discounts are available for five or more people from the same campus who register together before March 1. Lunch on March 19 is available for $20 per person.
Continuing medical education credit is available for physicians, psychologists, nurses and social workers.
To register or for more information, visit http://www.med.umich.edu/depression/docc
###
The University of Michigan Depression Center is the nation's only comprehensive center dedicated to patient care, research, education and public policy in depression and bipolar disorder. Founded in 2001, its mission is to detect depression and bipolar disorders early, treat them earlier and more effectively, prevent recurrences and progression, counteract stigma, and improve public policy. More than 160 faculty, staff and students from throughout the University are members of the Center. More information is available at http://www.med.umich.edu/depression.
Contact: Kara Gavin
University of Michigan Health System
Colleges and universities across the country are working to help students understand these issues and get help. On March 19 and 20, representatives from many campuses will gather at the University of Michigan to share information about what has worked for them and to get the latest research results.
The fifth annual Depression on College Campuses Conference, organized by the University of Michigan Depression Center in collaboration with many U-M schools and colleges, takes place at a time when new national statistics suggest that suicide is on the rise among teenagers, and when parents are worried about the safety of treating depressed young people with antidepressant medications.
At the same time, colleges are struggling with an ever-increasing demand for counseling services, and with legal issues involving suicidal students.
The conference will begin with a first-person account of what it's like to develop and get help for depression while in college, from Aimee Belisle, who sought treatment for depression while a student at Bentley College, and later made depression awareness her platform during her time as the 2004 Miss Rhode Island. She is now a member of the American Psychiatric Association's Presidential Task Force on Mental Health on College Campuses. Other students will also share stories of their own experience with depression in college during a special panel on March 20.
The conference will also feature speakers from around U-M, and from institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, Penn State and New York University. John Greden, M.D., executive director of the UMDC and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the U-M Medical School, will give opening and closing remarks.
Several conference sessions will focus on treatment options including talk therapy, carefully monitored medication regimens, Internet-based tools, and telemedicine consultations with psychiatrists for students at rural colleges. Panel discussions will examine University policies and protocols for helping severely distressed students, and also identify key sources of data on student mental health which can be used to help determine appropriate programs and services.
Much of the conference is designed to give college personnel, mental health professionals, student group organizers and others the kind of specific information they need to bring about change on their own campuses. Special breakout sessions for academic advisors, campus administrators, mental health clinicians, faculty, student housing officials and students will foster that sharing.
The conference will also include presentations about current research. For example, Daniel Eisenberg, Ph.D., a member of the UMDC and assistant professor in the U-M School of Public Health, and other researchers, will discuss surveys that are trying to accurately assess how many college students are experiencing or getting treatment for depression, anxiety and related issues. Eisenberg leads the Healthy Minds Study, which will be fielded at nine schools around the country this spring. (For more information, visit http://www.healthymindsstudy.net/)
Another highlight of the conference will be the presentation of the first-ever Student Mental Health Advocate Award during a banquet lunch on March 19. Student advocates around the country have poured their energy into raising awareness of depression symptoms, suicide warning signs, and treatment options among their fellow students, and the award was created to recognize those who have made the greatest impact.
The award will be presented by Kathy Cronkite, an author and advocate who has spoken publicly of her own struggle with depression. Nominations are being accepted until Feb. 16 at http://www.med.umich.edu/depression/docc/award.htm.
Registration for the conference is free for students, including physicians in training. The fee for all others is $99 before March 1, and $115 afterward. Group discounts are available for five or more people from the same campus who register together before March 1. Lunch on March 19 is available for $20 per person.
Continuing medical education credit is available for physicians, psychologists, nurses and social workers.
To register or for more information, visit http://www.med.umich.edu/depression/docc
###
The University of Michigan Depression Center is the nation's only comprehensive center dedicated to patient care, research, education and public policy in depression and bipolar disorder. Founded in 2001, its mission is to detect depression and bipolar disorders early, treat them earlier and more effectively, prevent recurrences and progression, counteract stigma, and improve public policy. More than 160 faculty, staff and students from throughout the University are members of the Center. More information is available at http://www.med.umich.edu/depression.
Contact: Kara Gavin
University of Michigan Health System
Wartime Raises Stress, Blood Pressure Rates In Military Offspring
Children with parents in the military have higher blood pressure, heart rates and general stress levels than their peers during wartime, researchers say.
Researchers looked at 121 adolescents - including 48 with civilian parents, 20 with a parent deployed to Iraq and 53 with a parent in the military but not deployed - days after Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched in March 2003 and nearly three months later when President Bush announced major hostilities had ceased.
At both points, adolescent offspring of military personnel self-reported higher levels of stress and measures of blood pressure and heart rates supported that.
"We expected stress levels would push up blood pressure and heart rates," says Dr. Vernon Barnes, physiologist at the Medical College of Georgia and principal author of a paper published in the January issue of Military Medicine.
Dr. Barnes and his colleagues used a posttraumatic stress disorder questionnaire developed by the military for personnel and modified for adolescents, a survey to assess psychosocial concerns such as sense of well-being and faith in government as well as more objective heart rate and blood pressure measures.
Not surprisingly, they found that particularly adolescents with deployed parents had higher rates than their classmates. Studies were done at the Academy of Richmond County, a high school in Augusta, Ga., attended by many children whose parents are stationed at Fort Gordon.
Acknowledging that the study size was small and did not assess non-war related stressors, the researchers note that the physical impact of the war on military offspring merits attention. "We are not aware of any studies examining the impact of the onset of the war on both stress levels and blood pressure of military offspring," Dr. Barnes says.
There is evidence of the impact of environmental stress on blood pressure and heart rate, important indicators of cardiovascular health, he says. "Certainly the stress response is increased in soldiers, but this research indicates that it's also increased in the families they leave behind."
"Given the continued presence of U.S. soldiers deployed to (Operation Iraqi Freedom) and mounting casualties, these findings suggest that youth with family members in the military, particularly those deployed overseas, may warrant increased attention of parents, educators and counselors during this period of active conflict," researchers write. "Further research is warranted to determine whether stress reduction interventions may be effective in reducing stress levels and associated indices of sympathetic nervous system arousal in children of military personnel."
###
The work was funded in part by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; a research abstract was presented at the American Psychosomatic Society's 2004 annual meeting.
Contact: Toni Baker
Medical College of Georgia
Researchers looked at 121 adolescents - including 48 with civilian parents, 20 with a parent deployed to Iraq and 53 with a parent in the military but not deployed - days after Operation Iraqi Freedom was launched in March 2003 and nearly three months later when President Bush announced major hostilities had ceased.
At both points, adolescent offspring of military personnel self-reported higher levels of stress and measures of blood pressure and heart rates supported that.
"We expected stress levels would push up blood pressure and heart rates," says Dr. Vernon Barnes, physiologist at the Medical College of Georgia and principal author of a paper published in the January issue of Military Medicine.
Dr. Barnes and his colleagues used a posttraumatic stress disorder questionnaire developed by the military for personnel and modified for adolescents, a survey to assess psychosocial concerns such as sense of well-being and faith in government as well as more objective heart rate and blood pressure measures.
Not surprisingly, they found that particularly adolescents with deployed parents had higher rates than their classmates. Studies were done at the Academy of Richmond County, a high school in Augusta, Ga., attended by many children whose parents are stationed at Fort Gordon.
Acknowledging that the study size was small and did not assess non-war related stressors, the researchers note that the physical impact of the war on military offspring merits attention. "We are not aware of any studies examining the impact of the onset of the war on both stress levels and blood pressure of military offspring," Dr. Barnes says.
There is evidence of the impact of environmental stress on blood pressure and heart rate, important indicators of cardiovascular health, he says. "Certainly the stress response is increased in soldiers, but this research indicates that it's also increased in the families they leave behind."
"Given the continued presence of U.S. soldiers deployed to (Operation Iraqi Freedom) and mounting casualties, these findings suggest that youth with family members in the military, particularly those deployed overseas, may warrant increased attention of parents, educators and counselors during this period of active conflict," researchers write. "Further research is warranted to determine whether stress reduction interventions may be effective in reducing stress levels and associated indices of sympathetic nervous system arousal in children of military personnel."
###
The work was funded in part by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; a research abstract was presented at the American Psychosomatic Society's 2004 annual meeting.
Contact: Toni Baker
Medical College of Georgia
National Survey: U.S. Adults Support New R-Rating For Films With Tobacco
According to a new survey, 81 percent of adults in the United States agree adolescents are more likely to smoke if they watch actors smoke in movies, and 70 percent support a new R- rating for any movies with on-screen tobacco imagery, unless the film clearly demonstrates the dangers of smoking. The Social Climate Survey of Tobacco Control is an annual poll of public attitudes about tobacco control policies. The American Medical Association (AMA) Alliance, the 26,000 grassroots arm of the AMA, joined researchers from Mississippi State University's Social Science Research Center to make the announcement during the AMA's National Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C.
According to the report, public concern over the issue of tobacco imagery on screen has grown substantially over the past year:
-- Support for an 'R'-rating for movies with tobacco that fail to portray its health risks jumped nearly 12 percentage points between 2005 and 2006.
-- Two-thirds of adults want movie theaters to show anti-tobacco spots before any film with tobacco images, up more than five percentage points from the year before.
-- More than 60 percent of adults want tobacco branding out of all movie scenes, a rise of nearly seven percentage points from the previous year.
"This research is our latest effort to bring national attention to the harmful effects that smoking in movies has on our youth," said AMA Alliance President Nita Maddox. "As a parent myself, I am equally as concerned as the parents we surveyed about children's exposure to smoking on screen."
AMA Alliance members have launched a national, grassroots parent-to-parent campaign to clear tobacco imagery from future movies rated G, PG, and PG-13 by calling on the Motion Picture Association of American and movie studios to implement voluntary solutions to reduce youth's exposure to movie smoking.
The policies and the initiative, Screen Out, have been endorsed by several national public health organizations including the AMA, AMA Alliance, American Heart Association and the American Legacy Foundation.
"There is an overwhelming and consistent body of evidence that shows a clear link between smoking in movies and youth starting to smoke," said Robert McMillen, associate research professor at Mississippi State University's Social Science Research Center and lead author of the report. "This national survey demonstrates substantial public and parental support for voluntary policy changes by Hollywood to reduce this toll, including R-rating for almost all future tobacco scenes."
In 2005, one-in-six top-grossing U.S. movies showed or mentioned an actual tobacco brand. Two out of three U.S. live action movies featured tobacco in 2006, including 68 percent of PG-13 films.
"Growing U.S. support for smoke free movies will protect young people not only here, in North America, but wherever U.S. movies dominate the media culture and wherever the tobacco industry is hunting its next generation," said Maddox. "When we get smoking out of youth-rated movies in Hollywood, it will be felt all the way to Kiev, Cape Town, Shanghai, and Djakarta."
The Social Climate Survey of Tobacco Control is an annual poll of public attitudes toward tobacco policies. The 2006 survey of 1,800 adults nationwide has a margin of error of +- 2.3 percent. Results for the on-screen tobacco questions are available at http://www.ssrc.msstate.edu/socialclimate.
To learn more about the AMA Alliance's Screen Out! campaign, please visit http://www.amaalliance.org.
The AMA Alliance, the volunteer arm of the American Medical Association, is committed to public health promotion in their organizational mission. A not-for-profit organization of more than 26,000 grassroots members working in their communities, the AMA Alliance strives to ensure child safety, prevent abuse and violence, promote healthy lifestyles, and increase awareness of available health care resources.
The SSRC was established in 1950 and has 50 research fellows and approximately 100 research associates. Through its Survey Research Unit, formed in 1981, it conducts approximately 25 research projects each year, many of which focus on social and cultural dimensions of health. Research at the center is sponsored by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Transportation, among others.
AMA Alliance
http://www.amaalliance.org
According to the report, public concern over the issue of tobacco imagery on screen has grown substantially over the past year:
-- Support for an 'R'-rating for movies with tobacco that fail to portray its health risks jumped nearly 12 percentage points between 2005 and 2006.
-- Two-thirds of adults want movie theaters to show anti-tobacco spots before any film with tobacco images, up more than five percentage points from the year before.
-- More than 60 percent of adults want tobacco branding out of all movie scenes, a rise of nearly seven percentage points from the previous year.
"This research is our latest effort to bring national attention to the harmful effects that smoking in movies has on our youth," said AMA Alliance President Nita Maddox. "As a parent myself, I am equally as concerned as the parents we surveyed about children's exposure to smoking on screen."
AMA Alliance members have launched a national, grassroots parent-to-parent campaign to clear tobacco imagery from future movies rated G, PG, and PG-13 by calling on the Motion Picture Association of American and movie studios to implement voluntary solutions to reduce youth's exposure to movie smoking.
The policies and the initiative, Screen Out, have been endorsed by several national public health organizations including the AMA, AMA Alliance, American Heart Association and the American Legacy Foundation.
"There is an overwhelming and consistent body of evidence that shows a clear link between smoking in movies and youth starting to smoke," said Robert McMillen, associate research professor at Mississippi State University's Social Science Research Center and lead author of the report. "This national survey demonstrates substantial public and parental support for voluntary policy changes by Hollywood to reduce this toll, including R-rating for almost all future tobacco scenes."
In 2005, one-in-six top-grossing U.S. movies showed or mentioned an actual tobacco brand. Two out of three U.S. live action movies featured tobacco in 2006, including 68 percent of PG-13 films.
"Growing U.S. support for smoke free movies will protect young people not only here, in North America, but wherever U.S. movies dominate the media culture and wherever the tobacco industry is hunting its next generation," said Maddox. "When we get smoking out of youth-rated movies in Hollywood, it will be felt all the way to Kiev, Cape Town, Shanghai, and Djakarta."
The Social Climate Survey of Tobacco Control is an annual poll of public attitudes toward tobacco policies. The 2006 survey of 1,800 adults nationwide has a margin of error of +- 2.3 percent. Results for the on-screen tobacco questions are available at http://www.ssrc.msstate.edu/socialclimate.
To learn more about the AMA Alliance's Screen Out! campaign, please visit http://www.amaalliance.org.
The AMA Alliance, the volunteer arm of the American Medical Association, is committed to public health promotion in their organizational mission. A not-for-profit organization of more than 26,000 grassroots members working in their communities, the AMA Alliance strives to ensure child safety, prevent abuse and violence, promote healthy lifestyles, and increase awareness of available health care resources.
The SSRC was established in 1950 and has 50 research fellows and approximately 100 research associates. Through its Survey Research Unit, formed in 1981, it conducts approximately 25 research projects each year, many of which focus on social and cultural dimensions of health. Research at the center is sponsored by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Transportation, among others.
AMA Alliance
http://www.amaalliance.org
Actavis Launches Alprazolam ER Tablets In The U.S.
Actavis Group (ICEX: ACT), the international generic pharmaceuticals company, today announced that it has received approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to market Alprazolam ER tablets. Distribution of the product will commence in coming weeks.
Alprazolam ER tablets, the generic equivalent of Pfizer's Xanax(R) XR tablets, will be available in 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 2 mg, and 3 mg strengths. Alprazolam ER tablets are indicated for the treatment of anxiety and panic disorder.
Annual sales of Alprazolam ER tablets in the U.S. were approximately US$53.9 million for the twelve months ending December 2006 according to IMS Health data.
About Actavis
Actavis is one of the world's leading generic pharmaceutical companies specializing in the development, manufacture and sale of generic pharmaceuticals. With headquarters in Iceland, Actavis has operations in over 30 countries, with 11,000 employees. The company's market capitalization is approximately EUR3bn (US$3.8 billion) and is listed in the Iceland Stock Exchange. Actavis expects 2007 sales to total EUR1.6bn, with approximately one-third of these sales coming from the United States, the company's single largest market. In the US alone, the company made 38 ANDA filings in 2006 and expects to file 40-45 in the year 2007 along with 18-20 new product launches. The company's US operations are located in New Jersey, Maryland and North Carolina.
More information about Actavis can be found at http://www.actavis.com
Information in this press release may contain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Actavis. By their nature, forward-looking statements and forecasts involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from that expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include, among other things, exchange rate fluctuations, the risk that research and development will not yield new products that achieve commercial success, the impact of competition, price controls and price reductions, the risk of loss or expiration of patents or trade marks, difficulties of obtaining and maintaining governmental approvals for products, the risk of substantial product liability claims, exposure to environmental liability.
Actavis Group
http://www.actavis.com
Alprazolam ER tablets, the generic equivalent of Pfizer's Xanax(R) XR tablets, will be available in 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 2 mg, and 3 mg strengths. Alprazolam ER tablets are indicated for the treatment of anxiety and panic disorder.
Annual sales of Alprazolam ER tablets in the U.S. were approximately US$53.9 million for the twelve months ending December 2006 according to IMS Health data.
About Actavis
Actavis is one of the world's leading generic pharmaceutical companies specializing in the development, manufacture and sale of generic pharmaceuticals. With headquarters in Iceland, Actavis has operations in over 30 countries, with 11,000 employees. The company's market capitalization is approximately EUR3bn (US$3.8 billion) and is listed in the Iceland Stock Exchange. Actavis expects 2007 sales to total EUR1.6bn, with approximately one-third of these sales coming from the United States, the company's single largest market. In the US alone, the company made 38 ANDA filings in 2006 and expects to file 40-45 in the year 2007 along with 18-20 new product launches. The company's US operations are located in New Jersey, Maryland and North Carolina.
More information about Actavis can be found at http://www.actavis.com
Information in this press release may contain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Actavis. By their nature, forward-looking statements and forecasts involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from that expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include, among other things, exchange rate fluctuations, the risk that research and development will not yield new products that achieve commercial success, the impact of competition, price controls and price reductions, the risk of loss or expiration of patents or trade marks, difficulties of obtaining and maintaining governmental approvals for products, the risk of substantial product liability claims, exposure to environmental liability.
Actavis Group
http://www.actavis.com
How To Erase The Effects Of Stress, From Harvard Medical School
Exercises that elicit the relaxation response can help your body erase the cumulative effects of stress, according to "Stress Management: Techniques for Preventing and Easing Stress," a new report from Harvard Medical School. The report explains that stress has been linked with such physical problems as heart attack, stroke, gastrointestinal problems and asthma, as well as emotional problems like depression, anxiety and an inability to enjoy life.
The relaxation response, the opposite of the stress response, is a state of profound rest and release. A number of physiological changes occur during the relaxation response. When a person meditates, for example, heartbeat and respiration slow down. The body uses less oxygen and produces less carbon dioxide. Blood lactate levels, which some researchers believe are linked with anxiety attacks, decline markedly. Blood pressure tends to stabilize in healthy individuals and drop significantly in people with hypertension. Studies have shown that this decrease in blood pressure persists with regular meditation.
Meditation is only one way to elicit the relaxation response. Other methods include deep breathing exercises, yoga, tai chi and repetitive prayer. What's crucial is that the method enables a person to interrupt everyday thoughts by focusing on a word, phrase, prayer or repetitive muscular activity. The report recommends practicing relaxation techniques once or twice a day, for a total of 10 to 20 minutes daily. Evidence suggests the more often a person practices these techniques, the better the outcome.
"Stress Management: Techniques for Preventing and Easing Stress" is a 40- page report edited by Herbert Benson, M.D., founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute Associate and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Harvard Health Publications
http://www.health.harvard.edu/SC
The relaxation response, the opposite of the stress response, is a state of profound rest and release. A number of physiological changes occur during the relaxation response. When a person meditates, for example, heartbeat and respiration slow down. The body uses less oxygen and produces less carbon dioxide. Blood lactate levels, which some researchers believe are linked with anxiety attacks, decline markedly. Blood pressure tends to stabilize in healthy individuals and drop significantly in people with hypertension. Studies have shown that this decrease in blood pressure persists with regular meditation.
Meditation is only one way to elicit the relaxation response. Other methods include deep breathing exercises, yoga, tai chi and repetitive prayer. What's crucial is that the method enables a person to interrupt everyday thoughts by focusing on a word, phrase, prayer or repetitive muscular activity. The report recommends practicing relaxation techniques once or twice a day, for a total of 10 to 20 minutes daily. Evidence suggests the more often a person practices these techniques, the better the outcome.
"Stress Management: Techniques for Preventing and Easing Stress" is a 40- page report edited by Herbert Benson, M.D., founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute Associate and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Harvard Health Publications
http://www.health.harvard.edu/SC
Response To The Disability Rights Commission Disability Agenda, UK
To achieve equality society's attitude must change, says Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities
The Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities today welcomed the Disability Rights Commission's Disability Agenda but said that if people with learning disabilities are going to participate fully as equal citizens, society needs to change its attitude towards all disabled people.
Alison Giraud-Saunders, Co-Director of the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities said:
"The Disability Rights Commission makes a number of encouraging and well thought out recommendations that if implemented, will positively change the lives of people with learning disabilities - many of whom lead restricted lives. There are a number of reasons for this, including that they do not have equal access to mainstream health services or employment opportunities.
"People with learning disabilities want to work but to make this happen, the government needs to ensure that employment schemes and state benefit departments are working together. In tandem with this, employers and small business advisory services need advice so that it becomes the norm for people with learning disabilities to be employed in workplaces across the country or run their own businesses.
"We have known for many years that people with learning disabilities experience poor physical health and shorter life expectancy yet annual health checks are still not carried out. People with learning disabilities, especially the increasing number of people with high support needs, must have equal rights to good healthcare."
"Across the country councils are tightening their eligibility criteria and fewer people with learning disabilities will get help from statutory services - some vulnerable people will not be "disabled enough" to qualify for support. Failure to increase funding means that people with learning disabilities will only receive the minimum support required to meet their basic physical needs. In the 21st Century, it is not good enough that budget cuts in councils and the NHS are damaging the fight for equality for people with learning disabilities."
The Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities promotes the rights, quality of life and opportunities of people with learning disabilities and their families.
http://www.fpld.org.uk
The Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities today welcomed the Disability Rights Commission's Disability Agenda but said that if people with learning disabilities are going to participate fully as equal citizens, society needs to change its attitude towards all disabled people.
Alison Giraud-Saunders, Co-Director of the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities said:
"The Disability Rights Commission makes a number of encouraging and well thought out recommendations that if implemented, will positively change the lives of people with learning disabilities - many of whom lead restricted lives. There are a number of reasons for this, including that they do not have equal access to mainstream health services or employment opportunities.
"People with learning disabilities want to work but to make this happen, the government needs to ensure that employment schemes and state benefit departments are working together. In tandem with this, employers and small business advisory services need advice so that it becomes the norm for people with learning disabilities to be employed in workplaces across the country or run their own businesses.
"We have known for many years that people with learning disabilities experience poor physical health and shorter life expectancy yet annual health checks are still not carried out. People with learning disabilities, especially the increasing number of people with high support needs, must have equal rights to good healthcare."
"Across the country councils are tightening their eligibility criteria and fewer people with learning disabilities will get help from statutory services - some vulnerable people will not be "disabled enough" to qualify for support. Failure to increase funding means that people with learning disabilities will only receive the minimum support required to meet their basic physical needs. In the 21st Century, it is not good enough that budget cuts in councils and the NHS are damaging the fight for equality for people with learning disabilities."
The Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities promotes the rights, quality of life and opportunities of people with learning disabilities and their families.
http://www.fpld.org.uk
Natural Selection Continues Even After Sex
Some breaking news: Researchers have identified something called "sperm competition" that they think has evolved to ensure a genetic future. In sexual reproduction, natural selection is generally thought of as something that happens prior to - and in fact leads to -- the Big Event. This thinking holds, for example, that we are drawn to physical features that tell us our partner is healthy and will give us a fighting chance to carry on our genetic lineage. But a new article in the February issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science suggests that the human male has evolved mechanisms to pass on his genes during post-copulation as well, a phenomenon dubbed "sperm competition."
In their article, Todd Shackelford and Aaron Goetz at Florida Atlantic University describe this as "the inevitable consequence of males competing for fertilizations."
How much more romantic can you get?
For a monogamous species, sperm competition may seem beside the point. But according to the authors, extra curricular copulations (i.e. affairs) appear to be a significant part of our ancestral history and could, evolutionarily speaking, spell disaster. A male whose female partner engages in some off-line dalliances unwittingly may be investing his resources - food, protection, credit rating -- in a genetically unrelated offspring.
Competition may also affect sperm count, say the authors. The more time men spend away from their partners (time that their partners could have spent with other males), the number of sperm in their ejaculate increases upon their next copulation. In one study, the authors note, artificial phalluses constructed to resemble the structure and function of the human penis actually removed an ejaculate-like substance from an artificial vagina. This could indicate that the penis acts as an anatomical squeegee to remove an interloper's calling card.
But sperm competition is not just biology. According to the authors, many sexual behaviors such as deep copulatory thrusting may function to remove rival sperm. Sexual partners report that men thrust more deeply and quickly into the vagina following allegations of infidelity. The same periods of separation that increase sperm number in male ejaculates may also help to explain the increasingly lustful feelings human males develop after long periods of time apart from their mate. That is, the human male may want to copulate as soon as possible as insurance against possible extra-pair copulation.
These latest findings lead us to wonder about what other undiscovered ways humans have evolved in a world dictated by "survival of the fittest." In fact, the authors compare sexual adaptation to a Cold War phenomenon: "Sexual conflict between males and females," Shackelford and Goetz describe, "produces a coevolutionary arms race between the sexes," in which an advantage gained by one gender leads to counteradaptations in the other. They speculate that research may move beyond male adaptations to, for example, see if females have developed biological or behavioral mechanisms to increase retention of sperm from men with the most favorable genes..
###
Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science publishes concise reviews spanning all of scientific psychology and its applications.
Contact: Todd Shackelford
Association for Psychological Science
In their article, Todd Shackelford and Aaron Goetz at Florida Atlantic University describe this as "the inevitable consequence of males competing for fertilizations."
How much more romantic can you get?
For a monogamous species, sperm competition may seem beside the point. But according to the authors, extra curricular copulations (i.e. affairs) appear to be a significant part of our ancestral history and could, evolutionarily speaking, spell disaster. A male whose female partner engages in some off-line dalliances unwittingly may be investing his resources - food, protection, credit rating -- in a genetically unrelated offspring.
Competition may also affect sperm count, say the authors. The more time men spend away from their partners (time that their partners could have spent with other males), the number of sperm in their ejaculate increases upon their next copulation. In one study, the authors note, artificial phalluses constructed to resemble the structure and function of the human penis actually removed an ejaculate-like substance from an artificial vagina. This could indicate that the penis acts as an anatomical squeegee to remove an interloper's calling card.
But sperm competition is not just biology. According to the authors, many sexual behaviors such as deep copulatory thrusting may function to remove rival sperm. Sexual partners report that men thrust more deeply and quickly into the vagina following allegations of infidelity. The same periods of separation that increase sperm number in male ejaculates may also help to explain the increasingly lustful feelings human males develop after long periods of time apart from their mate. That is, the human male may want to copulate as soon as possible as insurance against possible extra-pair copulation.
These latest findings lead us to wonder about what other undiscovered ways humans have evolved in a world dictated by "survival of the fittest." In fact, the authors compare sexual adaptation to a Cold War phenomenon: "Sexual conflict between males and females," Shackelford and Goetz describe, "produces a coevolutionary arms race between the sexes," in which an advantage gained by one gender leads to counteradaptations in the other. They speculate that research may move beyond male adaptations to, for example, see if females have developed biological or behavioral mechanisms to increase retention of sperm from men with the most favorable genes..
###
Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science publishes concise reviews spanning all of scientific psychology and its applications.
Contact: Todd Shackelford
Association for Psychological Science
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