Psychology / Psychiatry

World's Largest DNA Scan For Familial Autism Suggests Two New Genetic Links

2007-05-07T10:06:00.001-07:00

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.

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Largest Genomic Search Finds Genes That May Contribute To Autism

2007-05-07T09:06:00.001-07:00

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.

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Autism Expert Creates Innovative Intervention Program

2007-05-07T08:06:00.001-07:00

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.

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Characteristics Of Patients At Increased Risk For Compulsive Gambling Associated With Taking Parkinson's Meds

2007-05-07T07:07:00.001-07:00

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.

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Children Who Believe Intelligence Can Be Developed Perform Better

2007-04-16T17:17:00.001-07:00

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."

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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

2007-04-16T16:37:00.001-07:00

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."

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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.

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Contact: Andrea Browning
Society for Research in Child Development

Study Questions 'One Size Fits All' Approach When Measuring Income's Effect On School Readiness

2007-04-16T15:17:00.001-07:00

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

Conscience, Religion Alter How Doctors Tell Patients About Options

2007-04-16T14:37:00.001-07:00

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."

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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.

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Extra Cortisol Protects Women's Mood Under Stress

2007-04-16T13:11:00.001-07:00

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.

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Children's Perceptions Of Their Parents' Antisocial Behavior May Lead Them To Be Antisocial

2007-04-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

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

Parents' Reaction To Material Hardship Found To Be Key To How Income Affects Children

2007-04-16T11:26:00.001-07:00

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

Young Adolescent Girls' Depression Is Tied To More Stressful Life Events

2007-04-16T11:13:00.000-07:00

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

Involvement Of Nonresident Fathers May Protect Low-Income Teens From Delinquency

2007-04-16T10:35:00.001-07:00

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."

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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

2007-04-16T10:21:00.001-07:00

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."

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Contact: Pat Vaughan Tremmel
Northwestern University

New Insurance Legislation Would End Discrimination Against People With Mental Health Disorders

2007-04-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

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

Using Octopuses To Understand Depression

2007-04-16T09:13:00.001-07:00

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/

Penn Study Based On Abu Ghraib Suggests Military Veterans Highly Tolerant Of Detainee Abuse

2007-04-16T08:20:00.001-07:00

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."

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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

2007-04-16T08:11:00.001-07:00

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

Males Have Adapted To Battle With Competing Sperm

2007-04-16T07:12:00.001-07:00

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.

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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

2007-04-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

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.

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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

2007-04-16T06:21:00.001-07:00

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

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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

2007-04-16T03:42:00.001-07:00

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."

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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

2007-04-16T03:37:00.001-07:00

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

Actavis Launches Alprazolam ER Tablets In The U.S.

2007-04-16T02:54:00.001-07:00

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

How To Erase The Effects Of Stress, From Harvard Medical School

2007-04-16T02:43:00.001-07:00

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

Response To The Disability Rights Commission Disability Agenda, UK

2007-04-16T01:52:00.001-07:00

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

Natural Selection Continues Even After Sex

2007-04-16T01:42:00.001-07:00

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..

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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

Being Around Friends Can Impair Your Memory

2007-04-16T00:45:00.001-07:00

You're watching a basketball game with some buddies and decide to order pizza during the commercial. Researchers from Indiana University found that people in a group setting exposed to brand information - such as an ad for Pizza Hut -- have a hard time recalling the brand's competitors. In other words, being around friends when deciding where to order takeout might cause you to forget completely about that local pizza place you've been wanting to try.

"When groups of individuals are exposed to brands in the shopping environment, their memory for other brands within the same product category is impaired," write Charles D. Lindsey and H. Shanker Krishnan (Indiana University). "The current research examines retrieval in a collaborative group setting, which is a novel context for brand memory research."

Appearing in the March issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, the study found that this effect is magnified for very familiar brands. Lindsey and Krishnan argue that this happens because individuals in the group are exposed not only to the advertisement but also to mentions of the brand by other members of the group.

"The practical implications of this research imply that a group premium (over and above the standard market share premium) seems to exist for advertising brands during programming where a higher percentage of viewers are group-based," conclude the authors.

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Lindsey, Charles D. and H. Shanker Krishnan. "Retrieval Disruption in Collaborative Groups Due to Brand Cues," Journal of Consumer Research: March 2007.

Contact: Suzanne Wu
University of Chicago Press Journals

More Than Meets The Tongue

2007-04-16T00:39:00.001-07:00

Does orange juice taste sweeter if it's a brighter orange? A new study in the March issue of the Journal of Consumer Research finds that the color of a drink can influence how we think it tastes. In fact, the researchers found that color was more of an influence on how taste was perceived than quality or price information.

"Perceptual discrimination is fundamental to rational choice in many product categories yet rarely examined in consumer research," write JoAndrea Hoegg (University of British Columbia) and Joseph W. Alba (University of Florida). "The present research investigates discrimination as it pertains to consumers' ability to identify difference - or the lack thereof - among gustatory stimuli."

Hoegg and Alba are the first to look at how individual attributes -- such as color, price, or brand -- can affect which products we prefer. The researchers manipulated orange juice by changing color (with food coloring), sweetness (with sugar), or by labeling the cups with brand and quality information. They found that though brand name influenced people's preferences for one cup of juice over another, labeling one cup a premium brand and the other an inexpensive store brand had no effect on perceptions of taste.

In contrast, the tint of the orange juice had a huge effect on the taster's perceptions of taste. As the authors put it: "Color dominated taste."

Given two cups of the same Tropicana orange juice, with one cup darkened with food coloring, the members of the researcher's sample group perceived differences in taste that did not exist. However, when given two cups of orange juice that were the same color, with one cup sweetened with sugar, the same people failed to perceive taste differences.

"It seems unlikely that our consumers deliberately eschewed taste for color as a basis for discrimination," write the authors. "Moreover, our consumers succumbed to the influence of color but were less influenced by the powerful lure of brand and price information."

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Hoegg, JoAndrea, and Joseph W. Alba. "Taste Perception: More Than Meets the Tongue," Journal of Consumer Research: March 2007.

Contact: Suzanne Wu
University of Chicago Press Journals

The Power Of Love

2007-04-15T23:40:00.001-07:00

Whose tastes do you trust more? The person who loves the same things you love? Or the person who hates the same things you hate? Turns out, when we're looking for advice, positivity reigns. A new study reveals that we trust those who love the same things we love more than those who hate the same things we hate. As the researchers explain in the March issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, "There are few ways that products are loved, but many ways that they are hated."

Through a series of experiments, Andrew D. Gershoff (University of Michigan), Ashesh Mukherjee (McGill University), and Anirban Mukhopadhyay (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) reveal that we are more willing to take the advice of someone with shared likes than someone with shared dislikes because of "attribute ambiguity." That is, consumers find it hard to isolate exactly what the recommender didn't like - the offending characteristic of a movie, say, could be plot, acting, special effects, or any number of other factors.

"For a loved product, most people tend to love everything about it, and tend to hate nothing. But for a hated product, some people hate everything about it, some hate just one aspect while liking other aspects, and some like all the aspects individually, but hate how they go together," the authors explain.

One of the experiments presented in the study asked 120 people to anticipate another person's taste in ice cream sundaes. As predicted, agreement on loved characteristics, such as hot fudge, led to greater inferred similarity and more confidence in the other person's recommendations. However, when the number of possible factors was reduced to one scoop of ice cream with one topping, confidence increased in the person with shared hates.

"Our results extend the literature on word-of-mouth, which has generally found that negative word-of-mouth about products is weighed more heavily than corresponding positive word-of mouth," write the authors. "In contrast, we show that a positivity effect can emerge when the object of evaluation is the agent instead of the product."

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Gershoff, Andrew D., Ashesh Mukherjee, and Anirban Mukhopadhyay. "Few Ways to Love, But Many Ways to Hate: Attribute Ambiguity and the Positivity Effect in Agent Evaluation," Journal of Consumer Research: March 2007.

Contact: Suzanne Wu
University of Chicago Press Journals

Secure Infants Lead To Competent Children Who Are Likely To Form Healthy Attachments As Adults

2007-04-15T23:36:00.001-07:00

The way in which individuals think, feel, and behave in their adult romantic relationships is governed not only by factors in their immediate surroundings, but is also a direct result of their past relationships and personal attachment extending all the way back to childhood, according to a study reported in the recent issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA). At the time of year when many reflect on their romantic experiences - Valentine's Day, this study sheds light on how relationships are shaped by early experiences.

In a longitudinal study that has spanned more than 25 years (and is still being conducted), 78 individuals were studied at four pivotal points in their lives - infancy, early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. At the first checkpoint when the participants were 12-months old, caregivers reported on the children's attachment and exploratory behavior. At the second checkpoint when the participants were 6-8 years old, the participant's teachers were asked to rate how well the children interacted with their peers. At the third checkpoint the16 years old, participants were asked to describe their close friendships.

At the most recent reporting, the participants' romantic partners (of at least 4 months) were asked to describe their experiences and their partner's expressions of emotion during their relationship. Interactions of the couples were also observed and coded to evaluate the expression of emotion and their interpersonal dynamics.

The findings of this study supported previous attachment theories. Expression of emotions in adult romantic relationships can be related back to a person's attachment experiences during earlier social development. Those participants who were secure and attached as infants were rated with higher social competence as children. Children who were socially competent amongst peers were found to be more secure and closer to their friends at age 16. Participants who were closer to friends as a teen were more expressive and emotionally attached to their romantic partners in early adulthood.

"The current findings highlight one developmental pathway through which significant relationship experiences during the early years of life are tied to the daily experiences in romantic relationships during early adulthood," said W.

Andrew Collins, lead author and University of Minnesota psychology professor. "One encouraging finding, however, is that the study does not suggest that an individual's past unalterably determines the future course of his/her relationships."

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Article: "Attachment and the Experience and Expression of Emotion in Romantic Relationships: A Developmental Perspective." Jeffry Simpson, W. Andrew Collins, Sisi Tran, and Katherine Haydon, University of Minnesota; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 92, No. 2

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 53 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 health, education and human welfare.

Contact: Carla Daniels
American Psychological Association

Treatment Of Health Problems Related To World Trade Center Collapse Costs $393M Annually, Report Finds

2007-04-15T22:42:00.001-07:00

Treatment of health problems experienced by the 43,000 individuals exposed to toxic dust and smoke during the World Trade Center collapse on Sept. 11, 2001, has cost the U.S. health care system $393 million annually since 2001, according to a report issued on Tuesday by a panel established by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006, the New York Times reports. According to the report, first responders and other individuals exposed to the dust and smoke have experienced respiratory, digestive and mental health problems (DePalma, New York Times, 2/14). Individuals exposed to the dust and smoke also could experience long-term health problems, such as cancer and pulmonary fibrosis, the report said (AP/New York Times, 2/13). Bloomberg has asked the federal government for $150 million annually to cover the cost of programs to screen, treat and monitor the health of individuals exposed to the dust and smoke (New York Times, 2/14). In addition to the cost of health problems, the report said that first responders have filed at least 6,000 federal lawsuits over allegations that New York City and city contractors were negligent in efforts to monitor air quality, with thousands of additional lawsuits expected. The report recommended that New York City place funds from the WTC Captive Insurance, established by Congress in 2004 to cover the cost of liability claims, in a compensation program for individuals exposed to the dust and smoke who have experienced health problems (AP/New York Times, 2/13). In addition, the report recommended that New York City hire a citywide health coordinator and launch a comprehensive Web site to educate residents about available programs (Endo, Long Island Newsday, 2/14).

Comments
Bloomberg said, "What is unclear and can't yet be possibly known are those illnesses that may appear in the future. But that's not going to stop us from caring for those who are sick today and building the capacity to identify and respond to illnesses that may reveal themselves tomorrow" (New York Times, 2/14). He added, "We're not about to abandon the men and women who helped lift our city back onto its feet during our time of greatest need. They deserve first-class care without exception, and we will work to ensure that they get it" (AP/New York Times, 2/13).

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Addiction Study Finds People Underestimate Power Of Drug Cravings

2007-04-15T22:37:00.001-07:00

A novel experiment conducted by Carnegie Mellon University Professor George Loewenstein and colleagues may explain why people try a drug, such as heroin, for the first time despite ample evidence that it is addictive. The results of the study, which are being published in the Journal of Health Economics, reveal that even longtime addicts underestimate the influence that drug cravings have over their behavior.

Almost all drugs produce a craving in their users. Loewenstein and his colleagues hypothesized that people experiment with drugs that they know are addictive in part because they can't appreciate the intensity of drug cravings, and thus underestimate the likelihood that they will become addicted. Because they can't imagine what it would be like to experience a craving, people also discount the possibility that they will do terrible things in order to satisfy that craving, such as commit crimes or abandon their children.

The researchers confirmed their hypothesis in a study that involved 13 heroin addicts being treated with the maintenance drug buprenorphine (BUP). During the eight weeks of the study, participants were repeatedly asked to choose between varying amounts of money or an extra dose of BUP, both when they were craving the drug and when they were not. The major finding was that addicts valued an extra dose of BUP about twice as much when they were craving it (right before receiving their normal dose of the drug) than when they were currently satiated (minutes after receiving the BUP) - even when they knew they would not receive the extra dose until five days later.

"If addicts can't appreciate the intensity of craving when they aren't currently experiencing it, as these results suggest, it seems unlikely that those who have never experienced a craving could predict its motivational force," said Loewenstein, the Herbert A. Simon Professor of Economics and Psychology. The study was co-authored by Gary J. Badger of the Biometry Facility at the University of Vermont College of Medicine; Warren K. Bickel of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arkansas; Louis A. Giordano of the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University; and Eric A. Jacobs of the Department of Psychology at Southern Illinois University.

The participants were shown 12 dollar amounts (ranging from $0 to $100) and for each amount specified whether they would prefer to receive the money or an additional 24-hour maintenance dose of BUP. They were told that one of their choices would be selected at random to count. Half the time, the addicts made their decision when their craving was highest - right before they received their normal dose. The other half of the time, they made the decision after they had received their normal treatment. In addition, half the time the subjects made a choice that would go into effect later that same day, and half the time they made a choice that they would not receive until five days later. Assuming addicts could appreciate how intense their desire for a drug would be, their future craving for it logically should not have been affected by whether or not they had just received treatment.

But this was not the case. The median minimum dollar amount preferred to an extra dose of BUP was greater when subjects were drug-deprived, whether the dose or money was to be delivered immediately or after five days, as compared to when they were satiated. When subjects were drug-deprived, they valued an extra dose five days later at $60, but valued the same dose at only $35 when they were not deprived.

These results not only offer insights into why people use drugs they know could be addictive, but could also help explain why it is so difficult for addicts to quit, according to Bickel.

"Individuals who are in treatment may think that they will be OK out of treatment. However, if they underestimate the power of drugs, they may be surprised that they relapse," Bickel said. "Similarly, adolescents may think that they can try drugs without ill consequence. But they may underestimate how powerful a drug is and therefore expose themselves to the drug."

To prevent recovering addicts from relapsing, they must be taught to anticipate, recognize and cope with situations in which they will be tempted to use drugs, Loewenstein said.

"People generally decide to go on a diet right after eating a satisfying meal; to start saving right after splurging; and to quit drugs, such as cigarettes, right after smoking one. But all of these plans tend to be unrealistic because they are made when people aren't in a craving state and, as our results show, can't predict what it will be like once they start craving again," Loewenstein said.

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Contact: Jonathan Potts
Carnegie Mellon University

Childhood Cognition Research Underway At Rutgers-Camden

2007-04-15T21:39:00.001-07:00

A new research laboratory at Rutgers University-Camden seeks to determine how children develop cognitive skills, how cultural heritage can shape psychological perspectives, and the role memory plays in making judgments.

Rutgers-Camden professors and students working in the Culture, Cognition, and Development Laboratory are pursuing behavioral research that will offer a deeper understanding of how children and adults alike perceive the world around them.

"How our minds develop as an interconnected part of our cultural worlds, from childhood throughout our adult lives, is infinitely complex, but the details of that complexity are so important to our understanding of how we grow and think," says Sean Duffy, an assistant professor of psychology and director of the Rutgers-Camden research lab.

Undergraduate and graduate Rutgers students also work in the lab, which provides a unique learning opportunity through their work with volunteers in passive, non-invasive studies.

"Working on the Infant Development Study has been a fascinating experience. It is amazing to think that we can actually design experiments that measure how babies perceive objects and actions," says Liz Kassabian, a student in the graduate psychology program at Rutgers-Camden. "While we may only be shedding light upon a small part of the process of human development, each piece, when put together, forms a mosaic of the mind's journey from birth to maturity."

Undergraduate student Jennifer Habina shares that enthusiasm for this unique research and learning opportunity. "We as students get to experience what it is like to actually run experiments, help gather the data, and have fun with each other. Being involved in that type of atmosphere really gave me the experience of what psychological research is all about," says Habina, a Cherry Hill resident.

Duffy's own research examines the development of the ability to make accurate decisions when one only has inexact information. In a recent article in the scholarly journal Developmental Science, Duffy provides evidence that children as young as five years of age rely upon statistical principles in order to increase the accuracy of their memories.

"When making judgments about an object for which one has only a fuzzy memory, people often rely on what we call 'categorical' information to help inform judgments," says Duffy.

"For example, in remembering the height of a person you met last year, you combine inexact information about how tall the person actually was with information from the category of which that person is a member. If it was a male, you would use the fact that the average height for males is 5'9" to help you choose a value along the continuum of fuzziness in your memory.

"The statistical computations behind this are extremely complicated, and yet children as young as five show evidence that they use categories in the same way as adults, suggesting that this ability occurs at the start of life."

While Duffy's work reveals a process by which children increase the accuracy in their judgments, these processes may also be related to social stereotyping and prejudice. "This research may shed light upon the question of why stereotypes are so pervasive: the same mental processes that explain how children improve accuracy in most situations cause serious errors when the category itself doesn't represent reality, which is the case with most negative stereotypes about classes of people. We are currently investigating how we might make children and adults more aware of these mental processes in order to reduce racism and prejudice in children's thinking."

Duffy seeks to continue research with younger children and infants. According to the Rutgers-Camden scholar, the role of the infant in his studies is straightforward: the infant, seated on the lap of the parent or caregiver, looks at a doll on a small stage. The infant then is shown a doll of a different size. "We measure the amount of time that the baby looks at the different objects," explains Duffy. "That's how we determine whether infants can perceive and think about differences in size."

Duffy encourages parents interested in the study to contact him. A modest reimbursement for travel to the Rutgers campus is offered. Duffy further notes the wealth of opportunities for families visiting the Rutgers-Camden campus. "It's a relatively short test, which allows plenty of time for families to visit our fellow Camden Waterfront neighbors: the Adventure Aquarium, the Camden Children's Garden, the Battleship New Jersey, and the other family attractions that draw more than three million visitors to our waterfront each year."

###

More information about the Infant Study at the Culture, Cognition, and Development Laboratory at Rutgers-Camden is online at http://infantstudy.camden.rutgers.edu/.

Duffy is an associate with the Rutgers-Camden Center for Children and Childhood Studies, which seeks to develop innovative research and service programs that advance a greater understanding of the needs of children in New Jersey and around the world. A resident of Philadelphia, he attended the University of Chicago, where he received his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.

Contact: Mike Sepanic
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

An Excuse For Not Responding To A Nagging Spouse

2007-04-15T21:36:00.001-07:00

New research findings now appearing online in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology began with a professor's desire to understand why her husband often seemed to ignore her requests for help around the house.

"My husband, while very charming in many ways, has an annoying tendency of doing exactly the opposite of what I would like him to do in many situations," said Tanya L. Chartrand, an associate professor of marketing and psychology at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

When Chartrand envisioned a formal academic study of people's resistance to the wishes of their partners, parents or bosses, her husband, Gavan Fitzsimons, became not only her inspiration, but also her collaborator. Fitzsimons is a professor of marketing and psychology at Duke who, like Chartrand, is an expert in the field of consumer psychology.

Working with Duke Ph.D. student Amy Dalton, Chartrand and Fitzsimons have demonstrated that some people will act in ways that are not to their own benefit simply because they wish to avoid doing what other people want them to. Psychologists call this reactance: a person's tendency to resist social influences that they perceive as threats to their autonomy.

The team found that people do not necessarily oppose others' wishes intentionally. Instead, even the slightest nonconscious exposure to the name of a significant person in their life is enough to bring about reactance and cause them to rebel against that person's wishes.

"Psychologists have known for some time that reactance can cause a person to work in opposition to another person's desires," Chartrand said. "We wanted to know whether reactance could occur even when exposure to a significant other, and their associated wishes for us, takes place at a nonconscious level."

The researchers undertook a set of experiments to determine whether reactance might occur unintentionally, completely outside of the reactant individual's conscious awareness.

In the first experiment, participants were asked to name a significant person in their lives whom they perceived to be controlling and who wanted them to work hard, and another significant and controlling person who wanted them to have fun. Participants then performed a computer-based activity during which the name of one or the other of these people was repeatedly, but subliminally, flashed on the screen. The name appeared too quickly for the participants to consciously realize they had seen it, but just long enough for the significant other to be activated in their nonconscious minds. The participants were then given a series of anagrams to solve, creating words from jumbled letters.

People who were exposed to the name of a person who wanted them to work hard performed significantly worse on the anagram task than did participants who were exposed to the name of a person who wanted them to have fun.

"Our participants were not even aware that they had been exposed to someone else's name, yet that nonconscious exposure was enough to cause them to act in defiance of what their significant other would want them to do," Fitzsimons said.

A second experiment used a similar approach and added an assessment of each participant's level of reactance. People who were more reactant responded more strongly to the subliminal cues and showed greater variation in their performance than people who were less reactant.

"The main finding of this research is that people with a tendency toward reactance may nonconsciously and quite unintentionally act in a counterproductive manner simply because they are trying to resist someone else's encroachment on their freedom," Chartrand said.

The researchers suggest that people who tend to experience reactance when their freedoms are threatened should try to be aware of situations and people who draw out their reactant tendencies. That way, they can be more mindful of their behaviors and avoid situations where they might adopt detrimental behaviors out of a sense of rebellion.

Not surprisingly perhaps, Chartrand and Fitzsimons, as wife and husband, also take home some slightly differing messages from their experiments.

Chartrand believes her husband "should now be better equipped to suppress his reactant tendencies." Fitzsimons, however, believes the results "suggest that reactance to significant others is so automatic that I can't possibly be expected to control it if I don't even know it's happening."

###

Contact: Laura Brinn
Duke University

Men Who Haven't Been Victims Less Likely To Believe Child Sex Abuse Claims

2007-04-15T20:39:00.001-07:00

Some guys just don't get it. In this case, that commonly used setup line doesn't result in a joke. A University of Oregon study has found that young men who have never been traumatized are the least likely population to believe a person's recounting of child sexual abuse.

The study - published in the March issue of the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly - also finds that males with high sexism beliefs also tend to believe that such incidents, if they happened at all, were not harmful to the victim.

Some 80,000 cases of child sexual abuse are reported annually in the United States, according to federal statistics. Jennifer Freyd, a UO professor of psychology and co-author of the new study, reported in the journal Science in 2005 that abuse involving sexual contact between adults and children has been experienced by at least 20 percent of women and as many as 10 percent of men worldwide, and that 86 percent of sexual abuse cases are never reported to authorities.

Freyd has since been studying the factors that may explain why some people don't believe that such abuses occur, a phenomenon that discourages victims from speaking out and allows perpetrators to escape unpunished and possibly repeat such crimes.

"Until we change societal attitudes, abuse victims are less likely to speak up," said lead author Lisa DeMarni Cromer, a former UO doctoral student who has since graduated. "That means that abuse can keep occurring to them, and that they won't get the societal support they need. It's positive social support and being believed that is most likely leading to positive mental health outcomes."

In the new study, 318 university students were divided into groups based on self-reporting of abuse history and sexist attitudes. They heard short vignettes in which a male or female described an incident that occurred at age 9 involving an adult figure. The victim in each case also reported whether the memory has always been available to recall since the incident or was recently recalled.

Females, including those who had and had not suffered from some kind of betrayal of adult trust, and males who had experienced such betrayal all were willing to believe such an allegation, even more so in the cases where memory had always been present. There was a dramatic decline in believability for men with no abuse history. "I was surprised that this was such a big effect, and that there was such a difference between males and females," Freyd said.

"In psychology, we often hear about main effects - men vs. women, trauma history vs. no trauma history - but here what we have is an interaction, where trauma history really mattered with the men, and their ability to believe a story depended on their personal experience," she said.

The findings, she added, suggest that educational efforts may need to be more heavily focused toward men to help them understand that such acts do occur and that the abuse often can contribue to a number of societal ills. Among the problems, she noted, are mental and physical health problems, substance abuse, victimization and criminality in adulthood.

"There is a very high prevalence of child sexual abuse both in our country and around the world," she said. "It clearly has negative impacts on people. It doesn't mean that everybody who is sexually abused has a bad outcome, but, like smoking, it increases the risks for bad outcomes."

The biggest obstacle to addressing the issue, Freyd said, is an unwillingness to talk about it, "and this is very much related to people's unwillingness to believe that it occurs and is so problematic."

Another obstacle to men's ability to believe such allegations is that previous research by Freyd and her colleagues has shown that men are rarely betrayed by adults close to them, and that when they are abused it is more likely to not be sexual in nature. Women most often are betrayed by adults close to them, and sexual abuse is more readily seen as a threat to them, Freyd said.

There are two forms of disbelief, she said. One is that such things never happen - similar to denying the Holocaust occurred. A second is that no one is harmed - that kids are sexual beings who sometimes experiment with grownups, which feeds into widely held mythology, Freyd said.

"There may be legitimate debates on the prevalence of child sexual abuse and how it is measured," she said, "but this study involved 9-year-old victims, and it's hard for me to believe that any sexual contact between an adult and a 9-year-old is not abuse and can't cause harm."

###

Cromer has since received her doctorate from the University of Oregon and now works in the psychiatry department at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University.

Both the Trauma and Oppression Research Fund at the UO Foundation and the UO Center for the Study of Women in Society supported the just-published research, which is part of an on-going project.

Sources: Jennifer J. Freyd, professor of psychology; Lisa D. Cromer.

Links:http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/

Contact: Jim Barlow
University of Oregon

Norwegian Gambling Habits

2007-04-15T20:36:00.001-07:00

In 2005, every Norwegian over the age of 15 gambled almost NOK 11,500 on registered Norwegian games of chance. Now, SINTEF Health Research is to survey how many Norwegians are addicted to gambling. For the first time in this country, the researchers will also be asking gamblers' families and friends what they think.

The study will also be the first to demonstrate whether there is a relationship in the Norwegian population between being dependent on Internet computer games and problems with playing for money.

These days, 10,000 Norwegian citizens are finding a questionnaire by SINTEF Health Research in their post-boxes. The form has been sent to a random sample of the population aged between16 and 74.

The main focus of the survey is cash gambling, ranging from scratchcards and Lotto to one-armed bandits and Internet poker.

"For the survey to offer a true picture of Norwegian gambling habits, it is important that as many as possible should complete the questionnaire, no matter whether they play often, seldom or never at all, says project manager Anita Гren of SINTEF Health Research.

Is the problem on the increase?

The Norwegian Gaming Board is financing the population study of gambling addiction, which is a follow-up of a similar study that was carried out in 2002. An important aim of the study is to find out whether people's gambling problems have increased in scope since then.

In 2002, the study came to the conclusion that 49,000 persons aged between 15 and 74 either had, or had previously had, a serious gambling problem.

"Since then, the gross turnover of the Norwegian gambling market has risen by 25 percent. There is also Internet gambling, which is not subject to controls. The authorities wish to see how this affects gambling addiction at population level", says Norwegian Gaming Board director Atle Hamar.

When the previous study was performed in 2002, the gross turnover of Norway's regulated gaming industry was more than NOK 20 billion. The Board does not have all the figure for 2006 ready yet, but in 2005, gross turnover was NOK 42.5 billion, which means that everyone in Norway from the age of 15 staked an average of NOK 11,402 in that year.

Norwegian also gambled for at least NOK 4 billion on unregulated Internet gaming in 2005, a figure that has roughly doubled since 2003.

Looking at the family too

Although the comparison with 2002 is a central aspect of the current study, the survey includes a number of questions that did not form part of the previous version.

"Our study is the first that will also include the families of people with a gambling addiction. It will show how the lives of these persons are affected by the problem for example whether conflicts arise within the family and whether family members experience physical or psychological problems", says Anita Гren.

The previous study, which was performed by the Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research, showed that certain groups are overrepresented among problem gamblers; men, young people under the age of 25 and persons from non-Norwegian ethnic backgrounds.

Fewer emergency calls

Both politicians and the medical profession regard gambling as a social problem in Norway today. Addicts and their families have a helpline that they can call for advice and help the Helpline for Gambling Addicts. Helpline traffic statistics from 2006 show that the number of calls fell to 1792, from 2133 the previous year.

The whole of the reduction in Helpline traffic occurred only after the use of banknotes in one-armed bandits was forbidden on July 1st last year. However, more and more people are ringing the Helpline because they have problems with games with non-monetary prizes on the Internet. This time, therefore, the population survey will also ask questions about how people behave on the Internet.

Psychiatrists and psychologists on the team

SINTEF's epidemiological research community is carrying out the survey. Epidemiology is the study of the causes and spread of disease, and epidemiologists often perform studies of whole populations.

In the course of this survey, SINTEF will be collaborating closely with psychiatrists and psychologists who have specialised in gambling addiction. These experts have helped to draw up the questions in the questionnaire and will also provide expertise in the evaluation and discussion of the results.

About the SINTEF

The SINTEF Group is the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia. Every year, SINTEF supports the development of 2000 or so Norwegian and overseas companies via our research and development activity. The abbreviation SINTEF means The Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research at the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH).

SINTEF
Strindveien 4, Trondheim,
SINTEF

Study On Sibling Detection Mechanism Highlighted In Nature

2007-04-15T19:39:00.001-07:00

Fundamental theories in evolutionary biology have long proposed that biological kinship is the foundation of the family unit. It not only creates the sense of altruism that exists among genetically related family members, but also establishes boundaries regarding sexual relations within the nuclear family. Questions have persisted, however, regarding the means by which humans recognize family members -- particularly siblings -- as close genetic relatives.

A team of researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has found evidence of a nonconscious mechanism in the human brain that identifies genetic siblings on the basis of cues that guided our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Their findings are published in the science journal Nature. In a study involving more than 600 test subjects, the researchers found that people felt more altruistic toward individuals this mechanism recognized as siblings, and, at the same time, felt a greater aversion to engaging in incestuous sexual relations with them.

"The old thinking was that Darwinism applied to humans physically, but not socially. Now we see the evolution of a mechanism that finely regulates important aspects of human social behavior," said John Tooby, professor of anthropology and co-director of the Center for Evolutionary Psychology at UCSB. He completed the study with Leda Cosmides, professor of psychology and also co-director of the Center for Evolutionary Psychology, and Debra Lieberman, a former student at the center and now a professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii. Mechanisms such as the one identified in the current study have been found in many species, he added, but their existence in humans had been a matter of controversy.

According to the researchers, the development of altruism between siblings is a result of natural selection, as are their aversions to sexual relations with one another and their aversion to sexual relations among siblings in general. The study's findings indicate these sensibilities are not primarily a result of socialization by parents or peers, but of motivational systems that evolved to respond to cues of genetic relatedness.

The question the researchers sought to answer was how siblings recognize their close genetic matches. Drawing on the socioecology of ancestral human foragers they found the answer in a set of cues that enable humans to identify their brothers and sisters as siblings. For older siblings, what the researchers refer to as "maternal perinatal association" -- seeing their mothers care for infant siblings -- activates the mechanism in the brain, which, in turn, increases feelings of both altruism and sexual aversion toward younger brothers and sisters.

This cue, however, is unavailable to younger siblings whose birth order precludes the opportunity of watching their mothers care for older brothers and sisters. For these siblings, the mechanism is triggered by the amount of time they live together as a family during the period from the younger siblings' infancy through adolescence. The researchers found that this "co-residence" regulates sibling altruism and sexual aversion toward adopted and step-siblings as well -- individuals whom the subjects consciously believe to be genetically unrelated. "This shows that the mechanism operates independently of our beliefs about kinship," Cosmides said. "The cues regulate sibling altruism and sexual aversion, no matter what we believe."

The discovery of a mechanism designed to make family relationships non-erotic casts doubt on Sigmund Freud's view that family members are the first and most powerful objects of sexual desire, say the authors. It also helps to settle a long-running debate in anthropology about whether family relationships are socially created purely by culture, or whether evolved mechanisms in the brain play a role.

The results of the study could also have implications for health care professionals such as psychiatrists and psychologists who treat victims of incest and those who commit it.

"The theory gives a means of identifying who might be at risk," said Tooby. "Siblings who have lived separately for long periods of time have not been exposed to the cues the brain uses to determine who is a sibling. This may offer an explanation as to why someone might have an inclination toward incest." It also suggests, he says, ways of building families that would be more strongly and reliably linked together by bonds of affection.

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Contact: Andrea Estrada
University of California - Santa Barbara

Tiny Genetic Variations Raise Autism Risk

2007-04-15T19:36:00.001-07:00

According to international research involving 19 countries, 120 scientists and 50 institutions, tiny variations in genes may increase the risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The Autism Genome Project (AGP) Consortium's report can be seen in the journal Nature Genetics, February 18th issue.

The AGP's aim is to identify specific genes and variants that might raise vulnerability to autism. This includes looking into the how genes interact with other genes, as well as other factors, such as the environment. The scientists are also looking into how potential susceptibility genes may work in the brain to bring about ASD.

NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., said "This is the most ambitious effort yet to find the locations of genes that may confer vulnerability to autism. The AGP is revealing clues that will likely influence the direction of autism research for years to come."

Dr. Bernie Devlin, University of Pittsburgh Medical School , one of the corresponding authors on the project, said "Although we know autism is highly heritable, complex gene interactions and submicroscopic anomalies create a din of statistical noise that drowns out detection of signals from linked sites in the genome. To amplify these signals, we brought to bear gene chip technology with a huge sample, and also screened for these fine-level anomalies, factoring them into the analysis."

The scientists say there are now clues that implicate components of the brain's glutamate neurotransmitter system in ASD. Glutamate is crucial in wiring up the brain early on in its development - glutamate enhances neuronal activity. Some genes that are associated with the glutamate system are located in chromosome regions that are linked to ASD, say the scientists.

New evidence has also emerged linking autism and gene sites for neurexins. Neurexins are molecules that construct glutamate synapses - through which brain cells communicate.

A site on chromosome 11 most strongly linked to autism in this study harbors genes for proteins that shuttle glutamate across the synapse. Although detected previously, the linkage signal at this site was regarded as less important until now.

Submicroscopic anomalies - tiny deletions, or the doubling, tripling or even multiplying of stretches of genetic material - are relatively common in the human genome and aren't necessarily harmful. However, recent evidence suggests that these anomalies may contribute to risk for - or rarely even cause - autism if they affect certain sites associated with the disorder. The AGP researchers found a number of these variations in such suspect chromosomal locations in affected individuals, including deletion of a neurexin gene.

-- Nature Genetics

-- Autism Speaks and the World's Leading Autism Experts Announce the Publication of the Autism Genome Project Phase 1 Results

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today

Quality Of Life For People With Breast Cancer Improved By Exercise

2007-04-15T18:39:00.001-07:00

Group exercise sessions can help to improve the physical and psychological wellbeing of people diagnosed with breast cancer, a new BMJ study reveals today.

Breast cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer among women in the UK. Treatment for cancer, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, can badly affect quality of life. However, current cancer rehabilitation programmes are mainly based on psychotherapy or social support, and do not generally deal with the physical problems encountered by patients.

Researchers from Scotland set out to determine if group exercise programmes could prove beneficial to women who were having treatment for early stage breast cancer. Over 200 women took part in the study. They were split into two separate groups; the first (control group) received their usual care, whilst the second group received their usual care plus were invited to take part in a 12 week programme of exercise sessions. Participants in the second group were encouraged to attend two classes - led by trained exercise specialists - and undertake one additional exercise session at home each week.

Following the 12 week session, the researchers analysed the physical and psychological wellbeing of the participants by measuring a number of factors, such as levels of depression, quality of life, mood, shoulder mobility, walking distances and weekly levels of physical activity. These factors were measured after 12 weeks and six months later.

Participants in the second group had better outcomes on both a physical and psychological level than those who had not taken part in the exercise programme, both at the 12 week and six month assessments. Also, after six months those who had exercised had made fewer visits to their GP, and spent fewer nights in hospital, than the participants in the control group.

The researchers say that the benefits experienced by the women may have been caused by the exercise itself or by the group experience, or a combination of both. They conclude that clinicians should encourage activity during cancer treatment for patients, and policy makers should consider including opportunities for exercise in cancer rehabilitation services.

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Contact: Emma Dickinson
BMJ-British Medical Journal

Sexualization Of Girls Is Linked To Common Mental Health Problems In Girls And Women-Eating Disorders

2007-04-15T18:36:00.001-07:00

A report of the American Psychological Association (APA) released today found evidence that the proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women in advertising, merchandising, and media is harmful to girls' self-image and healthy development.

To complete the report, the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls studied published research on the content and effects of virtually every form of media, including television, music videos, music lyrics, magazines, movies, video games and the Internet. They also examined recent advertising campaigns and merchandising of products aimed toward girls.

Sexualization was defined by the task force as occurring when a person's value comes only from her/his sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is sexually objectified, e.g., made into a thing for another's sexual use.

Examples of the sexualization of girls in all forms of media including visual media and other forms of media such as music lyrics abound. And, according to the report, have likely increased in number as "new media" have been created and access to media has become omnipresent. The influence and attitudes of parents, siblings, and friends can also add to the pressures of sexualization.

"The consequences of the sexualization of girls in media today are very real and are likely to be a negative influence on girls' healthy development," says Eileen L. Zurbriggen, PhD, chair of the APA Task Force. "We have ample evidence to conclude that sexualization has negative effects in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, and healthy sexual development."

Research evidence shows that the sexualization of girls negatively affects girls and young women across a variety of health domains:

Cognitive and Emotional Consequences: Sexualization and objectification undermine a person's confidence in and comfort with her own body, leading to emotional and self-image problems, such as shame and anxiety.

Mental and Physical Health: Research links sexualization with three of the most common mental health problems diagnosed in girls and women-eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression or depressed mood.

Sexual Development: Research suggests that the sexualization of girls has negative consequences on girls' ability to develop a healthy sexual self-image.

According to the task force report, parents can play a major role in contributing to the sexualization of their daughters or can play a protective and educative role. The APA report calls on parents, school officials, and all health professionals to be alert for the potential impact of sexualization on girls and young women. Schools, the APA says, should teach media literacy skills to all students and should include information on the negative effects of the sexualization of girls in media literacy and sex education programs.

"As a society, we need to replace all of these sexualized images with ones showing girls in positive settings-ones that show the uniqueness and competence of girls," states Dr. Zurbriggen. "The goal should be to deliver messages to all adolescents-boys and girls-that lead to healthy sexual development."

American Psychological Association (APA)
750 First St., NE
Washington, DC 20002-4242
United States
http://www.apa.org

World's Largest DNA Scan For Familial Autism Suggests Two New Genetic Links

2007-04-15T17:39:00.001-07:00

Largest Genomic Search Finds Genes That May Contribute To Autism

2007-04-15T17:36:00.001-07:00

Autism Expert Creates Innovative Intervention Program

2007-04-15T16:39:00.001-07:00

Characteristics Of Patients At Increased Risk For Compulsive Gambling Associated With Taking Parkinson's Meds

2007-04-15T16:36:00.001-07:00

Is TV Harming Our Children's Health?

2007-04-15T15:39:00.001-07:00

A UK scientist says too much television and computer screen watching is damaging children's health and development.

Dr Aric Sigman, a psychologist surveyed 30 scientific papers on television and computer screen viewing.

His findings are to be published in the next issue of the journal Biologist, which will be available on the internet on Friday.

Dr Sigman, who is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Member of the Institute of Biology, says that the research shows too much TV can contribute to a range of childhood physiological and mental health problems.

By the age of 6, the average British child has spent one complete year in front of a screen, mostly the TV.

And the average adult will have spent 12 solid years in front of the box by the time he or she reaches 75.

Dr Sigman has found evidence that too much TV watching causes short-sightedness and disrupts hormonal balance and leads to increased risk of cancer and premature puberty. It also slows down the metabolism which is linked to increase in obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Mental problems linked to too much TV viewing include autism, poor concentration and Alzheimer's in adulthood.

Dr Sigman's advice is that children under 3 years old should not watch any television, while those aged 3 to 5 should only watch half an hour a day at the most. Older kids should be limited to no more that one hour a day.

He mentions one research paper from Florence University where scientists found that screen based computer games and TV watching reduced levels of melatonin in the children's blood, a condition that is thought to trigger early puberty.

Dr Sigman has called for TV viewing to be restricted before. In October 2005 there were reports in the media that he was calling for recommended daily allowances for TV viewing. Teenagers should watch no more than one and a half hours a day and adults two hours, he said.

His recommendations were criticized by experts as being unworkable and unrealistic.

On the other hand, there are experts who argue that TV can help with learning and even promote health through giving people information that they might not otherwise come across.

For instance, last year researchers at the University of Chicago found that preschool television exposure had no negative effect on school performance and earnings in later life and may even enhance these factors. Their study was called "Does Television Rot your Brain?"

They found a slight increase in school test scores occurred for an additional year of preschool television. And this was particularly marked in families where English was not the first language, where mothers had less than a high school education, and for non-white children.

Their conclusion was that "the introduction of television in the 1940s and 1950s had, if anything, positive effects on the achievement of students exposed to television as preschoolers."

Alarmed parents burdened with yet more conflicting advice on how to raise children, and wondering how they are going to manage in a world where TV and the screen dominates every day life, may take comfort in the advice of many psychologists and experts. They say yes, be sensible and by all means limit your child's viewing, but the most harmful thing you can do is leave a child to watch TV on his or her own for hours on end.

They would encourage you to use TV and computers to enlarge your child's experience, and to develop a healthy curiosity about the world around them. They would say supervise what they watch and help them to make sense of it. Try not to use TV as a "parent substitute", although even the best intentioned parents are guilty of that sometimes.

Click here for the journal Biologist.

Click here for University of Chicago study "Does Television Rot your Brain" (PDF).

Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today

Research Paper Examines Depression In Three Cities In Pakistan

2007-04-15T15:36:00.001-07:00

A paper authored by two Memorial University faculty members was published Feb. 14 in PLoS ONE, the international, peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication from the Public Library of Science (PLoS). Drs. Amin A. Muhammad Gadit and Gerry Mugford are the authors of the paper, entitled, "Prevalence of depression among house holds in three capital cities of Pakistan: Need to revise the mental health policy."

Dr. Muhammad Gadit explained that Pakistan, among the other developing countries, has a higher prevalence rate of depression because of the current social adversities. "There is thus a great need for systematic studies on the prevalence of depression. Our study aims to explore the prevalence of depression among households in three capital cities of Pakistan."

A sample of 820 people was randomly selected and a cross sectional telephone based study was conducted for a duration of six months. "It was found that there was a regional variation in prevalence rates for depression among the three cities. Lahore had the highest number of depressives (53.4 per cent), as compared to Quetta (43.9 per cent) and Karachi (35.7 per cent). Middle age, female gender and secondary school level of education were significantly associated with depression among the study group."

Dr. Muhammad Gadit said the different rates of prevalence rate among three cities could be attributed to local cultural influence, geographical locations and social adversities and point to a need for revision of existing health policy by the government.

###

Disclaimer

The following press release refers to an article in PLoS ONE. The release has been provided by the article authors and/or their institutions. Any opinions expressed in these releases or articles are the personal views of the contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLoS. PLoS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the releases and articles and your use of such information.

Citation: Muhammad Gadit AA, Mugford G (2007) Prevalence of Depression among Households in Three Capital Cities of Pakistan: Need to Revise the Mental Health Policy. PLoS ONE 2(2): e209. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000209

PLEASE ADD THE LINK TO THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT

CONTACT:

Dr. Amin Muhammad Gadit
Professor of Psychiatry
Memorial University

Sharon Gray
Public Library of Science

Alternative Treatments For Depression: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) May Improve Mood, But Awaits FDA Approval

2007-04-15T14:39:00.001-07:00

While common treatments for depression such as prescription drugs, psychotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy usually provide relief from even the most severe cases for depression, there are people who do not feel they benefit from these treatments, and because of such look for alternative means to combat this serious medical condition.

One other option is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), which hasn't yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat depression, but may be available through a clinical trial.

This non-invasive method excites neurons in the brain by using weak electric currents, which are delivered to the brain by rapidly changing magnetic fields, also known as electromagnetic induction.

It is believed that this nerve stimulation improves mood and there's some evidence it may make nerve-cell connections more efficient. Because of this, TMS has shown promise as a non-invasive treatment of depression.

Alternative to Electroconvulsive Therapy?

For people who cannot find relief from traditional treatments for depression, TMS may seem to be a more desirable treatment than electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which it has been compared to, simply because it is non-invasive, does not require anesthesia, and is not associated with convulsions, all of which are associated with ECT.

TMS also appears to have fewer and less serious side effects, such as memory loss and confusion, both of which are associated with ECT.

How TMS Works

Completely non-invasive and painless, TMS involves placing an electromagnetic coil against the patient's scalp. An electric current passes through this coil that creates a magnetic pulse, which causes small electrical currents in the brain.

These currents stimulate nerve cells in the region of the brain involved in mood regulation and depression.

Why It Works

Physicians and medical researchers are not yet exactly clear on why this nerve cell stimulation works; however, it is believed that stimulating the brain can change how it works and that by stimulating the regions associated with mood regulation, mood can be improved.

In some types of TMS, brain activity is suppressed. In other types, brain activity is increased. In either case, the changes may be associated with improved mood. These improvements in symptoms may last for days or weeks, according to the Mayo Clinic, a not-for-profit medical practice with locations in Minnesota, Arizona and Florida.

Keep in mind that researchers are still trying to determine the best dosage of stimulation and the best area of the brain to stimulate.

Who May Benefit

Remember, TMS remains experimental, which means it is not to be used as a first-line treatment against depression. Currently, it is only available in the United States through clinical trials.

In countries where TMS has been approved to treat depression, it's generally used to treat people who haven't experienced improvements with standard treatments.

To determine if you or someone you know is a candidate for this experimental procedure, you will need talk to your doctor to see if it may be a good option for you or for a loved one who is suffering from depression.

Who Should Not Undergo TMS

Certain people should not undergo TMS because of increased or unknown risks to their health. These include anyone with: metal implants in the head, who may be pregnant or who has a pacemaker.

Additionally, TMS is not suited for patients who suffer from recurring migraines, who has had a stroke or who has a family history of seizures. And, if you have had neurosurgery, TMS is not for you.

TMS Side Effects

Despite being non-invasive, TMS does pose a risk of adverse side effects, with the most concerning being the increased risk of seizure. Because of that risk, the International Society for Transcranial Stimulation (ISTS) advises "that the procedure be performed only when medical help is quickly available and that those who administer it be trained as first responders who can provide emergency medical help," according to the Mayo Clinic.

According to the ISTS, other common side effects and adverse health problems associated with TSI include lightheadedness, headache, pain at the site where the electromagnetic coil is placed against the scalp, tingling, spasms or contractions of facial muscles.

The Long-Term Outlook

Because TMS prompts changes in brain function, it is important to understand that there may be unknown long-term adverse side effects associated with the treatment.

While research has not yet determined any negative long-term side effects, it is important to talk to your medical doctor or mental health specialist to understand the possibilities here and to weigh these carefully with your medical professional.

Remember, TMS is currently available through clinical trials only, so your treating physician or mental health professional will have to help you find a clinical trial that will work for you and your unique situation.

About the Author Kellie Fowler is an award-winning writer and has written for Associated Press, PR Newswire, Fortune 500 companies, newspapers, national business and healthcare magazines. She is regular contributor to http://www.depression-help-resource.com, a website providing information about types of depression, treatment options and depression related articles and resources.

http://www.depression-help-resource.com

Value Of Schizophrenia-Related Gene Variation

2007-04-15T14:36:00.001-07:00

University of Iowa researchers have learned more about a genetic variation that is a small risk factor for a mild form of schizophrenia yet also is associated with improved overall survival.

The findings, which appear online in the American Journal of Medical Genetics, could help lead to treatments for schizophrenia and even other illnesses, and ways to leverage the gene variation's advantages. An abstract of the article is available here.

This HOPA12pb gene variation advance drew on a genetic database that was about five times larger than sample sizes used in previous research, said Robert Philibert, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry in the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and the study's co-author.

"The study used the National Institute of Mental Health's largest publicly available sample, and thus it provides even more convincing evidence that the gene variation is worth studying," Philibert said.

The genetic variation causes a change in the portion of the protein that regulates the development of dopamine-releasing neurons. Antipsychotic drugs work by blocking dopamine, but drug treatments have limited success, and so scientists seek other ways to treat patients.

The team analyzed the genetic data of 900 European-Americans and found the HOPA gene variation in 22 individuals. Although the gene variation accounts for only an estimated .3 percent of all schizophrenia, nearly three of every 100 Caucasians have the gene variation.

"Most mutations associated with psychosis are found in only one in 10,000 or one in 100,000 individuals, and so these mutations do not lend themselves as study models," Philibert said. "HOPA is a relatively common mutation and that makes it valuable to study."

Philibert said that because HOPA often is a helpful gene variant, the fact that it sometimes is not reveals that it can react with environmental or other genetic factors to result in illness.

"If we can find a way to intervene in those interactions, then we may be able to avert disease and harness how this gene variation may help us," Philibert added.

In a current phase I, or safety, clinical trial, UI researchers are treating an individual who has a HOPA gene variation for symptoms of underactive thyroid.

"We don't know if this hypothyroidism is a direct effect of the gene or a genetic-environmental interaction," Philibert said. "We are using thyroid hormone supplementation to target the symptoms."

The UI Research Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) share a patent for HOPA12pb, which is found on the X-chromosome. Men are more likely than women to have this form of schizophrenia because it is X-linked. However, only about one in 30 men with the HOPA gene variation has schizophrenia.

###

The study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. Donald Black, M.D., UI professor of psychiatry, was a co-author, and other UI experts in psychiatry and neurosciences also contributed to the research.

HOPA stands for Human Opposite Paired Element (the last two letters in the abbreviation are taken from the first two letters in the word "Paired.")

STORY SOURCE: University of Iowa Health Science Relations, 5137 Westlawn, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1178

Contact: Becky Soglin
University of Iowa

Physiologic Measurements Suggest Biologic Component To Feelings Of Empathic Connection

2007-04-15T13:39:00.001-07:00

Empathy is well known to be an important component of the patient-therapist relationship, and a new study has revealed the biology behind how patients and therapists "connect" during a clinical encounter. In the February Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) report the first physiologic evidence of shared emotions underlying the experience of empathy during live psychotherapy sessions. The researchers found that, during moments of high positive emotion, both patients and therapists had similar physiologic responses and that greater levels of similarity were related to higher ratings of therapist empathy by patients.

"This research supports brain imaging data that shows humans are literally 'wired to connect' emotionally," says Carl Marci, MD, director of Social Neuroscience in the MGH Department of Psychiatry and the paper's lead author. "There is now converging evidence that, during moments of empathic connection, humans reflect or mirror each other's emotions, and their physiologies move on the same wavelength."

As part of an ongoing study of the role of empathy in psychotherapy, the MGH researchers videotaped therapeutic sessions of 20 unique patient-therapist pairs. The patients were being treated as outpatients for common mood and anxiety disorders in established therapeutic relationships. The participating therapists practiced psychodynamic therapy, an approach that uses the therapeutic relationship to help patients develop insight into their emotions.

Throughout the therapy sessions, patients and therapists were "wired up" to record their physiologic responses using skin conductance recordings. Skin conductance is a commonly used measure of the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, which controls human arousal and provides a physiologic context for emotional experiences. Following the sessions, the videotapes were edited to focus on moments of high and low physiologic concordance - that is, when patients' and therapists' levels of nervous system activity were most and least similar. Independent observers, blinded to the study's goals and methods, reviewed randomly presented video segments to identify the types of emotions being expressed by both patients and therapists.

The observers' data showed that both patients and therapists expressed significantly more positive emotions during moments of high physiologic concordance than during low concordance. In addition, patient's ratings of therapist empathy corresponded to levels of physiologic concordance during the therapy sessions. Overall, the findings suggest that shared positive emotions and shared physiologic arousal contribute to an empathic connection during psychotherapy.

"We were pleased to find evidence for a biological basis to that feeling of connection," Marci says. "Taken together with current neurobiological models of empathy, our findings suggest that therapists perceived as being more empathic have more positive emotional experiences in common with patients during the therapy session." He adds another finding not reported in the published report - that there was much less physiologic concordance when therapists were talking than listening. "That suggests it is hard for clinicians to be empathic when they are talking."

The researchers' next step is a longer-term study of how physiologic concordance relates to empathy over the course of psychotherapy. The ultimate goals of the project are to improve therapeutic techniques and to develop resources for teaching medical students and clinicians to be more empathic. Marci is an instructor at Harvard Medical School, and his co-authors are Jacob Ham, PhD, now at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, Erin Moran of MGH, and Scott Orr, PhD, of MGH and the VA Medical Center in Manchester, N.H. The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the MGH Endowment for the Advancement of Psychotherapy.

###

Massachusetts General Hospital, established in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of nearly $500 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, transplantation biology and photomedicine. MGH and Brigham and Women's Hospital are founding members of Partners HealthCare System, a Boston-based integrated health care delivery system.

Contact: Sue McGreevey
Massachusetts General Hospital

Boosting Brain Power With Chocolate

2007-04-15T13:36:00.001-07:00

Eating chocolate could help to sharpen up the mind and give a short-term boost to cognitive skills, a University of Nottingham expert has found.

A study led by Professor Ian Macdonald found that consumption of a cocoa drink rich in flavanols a key ingredient of dark chocolate boosts blood flow to key areas of the brain for two to three hours.

Increased blood flow to these areas of the brain may help to increase performance in specific tasks and boost general alertness over a short period.

The findings, unveiled at one of the biggest scientific conferences in America, also raise the prospect of ingredients in chocolate being used to treat vascular impairment, including dementia and strokes, and thus for maintaining cardiovascular health.

The study also suggests that the cocoa flavanols found in chocolate could be useful in enhancing brain function for people fighting fatigue, sleep deprivation, and even the effects of ageing.

Ian Macdonald, professor of metabolic physiology at The University of Nottingham, used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect increased activity in specific areas of the brain in individuals who had consumed a single drink of flavanol-rich cocoa. The effect is linked to dilation of cerebral blood vessels, allowing more blood and therefore more oxygen to reach key areas of the brain.

Flavanols are not only found in chocolate with a high cocoa content they are also present in other substances such as red wine, green tea and blueberries.

He presented his research at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the biggest annual gatherings of scientists from all over the world. This year's meeting takes place in San Francisco from February 15вЂ"19.

Professor Macdonald said: "Acute consumption of this particular flavanol-rich cocoa beverage was associated with increased grey matter flow for two to three hours.

"The demonstration of an effect of consuming this particular beverage on cerebral blood flow raises the possibility that certain food ingredients may be beneficial in increasing brain blood flow and enhancing brain function, in situations where individuals are cognitively impaired such as fatigue, sleep deprivation, or possibly ageing."

He emphasised that the level of cocoa flavanol used in the study is not available commercially. The cocoa-rich flavanol beverage was specially formulated for the purpose of the study.

Co-authors on the research were Dr Susan Francis, research associate Kay Head, and Professor Peter Morris, all from The University of Nottingham's School of Physics and Astronomy.

Professor Macdonald is a member of the Food Standards Agency's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, and is President-Elect of the UK Nutrition Society. His main research interests are concerned with the functional consequences of metabolic and nutritional disturbances in health and disease, with specific interests in obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and exercise.

The AAAS, founded in 1848, is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the prestigious international journal Science. Its annual conference draws up to 10,000 attendees.

NOTTINGHAM UNIVERSITY
University Park
Nottingham
NG7 2RD
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk

Germany & Portugal Come Near Bottom Of New Blood Pressure Based Happiness League

2007-04-15T12:39:00.001-07:00

Researchers at the University of Warwick have found a direct connection between a nation's overall happiness and its citizens' blood pressure problems. Sweden, Denmark and the UK come top of this blood pressure based happiness league while Germany, Portugal and Finland come bottom.

The research by economists Professor Andrew Oswald of the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick and Professor David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College USA is about to be published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in Massachusetts.

Doctors have known for a long time that blood pressure is one measure of an individual's health. This research is the first to demonstrate that there a connection between nations' happiness and blood-pressure levels. The researchers believe that it could offer a way for policy makers to move away from simply focusing on maximizing the amount of money produced by a country its Gross Domestic Product.

University of Warwick Economist Professor Andrew Oswald said: "We found that a measure of a nation's rate of hypertension is a good predictor of its overall happiness. That surprised us.

"Although it sounds strange to suggest it in 2007, perhaps blood-pressure readings will one day replace or augment GDP as a measure of the success of a country. Maybe economists and doctors are going to have to work together in the design of future economic policies."

The researchers drew a random sample of 15,000 people from across the European countries. These people were interviewed about all aspects of their lives, including their levels of satisfaction with life, their mental health, and whether they had had problems of hypertension (high blood pressure). Reported hypertension is known to be a good indicator of actual blood-pressure problems.

Countries such as Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands turn out to top the European league table of happiness, with nations like Germany and Portugal at the bottom. What the study's authors then go on to show is that exactly the equivalent pattern is found in reported hypertension in these populations.

Happy countries have fewer blood-pressure problems. Mental health in each country, they show, is also inversely correlated with its rate of hypertension. The study ranks countries in this order:

-- Sweden
-- Denmark
-- UK
-- Netherlands
-- Ireland
-- France
-- Luxembourg
-- Spain
-- Greece
-- Italy
-- Belgium
-- Austria
-- Finland
-- Germany
-- Portugal

WARWICK UNIVERSITY
Coventry
http://www.warwick.ac.uk

Surgeons With Video Game Skill Appear To Perform Better In Simulated Surgery Skills Course

2007-04-15T12:36:00.001-07:00

In a study involving 12 surgeons and 21 surgical residents, video game skill was correlated with laparoscopic surgery skill as assessed during a simulated surgery skills course, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

James C. Rosser Jr., M.D., of Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, and colleagues asked 33 surgeons (21 residents and 12 attending physicians) about their video game playing habits, then assessed their performance at the Rosser Top Gun Laparoscopic Skills and Suturing Program, a one-and-a-half day course that scores surgeons on time and errors during simulated surgery drills. During the study, conducted from May through August, 2002, the surgeons also played three video games for 25 minutes while the researchers assessed their gaming skills.

Of the surgeons who participated in the study, 15 reported never playing video games, nine reported playing zero to three hours per week, and nine reported playing more than three hours per week at the height of their video game playing. "Surgeons who had played video games in the past for more than three hours per week made 37 percent fewer errors [in the Top Gun course], were 27 percent faster and scored 42 percent better overall than surgeons who never played video games. Current video game players made 32 percent fewer errors, were 24 percent faster and scored 26 percent better overall than their non-player colleagues," the authors write. Those in the top one third of video gaming skill made 47 percent fewer errors, performed 39 percent faster and scored 41 percent better on the overall Top Gun score than those in the bottom one-third.

"Training curricula that include video games may help thin the technical interface between surgeons and screen-mediated applications, such as laparoscopic surgery," the authors conclude. "Video games may be a practical teaching tool to help train surgeons." (Arch Surg. 2007;142:181-186. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://www.jamamedia.org)

American Medical Association (AMA)
515 N. State St.
Chicago, IL 60610
United States
http://www.ama-assn.org

Psychiatric And Neurologic Conditions May Underlie Many Cases Of Chronic Dizziness

2007-04-15T11:39:00.001-07:00

Chronic dizziness may have several common causes, including anxiety disorders, migraine, traumatic brain injury and disorders in the part of the nervous system governing involuntary activities, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

One particular type of chronic dizziness not related to vertigo (a feeling of turning or whirling usually associated with inner ear problems) has long vexed physicians, according to background information in the article. "Patients with this syndrome have chronic nonspecific dizziness, subjective imbalance and hypersensitivity to motion stimuli, which are exacerbated in complex visual environments (e.g., walking in a busy store, driving in the rain)," the authors write. Some researchers have proposed the term chronic subjective dizziness for this condition.

Jeffrey P. Staab, M.D., M.S., and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Philadelphia, studied 345 men and women age 15 to 89 (average age 43.5) who had dizziness for three months or longer due to unknown causes. From 1998 to 2004, the patients were tracked from their referral to a balance center through multiple specialty examinations until they were given a diagnosis.

"All but six patients were diagnosed as having psychiatric or neurologic conditions, including primary or secondary anxiety disorders, migraine, traumatic brain injury and neurally mediated dysautonomias," or abnormal functioning of the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary actions. Anxiety disorders were associated with 60 percent of the chronic dizziness cases and central nervous system conditions (including migraine, brain injuries and autonomic nervous system disorders) with 38.6 percent. Six patients (1.7 percent) had irregular heartbeats.

"The results of this investigation provide some insight into pathophysiologic mechanisms that may precipitate and perpetuate chronic dizziness," the authors write. "Two-thirds of patients had medical conditions associated with the onset of dizziness, whereas one-third had anxiety disorders as the initial cause. Therefore, chronic subjective dizziness may be triggered by either neurotologic [ear-related] or psychiatric conditions."

"Key diagnostic features were identified in the clinical history for each illness," they continue. For example, those with migraines often had nausea or vomiting, anxiety disorders were associated with fear and worry, and those with autonomic nervous system disorders tended to become dizzy when they exerted themselves. "Careful inquiry about these key features during otologic evaluations may increase diagnostic precision and lead to more specific treatment recommendations for these perplexing patients."

American Medical Association (AMA)
515 N. State St.
Chicago, IL 60610
United States
http://www.ama-assn.org

Study Links Attempted Suicide With Genetic Evidence Identified In Previous Suicide Research

2007-04-15T11:36:00.001-07:00

A Johns Hopkins-led study has found evidence that a genetic tendency toward suicide has been linked to a particular area of the genome on chromosome 2 that has been implicated in two additional recent studies of attempted suicide.

"We're hoping our findings will eventually lead to tests that can identify those at high risk for attempting suicide," says Virginia Willour, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and lead author of the study. An estimated 4.6 percent of Americans ages 15 to 54 have tried to take their lives, according to Willour.

The investigators conducted a family linkage study in which they searched for commonalities in the genomes of family members with bipolar disorder and a history of attempted suicide. The same gene region on chromosome 2 that was identified by this bipolar disorder and attempted suicide study was recently identified by two complementary family studies that looked at attempted suicide in families with major depression and alcohol dependence.

"Family linkage studies are not always consistent, so the fact that all three studies, including ours, point to the same region of the genome is a good indication that we are on the right track toward identifying a gene or genes that play a role in why a person chooses to take his or her own life," says Willour.

In the multi-institutional study, results of which appear in the March issue of Biological Psychiatry, the researchers examined data from 162 families with bipolar disorder. They looked at attempted suicide in this sample because it is an important clinical problem that tends to occur more often in some of these families than in others, suggesting a distinctive genetic basis, according to senior author James B. Potash, M.D., M.P.H., of the Department of Psychiatry at Hopkins. This technique, of looking at sub-types of illness, is used by genetic researchers as a way to reduce genetic complexity.

From the 162 families, the researchers selected 417 subjects who were diagnosed with schizoaffective/bipolar disorder, bipolar I disorder or bipolar II disorder.

These subjects were asked whether they had ever attempted suicide and the degree of intent of the most serious attempt. One hundred fifty-four subjects said they had attempted suicide, and 122 stated that they had "definite" intent. For the purpose of this study, the latter were considered to have a history of attempted suicide.

Data for all 417 subjects was entered into a computer program that looks for genetic similarities between subjects with similar psychological profiles. Results indicated that family members with a history of attempted suicide and bipolar disorder showed a high degree of genetic similarity at a specific area DNA marker D2S1777 on a section of chromosome 2 referred to as 2p12. This is the same marker implicated in a 2004 study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine that looked at attempted suicide and major depression. And it is close to another marker, D2S1790, located in the 2p11 region of chromosome 2, which was identified in a 2004 study from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine that looked at alcoholism and attempted suicide.

Willour says that although the Hopkins-led study does not pinpoint a specific gene responsible for attempted suicide, it does suggest a "neighborhood" in which the gene might be found. She adds that the next step is to further narrow the search and find the "address." "Once we have located the specific gene," she says, "we can better identify people who might be at risk of suicide and offer drug companies a target for possible therapies."

The data used by Willour and her team DNA samples, medical histories and psychiatric evaluations came from an independent study, CHIP, conducted at the University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins, and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Intramural Program. The purpose of CHIP, initiated in 1988 and funded through at least 2010, is to find genes that predispose people to developing bipolar disorder or particular subtypes of the illness.

Other Johns Hopkins researchers who contributed to this study are Peter P. Zandi, Ph.D., from the Department of Mental Health in the Bloomberg School of Public Health and J. Raymond DePaulo Jr., M.D.; Dean F. MacKinnon, M.D.; and Francis M. Mondimore, M.D., from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Additional researchers include Elliot S. Gershon, M.D., and Judith A. Badner, M.D., Ph.D., from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago; Francis J. McMahon, M.D., from the NIMH Intramural Program; and Melvin G. McInnis, M.D., from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Funding for this study came from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
901 S. Bond St., Ste 550
Baltimore, MD 21231
United States
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/

North Carolina Mental Health Officials Cap Admissions At State Psychiatric Hospitals

2007-04-15T10:39:00.001-07:00

North Carolina mental health officials have placed a cap on admissions at the four psychiatric hospitals administered by the state as the number of mentally ill patients continues to increase, the AP/Winston-Salem Journal reports. According to Mike Moseley -- director of the North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services -- state psychiatric hospitals no longer will accept mentally ill patients from community hospitals after they reach 110% capacity in their short-term wards (AP/Winston-Salem Journal, 2/14). Community hospitals will have to continue to house mentally ill patients until state psychiatric hospitals can admit them, Moseley said. Community hospitals have raised concerns about the cap because emergency departments have become the "first stop" for many mentally ill patients, according to Mike Vicario, vice president of regulatory affairs for the North Carolina Hospital Association. Deby Dihoff, executive director of the North Carolina chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said that the cap "very much scared" her. She said, "Crises are going to happen. There (have) to be beds to serve people with mental illness," adding, "I think the division is doing a good job planning for the future. It's the present we're all a little worried about" (Bonner, Raleigh News & Observer, 2/13).

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Geting The Facts Straight In Statistical Psychological Research

2007-04-15T10:36:00.001-07:00

New research published in the March issue of Psychological Science suggests that efforts to advocate improved statistical practices in psychological research may be paying off.

Geoff Cumming, Fiona Fidler and colleagues at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia sought to examine whether guidelines set forth in 1999 by the American Psychological Association's Task Force on Statistical Inference (TSFI) had been implemented in psychological research.

The authors analyzed articles from 10 leading international psychology journals from 1998 to 2006, focusing on three practices central to the statistical reform debate: Null hypothesis significance testing, confidence intervals and figures with error bars. The results demonstrate that psychologists still rely on traditional null hypothesis significance testing but are also using considerably more graphs with error bars to report their research.

"For more than 50 years, statistical significance testing has been psychologists' main statistical method" Fidler explains, "but there's evidence it's widely misunderstood and leads to dreadful research decisions."

According to the authors, the shift towards using graphs with error bars signals a step forward in data interpretation. "Error bars," says Fidler, "can give a clear impression of a study's precision and lead to better conclusions."

The consensus of many academic psychologists and editors of psychology journals echoed the findings of the study. Results from a survey sent by the authors indicated that statistical reform was necessary in the field. But in spite of the apparent readiness to contemplate change, reform was not regarded as a priority, with a few editors noting resistance to change from some article authors.

Cumming and Fidler insist that changes in statistical practices in psychological research are needed for researchers, and readers of journal articles to have a more accurate understanding of experimental results. They strongly recommend that scientific psychology "change its emphasis from the dichotomous decision making of null hypothesis significance testing to estimation of effect sizes."

"To achieve this goal" say the authors, "researchers need further detailed guidance, examples of good practice, and editorial or institutional leadership."

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Psychological Science, published by the Association for Psychological Science, is ranked among the top 10 general psychology journals for impact by the Institute for Scientific Information.

Contact: Geoff Cumming
Association for Psychological Science

Sexualization Of Girls In The Media Is Harmful

2007-04-15T09:39:00.001-07:00

The American Psychological Association (APA) suggests that the proliferation of sexual images of girls and young women in the media is harming their self-image and development.

An APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls examined research papers covering the effect of all kinds of media content including television, music videos, magazines, video games, the Internet, movies, and music lyrics. They also looked at the way products are sold and advertised to young girls.

The Task Force described sexualization as: "when a person's value comes only from her/his sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is sexually objectified, e.g., made into a thing for another's sexual use."

The report suggests that the volume of sexualized images has increased as more media content exists over a wider range of accessible technologies, leading to increased exposure and pressure on young girls. Attitudes of family members and friends can also increase the pressure.

"We have ample evidence to conclude that sexualization has negative effects in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, and healthy sexual development," said Dr Eileen Zurbriggen, Chair of the APA Task Force.

"The consequences of the sexualization of girls in media today are very real and are likely to be a negative influence on girls' healthy development," she said.

They gave examples of images from advertising. One featured a well known female pop star, Christina Aguilera, advertising a trainer. She was dressed in school uniform, with an unbuttoned shirt and licking a lollipop.

The report suggests that the sexualization of girls impedes the healthy development of a girl or young woman in several different areas. For example by undermining her confidence and making her feel dissatisfied with her body, this can result in negative self-image and lead to feelings of shame and anxiety.

Also, a body of evidence now links sexualization with several of the most common mental health problems in young women and girls: eating disorders, low self -esteem and depression. And there is also the increased chance that it will impact a girl's ability to develop a healthy sexual self-image.

The Task Force suggests that parents have a strong influence in this area. They could wittingly or unwittingly be contributing to the problem, or they could protect their daughters by educating them and supporting them to overcome the effects of the negative images they come across in their everyday lives.

They call on all members of the community - parents, teachers, school staff, health professionals to look out for the impact that sexual images might be having on the young girls and women in their care. Schools should teach media literacy and include sexualization topics in sex education, they say.

Among their specific recommendations the APA Task Force suggests that:

- More research is done that focuses on girls. Most research focuses on women. An example would be to examine the effects of interventions that promote positive images of girls.
- Practitioners such as psychologists and teachers are given resources to help them teach young girls how to access more positive images of themselves and counteract the negative effects that the sexual images might be having.
- Media literacy programs are developed and that public health reports include sexualization in their agenda.
- Federal agencies support programs that help girls feel powerful in ways other than to look sexy, for example Web zines and extra-curricular activities.
- Develop media awards for positive portrayal of girls as powerful, able and non-sexualized, for example for the best toy or television image.
- Convene partnerships between government, leading experts and the media to work on the issue.
- All members of communities from school staff to business people promote extra-curricular programs that help young people develop self-esteem based on ability and character and not on appearance.

"As a society, we need to replace all of these sexualized images with ones showing girls in positive settings - ones that show the uniqueness and competence of girls," said Dr Zurbriggen.

"The goal should be to deliver messages to all adolescents - boys and girls - that lead to healthy sexual development," she added.

Click here for the full APA report (PDF).

Click here fo article and resources on helping your daughter build confidence (kaboose.com).

Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today

Rewarding Fat Rats

2007-04-15T09:36:00.001-07:00

We all remember a time when we were paralyzed in the face of a tough decision. For animals in the natural world, making the right choice can mean the difference between life and death.

When rats and other animals choose the thing that leads to a "reward," such as food, changes happen in the body and the brain. Describing and understanding those changes has been the focus of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) grantee Peter Shizgal for most of his career.

Shizgal was recently recognized for his contributions by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He was inducted as a fellow during its annual conference in San Francisco.

"It's an honour to receive this sort of recognition from one's peers, and I do feel proud," says Shizgal, a Concordia University professor of psychology. "That pride should be shared. Achievements like this in the natural sciences often reflect the work of a team, and that is certainly true in my case. I have been privileged to have terrific trainees and faculty colleagues as research collaborators, many of whom have been supported by NSERC scholarships and grants."

In their studies of food reward, Shizgal's team investigated the role of leptin, a hormone that the body produces in proportion to the amount of stored fat. A person who eats a lot during holidays, for example, will make more leptin than a person who sticks to a stricter diet.

In work carried out by Shizgal's team, chubby lab rats were put on a diet to reduce their fat mass and, hence, their leptin levels. They found that restricting the rats' diet to one meal per day not only made them lose weight, but also made reward sensations stronger. Conversely, increasing the level of leptin in the brain weakened the reward sensation. Their work has appeared in notable journals such as Science and Behavioral Neuroscience.

"Trying to understand the brain mechanisms of motivation in animals - and also in humans - is not only fascinating for me, but also highly rewarding. More broadly, there is an exciting confluence of work emerging from both major branches of NSERC-supported research: natural science and engineering," says Shizgal.

"While natural scientists use concepts and technologies developed by engineers to try to understand what makes animals tick, certain computer scientists and engineers look to the natural world for inspiration and guidance as they build intelligent machines. Ongoing research has already produced some computer programs and robots that can learn from experience and adapt their behaviour to a complex, constantly changing environment. We can expect that this technology will be greatly improved in the near future."

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Peter Shizgal
Department of Psychology
Concordia University

Contact: DorГ© Dunne
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

Fixed Versus Growth Intelligence Mindsets

2007-04-15T08:40:00.001-07:00

When psychology Professor Carol Dweck was a sixth-grader at P.S. 153 in Brooklyn, N.Y., she experienced something that made her want to understand why some people view intelligence as a fixed trait while others embrace it as a quality that can be developed and expanded.

Dweck's teacher that year, Mrs. Wilson, seated her students around the room according to their IQ. The girls and boys who didn't have the highest IQ in the class were not allowed to carry the flag during assembly or even wash the blackboard, Dweck said. "She let it be known that IQ for her was the ultimate measure of your intelligence and your character," she said. "So the students who had the best seats were always scared of taking another test and not being at the top anymore."

Asked what seat number Dweck occupied during that memorable year, the professor paused, and silently raised her right index finger. "But it was an uncomfortable thing because you were only as good as your last test score," she said. "I think it had just as negative an effect on the kids at the top [as those at the bottom] who were defining themselves in those terms."

From that experience, Dweck became fascinated with intelligence, convinced that IQ tests are not the only way to measure it. "I also became very interested in coping with setbacks, probably because being in that classroom made me so concerned about not slipping, not failing," she said.

Dweck, a soft-spoken, elegantly attired woman, joined Stanford's faculty in 2004 as the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor. Before that, she taught at Columbia for 15 years, as well as at Harvard and the University of Illinois. A native New Yorker, Dweck earned a bachelor's degree from Columbia and a doctorate in psychology from Yale.

According to Dweck, people's self-theories about intelligence have a profound influence on their motivation to learn. Students who hold a "fixed" theory are mainly concerned with how smart they are - they prefer tasks they can already do well and avoid ones on which they may make mistakes and not look smart. In contrast, she said, people who believe in an "expandable" or "growth" theory of intelligence want to challenge themselves to increase their abilities, even if they fail at first.

Dweck's research about intelligence and motivation, and how they are variously influenced by fixed and growth mindsets, has attracted attention from teachers trying to help underperforming students, parents concerned with why their daughters get turned off math and science, and even sports coaches and human-resources managers intent on helping clients reach higher levels of achievement.

The journal Child Development released a paper co-authored by Dweck titled "Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement Across Adolescent Transition: A Longitudinal Study and an Intervention." The research shows how at one New York City junior high school students' fixed and growth theories about intelligence affected their math grades. Over two years, she said, students with a fixed mindset experienced a downward academic trend while the others moved ahead.

The psychologists then designed an eight-week intervention program that taught some students study skills and how they could learn to be smart - describing the brain as a muscle that became stronger the more it was used. A control group also learned study skills but they were not taught Dweck's expandable theory of intelligence. In just two months, she said, the students from the first group, compared to the control group, showed marked improvement in grades and study habits.

"What was important was the motivation," Dweck said. "The students were energized by the idea that they could have an impact on their mind." Dweck recalled a young boy who was a ringleader of the troublemakers. "When we started teaching this idea about the mind being malleable, he looked up with tears in his eyes, and he said, 'You mean, I don't have to be dumb?'" she said. "A fire was lit under him."

Later on, the researchers asked the teachers to single out students who had shown positive changes. They picked students who were in the growth mindset group, even though they didn't know two groups existed. Among them was the former troublemaker, who "was now handing in his work early so he could get feedback and revise, plus study for tests, and had good grades," Dweck said. The research showed how changing a key belief - a student's self-theory about intelligence and motivation - with a relatively simple intervention can make a big difference. Since then, Dweck and her colleagues at Columbia have developed a computer-based version of the intervention, dubbed "Brainology," that has been tested in 20 New York City schools.

Although "Brainology" is not yet commercially available, Dweck has brought her work to public attention with her latest book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. The author of many academic books and articles, Dweck noted Mindset was her first foray into mainstream publishing. "My students [at Columbia] kept saying to me, 'You write for these professional journals and that's important, but what about people in the world?' We are in a profession that talks to each other and writes for each other. That's what we're rewarded for. But my students kept saying, 'Everybody should know this.'"

Mindset certainly resonated with Ross Bentley, a world-renowned car racing coach based in Seattle. Unlike coaches who stress technical skills, Bentley focuses on teaching mental competitiveness. He said great drivers strive to attain "a state of flow - a moment when you lose yourself in the act of driving, when it becomes effortless and time slows down. When you get into the flow, or the zone, you're at your peak."

Bentley was thrilled to learn that Dweck's research confirmed his personal approach to coaching. "One of the things that's fascinating for me is that someone with her knowledge has verified things I've known," he said. "She brings a scientific approach, and we're able to give her real-world experience. The majority of champion racing drivers have a growth mindset."

This month, Dweck and Bentley are launching a study of about 40 racing-car drivers to learn how applying a growth mindset approach improves their speed times during the 2007 racing season. Bentley explained that car races can last hours and drivers may lose their concentration at pivotal points, making it possible to lose a race by only a few seconds. The objective of coaching is to help drivers recover quickly and maintain an optimal state of flow, he said. The research, carried out by psychology graduate student Fred Leach, will use surveys to gauge the mindset of drivers before, during and after races to see if there is a correlation with their race results, Bentley said. "The goal is to build a growth mindset," he said.

In addition to sports coaches, parents and teachers have written to Dweck to say that Mindset has given them new insight into their children and students. "One very common thing is that often very brilliant children stop working because they're praised so often that it's what they want to live as - brilliant - not as someone who ever makes mistakes," she said. "It really stunts their motivation. Parents and teachers say they now understand how to prevent that - how to work with low-achieving students to motivate them and high-achieving students to maximize their efforts." The point is to praise children's efforts, not their intelligence, she said.

Last year, Dweck taught a freshman seminar based on Mindset. She chose 16 students from more than 100 who applied, selecting those who expressed personal motivation rather than intelligence. "You can impress someone with how smart you are or how motivated you are, and I picked students who expressed their motivation," she said.

It turned out that embracing a growth mindset was critical to the students' transition to Stanford. The freshmen loved being on campus and quickly became involved in activities, Dweck said, but failed to anticipate the approach of midterm exams. "They were just really overwhelmed," she said. "How did they deal with it? They told me they would have dealt with it poorly, thinking they weren't smart or were not meant to be at Stanford. But knowing about the growth mindset allowed them to realize that they hadn't learned how to be a college student yet. They were still learning how to be successful as a Stanford student." Dweck described the seminar as a "peak experience" in her long teaching career. "The students were fantastic," she said.

Dweck continues to conduct research into what motivates people and what holds them back. Based on the success of Mindset, which is being published in nine countries, Dweck has been asked to collaborate on other non-academic projects involving business and sports. "I'm such an egghead," she said with a smile. "My book was my first foray into the real world. Articles go out into the [academic] field and it's very gratifying, but a book goes to all corners of the earth. People take a lot from it, and they introduce themselves into your life."

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Other scheduled participants in the AAAS panel are Susan Carey from Harvard University and Marcia Linn from the University of California-Berkeley.

Contact: Lisa Trei
Stanford University

ADHD Drug Makers To Notify Patients About Health Risks

2007-04-15T08:37:00.001-07:00

Makers of drugs approved to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have been instructed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to notify patients of certain health risks.

The manufacturers affected include Eli Lilly and Co, Novartis AG, Johnson & Johnson, and Shire plc.

The ADHD drug manufacturers have been instructed to produce Patient Medication Guides that tell patients about possible risks of adverse cardiovascular and psychiatric symptoms and the precautions they should take.

Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), Dr Steven Galson, said that "Medicines approved for the treatment of ADHD have real benefits for many patients but they may have serious risks as well."

"In our ongoing commitment to strengthen drug safety, FDA is working closely with manufacturers of all ADHD medicines to include important information in the product labeling and in developing new Patient Medication Guides to better inform doctors and patients about these concerns," he added.

According to the FDA, ADHD affects around 3 to 7 per cent of schoolchildren and 4 per cent of adults. The main symptoms are hyperactive behaviour, difficulty paying attention, and low impulse control.

Children and adults with ADHD tend to have low self-esteem, problems at school and work, and difficult relationships with family and peers.

Patient Medication Guides are leaflets that accompany the drug when it is given to the patient. They are aimed at patients, their families and caregivers. The information is FDA approved and is intended to prevent potentially serious side-effects.

The FDA advises doctors to look carefully at patients' health history (including family history) and current status to assess cardiovascular or psychiatric symptoms and risk before recommending a treatment plan that includes ADHD drugs.

The Patient Medication Guide should be read fully before the medication is taken, and any questions or concerns should be discussed with the doctor.

The FDA has reviewed reports of a small number of patients with underlying serious heart conditions on normal doses of ADHD drugs who have suffered strokes and heart attacks, which in a few cases have been fatal.

The FDA has also conducted a separate review that showed a small increased risk of 1 in 1,000 of adverse psychiatric events linked to ADHD drugs. The adverse psychiatric events include hearing voices, becoming manic, or becoming suspicious for no reason. These events have even happened to people with no history of psychiatric conditions.

In 2006 the FDA directed manufacturers to revise their labelling to take into account these concerns about cardiovascular and psychiatric risks. This new notification is to help patients understand these risks via the Patient Medication Guide.

The new instruction affects 15 products, including various forms of Adderall, Concerta, Daytrana, Dexedrine, Focalin, Metadate, Methylin, Ritalin, and Strattera.

The FDA has been criticized for failing to notify the public sooner. On the other hand, there also fears that this action will stop people who need the drugs from taking them.

Click here to view exact products affected and their relevant draft Patient Medication Guides.

Click here for CDC's "Learn the Signs, Act Early" Campaign on ADHD.

Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today

Highly Accomplished People More Prone To Failure Than Others When Under Stress

2007-04-15T07:36:00.001-07:00

Talented people often choke under pressure because the distraction caused by stress consumes their working memory, a psychologist at the University of Chicago has found.

Highly accomplished people tend to heavily rely on their abundant supply of working memory and are therefore disadvantaged when challenged to solve difficult problems, such as mathematical ones, under pressure, according to research by Sian Beilock, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. Her findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

People with less adequate supplies of working memory learn other ways of problem solving to compensate for their deficiencies and although these alternative problem solving strategies are not highly accurate, they are not impacted additionally by working under pressure, the research found.

Beilock found that when put under pressure, the talented people with larger amounts of working memory began using short-cuts to solve problems, such as guessing and estimation, strategies similar to those used by individuals with less adequate working memories. As a result of taking those shortcuts, the accuracy of the talented people was undermined.

"These findings suggest that performance pressure harms higher working memory individuals by consuming the cognitive resources that they rely on for their superior performance - and as a result, higher working memory individuals respond by switching to the less accurate problem solving strategies normally used by lower working memory students," Beilock said.

The results have implications for the evaluation of performance on high stakes tests, such as those needed to advance in school and college entrance examinations, she said.

Working memory is a short-term memory system that maintains a limited amount of information in an active state. It functions by providing information of immediate relevance while preventing distractions and irrelevant thoughts from interfering with the task at hand.

People with a high level of working memory depend on it heavily during problem solving. "If you've got it, flaunt it" Beilock said.

However, that same advantage makes them particularly susceptible to the dangers of stress.

"In essence, feelings of pressure introduce an intrusion that eats up available working memory for talented people," Beilock said.

In order to study the impact of stress on working memory, Beilock and her colleagues tested roughly 100 college undergraduates. They gave them tests to determine the strength of their working memory and then subjected them to a series of complicated, unfamiliar mathematics problems.

Students were given pressure by being told they would be paid for their correct answers, but that they would only receive the money if a partner, chosen randomly who they did not know, would also win. Then they were told that their partner had solved the problem correctly, thus increasing the pressure.

The study showed that as a result of the pressure, the performance of students with strong working memory declined to the same level as those with more limited working memory. Those with more limited working memory performed as well under added pressure as they did without the stress.

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Contact: William Harms
University of Chicago

Children Living In Extremes

2007-04-15T07:33:00.001-07:00

Bombs and Bodies: Children Living in Extremes

WHAT:

Bombings in Baghdad, bodies floating in New Orleans. Television and computer screens filled with graphic images of death, contorted bodies, and people, especially kids, suffering. Even as these events numb adult minds, they have left children insecure and frightened. At the 2007 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), researchers, several from UCLA, discussed the variety of dangerous domains that impact child development in a symposium entitled "Ecologies of Danger and Cultures of Resilience: Children in Extreme Situations." They will use this framework to describe the effects of danger and trauma on children, and examine the factors that promote child resilience and well-being.

WHO:

Symposium Organizer
Carl A. Maida, UCLA

Symposium Co-Organizer and Moderator
Robert S. Pynoos, UCLA

The Ecology of Danger: Transgenerational Impact among Vervet Monkeys
Lynn A. Fairbanks, UCLA

Responses to Danger in Infants and Toddlers: The Moderating Influence of Family Relationships
Alicia F. Lieberman, UC San Francisco

Katrina's Children: Crisis, Trauma, and Resilience
Howard J. Osofsky, Louisiana State University, New Orleans

Moral Development and Pathological Interference with Conscience Functioning Among Adolescents after Catastrophic Disaster
Alan M. Steinberg, UCLA

Discussant
Thomas S. Weisner, UCLA

BACKGROUND:

Developmental and ecological dimensions of danger to children were discussed. This included aspects of any physical environment that lends itself to a social ecology of danger; behavioral data on the impact of danger on mother and infant interactions; effects of danger on child and adolescent development and on parent and child interactions; the ways major catastrophic events affect children's schematization of the world, self, and others; disturbances in moral development and conscience functioning; post-catastrophe ecological factors that promote resilience and recovery of children and families; and cultural pathways and community settings that mitigate the impact of dangerous events and promote resilience.

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Contact: Mark Wheeler
University of California - Los Angeles

Smart Enough To Make Ourselves Sick

2007-04-15T06:38:00.001-07:00

Why do humans and their primate cousins get more stress-related diseases than any other member of the animal kingdom? The answer, says Stanford University neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky, is that people, apes and monkeys are highly intelligent, social creatures with far too much spare time on their hands.

"Primates are super smart and organized just enough to devote their free time to being miserable to each other and stressing each other out," he said. "But if you get chronically, psychosocially stressed, you're going to compromise your health. So, essentially, we've evolved to be smart enough to make ourselves sick."

A professor of biological sciences and of neurology and neurological sciences, Sapolsky has spent more than three decades studying the physiological effects of stress on health. His pioneering work includes ongoing studies of laboratory rats and wild baboons in the African wilderness.

He discussed the biological and sociological implications of stress in a lecture titled "Stress, Health and Coping" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.

Stress response

All vertebrates respond to stressful situations by releasing hormones, such as adrenalin and glucocorticoids, which instantaneously increase the animal's heart rate and energy level. "The stress response is incredibly ancient evolutionarily," Sapolsky said. "Fish, birds and reptiles secrete the same stress hormones we do, yet their metabolism doesn't get messed up the way it does in people and other primates."

To understand why, he said, "just look at the dichotomy between what your body does during real stress--for example, something is intent on eating you and you're running for your life--versus what your body does when you're turning on the same stress response for months on end for purely psychosocial reasons."

In the short term, he explained, stress hormones are "brilliantly adapted" to help you survive an unexpected threat. "You mobilize energy in your thigh muscles, you increase your blood pressure and you turn off everything that's not essential to surviving, such as digestion, growth and reproduction," he said. "You think more clearly, and certain aspects of learning and memory are enhanced. All of that is spectacularly adapted if you're dealing with an acute physical stressor--a real one."

But non-life-threatening stressors, such as constantly worrying about money or pleasing your boss, also trigger the release of adrenalin and other stress hormones, which, over time, can have devastating consequences to your health, he said: "If you turn on the stress response chronically for purely psychological reasons, you increase your risk of adult onset diabetes and high blood pressure. If you're chronically shutting down the digestive system, there's a bunch of gastrointestinal disorders you're more at risk for as well."

In children, the continual release of glucocorticoids can suppress the secretion of normal growth hormones. "There's actually a syndrome called stress dwarfism in kids who are so psychologically stressed that growth is markedly impaired," Sapolsky said.

Studies show that long-term stress also suppresses the immune system, making you more susceptible to infectious diseases, and can even shut down reproduction by causing erectile dysfunction and disrupting menstrual cycles.

"Furthermore, if you're chronically stressed, all sorts of aspects of brain function are impaired, including, at an extreme, making it harder for some neurons to survive neurological insults," Sapolsky added. "Also, neurons in the parts of the brain relating to learning, memory and judgment don't function as well under stress. That particular piece is what my lab has spent the last 20 years on."

The bottom line, according to Sapolsky: "If you plan to get stressed like a normal mammal, you had better turn on the stress response or else you're dead. But if you get chronically, psychosocially stressed, like a Westernized human, then you are more at risk for heart disease and some of the other leading causes of death in Westernized life."

Baboon studies

In addition to numerous scientific papers about stress, Sapolsky has written four popular books on the subject--Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, The Trouble with Testosterone, A Primate's Memoir and Monkeyluv. Many of his insights are based on his 30-year field study of wild African baboons, highly social primates that are close relatives of Homo sapiens. Each year, he and his assistants follow troops of baboons in Kenya to gather behavioral and physiological data on individual members, including blood samples, tissue biopsies and electrocardiograms.

"We've found that baboons have diseases that other social mammals generally don't have," Sapolsky said. "If you're a gazelle, you don't have a very complex emotional life, despite being a social species. But primates are just smart enough that they can think their bodies into working differently. It's not until you get to primates that you get things that look like depression."

The same may be true for elephants, whales and other highly intelligent mammals that have complex emotional lives, he added.

"The reason baboons are such good models is, like us, they don't have real stressors," he said. "If you live in a baboon troop in the Serengeti, you only have to work three hours a day for your calories, and predators don't mess with you much. What that means is you've got nine hours of free time every day to devote to generating psychological stress toward other animals in your troop. So the baboon is a wonderful model for living well enough and long enough to pay the price for all the social-stressor nonsense that they create for each other. They're just like us: They're not getting done in by predators and famines, they're getting done in by each other."

It turns out that unhealthy baboons, like unhealthy people, often have elevated resting levels of stress hormones. "Their reproductive system doesn't work as well, their wounds heal more slowly, they have elevated blood pressure and the anti-anxiety chemicals in their brain, which have a structural similarity to Valium, work differently," Sapolsky said. "So they're not in great shape."

Among the most susceptible to stress are low-ranking baboons and type A individuals. "Type A baboons are the ones who see stressors that other animals don't," Sapolsky said. "For example, having your worst rival taking a nap 100 yards away gets you agitated."

But when it comes to stress-related diseases, social isolation may play an even more significant role than social rank or personality. "Up until 15 years ago, the most striking thing we found was that, if you're a baboon, you don't want to be low ranking, because your health is going to be lousy," he explained. "But what has become far clearer, and probably took a decade's worth of data, is the recognition that protection from stress-related disease is most powerfully grounded in social connectedness, and that's far more important than rank."

Coping with stress

What can baboons teach humans about coping with all the stress-inducing psychosocial nonsense we encounter in our daily lives?

"Ideally, we have a lot more behavioral flexibility than the baboon," Sapolsky said, adding that, unlike baboons, humans can overcome their low social status and isolation by belonging to multiple hierarchies.

"We are capable of social supports that no other primate can even dream of," he said. "For example, I might say, 'This job, where I'm a lowly mailroom clerk, really doesn't matter. What really matters is that I'm the captain of my softball team or deacon of my church'--that sort of thing. It's not just somebody sitting here, grooming you with their own hands. We can actually feel comfort from the discovery that somebody on the other side of the planet is going through the same experience we are and feel, I'm not alone. We can even take comfort reading about a fictional character, and there's no primate out there that can feel better in life just by listening to Beethoven. So the range of supports that we're capable of is extraordinary."

But many of the qualities that make us human also can induce stress, he noted. "We can be pained or empathetic about somebody in Darfur," he said. "We can be pained by some movie character that something terrible happens to that doesn't even exist. We could be made to feel inadequate by seeing Bill Gates on the news at night, and we've never even been in the same village as him or seen our goats next to his. So the realm of space and time that we can extend our emotions means that there are a whole lot more abstract things that can make us feel stressed."

Pursuit of happiness

The Founding Fathers probably weren't thinking about health when they declared the pursuit of happiness to be an inalienable right, but when it comes to understanding the importance of a stress-free life, they may have been ahead of their time.

"When you get to Westernized humans, it's only in the last century or two that our health problems have become ones of chronic lifestyle issues," Sapolsky said. "It's only 10,000 years or so that most humans have been living in high-density settlements--a world of strangers jostling and psychologically stressing each other. But being able to live long enough to get heart disease, that's a fairly new world."

According to Sapolsky, happiness and self-esteem are important factors in reducing stress. Yet the definition of "happiness" has less to do with material comfort than Westerners might assume, he noted: "An extraordinary finding that's been replicated over and over is that once you get past the 25 percent or so poorest countries on Earth, where the only question is survival and subsistence, there is no relationship between gross national product, per capita income, any of those things, and levels of happiness."

Surveys show that in Greece, for example, one of Western Europe's poorest countries, people are much happier than in the United States, the world's richest nation. And while Greece is ranked number 30 in life expectancy, the United States--with the biggest per capita expenditure on medical care--is only slighter higher, coming in at 29.

"The United States has the biggest discrepancy in health and longevity between our wealthiest and our poorest of any country on Earth," Sapolsky noted. "We're also ranked way up in stress-related diseases."

Japan is number one in life expectancy, largely because of its extremely supportive social network, according to Sapolsky. He cited similar findings in the United States. "Two of the healthiest states are Vermont and Utah, while two of the unhealthiest are Nevada and New Hampshire," he noted. "Vermont is a much more left-leaning state in terms of its social support systems, while its neighbor New Hampshire prides itself on no income tax and go it alone. In Utah, the Mormon church provides extended social support, explanations for why things are and structure. You can't ask for more than that. And next door is Nevada, where people are keeling over dead from all of their excesses. It's very interesting."

Typically, observant Mormons and other religious people are less likely to smoke and drink, he noted. "But once you control for that, religiosity in and of itself is good for your health in some ways, although less than some of its advocates would have you believe," Sapolsky said. "It infuriates me, because I'm an atheist, so it makes me absolutely crazy, but it makes perfect sense. If you have come up with a system that not only tells you why things are but is capped off with certain knowledge that some thing or things respond preferentially to you, you're filling a whole lot of pieces there--gaining some predictability, attribution, social support and control over the scariest realms of our lives."

New research

From a neuroscience perspective, Sapolsky pointed to several exciting new areas of research. "It's becoming clear that in the hippocampus, the part of the brain most susceptible to stress hormones, you see atrophy in people with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression," he said. "There's a ton of very exciting, very contentious work as to whether stress is causing that part of the brain to atrophy, and if so, is it reversible. Or does having a small hippocampus make you more vulnerable to stress-related traumas? There's evidence for both sides."

He also cited new studies suggesting that chronic stress causes DNA to age faster. "Over time, the ends of your chromosomes fray, and as they fray your DNA stops working as well, and eventually that could wind up doing in the cell," he said. "There are now studies showing that chromosomal DNA aging accelerates in young, healthy humans who experience something incredibly psychologically stressful. That's a huge finding."

According to Sapolsky, the most important new area of neuroscience research may be the effort to understand differences in the way individuals respond to stress. "This gets you into the realm of why do some people see stressors that other people don't, and why, in the face of something that is undeniably a stressor to everybody, do some people do so much worse than others?" he said. "Genes, no doubt, have something to do with it, but not all that much. However, there is evidence about development beginning with fetal life--prenatal stress, stress hormones from the mom getting through fetal circulation--having all sorts of long-term effects.

"We're now about 70 years into thinking that sustained stress can do bad things to your health. The biggest challenge for the next 70 years is figuring out why some of us are so much more vulnerable than others."

In the meantime, Sapolsky suggested that people do whatever they can to reduce stress in their daily lives. "Try stress management, change your priorities or go into therapy," he said. "It takes work. Some people clearly never can overcome it. But the same things that make us smart enough to generate the kind of psychological stress that's unheard of in other primates can be the same things that can protect us. We are malleable."

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Professor Robert Sapolsky delivered the topical lecture, "Stress, Health and Coping," at the AAAS annual meeting.

RELEVANT WEB URLS:
ROBERT SAPOLSKY WEB PAGE

STANFORD REPORT: GENE THERAPY
Contact: Mark Shwartz
Stanford University

Don't Advertise During Sexy Programmes - The Viewer Won't Remember

2007-04-15T06:35:00.001-07:00

People are less able to recall the brand of products advertised during programmes with a lot of sexual content, than if the advert is placed in similar programme that has no sexual content.

This was the key message that came from research carried out at the Department of Psychology at University College London by Ellie Parker and Adrian Furnham. The research is published in this month's edition of Applied Cognitive Psychology.

The implication is that advertisers do not spend their money well if they buy space during programmes with high sexual content.

A second, less surprising, finding was that men recalled the brand of products whose adverts contained sexual images, than they did if the adverts were sex-free. Women on the other hand were actively put off by sexual content in adverts.

The studies involved 60 university students (30 men and 30 women) aged 18 to 31, mean age 21, who were divided into four groups. One group saw an overtly sexual episode of "Sex and The City", which had sexy adverts running during the programme breaks. Another saw the same episode with non-sexual adverts. The other two groups saw an episode of "Malcolm in the Middle" which contained no sexual references, with either sexual or non-sexual adverts.

"The fact that recall of adverts was hindered by sexual content in the programmes suggests that there is something particularly involving or disturbing about sexual programmes. Interestingly this is something that is also found in programmes with aggressive content," says Furnham.

"Sex seems to have a detrimental effect on females recall for an advertisement," says Parker. "Sex is only a useful advertising tool when selling to men."

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Contact: Julia Lampam
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Is TV Harming Our Children's Health?

2007-03-07T08:40:00.001-08:00

Research Paper Examines Depression In Three Cities In Pakistan

2007-03-07T08:36:00.001-08:00

Alternative Treatments For Depression: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) May Improve Mood, But Awaits FDA Approval

2007-03-07T07:41:00.001-08:00

Value Of Schizophrenia-Related Gene Variation

2007-03-07T07:36:00.001-08:00

Physiologic Measurements Suggest Biologic Component To Feelings Of Empathic Connection

2007-03-07T06:38:00.000-08:00

Boosting Brain Power With Chocolate

2007-03-07T06:35:00.001-08:00

Germany & Portugal Come Near Bottom Of New Blood Pressure Based Happiness League

2007-03-07T05:39:00.001-08:00

Surgeons With Video Game Skill Appear To Perform Better In Simulated Surgery Skills Course

2007-03-07T05:35:00.001-08:00

Psychiatric And Neurologic Conditions May Underlie Many Cases Of Chronic Dizziness

2007-03-07T04:39:00.001-08:00

Study Links Attempted Suicide With Genetic Evidence Identified In Previous Suicide Research

2007-03-07T04:35:00.001-08:00

North Carolina Mental Health Officials Cap Admissions At State Psychiatric Hospitals

2007-03-07T03:39:00.001-08:00

Geting The Facts Straight In Statistical Psychological Research

2007-03-07T03:35:00.001-08:00

Sexualization Of Girls In The Media Is Harmful

2007-03-07T02:42:00.001-08:00

Rewarding Fat Rats

2007-03-07T02:39:00.001-08:00

Fixed Versus Growth Intelligence Mindsets

2007-03-05T08:31:00.001-08:00

ADHD Drug Makers To Notify Patients About Health Risks

2007-03-05T08:22:00.001-08:00

Highly Accomplished People More Prone To Failure Than Others When Under Stress

2007-03-05T07:36:00.001-08:00