Hypothalamic knife cuts dissociate maternal behaviors, sexual receptivity, and estrous cyclicity in female hamsters

Female hamsters were tested for their response to pups as virgins, then received sagittal cuts either lateral to the medial preoptic area-medial anterior hypothalamus (anterior cuts) or lateral to the medial anterior hypothalamus-ventromedial nucleus (posterior cuts). Postoperatively females were tested: (a) as virgins, for changes in pup retrieval and cannibalism, (b) for mating behavior, (c) for maternal care and cannibalism of their own pups, and (d) for object hoarding. Anterior cuts converted retrieving virgins to cannibalistic ones and reduced nest builing. All females with anterior cuts cannibalized their litters within a few days of parturition. Half of these females did retrieve pups in home cage tests during the first 3 days postpartum. However, unlike controls, when tested in a neutral arena 5–6 weeks later, no pup retrieval was seen, although most would hoard objects. In contrast, posterior cuts reduced pup retrieval and cannibalism in virgins, and disrupted object hoarding. These cuts did not reduce postpartum pup retrieval, but did reduce postpartum cannibalism. Anterior cuts did not reduce sexual receptivity; posterior cuts reduced sexual receptivity without eliminating ovulation. Anterior cuts are interpreted as having a somewhat selective effect of reducing maternal responsiveness by cutting the lateral connections of neurons in the medial anterior hypothalamus and adjacent medial preoptic area, while posterior cuts disrupt sexual receptivity by cutting lateral connections of the ventromedial hypothalamus which travel in the region of the supraoptic commissures     

Centrally and peripherally induced anosmia: influences on maternal behavior in lactating female rats.

Bilateral removal of the olfactory bulbs was found to produce deficits in several components of the maternal behavior of lactating, primiparous female rats. More dead pups were found in the cages of bilaterally bulbectomized females shortly after parturition than in the cages of unilaterally bulbectomized, sham operated, or unoperated females. Futhermore, bilaterally bulbectomized females showed deficits in pup retrieval relative to females in the other surgical conditions, and pups reared by bilaterally bulbectomized females weighed less at weaning than pups reared by females in the other surgical conditions. In contrast to bilateral bulbecomy, zinc sulphate treatments had no influence on pup mortality at parturition. However, zinc sulphate treated females did exhibit deficits in pup retrieval relative to saline treated females.     

武警指挥院校大学生应对方式与心理健康的相关性

目的 本研究旨在掌握武警指挥院校大学生的应对方式特点及心理健康状况,并进一步分析不同生源大学生的心理健康水平,探讨应对方式和心理健康的关系,以便为武警指挥院校的心理卫生工作提供重要的理论和实践依据.方法 运用应竹方式量表和症状自评量表(SCL-90)对3所武警指挥院校的1115名在校学员进行心理健康水平和应对方式的评估.结果 ①武警指挥院校大学生与国内军校大学生常模比较,其心理状况较好;战士入校学员心理健康状况优于地方生入校学员.②武警指挥院校大学生在面对挫折时,以主动解决问题为主;学员采取的应对方式特点与其心理健康水平有一定的关系.结论 武警指挥院校应重点加强地方生入校学员的心理健康教育,以提高其心理健康水平,使其更好地适应警校生活.     

Impact of Parental Health Problems on Children: Concepts, Methods, and Unanswered Questions

Described conceptual and methodological issues that arise inthe design and analysis of data from studies of the impact ofparental health problems on children. Researchers should considerhow the functional effects, duration, and type of exposure ofparental health problems affect children's psychological experience.Multiple pathways (e.g., parental modeling, family socializationpractices, and genetic factors) that affect the transmissionof psychological and/or health risk to children need to be considered.Important methodological issues in this area of research includesample selection and bias, confounding factors, and limitedassessment of family influences. Future work should identifyfactors that enhance child and family resilience to the effectsof parental health problems. Studies are also needed to developand test interventions to reduce the psychological morbidityassociated with parental health problems.     

Fine particulate matter exposure during pregnancy and infancy and incident asthma

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警察的孤独感状况及其相关因素分析

目的：探讨警察的孤独感状况及其与心理健康、应对方式、社会支持的相关关系。方法：采用UCLA孤独量表，SCL-90症状自评量表，TCSQ特质应对方式问卷和PsSS领悟社会支持量表。对某市区公安分局884名公安干警进行调查。结果：派出所警察的孤独感明显高于机关干警。50—59岁组警察的孤独感明显低于其他年龄段。警察的孤独感与警种、积极应对、社会支持显著负相关，与消极应对及SCL-90得分显著正相关。年龄、婚姻状况、应对方式、社会支持以及SCL-90总分是影响警察孤独感的显著因素。结论：警察的孤独感程度较高。50岁以下的派出所民警，尤其是婚姻不稳定者是孤独敏感群体。警察的孤独感与应对方式、社会支持及心理健康水平相互影响。     

Delay between pregnancy confirmation and sickle cell and [corrected] thalassaemia screening: a population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Antenatal sickle cell and thalassaemia screening sometimes occurs too late to allow couples a choice regarding termination of affected fetuses. The target gestational age for offering the test in the UK is 10 weeks. AIM: To describe the proportion of women screened before 70 days' (10 weeks') gestation and the delay between pregnancy confirmation in primary care and antenatal sickle cell and thalassaemia screening. DESIGN OF STUDY: Cohort study of reported pregnancies. SETTING: Twenty-five general practices in two UK inner-city primary care trusts offering universal screening. METHOD: Anonymised data on all pregnancies reported to participating general practices was collected for a minimum of 6 months. RESULTS: There were 1441 eligible women intending to proceed with their pregnancies, whose carrier status was not known. The median (interquartile range [IQR]) gestational age at pregnancy confirmation was 7.6 weeks (6.0-10.7 weeks) and 74% presented before 10 weeks. The median gestational age at screening was 15.3 weeks (IQR = 12.6-18.0 weeks), with only 4.4% being screened before 10 weeks. The median delay between pregnancy confirmation and screening was 6.9 weeks (4.7-9.3 weeks) After allowing for practice level variation, there was no association between delay times and maternal age, parity, and ethnic group. CONCLUSION: About 74% of women consulted for pregnancy before 10 weeks' gestation but fewer than 5% of women were screened before the target time of 10 weeks. Reducing the considerable delay between pregnancy confirmation in primary care and antenatal sickle cell and thalassaemia screening requires methods of organising and delivering antenatal care that facilitate earlier screening to be developed and evaluated.     

Involving the patient: a prospective study on use, appreciation and effectiveness of an information system in head and neck cancer care

OBJECTIVE: To determine use, appreciation and effectiveness of an electronic health information support system in head and neck (H&N) cancer care. DESIGN: A prospective evaluation study. The evaluated system has four different functions: (1) communication amongst health care providers and between health care providers and patients, (2) information for health care providers and patients, (3) contact with fellow sufferers and (4) monitoring of discharged patients by means of electronic questionnaires. Evaluation of the system was done both objectively using automatically created log files and stored messages, and subjectively by using paper questionnaires from patients and general practitioners (GPs). SETTING: Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery of a tertiary health care centre in the Netherlands. The system was put at patients' disposal for a period of 6 weeks following discharge from the hospital after surgery for H&N cancer, and was additional to standard care. PARTICIPANTS: Head and neck cancer patients, hospital physicians, members of a hospital-based support team, GPs, district nurses and speech therapists. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Actual use of the system by patients and health care providers. Patients' appreciation for each of the system's four different functions. GPs' appreciation for the system. Capability to detect potential patient problems with the system. RESULTS: The system was used by 36 H&N cancer patients, 10 hospital physicians, 2 members of the support team, 8 GPs, 2 district nurses and 2 speech therapists. The total number of patient-sessions was 982: an average of 27.3 sessions per patient during the 6 weeks study period. In total, 456 monitoring questionnaires were completed. The support team in hospital responded with 231 actions. In 16 cases, an extra appointment was made for a patient with the hospital physician. Out of these cases, immediate action was considered necessary eight times. Patients appreciated the system highly, rating it with an average score of 8.0 on a 10-point scale. All patients used the monitoring function, and rated 'monitoring' with a mean score of 8.0 on a 10-point scale. Least used and appreciated was the 'contact with fellow sufferers' function. Only 8 out of possible 36 GPs used the system, rating it with an average of 5.6 on a 10-point scale. CONCLUSIONS: The electronic health information support system was used intensively and highly appreciated by H&N cancer patients. The system enabled the early detection of occurring health problems that required direct intervention. ICT can play an additional role in the management of patients, also in a relatively elderly and computer illiterate patient population.     

The Effect of Telephone-Administered Psychotherapy on Symptoms of Depression and Attrition: A Meta-Analysis

Increasingly, the telephone is being used to deliver psychotherapy for depression, in part as a means to reduce barriers to treatment. Twelve trials of telephone-administered psychotherapies, in which depressive symptoms were assessed, were included. There was a significant reduction in depressive symptoms for patients enrolled in telephone-administered psychotherapy as compared to control conditions ( d  = 0.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.14–0.39, p  < .0001). There was also a significant reduction in depressive symptoms in analyses of pretreatment to posttreatment change ( d  = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.50–1.13, p  < .0001). The mean attrition rate was 7.56% (95% CI = 4.23–10.90). These findings suggest that telephone-administered psychotherapy can produce significant reductions in depressive symptoms. Attrition rates were considerably lower than rates reported in face-to-face psychotherapy.     

Maternal behavior in the rat: aspects of concaveation and neonatal androgen treatment

Evidence is presented to show that maternal responsiveness of lactating females differs from concaveation-induced maternal responsiveness of gonadectomized male and female rats of the Long-Evans strain. When rat pups were placed in a runway extension of the home cage lactating females retrieved the pups to a significantly greater degree than did the concaveation treated animals. The present experiment failed to show significant differences in concaveation-induced maternal responsiveness in gonadectomized males, females and neonatally androgenized females.