"You Say it's Liking, I Say it's Wanting …". On the difficulty of disentangling food reward in man

According to the influential theory of [Berridge, 1996] and [Berridge, 2009], food reward comprises two components: food ‘liking’ and ‘wanting’, with ‘liking’ referring to the pleasure derived from eating a given food and ‘wanting’ referring to appetitive motivation. Animal research shows that these two components have separate neural correlates. In examining reward driven eating in man, researchers have thus begun to develop interest in indicators of ‘liking’ and ‘wanting’. But validating ‘liking’ and ‘wanting’ requires the dissociation of these components when theory dictates they should diverge. One such circumstance is neural sensitization as this leads to exaggerated ‘wanting’ without increased ‘liking’. However, there are no data suggesting that such sensitization is the likely result of (over)eating. Without sensitization, one cannot determine whether task performance is indicative of true food ‘liking’ or ‘wanting’. It is concluded that it is important to assess appetite and palatability in the study of reward driven eating, but determining whether these measurements reflect either food ‘wanting’ or food ‘liking’ is not.     

Healthcare… it's out there!

Ensuring that all Australians have access to high quality healthcare has been a longstanding passion for me. Indeed, it is a driving concern for the majority of general practitioners I know. Taking maternity leave from my clinical work has given me the mental space to wonder if my clinical practice adequately reflects these beliefs. When we're all swamped helping 'our' patients (the ones that turn up at least sometimes) it's hard to fathom making policy or practice changes to try to attract in those 'others'; the people that choose not to be patients; the ones that can't, won't or simply don't access general practice.     

... And nursing in the 21st century?

The failure of Descartes' system and the new world-wide context are aspects that point to a crises of current paradigms. This crises triggers the need of reconsidering philosophical and scientific models, as well as the trends guiding the professional practices and relationships. This study reflects about the tendencies that will lead the nursing practices in the twentieth-first century and the consequences of the care practice under new paradigms.     

‘They think it's all up to the girls’: gender,risk and responsibility for contraception

Much research suggests that attitudes towards responsibility for use of contraception amongst young people are strongly gendered. However, decision making, if ‘decisions’ happen at all, is bound up with notions of hegemonic masculine and feminine roles as well as factors concerning relationship status. Data from two earlier qualitative studies were re-analysed with an emphasis on findings related to gender and responsibility for use of contraception. The first study investigated unintended conceptions amongst 16–20-year-old women. Interviews focused on knowledge and views about contraception, sex education and sexual health services. The second study involved focus groups with two groups of 14–18-year-old men to explore their views on sex education, sexual health and contraception. Almost all the young women said that young men viewed contraception as ‘not their job’. In contrast, the young men thought that responsibility should be shared. The key issue, however, related to relationship status, with decision-making being shared in long-term relationships. There are some gender differences in accounting for decisions about use of contraception, however the key issue revolves around relationship status.