Intimate partner violence among women veterans by sexual orientation

National estimates suggest intimate partner violence (IPV) rates are equal or higher among lesbian, bisexual, or questioning (LBQ)-identified women than heterosexual-identified women. Women veterans are a population at high risk for IPV, yet the occurrence of lifetime and past-year IPV experiences by sexual orientation have not been examined in this population. Lifetime and past-year IPV experiences and current IPV-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms were assessed with validated screening measures as part of a 2014 web-based national survey of women veterans. Among 403 respondents, 9.7% (n = 39) identified as LBQ, and 90.3% (n = 364) identified as heterosexual. When controlling for age, LBQ-identified women veterans were significantly more likely to report lifetime sexual and physical IPV and lifetime intimate partner stalking. In the past year, LBQ-identified veterans were twice as likely to endorse emotional mistreatment and physical IPV, and three times more likely to endorse sexual IPV, than were heterosexual-identified women veterans. However, sexual orientation was unrelated to IPV-related PTSD symptoms, when controlling for age, race, and number IPV forms experienced. IPV is prevalent among LBQ-identified women veterans, suggesting the need to understand the potentially unique contextual factors and health-care needs of this group.     

Menkes Disease Mimicking Child Abuse

Althouygh Menkes disease has well‐recognized neurologic, developmental, and cutaneous features, the initial presentation may resemble child abuse. We describe a 5‐month‐old boy with multiple fractures indicative of nonaccidental trauma who was ultimately diagnosed with Menkes disease. Copper deficiency leads to connective tissue abnormalities and may result in subdural hematomas, wormian bones, cervical spine defects, rib fractures, and spurring of the long bone metaphyses. Several of these findings, including fractures and subdural hematomas, may be misinterpreted as child abuse.     

Reproductive health of male Australian veterans of the 1991 Gulf War

Background  

Since the 1991 Gulf War concerns have been raised about the effects of deployment to the Gulf War on veterans' health. Studies of the reproductive health of Gulf War veterans have reported varied findings.     

Schema-focused cognitive therapy for bipolar disorder: reducing vulnerability to relapse through attitudinal change

OBJECTIVE: Acceptance of, and adaptability to illness, are major determinants of adherence to treatment and functional recovery. This paper addresses the major psychosocial factors associated with bipolar disorder and the role of psychological interventions in symptom management and adaptability to the illness experience. A new model is presented highlighting the role of developmental experiences and temperament in determining reactions to bipolar disorder. The authors propose that by addressing reactions to the illness experiences and effects on self-concept through schema-focused cognitive therapy, functional recovery is more likely to occur among those patients functioning below expectation. METHOD: A systematic review of the current literature including an Index Medicus/MEDLINE search was conducted, focusing on risk factors, cognitive vulnerabilities and triggers associated with bipolar disorder. Psychological treatments available for the treatment of bipolar disorder are reviewed and details of a novel schema-focused cognitive model for this condition are presented. Traditional models of adaptation to chronic illness are outlined and incorporated into the proposed model. Schema-focused cognitive therapy is proposed as an approach to help patients reduce cognitive vulnerability to relapse in addition to adopting effective mood management strategies. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for psychological treatments which reduce the risks associated with poor functionality in patients with bipolar disorder. Schema-focused cognitive therapy specifically targets the temperament, developmental experiences and cognitive vulnerabilities that determine adjustment to illness. This proposed treatment, combined with pharmacotherapy, may offer new psychotherapeutic options for the future.     

Variation in fat,lactose and protein in human milk over 24 h and throughout the first year of lactation

Fat in human milk is extremely variable and can represent up to 50 % of infant energy intake. To accurately determine milk composition and infant intake at 1 (n 17), 2 (n 17), 4 (n 17), 6 (n 15), 9 (n 6) and 12 (n 5) months of lactation, samples of fore- and hind-milk were collected from each breast at each feed over 24 h periods from an initial group of seventeen women. The content of fat in milk varied over 24 h, with a mean CV of 47.6 (se 2.1) % (n 76) and 46.7 (se 1.7) % (n 76) for left and right breasts respectively. The 24 h amounts of fat, lactose and protein in milk differed between women (P=0.0001), but were consistent between left and right breasts. Daily milk production differed between breasts (P=0.0001) and women (P=0.0001). Accordingly, amounts of fat (P=0.0008), lactose (P=0.0385) and protein (P=0.0173) delivered to the infant over 24 h also differed between breasts and women (P=0.0001). The energy content of milk and the amount of energy delivered to the infant over 24 h were the same between breasts, but differed between women (P=0.0001). The growth rate of a group of only six infants in the present study was not related to either the concentrations or amounts of fat, lactose, protein and energy in milk over the first 6 months of life. These results show the individuality of milk composition and suggest that only a rigorous sampling routine that takes into account all levels of variation will allow the accurate determination of infant intake of fat, lactose, protein and energy.     

Dietary oligofructose and inulin protect mice from enteric and systemic pathogens and tumor inducers

Prebiotics induce changes in the population and metabolic characteristics of the gastrointestinal bacteria, modulate enteric and systemic immune functions, and provide laboratory rodents with resistance to carcinogens that promote colorectal cancer. There is less known about protection from other challenges. Therefore, mice of the B6C3F1 strain were fed for 6 wk a control diet with 100 g/kg cellulose or one of two experimental diets with the cellulose replaced entirely by the nondigestible oligosaccharides (NDO) oligofructose and inulin. From each diet, 25 mice were challenged by a promoter of colorectal cancer (1,2-dimethylhydrazine), B16F10 tumor cells, the enteric pathogen Candida albicans (enterically), or were infected systemically with Listeria monocytogenes or Salmonella typhimurium. The incidences of aberrant crypt foci in the distal colon after exposure to dimethylhdrazine for mice fed inulin (53%) and oligofructose (54%) were lower than in control mice (76%; P < 0.05), but the fructans did not reduce the incidence of lung tumors after injection of the B16F10 tumor cells. Mice fed the diets with fructans had 50% lower densities of C. albicans in the small intestine (P < 0.05). A systemic infection with L. monocytogenes caused nearly 30% mortality among control mice, but none of the mice fed inulin died, with survival intermediate for mice fed oligofructose. Mortality was higher for the systemic infection of S. typhimurium (>80% for control mice), but fewer of the mice fed inulin died (60%; P < 0.05), with mice fed oligofructose again intermediate. The mechanistic basis for the increased resistance provided by dietary NDO was not elucidated, but the findings are consistent with enhanced immune functions in response to changes in the composition and metabolic characteristics of the bacteria resident in the gastrointestinal tract.     

Influence of plasminogen deficiency on the contribution of polymorphonuclear leucocytes to fibrin/ogenolysis: studies in plasminogen knock-out mice

Plasminogen knock-out (PG(-/-)) mice provide an unique opportunity for the study of alternative mediators of fibrinolysis. Polymorpho-nuclear leucocytes (PMNs) contain non-plasmin fibrinolytic proteases, however the degree to which these cells contribute to fibrin(ogen) degradation in these animals is not known. Thrombi were generated in carotid arteries and jugular veins of PG(-/-) and wild type (PG(+/+)) mice following adventitial application of a 20% ferric chloride solution. PMNs, identified histologically on H&E staining and by immunohistochemistry using anti-mouse PMN RB6-8C5 antibody, accumulated within the thrombus by 6 h after the injury and peaked at 24 h. There was significantly greater retention of PMNs within the thrombi of PG(-/-) mice from 48 to 72 h than in the PG(+/+) controls (at 72 h: PG(-/-)255 +/- 41 cell/mm(2) (n = 5), PG(+/+) 61 +/- 10 cell/mm(2) (n = 5), p<0.01 in the arterial thrombi; PG(-/-) 252 +/- 50 cell/mm(2) (n = 5), PG(+/+) 100 +/- 36 cell/mm(2) (n = 5), p<0.05 in the venous thrombi), providing potential for more PMN derived fibrinolytic enzymes to be present at late times after a thrombotic challenge in PG(-/-) mice relative to the PG(+/+) controls. Intact PMNs were elicited from the peritoneal cavities of PG(-/-) and PG(+/+) mice following 4% thioglycolate stimulation. In vitro studies showed PMNs from PG(-/-) mice to release greater quantities of 10% trichloroacetic acid (TCA)-soluble fibrinopeptides from I(125)-labeled fibrinogen, than cells from PG(+/+) controls although these differences did not become apparent until after 24 h of incubation (at 72 h incubation: PG(-/-) 918 n/10 x 10(6) cells/0.5 ml, PG(+/+) 589 ng/10 10(6) cells/0.5 ml p = 0.005). Furthermore, autoradiographic analysis of the I(125)-labeled fibrinogen degradation products showed the cleavage pattern by PG(-/-) PMNs to be distinct from that produced by PG(+/+) PMNs. These data suggest that a relatively greater role for PMNs-initiated fibrinolysis exists in the setting of plasminogen deficiency, although this prominence only becomes evident more than 24 h after the thrombotic insult. In addition, mechanisms responsible for the process in PG(-/-) mice may be distinct from those primarily responsible for the process in PMNs from PG(+/+) mice.