Attachment,depression, and cortisol: Deviant patterns in insecure‐resistant and disorganized infants

Both attachment insecurity and maternal depression are thought to affect infants' emotional and physiological regulation. In the current study, Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) attachment classifications, and cortisol stress reactivity and diurnal rhythm were assessed at 14 months in a prospective cohort study of 369 mother–infant dyads. Maternal lifetime depression was diagnosed prenatally using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). Insecure‐resistant infants showed the largest increase in cortisol levels from pre‐ to post‐SSP; the effect was even stronger when they had depressive mothers. Disorganized children showed a more flattened diurnal cortisol pattern compared to nondisorganized children. Findings are discussed from the perspective of a cumulative risk model. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 52: 441–452, 2010.     

A Multi-Site Qualitative Study Examining Pharmacy Student Perspectives on the Opioid Crisis

Objective. To determine pharmacy students’ perspectives regarding opioid use, the opioid crisis, and pharmacy education related to both topics.Methods. Students from each professional year at eight participating schools and colleges of pharmacy were invited to participate in focus groups and answer questions about their experiences with the opioid crisis. Faculty and/or staff moderated the focus groups and audio-recorded responses. Recordings were deidentified, transcribed, and analyzed.Results. One hundred fifty students participated in one of 29 focus groups conducted. Responses were categorized according to themes using consensual qualitative research (CQR) methodology. Sources impacting student views on the crisis included school, personal and work experience, and media. Perspective changes since starting school included increased knowledge and awareness and decreased bias/stigma.Conclusion. Conducting focus groups on the opioid crisis provided pharmacy schools with information on what student pharmacists are learning about the crisis, practices they see, and their recommendations to address the crisis. Pharmacy schools can better prepare students to combat the opioid crisis by providing them with training in opioid counseling, use of naloxone, and how to have difficult conversations with patients.     

A multivariate score objectively assessed health of depressed elderly

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The self-report health measures commonly used may be biased in depressed persons. We introduce a method to assess physical health objectively in prospective studies of elderly persons. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses in the Rotterdam Study, a population-based cohort. Under the assumption that good health is related to survival, all baseline variables independently associated with mortality were included in a global health index. A multivariate score function for this index was derived from a Cox proportional hazard model. RESULTS: Information on risk factors, disabilities, medical conditions, and physiologic measurements was combined into one score. This made it possible to compare the health of persons with depression to those with other diseases. Physical health of persons with depression and stroke was equally poor. Furthermore, in persons with established depression, worse health was related to more severe symptoms. Finally, we found that the association between an inflammation marker and depression is modified by health status as measured by our index. CONCLUSION: Late-life depression is strongly associated with poor health as measured by an objective global health index. The index makes it possible to quantify health and to study potential etiological risk factors for depression in health strata.     

Neuroanatomical localisation and clinical correlates of white matter lesions in the elderly

BACKGROUND: White matter lesions (WML) in elderly people co-occur with hypertension, depression, and cognitive impairment. Little is known about the density and distribution of WML in normal elderly people, whether they occur randomly in the aging brain or tend to cluster in certain areas, or whether patterns of WML aggregation are linked to clinical symptoms. OBJECTIVES: To describe patterns of WML distribution in a large representative population of elderly people using non-inferential cluster analysis; and to determine the extent to which such patterns are associated with clinical symptomatology. METHOD: A population sample of 1077 elderly people was recruited. Multiple analysis of correspondence followed by automatic classification methods was used to explore overall patterns of WML distribution. Correspondence was then sought between these patterns and a range of cerebrovascular, psychiatric, and neurological symptoms. RESULTS: Three distinct patterns of spatial localisation within the brain were observed, corresponding to distinct clusters of clinical symptoms. In particular WML aggregation in temporal and occipital areas was associated with greater age, hypertension, late onset depressive disorder, poor global cognitive function, and overall WML frequency. CONCLUSIONS: WML localisation is not random in the aging brain, and their distribution is associated with age and the presence of clinical symptoms. Age differences suggest there may be patterns of progression across time; however, this requires confirmation from longitudinal imaging studies.     

The intervening sequence of a mouse beta-globin gene is transcribed within the 15S beta-globin mRNA precursor.

Mouse beta-globin in encoded in a discontinuous structural gene interrupted by a 550-base pair intervening sequence of DNA. Correspondingly, the mature beta-globin mRNA appears to be synthesized via a 15S precursor, the length of which roughly equals the total length of the coding and intervening sequences of the beta-globin gene. Using the electron microscope to visualize hybrid structures formed between this gene and the purified 15S beta-globin mRNA precursor, we show that the intervening sequence is present within the larger precursor molecule. This finding suggests that the precursor mRNA is processed through the removal and rejoining of internal RNA sequences.