Psychological characteristics and physiological reactivity to acute stress in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder

Stress related to parenting a child with autism spectrum disorder can differently affect caregiver's physiological reactivity to acute stress. Here, parental stress levels, psychological characteristics, and coping strategies were assessed alongside measures of heart rate, heart rate variability, and cortisol during a psychosocial stress test in mothers of children with ASD (M‐ASD, n = 15) and mothers of typically developing children (n = 15). M‐ASD reported significantly higher levels of parental stress, anxiety, negative affectivity, social inhibition, and a larger preference for avoidance strategies. M‐ASD showed larger heart rate and cortisol responses to the psychosocial stress test. A positive relationship was found between parental stress levels and the magnitude of the cortisol stress response in both groups. The present findings indicate exaggerated physiological reactivity to acute psychosocial stress in M‐ASD and prompt further research to explore the role of individual differences in mediating the effects of parental stress on physiological stress responses.     

C.B‐17 SCID mice develop epicardial calcinosis with unaltered cardiac function

Inbred mouse strains are the most widely used mammalian model organism in biomedical research owing to ease of genetic manipulation and short lifespan; however, each inbred strain possesses a unique repertoire of deleterious homozygous alleles that can make a specific strain more susceptible to a particular disease. In the current study, we report dystrophic cardiac calcinosis (DCC) in C.B‐17 SCID male mice at 10 weeks of age with no significant change in cardiac function. Acquisition of DCC was characterized by myocardial injury, fibrosis, calcification, and necrosis of the tissue. At 10 weeks of age, 38% of the C.B‐17 SCID mice from two different commercial colonies exhibited significant calcinosis on the ventricular epicardium, predominantly on the right ventricle. The frequency of calcinosis was more than 50% for mice obtained from Taconic's Cambridge City colony and 25% for mice obtained from Taconic's German Town colony. Interestingly, the DCC phenotype did not affect cardiac function at 10 weeks of age. No differences in echocardiography or electrocardiography were observed between the calcinotic and non‐calcinotic mice from either colony. Our findings suggest that C.B‐17 SCID mice exhibit DCC as early as 10 weeks of age with no significant impact on cardiac function. This strain of mice should be cautiously considered for the study of cardiac physiology.     

Atención recibida al final de la vida en los servicios de urgencias desde la perspectiva de los cuidadores: estudio cualitativo

Objective

To discover the experiences of end-of-life patients attended by the emergency services, through the discourse of the family caregivers who accompanied the family member in this care transit.

The relationship between childhood maltreatment and psychopathology in adults undergoing bariatric surgery

Background

A history of childhood maltreatment and psychopathology are common in adults with obesity.