Supportive and Negative Responses in the Partner Relationship: Their Association with Psychological Adjustment Among Individuals with Cancer

This study examined the association between positive and negative aspects of spouse responses and psychological adjustment among 15S individuals with cancer. Two contextual variables, gender and disease-related functional impairment, were taken into account when examining the association between spouse responses and patient psychological distress and well-being. Results indicated that negative aspects of close relationships played a comparatively stronger role than positive aspects in their associations with both psychological distress and well-being. For negative spouse responses, patient gender did not moderate the effects of these responses upon psychological outcomes. For positive aspects of spouse support, both gender and functional disability moderated the association between spouse support and psychological outcomes. These findings are integrated with the general literature on positive and negative aspects of close relationships. Implications for clinical interventions are also discussed.     

Physical attractiveness of boys with gender identity disorder

University students blind to group status rated boys with gender identity disorder and clinical control boys regarding their physical attractiveness. Ratings were made of the face and upper torso from photographs taken at the time of clinical assessment ( age, 8.1 years). On all five adjectives (attractive, beautiful, cute, handsome, and pretty), boys with gender identity disorder were judged to be more attractive than were the clinical control boys. Attractiveness correlated with extent of behavioral femininity in the clinical control group, but not in the group of boys with gender identity disorder. The extent to which the group differences in attractiveness were due to objective, structural differences in facial attractiveness vs. socially created, or subjective, processes is discussed.A version of this article was presented at the meeting of the International Academy of Sex Research, Sigtuna, Sweden, August 1990.     

Benzodiazepine binding sites in alcoholic cirrhotics: evidence for gender differences

Synaptic plasma membranes were prepared from superior frontal gyrus and motor cortex obtained at autopsy from 17 chronic alcoholics not differentiated on thiamine status, of whom 8 had pathologically confirmed cirrhosis of the liver, and 10 controls. Three of the cirrhotic alcoholic cases were female, as was one control. Cases were closely matched for age at death and post-mortem delay. The affinity of central-type benzodiazepine sites for [³H]diazepam tended to be lower in both brain regions of both groups of alcoholics ofcf controls, but the reverse was true for [³H]flunitrazepam, especially in cirrhotic cases. [³H]Diazepam affinity was invariant across all males and the female control, but lower in the female cirrhotic alcoholics. Affinity for [³H]flunitrazepam tended to be the reverse of that for [³H]diazepam. [³H]Diazepam B_max was markedly lower in female cirrhotic alcoholics, especially in superior frontal gyrus, whereas this region showed a much higher B_max in the female control case. A small regional difference in [³H]flunitrazepam B_max was the reverse of that for [³H]diazepam B_max and was seen in all groups. GABA-mediated neurotransmission may be selectively altered in a pathologically abnormal region of cerebral cortex in cirrhotic alcoholics, and the sexes may show differing susceptibilities to change.     

Gynopia in nursing practice: the case of urethral catheterization

• ? A pilot study of catheterized women was designed to investigate their perceptions of pain and discomfort during the procedure.
• ? The study aimed to test the feasibility of conducting a larger randomized controlled trial.
• ? Problems were encountered during the execution of the study, due to the need to conform to established principles in clinical research.
• ? Restrictions on access to patients impinged upon the opportunity to ‘cast the net wide’ in order to generate meaningful data.

     

Sleep, age, and shiftwork experience

The effects of age and shiftwork experience (never, past, present) on sleep were studied in a sample of 3236 wage earners and retired workers by means of a questionnaire. The sample was composed of 32-, 42-, 52-, and 62-year-old subjects, and included both sexes and various occupational statuses. Age resulted in a continuously increasing frequency of sleep disturbances and hypnotic use, except for difficulty getting back to sleep and early awakening, which peaked at 52 years and then decreased at 62 years, thus suggesting a 'retirement effect'. Current and past shiftworkers reported more problems with falling asleep and early awakening than subjects who had never worked on shifts. This is a likely explanation of why the effect of age was massive in the latter group and much less pronounced in the former groups. There were no clear effects of the length or recency of shiftwork experience. This finding does not support the hypothesized permanent effect of shiftwork experience on subsequent sleep. Females had higher complaint rates at every age. There was little interaction between age and sex, but women were affected more by shiftwork as they got older, particularly as to hypnotic consumption. Some of the results support the hypothesis that a selection process excludes workers who are no longer able to cope with the demands of shiftwork.     

Pharmacokinetics of eltanolone in male and female patients following intravenous bolus injection

BACKGROUND: The pharmacokinetics of the steroid anesthetic eltanolone have been studied in male volunteers. However, steroids may exhibit gender-related differences in pharmacokinetics and surgery may alter drug disposition. METHODS: Male (n = 12) and female (n = 9) ASA 1-2 patients (age 26-45 yrs) undergoing discectomy with microsurgical technique were included. Anesthesia was induced with eltanolone 0.75 mg/kg and maintained with nitrous oxide, fentanyl and atracurium. Venous blood was sampled for up to 12 h and analyzed for eltanolone and its major metabolites. RESULTS: Induction was smooth and anesthesia uneventful, except that five cases developed a mild transient erythema. Loss of verbal contact occurred within 20-60 s. Pharmacokinetics in one person deviated significantly from the rest of the subjects. No difference between groups with respect to the primary outcome variable noncompartmental clearance (Cl, 1/min) 1.7 vs 1.6, was found. However, the volume of distribution at steady state (Vss, 1/kg) was larger in women (3.1) compared to men (1.3). The pharmacokinetics followed a three-compartment model. The half-lives (min) of the alpha, beta and gamma phases (men vs women, medians) were 1.5 vs 2.2, 42 vs 40 and 222 vs 360, respectively. Area under the curve (AUC, min microgram/l) was 39,810 vs 34,905. Context-sensitive modelling indicated that it may take 10 min more for women than men to recover from an eltanolone infusion of 2 h duration. CONCLUSION: The gender-related differences in the pharmacokinetics of eltanolone were small, and of little clinical significance for induction of anesthesia with eltanolone.     

Men's issues: gender role conflict and substance abuse

The present paper aims to explore issues related to men within the context of seeking help for substance abuse. The male gender role is in conflict with help-seeking behaviour and with the fundamental principles of therapy, i.e. introspection, emotional expressivity and acknowledgement of difficulties. This creates a paradox for the male seeking psychological treatment and, it will be argued, particularly for the male substance abuser. It is argued that interventions which address the gender role and challenge men's perceptions of themselves are critical variables in the outcome of therapy, i.e. enabling them to make the necessary changes in order to promote psychological well-being. An examination of the male gender role in relation to intrapsychic issues and family systems will be followed by a brief discussion of therapeutic interventions. Some of the difficulties and issues confronted by workers who work with male substance abusers will be explored.     

Sexual orientation and cognitive abilities

We asked whether homosexual and heterosexual men and women differ on standard measures of cognitive ability. Subjects were adults recruited for a family study of sexual orientation. They completed the Fy Scale of the California Psychological Inventory, a self-administered measure of psychological femininity, and were given subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and the Primary Mental Abilities test which had been previously shown to discriminate between the sexes. We predicted that homosexual subjects would score significantly in the gender-atypical direction on the Fy scale. We also predicted that they would achieve scores on the tests of cognitive abilities significantly in the direction of the other gender. Comparisons were made between homosexual and heterosexual individuals within gender. Also, comparisons were made between heterosexual men and women to see if our results replicate differences typically found between the genders. As predicted, both homosexual men and women were strongly gender-atypical on the Fy scale relative to their heterosexual counterparts. However, neither differed from heterosexuals on any of the measures of cognitive abilities. Heterosexual men did better than women on the Primary Mental Abilities spatial relations test. We conclude that sexual orientation is not related to specific cognitive abilities.Supported in part by NIMH grant 32,170 to Dr. Pillard.