Orbitofrontal cortex and human drug abuse: functional imaging.
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The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) plays a central role in human behavior. Anatomically connected with association areas of all sensory modalities, limbic structures, prefrontal cortical regions that mediate executive function and subcortical nuclei, this brain region can serve to integrate the physical and emotional attributes of a stimulusobject and establish a motivational value based on estimation of potential reward. To the extent that addictive disorders reflect a dysregulation of the ability to evaluate potential reward against harm from drug self-administration, it would be anticipated that substance abuse disorder might reflect dysfunction of the OFC. With the application of brain imaging techniques to the study of human substance abuse, evidence has been obtained that activity in the OFC and its connections plays a role in several components of the maladaptive behavior of substance abuse, including expectancy, craving and impaired decision making. (+info)
Cardiff depression study. A sib-pair study of life events and familiality in major depression.
(18/1373)
BACKGROUND: An excess of both depression and undesirable life events in first-degree relatives of probands with depression as compared with controls has been reported. This association may have reflected a familial factor in common. AIMS: To examine the familiality of life events and depression and whether there may be a common familial factor influencing vulnerability to depression and the experiencing of life events. METHOD: In a sib-pair design, 108 probands with depression and their siblings were compared with 105 healthy controls and their siblings for psychopathology and life events. RESULTS: The lifetime relative risk of depressive disorder in the siblings of depressed subjects as compared with siblings of controls was 9.74, although these groups did not differ in the life events measures. Several categories of events showed significant sibling correlations, but this was due to the same event affecting both members of the pair. CONCLUSIONS: Although depressive disorder was strongly familial, the familial effects on life events were largely explained by shared experiences. There was no evidence for a common factor influencing both depression and life events. (+info)
The pathological status of exercise dependence.
(19/1373)
OBJECTIVES: This study was concerned with the concept of exercise dependence. Levels of psychological morbidity, personality profiles, and exercise beliefs were compared among subjects screened for exercise dependence and eating disorders. METHOD: Adult female exercisers were allocated on the basis of questionnaire screening to one of the following groups: primary exercise dependence (n = 43); secondary exercise dependence, where there was the coincidence of exercise dependence and an eating disorder (n = 27); eating disorder (n =14); control, where there was no evidence of either exercise dependence or eating disorder (n = 110). Questionnaire assessment was undertaken of psychological morbidity, self esteem, weight and body shape dissatisfaction, personality, and exercise beliefs. RESULTS: Aside from a higher incidence of reported menstrual abnormalities, the primary exercise dependence group was largely indistinguishable from the controls. In stark contrast, the secondary exercise dependence group reported higher levels of psychological morbidity, neuroticism, dispositional addictiveness, and impulsiveness, lower self esteem, greater concern with body shape and weight, as well as with the social, psychological, and aesthetic costs of not exercising than the controls, but differed little from the eating disorder group. CONCLUSIONS: In the absence of an eating disorder, women identified as being exercise dependent do not exhibit the sorts of personality characteristics and levels of psychological distress that warrant the construction of primary exercise dependence as a widespread pathology. (+info)
Don Quixote, Machiavelli, and Robin Hood: public health practice, past and present.
(20/1373)
Since the mid-19th century, when the first formal health departments were established in the United States, commissioners, directors, and secretaries of public health have functioned as senior members of the staffs of public executives, mayors, governors, and presidents. They have provided important political, managerial, and scientific leadership to agencies of government that have played increasingly important roles in national life, from the sanitary revolution of the 19th century to the prevention of HIV/AIDS and the control of tobacco use today. Although public health officials come from a variety of backgrounds and oversee agencies of varied size and composition, there are philosophical themes that describe and define the commonality of their work. These themes are captured metaphorically by 3 celebrated figures: Don Quixote, Machiavelli, and Robin Hood. By turns, the public health official functions as a determined idealist (Don Quixote), a cunning political strategist (Machiavelli), and an agent who redistributes resources from the wealthier sectors of society to the less well off (Robin Hood.) All 3 personae are important, but, it is argued, Robin Hood is the most endangered. (+info)
Impairment of neurobehavioral function and color vision loss among workers exposed to low concentration of styrene--a review of literatures.
(21/1373)
Recently many studies on the health effects of workers who exposed to low-concentration styrene have been published. In this paper firstly we mentioned the reasons why nervous system was critical organ for evaluating the toxicity of organic solvents both in the acute and chronic exposure phases. Then we indicated how neurobehavioral test batteries were useful to detect subclinical adverse health effects of workers exposed to organic solvents. Secondly we reviewed many epidemiological studies on the impairment of neurobehavioral function, i.e., perceptual speed, memory, cognition, personality and mood, and the loss of color vision among styrene workers. Finally, we showed our recent data on the relationship between color vision loss and the concentration of urine metabolites among styrene workers. It can conclude that styrene may cause damage on nervous system, even at the low exposure level such as 50 ppm which used to be the Threshold Limit Value (TLV) recommended by Japan Society for Occupational Health (until 1999) and American Conference of Industrial Hygienists (until 1997). (+info)
Individual differences in the phase and amplitude of the human circadian temperature rhythm: with an emphasis on morningness-eveningness.
(22/1373)
We studied the relationship between the phase and the amplitude of the circadian temperature rhythm using questionnaires that measure individual differences in personality variables, variables that relate to circadian rhythms, age and sex. The ambulatory core body temperature of 101 young men and 71 young women was recorded continuously over 6 days. The temperature minimum (Tmin) and amplitude (Tamp) were derived by fitting a complex cosine curve to each day's data for each subject. Participants completed the Horne-Ostberg Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), the Circadian Type Inventory (CTI) and the MMPI-2, scored for the Psychopathology-5 (PSY-5) personality variables. We found that the average Tmin occurred at 03.50 h for morning-types (M-types), 05.02 h for the neither-types and 06.01 h for evening-types (E-types). Figures were presented that could provide an estimate of Tmin given an individual's morningness-eveningness score or weekend wake time. The Tmin occurred at approximately the middle of the 8-h sleep period, but it occurred closer to wake in subjects with later Tmin values and increasing eveningness. In other words, E-types slept on an earlier part of their temperature cycle than M-types. This difference in the phase-relationship between temperature and sleep may explain why E-types are more alert at bedtime and sleepier after waking than M-types. The Tmin occurred about a half-hour later for men than women. Another interesting finding included an association between circadian rhythm temperature phase and amplitude, in that subjects with more delayed phases had larger amplitudes. The greater amplitude was due to lower nocturnal temperature. (+info)
Personality and dietary habits.
(23/1373)
BACKGROUND: The personality of healthy individuals has not been well studied in relation to health consciousness, dietary habits and actual food intake, simultaneously. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to study the association between personality and dietary habits. DESIGN: Information on dietary habits, including taste preferences and the frequency of food consumption, was collected through a questionnaire from 76 male and 394 female students. The personality of students was determined by a modified NEO-FFI test. Health status, height, body weight, body fat percentage and blood pressure were measured by physical examination. Main outcome measures were personality scores as indicators of a healthy dietary pattern. RESULTS: Food intake was influenced by neuroticism (N), extraversion (E), openness (O) and agreeableness (A) of personality. Taste preferences and receptivity to dietary advice were also influenced by personality: the odds ratios (ORs) between the high and low tertiary points of the NEO-FFI scores for salty and sweet taste preferences were significantly higher in the group that scored high for neuroticism (N) (salty taste preference: OR = 2.25, NS in males and OR = 2.39, 95%CI = 1.16-4.93 in females; sweet taste preference: OR = 21.00, 95%CI = 2.40-183.99 in males and OR = 3.33, 95%CI = 1.61-6.91 in females). On the other hand, the groups with high scorer for O and A did not like salty tastes. The groups with high scores for A and C were receptive to dietary advice. High scores of each N, E, O, A, and C factor were characterized by distinguishable, dietary habits and lifestyle. For nutritional or health education, group classes are sufficient for high A and O. High C scorer displayed discrepancies between health consciousness and dietary habits, so intervention or a close follow-up by medical professionals would be necessary to improve the health of individuals in this group. High E scorer possessed a confident attitude towards their health, but they were not interested in developing healthy habits. High N scorer was adverse to receiving health information and learning healthy dietary habits. CONCLUSION: Personality determined by NEO-FFI test was related to dietary habits and health attitude. Effective health education methods must take the personality of the targeted individuals into consideration. (+info)
Ongoing research on mammalian cloning and embryo stem cell technologies: bioethics of their potential medical applications.
(24/1373)
Reproduction by cloning has been achieved by transfer into enucleated oocytes of nuclei from embryonic cells and more recently from cells of adult animals. The efficiency at which embryos produced by such nuclear transfers will develop into healthy newborns is very low but has succeeded in producing some cloned bovines, ovines and mice. Since the first report of sheep cloning from an adult cell in 1997, the potential applications of reproductive cloning in human medicine have been envisaged amidst a flurry of moral debates. Although the technology is still far from being ready for any human use, it has been condemned up front. It has also led to irrational fantasies and fears, based mainly on the misconception that genetic identity means identical twin personalities. Scientific research is ongoing to refine the cloning technology for applications in the production of genetically homogeneous farm animals with useful nutritional or therapeutic genetic traits. A new area of research is non-reproductive therapeutic cloning for the purpose of producing autologous embryonic cells and tissues for transplantation. (+info)