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Biomedical subjects

J M Murphy

Publications and source records attributed to J M Murphy.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1998

Relationship between hunger and psychosocial functioning in low-income American children.

OBJECTIVE: Using large-scale surveys from nine states, the Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project (CCHIP) estimates that 8% of American children under the age of 12 years experience hunger each year. CCHIP operationalizes child hunger as multiple experiences of parent-reported food insufficiency due to constrained resources. The current study examined the relationship between food insufficiency and school-age, low-income children's psychosocial functioning. The study also assessed the interinformant (parent versus child) reliability and time-to-time reliability of the CCHIP measure. METHOD: Two hundred four school-age children and their parents from four inner-city public schools were interviewed using parent, teacher, and clinician report measures of psychosocial functioning. Ninety-six children and their parents were reinterviewed 4 months later. RESULTS: Hungry and at-risk for hunger children were twice as likely as not-hungry children to be classified as having impaired functioning by parent and child report. Teachers reported higher levels of hyperactivity, absenteeism, and tardiness among hungry/at-risk children than not-hungry children. Parent and child reports of hunger were significantly related to each other, and time-to-time reliability of the CCHIP measure was acceptable. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study suggest that intermittent experiences of food insufficiency and hunger as measured by CCHIP are associated with poor behavioral and academic functioning in low-income children. The current study also supports the validity and reliability of the CCHIP measure for assessing hunger in children.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Hunger in children in the United States: potential behavioral and emotional correlates.

OBJECTIVE: Results from a recent series of surveys from 9 states and the District of Columbia by the Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project (CCHIP) provide an estimate that 4 million American children experience prolonged periodic food insufficiency and hunger each year, 8% of the children under the age of 12 in this country. The same studies show that an additional 10 million children are at risk for hunger. The current study examined the relationship between hunger as defined by the CCHIP measure (food insufficiency attributable to constrained resources) and variables reflecting the psychosocial functioning of low-income, school-aged children. METHODS: The study group included 328 parents and children from a CCHIP study of families with at least 1 child under the age of 12 years living in the city of Pittsburgh and the surrounding Allegheny County. A two-stage area probability sampling design with standard cluster techniques was used. All parents whose child was between the ages of 6 and 12 years at the time of interview were asked to complete a Pediatric Symptom Checklist, a brief parent-report questionnaire that assesses children's emotional and behavioral symptoms. Hunger status was defined by parent responses to the standard 8 food-insufficiency questions from the CCHIP survey that are used to classify households and children as "hungry," "at-risk for hunger," or "not hungry." RESULTS: In an area probability sample of low-income families, those defined as hungry on the CCHIP measure were significantly more likely to have clinical levels of psychosocial dysfunction on the Pediatric Symptom Checklist than children defined as at-risk for hunger or not hungry. Analysis of individual items and factor scores on the Pediatric Symptom Checklist showed that virtually all behavioral, emotional, and academic problems were more prevalent in hungry children, but that aggression and anxiety had the strongest degree of association with experiences of hunger. CONCLUSION: Children from families that report multiple experiences of food insufficiency and hunger are more likely to show behavioral, emotional, and academic problems on a standardized measure of psychosocial dysfunction than children from the same low-income communities whose families do not report experiences of hunger. Although causality cannot be determined from a cross-sectional design, the strength of these findings suggests the importance of greater awareness on the part of health care providers and public health officials of the role of food insufficiency and hunger in the lives of poor children.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1998

The family APGAR and psychosocial problems in children: a report from ASPN and PROS.

BACKGROUND: Our study examined whether the lack of social support as measured by the Family APGAR was related to parents' and physicians' identification of child psychosocial problems and sociodemographic and symptom characteristics of the children screened. METHODS: The parents of 9626 children, ages 4 to 15 years, seen for outpatient medical visits participated in this national study. Parents completed the Family APGAR and the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC), a measure of psychosocial dysfunction. Physicians rated the presence of a new or recurrent psychosocial problem in the child. RESULTS: Children from families with a lack of social support were 4.3 times as likely to receive scores indicating impairment on the PSC and 2.2 times as likely to be identified as having psychosocial problems by physician report. Families with low social support were significantly more likely to report low parental educational achievement, single parent status, and a history of mental health services for the child. Fifty percent of children from families with low social support were identified as having a psychosocial problem by either the PSC or physician rating, or both; however, only 21% of the children identified with psychosocial impairment by these two measures had scores indicating poor family functioning on the Family APGAR. CONCLUSIONS: A lack of family social support is associated with child psychosocial dysfunction as assessed by two different measures. However, the Family APGAR was not a sensitive measure of child psychosocial problems, and thus it supplements, but does not replace, information concerning the child's overall psychosocial functioning.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

High-affinity benzodiazepine antagonists reduce responding maintained by ethanol presentation in ethanol-preferring rats.

In the present study, we examined two high-affinity and selective benzodiazepine (BDZ) receptor antagonists (ZK 93426, CGS 8216) in ethanol (EtOH)-preferring rats whose responding (i.e., lever pressing) was maintained by the presentation of EtOH. The in vivo actions of CGS 8216 (1-30 mg/kg) and ZK 93426 (5-75 mg/kg) were examined after intraperitoneal or oral administration. Flumazenil (10-40 mg/kg) was used as a reference BDZ antagonist. EtOH (10% v/v) and saccharin (0.05 g/v) solutions were concurrently available for 30 min each day under a two-lever fixed-ratio schedule in which four responses on one lever produced the EtOH solution and four responses on the other lever produced the saccharin solution. A 40 mg/kg intraperitoneal injection of flumazenil given on the first injection day (day 1) nonsignificantly reduced control levels of responding maintained by EtOH by 36%. No effects were observed 24 hr after drug administration (day 2). Oral administration of flumazenil was without effect. On day 1, intraperitoneal administration of CGS 8216 (1-20 mg/kg) and ZK 93426 (1-50 mg/kg) reduced control levels of responding maintained by EtOH by 44% to 73%; on day 2, EtOH maintained responding continued to be suppressed with the highest doses (> or = 20 mg/kg) suppressing control levels of responding by as much as 62%. Oral administration of higher doses of CGS 8216 (5-30 mg/kg) and ZK 93426 (10-75 mg/kg) reduced responding maintained by EtOH by as much as 54% to 84% of controls; however, no effects were seen on day 2. Only the highest intraperitoneal dose of ZK 93426 (50 mg/kg) suppressed responding maintained by saccharin. These findings demonstrate that some BDZ antagonists decrease responding maintained by EtOH. The findings suggest that certain BDZ antagonists may have potential as pharmacotherapies to prevent or decrease EtOH abuse in humans.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

The alcohol deprivation effect in the alcohol-preferring P rat under free-drinking and operant access conditions.

The alcohol-deprivation effect (ADE) was examined under 4-hr operant and 24-hr free-choice alcohol access in the alcohol-preferring (P) rat after deprivation intervals from 2 to 4 weeks. Results indicated that adult male P rats responding for 6 weeks on a concurrent FR-5/FR-1 schedule of reinforcement for alcohol and water, respectively, and then deprived of alcohol for 2 weeks, demonstrated a 40% increase in alcohol responding during the first 60 min of alcohol reinstatement. The alcohol deprivation effect was temporary, however, as responding did not differ from baseline levels on the second day of reinstatement. In a second experiment, weanling male and female P rats received 7 weeks of continuous access to alcohol, beginning at 21 days of age, and were then deprived of alcohol for 4 weeks. On the first day of alcohol reinstatement, P rats exhibited a 40% to 45% increase from baseline alcohol drinking levels, with alcohol intake returning to baseline levels by the 3rd day of reinstatement. Although alcohol intake was higher in females than in males when adjustment was made for body weight, there were no gender differences in the magnitude of the alcohol deprivation effect. Taken together, these results indicate that the ADE is a long-lasting phenomenon that occurs under both operant and continuous access conditions in the P rat, and thus these rats may be useful models for the study of factors involved in relapse of alcohol drinking.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1998

Development of alcohol drinking behavior in rat lines selectively bred for divergent alcohol preference.

A characteristic of heritable alcoholism is an early onset of alcohol abuse, which may begin at or before the age of adolescence. The objective of the present study was to determine the ontogeny of alcohol drinking behavior before and during puberty in the selectively bred alcohol-preferring (P), alcohol-nonpreferring (NP), high alcohol drinking (HAD), and low alcohol drinking (LAD) lines of rats. In addition, the effects of postweaning housing conditions (single- or pair-housed) and initiation procedure (4 days forced ethanol or free-choice) were evaluated in male and female P rats. Results indicate that high alcohol drinking in P and HAD (replicate line 2) rats, as well as low alcohol drinking behavior in NP and LAD (replicate line 2) rats, is present as early as 3 to 4 weeks of age. Ethanol intakes in juvenile P and HAD rats reached levels of approximately 4 to 5 g/kg/day by 38 to 41 days of age and were comparable with levels observed in adults. Neither housing conditions nor ethanol initiation procedure significantly altered the acquisition or magnitude of alcohol intake levels in juvenile male and female P rats. These results suggest that the neural substrates underlying divergent ethanol drinking behavior in P/NP and HAD/LAD lines of rats are present early in life.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1997

Role of dopamine D1 and D2 receptors in the nucleus accumbens in mediating reward.

The objectives of this study were to examine the involvement of D1 and D2 receptors within the nucleus accumbens (ACB) in mediating reinforcement. The intracranial self-administration (ICSA) of D1 and D2 agonists was used to determine whether activating D1 and/or D2 receptors within the ACB of Wistar rats is reinforcing. At concentrations of 0.25, 0.50, and 1.0 mM (25, 50, and 100 pmol/100 nl of infusion), neither the D1 agonist R(+)-1-phenyl-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-3-benzazepine-7,8-diol [SKF 38393 (SKF)] hydrochloride nor the D2 agonist (-)-quinpirole (Quin) hydrochloride was self-administered into the shell region of the ACB. On the other hand, equimolar mixtures of SKF and Quin (SKF+Quin), at concentrations of 0.25, 0.50, and 1.0 mM each, were significantly self-infused into the ACB shell. The core region of the ACB did not support the ICSA of SKF+Quin at any of these concentrations. Rats increased lever pressing when the response requirement was increased from a fixed ratio 1 (FR1) to FR3, and they responded significantly more on the infusion lever than they did on the control lever. Coadministration of either 0.50 mM R(+)-7-chloro-8-hydroxy-3-methyl-1-phenyl-2,3,4, 5-tetrahydro-1H-3-benzazepine (SCH 23390) hydrochloride, a D1 antagonist, or 0.50 mM S(-)-sulpiride, a D2 antagonist, completely abolished the ICSA of the mixture of SKF+Quin (each at 0.50 mM) into the ACB shell. The present results suggest that concurrent activation of D1- and D2-type receptors in the shell of the ACB had a cooperative effect on DA-mediated reward processes.

2,3,4,5-Tetrahydro-7,8-dihydroxy-1-phenyl-1H-3-ben↗
PubMed1997

Comparison of rats selectively bred for high and low ethanol intake in a forced-swim-test model of depression: effects of desipramine.

This investigation examined if there is a relationship between selective breeding for high or low alcohol intake and immobility in a force-swim-test (i.e., "behavioral despair") model of depression. Time spent immobile in a water-filled cylinder was measured in the alcohol-preferring (P and nonpreferring (NP) lines of rats, and in the high-alcohol-drinking (HAD) and low-alcohol-drinking (LAD) lines. Each rat was tested for 2 10-min trials administered 24 h apart, and pretreatment with saline or desipramine (10.0 or 20.0 mg desipramine/kg b.wt. i.p.) also was evaluated. Drug was administered immediately after Trial 1 and again 1 h before Trial 2. When tested without pretreatment in Trial 1 or with saline pretreatment in Trial 2, NP rats spent significantly more time immobile than did P rats, but no comparable line differences were found when HAD and LAD rats were tested. Desipramine pretreatment reduced the time spent immobile in rats of the 2 alcohol-nonpreferring lines (i.e., the NP and LAD rats), but had no significant effect in rats of the 2 alcohol-preferring lines (the P and HAD rats). These findings do not support the hypothesis that there is a functional relationship between high alcohol drinking and susceptibility to "behavioral despair" as measured by the forced-swim test. The results with desipramine suggest that selection for high alcohol intake may be associated with insensitivity to desipramine.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1997

Alcohol intake of P rats is regulated by muscarinic receptors in the pedunculopontine nucleus and VTA.

Experiments were conducted to determine whether muscarinic receptors within the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) are involved in regulating ethanol drinking behavior in the alcohol-preferring P line of rats. Female P rats were given limited access (2 h/day) to 10% (v/v) ethanol and 0.0125% (g/100 ml) saccharin solutions. Food was available ad libitum. Cholinergic agents were microinjected unilaterally into the PPN or VTA immediately prior to ethanol access. Intra-PPN carbachol (1-4 microg/0.5 microl), which can inhibit cholinergic neuronal activity within the PPN, decreased ethanol (70% decrease at the highest dose; p < 0.05) and saccharin (90% decrease at the highest dose; p < 0.05) intake in a dose-dependent manner within the first 30 min. Intra-PPN scopolamine (5-15 microg/0.5 microl), which can stimulate cholinergic neuronal activity within the PPN, decreased ethanol intake in a dose-dependent manner within the first 30 min (65% decrease at the highest dose; p < 0.05) without reducing saccharin intake. Intra-VTA methylscopolamine (1-10 microg/0.5 microl), a muscarinic antagonist, significantly (p < 0.05) reduced ethanol (60% decrease at the highest dose) and saccharin (50% decrease at the highest dose) intakes during the 2-h access period. Intra-VTA carbachol, a cholinergic agonist (1 and 2 microg/0.5 microl) decreased ethanol consumption in a dose-dependent manner within the first 60 min (50% decrease at the highest dose) without reducing saccharin intake. Overall, these results support an involvement of the cholinergic PPN-VTA system in regulating alcohol drinking and general consummatory behaviors of the P line of rats.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1997

Self-infusion of GABA(A) antagonists directly into the ventral tegmental area and adjacent regions.

This study used an intracerebral self-administration paradigm in rats to determine if blockade of GABA(A) receptors in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) has a reinforcing effect. Rats quickly learned to self-infuse a picrotoxin solution into the anterior VTA; rats discriminated the lever that produced picrotoxin infusions from the lever without consequences; and when the response requirement was increased, rats increased response levels for picrotoxin infusion. The reinforcing effect of picrotoxin was site-specific: Anterior VTA regions supported vigorous self-infusions, but not the posterior VTA, substantia nigra, or lateral hypothalamus. Muscimol, a GABA(A) agonist, disrupted picrotoxin self-infusion, but bicuculline, a GABA(A) antagonist, was self-infused into the VTA. The results suggest that blockade of GABA(A) receptors in the anterior VTA is reinforcing and that functional organization of the GABA systems within the VTA is heterogeneous.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Methods for the detection and enumeration of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris and investigation of growth and production of taint in fruit juice and fruit juice-containing drinks.

Methods for the detection of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris at a level of 1 cell per 100 ml and enumeration with a sensitivity of 5 cells ml-1 were developed. Spores of A. acidoterrestris survived pasteurization and outgrew and multiplied at a similar rate to vegetative cells in both orange juice and apple juice. Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris grew readily in orange juice, apple juice and a non-carbonated fruit juice-containing drink at temperatures of 25-44 degrees C producing a taint and elevated levels (1-100 ppb) of guaiacol. Isolates of A. acidoterrestris can be identified using the DuPont RiboPrinter. It was isolated from apple drinks, apple juice concentrate and freshly squeezed orange juice.

Bacillaceae↗
PubMed1997

Nature of pathology: the character of danger implicit in functional impairment.

OBJECTIVE: To facilitate clinical and scientific consensus in definitions of psychiatric disorders and with regard to the nature and meaning of pathology more generally. METHOD: An essay based on a review of definitional problems encountered by psychiatric epidemiologists, with examples taken from selected studies of historic importance. A remedy is suggested and illustrated by experiences with its use in the Stirling County Study. RESULTS: A concept of pathology, termed for reference as "impairment-risk," is defined as the danger that functional impairment carries for subsequent health adversities. The concept is based on the classical notions of Rudolf Virchow, the empirical orientations of Adolf Meyer's psychobiology, the functional concepts of physiology, and the dynamics implied by evolutionary biology. The ideas embedded in "impairment-risk" are beginning to be represented in official classifications of mental disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Impairment-risk has potential in the further development of psychiatric epidemiology because of the connections made possible among neuroscience, genetics, general medicine, psychology, and the more empirical of the social and behavioural sciences.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

An approach to pediatric perioperative care. Parent-present induction.

Allowing a parent to be present for the induction of mask anesthesia may minimize the stressors of separation experienced by pediatric patients undergoing a surgical procedure. A parent-present anesthesia induction program has been implemented at Children's Hospital in Boston in response to issues which have been voiced by parents and staff members, regarding separation and emotional trauma. Patient and parent selection are important variables to a successful program. Preparation of the parent for parent-present anesthesia induction is evaluated by an ongoing quality improvement survey.

Anesthesia↗
PubMed1997

6-OHDA-lesions of the nucleus accumbens disrupt the acquisition but not the maintenance of ethanol consumption in the alcohol-preferring P line of rats.

The aim of the present study was to determine whether reduction of dopamine (DA) innervation to the nucleus accumbens (ACB) alters the maintenance and/or acquisition of ethanol drinking in female alcohol-preferring P rats. Compared with sham-lesioned animals, bilateral microinjections of 6-OHDA (12 micrograms/2.4 microliters/site) into the ACB did not alter the consumption of 10% ethanol in rats that had prior experience of ethanol drinking, with both sham- and 6-OHDA-lesioned groups recovering to presurgical consumption levels at similar rates. On the other hand, the identical lesion procedure disrupted the acquisition of ethanol intake in rats with no ethanol-drinking experience prior to the lesions. A sham-lesioned group attained an ethanol intake of approximately 7 g/kg/day in 1 week, which was maintained over the following 2-week period, while the ethanol intake of the 6-OHDA-lesioned group was approximately 60% lower after 1 week and 30% lower at the end of 3 weeks. DA content of the ACB was 60% lower in both groups of the 6-OHDA-treated rats compared with the controls. The results suggest that different neural mechanisms may underlie the acquisition and maintenance of ethanol drinking behavior; the ACB DA system appears to play an important role in the acquisition of ethanol drinking.

Adrenergic Agents↗
PubMed1996

Effects of the benzodiazepine inverse agonist RO19-4603 alone and in combination with the benzodiazepine receptor antagonists flumazenil, ZK 93426 and CGS 8216, on ethanol intake in alcohol-preferring (P) rats.

The present study investigated dose dependence and time course effects of the benzodiazepine (BDZ) partial inverse agonist, RO19-4603 (0.005-0.30 mg/kg) alone, and in combination with the BDZ receptor antagonists flumazenil, ZK 93426, and CGS 8216 (20 mg/kg) in selectively bred alcohol-preferring (P) rats provided a two-bottle choice test between ethanol (EtOH) (10% v/v), and a palatable saccharin (0.0125% g/v) solution. A single dose of RO19-4603 as low as 0.009 mg/kg selectively reduced EtOH drinking during the initial 15 min of a 4 h access to 19-0% of control levels on day 1. The 0.08, 0.15 and 0.30 mg/kg doses of RO19-4603 significantly reduced total EtOH intake in the 4 h access period to 57-45% of controls on day 1. On day 2, no RO19-4603 injections were given; however, six of the seven doses of RO19-4603 (0.009, 0.02, 0.04, 0.08, 0.15, and 0.30 mg/kg) continued to reduce EtOH intake to 42-3% of control levels at the initial 15 min interval, while the 0.005, 0.009, 0.08, and 0.30 mg/kg doses reduced total 4 h EtOH intake to 60-42% of controls. Saccharin intake was either not altered by RO19-4603 or showed increases during the initial 15 min intervals and the total 4 h sessions on days 1 and 2. Food intake was also unaffected by RO19-4603. The CGS 8216, but neither flumazenil nor ZK 93426, reliably reversed the RO19-4603-induced suppression of EtOH intake on days 1 and 2. That certain BDZ inverse agonists can attenuate motivated behavior for EtOH reinforcement over a prolonged time course may provide a possible therapeutic approach to reducing EtOH consumption associated with alcoholism.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1996

Place conditioning with alcohol in alcohol-preferring and -nonpreferring rats.

A place-conditioning procedure was used to examine the effect of selective breeding for ethanol preference on sensitivity to the rewarding and/or aversive effects of ethanol. On 4 alternate days, groups of seven to eight alcohol-preferring (P) and alcohol-nonpreferring (NP) rats received IP injections of 0.0 (saline controls), 0.5, 1.0, or 1.5 g ethanol/kg body wt. immediately before 15-min confinement in a novel environment. On the 4 intervening days the same rats received saline injections before 15 min confinement in a different environment. On day 9, a 15-min choice test was given with no injections, in which the rats could move freely between the ethanol and the saline-paired environments. Dose-dependent avoidance of the ethanol-paired environment was observed in both lines of rats (1.0 and 1.5 g/kg), but the magnitude of the avoidance was less in the P relative to the NP rats, indicating that ethanol was less aversive for the P rats. No evidence for a place preference was observed in either line with any of the ethanol doses. An innate reduced sensitivity to the aversive effects of ethanol in rats of the P line and/or an enhanced sensitivity to the aversive effects of ethanol in rats of the NP line may contribute to the different levels of oral ethanol self-administration observed in these selectively bred rat lines.

Animals↗