The authors conducted a cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence of chronic noncancer pain or disability in first-degree relatives of patients who had sustained a physically traumatic injury with resultant chronic pain. A control group of general internal medicine patients was also interviewed about existence in their family of chronic pain or of disability, either pain-related or related to nonpainful chronic illness. None of the control patients were themselves experiencing acute or chronic pain. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in the prevalence of chronic pain or disability in family members. The study's findings suggest that chronic noncancer pain patients should not be viewed as a uniform group with regard to learned behaviors and/or familial aggregation.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Sympathetic neurite growth on central nervous system sections is region-specific and unaltered by aging.

Several lines of evidence suggest that the brain exhibits reduced plasticity with aging. However, a variety of soluble neurite outgrowth-promoting factors, such as neurotrophins, are not decreased in the aged brain, and aged neurons do not possess dramatically reduced growth potential. The possibility that aging results in reduced baseline substrate-bound neurite outgrowth-promoting activity in the central nervous system (CNS) was evaluated using tissue section culture. There were clear differences between brain regions in the extent of neurite outgrowth on both young and aged brain sections. However, no differences in the extent of neurite outgrowth were observed as a function of age. These results suggest that aging of the rat CNS is not accompanied by major alterations in the baseline neurite outgrowth-promoting substrate properties of the tissue.

Adrenergic Fibers↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Stories of pre-war, war and exile: Bosnian refugee children in Sweden.

While standardized questionnaires produce counts of isolated events, a semi-structured interview derives a story, a complex narrative in time and place. Ninety Bosnian refugee children and adolescents (ages 1-20), resettled in Sweden, were assessed in a semi-structured clinical interview designed to identify and offer support to children at risk. A family-child account of traumatic exposure was analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Type-stories or clusters of experience were identified for three distinct periods: prior to war, during war, and after war in exile. The extent of trauma-stress exposure during each of these periods proved unrelated. Pre-war experience presented as preponderantly good and safe. Differences in child exposure during war and exile could be understood in relation to identifiable socio-demographic factors; particularly ethnic background, social class, child age and family size. Further, the stories derived cast light on the equity of Swedish refugee reception, exposing both egalitarian and discriminatory tendencies.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Traumatized refugee children: a challenge for mental rehabilitation.

The problems of rehabilitating traumatized refugee children are considered in the light of Swedish experience in aiding victims of the Holocaust of the Second World War. An active rehabilitation programme, taking into account changes in family relationships, is needed. It is important to break the silence of repression, but also to understand the variable degree of resilience of survivors of trauma.

Child↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A comparison of the succinylcholine induced ocular position and the postoperative alignment in strabismus.

Succinylcholine was injected intraoperatively in 41 strabismus patients with congenital esotropia or intermittent or constant exotropia. Regression analyses were performed to investigate the predictive relationships between the one-, six-, and 26-week postoperative alignment and the intraoperative, succinylcholine-induced ocular position. Ocular position, determined by the interlimbal distance in millimeters, was calculated using a semi-automated, video replay analysis system. Large, statistically significant correlation coefficients were obtained for patients undergoing bimedial recessions of 4.0 to 5.5 mm and bilateral lateral rectus recessions of 5.0 to 7.0 mm. Small correlations were obtained for esotropes undergoing the recession/resection procedure and those with bimedial recessions of 6.0 mm or greater. These data support the theory that the succinylcholine-sensitive subgroup of the extraocular muscle fibers are those whose tonic contracture provide the motor component to ocular alignment. Sample sizes at present are insufficient to suggest clinical use of these data. In future research, these relationships will be tested for their ability to predict postoperative alignment and thereby, improve success rates in strabismus surgery.

Adolescent↗