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BACKGROUND: Victimisation in childhood may be associated with adult psychosis. The current study examined this association in the crucial developmental period of early adolescence and investigated whether (1) unwanted sexual experiences, and (2) being bullied, were associated with non-clinical delusional ideation and hallucinatory experiences in a general population sample of 14 year olds. METHODS: Data were derived from standard health screenings of the Youth Health Care Divisions of the Municipal Health Services in Maastricht, the Netherlands. A self-report questionnaire was filled out by a total of 1290 adolescents to assess non-clinical psychotic experiences, as well as experiences of being bullied and sexual trauma. RESULTS: Non-clinical psychotic experiences were strongly and independently associated with both bullying (OR=2.9, 95% CI 1.8-4.8) and sexual trauma (OR=4.8, 95% CI 2.3-10.1). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that reported associations between childhood victimisation and adult psychosis can be understood in a developmental framework of onset of at-risk mental states in early adolescence. In addition, the data suggest that the traumatic experience of being bullied may also feed the cognitive and biological mechanisms underlying formation of psychotic ideation.
The concept of chemical shift-coding monitors chemical shifts in multi-dimensional NMR experiments without additional polarization transfer elements and evolution periods. The chemical shifts are coded in the line-shape of the cross-peak through an apparent scalar coupling dependent upon the chemical shift. This concept is applied to the three-dimensional triple-resonance experiment HNCA adding the information of (13)C(beta) or (13)C' chemical shifts. On average, the proposed TROSY-HNCA(coded)CB experiment is a factor of 2 less sensitive than the HNCA experiment. However, it contains correlations via the chemical shifts of both (13)C(alpha) and (13)C(beta), and provides up to three times higher resolution along the (13)C(alpha) chemical shift axis. Thus, it dramatically reduces ambiguities in linking the spin systems of adjacent residues in the protein sequence during the sequential assignment. The TROSY-HNCA(coded)CO experiment which is conceptually similar contains correlations via the chemical shifts of (13)C(alpha) and (13)C' without major signal losses. The proposed triple resonance experiments are applied to a approximately 70% (2)H, approximately 85% (13)C,(15)N labeled protein with a molecular weight of 25 kDa.
OBJECTIVES: The amount of medical student teaching in the community has increased markedly recently, but uncertainties remain about whether there is sufficient clinical material to meet students' learning needs and, if so, how best to monitor the experience and ensure that students are benefiting from it. DESIGN: On the Cambridge Community Based Clinical Course, a 15-month attachment in primary care, the students used hand-held computers to monitor their clinical experience as it developed. SETTING: The General Practice and Primary Care Research Unit, Cambridge, UK. SUBJECTS: Medical students. RESULTS: Thirteen students recorded 8140 contacts over 4 years. Contacts recorded by students over 15 months varied between 256 and 1153. Eight specialities each contributed more than 5% of total experience. These were general medicine, 26.9% (range 23.8%-36. 6%), obstetrics and gynaecology, 11.3% (range 7.2%-17.1%), orthopaedics and rheumatology, 11.3% (range 3.7%-15.2%), paediatrics, 10.7% (range 4.1%-19.8%), ENT, 7.4% (range 3.3%-10.2%), dermatology, 7.1% (range 4%-10.1%), psychiatry, 6.4% (range 5%-9.7%) and general surgery, 6.4% (range 1.1%-9.9%). CONCLUSIONS: The results show that it is possible to get a broad and varied exposure to clinical problems on a long-term community-based course. However, as a consequence of the opportunistic way in which clinical experience is obtained on a community attachment, individual students often had gaps in their experience. The logs provided a means for identifying these gaps so that action could be taken to address them. The logs themselves proved to be a practical and feasible way to record student experience as it unfolded.
Daily events that boost the immune system (as indicated by levels of salivary immunoglobulin A), some instances of spontaneous remission, and mystical experiences seem to share a similar cluster of thoughts, feelings, moods, perceptions, and behaviors. Entheogens--psychedelic drugs used in a religious context--can also produce mystical experiences (peak experiences, states of unitive consciousness, intense primary religious experiences) with the same cluster of effects. When this happens, is it also possible that such entheogen-induced mystical experiences strengthen the immune system? Might spontaneous remissions occur more frequently under such conditions? This article advances the so called "Emxis hypothesis"--that entheogen-induced mystical experiences influence the immune system.
We examined childhood and early adult strengths and adverse experiences of a group of orphans given up at or near birth and raised in Quebec institutions into early adulthood. A follow-up interview of 81 adults (41 women, 40 men) at a mean age of 59.2 years included retrospective assessments of childhood experiences. Most participants reported multiple early adverse experiences, including, in descending order, unfair rules and excessive punishment, physical abuse, emotional neglect, witnessing violence, verbal abuse, physical neglect, sexual abuse, and serious illness. Adverse experiences were mainly due to lay caretakers, not peers or nuns. Twelve childhood strengths, such as self-protectiveness and athletic talent, were scored at each of four age periods, yielding a median score equivalent to one strength at each period. Over half had significant childhood attachments, but of limited intimacy. Childhood variables correlated with their respective variables in later adulthood. Overall, these older adults reported a high prevalence of adverse or traumatic childhood experiences, counterbalanced by modest levels of individual strengths and attachment relationships. Institutionalization of children--if unavoidable--must build in effective safeguards against adverse experiences.
The stressful quality of an experience, as perceived by rats, is believed to be largely represented by the magnitude of a hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response. The hippocampus may be especially important for assessing the stressfulness of psychological stressors such as novel experience. If such is the case then experience-dependent immediate-early gene expression levels within the hippocampus may parallel relative levels of HPA axis activity. We examined this prospect in rats that were placed in four different novel environments (empty housing tub, circular arena, elevated pedestal or restraint tube). Restraint and pedestal produced the largest magnitude of increased ACTH and corticosterone secretion, arena an intermediate level (Experiment 2) and tub the least magnitude of increase. We saw a very similar experience-dependent pattern of relative Fos protein, c-fos mRNA and zif268 mRNA expression in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. However, in hippocampus (and select regions of cortex), immediate-early gene expression was associated with the exploratory potential of the novel experience rather than level of HPA axis activity; pedestal and arena elicited the greatest immediate-early gene expression, tub an intermediate level and restraint the least amount of expression. We conclude that the stressfulness of psychological stressors is not represented by the amount of immediate-early gene induction elicited in hippocampus and cortex, nor does there appear to be a general enhancing or depressive influence of acute stress on immediate-early gene induction in those brain regions.
INTRODUCTION: Much research has explored the experience of erectile dysfunction (ED) among men with ED, but far less attention has been paid to the perceptions and sexual experiences of the female partners of men with ED. AIM: The objective of this study was to characterize the attitudes, beliefs, and sexual experience of female partners of men with erectile difficulties. METHODS: Female partners of men with ED who had participated in the Men's Attitudes to Life Events and Sexuality (MALES) study were recruited for this research via mail or Internet, after their male partners consented to this contact. Female partners of men with ED (N = 293) responded to questionnaire measures assessing their frequency of sexual activity and the nature of their sexual experience, both before and after the development of their partner's ED, and in relation to their partner's use of phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors. RESULTS: Women reported engaging in sexual activity significantly less frequently after their partner developed ED in comparison with before (P < 0.001). Moreover, significantly fewer women experienced sexual desire, arousal, or orgasm "almost always" or "most times," and significantly fewer women reported satisfaction with their sexual relationship after their partner developed ED, compared with before (P < 0.001). Decreases in female sexual satisfaction and frequency of orgasm were significantly related to the male partner's self-reported severity of ED (P < 0.01). The proportion of women who experienced sexual desire, arousal, and orgasm "almost always" or "most times" was significantly higher in the group whose partners were currently using a PDE5 inhibitor (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Erectile dysfunction has significant adverse effects on the female partner's sexual experience. Women with partners who were currently using PDE5 inhibitors had a more satisfying sexual experience than those whose partners did not use a PDE5 inhibitor.
Many people report having had an experience in which they felt as if their phenomenal self was separated in Cartesian space from their physical body. This phenomenon is often referred to as an 'out-of-body' (OBE) experience. Prior work has found OBE experients to score higher on measures of dissociation and to differ in regards to the perceptual experience of their body. Based upon this work, we theorized that the daily bodily experiences of people with and without a prior OBE would differ along a number of dimensions. In order to test this theory a questionnaire study was conducted. Of 243 respondents, 62 reported at least one prior OBE. Six scales on different aspects of bodily experience were administered. Respondents reporting a previous OBE were found to score significantly higher on measures of somatoform dissociation, self-consciousness, body dissatisfaction, and lower on a measure of confidence in their physical self-presentation than respondents without a previous OBE. The findings are discussed as supporting a dissociational theory of the OBE.
The visitor experience, a more intense form of the normal sense of presence, emphasizes the deep belief of personal contact with an extraterrestrial (or religious) entity. Phenomenological details of visitor experiences are expected to reflect the functions of deep temporal lobe structures; common details involve cosmic meaningfulness, vestibular experiences, flickering, complex visual sensations and alimentary references. After intense experiences, interictal-like behaviors similar to religious conversions (widening affect, sense of personal, desire to spread the word, concern about Man's destiny) emerge. Normal people who are prone to these experiences show frequent temporal lobe signs and specific personality characteristics that include enhanced creativity, suggestibility, mild hypomania, anxiety, and emotional lability. Learning histories that encourage the use of right temporal lobe functions for the consolidation of memory, such as compartmentalization of beliefs or repression due to early sexual abuse, predispose to intense visitor experiences. The most frequent precipitants are psychological depression, personal (existential) stress and proximal exposure to the focal tectonic strain fields that accompany luminous phenomena. Possible neuropsychological mechanisms are discussed.
The Web Experiment List (http://genpsylab-wexlist.unizh.ch/), a free Web-based service for the recruitment of participants in Internet-based experiments, is presented. The Web Experiment List also serves as a searchable archive for the research community. It lists more than 250 links to and descriptions of current and past Web experiments. Searches can be conducted by area of research, language, type of study, date, and status (active vs. archived). Data from log file analyses reveal an increasing use of the Web Experiment List and provide a picture of the distribution of the use of the Web experiment method across disciplines. On a general theoretical note, Web services are discussed as a viable software alternative to the traditional program format.
The organisation of surgical research in Marburg is an experiment which has run for five-years and war carried out in attempt to establish a cooperation between clinical and theoretical surgeons (scientists in basic research). The experiment was started 1970 by creating a Division of Experimental Surgery and Pathological Biochemistry at the Surgery Clinic of the University. Structures and functions in this experiment were 6 small working teams, special services for the teams and for the whole Department of Surgery as well as a training programme in surgical research for theoretical surgeons. Success and failure in the experiment were evaluated by criteria testing three principal functions of surgical research: Training of clinical and theoretical surgeons in methods and techniques of surgical research, performance of controlled clinical trials and basic research in surgery. The early results of the Marburg experiment seem to be promising.
As the second telescience testbed experiment we were examined sophisticated processes of biomedical experiment, such as an implantation of a transmitter into the hamster's abdominal cavity, non-stressful blood sampling, large amount of blood collection, muscle extirpation and biopsy from the hamsters on February 6-8, 1990. To make clear the differences between successful results obtained by an experienced hand and by a non-experienced one, three operators were selected for three successive experimental days; an engineer who had never experienced any biological experiment, a non-biology student, who experienced on biological experiments, and a veterinary surgeon. Surgical procedures need much experiences on maneuvering and understanding of theory to shorten the elapse time. Especially for a non-experienced hand, graphic instructions were much helpful to understand and to maneuver the procedures. Continuous recordings of ECG from a operator and PIs were of an advantage to grasp an extent of the mental strain, which was compared with their reports requested after end of each experimental day. The mental strain was not related to degrees of scientific achievement, but showed faithfully difficulty of each experimental procedure. Training effects on PIs in successive experimental days were found in their instructions for the operator to let understand the procedures.
Initial sensitivity to substances may affect patterns of future use and dependence. Because smoking and alcohol use are strongly linked, because animal studies indicate cross-sensitivity, and because genetic determinants of nicotine and alcohol dependence overlap, we studied the relationships between retrospectively reported responses to both substances in current smokers (n = 111) and never-smokers (n = 86). Early smoking experiences were correlated with comparable responses to alcohol in smokers, and to a lesser extent, in never-smokers. Both pleasurable early experiences with nicotine and pleasurable experiences with alcohol predicted current alcohol intake; pleasurable early experiences with alcohol also predicted alcohol dependence. Neither pleasurable nor displeasurable experiences with either substance predicted current amount smoked or degree of nicotine dependence. These preliminary findings may have implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying the smoking-alcohol link.