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Brainstem auditory evoked potential study in children with autistic disorder.

Brainstem auditory evoked potentials were compared in 109 children with infantile autism, 38 with autistic condition, 19 with mental retardation, and 20 normal children. Children with infantile autism or autistic condition had significantly longer brainstem transmission time than normal (p less than .001). Autistic features, rather than age, sex, or lower mentality, correlated with brainstem transmission time (p less than .0001). The autistic characteristics may be related to dysfunction of the brainstem which affects the processing of the sensory input through the auditory pathway. The brainstem lesion may be part of a generalized process of neurological damage that accounts for the deviant language, cognitive, and social development in the spectrum of autistic disorder.

Autistic Disorder↗

[Treatment discontinuation and obligation to treat: an extended model for the decision-making process].

Social developments and medical progress in the last decades have led to a significant change of values in medicine, which spans from the cornerstone of the patient's autonomy to the increasingly difficult decision-making process related to available medical treatments. This conflict exaggerates with end-of-life situations, where a purely palliative approach to the therapy is applied, or in cases of reduced ability for patient's consent. From a legal point of view, many uncertainties have been clarified in recent years. The patient's autonomy has been strengthened, however, the law requires the doctor to review and carefully balance the treatment options so that a new and modified patient-doctor relationship is often necessary in this difficult decision-making process. The doctor should no longer retreat into the classical role of a neutral advisor and leave the complete responsibility of medical decisions to the patient. Instead, in order for the patient to be able to make a balanced and individually tailored autonomous decision, the doctor needs to bring in his medical expertise along with his own personal experiences and personal opinions, as long as he clearly differentiates between personal and professional views. This way the patient will be empowered to make complex medical decisions, considering his personal situation and previous experiences as well as his own set of values. For complex situations medical practitioners can find support from reflection within the treatment team, or through an external ethical advisory panel. Algorithms can be helpful to illustrate the steps in a decision-making process and thus support medical staff in situations of difficult medical decisions.

Aged↗

[The remarkable rise in life expectancy and how it will affect medicine].

Life expectancy has increased at a steady pace in industrialized countries over the last 160 years. A slowdown is not evident: Since 1950 the number of people celebrating their 100th birthdays has at least doubled each decade. This increase in survival is the result of economic developments, social improvements and advances in medicine. Although the belief that old-age mortality is intractable remains widespread, life expectancy is not approaching a limit. Rather, the evidence suggests that ageing is plastic and that survival can be extended by various genetic changes and non-genetic interactions. Increases in life expectancy are largely attributed to improvements in old-age survival. It is a reasonable scenario that life expectancy will rise further in coming decades, supported by advances in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of age-related diseases. If the trend continues, life expectancy in Germany will rise to over 90 years in the first half of this century. Many official forecasts, however, have assumed lower figures which can have severe consequences both for public and private decision making.

Aged↗

The novel Tau mutation G335S: clinical, neuropathological and molecular characterization.

Mutations in Tau cause the inherited neurodegenerative disease, frontotemporal dementia and Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17). Known coding region mutations cluster in the microtubule-binding region, where they alter the ability of tau to promote microtubule assembly. Depending on the tau isoforms, this region consists of three or four imperfect repeats of 31 or 32 amino acids, each of which contains a characteristic and invariant PGGG motif. Here, we report the novel G335S mutation, which changes the PGGG motif of the third tau repeat to PGGS, in an individual who developed social withdrawal, emotional bluntness and stereotypic behavior at age 22, followed by disinhibition, hyperorality and ideomotor apraxia. Abundant tau-positive inclusions were present in neurons and glia in the frontotemporal cortex, hippocampus and brainstem. Sarkosyl-insoluble tau showed paired helical and straight filaments, as well as more irregular rope-like filaments. The pattern of pathological tau bands was like that of Alzheimer disease. Experimentally, the G335S mutation resulted in a greatly reduced ability of tau to promote microtubule assembly, while having no significant effect on heparin-induced assembly of recombinant tau into filaments.

Adult↗

Ethical issues in the daily medical care of children.

The main ethical imperative of all paediatric actions is the demand to do everything "in the best interests of children". Relevant guidelines can be derived from the UN Declaration on the Rights of Children, whereupon every child has the fundamental right to life and dignity, and is entitled to optimal medical care. Paediatric care in general includes the responsibility to achieve the highest level of knowledge, consideration of the child-specific somatic, mental and social development, empathic and trustworthy communication with the child and parents, observance of the recommendations of the Charter of the Rights of Children in Hospital, and cooperation with experts in related professions. Good communication is based on respect for the dignity of the child as a person and on the use of child-specific language, recognizing the rights of the child to be involved in consent or assent. Good clinical practice dictates and demands high standards of practice in therapeutics, research and medical interventions involving children. Decision making in extreme situations with regard to continuation, withholding or withdrawing life supporting measures is amongst the most complex and ethically difficult tasks of a doctor. Ethical issues with regard to neglect, maltreatment, abuse and addictions involving children need scrupulous consideration. Paediatricians have a prime responsibility to promote and protect the well being of children.

Adolescent↗

The distribution of the intestinal parasitic diseases in the Southeast Anatolian (GAP=SEAP) region of Turkey.

OBJECTIVES: The physical alterations put in place by the Southeastern Anatolia Project will undoubtedly provide a remarkable economical growth and a social development in the area. In addition, the influence that formation of dam ponds, enlargement of irrigation areas, change of product and the way of cultivation, urbanization and industrialization will have an impact on the environment. To minimize the adverse effects of this process on human beings, a Community Health Project was completed by the teams participated by Ege, Dicle, Gaziantep and Harran Universities under the Directorate of Turkish Parasitology Association and by Southeastern Anatolia Project Regional Development Administration between 2001 and 2003. RESULTS: To identify individuals with parasite, feces samples were taken from a total of 4,470 individuals. Parasites were found in feces of 41.8% of men, 44.3% of women and 32.2% of children, 0-59 months old, who were included in the research and gave feces samples for parasites tests. These prevalence values indicate how widespread parasitic diseases are in the region. The high prevalence of parasitic diseases in this area is one of the causes of malnutrition in 40% of children. Parasites were detected in 44.2% of feces samples taken from rural areas and in 39.5% taken from urban areas. When the distribution of parasites detected in feces samples was studied, the most common parasites were Giardia intestinalis (18.1%), Entamoeba coli (11.8%), Ascaris lumbricoides (4.8%), Trichuris trichiura (4.5%) and Hymenolepis nana (3.9%). Distribution of parasites according to cities varied widely. The most frequently seen parasites were T. trichiura in Gaziantep; G. intestinalis in Batman, Mardin, Diyarbakir, Sirnak and Sanliurfa; and E. coli in Siirt, Kilis and Adiyaman. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first investigation of intestinal parasite prevalence in a large region, specifically, in this GAP region and in Turkey, in general. There is no direct relationship between irrigating the cultivation areas and diffusion of parasitic diseases because the existence of intestinal parasites mentioned above is not related to the range of irrigation of cultivation areas, but is related to factors already discussed.

Adult↗

A new neurobehavioral model of autism in mice: pre- and postnatal exposure to sodium valproate.

Autism symptoms, including impairments in language development, social interactions, and motor skills, have been difficult to model in rodents. Since children exposed in utero to sodium valproate (VPA) demonstrate behavioral and neuroanatomical abnormalities similar to those seen in autism, the neurodevelopmental effects of this antiepileptic agent were examined in mice following its pre- or postnatal administration. Exposed pups were evaluated in a battery of neurodevelopmental procedures designed to assess VPA-induced retardation (wherein a behavior fails to mature on schedule), regression (wherein a behavior does mature on time but then deteriorates), or intrusions (wherein normal behaviors are overshadowed by stereotypic or self-injurious behaviors). The resulting observations were interpreted in the context of this new strategy to model autism.

Animals↗

Washing the citizen: washing, cleanliness and citizenship in mental health care.

Participation in the community and citizenship for patients are common ideals that inspire improvements in mental health care. But what is meant by citizenship? Here an analysis is made of washing practices in psychiatric nursing in long-term mental health institutions. Four repertoires of washing are described, each oriented towards a specific notion of citizenship. In the first repertoire, washing is part of individual privacy; the patient is "enacted" as an individual whose authenticity should be respected in order to equip him or her for participation in the community. In the second repertoire, washing is a basic skill; the patient must learn to take care of her body in order to become an independent citizen. In the third repertoire washing is a precondition to citizenship; patients are to be helped to develop their potentials so that they can find their way in the community. In the fourth repertoire, washing is one opportunity among others to develop social relations; the extent and quality of these relations define a citizen. This analysis opens up not the question if, but which type of citizenship should be promoted.

Baths↗

Targeting Gasdermins for Therapeutic Interventions in Central Nervous System Injury.

Central nervous system (CNS) injuries are the leading cause of permanent disability and premature death in adults worldwide, with their incidence continuing to rise amid social development. These injuries not only severely impair the quality of life but also impose a heavy burden on the global public health system. Current clinical interventions, such as decompression and thrombolysis, can alleviate primary injury but fail to effectively reverse the secondary neuroinflammatory damage. Traditional anti-inflammatory therapies, which cannot block the upstream source of the inflammatory cascade, have led to repeated failures in global clinical translation research over the past decades. Gasdermins were first characterized in studies of systemic inflammatory diseases. These proteins form transmembrane pores to drive the release of proinflammatory factors and inflammatory cell death, serving as key mediators of host innate immunity. Recent studies have revealed that gasdermins play critical roles in regulating the initiation and amplification of neuroinflammation following CNS injury. To clarify the therapeutic potential of gasdermins as targets for injury repair, this review systematically summarizes the structure and function of gasdermins, as well as their cell-specific activation and regulatory mechanisms. We further elaborate on their pathological roles in these injuries and the corresponding therapeutic strategies, aiming to provide a theoretical reference for basic research and clinical translation in this field.

Humans↗

Effects of weaning age on mortality of colony-born Macaca nemestrina.

In an effort to determine empirically the proper age for separation of pigtailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina) infants from their dams in a large domestic breeding colony, we conducted a retrospective survey of 1,592 infants. Survivorship was highest for infants not separated from their dams at all and for those separated within the first four months of life. Survivorship was poor for animals separated during or after the fifth month. Thus, not weaning or weaning early are the most acceptable management strategies in terms of mortality risk. This result is paradoxical with regard to nutritional considerations, but appears to be related to a sensitive period in social development. The relative advantages and disadvantages of various weaning ages are discussed.

Journal Article↗

Unexpected reading precocity in a normal preschooler: implications for hyperlexia.

This is a case study of a left-handed, preschool boy of superior intelligence who read very early and at a level well beyond what his IQ would predict. He is developmentally normal with no signs of autism or related disorders. His reading age was 9.3 at age 2-11 and 11.2 at 4-2; these levels are considerably beyond what would be predicted by his IQ or language age. He was able to read nonwords and both regular and irregular words equally well, indicating his mechanisms of lexical access in reading are similar to those of normal readers. Unlike classical hyperlexics, his reading comprehension for both single words and sentences was well above age level. When his precocious reading first appeared, he was also advanced in reading-related linguistic skills, such as phoneme awareness, auditory verbal short-term memory, and word retrieval, but not in visuospatial skills. These results imply that neither pathological language and/or social development, nor pathological variation in the normal mechanisms of lexical access in reading are necessary causes for reading precocity in early childhood. A model for integrating subtypes of precocious readers with subtypes of normal and dyslexic readers is proposed.

Child, Gifted↗

The Kansas Family and Children's Trust Fund: funding prevention programs in the eighties.

The Kansas Family and Children's Trust Fund is an innovative approach to developing funding for community-based family violence prevention programs. Using a legislated trust fund which generates money from marriage license fees, the program has been developed based on three assumptions. First, funding at the federal level for programs to prevent family violence has probably reached its peak and has never been sufficiently secure as to allow for continuity in prevention programs from year to year. Second, there is a trend toward allowing local communities to assume a greater portion of the responsibility for developing social welfare programming. Third, in the long run more can be accomplished with a small amount of money given to a community-based organization which efficiently uses volunteer time than a larger amount of money given to an agency which has a large infrastructure to support. Information on the procedure utilized to enable passage of the Trust Fund legislation is included as well as a discussion of issues that arose in the legislation process. In addition, an explanation of the current funding procedures for accessing Trust Fund moneys is given along with examples of the types of programs that have received funding. Finally, examples are provided of similar approaches that have been used in other states as well as a call for additional innovative approaches to providing funding for child abuse prevention programs.

Child Abuse↗

On participant-observation as a component of evaluation. Strategies, constraints and issues.

Described here is a participant-observation strategy employed as one portion of the evaluation research at Family House, a residential treatment program for alcoholic mothers and their children. Major objectives of this leg of a two-legged research design combining this approach with a more standard pre- and post-test strategy were to document and analyze the processes of social development in the new "small society." The ethnographer acted as consultant, with "raw data" generated in the form of daily observations dictated on the rotating basis by staff members over a two-year period. The resulting narrative was coded and analyzed by the anthropologist, utilizing a phenomenological or interpretationist perspective which allowed the "native categories" of significance to emerge and guide the analysis. This novel research strategy is compared with standard ethnographic fieldwork, as well as with pre- and post-test design, in terms of its strengths and weaknesses. Strengths include access to an authentic "inside view" of Family House reality, as well as an unusually rich longitudinal record of daily life in the facility. Problems include danger of contaminating the data by means of the "feedback" provided to reward staff for their cooperation in the research effort. The author concludes, however, that since reactive effects are present in all designs, and since "feedback" is a normal feature of therapeutic milieux, validity is not unusually threatened. Finally, the purposes of evaluation research are scrutinized.

Alcoholism↗

Sharing in the financing of health care: government, insurance and the patient.

The health care systems of all countries have faced the problems of rising expenditures. In those countries with well developed social security health insurance financing, cost issues have been tackled without the threat of a major decrease in revenues. In Israel, revenues have declined dramatically in recent years. The major cause was the steep decrease in government participation, linked first to political and currently to economic factors. Since the level of government participation in the health insurance budget was not guaranteed by statute, the present system is confronted with a large and growing deficit, and by uncertainty to the point of threatening the viability of public health services in Israel. To understand the scope and issues in the sharing of financing between government, insurance contributions and the patient in other countries, this paper describes the situation in France, West Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands as compared to Israel. In summary, the decline and instability in government support in Israel differentiates that country from the others and raises questions as to the recognition by government of the role of social security financed health care.

Belgium↗

Non-governmental organizations in the health field: collaboration, integration and contrasting aims.

Non-governmental organizations, from being voluntary agencies often with relief or religious mission orientations, have become very important players in the field of social development. In this paper something is given of their evolution, diversity, aims and activities; and of the important role they now play in many instances, as well as some of the obstacles to collaboration, co-ordination and integration at different levels of operation--internationally, nationally and locally.

Financing, Government↗

Group art therapy in a methadone clinic lobby.

A weekly group art therapy workshop, held in the waiting room of the Venice (California) Methadone Clinic of the Los Angeles Institute for Studies of Destructive Behavior, is described. In this workshop, the clients project their imagination onto random lines and shapes made by string and ink on paper, drawing out the images they see and writing titles and sometimes stories about them. The artwork is shared, discussed, and displayed in the lobby. Through this art-centered process, the clients learn to communicate feelings and conflicts with each other. They also develop social skills, gain insight, and improve their self-esteem. Group art therapy, when combined with counseling, is an effective therapeutic modality when working with a nonverbal and resistant population such as drug abusers.

Adult↗

Behavioural comparison of human-animal (dog) and human-robot (AIBO) interactions.

The behavioural analysis of human-robot interactions can help in developing socially interactive robots. The current study analyzes human-robot interaction with Theme software and the corresponding pattern detection algorithm. The method is based on the analysis of the temporal structure of the interactions by detecting T-patterns in the behaviour. We have compared humans' (children and adults) play behaviour interacting either with an AIBO or a living dog puppy. The analysis based on measuring latencies and frequencies of behavioural units suggested limited differences, e.g. the latency of humans touching the dog/AIBO was similar. In addition other differences could be accounted for by the limited abilities of the robot to interact with objects. Although the number of interactive T-patterns did not significantly differ among the groups but the partner's type (whether humans were playing with dog or AIBO) had a significant effect on the structure of the patterns. Both children and adults terminated T-patterns more frequently when playing with AIBO than when playing with the dog puppy, which suggest that the robot has a limited ability to engage in temporally structured behavioural interactions with humans. As other human studies suggest that the temporal complexity of the interaction is good measure of the partner's attitude, we suggest that more attention should be paid in the future to the robots' ability to engage in cooperative interaction with humans.

Adult↗

Fetal testosterone and sex differences.

Experiments in animals leave no doubt that androgens, including testosterone, produced by the testes in fetal and/or neonatal life act on the brain to induce sex differences in neural structure and function. In this article, we argue that prenatal and neonatal testosterone exposure are strong candidates for having a causal role in sexual dimorphism in human behaviour, including social development.

Animals↗