Alcohol abuse: a crucial factor in the social problems of Negro men.
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By the beginning of 1986 all but three states had taken some action on a mandatory seat-belt bill. The seat-belt debate is one manifestation of the concern over the relationship between lifestyle and disease, and has raised some of the most fundamental questions of politics and political philosophy: individual versus public responsibility in health promotion, and freedom versus compulsion. This article examines the debate from both a domestic (New York, Illinois, Oregon) and cross-national (Great Britain) perspective. It identifies several issues which arose during the debates, but concludes that the critical issue involved the libertarian objection to government mandating more prudent personal behavior. The article concludes that while the British conservative tradition of "benign paternalism" allowed some conservatives in that country to accept restrictions on personal freedom, the absence of such a tradition in the United States makes acceptance more difficult.
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Although the association between advanced paternal age and serious birth defects has received less attention than the effect of maternal age on such defects, this association has been demonstrated. This, as well as the potential decline in fertility among older men, should be borne in mind by men electing to defer establishing a family.
An important factor associated with lead poisoning in children is the habit of eating non-food substances, a condition termed pica. In search for underlying mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of pica, this investigation presents evidence in support of the hypothesis that in many families failure of normal mother-child interaction, paternal deprivation, culturally dependent maternal oral interests and significant stress factors in the home where abundant lead-containing material is available are etiologically related to the development of pica in lead poisoning. Other factors, which have been thought to be associated with pica, are nutritional deficiencies and maladaptive behavior patterns. A multifocal treatment approach is considered to be most effective.
The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that kin-preferential behavior would be present in sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys), a species taxonomically close to baboons and macaques. The affiliative behavior of the adult female members of a large captive group of these mangabeys was analyzed to test this prediction. These females groomed, were approached by, were in proximity to, and were in contact with their kin significantly more than expected, but only when all kin were included in the analysis. Removal of only the mother-infant (less than 1 year) dyadic interactions removed all significant kin effects. Kin-preferential behavior was also absent in affiliative interactions among the adult females as a class. Affiliation between mothers and offspring significantly exceeded that for all other kinship categories (such as siblings, etc.), and affiliation with kin other than offspring did not differ from that with nonkin adults. In their interactions with nonkin, the adult females showed some preference (duration of grooming) for those adult females of similar age, an effect predicted by the intensity of interaction among members of the same age cohort during development. These similar-aged females may also be paternally related. In comparing these results with the existing literature on kin-preferential behavior, two conclusions may be reached: (1) age and degree of kinship are primary factors that must be considered in order to avoid the existing overgeneralization of the importance of kinship in primate social organization, and (2) the role and importance of affiliative behavior in kin-selection theory should perhaps be re-examined in light of questions raised by this study.
Preconceptional paternal exposure to cyclophosphamide, a widely used anticancer agent, leads to increases in embryo loss, malformations, and behavioral deficits in offspring; these abnormalities are transmissible to subsequent generations [Auroux, M., Dulioust, E., Selva, J. & Rince, P. (1990) Mutat. Res. 229, 189-200]. Little information exists on the mechanisms underlying this male-mediated developmental toxicity. We assessed the impact of paternal cyclophosphamide exposure on the dynamic regulation of histone H4 acetylation at lysine 5 and DNA methylation in preimplantation rat embryos. Zygotes sired by drug-treated males displayed advanced developmental progression, increased pronuclear areas, and disruption of the epigenetic programming of both parental genomes. Early postfertilization zygotic pronuclei were hyperacetylated; by mid-zygotic development, male pronuclei were dramatically hypomethylated, whereas female pronuclei were hypermethylated. Micronuclei were substantially elevated, and histone H4 acetylation at lysine 5 localization to the nuclear periphery was disrupted in two-cell embryos fertilized by cyclophosphamide-exposed spermatozoa. This finding demonstrates that paternal exposure to this drug induces aberrant epigenetic programming in early embryos. We hypothesize that disturbances in epigenetic programming contribute to heritable instabilities later in development, emphasizing the importance of epigenetic risk assessment after chemotherapy.
Boys (average age = 12.1 years) from families with an extensive history of paternal alcoholism differed from controls of similar age and IQ on measures of cognitive function, cardiovascular reactivity, and parent-rated conduct problems. High-risk boys performed most poorly on neuropsychological tests of frontal lobe function. According to tests of temporal organization and conditional-associate learning, control over working memory was the frontal subfunction primarily affected. A mental arithmetic task also elicited greater heart rate increases and peripheral vasoconstriction among high-risk boys than among controls. After controlling for group status, significant correlations remained between frontal lobe test scores and disruptive behavior and between cardiovascular hyperreactivity and anxiety levels. The possible contribution of these findings to alcohol abuse was discussed.
In this study, the authors examined the parenting practices, developmental expectations, and stress levels of 136 fathers and the challenging and prosocial behaviors of their 1- to 5-year-old children. In addition, the authors systematically addressed fathers' qualitative concerns about their parenting. The authors divided the participants into 4 groups and controlled for family socioeconomic status (SES) and the focus child's gender. Results showed a significantly higher use of corporal and verbal punishment and parenting stress among lower income fathers. Secondary analyses demonstrated a significant effect of paternal disciplinary practices that emphasized the frequent use of corporal and verbal punishment on child behavior problems, regardless of SES level. On a positive note, fathers from both lower and higher SES groups had reasonable developmental expectations for their boys and girls, and they reported similar frequencies of their children's prosocial behavior. The authors discuss the need for early parent education programs that include fathers and that teach specific strategies to address child behavior problems.
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This article will review the history of ethics and values in the forensic evaluations and treatment of children. Topics to be discussed include paternalism, advocacy, parental responsibility, and legal doctrine of parens patriae. Various aspects of the treatment of children, including medications, behavior modification, and psychotherapy, are also examined for ethical considerations. Agency consultation in conflicts of ethics that are associated with public laws are also addressed. The ethical implications of the use of children in any research as research subjects is also addressed.
Alcoholics have been found to show deficits in the P3 component of event-related potentials obtained using information-processing paradigms. However, alcoholic patients form a heterogeneous population. In a study of P3 voltages in subgroups of alcoholics with disorders in mood and aggression control, we observed significant decrements in these voltages in patients with lifelong histories of aggressive behavior. Patients with histories of incarceration for crimes involving physical violence had the lowest P3 amplitudes. The same patients also had a rate of paternal alcoholism significantly higher than that observed in the rest of the population. They could thus be classified as type 2 alcoholics, as a tendency to antisocial behavior and a high genetic loading for alcoholism have been described in this alcoholic subtype. These data could indicate that decrements in P3 amplitude characterize a subgroup of alcoholics with a disordered regulation of aggression. Alternatively, P3 deficits could be associated with some psychopathological conditions in individuals who abuse alcohol rather than with alcoholism, per se.
OBJECTIVE: The present investigation had two main goals: (1) Determine whether binary substance use disorder (SUD) diagnoses are indicators of a unidimensional trait indexing severity of disorder; and, (2) demonstrate the predictive, concurrent and construct validity of the SUD severity scale. METHODS: Boys and their biological parents were administered structured diagnostic interviews to diagnose SUD. Item response theory (IRT) was applied to determine whether the diagnoses are indicators of a unidimensional trait. The score on this scale was correlated with substance use behavior, violence, treatment history, risky sex, and social adjustment. RESULTS: SUD diagnoses are indicators of a unidimensional latent trait. Maternal and paternal SUD severity predicted son's SUD severity at age 19. The score on the SUD severity scale correlated with drug use frequency, number of different drugs used in lifetime, treatment seeking, illegal behavior, social maladjustment, and risky sex. CONCLUSION: SUD can be quantified on an interval scale indexing severity of disorder. The advantages of measuring SUD severity as a continuous trait are discussed.
The spermatogenesis and the offspring of male rats treated either with cyclophosphamide alone, or with both cyclophosphamide and vinblastine were investigated. The offspring were evaluated for the mean number of pups per litter, sex ratio, the frequency of apparent external malformations and, within the first 4 months of life, growth and mortality. When they reached adulthood and were between 12 and 16 weeks of age, the offspring were also examined for spontaneous activity and learning capacity. Treatment with cyclophosphamide or cyclophosphamide and vinblastine resulted in a decrease in the number of both primary spermatocytes and spermatids; the effect, however, lasted longer for the combined drug regimen. At birth, the animals sired by the treated males did not show any apparent malformations. However, compared with the control population the mortality rate of the offspring was significantly higher within the first 40 days of life; at adult age, the proportion of animals that failed in the learning ability test was significantly increased and those that did succeed showed impaired learning capacity. The difference, however, was significant only in the male offspring. Finally, the offspring's spontaneous activity was significantly decreased. No difference was found in mortality or behavior between the animals born of the cyclophosphamide or cyclophosphamide plus vinblastine-treated males. The behavioral disorders shown in the adult offspring confirm the existence of a long-term risk of paternal origin. This risk, essentially functional and independent of any morphologic pathology, should be taken into account in the context of environmental genotoxicity.
Peg3 is the first imprinted gene to be identified on mouse proximal chromosome 7; the human PEG3 homologue is on chromosome 19q13.4. Peg3 encodes a C(2)H(2)-type zinc finger protein that is expressed only from the paternal allele in embryos and adult brain. The gene has been shown to regulate maternal behavior and offspring growth and has been implicated in the TNF-NFkappaB signal pathway. Here we show that Peg3 consists of nine exons spanning 26 kb. The 5' region of the gene contains a region rich in repeated sequences and a CpG island. Analysis of expressed sequence tags revealed a transcript present upstream of the island and on the strand opposite to Peg3. These structural features and DNA sequences are conserved in mouse and human. The 5' region of Peg3 is preferentially methylated on the inactive maternal allele, as shown by comparing embryos with paternal (PatDp. prox7) and maternal (MatDp.prox7) duplication of proximal chromosome 7. Recently, a new maternally expressed Zim1 gene located downstream of Peg3 was identified, which suggested that another imprinted cluster is present on proximal chromosome 7.