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At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

Prenatal exposure to wartime famine and development of antisocial personality disorder in early adulthood.

CONTEXT: Several observational epidemiological studies report an association of pregnancy and obstetric complications with development of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in offspring. However, the precise nature and timing of the hypothesized biological insults are not known. OBJECTIVE: To test whether severe maternal nutritional deficiency early in gestation is associated with risk for ASPD in offspring. DESIGN AND SETTING: Retrospective cohort study. From October 1944 to May 1945, the German army blockaded food supplies to the Netherlands, subjecting the western Netherlands first to moderate (official food rations, 4200-6300 kJ/d) then to severe (<4200 kJ/d) nutritional deficiency. The north and south were subjected to moderate nutritional deficiency only. PARTICIPANTS: Dutch men born in large urban areas in 1944-1946 who were given psychiatric examinations for military induction at age 18 years (N = 100543) were classified by the degree and timing of their prenatal exposure to nutritional deficiency based on their birthdate and birthplace. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Diagnosis of ASPD by psychiatric interview at time of medical examination for military induction, using the International Classification of Diseases, Sixth Revision (ICD-6). RESULTS: Men exposed prenatally to severe maternal nutritional deficiency during the first and/or second trimesters of pregnancy exhibited increased risk for ASPD (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 2.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.5-4.2). Third-trimester exposure to severe nutritional deficiency and prenatal exposure to moderate nutritional deficiency were not associated with risk for ASPD. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that severe nutritional insults to the developing brain in utero may be capable of increasing the risk for antisocial behaviors in offspring. The possible implications of these findings for both developed countries and developing countries, where severe nutritional deficiency is widespread and often exacerbated by war, natural disaster, and forced migration, warrant study.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Early developmental conditions and reproductive success in humans: downstream effects of prenatal famine, birthweight, and timing of birth.

Growth, survival, and breeding success of individuals in populations of wild mammals are influenced by the climatic and nutritional conditions that individuals experience during their early development. Recent findings have shown that early conditions also have consequences for subsequent survival and reproductive performance in humans. Environmental conditions which affect early development of individuals, such as the quality and quantity of nutrition received in utero and infancy, predict the onset of many chronic diseases in adulthood, affect longevity and may also influence a range of measures of reproductive performance in both food-limited and contemporary Western human populations. These associations are proposed to result from foetal programming, where a stimulus or insult during a critical period early in life may permanently affect body structure, physiology, and metabolism. Here I review studies showing how birthweight, season of birth, or exposure to prenatal starvation affect different aspects of an individual's subsequent reproductive success in humans and the growth, survival, and reproductive performance of the offspring produced. I show that early maternal and environmental conditions can have a large impact on human reproductive strategies and fitness that can span across generations.

Birth Weight↗
PubMed1993

Feast and famine: critical role of glucocorticoids with insulin in daily energy flow.

The hypothesis proposed in this review is that normal diurnal rhythms in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis are highly regulated by activity in medial hypothalamic nuclei to effect an interaction between corticosteroids and insulin such that optimal metabolism results in response to changes in the fed or fasted state of the animal. There are marked diurnal rhythms in function of the HPA axis under both basal and stress conditions. The HPA axis controls corticosteroid output from the adrenal and, in turn, forward elements of this axis are inhibited by feedback from circulating plasma corticosteroid levels. Basal activity in the HPA axis of mammals fed ad lib peaks about 2 h before the peak of the diurnal feeding rhythm, and is controlled by input from the suprachiasmatic nuclei. The rhythm in stress responsiveness is lowest at the time of the basal peak and highest at the time of the basal trough in the HPA axis activity. There are also diurnal rhythms in corticosteroid feedback sensitivity of basal and stress-induced ACTH secretion which peak at the time of the basal trough. These rhythms are all overridden when feeding, and thus insulin secretion, is disrupted. Corticosteroids interact with insulin on food intake and body composition, and corticosteroids also increase insulin secretion. Corticosteroids stimulate feeding at low doses but inhibit it at high doses; however, it is the high levels of insulin, induced by high levels of corticosteroids, that may inhibit feeding. The effects of corticosteroids on liver, fat, and muscle cell metabolism, with emphasis on their interactions with insulin, are briefly reviewed. Corticosteroids both synergize with and antagonize the effects of insulin. The effects of stress hormones, and their interactions with insulin on lipid and protein metabolism, followed by some of the metabolic effects of injury stress, with or without nutritional support, are evaluated. In the presence of elevated insulin stimulated by glucocorticoids and nutrition, stress causes less severe catabolic effects. In the central nervous system, regulation of function in the HPA axis is clearly affected by the activity of medial hypothalamic nuclei that also alter feeding, metabolism, and obesity in rats. Lesions of the arcuate (ARC) and ventromedial (VMN) paraventricular (PVN) nuclei result in obesity and hyperactivity in the HPA axis. Moreover, adrenalectomy inhibits or prevents development of the lesion-induced obesity. There are interactions among these nuclei; one mode of communication is via inputs of neuropeptide Y (NPY) cells in the ARC to the VMN, dorsomedial nuclei, and PVN.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Feast or famine: the sympathetic nervous system response to nutrient intake.

: 1. The use of tritiated norepinephrine (NE) to measure the turnover rate of NE in sympathetically innervated organs was pioneered in the laboratory of Julius Axelrod. This technique provides an organ specific assessment of sympathetic activity, integrated over a 24 h period, in free living laboratory animals. As such it has proved useful in estimating changes in sympathetic outflow in different physiologic and patho-physiologic states. 2. Studies employing NE turnover techniques in laboratory rodents have demonstrated conclusively that fasting suppresses and overfeeding stimulates the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). These changes in sympathetic activity also occur in humans. 3. Diet-induced changes in SNS activity are regulated by insulin-mediated glucose uptake and metabolism in central neurons sensitive to insulin and located anatomically in the ventro-medial hypothalamus. The regulation is imposed by descending inhibition of tonically active sympathetic brainstem centers. 4. Diet-induced changes in SNS activity mediate changes in energy production known as dietary thermogenesis. The capacity for dietary thermogenesis serves as a potential buffer against weight gain.5. Insulin stimulated SNS activity contributes to obesity-related hypertension. The insulin resistance of obesity, and consequent hyperinsulinemia, drives sympathetically mediated thermogenesis, restoring energy balance at the expense of SNS over activity. The association of obesity and hypertension, therefore, may be the unintended consequence of mechanisms recruited in the obese to limit further weight gain.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Radiotherapy for superficial skin cancer at the Queensland Radium Institute: famine in the land of plenty.

Superficial skin cancer is the most common malignancy in man, and radiotherapy has played an important curative role since the early part of the 20th century. We present an overview of the changing pattern of care for patients with superficial skin cancer at the Queensland Radium Institute (QRI), Brisbane--the skin cancer "capital" of the world. Although some 90,000 clinically-diagnosed skin cancers have been treated by radiotherapy at the QRI during the period 1944-1985, we document a dramatic decline in radiotherapy usage for superficial skin cancers over the past 10-15 years. We identify and discuss the major reasons for this changing pattern of care: (a) policy changes initiated by radiation oncologists because of unsightly radiation scars caused by the Queensland climate, (b) improvements in the availability and technical aspects of surgery and dermatology, and (c) surgical preference.

Climate↗