bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Qigong-Induced Mental Disorders: A Review
Authors: Ng Beng-Yeong 
Published: July 2002

Objective: This review article aims to explore current opinions on Qigong-induced mental disorders, an entity which is unfamiliar to Western psychiatrists. Method: Relevant literature published in Chinese and English is reviewed. Results: The review is divided into three sections: first, there is brief consideration of the historical development of Qigong in traditional Chinese medicine and its role in psychiatry; second, there is a review of the literature published on Qigong deviations and Qigong-induced mental disorders; and third, there is a discussion on the aetiological role of Qigong in these conditions. Conclusions: Qigong remained veiled in secrecy and available only to the elite until the early 1980s. Despite the widespread use of Qigong, there is a conspicuous lack of controlled data regarding its effects on mental health. Qigong, when practised inappropriately, may induce abnormal psychosomatic responses and even mental disorders. However, the ties between Qigong and mental disorders are manifold, and a causal relationship is difficult to establish. Many so-called ‘Qigong-induced psychoses’ may be more appropriately labelled ‘Qigong-precipitated psychoses’, where the practice of Qigong acts as a stressor in vulnerable individuals.
Sex, Honesty and the Supervisory Relationship: a Response to Ryan
Authors: Clarke David M. 
Published: July 2002

Objective: An argument has been presented in this journal for a generally permissive attitude to consensual sexual relations between psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists except in circumstances where there is a direct supervisory relationship. This paper challenges that view. Method: The arguments are reviewed. A developmental perspective of training is used to show that the autonomy of trainees is restricted in a manner similar to a student in relation to a teacher. This confers on psychiatrists a duty of care. Results: On the basis of respect for autonomy, the strength of argument for a prohibition on consensual sexual relationships is strong for a young trainee, and weakens as a person proceeds through training and approaches the status of a colleague. Apolicy of restraint would facilitate the development of a general atmosphere of trust, which is an important requirement for good supervision and the basis of professional relationships. An ethical judgement cannot be made, however, without the consideration of other relationships and commitments existing outside the supervisory relationship for each person involved. Conclusions: In order to create a secure and unambiguous training environment that maximises trust, a general principle of prohibition on sexual relationships between psychiatrists and trainees is preferred, although circumstances exist where such relationships are not unethical.
Efficacy, Effectiveness and Efficiency in Mental Health Service Delivery
Authors: Andrews Gavin 
Published: July 2002

Objective: The aim of this paper is to review the status of treatments in psychiatry. Method: The criteria for good treatment are defined and then treatments in psychiatry are examined for efficacy, effectiveness and efficiency. Results: Alarge number of treatments were listed by Nathan and Gorman as having satisfied the criteria for efficacy: that is, they had been shown to be superior to placebo in randomised controlled trials. The problem of effectiveness (does the treatment still work when used by the average clinician with the average patient?) is a general one in medicine, but the evidence in psychiatry is not outstanding. The problem of efficiency (what level of resources are required to produce benefit?) is being addressed in a piecemeal fashion, and again this is no different to the situation in general medicine. Conclusions: Aconsiderable number of treatments have been shown to satisfy the criteria for efficacy. Effectiveness requires that psychiatrists apply such proven treatments and demonstrate benefit through the use of outcome measurement. A system that separated the health budget into segments for prevention, cure and care might ensure that these three goals were pursued equitably and efficiently.
Overactivation of α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methylisoxazole‐4‐propionate and N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate but not kainate receptors inhibits phosphatidylcholine synthesis before excitotoxic neuronal death
Authors: Gasull Teresa , DeGregorio‐Rocasolano Nuria , Trullas Ramon 
Published: July 2002

Glutamate receptor overactivation induces excitotoxic neuronal death, but the contribution of glutamate receptor subtypes to this excitotoxicity is unclear. We have previously shown that excitotoxicity by NMDA receptor overactivation is associated with choline release and inhibition of phosphatidylcholine synthesis. We have now investigated whether the ability of non‐NMDA ionotropic glutamate receptor subtypes to induce excitotoxicity is related to the ability to inhibit phosphatidylcholine synthesis. α‐Amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methylisoxazole‐4‐propionate (AMPA)‐induced a concentration‐dependent increase in extracellular choline and inhibited phosphatidylcholine synthesis when receptor desensitization was prevented. Kainate released choline and inhibited phosphatidylcholine synthesis by an action at AMPA receptors, because these effects of kainate were blocked by the AMPA receptor antagonist LY300164. Selective activation of kainate receptors failed to release choline, even when kainate receptor desensitization was prevented. The inhibition of phosphatidylcholine synthesis evoked by activation of non‐desensitizing AMPA receptors was followed by neuronal death. In contrast, specific kainate receptor activation, which did not inhibit phosphatidylcholine synthesis, did not produce neuronal death. Choline release and inhibition of phosphatidylcholine synthesis were induced by AMPA at non‐desensitizing AMPA receptors well before excitotoxicity. Furthermore, choline release by AMPA required the entry of Ca2+ through the receptor channel. Our results show that AMPA, but not kainate, receptor overactivation induces excitotoxic cell death, and that this effect is directly related to the ability to inhibit phosphatidylcholine synthesis. Moreover, these results indicate that inhibition of phosphatidylcholine synthesis is an early event of the excitotoxic process, downstream of glutamate receptor‐mediated Ca2+ overload.
Development of pupillary responses to grating stimuli*
Authors: Cocker Kenneth D. , Moseley Merrick J. 
Published: July 2002

SummaryPupillary responses to stationary, achromatic sine wave gratings were measured in adults and in 1‐ and 3‐month‐old infants. Measurements of behaviourally determined contrast sensitivity were also obtained from the infant subjects. Contrast sensitivity functions were typical of those previously described: band‐pass in nature with sensitivity increasing markedly with age. The pupil grating response amplitudes also exhibited a spatial frequency and age dependence similar to that observed for contrast sensitivity. These findings provide further evidence that the neural mechanisms which underlie visual sensitivity to contrast also mediate pupillary responses to spatial structure.
A longitudinal study of cycloplegic refraction in a cohort of 350 Japanese schoolchildren. Cycloplegic refraction
Authors: Watanabe S. , Yamashita T. , Ohba N. 
Published: July 2002

SummaryWe performed a 5 year longitudinal study of cycloplegic refraction in a cohort of 350 Japanese schoolchildren from 6 to 11 years of age in a rural area of southwestern Japan. The spherical refraction was measured under cycloplegia with an infrared autorefractometer. The grouped data from 350 right eyes showed leptokurtic frequency distributions, and the median was +0.91 D at age 6 yrs, shifted towards emmetropia with increasing age and reached +0.34 D at age 11 years. The prevalence of myopia of −1.0 D or more was 0.3%, 0.6%, 2.0%, 2.6%, 2.9%, and 4.9% from age 6 to 11 years, and the prevalence of myopia of more than −2.0 D was less than 1% at age 6–9 years and thereafter increased up to 6.0% at age 11 years. Linear regression analysis for the longitudinal refractive data revealed that 247 (70.6%) of the 350 eyes exhibited first‐order linear decrease in hyperopia or increase in myopia with an average annual change of −0.15 D/year, 14 (4%) showed second‐order curvilinear change, and 89 (25.4%) remained unchanged. In the eyes with linear change, there was a significant relationship between the refraction at age 6 years and the rate of subsequent change such that the less hyperopic or emmetropic at age 6 years, the larger the change. The refraction at birth was estimated by extrapolation of the linear regression analysis results, implying that 88% of newborns have hyperopia of +1.0 D or greater and myopia is rare. These results indicate the current state of refraction in Japanese schoolchildren of a rural area.
Cognitive Impairment after Stroke: Clinical Determinants and Its Associations with Long‐Term Stroke Outcomes
Authors: Patel Mehool D. , Coshall Catherine , Rudd Anthony G. , Wolfe Charles D. A. 
Published: July 2002

OBJECTIVES: To identify factors that were associated with cognitive impairment 3 months after stroke, and to examine the associations of cognitive impairment with stroke outcomes up to 4 years after stroke.DESIGN: Observational study.SETTING: Population‐based stroke register.PARTICIPANTS: Six hundred forty‐five subjects with first‐ever stroke, identified from the register.MEASUREMENTS: Subjects were assessed for cognition using the Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE) 3 months after stroke. Cognitively impaired subjects (MMSE <24, n = 248 (38%)) were compared with cognitively intact subjects (MMSE 24–30, n = 397) in terms of demographic details, stroke risk factors, laterality of stroke, and initial poststroke impairments. Outcome data collected at 1, 3, and 4 years poststroke included disability assessed by the Barthel Index (BI) and the Frenchay Activity Index, case fatality, and institutionalization.RESULTS: Two hundred forty‐eight (38%) of 645 subjects were cognitively impaired 3 months after stroke. Using multivariate analyses, cognitive impairment was associated with age of 75 and older (odds ratio (OR) = 2.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.5–4.2), ethnicity (Caribbean/African (OR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.2–3.2) and Asian (OR = 3.4, 95% CI = 1.1–10.2), lower socioeconomic class (OR = 2.1, 95% CI = 1.3–3.3), left hemispheric lesion (OR = 1.6, 95% CI = 1.01–2.4), visual field defect (OR = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.2–3.2), and urinary incontinence (OR = 4.8, 95% CI = 3.1–7.3). Using multivariate analyses, cognitive impairment was associated with death or disability (BI <15) at 4 years after stroke (OR = 2.2, 95% CI = 1.1–4.5). In univariate analyses, it was also associated with higher institutionalization 4 years after stroke (P = .001).CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive impairment is common 3 months after stroke and is independently associated with older age, ethnicity, lower social class, left hemispheric stroke, visual field defect, and urinary incontinence. It is associated with poor long‐term outcomes, including survival and disability, up to 4 years after stroke. Because physical and cognitive impairments after stroke have independent prognostic implications, measures that evaluate both functions should be used in future studies of stroke outcome and in care of stroke patients.
Public and Private Citizenship: From Gender Invisibility to Feminist Inclusiveness
Authors: Prokhovnik Raia 
Published: July 2002

Conceptions of citizenship which rest on an abstract and universal notion of the individual founder on their inability to recognize the political relevance of gender. Such conceptions, because their ‘gender-neutrality’ has the effect of excluding women, are not helpful to the project of promoting the full citizenship of women. The question of citizenship is often reduced to either political citizenship, in terms of an instrumental notion of political participation, or social citizenship, in terms of an instrumental notion of economic (in)dependence. The paper argues for the recognition of citizenship as gendered, and as an ethical, that is non-instrumental, social status which is distinct from both political participation and economic (in)dependence. What unites us as citizens, in our equal membership of the political community, need not rely on a conception of us as ‘neutral’ (abstract, universalized, genderless) individuals undertaking one specific activity located in the public realm, but can take account of the diverse ways in which we engage in ethically-grounded activities on the basis of our different genders, ethnic and cultural backgrounds and other differences, in both the public and private realms. A convincing feminist conception of citizenship necessarily involves a radical redefinition of the public/private distinction to accommodate the recognition of citizenship practices in the private realm. The paper builds on the observation that the concept of ‘citizenship’ is broader than the concept of ‘the political’ (or ‘the social/economic’), and contends that feminism provides us with the emancipatory potential of gendered subjectivity, which applies to both men and women. The recognition of gendered subjectivity opens the way to the recognition of the diversity of citizenship practices. It is not that women need to be liberated from the private realm, in order to take part in the public realm as equal citizens, but that women – and men – already undertake responsibilities of citizenship in both the public and the private realms.
Inhibitors of Complement Activity in Human Breast‐Milk: A Proposed Hypothesis of Their Physiological Significance
Authors: Ogundele Michael Oladipo 
Published: July 2002

Several natural components abundant in the fluid phase of human breast‐milk have been shown to be inhibitors of complement activation in vitro, particularly the classical pathway. These include lysozyme, lactoferrin, lactalbumin alpha and other ligand chelators, complement regulator proteins and other specific soluble inhibitors of complement activation. Their physiological significance probably resides in their ability to restrict in vivo complement activation to specialized (compartmentalized) sites on the cellular membrane structures in human milk, represented by the abundant surface area of the milk fat globule membranes. This would serve to prevent inflammatory‐induced tissue damage of the delicate immature gastrointestinal tract of the newborn as well as the mammary gland itself. A number of recognized and potential inhibitors of complement activity in human milk and other biological fluids are hereby reviewed, with a proposal of their physiological significance.Abbreviations: HBM, human breast‐milk; APC, alternative complement activation pathway; MAC, membrane attack complex (C5b‐9); MFGM, milk fat globule membrane
Language repair via metalinguistic means
Authors: Hirschman Mary 
Published: July 2002

AbstractChildren with specific language impairment (SLI) have been shown to be deficient in the use of complex sentences. In an attempt to remediate this area of weakness, two groups of such children (mean ages 9;4 and 10;6) received about 55 half‐hour sessions of metalinguistic training spread over 12 months. Results showed that the use of complex sentences increased to at least normal levels in the experimental groups, and were significantly improved, at both the written and oral levels, as compared with SLI control groups, which evidenced little change over the same period. Further analysis of the data revealed the striking finding that those children who had the poorest complex sentence usage tended to benefit the most from metalinguistic training. These results are interpreted as support for the hypothesis that metalinguistic training helps to overcome the presumed neurological deficit of the language disordered child by making linguistic rules conscious, and thereby providing a A'metalinguistic bridgeA' via which information can bypass the damaged area.
Tense and finiteness in the speech of children with specific language impairment acquiring Hebrew
Authors: B. Leonard Laurence , Dromi Esther , Adam Galit , Zadunaisky‐Ehrlich Sara 
Published: July 2002

AbstractVerb morphology is often an area of extraordinary difficulty for children with specific language impairment (SLI). However, in Hebrew, this difficulty appears to be more circumscribed than in other languages. In a recent study by Dromi et al, the limitations exhibited by a group of Hebrew‐speaking children with SLI were confined primarily to the use of agreement inflections within past tense. This difficulty was interpreted as being due to the fact that the agreement paradigm within past tense is rather complex (involving person, number, and gender, along with tense). This study explores another possibility ‐ that these inflections were difficult because they required past tense in particular. Also determined was whether the children's frequent use of the morphologically simplest forms (such as past third person masculine singular) in place of the correct forms could be interpreted as their selection of a non‐finite default form. A group of Hebrew‐speaking children with SLI (age 4;2 to 6;1) participated, along with a group of age controls, and a group of younger normally developing children matched for mean length of utterance (MLU). The children listened to stories that were accompanied by pictures. During each story, the children completed the experimenter's incomplete sentences using appropriate verbs. To complete the sentences accurately, the children had to alter the tense or finiteness of the verb used by the experimenter in the preceding sentence. The results indicated that the children with SLI had more difficulty than both comparison groups in the production of basic present and past forms and infinitive forms of verbs that required use of one particular phonological template or ‘binyan’. However, for the verbs requiring the remaining three phonological templates, the children with SLI were as capable as MLU controls in their command of past as well as present tense, and in their use of infinitive forms. It is concluded that tense and finiteness probably do not form the core of the problem faced by Hebrew‐speaking children with SLI in the area of verb morphology.
Non‐Word Repetition In Children With Language Impairment‐Pitfalls And Possibilities
Authors: Sahlen Birgitta , Reuterskiold‐Wagner Christina , Nettelbladt Ulrika , Radeborg Karl 
Published: July 2002

AbstractSpecific language impairment has, although not without controversy, been considered as a consequence of a phonological memory deficit. Non‐word repetition has been proposed as a reliable index of phonological memory and also as predictive of lexical and grammatical development in normally developing and language‐impaired children. The main aim was to study the relationship between repetition of words and non‐words and expressive language skills (phonology and grammar) in 27 5‐year‐old children with language impairment. The authors also wanted to explore the influence of lexical stress on repetition skills. The results showed that words were significantly easier to repeat than non‐words and that non‐word repetition skills were significantly correlated to phonological and grammatical development. The most important predictor of non‐word repetition skills was output phonology. The conclusion is that nonword repetition is not a single, reliable index of phonological memory in preschool children with language impairment. Also, the influence of prosodic variables on segmental aspects of speech production should not be overlooked in non‐word construction, since it was found that unstressed syllables were omitted six times more often in prestressed than in post‐stressed positions of the words and non‐words.
Nitric Oxide: The “Second Messenger” of Insulin
Authors: Kahn Nighat N. , Acharya K. , Bhattacharya S. , Acharya R. , Mazumder S. , Bauman William A. , Sinha Asru K. 
Published: July 2002

AbstractIncubation of various tissues, including heart, liver, kidney, muscle, and intestine from mice and erythrocytes or their membrane fractions from humans, with physiologic concentration of insulin resulted in the activation of a membrane‐bound nitric oxide synthase (NOS). Activation of NOS and synthesis of NO were stimulated by the binding of insulin to specific receptors on the cell surface. A Lineweaver‐Burk plot of the enzymatic activity demonstrated that the stimulation of NOS by insulin was related to the decrease in the Km for L‐arginine, the substrate for NOS, with a simultaneous increase of Vmax. Addition of NG‐nitro‐L‐arginine methyl ester (LNAME), a competitive inhibitor of NOS, to the reaction mixture completely inhibited the hormone‐stimulated NO synthesis in all tissues. Furthermore, NO had an insulin‐like effect in stimulating glucose transport and glucose oxidation in muscle, a major site for insulin action. Addition of NAME to the reaction mixture completely blocked the stimulatory effect of insulin by inhibiting both NO production and glucose metabolism, without affecting the hormone‐stimulated tyrosine or phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinases of the membrane preparation. Injection of NO in alloxan‐induced diabetic mice mimicked the effect of insulin in the control of hyperglycemia (i.e., lowered the glucose content in plasma). However, injection of NAME before the administration of insulin to diabetic‐induced and nondiabetic mice inhibited not only the insulin‐stimulated increase of NO in plasma but also the glucose‐lowering effect of insulin.
Evolutionary Aspects of Calmodulin
Authors: Friedberg Felix , Rhoads Allen R. 
Published: July 2002

AbstractCalmodulin (CaM) is a major cellular sensor of calcium signaling, interacts with numerous proteins associated with cellular second messenger systems (e.g., cyclic AMP, nitric oxide), and is associated with neurosecretory activity. An identical CaM protein consisting of four helix‐loop‐helix regions that arose by gene duplication is encoded by three nonallelic mammalian genes that are some of the most highly conserved genes known. Differential tissue and cellular expression of each CaM suggest unique functions that promote strong selective preservation of these replicate, yet distinct, CaM genes in mammals. Each gene displays the same exon‐intron arrangement but is characterized by distinct promoter elements and by unique 5'‐ and 3'‐untranslated regions that are highly conserved among human, rat, and mouse. These distinct untranslated regions may permit regulation of CaM levels at discrete cellular sites during differentiation and in highly specialized cell types such as neurons.