Massage Therapy Facilitates Weight Gain in Preterm Infants

Studies from several labs have documented a 31 to 47% greater weight gain in preterm newborns receiving massage therapy (three 15-min sessions for 5–10 days) compared with standard medical treatment. Although the underlying mechanism for this relationship between massage therapy and weight gain has not yet been established, possibilities that have been explored in studies with both humans and rats include (a) increased protein synthesis, (b) increased vagal activity that releases food-absorption hormones like insulin and enhances gastric motility, and (c) decreased cortisol levels leading to increased oxytocin. In addition, functional magnetic resonance imaging studies are being conducted to assess the effects of touch therapy on brain development. Further behavioral, physiological, and genetic research is needed to understand these effects of massage therapy on growth and development.     

Gilbert综合征——肝移植术后胆红素升高的罕见原因

Gilbert综合征是肝移植术后中、远期高胆红素血症一个罕见的病因。目前,在我国肝移植领域还缺乏对本病的清楚认识,当移植受者罹患本病时,往往得不到正确的诊治及合理的解释,造成患者心理及经济上的负担。本文详细阐述了本病的定义、发病机理、临床表现、诊断方法及预后,旨在提高广大业内人士对本病的认识。     

中医整体观念对推拿临床的指导意义及其应用举隅

从中医对人体疾病的认识、诊断与治疗三个方面,就中医整体观念对推拿临床的指导意义加以探讨,并举例说明中医整体观念在推拿治疗颈椎病、腰椎间盘突出症、骶骼关节损伤错位所引起的痛经等疾病中的具体运用,旨在引起推拿同仁在推拿临床中对中医整体观念的重视。     

Measuring Shaken Baby Syndrome awareness: preliminary reliability of a caregiver attitudes and beliefs survey

Recent estimates of Shaken Baby Syndrome awareness suggest that approximately half of all American adults have not heard of the often devastating risks of shaking an infant. Using a sample of 288 undergraduate students, we developed a measure of attitudes around infant care practices. A total of 264 community participants completed a revised survey. Between-group comparisons, exploratory factor analyses, and internal consistency tests were employed to determine the directionality and reliability of any scale structure present in the data. A five factor structure fits the data reliably, and each of these factors seems to represent a unique dimension. Implications for using this measure clinically and preventatively are discussed.     

And who thinks on the baby? Thoughts on the method of infant observation

Abstract

After the method of infant observation, as developed by Esther Bick, and its significance for psychoanalytic training have been outlined, the method is critically assessed. The suggestion is then made that infant observation should be supplemented by video-analytic infant observation. Finally, thoughts on modifications of the process of infant observation are presented.     

Distanced Perspectives: Aids,Anencephaly, and Ahp

US court decisions guaranteeing life-sustaining care to anencephalic infants have been viewed with disfavor, and sometimes disbelief, by some ethicists who do not believe in the necessity of life-sustaining support for those without cognitive abilities or an independently sustainable future. The distance between these two views – one legal and inclusive, the other medical and specific – seems unbridgeable. This paper reports on a program using multicriterion decision making to define and describe persons in a way which both acknowledges the differences perceived by many as well as those commonalities insisted on in U.S. court decisions. It does this through application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process to a hierarchy of humanness criteria, and secondarily through reference to that concept's subset, personhood.     

黄疸

本文报告了一例44岁男性黄疸病人的诊治经过与分析。该病人因黄疸、食欲差,先被诊断为“黄疸型肝炎”,用中药治疗无效。后经B超检查诊断为“胆囊、胆管多发结石”建议手术治疗。术前,结合病史、体检及多种影像学检查手段复查,诊断确定为“下段胆管癌、梗阻性黄疸、肝及胆囊淤滞性肿大”。手术探查中,因发现胰腺头部肿物,考虑胰头癌可能,遂行胰十二指肠切除术。术后病理检查报告为胆总管下段低分化腺癌伴胰腺头部癌组织侵犯。结合此病例的特点及诊治过程,对表现为黄疸,容易与胆总管下段癌混淆的各种良、恶性肝、胆、胰疾病作了有针对性的分析与鉴别。     

Mechanical Chair Massage and Stress Reduction in the Seriously Mentally Ill Consumer: A Preliminary Investigation

In the present study, the authors evaluate the effectiveness of a mechanical massage chair in reducing stress for people with serious and persistent mental illness. This preliminary investigation involves the use of massage therapy for 19 people with serious mental illness, using a standardized massage protocol. Stress levels were assessed using a 7-point Likert scale, administered before and after each treatment session. Self-reported stress was found to be significantly reduced, with participants reporting an average stress reduction of 1.48. This preliminary investigation demonstrates that use of a mechanical massage chair can significantly reduce self-identified stress levels in persons with serious mental illness.     

Cradling side preference is associated with lateralized processing of baby facial expressions in females

Women’s cradling side preference has been related to contralateral hemispheric specialization of processing emotional signals; but not of processing baby’s facial expression. Therefore, 46 nulliparous female volunteers were characterized as left or non-left holders (HG) during a doll holding task. During a signal detection task they were then asked to detect the emotional baby faces in a series of baby portraits with neutral and emotional facial expressions, presented either to the left or the right visual field (VFP). ANOVA revealed a significant HG × VFP interaction on response bias data (p < .05). Response bias was lowest when emotional baby faces were presented in the visual field of cradling side preference, suggesting that women’s cradling side preference may have evolved to save cognitive resources during monitoring emotional baby face signals.     

Are children's faces really more appealing than those of adults? Testing the baby schema hypothesis beyond infancy

This study examined adults’ evaluations of likeability and attractiveness of children’s faces from infancy to early childhood. We tested whether Lorenz’s baby schema hypothesis (Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie (1943), Vol. 5, pp. 235-409) is applicable not only to infant faces but also to faces of children at older ages. Adult participants were asked to evaluate children’s faces from early infancy to 6 years of age in terms of their likeability and attractiveness, and these judgments were compared with those of adult faces. It was revealed that adults judged faces of younger children as more likeable and attractive than faces of older children, which were in turn judged as more likeable and attractive than adult faces. However, after approximately 4.5 years of age, the baby schema no longer affected adults’ judgments of children’s facial likeability and attractiveness. These findings suggest that the baby schema affects adults’ judgments of not only infant faces but also young children’s faces. This influence beyond infancy is likely due to the fact that facial cranial growth is gradual during early childhood and certain crucial infantile facial cues remain readily available during this period. Future studies need to identify these specific cues to better understand why adults generally show positive responses to infantile faces and how such positive responses influence the establishment and maintenance of social relationships between young children and adults.     

Neonatal auditory evoked responses are related to perinatal maternal anxiety

Maternal stress and anxiety during pregnancy are related to negative developmental outcomes for offspring, both physiological and psychological, from the fetal period through early adolescence. This robust relationship is likely to be partly explained by alterations in fetal neurodevelopmental programming, calling for further examination of neurophysiologically-based cognitive markers that may be related to the altered structure–function relationships that contribute to these negative developmental outcomes. The current investigation examined the relationship between perinatal maternal anxiety and neonatal auditory evoked responses (AERs) to mother and stranger voices. Results indicated that neonates of low-anxiety mothers displayed more negative frontal slow wave amplitudes in response to their mother’s voice compared to a female stranger’s voice, while neonates of high-anxiety mothers showed the opposite pattern. These findings suggest that neonates of perinatally anxious mothers may demonstrate neurophysiologically-based differences in attentional allocation. This could represent one pathway to the negative psychological outcomes seen throughout development in offspring of anxious mothers.     

The effects of baby bath and massage by fathers on the family system: The sunraysia australia intervention project

Instruction in baby massage and the Burleigh Relaxation Bath technique was given to one-half of our sample of 32 couples who had just had their first child. This brief intervention, given at 4 weeks post-partum, led to beneficial behavioural and psychological effects for the family system when assessed at 12 weeks postpartum. Depression and marital satisfaction were assessed with mothers and fathers at 4 weeks and 12 weeks after the birth of their child, and self-esteem was measured at 12 weeks only. The mothers and fathers who were shown baby bathing and massage techniques showed higher degrees of marital satisfaction and self-esteem, as well as lower levels of depression at 12 weeks post-partum, than parents who did not receive instruction. It seems likely that brief interventions which educate new parents concerning functional techniques of baby care may favourably affect their feelings of competence and be of benefit to the entire family system.     

关于晚期消化道肿瘤姑息性手术治疗的思考

晚期消化道肿瘤预后差,生存期短,容易合并某种或某些严重影响脏器功能、甚至危及生命的并发症,如果手术无法彻底根治,需要尽快处理,采取姑息性手术治疗能够缓解症状、减轻痛苦、改善生活质量,甚至达到延长生命的目的。在综合治疗过程中,外科手术能够为下一步治疗提供基础,创造条件。多年以来,对于晚期消化道肿瘤的治疗,姑息性手术取得一...     

Neonatal Euthanasia Is Unsupportable: The Groningen Protocol Should Be Abandoned

The growing support for voluntary active euthanasia (VAE) is evident in the recently approved Dutch Law on Termination of Life on Request. Indeed, the debate over legalized VAE has increased in European countries, the United States, and many other nations over the last several years. The proponents of VAE argue that when a patient judges that the burdens of living outweigh the benefits, euthanasia can be justified. If some adults suffer to such an extent that VAE is justified, then one may conclude that some children suffer to this extent as well. In an attempt to alleviate the suffering of extremely ill neonates, the University Medical Center Groningen developed a protocol for neonatal euthanasia. In this article, I first present the ethical justifications for VAE and discuss how these arguments relate to euthanizing ill neonates. I then argue that, even if one accepts the justification for VAE in adults, neonatal euthanasia cannot be supported, primarily because physicians and parents can never accurately assess the suffering of children. I argue that without the testament of the patient herself as to the nature and magnitude of her suffering, physicians can never accurately weigh the benefits and burdens of a child’s life, and therefore any such system would condemn to death some children whose suffering is not unbearable. I conclude that because the primary duty of physicians is to never harm their patients, neonatal euthanasia cannot be supported.