Angioedema and maculopapular eruptions associated with carbamazepine administration

Cutaneous rashes and eruptions can be caused by many medications, including carbamazepine. The presentation can be varied depending on severity. Cutaneous eruptions occur in 3% of individuals administered carbamazepine. Angioedema, a rare side effect of carbamazepine, involves vascular leakage in dermis and subcutis mediated by immunoglobulin E and/or bradykinins. Angioedema is more common in females and in the third decade of life. We report the case of a 27-year-old Indian woman who developed maculopapular rash and angioedema secondary to carbamazepine administration. The patient responded successfully to withdrawal of the drug and treatment with antihistamines. Due to the potentially life-threatening complications of this condition and the increasing use of anticonvulsants in the treatment of mood disorders, psychiatrists must be aware of the diagnosis and treatment of this condition.     

Self-regulation and inhibition in comorbid ADHD children: an evaluation of executive functions

The relationship between executive function and comorbid diagnoses in ADHD children is examined. One hundred six children between 7 and 15 years of age are assessed using the Tower of London (TOL), a test of executive function, and the Kiddie Schedule of Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia, Present and Lifetime Version, a diagnostic interview. All children met the diagnostic criteria for ADHD. A majority of the children had comorbid anxiety disorders, mood disorders, or oppositional defiant disorder. Measures on the TOL are total move score, total initiation time, and total rule violations. Age is predictive in all three measures of executive function as assessed by the TOL. Gender is predictive of total initiation time and total rule violations. Comorbid disorders are found to not have significance on executive function as measured by the TOL. This study concludes that comorbid disorders may not affect executive function.     

Men are more accurate than women in aiming at targets in both near space and extrapersonal space

Men excel at motor tasks requiring aiming accuracy whereas women excel at different tasks requiring fine motor skill. However, these tasks are confounded with proximity to the body, as fine motor tasks are performed proximally and aiming tasks are directed at distal targets. As such, it is not known whether the male advantage on tasks requiring aiming accuracy is because men have better aim or is better in the proximal domain in which the task is usually presented. 18 men (M age = 20.6 yr., SD = 3.0) and 20 women (M age = 18.7 yr., SD = 0.9) performed 2 tasks of extrapersonal aiming accuracy (>2 m away), 2 tasks of aiming accuracy performed in near space (< 1 m from them), and a task of fine motor skill. Men outperformed women on both the extrapersonal aiming tasks, and women outperformed men on the task of fine motor skill. However, a male advantage was observed for one of the aiming tasks performed in near space, suggesting that the male advantage for aiming accuracy does not result from proximity.     

Novel stimuli are negative stimuli: evidence that negative affect is reduced in the mere exposure effect

Repeated exposure of a nonreinforced stimulus results in an increased preference for that stimulus, the mere exposure effect. The present study repeatedly presented positive, negative, and neutrally affective faces to 48 participants while they made judgments about the emotional expression. Participants then rated the likeability of novel neutrally expressive faces and some of these previously presented faces, this time in their neutral expression. Faces originally presented as happy were rated as the most likeable, followed by faces originally presented as neutral. Negative and novel faces were not rated significantly differently from each other. These findings support the notion that the increase in preference towards repeatedly presented stimuli is the result of the reduction in negative affect, consistent with the modified two-factor uncertainty-reduction model and classical conditioning model of the mere exposure effect.     

Lateral biases in assumptions of lighting position

People presume that the light source in pictures comes from above, and there is some evidence that this phenomenon also demonstrates lateral biases. When investigators present multiple ambiguous stimuli or visually complex objects, people assume that the source of light is from above, and to the left. However, when single relatively simple stimuli are presented, this lateral bias is not readily observed. To investigate whether lateral bias is dependent on the number of stimuli presented, the present experiment employs a within-subjects design to present single spheres or pairs of spheres. Contrary to our expectations, leftward biases were exhibited in both the single-sphere condition and the paired-spheres condition. Single spheres that were lit from the left were more likely to be judged as convex than comparable spheres lit from the right. Similarly, when pairs of laterally lit spheres were presented and participants were asked to judge which sphere appeared to be more convex, participants chose spheres lit from the left regardless of the angle of illumination. Collectively, these results suggest that there are lateral biases in assumptions of illumination position and that these biases do not depend on the number of stimuli being perceived at any given time.     

Laterality of phonological working memory: dependence on type of stimulus,memory load,and sex

Investigations of the laterality of phonological working memory have not always yielded consistent results. The present experiment investigated working memory for letters and numbers in two memory load conditions. In the low load condition, working memory for letters and numbers was similar. However, in the high load condition, males were more accurate at the recall of letters. This effect was not observed with numbers, in which both sexes performed more poorly. Furthermore, we observed consistent RVF advantages for both tasks, although males were more asymmetrical for the recall of letters and females were more asymmetrical for the recall of numbers. This result indicates that laterality of working memory for letters and numbers differs, and these asymmetries depend upon the sex of the participant.     

Tactile gap detection and language lateralization

Recent work suggests that hemispheric language lateralization might be related to the fine-grained temporal discriminations that are required for linguistic processing (Nicholls, 1996). Studies concerning tactile processing have also shown a significant left-hemisphere (L-H) advantage for tactile gap detection (Nicholls & Whelan, 1997). We hypothesized that language and tactile processing are both preferentially processed by the left hemisphere because it is specialized for tasks requiring fine-grained temporal resolution. Thirty-two participants (16 right and 16 left handers) were tested for both linguistic processing (using the Fused Dichotic Words Test (FDWT)) and tactile gap detection. Both right and left handers showed a significant L-H advantage for both language processing and tactile gap detection. The present study supports recent claims that language lateralization is attributable to the left hemisphere's better suitability to process tasks that require fine-grained temporal resolution.     

HIV-positive pregnant women attending the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS (PMTCT) services in Ethiopia: economic productivity losses across urban-rural settings

HIV/AIDS impacts significantly on pregnant women and on children in Ethiopia. This impact has a multiplier effect on household economies and on productivity losses, and is expected to vary across rural and urban settings. Applying the human capital approach to data collected from 131 respondents, this study estimated productivity losses per HIV-positive pregnant woman–infant pair across urban and rural health facilities in Ethiopia, which in turn were used to estimate the national productivity loss. The study found that the annual productivity loss per woman–infant pair was Ethiopian birr (ETB) 7,433 or United States dollar (US$) 378 and ETB 625 (US$ 32) in urban and rural settings, respectively. The mean patient days lost per year due to inpatient admission at hospitals/health centres was 11 in urban and 22 in rural health facilities. On average, urban home care-givers spent 20 (SD = 21) days annually providing home care services, while their rural counterparts spent 23 days (SD = 26). The productivity loss accounted for 16% and 7% of household income in urban and rural settings, respectively. These high and varying productivity losses require preventive interventions that are appropriate to each setting to ensure the welfare of women and children in Ethiopia.     

Means of Assessing Ordinal Interactions in Social Psychology: The Case of Sexism in Judgments of Social Power

This article assesses the efficacy of several statistical methods used for detecting male sexism in ratings of social power. Sexist ratings would be indicated through the observation of an ordinal interaction where female powerholders suffer when being rated by male targets. Such an interaction is typically assessed through an ANOVA. However, Bobko (1986) and Strube & Bobko (1989) recommend alternate methods that may be more appropriate. These methods are reviewed and evaluated using data obtained from 381 undergraduate students. Participants provided ratings of their male and female supervisors' power usage. Analysis indicates that the methods for detecting ordinal interactions recommended by Bobko & Strube are more appropriate than the traditional ANOVA. Furthermore, sexist ratings were observed for 3 of 6 power bases.