The enhancement of retention induced by vasopressin in mice may be mediated by an activation of central nicotinic cholinergic mechanisms.

Immediate post-training subcutaneous administration of lysine vasopressin (LVP, 0.003-1.00 microgram/kg) enhanced retention, whereas the vasopressin antagonist AAVP (0.01-0.30 microgram/kg) impaired it, in male Swiss mice tested 48 h after training in an inhibitory avoidance task. Both effects were dose-dependent. Neither LVP nor AAVP affected response latencies in mice not given the footshock on the training trial. The simultaneous administration of AAVP at a dose (0.01 microgram/kg) which had no effect on retention shifted the dose-response curve of LVP to the right. Nicotine (1.0-30.0 micrograms/kg, sc), a central nicotinic cholinergic agonist, also facilitated retention in a dose-related manner without affecting the retention performance of unshocked mice. The effect of nicotine was prevented by the central acting nicotinic cholinergic receptor antagonist mecamylamine (5 mg/kg, sc.). In contrast, neither hexamethonium (5 mg/kg, sc), a peripheral acting nicotinic receptor blocker, nor atropine (0.5 mg/kg, sc) or methylatropine (0.5 mg/kg, sc), two anticholinergic drugs which are known to act on muscarinic cholinergic receptors, prevented the effect of post-training nicotine. The effects of LVP and nicotine were time-dependent, suggesting that both treatments enhanced retention by influencing post-training processes involved in memory storage. Low doses of nicotine (1.50 microgram/kg, sc) or the central anticholinesterase physostigmine (35 micrograms/kg, sc) and LVP (0.003 microgram/kg, sc), which had no effect on retention when administered alone, produced a synergistic interaction when given together following training. The influence of LVP (0.03 microgram/kg, sc) on retention was prevented not only by AAVP (0.01 microgram/kg, sc) but also by mecamylamine (5 mg/kg, sc), whereas the effects of nicotine (10.0 micrograms/kg, sc) were prevented only by mecamylamine. These results suggest that the enhancement of retention induced by vasopressin is probably due to an activation of central nicotinic cholinergic mechanisms which are critical for memory formation.     

The effect of flumazenil on acquisition, retention, and retrieval of spatial information.

The effect of flumazenil, a benzodiazepine-receptor antagonist, was evaluated in a spatial-reference memory procedure in a water maze. Flumazenil (1.0, 3.0, and 10.0 mg/kg, ip) did not modify acquisition of spatial information. Retention was similar between control and experimental rats 24 h after the training phase, as all groups showed bias to the target quadrant in a free swim trial. However, 10 days later, only flumazenil-injected rats (3.0 mg/kg) showed bias to the target quadrant. Flumazenil did not affect retrieval of spatial information in a group of well-trained rats. These results suggest that a benzodiazepine-receptor mediated endogenous mechanism is activated during learning of spatial tasks and that its blockade facilitates retention of spatial information.     

Fluid noncompliance and symptomatology in end-stage renal disease: cognitive and emotional variables

Fluid noncompliance in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is a widespread problem with severe consequences for health. In addition, ESRD patients report considerable stress in relation to their illness and dialysis treatment. The present study examined the role of cognitive and emotional variables in fluid noncompliance, symptomatology, and stress. Fifty hemodialysis patients were assessed (a) on the cognitive variables of locus of control, self-evaluations of their past compliance, and self-efficacy to resist fluid intake and (b) on the emotional variables of depression, anger, and anxiety. Results showed that cognitive variables accounted for fluid noncompliance and predicted future adherence. Patients high in negative emotions complied equally as well as patients low in negative emotions but were found to report substantially more symptomatology and distress associated with their treatment. The implications of these findings for treatment of ESRD patients and future research are discussed.     

Gender differences in health-related quality of life

In 1986 the life expectancy at birth was 71.3 years for males and 78.3 years for females--providing a 7-year advantage for women. Although women live longer, it has been reported that they paradoxically experience more physical and psychological illnesses. In this article, we estimate the expected well-years or quality-adjusted life years for men and women in the general population. The data were obtained in a random sample of 1,034 residents of San Diego. The well-life expectancy uses standard life expectancies with adjustments for quality of life. The well-life expectancy for men was 59.8 years; for women, it was 62.7 years. Thus, the quality adjustment had significantly more impact on women (15.6 years) than on men (11.5 years). Age-specific estimates of health-related quality of life suggested a male advantage before age 45 and a female advantage after age 45. The benefits of well-years of life as a public health statistic are discussed.     

The role of cosmetics in attributions about sexual harassment

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of cosmetics use on attributions concerning the likelihood of provoking sexual harassment and of being sexually harassed. Subjects were 85 female and 76 male undergraduate volunteers. The study was a 3×2 between-subjects design with three levels of cosmetics use (heavy, moderate, no cosmetics) and two levels of sex of subject (male, female). Each subject viewed one of three colored photographs of a model wearing either heavy, moderate, or no cosmetics, and then indicated how likely the model was to provoke sexual harassment and to be sexually harassed. Data were analyzed using analyses of variance and the Newman-Keuls test. When the model wore heavy cosmetics, she was rated as more likely to provoke sexual harassment than when she wore moderate cosmetics. Similarly, when the model wore moderate cosmetics, she was rated as significantly more likely to provoke sexual harassment than when she was not wearing cosmetics. When the model wore either heavy or moderate cosmetics, she was also rated as more likely to be sexually harassed than when she did not wear cosmetics. In addition, male subjects rated the model as more likely to provoke and to be sexually harassed than did female subjects. Results are discussed in terms of sex role spillover.     

Suicidal behavior in Italy: data, trends and guidelines for a suicide intervention/prevention policy.

Even though in Italy, as in the majority of Mediterranean countries, the increase in suicide rates is not among the highest in Europe, between 1969 and 1989 it showed a sharp upswing (+43% among males and +31% among females). In terms of geographical differences, the regions with the highest suicide rate are the northern ones (up to twice the national average). The age groups with the highest suicide risk are those over 74 years (in 1989 the rate among males over 65 was the highest of all: 31.3 per 100,000). The differences in the between-sexes distribution show that among females over 65 years old the suicide rate rose by 70% between 1974 and 1989, versus 77% for males of the same age. The preliminary epidemiological results of one of two Italian centers are presented. These centers are collaborating with the WHO/EURO Multicenter Study on Parasuicide; parasuicide rates are higher for females than for males (55.9 per 100,000, as against 38.1 for males), while the age group at highest risk is seen to be young women (15-24 years), with a specific rate of 115.6.     

Getting to the Bottom to Understand the Top

Culture is a vague and elusive concept that most individuals seldom explain or consciously think about and evaluate. It is imperative, however, that counselors engaged in multicultural counseling have an understanding of what is meant by culture. A myriad of definitions exist that focus on behaviors and artifacts to shared belief systems and worldviews. It is suggested that the philosophical assumptions underlying a worldview, the deep structure of culture, provide a framework for better understanding cultural differences. Viewing culture from this holistic perspective facilitates culturally relevant meanings to the explanation of behaviors, thus placing one at a greater advantage for understanding behavioral and attitudinal differences. Cultura es un concepto vago y evasivo que la mayoría de los individuos no suelen explicar, ni pensar conscientemente sobre él, ni tampoco lo evaluan. Sin embargo, es necesario que los consejeros que trabajan en la consejería multicultural entiendan lo que se quiere decir con cultura. Existe una miriada de definiciones que se centran en el comportamiento y los utensilios hasta formar un sistema verosimil y una visión universal. Se surgiere que las asunciones filisóficas que son la base de una visión universal, la estructura profunda de cultura, proporcionan un cuadro que permite entender mejor las diferencias culturales. El ver la cultura desde esta perspectiva holísitica facilita entiendimientos culturalmente pertinentes para la explicación de comportamientos y de este modo aumenta las ventajas para entender diferencias de conducta y diferentes actitudes.     

Age and depression: unique and shared effects

The degree to which psychosocial variables associated with depression were also associated with age was examined in 3 samples of community residents 50 years of age or older (N = 4,617). Most of the expected concomitants of depression were found. With only a few exceptions, age was not correlated with depression-related psychosocial variables. Rather, age was most strongly associated with levels in neuropsychological and psychophysiological functioning. In addition, the magnitudes of the correlations in women compared with men and in young-old age groups compared with old-age groups were examined. A number of significant differences emerged, and their implications for theories of depression are noted.     

Changes in depressive-symptom experiences among older women.

Changes in depressive-symptom experiences over a 5-year period were investigated in a community sample of 251 women between the ages of 51 and 92 years. Findings from a confirmatory factor analysis of the SCL-90-R Depression and Additional Symptoms scales (Derogatis, 1983) indicate that two phenomenally different syndromes underlie symptom-reporting patterns. A depressive syndrome, more classic in form, shows decreasing levels with increasing age, although a depletion syndrome, marked by feelings of enervation and a loss of interest in things, shows increasing levels with advancing age. The relative independence of the two syndromes, as well as their differing relations to four more delimited forms of distress that were identified in the analyses, have important implications for future research on the age-depression relation.     

Adult age differences in letter-level and word-level processing

Older and young adults' letter detection and lexical decision performance were examined as word frequency varied to determine whether there were age differences in word recognition. Allen and Madden (1989) found that older adults' pattern of reaction time (RT) across word frequency categories was different from young adults' pattern for a letter detection task. In this study, for both letter detection and lexical decision tasks, older adults exhibited a monotonically decreasing RT function as word frequency increased. However, young adults exhibited a nonmonotonic RT function across word frequency for the letter detection task but a monotonically decreasing RT function as word frequency increased for the lexical decision task. An expanded parallel input serial analysis model of word processing was hypothesized.