Electroconvulsive stimulations prevent stress-induced morphological changes in the hippocampus

Stress can precipitate major depression and other disorders linked to hippocampal shrinkage. It is hypothesized but not established that treatment of these disorders reverses and prevents the hippocampal changes. Dendritic retraction of individual neurons might in concert with other pathophysiological events contribute to the shrinkage phenomenon. Animal studies have shown that various stress paradigms can induce dendritic retraction in the CA3 pyramidal neurons of the hippocampus. Since electroconvulsive treatment is the most effective treatment in humans with major depression, we investigated whether repeated electroconvulsive stimulations (ECSs) could influence such changes in stressed rats. Furthermore, we investigated whether ECSs per se could influence neuronal branching and total length of the CA3 hippocampal neuronal dendritic tree in normal rats. Rats were stressed using the 21-day 6 h daily restraint stress paradigm. The study shows that stress caused remodelling of the pyramidal neurons by significantly reducing the number of dendritic branch points and total length of the apical dendritic tree. Concomitant administration of ECSs prevented these effects. ECSs had no effect on pyramidal neuron dendrites in normal rats.     

Constructive conversations: Revisiting selected developments with clients and counsellors

Aim: to examine client and counsellor experiences in using and responding to social constructionist (e.g. solution‐focused, narrative and collaborative approaches) questions and other conversational interventions. Method: retrospective comments were elicited from 32 clients and 12 counsellors (trained in social constructionist counselling approaches) in reviewing their videotaped use of (or response to) questions and interventions from the social constructionist approaches in single session lifestyle consultations. These comments were transcribed then analysed using the constant comparison method of grounded theory. Results: five common themes (but with different emphases for clients and counsellors) were identified: exploring and adopting the client's perspective; identifying alternative perspectives; identifying strengths, possibilities, and solutions; developing a shared understanding; struggling to talk in a different way. Conclusions: the findings will be useful to counsellors interested in improving their responsive use of questions and interventions in dialogues with clients.     

Leisure time physical activity motives and smoking in adolescence

ObjectivesThe study aimed to gain a better understanding of the relationship between leisure time physical activity and smoking in adolescence by investigating adolescents' motives for participation in leisure time physical activity.MethodsThe study involved cross-sectional and longitudinal data from a postal survey involving 16–22-year old Danes. The hypothesized associations were examined using hierarchical logistic regression analyses.ResultsAn inverse association between participating in leisure time physical activity and smoking was found. Participation in leisure time physical activity for friendship or competition reasons were conditions that strengthened the inverse association between physical activity and smoking in males. In contrast, participation for the reason of losing weight or gaining self-esteem appeared to weaken the inverse association among females. In addition, the motives enjoyment, health and, in females, friendships and stress relief were associated with less smoking irrespective of participation level, while the motives self-esteem, losing weight and, in males, friendships were unrelated or even positively related to smoking.ConclusionsThe association between adolescents' leisure time physical activity and smoking behavior differs with the underlying motivation for the activity.     

Muslims in europe: History revisited or a way forward?

While the immigration and settlement of Muslims in western Europe can be traced back over several centuries, the settlement which has taken place since 1945 has created a substantial challenge to traditional European and Muslim ways of life and identity. A major change is taking place around the growth of a generation of young people born and brought up in Europe. Their attitudes and responses to their circumstances are not uniform, and a typology is suggested. At the same time, post‐Communist eastern Europe has again opened questions of the relationship between religion, ethnicity and nation in ways which western Europe may now be echoing in its new cultural plurality.     

Book reviews

God, Reason, and Religions: new essays in the philosophy of religion. Eugene Thomas Long (Ed.), 1995. Dordrecht Kluwer Academic. 228 pp., hb. £67.50, ISBN 07 923333 810 3

Christians and Muslims: from double standards to mutual understanding. Hugh Goddard, 1995. London, Curzon Press. 200 pp., pb. £14.99, ISBN 0 7007 0364 0

Al‐Bayanat al‐Masihiyya al‐Islamiyya al‐Mushtaraka. Juliette Haddad (Ed.), 1995. Beirut, Dar al‐Mashriq. 207 pp., pb. n.p., ISBN 2 7214 5005 0

Muslim Writers on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible, from Ibn Rabban to Ibn Hazm. Camilla Adang, 1996. Leiden, E. J. Brill. 321 pp., hb. NLG140, ISBN 90 04 10034 2

Abū Ya qūb al‐Sijistani: intellectual missionary. Paul E. Walker, 1996. London, I. B. Tauris. 132 pp., rib. £35, ISBN 1 85043 921 4

The Cambridge Survey of World Migration. Robin Cohen (Ed.), 1995. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 570 pp., hb. n.p. ISBN 0 521 44405 5

Musulmans en Europe occidentals bibliographic commentée. Muslims in Western Europe: an annotated bibliography. Felice Dassetto & Yves Conrad (Eds), 1996. Paris, Editions L'Harmattan. 202 pp., pb., n.p., ISBN 2 7384 4126 2

Muslim Politics. Dale F. Eickelman & James Piscatori, 1996. Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press. 235 pp., pb. n.p., ISBN 0 691 00870 1

Islam and the Myth of Confrontation: religion and politics in the Middle East. Fred Halliday, 1996. London, I. B. Tauris. 255 pp., £12.95, ISBN 1 85043 959 1

Nine Parts of Desire: the hidden world of Islamic women. Geraldine Brooks, 1995. New York, Doubleday. 255 pp. hb. £22.95, ISBN 0 385 47576 4

Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery. Bahaa’ Taher, 1996. Translated from the Arabic by Barbara Romaine. Berkeley, University of California Press. 124 pp., pb. n.p., ISBN 0 520 20075 6

Dreams of Trespass: tales of a harem girlhood. Fatima Mernissi, 1994. Reading, MA, Addison‐Wesley. 242 pp. pb., ISBN 0 201 62649 7

Lettres et message d'Algérie. P. Claverie, 1996. Paris, Karthala. 222 pp., pb. 120FF, ISBN 2 86537 657 5

Islamic Resurgence and Islamization in Malaysia. S. Batumalai, 1996. Perak, Malaysia. 279 pp., pb. RM 25/‐, no ISBN

Christian‐Muslim Relations: a case study of Sarawak, East Malaysia. Theodore Gabriel, 1996. Aldershot, Avebury. xiv, 133 pp., n.p., ISBN 1 85972 325 X

Muslim Communities in the New Europe. Gerd Nonneman, T. Niblock & B. Sjajkowski (Eds), 1996. Reading, Ithaca Press. 356 pp., hb. £35.00, ISBN 0 86372 192 3

Al‐Mughtaribun: American law and the transformation of Muslim life in the United States. Kathleen M. Moore, 1995. Albany, State University of New York Press. 211 pp., pb. $16.95, ISBN 0 7914 2580 0

The Landscape of Belief: encountering the Holy Land in nineteenth‐century American art and culture. [The Princeton Series in Nineteenth‐Century Art, Culture, and Society]. John Davis, 1996. Princeton, Princeton University Press. 264 pp., hb. $65.00, ISBN 0 691 04373 6     

A study of the contribution of hippocampal-accumbens-subpallidal projections to locomotor activity

Locomotor activity recorded in an automated open-field apparatus was increased substantially by unilateral injections of carbachol, a cholinergic agonist, into the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Hyperactivity elicited in this way was reduced significantly when glutamate antagonists were injected into the ipsilateral nucleus accumbens. Injecting gamma-aminobutyric acid into the ipsilateral subpallidal region also reduced the hyperactivity from injections of carbachol into the dentate gyrus. When these compounds were injected into the contralateral accumbens and subpallidal region, respectively, there was little or no reduction in the carbachol-elicited locomotor activity. These observations suggest that neural pathways fom hippocampus to accumbens to subpallidal region may contribute to locomotor activity.