Genetic Counseling Outcomes: Perceived Risk and Distress After Counseling for Hereditary Colorectal Cancer

Genetic counseling may turn risk information into cancer prevention behavior by modifying health beliefs and cancer-related distress. We assessed the effect of genetic counseling on these factors in 101 adult first-degree-relatives of colorectal cancer patients from families with known or suspected hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer. Before counseling and once afterward, subjects completed self-report measures of perceived lifetime risk and cancer-distress. Most persons overestimated their cancer risk, and higher perceived risk was associated with believing that colorectal cancer cannot be prevented. Individual perceived risk changed after counseling, although mean perceived risk was unchanged. After adjusting for baseline risk, older persons and those with higher estimated objective cancer risk had larger postcounseling decreases. Distress after counseling was positively correlated with baseline distress and anxiety symptoms, and inversely correlated with tolerance for ambiguity. The findings suggest counseling interventions that should increase the likelihood of screening and offer hypotheses for future research.     

Impact of a Brief Intervention on Patient Anxiety Prior to Day Surgery

Patients anticipating surgical procedures experience significant anxiety, resulting in adverse outcomes and increased expenditures. Research has investigated the impact of anxiety-reducing interventions, frequently the provision of surgical information, with inconsistent results. The present study (N = 98) examined preference for information, or monitor-blunter coping style, and the impact of a pre-surgical phone call from an anesthesiologist on anxiety in which treatment group participants (n = 51) dictated the amount of information received. Monitors were hypothesized to desire more information than blunters, and changes in anxiety for monitors/blunters were hypothesized to be moderated by length of call. Monitors and blunters demonstrated equal call durations and anxiety levels remained equivalent across groups. Findings and implications for future research are discussed.     

Acetylcholine in the orbitofrontal cortex is necessary for the acquisition of a socially transmitted food preference

The social transmission of food preference task (STFP) has been used to examine the involvement of the hippocampus in learning and memory for a natural odor-odor association. However, cortical involvement in STFP has not been extensively studied. The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is important in odor-guided learning, and cholinergic depletion of the entire neocortex results in impairments in STFP. Here we examined the specific role of cholinergic modulation in the OFC by assessing the effect of 192 immunoglobulin G-saporin infusion directly into OFC prior to training on STFP. Cholinergic depletion in the OFC impaired expression of the socially transmitted odor association measured 2 d after training, indicating that cholinergic function in the OFC is essential for this form of associative learning.     

Reward history modulates visual attention in an avian model

Animal Cognition - Attention can be biased towards previously reward-associated stimuli even when they are task-irrelevant and physically non-salient, although studies of reward-modulated attention...     

The Association Between Female College Students' Reports of Depression and Their Perceptions of Parental Attitudes Regarding Gender

This study related female college students' ( n = 377) reports of symptomatology to their reports of parental attitudes suggesting limitations inherent in being female. Young women completed a scale measuring their perceptions that their fathers would have been prouder of them if they were male, and a scale measuring their distress over the limitations experienced by their mothers. Respondents who scored high on either scale exhibited much higher prevalence than other respondents of self-reported depression accompanied by anxiety, somatic symptoms including headaches, insomnia, dyspnea, fatigue, disordered eating, and poor body image/preference for thinness (labeled anxious somatic depression ). Compared to men ( n = 191), women exhibited much higher prevalence of anxious somatic depression, but not higher prevalence of depression unaccompanied by the other symptoms.     

Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: Achievement Orientation and Personality

The current study investigated the effects of personality variables as antecedents in predicting Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs), with the covenantal relationship as a mediating variable. 284 retail sales employees were administered 4 personality tests, a composite measure of the covenantal relationship, and a measure of citizenship behavior. Value for achievement, agreeableness, and conscientiousness predicted five types of organizational citizenship. Extraversion was not predictive across all citizenship behaviors. Implications for the relationship between personality and citizenship are discussed.     

Tripartite Mushroom Body Architecture Revealed by Antigenic Markers

We have explored the organization of the axonal lobes in Drosophila mushroom bodies by using a panel of immunohistochemical markers. These markers consist of antibodies to eight proteins expressed preferentially in the mushroom bodies: DAMB, DCO, DRK, FASII, LEO, OAMB, PKA RII, and RUT. Previous to this work, four axonal lobes, two projecting dorsally (α and α′) and two medially (β and γ), had been described in Drosophila mushroom bodies. However, our analysis of immunohistochemically stained frontal and sagittal sections of the brain revealed three medially projecting lobes. The newly distinguished lobe, which we term β′, lies along the dorsal surface of β, just posterior to γ. In addition to resolving a fifth lobe, our studies revealed that there are specific lobe sets defined by equivalent marker expression levels. These sets are (1) the α and β lobes, (2) the α′ and β′ lobes, and (3) the γ lobe and heel (a lateral projection formed by a hairpin turn of some of the peduncle fibers). All of the markers we have examined are consistent with these three sets. Previous Golgi studies demonstrate that each mushroom body cell projects one axon that branches into a dorsal lobe and a medial lobe, or one unbranched axon that projects medially. Taken together with the lobe sets listed above, we propose that there are three major projection configurations of mushroom body cell axons: (1) one branch in the α and one in the β lobe, (2) one branch in the α′ and one in the β′ lobe, and (3) one unbranched axon projecting to the heel and the γ lobe. The fact that these neuron types exhibit differential expression levels of a number of mushroom body genes suggests that they may have corresponding functional differences. These functions may be conserved in the larvae, as several of these genes were expressed in larval and embryonic mushroom bodies as well. The basic mushroom body structure, including the denritic calyx, peduncle, and lobes, was already visible by the late stages of embryogenesis. With new insights into mushroom body organization, and the characterization of markers for developing mushroom bodies, we are beginning to understand how these structures form and function.     

Measuring neighborhood context for young children in an urban area

Awareness of worsening conditions in urban areas has led to a growing interest in how neighborhood context affects children. Although the ecological perspective within child development has acknowledged the relevance of community factors, methods of measuring the neighborhood context for children have been quite limited. An approach to measuring neighborhood environments was tested using the average perceptions of caregivers of young children sampled from high- and low-risk block groups. Individual- and aggregate-level reliabilities and discriminant validity were acceptable for dimensions of neighborhood quality and change, participation in block organizations, disorder and incivilities, service usage and quality, and retaliation against adults. However, for measures of neighborhood interaction and the tendency of adults to intervene with children, there was virtually no agreement among respondents within block groups, resulting in poor aggregate reliability. A model of variability may be a more promising way of characterizing neighborhoods along these dimensions. This research was supported primarily by a grant from The Foundation for Child Development, as well as support from the Cleveland Foundation.     

Impulsiveness and risk-taking behavior: comparison of high-school and college students using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale

The present study was undertaken in an attempt to determine the relationship of impulsiveness to risk-taking behaviors such as aggression, drug use, drunk driving and not wearing seatbelts among highschool and college students. The results of the study clearly demonstrate that high impulsives are involved in risk-taking behavior at a higher rate than low impulsive subjects. These findings suggest that high impulsive adolescents and young adults are at considerable risk of personal injury and present a potential source of injury to others. It is suggested that self-report questionnaires of impulsiveness might prove useful in the early identification of these high risk individuals. Once identified these individuals could be targeted for intensive educational interventions specifically designed to deal with their inability to delay gratification and general lack of impulse control.     

The Amish: Perceptions of genetic disorders and services

Previous studies of the closed Amish population have proven to be valuable in the field of genetics, however they have not explored the Amish parents' opinions and attitudes concerning genetic conditions and services. This exploration is necessary in order to provide culturally sensitive health care to a population at an increased risk for certain genetic conditions. The purpose of the present study was to examine the Amish population's general knowledge of genetic disorders, services, and the terminology used in describing inherited conditions, as well as their attitudes toward medical care and ethical and reproductive issues. Information was obtained from 17 Amish families, 12 who had an incidence of a genetic condition and five who had one or more children with other special health care needs, during personal interviews conducted in their homes in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Results of the interviews showed that the birth of an affected child did not deter subsequent reproduction, that the majority of the parents were never offered genetic counseling or prenatal testing, and that the parents are interested in understanding the cause of their children's problems and recurrence risks.