“人类所有的疾病都是基因病”吗

人类基因组图谱（HGP）研究大大加深了人们对疾病的理解。然而,作为人体这个复杂系统的一种非常态特征,疾病的发生不仅受遗传因素的影响,还受到身体内部其他因素以及自然环境、社会环境等外部因素的影响。所以,并不能简单地将所有的疾病都归结为基因病。     

Neuropsychological Functioning in Chronic Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is currently the most common vector-borne illness in the United States. The disease is multisystemic, and chronic disease, in particular, may be associated with neuropsychological deficits. However, to date, only a few empirical studies exist, which examine the neuropsychological sequelae associated with chronic Lyme disease. A review of the literature shows that the deficits observed in adults with chronic Lyme disease are generally consistent with the deficits that can be seen in processes with primarily frontal systems involvement. These observations are generally consistent with neuroradiologic findings. The clinical presentation in chronic Lyme disease and the nature of the neuropsychological deficits are discussed, as are several central issues in understanding neuropsychological functioning in chronic Lyme disease, such as the impact of chronic illness, response to treatment, and the relationship between neuropsychological performance and depression, fatigue, and neurological indicators of disease.     

人格特征对胃癌发病的影响

使用Ｃ型行为特征问卷、生活事件量表和ＲＢＣ－Ｃ_（３ｂ）Ｒ、ＲＢＣ－ＩＣ、ＲＣＩＡ、ＣＩＣ和Ｃ_３等免疫功能的检测,调查和检测了３０名胃癌患者和５０名健康者。结果表明：（１）胃癌组比健康组在焦虑、抑郁、愤怒内泄、控制等方面得分高,在愤怒外泄、乐观、社会支持等方面得分低;（２）胃癌患者在确诊前８年内有７６％的患者遇到生活事件,在确诊前３年内有６２％的患者遇到生活事件;（３）胃癌组ＲＢＣ－Ｃ_（３ｂ）Ｒ含量低,ＲＣＩＡ含量和ＣＩＣ水平上升。初步结论：胃癌的发生与患者的一些行为特点有关,主要是抑郁并不表达愤怒;生活事件可作为应激源诱发胃癌;其机制可能与免疫功能有关。     

行为免疫系统理论及其研究:新视野下的再考察

行为免疫系统理论认为, 为了应对流行病威胁, 人类进化出了一套特殊的行为反应倾向, 包括对疾病线索的警觉、厌恶, 对健康配偶的偏好, 对外群体的排斥, 对集体主义的推崇等。已有研究主要从宏观(群体)和微观(个体)两个水平开展, 虽然有大量研究结果支持该理论, 但也存在不少不一致甚至相反的发现。研究方法、理论基础和现代适用性等方面的不足可能是出现这种情况的原因。未来研究需克服上述问题, 并进一步拓展该理论的研究内容, 检验理论和相关研究的边界, 探讨行为免疫背后的生理机制等。     

Heart rate and blood pressure responses to a competitive role‐playing game

The effects of the outcome of competitive encounters on physiological parameters have been studied, especially testosterone levels, but hardly on other systems that, however, present a high sensitivity to stress. This study assessed the effect of a competitive game on heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) in a sample of university students. In addition, the influence of anxiety and attributions of the outcome was also explored. Only winners significantly showed a rise in HR during the competition followed by a decrease along the posttask phase in addition to more internal attributions. On the contrary, the average HR for losers during the competition was lower compared with their baseline values. No differences depending on the outcome were found in BP. The cardiovascular response as well as the subjective interpretation of the outcome suggest a more active strategy employed by winners vs. a more passive strategy of losers. Future studies should specifically investigate the importance of coping strategies for psychophysiological adaptation to contests and for the outcome reached. This would permit an advance in the understanding of the role of individual differences in the processes of stress and in associated diseases. Aggr. Behav. 27:351–359, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Factors Associated with Functional Dependence in Alzheimer's Disease

The purpose of this study was to determine whether common geriatric conditions, family function, and nutritional problems have independent associations with functional dependence beyond the effect of cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer's disease. It was found that some common geriatric conditions affecting patients with Alzheimer's disease appear to have multiple and differential relationships with specific instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) dependency. These results have implications for medical care. Preventing one condition may not be sufficient to prevent further IADL dependences because the conditions are independently related to individual outcome variables. Thus, multiple conditions may need to be managed concurrently if further functional dependence is to be expected.     

Physiological and Behavioral Regulation in Two-Year-Old Children with Aggressive/Destructive Behavior Problems

A sample of 99 two-year-old children was selected on the basis of parents' responses to two administrations of the Child Behavior Checklist for two- to three-year-olds. Forty-nine of these children displayed symptoms of aggressive/destructive (externalizing) problems that were in the borderline clinical range (labelled high risk) and 50 children displayed few such symptoms (low risk). The children were assessed in a series of laboratory procedures that were intended to be emotionally and behaviorally challenging, during which time heart rate was recorded and behavior was observed. To assess physiological regulation, resting measures of heart period and respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA), and heart period change and RSA suppression were derived from these procedures. To assess emotional and behavioral regulation, children's affect and on-task versus types of off-task behaviors were measured. Results indicated that children in the high-risk group did not differ from children in the low-risk group on the resting measure of heart period. Boys displayed lower heart rate than did girls, regardless of risk group. However, boys in the low-risk group differed from boys in the high-risk group in terms of resting measures of RSA. Children in the high-risk group did display significantly and consistently lower RSA suppression (physiological regulation) during the challenging situations than did the children in the low-risk group. High-risk children displayed more negative affect and dysregulated emotion regulation behaviors than did the low risk children. These findings are discussed in terms of the development of behavioral and emotional regulation that underlie adaptive versus maladaptive behavior.     

Trimodal assessment in agoraphobia research: Further observations on heart rate and synchrony/ desynchrony

This paper reports new observations on heart rate and synchrony/desynchrony in the context of 22 chronic agoraphobic patients' trimodal assessment pre and post exposure treatment. The results corroborated previous reports showing weak and/or inconsistent improvement in heart rate, in contrast to significant improvement in behavioral and subjective response systems. Moreover, the results did not support recent suggestions that heartrate reactivity at pretreatment or global categories of synchrony/dysynchrony at posttreatment have important implications for treatment outcome. However, subtypes of dysynchrony based on the direction of divergence between variables had different implications for the clinical response, indicating that simply dichotomizing patients into synchronizers/desynchronizers may be misleading in addition to being uninformative.This work was supported by Grants MH34177 and MH40141 from the National Institute of Mental Health. Mary Sue Hamann, M.S., assisted in the statistical analyses.     

Heart rate reactivity in attention deficit disorder subgroups

Beat-to-beat heart rate (HR) was analyzed for 9 contiguous seconds in a warned reaction time (RT) paradigm. Imperative stimuli were tones of three intensity levels (55, 78, and 100 db); a visual warning signal occurred 5 sec before tone onset. Baseline and reward conditions were run. Normal controls were contrasted with three Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) subgroups: ADD-only, ADD with hyperactivity (ADDH), ADD with hyperactivity and aggression (ADDHA). The ADD subgroups were predicted to show less deceleration in HR because of their problem sustaining readiness to respond. Significant sex x group differences in HR levels and change scores were found. Overall, girls had higher HR levels than boys and the ADD-only group (boys and girls) had lower HRs than the other ADD groups. But, the ADD-only boys had more marked deceleration to the warning signal and acceleration to the tones than the other ADD boys, whereas the ADD-only girls were no more reactive than the ADDH and ADDHA girls. Control girls had the highest HR levels and were the most reactive to stimuli. Control boys and ADD-only boys had similar HR levels and reaction patterns. ADD-only girls appear to be underaroused, whereas ADD-only boys do not. Results suggest that cardiac measures can provide external validation of disruptive and nondisruptive ADD subtypes.     

Nonparticipation in Huntington's Disease Predictive Testing: Reasons for Caution in Interpreting Findings

When given the opportunity to clarify their genetic status, most individuals at risk for Huntington's disease (HD) currently show a preference not to know. Our understanding of the characteristics of those who do not request HD predictive testing, and the factors influencing their decision, lags behind our knowledge of test applicants. In the light of our experience with interviewing a random sample of nonparticipants in an ongoing study, we critically analyze research concerning the differences between participants and nonparticipants in HD predictive testing programs and the interpretive characterization of these two groups. The findings concerning nonparticipants are limited to a small sample of the at-risk population, with the problems of biased samples and low response rates. We discuss this and other aspects of research in this area, notably the context and timing of data collection and the predominantly questionnaire-based methodology, that lead us to interpret the conclusions drawn about these two groups with caution.