Drug Tolerance, Drug Addiction, and Drug Anticipation

ABSTRACT— Environmental cues associated with drugs often elicit withdrawal symptoms and relapse to drug use. Such cues also modulate drug tolerance. The contribution of drug-associated stimuli to withdrawal and tolerance is emphasized in a Pavlovian-conditioning analysis of drug administration. Conditional responses occur in the presence of cues that have been associated with the drug in the past, such as the setting in which the drug was taken. These conditional responses mediate the expression of tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. Recently, it has become apparent that internal predrug cues, as well as environmental cues, elicit pharmacological conditional responses that contribute to tolerance and withdrawal. Such internal cues include cognitive or proprioceptive cues incidental to self-administration, drug-onset cues that are experienced shortly after administration, and emotional cues. According to the conditioning analysis, addiction treatment should incorporate learning principles to extinguish the association between stimuli (environmental and internal) present at the time of drug administration and the effects of the addictive drug.     

中国消费者价格容忍度的特点

运用多维线性模型,对我国消费者对不同产品价格涨落的容忍态度进行了研究。研究对象为26384名购买过各类产品的消费者。结果表明：（1）消费者对不同产品的价格容忍度不同,对日用消费品的价格容忍度较高,对耐用消费品的价格容忍度相对较低;（2）消费者的年龄和受教育程度对价格容忍度有负向的影响,消费者的年龄和受教育程度越高,对产品的价格容忍度越低;（3）男性消费者的价格容忍度高于女性消费者,女性消费者对价格较为敏感。     

Conflict, Identity, and Tolerance: Israel in the Al-Aqsa Intifada

This paper explores the impact of the Al-Aqsa Intifada on tolerance orientations of the Israeli Jewish public. We rely upon five surveys carried out between January 2000 and June 2002 to study in a real-life setting the amount and nature of change in political tolerance due to the conflict and the mechanisms behind it. Building on theory and research on intergroup relations in social psychology and political tolerance in political science, we focus upon threat and ingroup identification as the two primary factors in the social psychological processes resulting from conflict and leading to intolerance. We set the trends and explore mediation and interaction processes in the impact of this round of conflict on political tolerance.     

糖尿病的免疫抑制治疗

淡化糖尿病的分型为我们提供了一个全新的思维空间。即传统的1型和至少部分2型糖尿病可能都是一种自身免疫性疾病,而目前流行的炎症学说可能是对认可免疫损伤是糖尿病发病理论的一个过渡,我们应该重新审视糖尿病的早期治疗和研究其慢性并发症的发病机理。我们则采用小别量、长时间的治疗理念,早期接受这种免疫治疗的患者出现低血糖的症状,遂减少胰岛素的剂量;再次出现低血糖,我们就继续减少胰岛素的剂量。结果,有部分患者完全摆脱了胰岛素。我们对糖尿病的再认识是建立在对多脏器活检的基础之上。我们的活检结果表明,糖尿病肾病存在着免疫损伤。糖尿病眼底病变是使患者致盲的主要病因,糖尿病患者的眼底病变是一种自身免疫损伤的结果。我们尝试用小剂量的免疫抑制剂环孢菌素A（25mgbid）治疗糖尿病眼底出血,取得了不错的疗效,也证实糖尿病眼底病变是一种血管炎,与自身免疫病变有关。其他的器官还包括垂体、大脑的血管、糖尿病足、冠心病、皮肤的病变和肌肉活检的免疫组化也均有证据表明,免疫损伤是导致多种慢性并发症的罪魁祸首,是一种多器官免疫损伤的结果无论是1型糖尿病,还是2型糖尿病,肌细胞表面或多或少均有免疫复合物沉积。这些免疫复合物的存在势必会影响胰岛素与肌肉细胞表面的胰岛素受体结合,即胰岛素抵抗的存在。为此,我们在临床上广泛采用了免疫抑制治疗的理念治疗糖尿病。应用小剂量胰岛素和小剂量环孢素A治疗早期发现的糖尿病取得了不错的疗效。唯一担心的副作用发生在肝脏,即部分糖尿病患者会出现总胆红素升高,而也有一部分患者总胆红素不升高。     

The relationship between pain tolerance and trait aggression: effects of sex and gender role

The literature on pain and aggression has indicated that pain elicits aggression. However, research has generally examined pain as a situational variable and focused less on the dispositional ability of an individual to tolerate pain. The dearth of research on pain tolerance and aggression appears to contradict the existing theory on the aggression‐eliciting effect of pain, in that studies have found a positive relationship between pain tolerance and aggression. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the relationship between pain tolerance and aggression is moderated by sex and whether the positive relationship could be explained by masculine gender role conformity. A sample of 195 collegiate men and women completed trait measures and a laboratory assessment of pain tolerance. Results indicated that correlations between pain tolerance and trait aggression were significant and positive for men but not women. However, when men's conformity to masculine gender role was controlled for, the relationship between pain tolerance and trait aggression was nil and nonsignificant. Results are discussed in reference to socialization and maintenance of masculine status. Aggr. Behav. 35:422–429, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Psychological Distress in Caregivers of Liver and Lung Transplant Candidates

Although organ transplantation represents a stressful experience for the entire family, surprisingly little research has focused on the adjustment of caregivers. The purpose of this study was to examine what caregivers report to be the greatest benefits and stressors pretransplant, the prevalence of psychological distress and caregiver strain in pretransplant caregivers as compared to normative populations, and the physical, psychological, and demographic variables that predict distress. Fifty-two caregivers of transplant candidates (28 liver and 24 lung) completed a series of questionnaires, including the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale (PAIS-SR), SF-36 Health Survey, Caregiver Strain Index (CSI), and qualitative questions about benefits and stressors. The most commonly reported benefit of being a caregiver could be categorized as Helping the Patient, and the most common stressors were associated with Uncertainty/Waiting/Fears. Compared to normative samples of caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease, caregivers of liver transplant candidates reported more caregiver strain; there were no differences for lung transplant caregivers. Caregiver social functioning was found to be the only significant predictor of caregiver distress, with those caregivers who report greater distress also reporting extreme and frequent interference with normal social activities. Implications of these findings for psychological interventions are discussed.     

Stress and Immunity: Age Enhances the Risks

A competent immune response is central to good health. There is good evidence that both aging and psychological stress can dysregulate immune function, resulting in changes in various aspects of the immune response that are large enough to have consequences for health. Older adults appear to show even greater immunological impairments associated with stress or depression than younger adults. Thus, the data suggest that aging interacts with stress and depression to enhance risks for morbidity and mortality among older adults.     

Immune disorders and handedness in dyslexic boys and their relatives

Thirty dyslexic and 30 control boys aged 7–11 years were compared for frequency of immune disorders and handedness as well as for family history of immune disorders and learning disabilities (dyslexia and stuttering). They were also compared for neurological status and for history of speech and language difficulties. There were no significant differences between the two groups in the frequency of immune disorders and in handedness. The results showed significantly more dyslexic boys with soft neurological signs and signs of speech and language disorders. The frequency of dyslexia was significantly higher in the relatives of the dyslexic boys. Also significantly more mothers of the dyslexic boys reported difficulties during pregnancy and complications at delivery. The results are discussed in terms of Geschwind's hypothesis and neuromaturational delay as possible determinants of developmental dyslexia.