The price of your soul: How the brain decides whether to 'sell out'

An Emory University neuro-imaging study shows that personal values that people refuse to disavow, even when offered cash to do so, are processed differently in the brain than those values that are willingly sold.

"Our experiment found that the realm of the sacred – whether it's a strong religious belief, a national identity or a code of ethics – is a distinct cognitive process," says Gregory Berns, director of the Center for Neuropolicy at Emory University and lead author of the study. The results were published inPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

Sacred values prompt greater activation of an area of the brain associated with rules-based, right-or-wrong thought processes, the study showed, as opposed to the regions linked to processing of costs-versus-benefits.

Berns headed a team that included economists and information scientists from Emory University, a psychologist from the New School for Social Research and anthropologists from the Institute Jean Nicod in Paris, France. The research was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation.

"We've come up with a method to start answering scientific questions about how people make decisions involving sacred values, and that has major implications if you want to better understand what influences human behavior across countries and cultures," Berns says. "We are seeing how fundamental cultural values are represented in the brain."

The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record the brain responses of 32 U.S. adults during key phases of an experiment. In the first phase, participants were shown statements ranging from the mundane, such as "You are a tea drinker," to hot-button issues such "You support gay marriage" and "You are Pro-Life." Each of the 62 statements had a contradictory pair, such as "You are Pro-Choice," and the participants had to choose one of each pair.

At the end of the experiment, participants were given the option of auctioning their personal statements: Disavowing their previous choices for actual money. The participants could earn as much as $100 per statement by simply agreeing to sign a document stating the opposite of what they believed. They could choose to opt out of the auction for statements they valued highly.

"We used the auction as a measure of integrity for specific statements," Berns explains. "If a person refused to take money to change a statement, then we considered that value to be personally sacred to them. But if they took money, then we considered that they had low integrity for that statement and that it wasn't sacred."

The brain imaging data showed a strong correlation between sacred values and activation of the neural systems associated with evaluating rights and wrongs (the left temporoparietal junction) and semantic rule retrieval (the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex), but not with systems associated with reward.

"Most public policy is based on offering people incentives and disincentives," Berns says. "Our findings indicate that it's unreasonable to think that a policy based on costs-and-benefits analysis will influence people's behavior when it comes to their sacred personal values, because they are processed in an entirely different brain system than incentives."

Research participants who reported more active affiliations with organizations, such as churches, sports teams, musical groups and environmental clubs, had stronger brain activity in the same brain regions that correlated to sacred values. "Organized groups may instill values more strongly through the use of rules and social norms," Berns says.

The experiment also found activation in the amygdala region, a brain region associated with emotional reactions, but only in cases where participants refused to take cash to state the opposite of what they believe. "Those statements represent the most repugnant items to the individual," Berns says, "and would be expected to provoke the most arousal, which is consistent with the idea that when sacred values are violated, that induces moral outrage."

The study is part of a special issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, titled "The Biology of Cultural Conflict." Berns edited the special issue, which brings together a dozen articles on the culture of neuroscience, including differences in the neural processing of people on the opposing sides of conflict, from U.S. Democrats and Republicans to Arabs and Israelis.

"As culture changes, it affects our brains, and as our brains change, that affects our culture. You can't separate the two," Berns says. "We now have the means to start understanding this relationship, and that's putting the relatively new field of cultural neuroscience onto the global stage."

Future conflicts over politics and religion will likely play out biologically, Berns says. Some cultures will choose to change their biology, and in the process, change their culture, he notes. He cites the battles over women's reproductive rights and gay marriage as ongoing examples.

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"The price of your soul: How the brain decides whether to 'sell out'." January 22nd, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-price-soul-brain.html

 

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Mixing medicines increases injury risk

The University of Auckland

Mixing prescription drugs isn't only dangerous for the elderly - young adults and the middle-aged can also double their risk of falls if they mix medicines. Image: smartstock/iStockphoto Working-age adults who take combinations of prescription medication may be doubling their risk of serious falls at home according to research from The University of Auckland. The findings published in Injury Prevention this week looked at the association between prescription medications and falls among people aged between 20 and 60 years who died or required admission to hospital within 48 hours of an unintentional fall at home in Auckland between 2005 and 2006. Data showed that taking two or more of some prescription drugs at the same time doubled the unintentional fall rate at home for the young and middle aged, similar to the effect seen in elderly people. However, it was not possible to determine from the research if the risk related to the medication themselves, or the underlying medical conditions. Medications for high blood pressure and cholesterol were most commonly involved in higher rates of unintentional falls. People taking two or more of these prescription drugs were 2.5 times as likely to sustain an injury as a result of an unintentional fall as those on fewer. The findings held true, even after taking account of personal, social, and lifestyle factors, including hazardous drinking, illicit drug use, and sleep duration in the previous 24 hours. No increased risk was found for asthma inhalers, anti-inflammatories, steroids, or antidepressants. Lead researcher Post Doctoral Fellow Bridget Kool says: “This research has revealed a largely unrecognised problem among younger people. Our findings signal a need for greater awareness of the association between prescription medications and falls in younger adults.” Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Lack of sleep makes your brain hungry

New research from Uppsala University, Sweden, shows that a specific brain region that contributes to a person's appetite sensation is more activated in response to food images after one night of sleep loss than after one night of normal sleep. Poor sleep habits can, therefore, affect people's risk of becoming overweight in the long run. The findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Researchers Christian Benedict and Helgi Schiöth of the Department of Neuroscience at Uppsala University showed in an earlier article published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that a single night of total sleep loss in young normal-weight men curbed energy expenditure the next morning. This research also showed that subjects had increased levels of hunger, which indicates that an acute lack of sleep may affect human food perception.

In a new study, Christian Benedict, Samantha Brooks, Helgi Schiöth, and Elna-Marie Larsson from Uppsala University and researchers from other European universities have systematically examined which regions in the brain involved in appetite sensation are influenced by acute sleep loss. By means of magnetic imaging (fMRI), the researchers studied the brains of 12 normal-weight males while they viewed images of foods. The researchers compared the results after a night with normal sleep with those obtained after one night without sleep.

Christian Benedict explains: "After a night of total sleep loss, these males showed a high level of activation in an area of the brain that is involved in a desire to eat. Bearing in mind that insufficient sleep is a growing problem in modern society, our results may explain why poor sleep habits can affect people's risk of gaining weight in the long run. It may, therefore, be important to sleep about eight hours every night to maintain a stable and healthy body weight."

More information: Benedict C, Brooks S J, O'Daly O G, Almén M S, Morell A, Åberg K, Gingnell M, Schultes B, Hallschmid M, Broman J-E, Larsson E-M, and Schiöth H B. Acute sleep deprivation enhances the brain's response to hedonic food stimuli: an fMRI study. Journal of Clinical Endocrinol Metab, in press.

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"Lack of sleep makes your brain hungry." January 18th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-lack-brain-hungry.html

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Research reveals power of the subconscious in human fear

The human subconscious has a bigger impact than previously thought on how we respond to danger, according to research led by the University of Exeter. Published today, the study shows that our primitive response to fear can contradict our conscious assessment of danger.
The findings have implications for how anxiety disorders, such as phobias, are treated. The research also suggests we share a primitive response to fear with other animals, despite being able to consciously anticipate and assess danger.
Participants recruited to the study sat in front of a screen, on which a coloured shape sometimes appeared. Half the time, the image was accompanied by a mild electric shock. For the rest of the time, the image appeared but no shock was given.
During the trial they were asked to rate whether or not they expected a shock to be given and their 'skin conductance' was monitored. This technique measures the variation in the electrical activity of the sweat glands in the skin, which is an indication of the state of arousal of the sympathetic nervous system. In other words, it gives us a reading of a person's emotional state.
Following a series of trials involving shocks, participants were more likely to predict they would not receive a shock when the image was next shown. The complementary result was that they generally anticipated receiving a shock if they had not had one for the last few images. This phenomenon of expecting good luck after a run of bad luck and vice versa, is known as the 'gambler's fallacy'.
The skin conductance responses revealed the opposite pattern. Following a series of shocks accompanying the image, their physical responses to the next image shown suggested participants were more likely to expect another shock, but that they were less likely to expect a shock after a run of no-shock trials. This pattern of responding is consistent with 'associative learning': associating a visual cue with a significant event, a phenomenon that is well known in animals.
Previously it has been thought that, when using this type of procedure, humans respond differently from animals because we rely on conscious reasoning, rather than associative learning to generate our expectations. This study suggests that, despite our sophisticated mental capabilities, our responses are in fact driven by these more primitive processes when in danger.

Lead author, Professor Ian McLaren of the University of Exeter said: "This research clearly shows that, in these circumstances, our reaction to a fear-provoking stimulus depends on a primitive response caused by associative learning. This is something we share with other animals.

"This could have important practical implications. Now that we know that associative processes are implicated in our response to fear-inducing stimuli, we need to consider the implications for the ways in which we treat anxiety and phobias."
More information: This study, by a team from the University of Exeter and Canterbury Christchurch University, is published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behaviour Processes.
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"Research reveals power of the subconscious in human fear." January 18th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-reveals-power-subconscious-human.html
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Enhancing cognition in older adults also changes personality

Engagement in cognitively challenging tasks led to an increase in openness to new experiences, researchers found. Credit: Thompson-McClellan A program designed to boost cognition in older adults also increased their openness to new experiences, researchers report, demonstrating for the first time that a non-drug intervention in older adults can change a personality trait once thought to be fixed throughout the lifespan.
Personality psychologists describe openness as one of five major personality traits. Studies suggest that the other four traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and extraversion) operate independently of a person's cognitive abilities. But openness – being flexible and creative, embracing new ideas and taking on challenging intellectual or cultural pursuits – does appear to be correlated with cognitive abilities.
The new study, published in the journal Psychology and Aging, gave older adults a series of pattern-recognition and problem-solving tasks and puzzles that they could perform at home. Participants ranged in age from 60 to 94 years and worked at their own pace, getting more challenging tasks each week when they came to the lab to return materials.
"We wanted participants to feel challenged but not overwhelmed," said University of Illinois educational psychology and Beckman Institute professor Elizabeth Stine-Morrow, who led the research. "While we didn't explicitly test this, we suspect that the training program – adapted in difficulty in sync with skill development – was important in leading to increased openness. Growing confidence in their reasoning abilities possibly enabled greater enjoyment of intellectually challenging and creative endeavors."
Researchers tested the cognitive abilities and personality traits of 183 participants and a control group of 131 older adults a few weeks before and after the intervention.
At the end of the program, those who had engaged in the training and practice sessions saw improvement in their pattern-recognition and problem-solving skills, while those in the control group did not. And those who improved in these inductive reasoning skills also demonstrated a moderate but significant increase in openness.
This study challenges the assumption that personality doesn't change once one reaches adulthood, said Illinois psychology professor and study co-author Brent Roberts.
"There are certain models that say, functionally, personality doesn't change after age 20 or age 30. You reach adulthood and pretty much you are who you are," he said. "There's some truth to that at some level. But here you have a study that has successfully changed personality traits in a set of individuals who are (on average) 75. And that opens up a whole bunch of wonderful issues to think about."
More information: "Can An Old Dog Learn (and Want to Experience) New Tricks: Cognitive Training Increases Openness to Experience in Older Adults," Psychology and Aging.
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"Enhancing cognition in older adults also changes personality." January 18th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-cognition-older-adults-personality.html

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Serial killing follows predictable pattern based on brain activity

(PhysOrg.com) -- Over a period of 12 years, Andrei Chikatilo murdered at least 53 people before being arrested in Rostov, Russia, in 1990. While Chikatilo’s killings, mainly of women and children, may have been senseless, a new study has found some sense in the distribution of intervals between the murders, which closely follows a power law. The researchers propose that the murder activity can be explained by a model describing neuronal firing in the brain, very similar to the model that describes the distribution of intervals between epileptic seizures.
The researchers, Mikhail Simkin and Vwani Roychowdhury, both electrical engineers from the University of California, Los Angeles, began their analysis by making a graph showing Chikatilo’s cumulative number of murders over the 12-year period. The graph is highly irregular, with long time periods with no murders interrupted by short time periods with many murders. The shortest interval between murders was three days, while the longest was more than two years. Due to this irregularity, and the step-like appearance of the plot, mathematicians call this distribution a “Devil’s staircase.”
Next, the researchers graphed the distribution of intervals between murders, clearly showing that short intervals are more common than long intervals. Somewhat surprisingly, this distribution of intervals between murders is very similar to the distribution of intervals between epileptic seizures, with both following a similar power law. Simkin and Roychowdhury note that previous research has suggested a link between epilepsy and criminality (and psychosis), so the possibility that similar processes in the brain may lead to both epileptic seizures and serial murders is not unreasonable.
The researchers previously proposed a model based on the brain’s neuron firing to explain the distribution of intervals between epileptic seizures, and here they’ve applied the same model to explain the distribution of intervals between murders. They hypothesize that the simultaneous firing of a large number of neurons in the brain induces psychotic effects that cause a serial killer to commit murder, similar to the effects that induce epileptic seizures.
Distributions of intervals in the Devil’s staircase plot closely obey a power law simulation. Short intervals between murders occur much more often than longer intervals. Image credit: Simkin and Roychowdhury
The researchers explain that the probability of any neuron firing randomly is small. But since the axon of one neuron can connect to the synapses of thousands of other neurons, if that neuron fires then its impulse could cause others to fire if they’re close to the firing threshold. The model predicts that the killer commits murder when the total number of firing neurons reaches a certain threshold - or “murder zone” - for a certain period of time. During this time of abundant neuron firing, the killer plans, prepares, and carries out the crime. The model assumes that committing a murder has a sedative effect on the killer, causing neural excitation to fall below the threshold. (Otherwise, the neural excitation would be in the murder zone for half the total time.) But neuron firing must still be close to the threshold, since the probability of a new murder is significantly higher in the days after a murder compared to the average murder rate.

Although the model closely approximates Chikatilo’s behavior, the researchers note that it’s not exact. The biggest disagreement is that the model predicts several one-day intervals between murders, while Chikatilo’s shortest interval was three days. The researchers think that accounting for successful and unsuccessful murder attempts could improve the agreement between the model and data.

Although it’s difficult to tell if understanding the patterns of a serial killer will help prevent murders, the fact that any kind of rational explanation may exist for seemingly irrational behavior is both uncomfortable and revealing.
More information: M.V. Simkin and V.P. Roychowdhury. “Stochastic modeling of a serial killer.” arXiv:1201.2458v1 [physics.soc-ph]
via: Physics arXiv Blog
© 2011 PhysOrg.com
"Serial killing follows predictable pattern based on brain activity." January 18th, 2012. http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-serial-pattern-based-brain.html
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Study finds few well-being advantages to marriage over cohabitation

A new study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family reveals that married couples experience few advantages for psychological well-being, health, or social ties compared to unmarried couples who live together. While both marriage and cohabitation provide benefits over being single, these reduce over time following a honeymoon period.
"Marriage has long been an important social institution, but in recent decades western societies have experienced increases in cohabitation, before or instead of marriage, and increases in children born outside of marriage," said Dr Kelly Musick, Associate Professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University's College of Human Ecology. "These changes have blurred the boundaries of marriage, leading to questions about what difference marriage makes in comparison to alternatives."
Previous research has sought to prove a link between marriage and well-being, but many studies compared marriage to being single, or compared marriages and cohabitations at a single point in time.
This study compares marriage to cohabitation while using a fixed-effects approach that focuses on what changes when single men and women move into marriage or cohabitation and the extent to which any effects of marriage and cohabitation persist over time.
Dr Musick drew a study sample from the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) of 2,737 single men and women, 896 of whom married or moved in with a partner over the course of 6 years. The study focused on key areas of well-being, considering questions on happiness, levels of depression, health, and social ties.
The results showed a spike in well-being immediately following both marriage and cohabitation as couples experienced a honeymoon period with higher levels of happiness and fewer depressive symptoms compared to singles. However, these advantages were short lived.
Marriage and cohabitation both resulted in less contact with parents and friends compared to remaining single – and these effects appeared to persist over time.
"We found that differences between marriage and cohabitation tend to be small and dissipate after a honeymoon period. Also while married couples experienced health gains – likely linked to the formal benefits of marriage such as shared healthcare plans – cohabiting couples experienced greater gains in happiness and self-esteem. For some, cohabitation may come with fewer unwanted obligations than marriage and allow for more flexibility, autonomy, and personal growth" said Musick.
"Compared to most industrial countries America continues to value marriage above other family forms," concluded Musick. "However our research shows that marriage is by no means unique in promoting well-being and that other forms of romantic relationships can provide many of the same benefits."
Provided by Wiley

"Study finds few well-being advantages to marriage over cohabitation." January 18th, 2012. http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-well-being-advantages-marriage-cohabitation.html

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Genetic study offers clues to how intelligence changes through life

(Medical Xpress) -- Scientists have estimated for the first time the extent to which genes determine changes in intelligence across the human life course.
The study found that genetic factors may account for about 24 per cent of changes in intelligence between childhood and old age.
The findings also suggest that many of the genes that affect intelligence in childhood also influence intelligence in old age, according to the study published in Nature.
The study, by researchers at the Universities of Edinburgh and Queensland and Aberdeen suggests that the largest influence on changes in intelligence is probably environmental.
Identifying genetic influences on intelligence could help us to understand the relationship between knowledge and problem solving and an individual’s outcomes in life, and especially to understand why some people age better than others in terms of intelligence.
The researchers combined DNA analysis with data from people who took intelligence tests aged 11 and again aged 65 to 79.
The scientists examined more than half a million genetic markers in about 2,000 people to work out how genetically similar they were, even though they were not related.
The new findings were made possible because Scotland has a rich source of cognitive test data. In June 1932 and June 1947. Intelligence tests were carried out on almost all children born in Scotland in 1921 and 1936, respectively. For the present study, about 2000 of these people were traced and re-tested in old age.
Professor Ian Deary of the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, said: “Until now, we have not had an estimate of how much genetic differences affect how intelligence changes across a lifetime. These new findings were possible because our research teams were able to combine a range of valuable resources.    The results partly explain why some people’s brains age better than others. We are careful to suggest that our estimates do not have conventional statistical significance, but they are nevertheless useful because such estimates have been unavailable to date.”
Professor Peter Visscher of the University of Queensland, said: “Unique data and new genome technologies combined with novel analysis methods allowed us to tackle questions that were not answerable before. The results also strongly suggest how important the environment is helping us to stay sharp as we age. Neither the specific genetic nor environmental factors were identified in this research. Our results provide the warrant for others and ourselves to search for those.”
Professor Paul Haggarty from the University of Aberdeen Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health said: "The extensive historical information collected in the Aberdeen and Lothian cohorts included in this study will also make them particularly useful when trying to track down the precise way in which genes and the environment interact to influence cognition throughout life."
Professor Emeritus of Mental Health at the University of Aberdeen, Lawrence Whalley said: "The Nature research report is a milestone in a long-term research programme that began in Aberdeen in 1997 and was expanded to Edinburgh in 2000. This research collaboration between the universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh has yielded over 100 joint scientific papers that have added considerably to our understanding of mental decline in old age, and the beginnings of dementia.

“In this paper, our already substantial collaboration was strengthened by novel methods of data analysis developed by a team in Australia. Using unique Aberdeen and Edinburgh data, with our Australian colleagues we were able to tease apart the overall effects of genes and the environment on causes and courses of mental decline. These findings will encourage others working with complex diseases of old age to apply the same methods to their findings from long-term ageing research."

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"Genetic study offers clues to how intelligence changes through life." January 19th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-genetic-clues-intelligence-life.html
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Are religious people better adjusted psychologically?

Psychological research has found that religious people feel great about themselves, with a tendency toward higher social self-esteem and better psychological adjustment than non-believers. But a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that this is only true in countries that put a high value on religion.
The researchers got their data from eDarling, a European dating site that is affiliated with eHarmony. Like eHarmony, eDarling uses a long questionnaire to match clients with potential dates. It includes a question about how important your personal religious beliefs are and questions that get at social self-esteem and how psychologically well-adjusted people are. Jochen Gebauer of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Constantine Sedikides of the University of Southampton, and Wiebke Neberich of Affinitas GmbH in Berlin, the company behind eDarling, used 187,957 people's answers to do their analyses.
As in other studies, the researchers found that more religious people had higher social self-esteem and where psychologically better adjusted. But they suspected that the reason for this was that religious people are better in living up to their societal values in religious societies, which in turn should lead to higher social self-esteem and better psychological adjustment. The people in the study lived in 11 different European countries, ranging from Sweden, the least religious country on the planet, to devoutly Catholic Poland. They used people's answers to figure out how religious the different countries were and then compared the countries.
On average, believers only got the psychological benefits of being religious if they lived in a country that values religiosity. In countries where most people aren't religious, religious people didn't have higher self-esteem. "We think you only pat yourself on the back for being religious if you live in a social system that values religiosity," Gebauer says. So a very religious person might have high social self esteem in religious Poland, but not in non-religious Sweden.
In this study, the researchers made comparisons between different countries, but another study found a similar effect within one country, between students at religious and non-religious universities. "The same might be true when you compare different states in the U.S. or different cities," Gebauer says. "Probably you could mimic the same result in Germany, if you compare Bavaria where many people are religious and Berlin where very few people are religious."
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"Are religious people better adjusted psychologically?." January 19th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-religious-people-adjusted-psychologically.html

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Homeless heavy drinkers imbibe less when housing allows alcohol

A study of a controversial housing project that allows chronically homeless people with severe alcohol problems to drink in their apartments found that during their first two years in the building residents cut their heavy drinking by 35 percent.
For every three months during the study, participants drank an average of 8 percent fewer drinks on their heaviest drinking days.
They also had fewer instances of delirium tremens, a life-threatening form of alcohol withdrawal.
The American Journal of Public Health published the findings Jan. 19.
Housing for chronically homeless people usually comes with many conditions, including abstinence from drugs and alcohol and compliance with psychiatric and substance abuse treatment. But such requirements can become barriers to staying in housing.
"These individuals have multiple medical, psychiatric and substance abuse problems, and housing that requires them to give up their belongings, adhere to curfews, stop drinking and commit to treatment all at once is setting them up to fail. The result is that we are relegating some of the most vulnerable people in our community to a life on the streets," said Susan Collins, lead author and University of Washington research assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.
Because they are unable to cope with the rules, they often do not qualify for housing or are asked to leave. Once back on the street, they cost taxpayers' money through use of emergency room visits, shelter and sobering center stays, arrests and jail bookings.
In response, an approach called project-based Housing First has been developed by the Downtown Emergency Service Center, a Seattle-based housing agency. Project-based Housing First provides immediate, permanent and supportive housing to chronically homeless people within a single housing project. It is considered "low-barrier" because it removes some of the traditional barriers to housing, such as abstinence from alcohol.
The idea behind it is that if chronically homeless people are provided with stable, permanent housing, then their medical, psychiatric and substance abuse problems will become more manageable.
Downtown Emergency Service Center's 1811 Eastlake housing project is the first project-based Housing First model in the United States to be scientifically studied. Residents agree to spend 30 percent of their income – if they have any – on rent, and in return they are provided with permanent housing and social services.
An earlier study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that, in its first year of operation, this housing project saved Seattle taxpayers more than $4 million in costs from publicly funded services. The new study shows that drinking also decreases.
"A lot of people believe in the 'enabling hypothesis' – that allowing homeless, alcohol-dependent individuals to drink in their homes will enable them to drink more, and their drinking will spiral out of control," Collins said. "But instead what we found are across-the-board decreases in alcohol consumption and problems."
Health also improved. Residents reporting recent bouts of delirium tremens dropped by more than half over the two-year study, from 65 percent to 23 percent.
In the study:

• 94 percent of the 95 participants were men and most were white (40 percent) or American Indian/Alaska Native (27 percent).
• The average number of drinks consumed on the heaviest drinking day of the month decreased from 40 to 26 across two years, a decrease of 35 percent.
• The median number of drinks, a more accurate view of drinking patterns for this study's participants, showed a change from 20 to 12 drinks per typical drinking day – a 40 percent drop.
• By the end of one year, 80 percent of participants remained in the study. That was reduced to 79 percent after 18 months and 61 percent after two years. Severity of drinking and demographic variables were ruled out as reasons why participants left the study.

Collins said that she and her team witnessed the resilience of the residents. "When they were on the streets, they were in dire straits and did what they needed to do to survive," Collins said. But with steady housing, they were able to have a more normal existence. "Participants in the study told us that they're happy to have a home, and happy that they no longer have to drink to stay warm or to put themselves to sleep or to forget that they're on the streets." People tend to think that chronically homeless people with severe alcohol problems are unable to control themselves or monitor their drinking, Collins said, but instead this study shows that they are "human beings who are capable of change if they are given the same chance as the rest of us."
Provided by University of Washington

"Homeless heavy drinkers imbibe less when housing allows alcohol." January 19th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-homeless-heavy-drinkers-imbibe-housing.html

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Study finds exercise reduces anxiety symptoms in women

Approximately 3 percent of the U.S. population suffers from excessive, uncontrollable worry that reduces their health and quality of life. The condition, known as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, is difficult to overcome and is accompanied by a host of physical symptoms, including fatigue, muscle tension, irritability and poor sleep. However, a new University of Georgia study shows that regular exercise can significantly reduce anxiety symptoms in patients with GAD.
In a study published online in the Nov. 22 edition of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, researchers randomly assigned 30 sedentary women, ages 18-37 who were diagnosed with GAD, to either a control group or six weeks of strength or aerobic exercise training. Women in the exercise conditions completed two weekly sessions of either weight lifting or leg cycling exercise. Remission of the disorder, determined by psychologists who were unaware of the treatment each client received, was higher among exercisers and best among those who performed weight lifting exercise. Worry symptoms, the primary problem among individuals with GAD, were significantly reduced among the exercisers, and moderate-to-large improvements in other symptoms, such as irritability, feelings of tension, low energy and pain, were found.
Matthew Herring, now a research associate in the department of epidemiology at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, led the study during his dissertation research as a doctoral student in the UGA College of Education's department of kinesiology. The team also included Patrick O'Connor and Rodney Dishman, co-directors of the UGA exercise psychology laboratory, psychology professor Cynthia Suveg and doctoral student Marni Jacob.
"Our findings add to the growing body of evidence of the positive effects of exercise training on anxiety," said Herring. "Our study is the first randomized controlled trial focused on the effects of exercise training among individuals diagnosed with GAD. Given the prevalence of GAD and drawbacks of current treatments, including expense and potential negative side effects, our findings are particularly exciting, because they suggest that exercise training is a feasible, well-tolerated potential adjuvant therapy with low risk that can reduce the severity of signs and symptoms of GAD. Future research should confirm these findings with large trials and explore potential underlying mechanisms of exercise effects among individuals with GAD."
The study also examined potential interactions between exercise and drugs used to treat GAD. Half of the participants in each group were taking a medication to treat GAD during the exercise program. Exercise training lessened anxiety symptoms to the same degree among those taking medication compared to those not taking medication.
"The large improvements found in this small investigation show that regular exercise has the power to help calm women suffering from GAD, even among those who appear to be resistant to treatment using medication," said O'Connor.
"The results of this research are very exciting because exercise is available to everyone, is relatively inexpensive and has beneficial effects beyond the reduction of anxious and depressive symptoms," said Suveg. "For individuals suffering from impairing symptoms, these preliminary findings suggest that exercise may offer another potential treatment option that has few, if any, negative side effects. Future research needs to explore the long-term benefits of exercise as well as the conditions under which exercise may be most beneficial and for whom."
More information: For more information about the study, see http://content.kar … f&doi=327898
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"Study finds exercise reduces anxiety symptoms in women." January 19th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-anxiety-symptoms-women.html

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Robert Karl Stonjek

Benefits of high quality child care persist 30 years later: research

Adults who participated in a high quality early childhood education program in the 1970s are still benefiting from their early experiences in a variety of ways, according to a new study.
The study provides new data from the long-running, highly regarded Abecedarian Project, which is led by the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Researchers have followed participants from early childhood through adolescence and young adulthood, generating a comprehensive and rare set of longitudinal data.
According to the latest study of adults at age 30, Abecedarian Project participants had significantly more years of education than peers who were part of a control group. They were also four times more likely to have earned college degrees; 23 percent of participants graduated from a four-year college or university compared to only 6 percent of the control group.
The findings were published online Wednesday (Jan. 18) in the journal Developmental Psychology.
Elizabeth Pungello, Ph.D., scientist at the FPG Institute and co-author of the study, said the educational attainment findings were especially noteworthy.
"When we previously revisited them as young adults at age 21, we found that the children who had received the early educational intervention were more likely to go to college; now we know they were also more likely to make it all the way through and graduate," Pungello said. "What's more, this achievement applied to both boys and girls, an important finding given the current low rate of college graduation for minority males in our country."
Other benefits included that Abecedarian Project participants were more likely to have been consistently employed (75 percent had worked full time for at least 16 of the previous 24 months, compared to 53 percent of the control group) and less likely to have used public assistance (only 4 percent received benefits for at least 10 percent of the previous seven years, compared to 20 percent of the control group). They also showed a tendency to delay parenthood by almost two years compared to the control group. Project participants also appeared to have done better in relation to several other social and economic measures (including higher incomes), but those results were not statistically significant.
Of the 111 infants originally enrolled in the project (98 percent of whom were African-American), 101 took part in the age 30 follow-up.
"Being able to follow this study sample over so many years has been a privilege," said Frances Campbell, Ph.D., senior scientist at the institute and lead author of the study. "The randomized design of the study gives us confidence in saying that the benefits we saw at age 30 were associated with an early childhood educational experience."
Craig Ramey, Ph.D., professor and distinguished research scholar at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute and study co-author, said the findings have powerful implications for public policy.
"I believe that the pattern of results over the first 30 years of life provides a clearer than ever scientific understanding of how early childhood education can be an important contributor to academic achievement and social competence in adulthood," Ramey said. "The next major challenge is to provide high quality early childhood education to all the children who need it and who can benefit from it."
The Abecedarian Project was a carefully controlled scientific study of the potential benefits of early childhood education for children from low-income families who were at risk of developmental delays or academic failure. Participants attended a full-time child care facility that operated year-round, from infancy until they entered kindergarten. Throughout their early years, the children were provided with educational activities designed to support their language, cognitive, social and emotional development. Follow-up studies have consistently shown that children who received early educational intervention did better academically, culminating in their having greater chance of adult educational attainment.
More information: "Adult Outcomes as a Function of an Early Childhood Educational Program: An Abecedarian Project Follow-up." Study link: http://psycnet.apa … e=1&dbTab=pa
Provided by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"Benefits of high quality child care persist 30 years later: research." January 19th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-benefits-high-quality-child-persist.html

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External stimuli control the hormonal regulation of our eating behavior

Just seeing it creates an appetite: Such images generate the feeling of hunger due to the hormone ghrelin, which is released in greater amounts through visual stimuli. Credit: Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry Max Planck researchers have proven something scientifically for the first time that laypeople have always known: the mere sight of delicious food stimulates the appetite. A study on healthy young men has documented that the amount of the neurosecretory protein hormone ghrelin in the blood increases as a result of visual stimulation through images of food. As a main regulator, ghrelin controls both eating behaviour and the physical processes involved in food metabolism. These results show that, in addition to the physiological mechanisms for maintaining the body's energy status, environmental factors also have a specific influence on food consumption. Thus, the pervasive presence of appetising food in the media could contribute to weight increase in Western populations.
Warning: "Avoid looking at pictures of appetising food as it will make you hungry!" Dieticians could be making recommendations along these lines in the future. It has long been known that, in addition to the physiological regulatory circuits for the maintenance of a sufficient energy status for the body, external stimuli like smell or the sight of food also influence our feelings of hunger and our resulting eating behaviour. The danger that the exposure to such images will result in the consumption of food that is not needed to maintain the body's energy status is particularly high in our advertising-dominated society.
In a study involving healthy male subjects, Axel Steiger and his research group at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry investigated the molecular processes for the control of food consumption. They examined the specific physiological reaction of the test subjects to images showing either delicious food or non-edible objects. The concentrations of different hormones in the blood such as grehlin, leptin and insulin, which play a role in the regulation of food consumption, were measured. The researchers actually observed that the concentration of grehlin in the blood increases specifically in response to visual stimulation with food images.

"The findings of our study demonstrate, for the first time, that the release of ghrelin into the blood for the regulation of food consumption is also controlled by external factors. Our brain thereby processes these visual stimuli, and the physical processes that control our perception of appetite are triggered involuntarily. This mechanism could prompt us to eat a piece of cake just two hours after breakfast," says Petra Schüssler, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute. She thus recommends that individuals with weight problems should preferably avoid looking at images of appetising food.

More information: Schüssler P, Kluge M, Yassouridis A, Dresler M, Uhr M, Steiger A. Ghrelin levels increase after pictures showing food Obesity (Silver Spring). 12 January 2012, doi: 10.1038/oby.2011.385 . [Epub ahead of print]
Provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
"External stimuli control the hormonal regulation of our eating behavior." January 19th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-external-stimuli-hormonal-behavior.html
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Robert Karl Stonjek

To 'think outside the box', think outside the box

(Medical Xpress) -- Want to think outside the box? Try actually thinking outside of a box. In a study to be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers had students think up solutions to problems while acting out various metaphors about creative thinking and found that the instructions actually worked.
The authors of the new paper were inspired by research that has found that many of the metaphors we use actually “work”—people who hold something warm think a stranger they meet has a warmer personality; making a fist makes men more assertive. Angela Leung of Singapore Management University and her coauthors from the University of Michigan, Cornell University, and others wondered if the same was true of metaphors about creativity. “Creativity is a highly sought-after skill,” they write. “Metaphors of creative thinking abound in everyday use.”
People talk about thinking “outside the box” or consider problems “on the one hand, then on the other hand.” So Leung and her colleagues created experiments where people acted out these metaphors. In one experiment, each participant was seated either inside or outside of a five-by-five-foot cardboard box. The two environments were set up to be otherwise the same in every way, and people didn’t feel claustrophobic in the box. Participants were told it was a study on different work environments. Each person completed a test widely used to test creativity; those who were outside did the test better than people who were inside the box.

In another experiment, some participants were asked to join the halves of cut-up coasters before taking a test—a physical representation of “putting two and two together.” People who acted out the metaphor displayed more convergent thinking, a component of creativity that requires bringing together many possible answers to settle on one that will work. Other experiments found that walking freely generated more original ideas than walking in a set line; another found truth in “on the hand; on the other hand.”

All this suggests that there’s something to the metaphors we use to talk about creativity. “Having a leisurely walk outdoors or freely pacing around may help us break our mindset,” says Leung. “Also, we may consider getting away from Dilbert’s cubicles and creating open office spaces to free up our minds.”
More information: http://www.psychol … ical_science
Provided by Association for Psychological Science
"To 'think outside the box', think outside the box." January 19th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-to-think-outside-the-box.html
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Domino Effect

“Hearing that his brothers are dead, Bharata will indeed die as well. And seeing Bharata dead, Shatrughna will also no longer be. And seeing their sons dead, there is no doubt that the mothers - Kausalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi - will then no longer be as well.” (Hanuman, Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kand, 13.26-27)
vinaṣṭau bhrātarau śrutvā bharato api mariṣyati ||
bharatam ca mṛtam dṛṣṭvā śatrughno na bhaviṣyati |
putrān mṛtān samīkṣya atha na bhaviṣyanti mātaraḥ ||
kausalyā ca sumitrā ca kaikeyī ca na samśayaḥ |
When you water the roots of a plant, the different branches and their leaves get nourished at the same time. This approach is more efficient than jumping from one branch to another to ensure that they each get enough water to stay alive. When comparing religious practices, the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in exclusive love is considered the foremost because the Lord is the root of everything. He is especially the life and soul of His intimate associates. Just as the husband who earns a decent living can then support his many family members, the direct satisfaction of the Supreme Lord automatically pleases others tied to Him. It also takes care of the responsibility put on the worshiper to repay debts incurred at the time of birth.
In the Vedic tradition, it is said that a man is burdened with three debts as soon as he appears from the womb. One obligation is to the forefathers, without whom one could not come to this world under the circumstances that they do. The forefathers set the table; they did the hard work so that wherever we took birth we were able to survive to the point that we matured into adults. Even if the circumstances weren’t to our liking, there is still a debt to be paid for having been brought into the world.
Another debt is to the demigods. Once life starts, it needs to be sustained. This requires food, which is dependent on the nourishment provided to the fertile fields. Without rain, heat and light the crops could never emerge from the earth. If there were no sun, the earth would likely last less than a day. Even if one just eats other animals, eventually there won’t be any creatures left if there are no fruits and vegetables available to eat. The cows supply milk freely to their owners, and they take some grass to eat for sustenance. Without the intervention of the heavenly figures, there is no chance of vegetation existing.
Then there is the debt to the sages, those wise seers who passed down Vedic wisdom through the generations. The human being emerging from the womb can survive in the early years through the help of the parents and the food growing in the ground, but to receive the real fruit of their existence, they require a second birth, one granted by the spiritual master, or guru. This birth is considered more important because it begins the life of enlightenment. Birth is a new beginning after all, so with entry into the study of the differences between spirit and matter, the cause behind the existence of the cosmos, and the position of the individual spirit soul relative to the Supreme Soul, the proper course of action can be followed for the rest of one’s time in a particular life form.
Each of the aforementioned entities can be propitiated in specific ways. The forefathers are repaid by having a son. In Sanskrit the word for son is “putra”, which means one who delivers another from the hellish realm known as “put”. In a formal ceremony, the son can offer pinda on the anniversary of the father’s passing. This offering then gets eaten by the forefathers should their souls have unfortunately made it to a hellish condition. In addition, should the son be very pious, he can deliver countless previous generations in his family from suffering for their past sins.

“In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Vishnu, and blessed them by saying, ‘Be thou happy by this yajna [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you all desirable things.’” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 3.10)

The demigods are pleased by sacrifice. You hold a formal gathering, invite an officiating priest and create a sacrificial fire into which oblations of ghee [clarified butter] are poured. The demigods each take their portion of these offerings and thus feel satisfied. When they are pleased, they provide heaps of rain to the human species. Since you need it to rain at regular intervals, these sacrifices need to be performed in a timely manner; otherwise there could be trouble.
The debt to the rishis is paid by studying scripture. There are so many volumes of Vedic literature available that one couldn’t read every single work in just one lifetime, let alone fully understand any of them. Typically just one work is focused on, read from every day, and then discussed in a council of other sincere spiritual leaders and seekers. They say that the Shrimad Bhagavatam is the crown jewel of Vedic literature because it bypasses the need for worrying about material affairs, the future fortunes of the soul with respect to a body that constantly changes. Just studying the Bhagavatam every day does so much for furthering one’s spiritual aspirations.

"Anyone who has taken shelter of the lotus feet of Mukunda, the giver of liberation, giving up all kinds of obligation, and has taken to the path in all seriousness, owes neither duties nor obligations to the demigods, sages, general living entities, family members, humankind or forefathers." (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 11.5.41)

Though the three primary debts arrive at the time of birth, there is one simple way to avoid having to worry about them. The Supreme Lord, the primary subject matter of the Bhagavatam and any other work focusing on bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, is the fountainhead of all energies and every manifestation. The concern over rain, progeny and knowledge focuses on aspects the soul accepts while travelling through the cycle of reincarnation. In its constitutional position, however, the soul is a lover of God. Therefore if it can remain fixed in trance on the divine form, pastimes and names of the Supreme Lord, the other concerns automatically take care of themselves.
This method is likened to watering the root of a tree. The Vedas have many branches of knowledge aimed at providing specific kinds of fruit. By following a particular recommendation, one type of fruit can be enjoyed. When the roots of the tree are watered, however, fruits abound everywhere. The ripened fruit is devotion to God, which can only come through direct service offered in the proper mood. How do we find out what the proper mood should be? Also, what kind of attitude results from that service? To find the answers, we can look to none other than Shri Hanuman, Lord Rama’s most faithful and trusted servant.
Hanuman once found himself in a very tough situation. He was in the enemy territory of Lanka looking for Rama’s missing wife Sita Devi. She had been taken there through a nefarious plot hatched by the king of Lanka, Ravana. After bravely making his way into the city unnoticed and searching everywhere, Hanuman still couldn’t find Sita. Not concerned over his own fortunes or the debts he owed to different people, Hanuman was only worried about how his failure would affect everyone else. After all, Rama was counting on him, and since he hadn’t found Sita, Hanuman seemingly let the Lord down.
Since Rama is the root of the tree of existence, He is intimately tied to so many other people. Hanuman, being properly situated in the divine consciousness, knew this very well. When pondering over what might happen should he return to Kishkindha where Rama was, Hanuman went through a chain of potential actions in his mind to see just what effect his failure would have. He knew that in Kishkindha Rama was waiting with His younger brother Lakshmana. Rama was originally from the royal kingdom of Ayodhya, where He was the beloved eldest son of King Dasharatha. Lakshmana was Rama’s younger brother and figuratively attached to the Lord at the hip. If Rama suffered pain, so did Lakshmana. If Rama received good news, Lakshmana took it as the source of the greatest pleasure.
Lord Rama had been banished from Ayodhya for fourteen years through a series of unfortunate events. Lakshmana refused to allow his brother to suffer alone, so he accompanied Rama in His fourteen year sojourn through the woods. Sita felt the same way, so that is how she ended up in the forest as well. In most circumstances this is unheard of. When soldiers get called off to war, do they take their wives with them? If there is an emergency situation calling for a police officer on the scene, does the notified cop tell his wife to get ready to come along?
Obviously such emergency situations are dangerous and the wives in these instances are trained to deal with them on their own. They surely love their husbands very much, but they would never think of coming along and being put at risk. With Sita, her love was so strong that she didn’t care what the standard protocol was. Never mind that she was a beautiful princess accustomed to living an elegant lifestyle. Her husband was sent away and she refused to allow Him to live alone, bereft of comfort. Not caring about herself, she was only worried about Rama’s welfare.
Of course Rama wanted Sita to stay home for a reason. The impious elements are always looking for new avenues for illicit sex life, ways to enjoy their senses more. Ravana had many beautiful wives, but just by hearing of Sita’s beauty he had to have her. He paid no attention to the fact that she was married to someone else. He didn’t even worry about winning her honorably through a fair fight against Rama. He hatched a plot to take Sita away behind Rama’s back; revealing himself to be a coward.
Hanuman felt that if he told Rama that he had failed in finding Sita, the Lord would give up His life. As soon as Rama would leave this world, so would Lakshmana. Hanuman’s knowledge of Rama’s inner circle and the nature of His closest devotees was not limited to that acquired through direct perception. He had personally dealt with Rama and Lakshmana but not with anyone else in Rama’s family. Yet from the above referenced verse from the Ramayana we see that Hanuman felt that with Rama and Lakshmana gone, Bharata would also quit his body. Bharata was another younger brother of Rama’s, and he had been handed the kingdom at the time of Rama’s banishment. Utterly disgusted by the turn of events, he refused to rule over the kingdom that rightfully belonged to his elder brother. He would have renounced his life immediately, but Rama asked him to stay in Ayodhya. A compromise was reached, where Bharata would worship Rama’s sandals every day until the Lord came back. Rama’s brothers are so wonderful that one can go back and forth arguing over who is the most devoted and never reach a firm conclusion.
Hanuman knew of Bharata and his devotion. If the devoted brother couldn’t see Rama and Lakshmana again, he wouldn’t live. Similarly, Shatrughna was ever devoted to Bharata. When King Dasharatha’s four sons appeared in this world, they essentially broke out into pairs. Though they all loved Rama like a father, behaviorally Lakshmana and Rama paired together and Bharata and Shatrughna were very close. It is revealed in the scriptures that Rama is the very same Supreme Personality of Godhead, descending to earth in the guise of a human being. His three brothers are also partial expansions of Lord Vishnu, God’s four-handed form residing in the spiritual land. Thus all four brothers can be considered worshipable.
Hanuman’s knowledge of Rama’s inner circle didn’t stop with the brothers. Without any of their sons, the mothers who gave birth to the four brothers would also cease to exist. King Dasharatha had already passed on after Rama left for the forest, so the mothers held on to the hope of seeing their four sons together again; that was their reason for living.
In one sense, Hanuman’s thinking is a little humorous. Through his disappointment over not having found Sita, Hanuman has essentially compared his “failure” to the first piece of a row of dominoes falling. When domino pieces are particularly aligned, once the first piece is knocked down, all the others will follow suit. Thus Hanuman is essentially blaming himself for the deaths of so many important personalities, people he worshiped.
By serving Lord Rama first, by giving his devotion to the Lord exclusively, Hanuman immediately harbored great love for the Lord’s associates. He had never met Sita before, yet he was so anxious to find her location that he felt extreme sadness over not succeeding right away. This is an indication of his devotion to Rama and also his enthusiasm in the mission. Aside from outward displays of emotion in the beginning, a great way to tell if someone is enthusiastically engaged in a particular task is to see how dejected they get if they should face the possibility of failing. If they really care about the task, they will be devastated should they be unable to complete it.

“One who works in devotion, who is a pure soul, and who controls his mind and senses, is dear to everyone, and everyone is dear to him. Though always working, such a man is never entangled.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 5.7)

No one in this world has ever been more enthusiastic to succeed in a mission than Hanuman was in his search for Sita in Lanka. He proved this not only by being extremely dejected about not having found the princess, but also by continuing on with the mission. It was so important to him to please Rama and those associated with the Lord that he’d rather die trying than live failing. Such perseverance is both inspiring and touching to the heart. It is thus no wonder that Hanuman is held in such high regard today by so many important people, not the least of whom are Sita, Lakshmana and Rama. He is their favorite person in the world, and they think of him and his welfare all the time. Anyone who pleases Hanuman pleases Rama as well, because Hanuman is forever tied to devotional service and victory in life’s mission, that of becoming God conscious by the time of death. Hanuman waters the root of the tree to find all auspiciousness in life. Whoever has the good luck to say his name, think about him and remember his activities will be supremely benefitted as well, for the perseverant Vanara shows how to practice bhakti all the time and bring satisfaction to the whole world.

In Closing:
Intimately tied to Him are Rama’s brothers,
And standing by waiting are loving mothers.
If of the Lord hearing the worst kind of news,
To maintain their lives what would be the use?
On association with Supreme Lord they depend,
Prayers and well-wishes to Him they always send.
Hanuman knew that Shri Rama is the root,
Of the devotee’s welfare, their happiness to boot.
Remember Hanuman and about three debts don’t care,
Devotion only to God, who with family pleasure shares.

Risky sex, drug acts decline in US: survey

High-risk sexual behaviors and drug habits that can increase a person's likelihood of getting HIV/AIDS are on the decline in the United States, according to a government survey released Thursday.
The number of Americans who said they had more than five sex partners in the past year, failed to use a condom, had sex in exchange for drugs or money, used illicit drugs, had male-to-male sex or had an HIV positive partner all dropped slightly from 2006-2010 compared to 2002.
About 10 percent of men and eight percent of women in the current survey period reported at least one of these HIV-risk behaviors, down from 13 percent of men and 11 percent of women in 2002.
That means about 6.5 million men and 4.9 million women reported HIV-risk related behaviors in the year prior to taking the latest survey.
The report, issued by the National Center for Health Statistics, drew from a survey of 22,682 people aged 15-44, most of whom answered questions by entering responses into a computer rather than to a live interviewer.
This method "has been found to yield more complete reporting of sensitive behaviors," said the report.
Nationwide, new cases of HIV have leveled off at about 50,000 in the United States each year, with 16,000 people dying annually of AIDS, the Centers for Disease Control said.

About 1.2 million people in the United States are living with HIV, and about 20 percent do not know they are HIV positive.

Thursday's report said that 61 percent of new AIDS infections in 2009 were among men who have sex with men, while 27 percent were attributed to heterosexual contact and nine percent to injection of illicit drugs.
Men who had prison experience in the past year were most likely to report at least one risky behavior -- 27 percent -- compared to seven percent of men who had not done time behind bars.
Men with military experience were also less likely (6.8 percent) than men without (10 percent) to report risky behavior.
(c) 2012 AFP
"Risky sex, drug acts decline in US: survey." January 19th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-risky-sex-drug-decline-survey.html
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Robert Karl Stonjek

Energy drink abuse highest among teens

The study shows the trend of misuse and toxicity appears to be increasing among teenagers; out of the 217 callers who were classified as recreational users, the median age was 17 years. Credit: Tambako (Medical Xpress) -- A recent study has revealed a dramatic increase in the number of calls to a poisons hotline relating to caffeine toxicity from energy drink consumption.

According to the research published in the Medical Journal of Australia, the trend is largely among teenagers.

A study, by NSW Poisons Information Centre medical director Dr. Naren Gunja and coauthor Jared Brown was conducted over a seven-year period and found that callers reported 297 exposures to energy drinks, with the annual trend increasing from 12 in 2004 to 65 in 2010.

The study shows the trend of misuse and toxicity appears to be increasing among teenagers; out of the 217 callers who were classified as recreational users, the median age was 17 years.

“Adolescents are unaware of the dangers [of energy drinks] and most people are unaware of the ill effects of mixing energy drinks with alcohol,” Dr. Gunja says.

According to the research, popular energy drinks Red Bull and V account for over 97 per cent of energy drinks sales (which is 20 per cent of the total convenience store beverage market) and the number of energy drink units ingested far exceeds recommended maximum levels.

Most energy drinks contain varying amounts of caffeine, guarana extract, taurine and ginseng, with additional amino acids, vitamins and carbohydrates.

But Dr. Gunja says adverse reactions and toxicity from high-energy drinks can be attributed to the caffeine content, which is typically around 300mg per can.

Guarana, also contains caffeine (about 40–80mg per extract) but is additional to the listed caffeine content of energy drinks and is not always declared on packaging.

“Consumers are likely to be unaware of the variation in chemical composition and caffeine dosage in energy drinks, and with little or no warnings on products, the potential for overdose remains ever-present.”

The study revealed the most common symptoms included heart palpitations, agitation, tremor and gastrointestinal upset, but there were also signs of serious cardiac or neurological toxicity, such as hallucinations, seizures and cardiac ischaemia.

Dr. Gunja says a major reason behind the increase in reports of caffeine toxicity was due to marketing; in 2009, the energy drink industry spent nearly $15 million on marketing in Australia.

“Manufacturers pitch their product to athletes, students and people in professions that require sustained alertness,” the research says.

“Young adults and adolescents are particularly attracted to energy drinks because of the effective product marketing, peer influence and a lack of knowledge of the potential harmful effects.”

Provided by ScienceNetwork Western Australia

"Energy drink abuse highest among teens." January 19th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-energy-abuse-highest-teens.html

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