ஆண்மை ஆயுளை குறைக்கிறதா?

ஆண்களின் ஆண் தன்மைக்கு காரணமான ஹார்மோன்களே, அவர்களின் ஆயுட்காலத்தை குறைப்பதற்கான காரணியாக இருக்கக்கூடும் என்பதை குறிப்புணர்த்தும் ஆய்வின் முடிவு ஒன்று சமீபத்தில் வெளியாகியிருக்கிறது.

உலகம் முழுவதும் மனித இனத்தில் ஆண்களை விட பெண்களின் சராசரி வயது அதிகம். இதற்கு என்ன காரணம் என்று மருத்துவ உலகில் நடக்கும் தொடர் ஆய்வுகளில், ஒரு பகுதி விஞ்ஞானிகள், ஆண்களுக்கு ஆண்தன்மையை அளிக்கும் ஹார்மோன்கள், அவர்களின் ஆயுளை குறைப்பதில் முக்கிய பங்காற்றலாம் என்று சந்தேகிக்கிறார்கள்.

அதாவது ஆண்களுக்கு ஆண்தன்மையை அளிக்கும் டெஸ்டஸ்ட்ரோன் என்கிற ஆண்களின் பாலின தன்மைக்கான ஹார்மோன்கள், ஆண்களின் விதைப்பைகளில் பெருமளவு உற்பத்தியாகிறது. இந்த டெஸ்டெஸ்ட்ரோன் ஹார்மோன் ஆண்களின் நோய் எதிர்ப்புத்தன்மையை பாதிக்கக்கூடும் என்றும் ஆண்களின் இதயத்தை வலுவிழக்கச்செய்யக்கூடும் என்றும் இந்த தரப்பு ஆய்வாளர்கள் சந்தேகம் வெளியிட்டு வந்தனர்.

இவர்களின் இந்த சந்தேகம், மருத்துவ விஞ்ஞான உலகின் ஆய்வு நெறிகளுக்குட்பட்ட ஆய்வுகள் மூலம் இதுவரை முழுமையாக நிரூபிக்கப்படவில்லை என்றாலும், இந்த கருதுகோள் கணிசமான மருத்துவ விஞ்ஞானிகளின் கவனத்தை ஈர்த்திருக்கிறது. இவர்களின் இந்த சந்தேகம் நிரூபிக்கப்படவேண்டுமானால், விதைப்பை நீக்கப்பட்ட ஆண்களின் ஆயுட்காலம் சராசரியாக அவர்கள் வாழும் சமூகத்தின் மற்ற ஆண்களின் சராசரி ஆயுட்காலத்தை விட அதிகரிக்கிறதா என்கிற ஆய்வின் முடிவில் தான் அதை கணக்கிட முடியும். இப்படியான ஆய்வுகள் இதுவரை முழுமையாக நடக்கவில்லை என்றாலும், இதற்கு இணையான புதிய ஆய்வின் முடிவு இவர்களின் கருத்துக்கு வலு சேர்ப்பதாக இருக்கிறது.

கொரியாவில் பதினாறாம் நூற்றாண்டில் துவங்கி, பத்தொன்பதாம் நூற்றாண்டு வரை உயிர்வாழ்ந்த விதைப்பை அகற்றப்பட்ட ஆண்கள், அதாவது தற்போது அரவாணிகள் என்றும் திருநங்கைகள் என்றும் அழைக்கப்படுகிறவர்களைப் போன்றவர்களின் ஆயுட்காலம் பற்றிய புள்ளி விவரங்கள் தற்போது கிடைத்திருக்கின்றன.

இந்த காலகட்டத்தில் கொரியாவில் ஆட்சியில் இருந்த கோசுன் பேரரசில் பருவ வயதுக்கு வருவதற்கு முன்னரே விதைப்பைகள் அகற்றப்பட்ட திருநங்கைகள் அரண்மனை காவலுக்கு வைக்கப்பட்டிருந்தனர். இப்படி அரண்மனையில் முக்கிய பணியில் இருந்த திருநங்கைகள் 81 பேரின் புள்ளிவிவரங்களை ஆராய்ந்த இன்ஹா பல்கலைக்கழக பேராசிரியர் முனைவர் கியுங் ஜின் மின் அவர்கள், இவர்கள் அனைவரும் சராசரியாக எழுபது வயது வரை உயிர் வாழ்ந்திருப்பதாக கூறுகிறார். இதில் மூன்றுபேர் நூறு வயதுக்கும் மேலாக உயிர்வாழ்ந்திருக்கிறார்கள்.

அதேசமயம், இவர்களை பணியில் அமர்த்தியிருந்த அரச வம்ச ஆண்களின் சராசரி வயது வெறும் 45 என்றும், அரண்மனையில் இருந்த மற்ற ஆண் அதிகாரிகளின் சராசரி வயது 50 தாண்டவில்லை என்றும் கூறும் இந்த பேராசிரியர், இவர்களின் வாழ்க்கைச் சூழல், வசதி வாய்ப்புகள் போன்றவை கூட இவர்களின் ஆயுட்காலத்தை நிர்ணயிக்கும் காரணிகளாக இருந்திருக்கலாம் என்றாலும், அந்த காரணிகளைவிட ஆண்தன்மைக்கான டெஸ்டஸ்ட்ரோன் ஹார்மோன்களை உற்பத்தி செய்யும் விதைப்பைகள் நீக்கப்பட்டதே திருநங்கைகளின் ஆயுட்காலம் அதிகரிக்க முக்கிய காரணி என்று அவர் கூறுகிறார்.

ஆனால் இந்த ஆய்வின் முடிவுகள் வாதப்படிக்கு ஏற்கத்தக்கதாக இருந்தாலும் இவற்றை இறுதியானதாக கொள்ளமுடியாது என்கிறார் லான்காஸ்டர் பல்கலைக்கழகத்தின் பேராசிரியர் டேவிட் கிளான்ஸி. வேறு சில ஆய்வுகளில் விதைப்பை நீக்கப்பட்ட ஆண்களின் வயதுக்கும் நீக்கப்படாத ஆண்களுக்கும் சராசரி வயதுக்கும் இடையில் பெரிய வேறுபாடு காணப்படவில்லை என்றும் அவர் கூறுகிறார்.

இந்த வாதப்பிரதிவாதங்கள் ஒருபுறமிருக்க, டெஸ்டெஸ்ட்ரோன் ஹார்மோன்கள் இல்லாவிட்டால் ஆண்களுக்கு பாலியல் நாட்டம் இல்லாமல் போகும் என்பதை சுட்டிக்காட்டும் பேராசிரியர் கியுங் ஜின் மின் அவர்கள், எத்தனை ஆண்கள் தங்களின் ஆண்மையை பறிகொடுத்து ஆயுட்காலத்தை நீட்டிக்க விரும்புவார்கள் என்று கேள்வியை எழுப்புகிறார்.

Sudarshana Ashtakam to CURE YOUR ILLNESS

 


Sudarshana is the holy wheel which Lord and uses as his chief weapon. There is a story that 

the daughter of Viswa Karma, who was the architect of the God’s, was married to the 

Sudarshana is the holy wheel which Lord and and she left him because of his immense heat. It 

seems Viswa Karma put Sun God in a cage and churned him to reduce his heat. The heat was 

reduced and Sudarshana Chakra, Trishoola and Shakthi, respectively the weapons of Lord 

Vishnu, uses as his chief weapon. Sudarshana Chakra is given the status of God by the 

followers of Ramanujacharya. He being a prime devotee is called the Chakrathazhwar. 

Venkata Natha or Vedantha Desika is one of the greatest savants that Visishitadvaitha produced, after Ramanuja. He lived about 140 years after Saint Ramanuja and has written several books. The prayers he wrote are immensely popular among the devotees of Vishnu. Raghavabhyudhyam, one of his greatest works has a commentary written by Appayya Deekshitha who was a savant following Advaitha .Though there were several great teachers in the Visishtadvaitha devotees, Desika (Meaning teacher) is only used for denoting Vedantha Desika.

This octet on Sudarshana by Vedanta Desika is a great work of devotion. It is extremely musical and full of meaning. It is normally recited when there is an illness at home, to get rid of it.

Pratibhatasreni Bhishana, Varagunasthoma Bhushana
Janibhyasthana Taarana, Jagadavasthaana Karana,
Nikhiladushkarma Karsaana, Nigamasaddharma Darsana
Jaya Jaya Sri sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana.

Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Who is fearsome to hoards of enemies of devotees
Who is ornament for all blessed actions,
Who helps one to cross sea of samsara,
Who stabilizes the entire universe,
Who cuts off accumulated sins of bad actions,
And who teaches righteous conduct.

Subhajagadrupa Mandana, Suraganathrasa Khandana
Satamakabrahma vandita, Satapatabrahma Nandita ,
Pratitavidvat Sapakshita, Bhajata Ahirbudhnya Lakshita
Jaya jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana.
Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Who is the ornament of him who is Lord of universe,
Who removes the fear of all asuras towards devas,
and hosts of others,Who is worshipped by Lord
Who is worshipped by Sat Pada Brahmana,
Who is on the part of devotees for overcoming contestants,
And who is worshipped by Lord Shiva.

Sphutata -Dijjaala Pinjara, Pruthutarajwaala Panjara
Parigata Pratnavigraha, Padutaraprajna Durgraha,
Praharana Grama Manditha, Parijana Thraana Panditha
Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana.

Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Who is surrounded by resplendent light like a halo,
Who is surrounded by forms of Vishnu,
Who is difficult for even great scholars to grasp,
And who helps devotees to cross problems.

Nijapatapreetha saddgana, Nirupathispeetha Shad Guna
Nigama NirvyuDa Vaibhava, Nijapara Vyuha Vaibhava,
Hari Haya Dweshi Daarana, Hara Pura Plosha Kaarana
Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana.

Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Who is firmly attached to righteous people,
Who is the natural home for six good assets,
Who took the form with a horse’s neck,
And who was the reason for destruction of the cities by Shiva.

Dhanuja visthaara Kartana, Janitamisraa Vikartana
Dhanujavidya Nikartana, Bhajatavidya Nivatana,
Amara drushtasva Vikrama, Samara Jushta Bramikrama
Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana.

Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Who destroys the spread of asuras,
Who removes the sorrows of birth, aging and death,
Who wins over the art of war of asuras,
Who removes the false knowledge from his devotees,
Whose valour is praised by devas,
And who rotates in various ways in a war.

Prathimukhaaleeta Bandhura, Pruthumahaheti Danthura
Vikatamaaya Bahishkrutha ,Vividhamaalaa Parishkrutha ,
Sthiramahaayantra Tantritha ,Dhruta Daya Tantra Yantrita
Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana , Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana .

Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Who appeared with a fast forward gait,
And whose gait appeared very pretty,
Who is surrounded by several weapons,
And expels the illusions sent by enemy in case of war,
Who decorates himself with several garlands,
Who wears mercy and blesses devotees,
Who worship him through tantra and yantras.

Mahita Sampath Sadhakshara ,Vihitasampath Shatakshara
Tattva Prathishtita ,Shatarachakra Pratisishtita ,
Vividha Sankalpaka Kalpaka,Vibhudhasankalpa Kalpaka
Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana, Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana .

Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Who gives wealth of salvation to those who,
Chant your six lettered mantra,
Who gives incomparable wealth to those who,
Chant your six lettered mantra,
Who is available in yantra of six corners,
Who is a form in which all knowledge exists,
Who is able to complete all deeds that you take up,
And who is the kalpaka tree fulfilling all wishes.


Bhuvana Netra Trayeemaya , Savanatejastrayeemaya
Niravadhisvaadhu Chinmaya, Nikhila Sakthe Jaganmaya ,
Amita Viswakriyaamaya,Samitavishvagbhayaamaya
Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana ,Jaya Jaya Sri Sudarsana .

Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Victory and Victory to you, oh, Sudarshana,
Who is the three Vedas which are the eye of the world,
Who is the form of the three fires of yagas,
Who is the eternal knowledge of true knowledge,
Who is a form of the power of universe,
Who is accomplisher of deeds that you take up,
And who destroys all fears occurring in the world.
Verse 9: Phala Sruthi
Dwichatushkamidam Prabhoothasaaram patathaam Venkatanayaka Praneetham ,
Vishamepi Manorata: Pradhaavan na Vihanyeta Rataangadhuryagupta : .

This octet which fulfills all desires,
Which gives the inner meaning of Lord Sudarshana,
Composed by Venkata Natha, if read,
Would fulfill desires, remove obstacles,
Because of the glorious boon granting powers of the Lord.

Bye Bye to all expensive scans, X-rays and other unnecessary tests prescribed by doctors.

Bye Bye to all expensive scans, X-rays and other unnecessary tests prescribed by doctors. World's first microchip pill has been introduced and approved by FDA.

The microchip is a standard digital chip made up of silicon with traces of magnesium and copper and is no more significant than the size of traditional medicine. Once the microchip is ingested, it gets activated by the stomach's digestive fluids and starts generating electric signals. A battery-operated patch on the patient’s skin receives these signals, which forwards the medical information to a mobile app upon the patient’s consent. The battery-operated patch has a life of seven days, and in the mean duration, it is responsible for receiving all the inner-body conditions from the microchip.

The conditions such as heart rate, temperature, and body position are tracked and then forwarded to the clinicians (via mobile app) so that the patient can be medicated accordingly. The device has been approved to be used with placebo pills to test its safety and working. If the procedure turns out to be successful and safe, microchips will soon be integrated with medication. This chip will help to analyse Heart Diseases also.

Shirdi Sai Baba Life History (A Glimpse)

Mind Map

Researchers create the first atlas of gene activity in the human brain.

By Beth Marie Mole | September 24, 2012

3-D rendering from the Allen Human Brain Atlas showing the expression a single gene in the internal structures of the human brain overlaid onto magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. The level of gene expression at the different points (dots) is indicated on a color scale, with blue reflecting relatively low expression and red reflecting high expression.Allen Human Brain Atlast, Allen Institute for Brain Science

An international team of researchers has created a high-resolution, 3-dimensional map of gene expression in human brains, using donated, whole brains from two males and a single hemisphere from a third man’s brain, according to a new study published last week (September 19) in Nature.

The researchers, led by Michael Hawrylycz of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, created the atlas by assembling transcription data—collected using DNA microarrays—from around 900 precisely cut brain pieces and overlaying them on MRI brain scans of the donated brains taken before dicing. The maps—freely available online—could help scientists test hypotheses of brain function, disease, and evolution.

“By themselves these data do not hold all of the answers for understanding how the brain works,” Ed Lein, a neuroscientist at the Allen Institute and co-author of the study, told LiveScience. “However, we hope they serve as a catalyst in human brain research for understanding the brain’s complex chemistry and cellular makeup.”

For example, scientists studying particular disorders could use imaging techniques, such functional MRI, to assess brain areas involved, then consult the new atlas to evaluate the genes expressed in those regions, which are displayed by a simple, color-coded guide to show the relative level of gene expression. Currently researchers rely on piecemeal studies of mouse brains for such expression information.

Coauthor Seth Grant of Edinburgh University told BBC News that for brain research to progress it is “essential to understand how it makes all of the genes and where they are expressed in the human brain.”

Source: TheScientist

http://the-scientist.com/2012/09/24/mind-map/

Posted by

Robert Karl Stonjek

Human brains outpace chimp brains in the womb

The image shows a 3D ultrasound of a chimp in the womb. Credit: Current Biology, Sakai et al.: “Fetal brain development in chimpanzees versus humans

Humans' superior brain size in comparison to their chimpanzee cousins traces all the way back to the womb. That's according to a study reported in the September 25 issue of Current Biology that is the first to track and compare brain growth in chimpanzee and human fetuses.

"Nobody knew how early these differences between human and chimp brains emerged," said Satoshi Hirata of Kyoto University.

Hirata and colleagues Tomoko Sakai and Hideko Takeshita now find that human and chimp brains begin to show remarkable differences very early in life. In both primate species, the brain grows increasingly fast in the womb initially. After 22 weeks of gestation, brain growth in chimpanzees starts to level off, while that of humans continues to accelerate for another two months or more. (Human gestation time is only slightly longer than that of chimpanzees, 38 weeks versus 33 or 34 weeks.)

This video is not supported by your browser at this time.

This movie shows a pregnant chimpanzee undergoing an ultrasound imaging procedure to explore brain growth in her fetus. Credit:Current Biology, Sakai et al.: “Fetal brain development in chimpanzees versus humans”

The findings are based on 3D ultrasound imaging of two pregnant chimpanzees from approximately 14 to 34 weeks of gestation and comparison of those fetal images to those of human fetuses. While early brain differences were suspected, no one had previously measured the volume of chimpanzee brains as they develop in the womb until now.

The findings are part of a larger effort by the research team to explore differences in primate brains. In another Current Biology report published last year, they compared brain development in chimps versus humans via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of three growing chimpanzees from the age of six months to six years (see this article).

"Elucidating these differences in the developmental patterns of brain structure between humans and great apes will provide important clues to understand the remarkable enlargement of the modern human brain and humans' sophisticated behavior," Sakai said.

The researchers say they now hope to explore fetal development in particular parts of the brain, including the forebrain, which is critical for decision making, self-awareness, and creativity.

More information: Sakai et al.: "Fetal brain development in chimpanzees versus humans" Current Biology, 2012.

Provided by Cell Press

"Human brains outpace chimp brains in the womb." September 24th, 2012. http://phys.org/news/2012-09-human-brains-outpace-chimp-womb.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

White matter, old dogs, and new tricks

Dartmouth graduate student Alex Schlegel reviews brain scans to elucidate the changes of white matter in action. Credit: Eli Burak

Most people equate "gray matter" with the brain and its higher functions, such as sensation and perception, but this is only one part of the anatomical puzzle inside our heads. Another cerebral component is the white matter, which makes up about half the brain by volume and serves as the communications network.

The gray matter, with its densely packed nerve cell bodies, does the thinking, the computing, the decision-making. But projecting from these cell bodies are the axons—the network cables. They constitute the white matter. Its color derives from myelin—a fat that wraps around the axons, acting like insulation.

Alex Schelgel, first author on a paper in the August 2012 Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, has been using the white matter as a landscape on which to study brain function. An important result of the research is showing that you can indeed "teach old dogs new tricks." The brain you have as an adult is not necessarily the brain you are always going to have. It can still change, even for the better.

"This work is contributing to a new understanding that the brain stays this plastic organ throughout your life, capable of change," Schlegel says. "Knowing what actually happens in the organization of the brain when you are learning has implications for the development of new models of learning as well as potential interventions in cases of stroke and brain damage."

Schlegel is a graduate student working under Peter Tse, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences and a coauthor on the paper. "This study was Peter's idea," Schlegel says. "He wanted to know if we could see white matter change as a result of a long-term learning process. Chinese seemed to him like the most intensive learning experience he could think of."

Twenty-seven Dartmouth students were enrolled in a nine-month Chinese language course between 2007 and 2009, enabling Schlegel to study their white matter in action. While many neuroscientists use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in brain studies, Schlegel turned to a new MRI technology, called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). He used DTI to measure the diffusion of water in axons, tracking the communication pathways in the brain. Restrictions in this diffusion can indicate that more myelin has wrapped around an axon.

"An increase in myelination tells us that axons are being used more, transmitting messages between processing areas," Schlegel says. "It means there is an active process under way."

Their data suggest that white matter myelination is precisely what was seen among the language students. There is a structural change that goes along with this learning process. While some studies have shown that changes in white matter occurred with learning, these observations were made in simple skill learning and strictly on a "before and after" basis.

"This was the first study looking at a really complex, long-term learning process over time, actually looking at changes in individuals as they learn a task," says Schlegel. "You have a much stronger causal argument when you can do that."

The work demonstrates that significant changes are occurring in adults who are learning. The structure of their brains undergoes change.

"This flies in the face of all these traditional views that all structural development happens in infancy, early in childhood," Schlegel says. "Now that we actually do have tools to watch a brain change, we are discovering that in many cases the brain can be just as malleable as an adult as it is when you are a child or an adolescent."

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"White matter, old dogs, and new tricks." September 24th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-white-dogs.html

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Chronic exposure to dim light may raise depression risk

Two years ago, Randy Nelson, Ph.D., chair of neuroscience at Ohio State University, doctoral student Tracy Bedrosian, and colleagues reported that dim-light exposure at night was capable of triggering depressive-like behaviors in animals. The dim-light exposure, they explained, was comparable to having a television on in a darkened room.

They thus suspected that if people were exposed to such light, it might make them susceptible to depression (Psychiatric News, December 17, 2010).

Now, Nelson and his team have found that chronic dim-light exposure at night—five times brighter than maximal moonlight and comparable to the levels of light pollution surrounding cities—can not only lead to depressive-like behaviors in animals, but also increase the amount of the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor in the hippocampus region of the brain.

When the researchers infused an antagonist of tumor necrosis factor into the animals' brains, it eliminated their depressive-like behaviors.

It thus appears not only that chronic dim light at night can contribute to depression, but also that tumor necrosis factor plays a role in such dim-light-provoked depression, the researchers concluded in their report, published July 24 in Molecular Psychiatry. And still another reason to believe that tumor necrosis factor is involved, they indicated, is that giving it to people or animals was already known to induce depressive symptoms.

The implications of these findings for people, Nelson and his colleagues believe, are that they might be wise to minimize their exposure to light during sleep—say, avoid sleeping with a night light, not falling asleep with a bedroom television on, and using curtains to block light from the street.

The researchers also made a provocative proposal in their paper—that a putative increase in the prevalence of major depression among Americans in recent years may have been due to their growing exposure to nighttime light during the same period. But whether that is the case remains to be determined in future studies.

More information: An abstract of "Chronic Dim Light at Night Provokes Reversible Depression-like Phenotype: Possible Role for TNF" is at www.nature.com/mp/… 201296a.html

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"Chronic exposure to dim light may raise depression risk." September 24th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-chronic-exposure-dim-depression.html

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Kids who get gifts of scratch lottery tickets gamble earlier in life

(Medical Xpress)—Youngsters who receive instant lottery tickets as a gift tend to begin gambling earlier in life—a possible risk factor for more severe gambling disorders later, Yale School of Medicine researchers report Sept. 19 in the journalAdolescent Health.

Children or adolescents who received gifts of scratch lottery tickets as children tend to have more permissive attitudes about gambling than those who did not receive tickets as gifts, according to a survey of some 2,000 Connecticut high school students.

Researchers also reported a stronger association between age of gambling onset and the severity of problem gambling severity among those who received lottery tickets. Other factors—such as depression and alcohol and drug use—were related to the severity of problem gambling whether or not students had received lottery ticket gifts. The study could not determine whether early gifts of lottery tickets influenced later problem gambling because it did not follow students over time. However, the survey supports recent research that shows the early experience of gambling is associated with future problems such as difficulties stopping gambling despite experiencing major life difficulties related to gambling.

"Our research suggests that family members and friends should consider the possible negative impact of giving children or adolescents lottery tickets as gifts," said Marc Potenza, professor of psychiatry, child study, and neurobiology, and senior author of the research.

Potenza notes that the Connecticut Lottery also has cautioned against the purchase of lottery tickets for youth.

Provided by Yale University

"Kids who get gifts of scratch lottery tickets gamble earlier in life." September 24th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-kids-gifts-lottery-tickets-gamble.html

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Feeling guilty versus feeling angry—who can tell the difference?

When you rear-end the car in front of you at a stoplight, you may feel a mix of different emotions such as anger, anxiety, and guilt. The person whose car you rear-ended may feel angered and frustrated by your carelessness, but it's unlikely that he'll feel much guilt.

The ability to identify and distinguish between negative emotions helps us address the problem that led to those emotions in the first place. But while some people can tell the difference between feeling angry and guilty, others may not be able to separate the two. Distinguishing between anger and frustration is even harder.

In a study forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychological scientist Emre Demiralp of the University of Michigan and his colleagues hypothesized that clinically depressed people would be less able to discriminate between different types of negative emotions compared to healthy individuals. Clinically depressed people often experience feelings of sadness, anger, fear, or frustration that interfere with everyday life.

"It is difficult to improve your life without knowing whether you are sad or angry about some aspect of it," says Demiralp. "For example, imagine not having a gauge independently indicating the gasoline level of your car. It would be challenging to know when to stop for gas. We wanted to investigate whether people with clinical depression had emotional gauges that were informative and whether they experienced emotions with the same level of specificity and differentiation as healthy people."

The researchers recruited 106 people between the ages of 18 and 40 to participate in their study. Half of the participants were diagnosed with clinical depression and half were not. Over the course of seven to eight days, they carried a Palm Pilot, which prompted them to record emotions at 56 random times during the day. To report their emotions, they marked the degree to which they felt seven negative emotions (sad, anxious, angry, frustrated, ashamed, disgusted, and guilty) and four positive emotions (happy, excited, alert, and active) on a scale from one to four.

Demiralp and his colleagues looked at participants' tendency to give multiple emotions (e.g., disgusted and frustrated) similar rankings at a given point in time. According to their methodology, the more two emotions were reported together the less the person differentiated between these emotions.

The researchers found that clinically depressed people had less differentiated negative emotions than those who were healthy, supporting their hypothesis. Notably, they did not find the same difference between groups for positive emotions—people with and without diagnosed clinical depression were equally able to differentiate between positive emotions. It is possible that people who are clinically depressed differentiate more between positive emotions as a coping mechanism.

Demiralp and his colleagues argue that the procedure used in the study to record emotions may be particularly useful in studying the emotional experience of clinically depressed people, paving the way for more treatment and therapy options in the future.

"Our results suggest that being specific about your negative emotions might be good for you", says Demiralp. "It might be best to avoid thinking that you are feeling generally bad or unpleasant. Be specific. Is it anger, shame, guilt or some other emotion? This can help you circumvent it and improve your life. It is one of our overarching goals to investigate approaches for facilitating this kind of emotional intelligence at a large scale in the population."

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"Feeling guilty versus feeling angry—who can tell the difference?." September 24th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-guilty-angrywho-difference.html

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Prostate cancer diagnosis and surgery can lead to anxiety, depression and reduced quality of life

Men who undergo surgical removal of prostate cancer can experience significant levels of anxiety one year after surgery, and higher levels of anxiety appear to be linked to poor sexual satisfaction and depression, say researchers at Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida. Their recent study, published in the online edition of Psycho-Oncology, suggests that men who experience high levels of "cancer-specific anxiety" following surgery for prostate cancer could likely benefit from counseling designed to address their worries and improve their quality of life.

"The 10-year survival for a man undergoing surgery to remove localized prostate cancer is greater than 95 percent. Given that the majority of men who undergo prostatectomy for prostate cancer will not die from their disease, we are concerned about what life will be like for these patients decades after diagnosis and treatment," says the study's senior investigator, Alexander Parker, Ph.D., an associate professor of epidemiology and urology.

While prostate cancer can be a life threatening disease, most men diagnosed with prostate cancer do not die from it. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 2.5 million men in the United States who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer are still alive.

"The odds of surviving for long periods of time following surgery for prostate cancer are very high," says surgeon and co-author Gregory Broderick, M.D., a professor of urology. "That means a lot of men are living as prostate cancer survivors and we at Mayo Clinic are committed to understanding factors that affect their quality of life, not just their quantity of life."

Dr. Broderick presented these results at the joint meeting of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America and the International Society for Sexual Medicine this summer in Chicago.

Data from studies in patients with other cancer types have shown that anxiety can significantly affect an individual's quality of life. "Our study is the first to specifically show that those men with higher cancer-specific anxiety one year after surgery for prostate cancer are more likely to report lower levels of satisfaction with their sex life and higher levels of depressive symptoms," Dr. Parker says. In their study, the Mayo Clinic researchers examined findings on 365 men who, one year after undergoing surgery for prostate cancer, completed a questionnaire designed to measure anxiety levels about the fact they have been diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer. The men also completed additional questionnaires to measure levels of erectile function, sexual satisfaction and depression.

The results showed that those men who reported high anxiety levels are more likely to report low sexual satisfaction and a high rate of depression symptoms. "What is interesting from the sexual health standpoint is we observed that anxiety was not linked to poor erectile function per se but was linked to low levels of sexual satisfaction," Dr. Parker says. "If our results can be confirmed by other investigators, it would suggest that anxiety is not affecting some men's ability to perform sexually but perhaps more their ability to enjoy their sex life."

While Dr. Parker and his colleagues observed that anxiety was generally higher in those men who had the more aggressive forms of prostate cancer based on their pathology reports after surgery, a number of men with nonaggressive cancer also reported very high levels of anxiety. "Among this specific subgroup of men with prostate cancer who have less aggressive disease we are talking about survival rates of nearly 100 percent, yet they think about cancer every day. This presents a great opportunity for identifying these men and offering intervention aimed at modifying this anxious behavior," Dr. Parker says.

Mayo Clinic already offers cancer patients access to behavior-based counseling led by trained psycho-oncologists. Dr. Parker says the results of this new study underscore the opportunity to test new ways of addressing this need in men with prostate cancer.

"Anxiety about a cancer diagnosis can lead to increased depressive symptoms and an inability to enjoy life's activities, including sexual relations," says Dr. Parker. "We are building on these results by designing trials to test whether counseling can help these patients."

More information: onlinelibrary.wile… on.3138/full

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Heritability of avoidant and dependent personality disorder traits

(Medical Xpress)—A new twin study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health shows that the heritability of avoidant and dependent personality disorder traits might be higher than previously reported. People with avoidant personality disorder are often anxious in the company of others, while people with dependent personality disorder feel more secure.

Results from previous studies indicate that genetic factors explain about one third of the individual differences in these personality disorder traits, while the remaining variation is best explained by environmental influences. These studies used single-occasion interviews only.

In contrast, the current study used two different measures of assessment at two different time-points in order to measure personality disorders traits, and is therefore considered more methodologically sound. In 1998, 8,045 young adult twins answered a questionnaire that included questions about personality disorder traits. Some years later, 2794 of these twins took part in a structured diagnostic interview. Both identical (monozygotic) and fraternal (dizygotic) twins participated.

Identical twins share 100% of the genetic material, while fraternal twins share on average 50%—meaning that they are genetically similar to other siblings. By comparing how similar the two types of twin pairs are on a particular trait, researchers can determine how much of the variation between individuals can be explained by genes and environment, respectively.

Higher heritability when controlling for random effects

The researchers found that two thirds of the variation in avoidant and dependent personality disorder traits could be explained by genes, and that the most important environmental influences were those unique to each twin. Such environmental influences can be any that contribute to the twins in a pair being different, e.g. the influence of different friends, teachers, activities, or various life events.

"It is important to emphasize that the term heritability does not refer to individuals per se. Heritability is a statistic that relates to the population as a whole, and is expressed as a proportion of how much the total variation in a trait, such as personality disorders, is influenced by genes", says PhD student and first author of the study Line C. Gjerde.

"The strength of this study is that we have measured personality disorder traits with both a questionnaire and, at a later time-point, an interview. This provides a better estimate of heritability than studies that measure personality disorder once and with one instrument only. The method applied in the current study allows us to capture the core of these personality disorder traits and not random effects, or effects specific to a certain time point or method of assessment", Gjerde explains.

Implications for clinicians

The key finding that genes are so influential in the development of personality disorders emphasizes the importance of obtaining a thorough family history from patients with symptoms of such disorders. However, this does not mean that personality disorders are not treatable. Gjerde emphasizes that the strong genetic influence found in the study does not imply any form of determinism:

"If a person has a family history of personality disorders, this does not necessarily mean that he or she will develop a personality disorder. Whether or not a genetic vulnerability leads to the expression of a certain trait or disorder depends on a complex interplay of both genetic and environmental factors." 
The study was carried out in collaboration with the Virginia Institute for

Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics at the Virginia Commonwealth University.

More information: L.C. Gjerde, N. Czajkowski, E. Røysamb, R.E. Ørstavik, G.P. Knudsen, K. Østby, S. Torgersen, J. Myers, K.S. Kendler and T. Reichborn-Kjennerud (2012) The heritability of avoidant and dependent personality disorder assessed by personal interview and questionnaire. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, pp.1-10. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2012.01862.x

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"Heritability of avoidant and dependent personality disorder traits." September 24th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-heritability-personality-disorder-traits.html

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No scientific basis to idea that homosexuality causes psychological harm, researchers emphsize

Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laszlo-photo/149047693/

(Medical Xpress)—Academic staff in the Research School of Psychology at The Australian National University have strongly rejected the view reported in the media today that homosexuality carries with it psychological or biological harm.

School Director Professor Don Byrne said there is no scientific evidence at all to support this proposition.

"Modern psychology has moved well beyond the ideas of the past that homosexuality represents deviance, psychological abnormality or mental illness," he said.

"As a society we have accepted for some time now that homosexuality constitutes a completely legitimate, normal and accepted sexual preference.

"People with gay, lesbian or trans-gender orientations make the same important contributions to our society as those who are heterosexual, and they have done so throughout history.

"There is no evidence that sexual orientation confers any degree of psychological or biological abnormality whatsoever."

Professor Byrne said he and his highly qualified and internationally recognised colleagues at the University were not taking a religious or moral view on the question of homosexuality - rather they were seeking to correct the misrepresentation of current psychological science.

"There is now some evidence to suggest an elevated rate of psychological distress among people with a homosexual preference," he said

"But from a psychological perspective, isolated instances of distress are most likely explained by the alienation, vilification and rejection which have so unfortunately and wrongly attended homosexuality in the past."

Provided by Australian National University

"No scientific basis to idea that homosexuality causes psychological harm, researchers emphsize." September 24th, 2012.http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-scientific-basis-idea-homosexuality-psychological.html

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