A study of stability and change in defense mechanisms during a brief psychodynamic investigation.

This study investigated the stability of defensive functioning over the course of a 4-session Brief Psychodynamic Investigation (BPI). The sample included 61 outpatients from the Adult Psychiatry Department of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Defenses were measured from session transcripts using the DMRS quantitative method.

Reef development at Inhaca Island, Mozambique: coral communities and impacts of the 1999/2000 Southern African floods.

Inhaca Island, southern Mozambique, is located towards the southerly latitudinal limits of coral reef growth. Reef development is restricted to the margins of channels which dissect intertidal flats on the Maputo Bay side of the island, and to depths of around 6 m. In contrast to lower latitude reefs, reef development is therefore both spatially and bathymetrically restricted (largely due to high turbidity levels).

Unwanted infants: psychological and physical consequences of inadequate orphanage care 50 years later.

Studies of the effects in middle-aged adults of institutionalization at birth or early childhood are rare. The results of this study show that members of a randomly selected, middle-aged group of orphans, most of whom were institutionalized at birth, were significantly more psychosocially dysfunctional and had significantly more chronic illnesses that could be stress related than a randomly selected, matched community sample.

Maternal preoccupation and parenting as predictors of emotional and behavioral problems in children of women with breast cancer.

Purpose: To test the hypothesis that differences between sicker and not-so-sick women in their preoccupation with their illness and parenting behavior can explain why some investigators find that children of breast cancer patients fare better than controls and other investigators find the reverse.

Patients And Methods: Forty-two women with metastasized breast cancer (sicker mothers) and 45 women with a first occurrence of nonmetastasized breast cancer (not-so-sick mothers) rated the degree of their preoccupation with the disease, their parenting behavior, mood, and social supports and the emotional and behavioral symptoms in one of their children. Their 12- to 18-year-old children rated their mothers' parenting behavior, their own emotional and behavioral symptoms, and their self-esteem.

Remission in major depressive disorder: a comparison of pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, and control conditions.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the percentages of full remission in studies of patients with major depressive disorder in which pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, and control conditions were directly compared.

Method: Computerized searches of the MEDLINE and PsychINFO databases up to November 2000 were used to identify six multiple-cell randomized, controlled, double-blind trials for well-defined major depressive disorder in which medications, psychotherapy, and control conditions were directly compared and for which remission percentages were reported.

Results: The studies included a total of 883 outpatients with mild to moderate, primarily nonmelancholic, nonpsychotic major depressive disorder.

Olfactory neural cells: an untapped diagnostic and therapeutic resource. The 2000 Ogura Lecture.

Objective: This is an overview of the cellular biology of upper nasal mucosal cells that have special characteristics that enable them to be used to diagnose and study congenital neurological diseases and to aid neural repair.

Study Design: After mapping the distribution of neural cells in the upper nose, the authors' investigations moved to the use of olfactory neurones to diagnose neurological diseases of development, especially schizophrenia. Olfactory-ensheathing glial cells (OEGs) from the cranial cavity promote axonal penetration of the central nervous system and aid spinal cord repair in rodents.

Mannosomes: a molluscan intracellular tubular membrane system related to heavy metal stress?

Amongst animals, several hydrogen peroxide-generating oxidases are apparently restricted to molluscs. One of these, D-mannitol oxidase, is concentrated in the alimentary system, where it is associated with its own subcellular membrane system of unique tubular morphology, most likely representing a structural modification of the ER. These structures can be purified by subcellular fractionation and have been termed 'mannosomes'.