Attitudes of neuroscience nurses toward patients with conversion symptoms.

Background: Patients with conversion symptoms on neurology wards often report negative interactions with nursing staff.

Objective/method: The authors therefore systematically studied, by means of an anonymous questionnaire, the attitudes of neuroscience nurses (N=68) toward these patients.

Results: Negative attitudes were common: 16% disagreed that conversion symptoms were "real;" 46% thought the patients were "manipulative;" and 34% disagreed that neurology was "an appropriate place" for these patients.

Lack of respiratory and contact sensitizing potential of the intranasal antiviral drug candidate rupintrivir (AG7088): a weight-of-the-evidence evaluation.

Rupintrivir, also known as AG7088, is a small molecule 3C protease inhibitor designed to target human rhinovirus as a potential intranasal treatment for the common cold. The ability of rupintrivir to induce both respiratory and contact hypersensitivity responses was evaluated using a weight of the evidence approach. A local lymph node assay (LLNA) in mice evaluating concentrations of rupintrivir up to 50% in dimethylformamide showed no evidence of sensitizing capability.

Factor structure and validity of the parenting stress index-short form.

The psychometric properties of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) were examined in a sample of 185 mothers and fathers. Factor analysis revealed 2 reasonably distinct factors involving parental distress and dysfunctional parent-child interactions. Both scales were internally consistent, and these scales were correlated with measures of parent psychopathology, parental perceptions of child adjustment, and observed parent and child behavior.

Subchronic studies in Sprague-Dawley rats to investigate mechanisms of MTBE-induced Leydig cell cancer.

High MTBE exposures caused rat Leydig cell (LC) tumors in inhalation and gavage cancer bioassays. Investigating early endocrine changes consistent with known mechanisms of LC carcinogenesis, we gavaged adult male Sprague-Dawley rats with MTBE in five different subchronic experiments and studied testosterone biosynthesis in isolated rat LCs exposed in vitro to MTBE or a major metabolite, t-butanol. In vitro LC testosterone production declined 29-50% following 3-h exposures to 50-100 mM MTBE or t-butanol.