Psychosocial mechanisms for the transmission of somatic symptoms from parents to children.

Aim: To examine familial aggregation of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) via parental reinforcement/modeling of symptoms, coping, psychological distress, and exposure to stress.

Methods: Mothers of children between the ages of 8 and 15 years with and without IBS were identified through the Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound. Mothers completed questionnaires, including the Child Behavior Checklist (child psychological distress), the Family Inventory of Life Events (family exposure to stress), SCL-90R (mother psychological distress), and the Pain Response Inventory (beliefs about pain).

Detailed localization of augmented angiotensinogen mRNA and protein in proximal tubule segments of diabetic kidneys in rats and humans.

In the intrarenal renin-angiotensin system, angiotensinogen levels are well known to be increased in diabetes, and these enhanced intrarenal angiotensinogen levels may initiate the development and accelerate the progression of diabetic nephropathy. However, the specific localization of the augmented angiotensinogen in proximal tubule segments in diabetes is still unknown. We investigated the detailed localization of angiotensinogen in 3 proximal tubule segments in the diabetic Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima fatty (OLETF) rats and the control Long-Evans Tokushima Otsuka (LETO) rats.

Divergent localization of angiotensinogen mRNA and protein in proximal tubule segments of normal rat kidney.

Objectives: Angiotensinogen in the kidneys is formed primarily in the proximal tubule cells and is secreted into the tubular fluid. Structurally, proximal tubules can be divided into three segments. The first segment, segment 1 (S1) is mainly confined to the pars convoluta, the second segment, segment 2 (S2) comprises the end of pars convoluta, and the third segment, segment 3 (S3) includes the major part of the pars recta.

The establishment of a primary culture system of proximal tubule segments using specific markers from normal mouse kidneys.

The proximal tubule contains the highest expression of angiotensinogen mRNA and protein within the kidney and plays a vital role in the renal renin-angiotensin system. To study the regulation of angiotensinogen expression in the kidney in more detail, the proximal tubule needs to be accurately isolated from the rest of the nephron and separated into its three segments. The purpose of this study was to design a novel protocol using specific markers for the separation of proximal tubule cells into the three proximal tubule segments and to determine angiotensinogen expression in each segment.

Project-based Housing First for chronically homeless individuals with alcohol problems: within-subjects analyses of 2-year alcohol trajectories.

Objectives: Two-year alcohol use trajectories were documented among residents in a project-based Housing First program. Project-based Housing First provides immediate, low-barrier, nonabstinence-based, permanent supportive housing to chronically homeless individuals within a single housing project. The study aim was to address concerns that nonabstinence-based housing may enable alcohol use.

Volunteer and user evaluation of the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline.

Purpose: The National Sexual Assault Online Hotline (NSAOH) is a new model for delivery of rape and sexual assault crisis services through a secure, confidential chat-based online hotline. This paper presents a program evaluation drawn from volunteer counselor and user perceptions and experiences during the second year of operation of the NSAOH.

Method: Outcome data are presented from 731 session evaluations submitted by 94 volunteers and session evaluations from 4609 user sessions collected between June 1, 2008 and May 30, 2009.

Health care and public service use and costs before and after provision of housing for chronically homeless persons with severe alcohol problems.

Context: Chronically homeless individuals with severe alcohol problems often have multiple medical and psychiatric problems and use costly health and criminal justice services at high rates.

Objective: To evaluate association of a "Housing First" intervention for chronically homeless individuals with severe alcohol problems with health care use and costs.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Quasi-experimental design comparing 95 housed participants (with drinking permitted) with 39 wait-list control participants enrolled between November 2005 and March 2007 in Seattle, Washington.

Increased somatic complaints and health-care utilization in children: effects of parent IBS status and parent response to gastrointestinal symptoms.

Objectives: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) runs in families. The aims of this study were (i) to exclude biased perception by a mother with irritable bowel as the explanation for increased gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in their children, (ii) to determine whether non-GI as well as GI symptoms run in families, and (iii) to determine whether parent IBS status and solicitous responses to illness exert independent effects on children's symptom reports, medical clinic visits, and school absences.

Methods: Two hundred and eight mothers with irritable bowel and their 296 children (cases: average age 11.

The use of a World Wide Web-based consultation site to provide support to telephone staff in a traumatic brain injury demonstration project.

Objectives: Distance from expertise in traumatic brain injury (TBI) is often an impediment to appropriate TBI care from local health care providers, especially in rural areas. To overcome this barrier to care and to support a randomized, controlled trial of telephone follow-up after discharge from acute rehabilitation, we demonstrated the use of a confidential consultation Web site to provide expert recommendations and advice to front-line telephone staff at a different site.

Conclusions: This use of Internet communication proved convenient to all users, improved client confidence, and served as an excellent training tool to less experienced staff.