Hair Cortisol as a Marker of Intergenerational Heritage of War? A Study of Veterans and Their Offspring.

Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been associated with lower circulating cortisol levels in specific subgroups, which have also been found in the offspring of people with PTSD. The analysis of hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) is a recent methodology which is used to assess long-term systemic cortisol levels. We aimed to study veterans with war-related lifetime PTSD and their respective offspring with regards to HCC.

Vulnerability Factors Associated with Lifetime Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among Veterans 40 Years after War.

Vulnerability factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) development are still controversial. Our aim was to study the vulnerability factors for the development of war-related PTSD over a period of 40 years after exposure. A cross-sectional, observational study was carried out on 61 male traumatized war veterans, taking into consideration adverse childhood experiences (ACE), attachment orientations, number of non-war-related traumatic events, and war experiences.

Intergenerational transmission of war-related trauma assessed 40 years after exposure.

Background: The intergenerational transmission of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from parent to offspring has been suggested in the literature, but this is highly controversial. We aimed to study the association between veterans' war exposure and lifetime PTSD and the psychological characteristics of their respective offspring, 40 years after war-related trauma.

Methods: Forty-four adult offspring of veterans with PTSD and 29 offspring of veterans without PTSD were included in the study, from a total of 46 veterans.

Child maltreatment, revictimization and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among adults in a community sample.

: Childhood maltreatment (CM) has been associated with revictimization and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, this relation is hardly examined in South European countries, and in community samples. We tested these associations in a convenience sample of 1,200 Portuguese adults in the community.

Associations Between the Big Five Personality Traits and a Medical School Admission Interview.

Introduction: Personality has became popular in medical student's selection. However, few research exists about the association between the big five personality traits and the existent medical school selection tools. Our aim was to study which personality traits were selected by a medical school admission interview.

Communication skills in medical students - An exploratory study before and after clerkships.

Introduction: Effective communication is the cornerstone of a fruitful patient-physician relationship. Teaching clinical communication has become a pivotal goal in medical education. However, approaches measuring the maintenance of learned skills are needed since a decline in some communication skills during medical school has been reported.

Genetics of glucocorticoid regulation and posttraumatic stress disorder--What do we know?

CASTRO-VALE, I., E.F.

Emotion Recognition Ability Test Using JACFEE Photos: A Validity/Reliability Study of a War Veterans' Sample and Their Offspring.

Emotion recognition is very important for social interaction. Several mental disorders influence facial emotion recognition. War veterans and their offspring are subject to an increased risk of developing psychopathology.

Teaching communication skills in clinical settings: comparing two applications of a comprehensive program with standardized and real patients.

Background: Communication is important for the quality of clinical practice, and programs have been implemented to improve healthcare providers' communication skills. However, the consistency of programs teaching communication skills has received little attention, and debate exists about the application of acquired skills to real patients. This study inspects whether (1) results from a communication program are replicated with different samples, and (2) results with standardized patients apply to interviews with real patients.

[MAST and AUDIT. Evaluation of psychometric characteristics in patients with alcohol dependence].

Introduction/objective: To evaluate the correlation between scores on the MAST and AUDIT in patients hospitalized for detoxification from alcohol dependence and consider if the intensity of those scores reflect the severity of dependence and problems related to alcohol use.

Material And Methods: Correlational study. Patients admitted for the first time for alcohol dependence treatment.

[Teaching doctor-patient communication - a proposal in practice].

Traditionally, doctor-patient communication was considered a matter of <> and <>, and a topic for informal learning. Recently, studies have shown the importance of communication skills in medical practice. Doctor-patient communication skills, such as knowing how to listen, how to observe, and how to inform are today considered important components of Medical Education, although they are often difficult to integrate in Medical Curricula.

Learning clinical communication skills: outcomes of a program for professional practitioners.

Objective: To assess the effects of a communication skills program on professional practitioners' performance and self-confidence in clinical interviewing.

Methods: Twenty-five health professionals took 3 months of basic communication skills followed by 3 months of advanced communication skills. An additional quarter dealt with self-awareness and communication in special situations.

Cytokines and anxiety in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients not receiving antidepressant medication: a little-explored frontier and some of its brief history.

Autoimmunity travelled from the theoretical roots planted by Burnet with the clonal selection theory and the early finding of a mouse providing a test for the role of the thymus as a source of forbidden clones. This chapter briefly reviews early work with the NZB mouse and presents results of an analysis of associations between cytokines and physical and psychometric parameters in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients not medicated with antidepressants. Some cytokines, particularly IFN-gamma, relate significantly to physical symptoms and anxiety.

[The relationship between stress and life-style of students at the Faculty of Medicine of Oporto].

Different studies have demonstrated that there are significant changes in the health and habits/life-style of university students, and it seems that Medical students also reveal a significant vulnerability to the adoption of health risk behaviours. The present study aims to (1) characterize the main sources of academic stress of the Medical School students of the University of Porto as well as the intensity with which they are experienced, (2) investigate the variations in academic stress and psychosocial variables, due to gender, year of course and displacement from home and (3) contribute, for the first time, to the understanding of stress and life-style of medical students in Portugal. The empirical study included a sample of 251 students from all 6 years of the course (160 females and 91 males), evaluated by the following instruments: (1) The Inventory of Sources of Academic Stress in Medical Education (ISASME), and the Portuguese versions of (2) the Brief Personal Survey (BPS), (3) the General Health Questionnaire 12 (GHQ-12), and (4) the Interpersonal Behaviour Survey-Brief (ICIBrief).