Heavy metal exposure in patients suffering from electromagnetic hypersensitivity

Background

Risks from electromagnetic devices are of considerable concern. Electrohypersensitive (EHS) persons attribute a variety of rather unspecific symptoms to the exposure to electromagnetic fields. The pathophysiology of EHS is unknown and therapy remains a challenge.

Objectives

Heavy metal load has been discussed as a potential factor in the symptomatology of EHS patients. The main objective of the study was to test the hypothesis of a link between EHS and heavy metal exposure.

Methods

We measured lead, mercury and cadmium concentrations in the blood of 132 patients (n = 42 males and n = 90 females) and 101 controls (n = 34 males and n = 67 females).

Results

Our results show that heavy metal load is of no concern in most cases of EHS but might play a role in exceptional cases.

Conclusions

The data do not support the general advice to heavy metal detoxification in EHS.     

Assessing the forms and functions of aggression using self-report: Factor structure and invariance of the Peer Conflict Scale in youths.

This study examined the structure of a self-report measure of the forms and functions of aggression in 855 adolescents (582 boys, 266 girls) aged 12 to 19 years recruited from high school, detained, and residential settings. The Peer Conflict Scale (PCS) is a 40-item measure that was developed to improve upon existing measures and provide an efficient, reliable, and valid assessment of four dimensions of aggression (i.e., reactive overt, reactive relational, proactive overt, and proactive relational) in youths. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that a 4-factor model represented a satisfactory solution for the data. The factor structure fit well for both boys and girls and across high school, detained, and residential samples. Internal consistency estimates were good for the 4 factors, and they showed expected associations with externalizing variables (i.e., arrest history, callous-unemotional traits, and delinquency). Reactive and proactive subtypes showed unique associations consistent with previous literature. Implications for the use of the PCS to assess aggression and inform intervention decisions in diverse samples of youths are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Promoting energy-saving behaviour: formal social groups as promising middle actors for municipal interventions

City governments worldwide are trying to motivate their citizens to reduce their energy use—a particular challenge as they try to reach individual households. A promising strategy to engage the public broadly entails collaborating with middle actors to multiply the effects of municipal interventions. Some of these middle actors are formal social groups (e.g. sports clubs and neighbourhood associations). We conducted an online experiment (N = 136) to determine whether such interventions were more effective when they are communicated through formal social groups than when communicated through city governments. Participants received letters containing advice for saving energy in the household. Willingness to participate was higher when the letters came from formal social groups than when they came from a city agency. Furthermore, actual members of formal social groups generally were more willing to participate. Our evidence suggests that formal social groups are promising middle actors for energy conservation campaigns and that city governments should engage more often with these groups to communicate with residents.     

Hepatic and Adipose Tissue Depot-Specific Changes in Lipid Metabolism in Late-Onset Obese (LOB) Rats

Transgenic Late-onset OBesity (LOB) rats slowly develop a male-specific, autosomal dominant, obesity phenotype with a specific increase in peri-renal white adipose tissue (WAT) depot and preserved insulin sensitivity (Bains et al. in Endocrinology 145:2666–2679, 2004). To better understand the remarkable phenotype of these rats, the lipid metabolism was investigated in male LOB and non-transgenic (NT) littermates. Total plasma cholesterol (C) levels were normal but total plasma triacylglycerol (TAG) (2.8-fold) and hepatic TAG content (25%) was elevated in LOB males. Plasma VLDL-C and VLDL-TAG levels were higher while plasma apoB levels were 60% lower in LOB males. Increased hepatic TAG secretion explained the increased VLDL levels in LOB males. The hepatic gene expression of FAS, SCD-1, mitochondrial (mt)GPAT, and DGAT2 was up-regulated in both old obese and young non-obese LOB rats. Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity in heart and epididymal white adipose tissue (WAT) was unchanged, while LPL activity was increased in peri-renal WAT (30%) and decreased in soleus muscle (40%). Moreover, FAS, SCD-1 and DGAT2 gene expression was increased in peri-renal, but not in epididymal WAT. Basal lipolysis was reduced or unchanged and β-adrenergic stimulated lipolysis was reduced in WAT from both old obese and young non-obese LOB rats. To summarize, the obese phenotype of LOB male rats is associated with increased hepatic TAG production and secretion, a shift in LPL activity from skeletal muscle to WAT, reduced lipolytic response in WAT depots and a specific increase in expression of genes responsible for fatty acid and TAG synthesis in the peri-renal depot. F. Frick and R. Hume contributed equally to this work.     

The importance of callous–unemotional traits for extending the concept of psychopathy to children.

This study focused on the use of callous–unemotional (CU) traits to identify a subgroup of children with both attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a conduct problem diagnosis (oppositional defiant disorder [ODD] or conduct disorder [CD]) who show characteristics similar to adults with psychopathy. In a clinic-referred sample of children aged 6 to 13 years (N?=?154), those with diagnoses of both ADHD and ODD/CD were divided on the basis of teacher ratings of CU traits. Children high on these traits showed features typically associated with psychopathy, such as a lack of fearfulness and a reward-dominant response style. Furthermore, children with CU traits seemed less distressed by their behavior problems. These findings are consistent with research on adults showing that impulsivity and antisocial behavior alone are insufficient to document persons who fit the construct of psychopathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The problems of internal validation without a theoretical context: The different conceptual underpinnings of psychopathy and the disruptive behavior disorder criteria.

G. Burns (see record 2001-17304-012) has concluded that the Psychopathy Screening Device's content is limited because it contains items that overlap with criteria for several disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The problem with Burn's analysis is that it was conducted without an adequate understanding or specification of the conceptual underpinnings of either the construct of psychopathy or the constructs assessed by the DSM criteria. This reply attempts to clarify these conceptual frameworks to illustrate that to judge the adequacy of the content of a measure of psychopathy by comparing it with DSM criteria is inconsistent with the differing theoretical frameworks underlying these classification systems. Forcing measures of psychopathy to be designed around DSM criteria leads to inadequate measures of psychopathy and can limit advances both in our understanding of developmental precursors to psychopathy and in the classification of DSM disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Communicating emotion: The role of prosodic features.

Reviews research on the expression of emotion through the nonverbal (prosodic) features of speech. Findings show that emotions can be expressed prosodically, apparently through a variety of prosodic features. This communication appears to be largely the same for different individuals and cultures, suggesting that the prosodic expression of emotion is not conventional. Some correlations between dimensions of emotions (e.g., anxiety, aggression) and prosodic features are discussed; activity or arousal seems to be signaled by increased pitch height, pitch range, loudness, and rate. The possibility that prosodic contours (patterns of pitch and loudness over time) are used to communicate specific emotions is explored. A number of authors suggest that anger is communicated by an even contour with occasional sharp increases in pitch and loudness. Methodological difficulties with the acoustical manipulation of relevant auditory and articulatory features are noted. It is suggested that a major step in investigating the prosodic expression of emotion will be learning how to synthesize various articulatory and auditory features. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Serious conduct problems in the children of adolescent mothers: Disentangling confounded correlations.

Early motherhood (r?=?.33) with the number of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) symptoms of conduct disorder in a sample of 253 boys (aged 6–13 yrs) who had been referred to outpatient clinics. The following models were compared using path analysis: (1) Teenage motherhood, parental antisocial personality, and socioeconomic status (SES) each contribute uniquely to the prediction of childhood conduct problems; (2) teenage motherhood mediates the association of SES and parental antisocial personality with child conduct problems; and (3) teenage motherhood is spuriously related with child conduct problems because of common associations with SES and parental antisocial personality. Model (3) best fit the data. Similar results were obtained whether maternal age at the birth of the firstborn child or the proband child was used to define maternal age and when teenage motherhood was defined as giving birth at