Repeated Downsizing Contact: The Effects of Similar and Dissimilar Layoff Experiences on Work and Well-Being Outcomes.

In this longitudinal study, the authors compared 1,244 white- and blue-collar workers who reported 0, 1, or 2 contacts with layoffs; all were employees of a large manufacturing company that had engaged in several mass waves of downsizing. Consistent with a stress-vulnerability model, workers with a greater number of exposures to both direct and indirect downsizing reported significantly lower levels of job security and higher levels of role ambiguity, intent to quit, depression, and health problems. Findings did not support the idea that workers became more resilient as they encountered more layoff events. The authors found only partial evidence that the similarity or dissimilarity of the type of repeated downsizing exposure played a role in how workers reported changes in these outcome variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of gender and taste class in the effects of stress on eating.

In a study of the effects of stress on eating, healthy nonsmoking Ss (26 men and 28 women, aged 17–41 yrs) were shown a film about industrial accidents (stress condition) or a pleasant travelog (control condition) and had access to sweet, salty, and bland snack food. Stress markedly and significantly decreased food consumption by men but resulted in some increased food consumption by women. Across the 3 taste categories, men consistently ate less under stress than in the control condition. In contrast, women ate nearly twice as much sweet food and more bland food under stress than in the control condition, but these effects were not statistically significant. Thus, the relationship between stress and eating depends on the sex of the S and may relate to type of food available. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analysis of physician attitudes concerning requests for autopsy

To quantify the role of failure to request consent as a determinant of the autopsy rate, questionnaires asking whether an autopsy had been requested and the reasons for that decision were distributed to primary physicians after each death in a consecutive series of 75 patient deaths. Autopsies were requested in only 56% of cases. Common reasons to request an autopsy included unanswered medical questions (37%), medical education (22%), research protocol participation (16%), or routine policy (14%). When autopsies were not requested, the most common reason was the belief that there were no outstanding medical questions (64%). Follow-up interviews with 14 oncologists and hematologists revealed that 8 generally request autopsies (usually to contribute to medical education or to discover unexpected findings) and 6 generally do not (usually because no unexpected findings are anticipated). Attempts to increase the current low autopsy rate should address the question of when and why physicians are willing to request this procedure.     

Effects of environmental conditions on food consumption in female and male rats

The present experiment examined food and water consumption under different housing conditions in 20 female and 20 male Wistar rats. Food and water consumption were measured for 6 h a day following an 18-h same-sex crowded or individual housing period for each of 6 days. All subjects were individually housed during the 6-h measurement period and had access to food and water. Female rats consumed more food and water than did male rats during the 6-h period, regardless of their 18-h housing condition. In addition, previously crowded rats consumed more food and water during the 6-h period than did rats that were previously individually housed. During the 18-h period, when subjects were differentially housed, males consumed more food and water than did females; crowded rats ate less than did individually housed rats; and crowded rats drank more water than did individually housed rats. Based on plasma corticosterone data, the female and male rats were differentially affected by housing conditions. The present results are discussed with regard to housing conditions per se and sex differences in stress responses to housing.     

Effects of nicotine and stress on startle amplitude and sensory gating depend on rat strain and sex

We recently reported that 14 days of nicotine administration (12 mg/kg/day) reduced acoustic startle reflex amplitude and impaired prepulse inhibition (PPI) of startle in male and female Long-Evans rats. These findings contrasted with reports of nicotine-induced enhancement of startle and PPI in Sprague-Dawley (a different strain) male rats. The present experiment administered 0, 6, or 12 mg/kg/day nicotine via osmotic minipump for 14 days to 120 Sprague-Dawley rats (male and female) and to 120 Long-Evans rats (male and female) and examined ASR and PPI. Half of the subjects also were stressed by immobilization once each day to examine nicotine-stress interactions. Nicotine enhanced ASR and PPI responses of Sprague-Dawley rats but impaired these responses in Long-Evans rats, regardless of sex. Effects of stress were complex and depended on strain, sex, and drug dose. These findings indicate that effects of nicotine on measures of reactivity (ASR) and sensory gating (PPI) depend on genotype and that nicotine stress interactions depend on genotype, sex, and nicotine dosage.     

Smoking research: Basic research, intervention, prevention, and new trends.

Discusses the diversity and richness of smoking research by examining smoking from four perspectives: basic laboratory research, intervention, prevention and deterrence, and new directions in smoking research. It is acknowledged that smoking is a behavior that is influenced by a variety of factors that cut across methodologies, disciplines, and content areas within health psychology. Methodologies that were derived from such varied sources as psychopharmacology, behavioral pharmacology, behavior therapy, clinical psychology, public health promotion, and social and developmental psychology have been used to study smoking. Populations ranged from animal models, to the individual smoker trying to quit, to communities involved in health promotion. Future research should seek to provide new and improved examples of interdisciplinary approaches from basis and applied sciences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reduction of cisplatin-induced emesis by a selective neurokinin-1-receptor antagonist. L-754,030 Antiemetic Trials Group

BACKGROUND: The localization of substance P in brain-stem regions associated with vomiting, and the results of studies in ferrets, led us to postulate that a neurokinin-1-receptor antagonist would be an antiemetic in patients receiving anticancer chemotherapy. METHODS: In a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 159 patients who had not previously received cisplatin, we evaluated the prevention of acute emesis (occurring within 24 hours) and delayed emesis (on days 2 to 5) after a single dose of cisplatin therapy (70 mg or more per square meter of body-surface area). Before receiving cisplatin, all the patients received granisetron (10 microg per kilogram of body weight intravenously) and dexamethasone (20 mg orally). The patients were randomly assigned to one of three treatments in addition to granisetron and dexamethasone: 400 mg of an oral trisubstituted morpholine acetal (also known as L-754,030) before cisplatin and 300 mg on days 2 to 5 (group 1), 400 mg of L-754,030 before cisplatin and placebo on days 2 to 5 (group 2), or placebo before cisplatin and placebo on days 2 to 5 (group 3). Additional medication was available at any time to treat occurrences of vomiting or nausea. RESULTS: In the acute-emesis phase, 93 percent of the patients in groups 1 and 2 combined and 67 percent of those in group 3 had no vomiting (P<0.001). In the delayed-emesis phase, 82 percent of the patients in group 1, 78 percent of those in group 2, and 33 percent of those in group 3 had no vomiting (P<0.001 for the comparison between group 1 or 2 and group 3). The median nausea score in the delayed-emesis phase was significantly lower in group 1 than in group 3 (P=0.003). No serious adverse events were attributed to L-754,030. CONCLUSIONS: The neurokinin-1-receptor antagonist L-754,030 prevents delayed emesis after treatment with cisplatin. Moreover, combining L-754,030 with granisetron plus dexamethasone improves the prevention of acute emesis.     

Sex differences in effects of predictable and unpredictable footshock on fentanyl self-administration in rats.

An operant conditioning paradigm was used to examine effects of predictable and unpredictable footshock on oral fentanyl (50 μg/ml) self-administration (SA) in 12 female and 12 male Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus). Rats were tested for drug SA under a progressive ratio schedule with and without repeated predictable or unpredictable footshock over 8 weeks. Female rats consumed greater amounts of fentanyl than did male rats. Male rats exhibited greater withdrawal behaviors following naloxone challenge. Predictable footshock with repeated exposure (i.e., chronic stress) was accompanied by greater fentanyl SA than was unpredictable footshock, particularly for female rats. Corticosterone levels were positively correlated with fentanyl SA. Predictability of the stressor also had a greater effect on maintenance of fentanyl SA than it did on relapse to fentanyl SA. Results suggest that sex plays an important role in drug-taking behavior by rats. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)