Post-traumatic stress symptoms in pathological gambling: Potential evidence of anti-reward processes

Excessive gambling is considered to be a part of the addiction spectrum. Stress-like emotional states are a key feature both of pathological gambling (PG) and of substance addiction. In substance addiction, stress symptomatology has been attributed in part to “anti-reward” allostatic neuroadaptations, while a potential involvement of anti-reward processes in the course of PG has not yet been investigated. Methods To that end, individuals with PG (n = 22) and mentally healthy subjects (n = 13) were assessed for trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress symptomatology (PTSS) using the Life Events Checklist and the Civilian Mississippi Scale, respectively. Results In comparison with healthy subjects, individuals with PG had significantly greater PTSS scores including greater physiological arousal sub-scores. The number of traumatic events and their recency were not significantly different between the groups. In the PG group, greater gambling severity was associated with more PTSS, but neither with traumatic events exposure nor with their recency. Conclusions Our data replicate prior reports on the role of traumatic stress in the course of PG and extend those findings by suggesting that the link may be derived from the anti-reward-type neuroadaptation rather than from the traumatic stress exposure per se

The Economic Resource Receipt of New Mothers

U.S. federal policies do not provide a universal social safety net of economic support for women during pregnancy or the immediate postpartum period but assume that employment and/or marriage will protect families from poverty. Yet even mothers with considerable human and marital capital may experience disruptions in employment, earnings, and family socioeconomic status postbirth. We use the National Survey of Families and Households to examine the economic resources that mothers with children ages 2 and younger receive postbirth, including employment, spouses, extended family and social network support, and public assistance. Results show that many new mothers receive resources postbirth. Marriage or postbirth employment does not protect new mothers and their families from poverty, but education, race, and the receipt of economic supports from social networks do

Age- and sex-differentials in morbidity at the start of an epidemiological transition: Returns from the 1880 U.S. Census

This paper uses a new data set, the Public Use file of the 1880 U.S. Census of the Population, to examine national point prevalence rates of adult morbidity over the early phase of the United States epidemiologic transition. These historical data report health status at the individual level and allow the analysis of age and sex differentials in morbidity. Point prevalence rates of morbidity by major cause show that males generally had higher rates of morbidity and long-term disability than females, especially at mid-life and in old age. But large sex differences in the distribution of conditions by major cause occurred over two portions of the life course: in early adulthood and in old age. Age and sex differences in the distribution of adult morbidity reflected the health status divide of the communicable and degenerative conditions.epidemiological transition morbidity sex differentials

The Rockefeller Sanitary Commission and Hookworm in the American South

The Rockefeller Sanitary Commission for the Eradication of Hookworm Disease (1909-1914) fielded a philanthropic public health project that had three goals: to estimate hookworm prevalence in the American South, provide treatment, and eradicate the disease. Activities covered 11 Southern states, and Rockefeller teams found that about 40% of the population surveyed was infected. However, the commission met strong resistance and lacked the time and resources to achieve universal county coverage and meet project goals. We explore how these constraints triggered project changes that systematically reshaped project operations and the characteristics of the counties surveyed and treated. We show that county selectivity reduced the project\u27s initial potential to affect hookworm prevalence estimates, treatment, and eradication in the American South