Recommendations for Enhancing Psychosocial Support of NICU Parents through Staff Education and Support

Providing psychosocial support to parents whose infants are hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) can improve parents’ functioning as well as their relationships with their babies. Yet, few NICUs offer staff education that teaches optimal methods of communication with parents in distress. Limited staff education in how to best provide psychosocial support to families is one factor that may render those who work in the NICU at risk for burnout, compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress syndrome. Staff who develop burnout may have further reduced ability to provide effective support to parents and babies. Recommendations for providing NICU staff with education and support are discussed. The goal is to deliver care that exemplifies the belief that providing psychosocial care and support to the family is equal in importance to providing medical care and developmental support to the baby

Galanin neurons in the intermediate nucleus (InM) of the human hypothalamus in relation to sex, age, and gender identity

The intermediate nucleus (InM) in the preoptic area of the human brain, also known as the sexually dimorphic nucleus of the preoptic area (SDN-POA) and the interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus-1 (INAH-1) is explored here. We investigated its population of galanin-immunoreactive (Gal-Ir) neurons in relation to sex, age, and gender identity in the postmortem brain of 77 subjects. First we compared the InM volume and number of Gal-Ir neurons of 22 males and 22 females in the course of aging. In a second experiment, we compared for the first time the InM volume and the total and Gal-Ir neuron number in 43 subjects with different gender identities: 14 control males (M), 11 control females (F), 10 male-to-female (MtF) transsexual people, and 5 men who were castrated because of prostate cancer (CAS). In the first experiment we found a sex difference in the younger age group ( 45 years. In the second experiment the MtF transsexual group presented an intermediate value for the total InM neuron number and volume that did not seem different in males and females. Because the CAS group did not have total neuron numbers that were different from the intact males, the change in adult circulating testosterone levels does not seem to explain the intermediate values in the MtF group. Organizational and activational hormone effects on the InM are discusse

Estrogen-receptor-beta distribution in the human hypothalamus: Similarities and differences with ER alpha distribution

This study reports the first systematic rostrocaudal distribution of estrogen receptor beta immunoreactivity (ERbeta-ir) in the human hypothalamus and adjacent areas in five males and five females between 20-39 years of age and compares its distribution to previously reported ERalpha in the same patients. ERbeta-ir was generally observed more frequently in the cytoplasm than in the nucleus and appeared to be stronger in women. Basket-like fiber stainings, suggestive for ERbeta-ir in synaptic terminals, were additionally observed in various areas. Men showed more robust nuclear ERbeta-ir than women in the medial part of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, paraventricular and paratenial nucleus of the thalamus, while less intense, but more nuclear, ERbeta-ir appeared to be present in, e.g., the BSTc, sexually dimorphic nucleus of the medial preoptic area, diagonal band of Broca and ventromedial nucleus. Women revealed more nuclear ERbeta-ir than men of a low to intermediate level, e.g., in the suprachiasmatic, supraoptic, paraventricular, infundibular, and medial mamillary nucleus. These data indicate potential sex differences in ERbeta expression. ERbeta-ir expression patterns in subjects with abnormal hormone levels suggests that there may be sex differences in ERbeta-ir that are "activational" rather than "organizational" in nature. Similarities, differences, potential functional, and clinical implications of the observed ERalpha and ERbeta distributions are discussed in relation to reproduction, autonomic-function, mood, cognition, and neuroprotection in health and disease. (C) 2003 Wiley-Liss, In