Biology, Genetics, and Environment: Underlying Factors Influencing Alcohol Metabolism.

Gene variants encoding several of the alcohol-metabolizing enzymes, alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), are among the largest genetic associations with risk for alcohol dependence. Certain genetic variants (i.e., alleles)--particularly the ADH1B*2, ADH1B*3, ADH1C*1, and ALDH2*2 alleles--have been associated with lower rates of alcohol dependence. These alleles may lead to an accumulation of acetaldehyde during alcohol metabolism, which can result in heightened subjective and objective effects. The prevalence of these alleles differs among ethnic groups; ADH1B*2 is found frequently in northeast Asians and occasionally Caucasians, ADH1B*3 is found predominantly in people of African ancestry, ADH1C*1 varies substantially across populations, and ALDH2*2 is found almost exclusively in northeast Asians. Differences in the prevalence of these alleles may account at least in part for ethnic differences in alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorder (AUD). However, these alleles do not act in isolation to influence the risk of AUD. For example, the gene effects of ALDH2*2 and ADH1B*2 seem to interact. Moreover, other factors have been found to influence the extent to which these alleles affect a person's alcohol involvement, including developmental stage, individual characteristics (e.g., ethnicity, antisocial behavior, and behavioral undercontrol), and environmental factors (e.g., culture, religion, family environment, and childhood adversity)

Warning: Music Therapy Comes with Risks

Bob Marley sings, “One good thing about music—when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Although this may be the case for some people and in some circumstances, we dispute this statement as a global truth. After all, couldn’t any phenomenon commanding enough to alleviate human pain (ostensibly instantaneously) also harbor the potential to catalyze undesirable, even injurious, effects? And couldn’t this influence then logically extend to music employed within the context of a therapeutic process? As music therapist and Concordia University Associate Professor Dr. Laurel Young writes, “the ‘miraculous’ effects of music as featured in popular media along with the widely accepted notion that music is a ‘universal’ medium can lead to false generalizations and over-simplification of how music can and should be used in healthcare or other psychosocial contexts.” One possible manifestation of this oversimplification is to view music as a noninvasive and wholly-positive cure-all, and thus disregard the potential risks associated with music engagement

Resistances in Group Music Therapy with Women and Men with Substance Use Disorders

In this paper, we explore client resistances in group music therapy with women and men in residential treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs). We describe how we have encountered resident resistances on women\u27s and men\u27s units within a gender-specific treatment facility and offer suggestions for pre-empting and addressing such resistances, offering both nonmusical and musical strategies and techniques. We emphasize a person-centered approach and an experience orientation, in which we view our primary responsibility as providing opportunities for the men and women to engage meaningfully with music, self, therapists, and other residents in order to identify problems and explore alternatives and personal resources

Safeguarding Curricular Self-Experiences in Undergraduate Music Therapy Education and Training

The purpose of this paper is to put forth a model to support the psychological safety of undergraduate students as they engage in a form of experiential learning called self-experiences. Self-experiences pair active engagement in learning episodes with learner self-inquiry. The need to safeguard curricular self-experiences is grounded in the American Music Therapy Association’s Professional Competencies and Code of Ethics and the Certification Board for Music Therapists’ Board Certification Domains. We first explicate several types and benefits of self-experiences and identify potential risks and contraindications that may compromise learners’ psychological safety and even cause harm. Next, we describe the steps we took in developing the model and gaining administrative approval. We outline major tenets and describe specific safeguarding practices at various levels of implementation. We offer a hypothetical vignette to contextualize the information, address certain challenges in implementing this model, and offer recommendations for future research related to undergraduate experiential learning. Educators, clinical trainers, and supervisors who employ self-experiences are encouraged to implement safeguards toward upholding professional ethics and supporting learners’ personal and professional development

Undergraduate public health education: a workforce perspective

Objective: To describe the career paths of students who majored in public health at the undergraduate level and to assess the skills and knowledge these g raduates believed were most useful to them in the public health workforce. Method: A telephone survey was conducted of all graduates from Adelaide University\u27s Bachelor of Health Sciences degree from 1992-99 who had majored in public health (124 graduates). Results: The response rate to the graduate survey was 71 %. Using the definition of public health functions from the National Delphi Study on Public Health Functions to delineate the public health workforce, 59% of respondents were employed in public health. Graduates working in public health valued generic skills such as communication and collaboration more highly than more specific public health skills and knowledge areas. However, they also believed their undergraduate course would have been improved by a more practical orientation. Conclusions: A high proportion of graduates from this generalist degree who major in public health find employment in the public health workforce. They greatly value the generic skills associated with their undergraduate public health education and believe their entry into the workforce would have been further facilitated by stronger links between their academic program and the working environment of public health professionals. Implications: Studies of workforce training programs in public health must differentiate between the educational needs of undergraduate and postgraduate students. In particular, strategies need to be developed to provide stronger links between undergraduate students and the public health workforce

A Scoping Review of Factors Associated With the Mental Health of Young People Who Have “Aged Out” of the Child Welfare System

Young people who grow up in care and then exit care around the age of 18 (care-leavers) are a particularly vulnerable group, at increased risk for mental health problems even relative to other care-experienced groups. Yet, little is understood about the factors underpinning this association. We used scoping review methods to synthesize the quantitative and qualitative literature on factors that are associated with mental health problems for care-leavers. Following rigorous methods, we systematically searched three scientific databases spanning psychology and social care and identified 23 peer-reviewed studies for inclusion. This review highlights the heterogeneity of this research, in terms of methodology and topics investigated. Topics included are as follows: pre-care maltreatment, care-related experiences, psychological factors (emotion regulation), social support, education, and adult functioning (e.g., housing, finances, employment). We found mixed and inconsistent findings across research studies. The strongest evidence-base is around the influence of social support upon the mental health of recent care-leavers, though methodological problems are discussed. The field benefits from several large-scale observational and longitudinal research studies. However, there is an over-reliance upon retrospective reporting, and the use of unvalidated measures is common. It is apparent that there are significant gaps in our current understanding of the mental health of care-leavers, in particular around modifiable factors. We discuss potential directions for future empirical research, both in terms of methodology and factors investigated

Enhanced β(2)-adrenergic receptor (β(2)AR) signaling by adeno-associated viral (AAV)-mediated gene transfer

BACKGROUND: β(2)-Adrenergic receptors (β(2)AR) play important regulatory roles in a variety of cells and organ systems and are important therapeutic targets in the treatment of airway and cardiovascular disease. Prolonged use of β-agonists results in tolerance secondary to receptor down-regulation resulting in reduced therapeutic efficiency. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the signaling capabilities of the β(2)AR expressed by a recombinant adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector that also included an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) gene (AAV-β(2)AR/EGFP). RESULTS: By epifluorescence microscopy, ~40% of infected HEK 293 cells demonstrated EGFP expression. β(2)AR density measured with [(3)H]dihydroalprenolol ([(3)H]DHA) increased either 13- or 77-fold in infected cells compared to mock infected controls depending on the culture conditions used. The [(3)H]DHA binding was to a single receptor population with a dissociation constant of 0.42 nM, as would be expected for wild-type β(2)AR. Agonist competition assays with [(3)H]DHA showed the following rank order of potency: isoproterenol>epinephrine> norepinephrine, consistent with β(2)AR interaction. Isoproterenol-stimulated cyclic AMP levels were 5-fold higher in infected cells compared to controls (314 ± 43 vs. 63.4 ± 9.6 nmol/dish; n = 3). Receptor trafficking demonstrated surface expression of β(2)AR with vehicle treatment and internalization following isoproterenol treatment. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that HEK 293 cells infected with AAV-β(2)AR/EGFP effectively express β(2)AR and that increased expression of these receptors results in enhanced β(2)AR signaling. This method of gene transfer may provide an important means to enhance function in in vivo systems

Trapping Penguins with Entangled B Mesons

The first direct observation of time-reversal (T) violation in the $B\bar{B}$ system has been reported by the BaBar collaboration, employing the method of Ba$\tilde {\rm n}\!$uls and Bernab\'eu. Given this, we generalize their analysis of the time-dependent T-violating asymmetry ($A_{T}$) to consider different choices of CP tags for which the dominant amplitudes have the same weak phase. As one application, we find that it is possible to measure departures from the universality of $\sin(2\beta)$ directly. If $\sin(2\beta)$ is universal, as in the Standard Model, the method permits the direct determination of penguin effects in these channels. Our method, although no longer a strict test of T, can yield tests of the $\sin(2\beta)$ universality, or, alternatively, of penguin effects, of much improved precision even with existing data sets.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures; refs. added; reframed with expanded discussions; version to appear in PLB; Metadata abstract updated onl