Did female prisoners with mental disorders receive psychiatric treatment before imprisonment?

© 2015 Mundt et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.BackgroundThroughout the world, high prevalence rates of mental disorders have been found in prison populations, especially in females. It has been suggested that these populations do not access psychiatric treatment. The aim of this study was to establish rates of psychiatric in- and outpatient treatments prior to imprisonment in female prisoners and to explore reasons for discontinuation of such treatments.Methods150 consecutively admitted female prisoners were interviewed in Berlin, Germany. Socio-demographic characteristics, mental disorders, and previous psychiatric in- and outpatient treatments were assessed by trained researchers. Open questions were used to explore reasons for ending previous psychiatric treatment.ResultsA vast majority of 99 prisoners (66%; 95% CI: 58¿73) of the total sample reported that they had previously been in psychiatric treatment, 80 (53%; 95 CI: 45¿61) in inpatient treatment, 62 (41%; 95 CI: 34¿49) in outpatient treatment and 42 (29%; 21¿39) in both in- and outpatient treatments. All prisoners with psychosis and 72% of the ones with any lifetime mental health disorder had been in previous treatment. The number of inpatient treatments and imprisonments were positively correlated (rho¿=¿0.27; p¿<¿0.01). Inpatient treatment was described as successfully completed by 56% (N¿=¿41) of those having given reasons for ending such treatment, whilst various reasons were reported for prematurely ending outpatient treatments.ConclusionThe data do not support the notion of a general `mental health treatment gap¿ in female prisoners. Although inpatient care is often successfully completed, repeated inpatient treatments are not linked with fewer imprisonments. Improved transition from inpatient to outpatient treatment and services that engage female prisoners to sustained outpatient treatments are needed

Prevalence of swallowing difficulties and medication modification in customers of community pharmacists

BACKGROUND: People may alter their solid oral medication dosage forms to make it easier to swallow. However, modification of solid medication dosage forms can lead to undesirable effects, and people may alter the dosage forms without informing the health professionals involved in their care. AIM: To estimate the prevalence of swallowing difficulties and medication modification amongst community pharmacy consumers, and to investigate consumer views, attitudes, and interactions with health professionals regarding such issues. METHODS: Consumers were recruited from five community pharmacies in Brisbane, Queensland and invited to participate in a structured interview. RESULTS: A total of 369 consumers participated in the study. Overall, 16.5% of people reported experiencing swallowing difficulties, and 10.6% of all respondents reported modifying medication dosage forms. Almost half (44.2%) of those surveyed did not think there would be issues with modifying medication dosage forms. Some consumers would not seek advice from health professionals if they experienced swallowing problems and/or would not seek advice from health professionals before modifying their medication dosage forms, regardless of their thoughts about any problems associated with this practice. CONCLUSION: Some consumers appeared to be accustomed to modifying medication dosage forms, even when there was no apparent or obvious need. People were also reluctant to seek advice from health professionals regarding swallowing difficulties, or modifying medication dosage forms. Health professionals must be assertive in educating consumers about swallowing problems, and medication dosage form modification

Sex differences and effects of prenatal exposure to excess testosterone on ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons in adult sheep

Prenatal testosterone (T) excess in sheep results in a wide array of reproductive neuroendocrine deficits and alterations in motivated behavior. The ventral tegmental area (VTA) plays a critical role in reward and motivated behaviors and is hypothesised to be targeted by prenatal T. Here we report a sex difference in the number VTA dopamine cells in the adult sheep, with higher numbers of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)‐immunoreactive (‐ir) cells in males than females. Moreover, prenatal exposure to excess T during either gestational days 30–90 or 60–90 resulted in increased numbers of VTA TH‐ir cells in adult ewes compared to control females. Stereological analysis confirmed significantly greater numbers of neurons in the VTA of males and prenatal T‐treated ewes, which was primarily accounted for by greater numbers of TH‐ir cells. In addition, immunoreactivity for TH in the cells was denser in males and prenatal T‐treated females, suggesting that sex differences and prenatal exposure to excess T affects both numbers of cells expressing TH and the protein levels within dopamine cells. Sex differences were also noted in numbers of TH‐ir cells in the substantia nigra, with more cells in males than females. However, prenatal exposure to excess T did not affect numbers of TH‐ir cells in the substantia nigra, suggesting that this sex difference is organised independently of prenatal actions of T. Together, these results demonstrate sex differences in the sheep VTA dopamine system which are mimicked by prenatal treatment with excess T.We report a sex difference in ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine cells in the adult sheep with higher numbers of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)‐immunoreactive cells in males than females. Moreover, prenatal exposure to excess T during gestational days 30–90 or 60–90 caused increased numbers of VTA TH‐immunoreactive cells in adult ewes compared to control females. Sex differences were also demonstrated in the substantia nigra, but prenatal T had no effect on TH in this area. Results indicate that sex differences and prenatal exposure to excess T affects both numbers of cells expressing TH and the protein levels in the VTA.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111123/1/ejn12871.pd

Random Walks Along the Streets and Canals in Compact Cities: Spectral analysis, Dynamical Modularity, Information, and Statistical Mechanics

Different models of random walks on the dual graphs of compact urban structures are considered. Analysis of access times between streets helps to detect the city modularity. The statistical mechanics approach to the ensembles of lazy random walkers is developed. The complexity of city modularity can be measured by an information-like parameter which plays the role of an individual fingerprint of {\it Genius loci}. Global structural properties of a city can be characterized by the thermodynamical parameters calculated in the random walks problem.Comment: 44 pages, 22 figures, 2 table

Registration of Great Northern Common Bean Cultivar ‘Coyne’ with Enhanced Disease Resistance to Common Bacterial Blight and Bean Rust

Great northern common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) ‘Coyne’ (Reg. No. CV-287, PI 655574) was developed by the dry bean breeding program at the University of Nebraska Agricultural Research Division and released in 2008. It was bred specifically for adaptation to Nebraska growing conditions and for enhanced resistance to common bacterial blight (CBB), a major disease of common bean caused by the seed-borne bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli (Smith) Dye, and bean common rust Uromyces appendiculatus (Pers.:Pers) Unger. Coyne is a great northern F7:8 line derived from a three-way cross (G95023/Weihing//BelMiNeb-RMR-11). The first cross was made in winter 2003. The F7:8 was tested in advanced yield trials at Scottsbluff and Mitchell, NE, and in growers’ fields in Nebraska. Yield of Coyne was only 47 kg ha–1 lower than ‘Marquis’ in Morrill and Scotts Bluff, NE, counties. Reaction of Coyne to CBB under field conditions was consistent across 3 yr at the West Central Research and Extension Center, North Platte, NE, where fi eld disease ratings of 3.2, 3.5, and 4.4 were recorded in 2005, 2006, and 2007, respectively. Coyne has the Ur-3 and Ur-6 genes for resistance to common bean rust and carries the single dominant hypersensitive I gene that provides resistance to all non-necrotic strains of Bean common mosaic virus. Coyne has bright white seed, blooms 44 d after planting, and is a midseason bean, maturing 91 d after planting

Radionuclides identified at a US Customs Service site

The movement of radionuclides through the U.S. Customs Service port of entry at Blaine, Washington, has been studied using a high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometer and an automated data logging system. Data covering about 10 weeks of operation were obtained and analyzed. The data-acquisition system and the site of the measurement are described. Results are reported and interpreted in light of the known traffic of radioisotopes produced at the Canadian TRIUMF facility and imported into the United States for use in radiopharmaceuticals

Spinning Strings, Black Holes and Stable Closed Timelike Geodesics

The existence and stability under linear perturbation of closed timelike curves in the spacetime associated to Schwarzschild black hole pierced by a spinning string are studied. Due to the superposition of the black hole, we find that the spinning string spacetime is deformed in such a way to allow the existence of closed timelike geodesics.Comment: 5 pages, RevTex4, some corrections and new material adde