Medicine and psychiatry in Western culture: Ancient Greek myths and modern prejudices

The origins of Western culture extensively relate to Ancient Greek culture. While many ancient cultures have contributed to our current knowledge about medicine and the origins of psychiatry, the Ancient Greeks were among the best observers of feelings and moods patients expressed towards medicine and toward what today is referred to as 'psychopathology'. Myths and religious references were used to explain what was otherwise impossible to understand or be easily communicated. Most ancient myths focus on ambiguous feelings patients may have had towards drugs, especially psychotropic ones. Interestingly, such prejudices are common even today

Convergent Sets of Data from In Vivo and In Vitro Methods Point to an Active Role of Hsp60 in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Pathogenesis

BACKGROUND: It is increasingly clear that some heat shock proteins (Hsps) play a role in inflammation. Here, we report results showing participation of Hsp60 in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), as indicated by data from both in vivo and in vitro analyses. METHODS AND RESULTS: Bronchial biopsies from patients with stable COPD, smoker controls with normal lung function, and non-smoker controls were studied. We quantified by immunohistochemistry levels of Hsp10, Hsp27, Hsp40, Hsp60, Hsp70, Hsp90, and HSF-1, along with levels of inflammatory markers. Hsp10, Hsp40, and Hsp60 were increased during progression of disease. We found also a positive correlation between the number of neutrophils and Hsp60 levels. Double-immunostaining showed that Hsp60-positive neutrophils were significantly increased in COPD patients. We then investigated in vitro the effect on Hsp60 expression in bronchial epithelial cells (16HBE) caused by oxidative stress, a hallmark of COPD mucosa, which we induced with H\u2082O\u2082. This stressor determined increased levels of Hsp60 through a gene up-regulation mechanism involving NFkB-p65. Release of Hsp60 in the extracellular medium by the bronchial epithelial cells was also increased after H\u2082O\u2082 treatment in the absence of cell death. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report clearly pointing to participation of Hsps, particularly Hsp60, in COPD pathogenesis. Hsp60 induction by NFkB-p65 and its release by epithelial cells after oxidative stress can have a role in maintaining inflammation, e.g., by stimulating neutrophils activity. The data open new scenarios that might help in designing efficacious anti-inflammatory therapies centered on Hsp60 and applicable to COP

Neighbourhood characteristics, social capital and self-rated health - A population-based survey in Sweden

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In previous public health surveys large differences in health have been shown between citizens living in different neighbourhoods in the Örebro municipality, which has about 125000 inhabitants. The aim of this study was to investigate the determinants of health with an emphasis on the importance of neighbourhood characteristics such as the influence of neighbourhood social cohesion and social capital. The point of departure in this study was a conceptual model inspired by the work of Carpiano, where different factors related to the neighbourhood have been used to find associations to individual self-rated health.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We used data from the survey 'Life & Health 2004' sent to inhabitants aged 18-84 years in Örebro municipality, Sweden. The respondents (n = 2346) answered a postal questionnaire about living conditions, housing conditions, health risk factors and individual health. The outcome variable was self-rated health. In the analysis we applied logistic regression modelling in various model steps following a conceptual model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results show that poor self-rated health was associated with social capital, such as lack of personal support and no experience of being made proud even after controlling for strong factors related to health, such as age, disability pension, ethnicity and economic stress. Also the neighbourhood factors, housing area and residential stability were associated with self-rated health. Poor self-rated health was more common among people living in areas with predominately large blocks of flats or areas outside the city centre. Moreover, people who had lived in the same area 1-5 years reported poor health more frequently than those who had lived there longer.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The importance of the neighbourhood and social capital for individual health is confirmed in this study. The neighbourhoods could be emphasized as settings for health promotion. They can be constructed to promote social interaction which in turn supports the development of social networks, social support and social capital - all important determinants of health.</p

Iron Behaving Badly: Inappropriate Iron Chelation as a Major Contributor to the Aetiology of Vascular and Other Progressive Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases

The production of peroxide and superoxide is an inevitable consequence of aerobic metabolism, and while these particular "reactive oxygen species" (ROSs) can exhibit a number of biological effects, they are not of themselves excessively reactive and thus they are not especially damaging at physiological concentrations. However, their reactions with poorly liganded iron species can lead to the catalytic production of the very reactive and dangerous hydroxyl radical, which is exceptionally damaging, and a major cause of chronic inflammation. We review the considerable and wide-ranging evidence for the involvement of this combination of (su)peroxide and poorly liganded iron in a large number of physiological and indeed pathological processes and inflammatory disorders, especially those involving the progressive degradation of cellular and organismal performance. These diseases share a great many similarities and thus might be considered to have a common cause (i.e. iron-catalysed free radical and especially hydroxyl radical generation). The studies reviewed include those focused on a series of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological diseases, where iron can be found at the sites of plaques and lesions, as well as studies showing the significance of iron to aging and longevity. The effective chelation of iron by natural or synthetic ligands is thus of major physiological (and potentially therapeutic) importance. As systems properties, we need to recognise that physiological observables have multiple molecular causes, and studying them in isolation leads to inconsistent patterns of apparent causality when it is the simultaneous combination of multiple factors that is responsible. This explains, for instance, the decidedly mixed effects of antioxidants that have been observed, etc...Comment: 159 pages, including 9 Figs and 2184 reference