Relationships between social stigma, stigma experience and self-stigma and impaired quality of life in schizophrenia accross three Latin-America countries

International audienceThe relationships between stigma and quality of life in schizophrenia (QoL) have been extensively explored but have mostly focused on self-stigma and self-esteem and have never been explored in Latin-America. The objective of this study was to determine which stigma dimensions were associated with QoL in a sample of community-dwelling SZ subjects of three Latin-American countries. Stabilized outpatients with SZ were recruited in three Mental Health Services in three Latin-American countries: Bolivia (N = 83), Chile (N = 85) and Peru (N = 85). Stigma and Qol-SZ were evaluated by self-administered questionnaires, the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness scale (ISMI-12) and the SQoL-18. 253 participants were included. In multivariate analyses, QoL has been associated with each stigma dimension (social stigma, stigma experience and self-stigma), independently of age, gender, education level, ethnicity, age at illness onset, illness symptomatology and mental health treatment. More specifically, social stigma was significantly associated with impaired psychological and physical well-being, self-esteem and friendship. Self-stigma was significantly associated with impaired psychological well-being, self-esteem and autonomy. The present results confirm the importance of stigma in QoL of SZ subjects and identify new targets to develop stigma-orientated programs. Most of the previous programs have focused on self-stigma while social stigma has shown to be associated with a wide range of impaired QoL areas. Stigma and QoL may have a bidirectional relationship and targeting some specific QoL areas (like autonomy through self-empowerment approaches) may also improve the effectiveness of these programs to reduce stigma impact on the quality of life of subjects with schizophrenia. Future studies should also explore differences across countries as subjects from Bolivia were more frequently Aymara and reported higher stigma and lower QoL than SZ subjects from other countries

What makes you not a Buddhist? : a preliminary mapping of values

This study sets out to establish which Buddhist values contrasted with or were shared by adolescents from a non-Buddhist population. A survey of attitude toward a variety of Buddhist values was fielded in a sample of 352 non-Buddhist schoolchildren aged between 13 and 15 in London. Buddhist values where attitudes were least positive concerned the worth of being a monk/nun or meditating, offering candles & incense on the Buddhist shrine, friendship on Sangha Day, avoiding drinking alcohol, seeing the world as empty or impermanent and Nirvana as the ultimate peace. Buddhist values most closely shared by non-Buddhists concerned the Law of Karma, calming the mind, respecting those deserving of respect, subjectivity of happiness, welfare work, looking after parents in old age and compassion to cuddly animals. Further significant differences of attitude toward Buddhism were found in partial correlations with the independent variables of sex, age and religious affiliation. Correlation patterns paralleled those previously described in theistic religions. Findings are applied to spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and for the teaching of religious to pupils of no faith adherence. The study recommends that quantitative psychometrics employed to conceptualize Buddhist values by discriminant validity in this study could be extended usefully to other aspects of the study of Buddhism, particularly in quest of validity in the conceptualization of Buddhist identity within specifically Buddhist populations

Exciton Dynamics in Photosynthetic Complexes: Excitation by Coherent and Incoherent Light

In this paper we consider dynamics of a molecular system subjected to external pumping by a light source. Within a completely quantum mechanical treatment, we derive a general formula, which enables to asses effects of different light properties on the photo-induced dynamics of a molecular system. We show that once the properties of light are known in terms of certain two-point correlation function, the only information needed to reconstruct the system dynamics is the reduced evolution superoperator. The later quantity is in principle accessible through ultrafast non-linear spectroscopy. Considering a direct excitation of a small molecular antenna by incoherent light we find that excitation of coherences is possible due to overlap of homogeneous line shapes associated with different excitonic states. In Markov and secular approximations, the amount of coherence is significant only under fast relaxation, and both the populations and coherences between exciton states become static at long time. We also study the case when the excitation of a photosynthetic complex is mediated by a mesoscopic system. We find that such case can be treated by the same formalism with a special correlation function characterizing ultrafast fluctuations of the mesoscopic system. We discuss bacterial chlorosom as an example of such a mesoscopic mediator and propose that the properties of energy transferring chromophore-protein complexes might be specially tuned for the fluctuation properties of their associated antennae.Comment: 12 page

International Pediatric Otolaryngology Group (IPOG) consensus recommendations: Hearing loss in the pediatric patient

OBJECTIVE To provide recommendations for the workup of hearing loss in the pediatric patient. METHODS Expert opinion by the members of the International Pediatric Otolaryngology Group. RESULTS Consensus recommendations include initial screening and diagnosis as well as the workup of sensorineural, conductive and mixed hearing loss in children. The consensus statement discusses the role of genetic testing and imaging and provides algorithms to guide the workup of children with hearing loss. CONCLUSION The workup of children with hearing loss can be guided by the recommendations provided herei

Dépistage et évaluation des surdités de transmission chez l’enfant

Le dépistage de la surdité en maternité est effectif en France depuis 2012. Ce dépistage conduit à diagnostiquer de façon précoce les surdités moyennes à profondes. Dans le cas de surdités moyennes de transmission, le diagnostic est rendu diffi cile par les facteurs transitoires intriqués liés au rétrécissement du conduit auditif externe et aux épanchements rétrotympaniques. Il faut donc savoir faire la part du contexte et temporiser si nécessaire avant d’affi rmer qu’il existe une surdité permanente moyenne mais sans retarder le diagnostic qui est à faire dès que possible. Les différents contextes et les stratégies sont décrits dans ce document

Implantation cochléaire pédiatrique en situation d'audition résiduelle

LE KREMLIN-B.- PARIS 11-BU Méd (940432101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Implant cochléaire pédiatrique et malformation d'oreille interne

L'implant cochléaire est désormais proposé chez les enfants sourds profonds atteints de malformation d'oreille interne. Afin d'évaluer les risques et les résultats de cette chirurgie, nous réalisons une étude rétrospective, portant sur 16 enfants sourds profonds et porteurs d'une malformation bilatérale d'oreille interne, parmis 260 patients implantés entre 1991 et 2003. L'intervention n'est pas dénuée de risques chirurgicaux et infectieux inhérents à la malformation. Nous avons constaté 7 cas de geysers per-opératoires dont un cas avec liquorrhé persistante et un cas de malposition du porte électrode. Aucune autre complication n'a été observée. Certaines précautions sont essentielles pour optimiser la prise en charge de ces enfants et limiter les risques : un examen tomodensitométrique des rochers en coupes millimétriques, la vaccination systématique et une préparation péri-opératoire, permettant de diminuer la pression intralabyrinthique. Les résultats sur la perception et le développement du langage sont bons. Une grande majorité des enfants (92 %) ont une amélioration de leur perception, à un an de recul. La progression dépend de l'histoire de la surdité et de l'âge d'implantation. Parmi les enfants atteints de surdité évolutive, 87,5 % ont un score perceptif en liste ouverte supérieur ou égal à 50 % alors que dans le groupe des enfants sourds congénitaux, les résultats sont de 20 % ceci un an après l'implantation cochléaire. Malgré les risques possibles qu'il ne faut pas sous-éstimer, les résultats orthophoniques encourageant permettent de justifier l'indication opératoire qui doit néanmoins être pesée au cas par cas.PARIS7-Villemin (751102101) / SudocPARIS-BIUM (751062103) / SudocSudocFranceF