High Beck Depression Inventory 21 scores in adolescents without depression are associated with negative self-image and immature defense style

Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is widely used in assessing adolescents' psychological wellbeing, but occasionally the result diverges from diagnostics. Our aim was to identify factors associated with discrepancies between BDI scores and diagnostic assessment in adolescent psychiatric patients and general population. The study comprised 206 inpatients (13-17 years old) and 203 age and gender matched non -referred adolescents. Study subjects filled self-reports on depression symptoms (BDI-21), alcohol use (AUDIT), defense styles (DSQ-40) and self-image (OSIQ-11), and on background information and adverse life events. Diagnostics was based on K-SADS-PL interview, and/or clinical interview and clinical records when available. We compared subjects who scored in BDI-21 either 0-15 points or 16-63 points firstly among subjects without current unipolar depression (n = 284), secondly among those with unipolar depression (n = 105). High BDI-21 scores in subjects without depression diagnosis (n = 48) were associated with female sex, adverse life events, parents' psychiatric problems, higher comorbidity, higher AUDIT scores, worse self-image and more immature defense styles. Low BDI-21 scores among subjects with depression diagnosis (n = 23) were associated with male sex, more positive self-image and less immature defense style. In conclusion, high BDI-21 scores in the absence of depression may reflect a broad range of challenges in an adolescent's psychological development.Peer reviewe

NHLRC2 variants identified in patients with fibrosis, neurodegeneration, and cerebral angiomatosis (FINCA) : characterisation of a novel cerebropulmonary disease

A novel multi-organ disease that is fatal in early childhood was identified in three patients from two non-consanguineous families. These children were born asymptomatic but at the age of 2 months they manifested progressive multi-organ symptoms resembling no previously known disease. The main clinical features included progressive cerebropulmonary symptoms, malabsorption, progressive growth failure, recurrent infections, chronic haemolytic anaemia and transient liver dysfunction. In the affected children, neuropathology revealed increased angiomatosis-like leptomeningeal, cortical and superficial white matter vascularisation and congestion, vacuolar degeneration and myelin loss in white matter, as well as neuronal degeneration. Interstitial fibrosis and previously undescribed granuloma-like lesions were observed in the lungs. Hepatomegaly, steatosis and collagen accumulation were detected in the liver. A whole-exome sequencing of the two unrelated families with the affected children revealed the transmission of two heterozygous variants in the NHL repeat-containing protein 2 (NHLRC2); an amino acid substitution p.Asp148Tyr and a frameshift 2-bp deletion p.Arg201GlyfsTer6. NHLRC2 is highly conserved and expressed in multiple organs and its function is unknown. It contains a thioredoxin-like domain; however, an insulin turbidity assay on human recombinant NHLRC2 showed no thioredoxin activity. In patient-derived fibroblasts, NHLRC2 levels were low, and only p.Asp148Tyr was expressed. Therefore, the allele with the frameshift deletion is likely non-functional. Development of the Nhlrc2 null mouse strain stalled before the morula stage. Morpholino knockdown of nhlrc2 in zebrafish embryos affected the integrity of cells in the midbrain region. This is the first description of a fatal, early-onset disease; we have named it FINCA disease based on the combination of pathological features that include fibrosis, neurodegeneration, and cerebral angiomatosis.Peer reviewe

Occupational Noise, Smoking, and a High Body Mass Index are Risk Factors for Age-related Hearing Impairment and Moderate Alcohol Consumption is Protective: A European Population-based Multicenter Study

A multicenter study was set up to elucidate the environmental and medical risk factors contributing to age-related hearing impairment (ARHI). Nine subsamples, collected by nine audiological centers across Europe, added up to a total of 4,083 subjects between 53 and 67 years. Audiometric data (pure-tone average [PTA]) were collected and the participants filled out a questionnaire on environmental risk factors and medical history. People with a history of disease that could affect hearing were excluded. PTAs were adjusted for age and sex and tested for association with exposure to risk factors. Noise exposure was associated with a significant loss of hearing at high sound frequencies (>1 kHz). Smoking significantly increased high-frequency hearing loss, and the effect was dose-dependent. The effect of smoking remained significant when accounting for cardiovascular disease events. Taller people had better hearing on average with a more pronounced effect at low sound frequencies (<2 kHz). A high body mass index (BMI) correlated with hearing loss across the frequency range tested. Moderate alcohol consumption was inversely correlated with hearing loss. Significant associations were found in the high as well as in the low frequencies. The results suggest that a healthy lifestyle can protect against age-related hearing impairment

Luonnon hyvinvointivaikutukset hoivaympäristössä

Tiivistelmä Ihminen tarvitsee parantuakseen kokonaisvaltaista hoivaa ja siksi on tärkeää, että luonnosta saatavat hyvinvointivaikutukset olisivat kaikkien saatavilla. Teknologian avulla luontokokemus voidaan tuoda niiden ihmisten ulottuville, jotka eivät fyysisesti pääse luontoon esimerkiksi sairaalassa ollessaan. Luonnon hyvinvointivaikutuksia on mahdollista kokea ohjatun luontokokemuksen eli virtuaalisen luontointervention avulla eri aistien kautta

Should Firms be Allowed to Indemnify Their Employees for Sanctions?

Policymakers have questioned whether firms should be allowed to indemnify their employees for personal sanctions for corporate crimes. This article provides the first formal analysis of this form of indemnification. Targeting employees with unindemnifiable sanctions carries the social cost of exposing employees of law-abiding firms to the risk of mistaken government prosecution. Deterrence is typically achieved more efficiently by sanctioning the firm alone. We find the circumstances under which the government should additionally sanction employees to be quite limited and the circumstances under which the government should ban indemnification of these sanctions to be more limited still. One circumstance is when an unindemnifiable employee sanction provides prosecutors with leverage to adjust the employee's sanction in exchange for his cooperation against the firm. (JEL K22, D82, L20) The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Yale University. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: [email protected], Oxford University Press.

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Age-related hearing impairment (ARHI) is the most prevalent sensory impairment in the elderly. ARHI is a complex disease caused by an interaction between environmental and genetic factors. The contribution of various environmental factors has been relatively extensively studied. In contrast, investigations to identify the genetic risk factors have only recently been initiated. In this paper we describe the results of an associ-ation study performed on 2418 ARHI samples derived from nine centers from seven European countries. In 70 candidate genes, a total of 768 tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were selected based on HAPMAP data. These genes were chosen among the monogenic hearing loss genes identified in mice and men i