Occupational stress and addiction: Possible neurobiological elucidation of medical waste related individuals

Multiple factors contribute to the tendency to develop drug addictions, including social or psychological stressors. Most studies examining causes of and treatments for drug addiction have been conducted in Western developed nations. Here we used phenomenological research approach to explore the neurobiological explanation of drug addiction and to investigate attitudes towards drug use amongst individuals working with medical waste. Data were collected in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, using a variety of techniques based on formal representative sampling for fixed populations and adaptive sampling for roaming populations. We found that over half of participants interviewed reported using illicit substances to cope with occupational stress. Self-reported disease symptoms related to stress were reported by most of the respondents. Working with horrifying waste contributes to increased stress among the participants. These results indicate that in the case of these workers, workplace stressors along with cultural and socio-economic context uniquely contribute to, and exacerbate, tendencies toward drug addiction

Modulation of Macrophage Function by Lactobacillus-Conditioned Medium

open access articleProbiotics are used as microbial food supplements for health and well-being. They are thought to have immunomodulatory effects although their exact physiological mechanism of action is not clear. This study investigated the influence of probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG conditioned media (LGG-CM) on macrophage phagocytosis of non-pathogenic Escherichia coli HfrC. The gentamicin protection assay was used to study the bacterial killing phases of phagocytosis. Macrophages co-incubated with E. coli for an hour allowed them to ingest bacteria and then the rate of E. coli killing was monitored for up to 300 min to determine the killing or digestion of the bacteria by recovering them from the macrophage lysate. We found that the LGG-CM significantly increased the bacterial killing by approximately 6-fold when compared with that of controls. By contrast, this killing process was found to be associated with enhanced free radical production via the activation of NADPH oxidase, stimulated by the LGG conditioned medium. We also found that the conditioned medium had small effect on nitric oxide (NO) generation, albeit to a lesser extent. This work suggests that LGG-CM may play an important role in suppressing the total microbial load within the macrophages and hence, the extent to which pro-inflammatory molecules such as free radicals and NO are generated. The modulation of inflammation-promoting signals by LGG-CM may be beneficial as it modulates bacterial killing, and thereby prevents any collateral damage to host