Symptoms of menopause and health of women during perimenopause

Introduction. Perimenopausal age is the time in a woman’s life, when her reproductive capacity declines. Characteristic symptoms in the majority of systems accompany this process. Aim. The aim of the study was to determine the symptoms of menopause and investigate the most common health problems in perimenopausal women. Materials and methods. The study involved 180 women in perimenopausal age (45-55 years). The subjects were mainly residents of rural areas (65%) and married (84%). Most of them declared secondary education (57%). A questionnaire developed by the authors was used in the study. Results. Most women observed typical menopausal symptoms mostly between 45 and 49 years of age. Most often, these were hot flushes, the second place was night sweats, and the third place was insomnia. Almost 40% of women are treated for chronic diseases, most of them for hypertension, thyroid disease and diabetes. Conclusions. The changes associated with perimenopausal age in the majority of respondents include genitourinary system, respiratory system, skeletal system and metabolic changes. Level of education influences the level of knowledge among women on the menopause. Women from rural areas used non-pharmacological methods to mitigate the symptoms of menopause to a greater extent

Symptoms of menopause and health of women during perimenopause

Introduction. Perimenopausal age is the time in a woman’s life, when her reproductive capacity declines. Characteristic symptoms in the majority of systems accompany this process. Aim. The aim of the study was to determine the symptoms of menopause and investigate the most common health problems in perimenopausal women. Materials and methods. The study involved 180 women in perimenopausal age (45-55 years). The subjects were mainly residents of rural areas (65%) and married (84%). Most of them declared secondary education (57%). A questionnaire developed by the authors was used in the study. Results. Most women observed typical menopausal symptoms mostly between 45 and 49 years of age. Most often, these were hot flushes, the second place was night sweats, and the third place was insomnia. Almost 40% of women are treated for chronic diseases, most of them for hypertension, thyroid disease and diabetes. Conclusions. The changes associated with perimenopausal age in the majority of respondents include genitourinary system, respiratory system, skeletal system and metabolic changes. Level of education influences the level of knowledge among women on the menopause. Women from rural areas used non-pharmacological methods to mitigate the symptoms of menopause to a greater extent

Increased Vocalization of Rats in Response to Ultrasonic Playback as a Sign of Hypervigilance Following Fear Conditioning

We investigated the effects of prior stress on rats’ responses to 50-kHz (appetitive) and 22-kHz (aversive) ultrasonic playback. Rats were treated with 0, 1, 6 or 10 shocks (1 s, 1.0 mA each) and were exposed to playbacks the following day. Previous findings were confirmed: (i) rats moved faster during 50-kHz playback and slowed down after 22-kHz playback; (ii) they all approached the speaker, which was more pronounced during and following 50-kHz playback than 22-kHz playback; (iii) 50-kHz playback caused heart rate (HR) increase; 22-kHz playback caused HR decrease; (iv) the rats vocalized more often during and following 50-kHz playback than 22-kHz playback. The previous shock affected the rats such that singly-shocked rats showed lower HR throughout the experiment and a smaller HR response to 50-kHz playback compared to controls and other shocked groups. Interestingly, all pre-shocked rats showed higher locomotor activity during 50-kHz playback and a more significant decrease in activity following 22-kHz playback; they vocalized more often, their ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) were longer and at a higher frequency than those of the control animals. These last two observations could point to hypervigilance, a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in human patients. Increased vocalization may be a valuable measure of hypervigilance used for PTSD modeling

Assessment of Anxiety and Depression in Polish Primary Parental Caregivers of Children with Cerebral Palsy Compared to a Control Group, as well as Identification of Selected Predictors

Background: Taking care of a child with Cerebral Palsy (CP) may be linked with adverse effects in the parents’ physical and mental health. The causes of anxiety and depression symptoms associated with childcare are still not fully understood. Aim: To assess the intensity of anxiety and depression symptoms in parents of children with CP compared to a control group and to identify selected mental health predictors. Design and Methods: Data were collected from 301 respondents, including 190 parents of children with CP (study group) and 111 parents taking care of children developing normally (control group). Intensity of anxiety and depression was rated using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) scale. Gross Motor Function Classification System for Cerebral Palsy (GMFCS), Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-29), Berlin Support Social Scales (BSSS) scales and a specially designed questionnaire were used to assess the predictors. The investigated variables included the children’s and the parents’ characteristics, as well as environmental factors. The analyses applied Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, M(SD) as well as multiple regression. Results: The level of anxiety and depression was clearly higher in the parents of children with CP–the mean levels of anxiety and depression in the study group and the controls amounted to 8.1 vs. 4.7 and 6.8 vs. 3.7, respectively. The factors associated with intensity of anxiety and depression in the parents of children with CP included lack of social support, mainly perceived and received support, unsatisfying parental health status, poor economic status of the family, as well as difficult living conditions, sense of coherence, loneliness, the parent’s gender, and the child’s intellectual disability. Conclusions: Identification of significant anxiety and depression predictors, understood as modifiable factors, should be considered in determining and planning comprehensive support for a child with CP and his/her primary parental caregiver

Surface recombination and space-charge-limited photocurrent-voltage (PC-V) measurements in (Cd,Mn)Te samples. Kinetics of photocurrent (PC)

Photocurrent-voltage characteristic (PC-V) is a method of determining the critical parameter in X-ray and gamma-ray detector plates, i.e., the carrier mobility - lifetime product, mt. We show on the (Cd,Mn)Te samples that the measurement results depend strongly on the surface treatment and the charge space distribution. The PC-V characteristics obtained for hv > Eg and hv ~ Eg indicated that etching with 20% HCl caused an appearance of a significant concentration of very shallow surface traps at the (Cd,Mn)Te sample surface. These traps seriously changed the measurements of PC-V characteristics and PC kinetics. We also noticed a small contribution of holes to photoconductivity in the PC kinetics. The PC-V characteristics measurements for hv > Eg may test the detector plate surface quality.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figure