Mood, Personality, and Behavior Changes During Treatment with Statins: A Case Series.

Psychiatric adverse drug reactions (ADRs) have been reported with statin use, but the literature regarding statin-associated mood/behavioral changes remains limited. We sought to elicit information germane to natural history and characteristics of central nervous system/behavioral changes in apparent connection with statin and/or cholesterol-lowering drug use, and delineate mechanisms that may bear on an association. Participants (and/or proxies) self-referred with behavioral and/or mood changes in apparent association with statins completed a survey eliciting cholesterol-lowering drug history, character and impact of behavioral/mood effect, time-course of onset and recovery in relation to drug use/modification, co-occurrence of recognized statin-associated ADRs, and factors relevant to ADR causality determination. Naranjo presumptive ADR causality criteria were assessed. Participants (n = 12) reported mood/behavior change that commenced following statin initiation and persisted or progressed with continued use. Reported problems included violent ideation, irritability, depression, and suicide. Problems resolved with drug discontinuation and recurred with rechallenge where attempted. Eight met presumptive criteria for "probable" or "definite" causality; others had additional factors not considered in Naranjo criteria that bear on casual likelihood. (1) Simvastatin 80 mg was followed in 5 days by irritability/depression culminating in suicide in a man in his 40s (Naranjo criteria: possible causality). (2) Simvastatin 10 mg was followed within 2 weeks by depression in a woman in her 50s (probable causality). (3) Atorvastatin 20 mg was followed in ~1 month by depression and irritability/aggression in a male in his 50s (probable causality). (4) Atorvastatin 10 mg was followed in several months by aggression/irritability and depression culminating in suicide in a man in his 40s (possible causality). (5) Fenofibrate + rosuvastatin (unknown dose), later combined with atorvastatin were followed in 1 month by aggression/irritability in a male in his 30s (probable causality). (6) Lovastatin (unknown dose and time-course to reaction) was followed by depression, dyscontrol of bipolar disorder, and suicide attempts in a male in his 40s (possible causality). (7) Atorvastatin 20 mg was followed within 2 weeks by cognitive compromise, and nightmares, depression, and anxiety culminating in suicide in a man in his teens (definite causality). (8) Simvastatin 10 mg was followed (time-course not recalled) by depression, aggression/irritability culminating in suicide in a man in his 60s (possible causality). (9) Simvastatin 20 mg then atorvastatin 10 mg were followed (time-course not provided) by irritability/aggression in a man in his 60s (definite causality). (10) Atorvastatin 10 then 20 then 40 mg were followed shortly after the dose increase by violent ideation and anxiety in a man in his 30s (probable causality). (11) Atorvastatin 20 mg and then simvastatin 20 mg were followed in 2 weeks by aggression/irritability in a man in his 50s (definite causality). (12) Lovastatin, rosuvastatin, atorvastatin, and simvastatin at varying doses were followed as quickly as 1 day by aggression, irritability, and violent ideation in a man in his 40s (definite causality). Most had risk factors for statin ADRs, and co-occurrence of other, recognized statin ADRs. ADRs had implications for marriages, careers, and safety of self and others. These observations support the potential for adverse mood and behavioral change in some individuals with statin use, extend the limited literature on such effects, and provide impetus for further investigation into these presumptive ADRs. Potential mechanisms are reviewed, including hypothesized mechanisms related to oxidative stress and bioenergetics

Red deer synchronise their activity with close neighbours

Models of collective animal behaviour frequently make assumptions about the effects of neighbours on the behaviour of focal individuals, but these assumptions are rarely tested. One such set of assumptions is that the switch between active and inactive behaviour seen in herding animals is influenced by the activity of close neighbours, where neighbouring animals show a higher degree of behavioural synchrony than would be expected by chance. We tested this assumption by observing the simultaneous behaviour of paired individuals within a herd of red deer Cervus elaphus. Focal individuals were more synchronised with their two closest neighbours than with the third closest or randomly selected individuals from the herd. Our results suggest that the behaviour of individual deer is influenced by immediate neighbours. Even if we assume that there are no social relationships between individuals, this suggests that the assumptions made in models about the influence of neighbours may be appropriate

Multiple domestications of asian rice

In their recent Correspondence about our study showingthat there were three origins of Asian rice2, Huang and Han suggest that the methodology that we used to infer multiple domestications was flawed as it did not take account of the strong genetic bottleneck in japonica

A Bioinformatics Approach to Revealing the Genetic Basis for Host Range Specificity

Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that infect bacteria. Mycobacteriophages are bacteriophages that specifically infect the genus Mycobacterium. This genus of bacteria includes human pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium ulcerans, which cause tuberculosis, leprosy and Buruli ulcer, respectively. The full genome sequences of 654 mycobacteriophages are currently available. Collectively, these 654 phages encode 69,581 genes. Only 20.25% of these genes have at least one known homologue in NCBI, the National Center for Biotechnology Information, leaving roughly 80% of all known mycobacteriophage genes without even a predicted function. Bacteriophages are highly host-specific and typically only infect a small number of bacterial hosts. The host range of 204 mycobacteriophages, initially isolated on Mycobacterium smegmatis strain mc2 155, was recently determined on three other bacterial hosts: M. tuberculosis and two M. smegmatis strains, Jucho and MKD8. The phages that were capable of infecting one or more of the hosts were of particular interest. The host range information was then used in an association study using Phamerator software to examine the relationship between gene products (protein phamilies) and host range of the corresponding phages. With so many uncharacterized genes encoded by these phages, the potential for elucidating key factors involved in the determination of host range is an exciting prospect

DEVELOPING A COMPREHENSIVE MODEL OF PERSONALITY, BELIEFS, AND RELIGIOSITY TO EXPLAIN UNDERAGE DRINKING IN COLLEGE STUDENTS

Researchers have demonstrated that college students with strong religious beliefs unsupported by religious behaviors report greater involvement in underage drinking, drug use, and risky sex than students with concordant high or concordant low religious beliefs and behaviors. Recent research also suggests personality traits, belief systems, and environments may be influencing this group’s risky behaviors; however, further research is needed to identify factors contributing to these students’ life choices (including the decision to not support their religious beliefs with specific religious behaviors). This study reports on tests of a psychosocial mediational model, connecting personality traits, religious beliefs, religious behaviors, and underage drinking. Using Structural Equation Modeling and a sample of 411 underage college students, we tested whether the association between five impulsive personality traits and underage drinking was mediated by the discordance of religious beliefs and behaviors. We also tested whether the same predictive effects could be observed using three broader personality trait domains. Although students with discordant religious beliefs and behaviors drank more than their concordant religious peers, we did not find support for the proposed mediational models. Exploratory follow-up analyses offered support for an alternative direction; underage drinking mediated the relationship between eight out of nine personality variables and the discordance of religious beliefs and behaviors. Findings indicated students with strong religious beliefs unsupported by religious behaviors reported higher levels of impulsive traits and perceived invincibility and lower levels of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness than their peers high in both religious beliefs and behaviors; this effect operated indirectly through underage drinking. Implications for directional risk models and points of intervention are discussed

Mothers Behind Cameras: Mother-Artist, Mother-Child Dyads In Sally Mann’s Immediate Family And Elinor Carucci’s Mother

Women, particularly mothers, are often made invisible within narratives of their own family and domestic spaces, despite their role as creators and maintainers of those spaces. This perpetuation of invisibility is threaded throughout the history of artistic practices, (photography especially). Contemporary mother-artists Sally Mann and Elinor Carucci confront and unapologetically reflect their singular experience(s) with motherhood through their photography, which addresses the symbiotic dyads of mother-child and mother-artist. This thesis focuses on an analysis of four images: Mann’s The Wet Bed and Lee’s Dirty Hands, and Carucci’s Trying to Protect Emanuelle and I Will Protect You. In both Mann and Carucci’s photography, the image of the child is explicit, but the image of the mother is harder to decipher. The uncanny Victorian era practice of Hidden Mother photography initially inspired this thesis, but it is further informed by iconographic Madonna and child imagery, artistic and maternal labor, Roland Barthes’s concept of the “umbilical cord,” feminist art history, and, theory on the ontology of photography. Photography as a medium has been likened to the maternal, as a vehicle of production and reproduction. This thesis argues that motherhood-as-image is indexical of motherhood-in-practice, developed through a surrogate gaze of the mother specifically created through the use of the camera (lens). Through a contextualization and deep visual analysis of these four photographs, this thesis explores how Mann and Carucci’s artwork uses the child and the camera as a medium to produce images that inflect the mother-artists’ individual maternal experiences

Risk Behaviours and Service Use Intensity in Child Mental Health Care

Abstract Objective Little is known regarding factors that predict Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) use. The current study examined risk behaviours (e.g., danger to self, danger to others) among children with mental health issues as predictors of service use intensity (i.e., total visits) over 1 year, and across time (i.e., number of visits per two-month period). Methods Secondary data analyses of CAMHS chart review data spanning a 5-year period at 6 children’s mental health agencies across Ontario from youth between the ages of 4 and 11 (N = 356) were conducted. Child risk behaviours were measured using the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths Scale – Mental Health (CANS-MH; Lyons, 1999) and examined as a predictor of service use intensity and patterns of service use intensity over a 1-year period. Results About one third (35.4%) of children presented with 1 or more risk behaviours. Of these, most (84.9%) presented with the risk behaviour “Danger to Others”. Children who presented with Danger to Others had significantly higher service use than children who did not present with this risk behaviour (X2 = 6.93, p \u3c .05). Children who presented with only Danger to Others also had different temporal patterns of service use. For example, children with Danger to Others had higher service use intensity than children without this risk behaviour in only later months of the year. Conclusions Danger to Others appears to play an important role in predicting how intensely children and their families use mental health services. Children who present with this risk behaviour seem to need persistently more intense mental health services than children who do not

A multi-scale investigation of habitat selectivity in Coastal Plain stream fishes

Studying the habitat use of Coastal Plain fishes enables us to develop a deeper understanding of how fishes thrive in this highly variable environment. Based on previous research by Dr. Roberts and his students, Coastal Plain fishes seem to sort into two groups: (1) species selecting stream reaches that continue to flow throughout the summer (i.e., fluvial species [F]) and (2) species occurring in streams that may stop flowing in late summer (i.e., nonfluvial species [NF]). For this study, I took a detailed look at eight of these species, spanning the F-NF gradient, and asked which environmental variables (e.g., water quality, stream size, adjacent land use) most influence species occurrence at the spatial scales of stream reaches and microhabitats. Habitat availability and use data came from electrofishing and habitat surveys of 25 sites sampled in summer 2016 and 12 sites re-sampled in summer 2018. At the reach scale, Random forest models indicated that F species consistently selected sites with higher dissolved oxygen, pH, and conductivity, whereas NF species tended to show the opposite pattern. Neither group showed consistent selectivity for stream-size, physical-habitat, or land-use variables. At the microhabitat scale, F species specialized on coarser substrate and higher velocity but showed no preference for large woody debris (LWD). In contrast, NF species specialized on low-velocity and high-LWD microhabitat configurations but showed no substrate selectivity. These findings suggest that habitat selection of Coastal Plain fishes is scale-dependent, and potentially interacts with morphology, feeding strategy, and water-quality tolerance

Aphra Behn, One of Churchill’s Top Girls?: Assessing Caryl Churchill’s Lack of Deference to Behn’s Legacy

This thesis focuses on two English, feminist playwrights: Aphra Behn, a seventeenth-century playwright, and Caryl Churchill, a twentieth-century playwright. The thesis discusses feminist politics in the plays of each playwright, with particular attention paid to matters of gender, sexuality, politics, and economics. In the process, the thesis examines Churchill\u27s lack of overt deference to Behn\u27s legacy, and goes on to attribute this lack of deference to Churchill\u27s socialist politics, politics that directly conflict with Behn\u27s Tory leanings