精神障がい者セルフヘルプ・グループの活動発展条件に関する研究

本研究の目的は、我が国の精神障がい者のセルフヘルプ・グループの活動の実態と活動上の課題ならびに活動が発展するための条件を明らかにすることである。全国の精神障害者のセルフヘルプグループ579団体のリーダーに自己記入式質問紙を郵送し活動状況について尋ねた。有効回答である112グループのリーダーの半数が自分たちのグループは発展していないと考えていた。また活動が発展しているセルフヘルプ・グループのリーダー8名に対し半構造的インタビューを実施し、質的記述的に分析した。分析の結果、セルフヘルプ・グループが発展するための条件は、【リーダーシップ能力】、【メンバーの参加意欲】、【（グループ）運営技術】、【（専門職の）必要に応じた継続的支援】、【社会資源】の５つのカテゴリーに分類された。 　精神障がい者は疾患の特徴や若年での発症、長期入院による社会経験の不足などから対人関係の持ちにくさや社会生活技能の不足などの課題を抱えており、リーダーシップ能力や積極的な参加、仲間意識、協調性などが阻害されている可能性がある。したがって、当事者のみでセルフヘルプ・グループを効果的に運営することは大変困難であり、専門職の支援が不可欠である。専門職は必要に応じた継続的な支援を行い、当事者の主体性を尊重し、人として対等の関係性の中で当事者が徐々に自信をつけ、自律していけるように見守ることが必要である。 Purpose : The aim of this paper is to identify characteristics of the current activities that self-help groups for individuals with mental illness are involved in. We also attempt to identify requirements for the successful management of self-help groups for individuals with mental illness. Method : Stage one of this study assessed the actual condition of self-help groups for individuals with mental illness in Japan. An anonymous questionnaire was mailed to 579 leaders of self-help groups for individuals with mental illness, and valid responses were obtained from 112 individuals. The period of investigation was from August 2006 to February 2007. We defined the groups led by individuals with mental illness as self-help groups ; other group types were defined collectively as support groups. In Stage two of the study a qualitative descriptive design was used. Participants were 8 leaders of 5 self-help groups. Semi-structured interviews were conducted after consent was obtained. The data collection period was from July to September 2007. Result and Discussion : Stage 1 : A total of 62.5% of the groups studied were self-help groups. Approximately 60% of self-help groups were associated with health care professionals. The main purpose of the groups was friendship and their main activities were recreation and outings. A few of the groups engaged in social action for advocacy. More than half of self-help group leaders reported thinking that their groups were not successful because of a shortage of new members. Group leaders thought that the requirements for successful self-help groups included such elements as professional and administrative support, positive attitudes and mutual support among members, adequate funding, space for meetings, support for the leader, and effective group management. Stage 2 : Five categories emerged from data analysis : long-term support for needs, leadership ability, positive attendance, group management skill, social support.　Characteristic problems of individuals with mental illness include poor interpersonal relationships, difficulties in coping with routine living, lack of consciousness of their disease, and poor adaptability to environmental change. Such characteristics can inhibit leaders from exhibiting leadership behaviors or prevent individuals from participating in group activities through active collaboration with others. It seems that creating successful self-help groups is difficult for members because of the characteristics of disease and disability. Therefore, professional support is indispensable. Conclusion : The present research suggests that continuing equal relationships as individuals and long term support for needs are very important when professionals support a self-help group. In addition, opportunities to promote autonomy in deference to the independence of the individuals concerned and knowledge as well as indirect technical support were important

Probable association of T Tauri stars with the L1014 dense core

Using the Wide Field Grism Spectrograph 2 (WFGS2), we have carried out slit-less spectroscopy, g'r'i' photometry, and slit spectroscopy on the L1014 dense core. We detected three Halpha emission line stars. We interpret one as weak-line T Tauri star (WTTS) and the others as classical T Tauri stars (CTTS). Since their g'-i' colors and/or classified spectral types are consistent with those of T Tauri stars and two of them show less extinction than the cloud, these three stars are likely to be T Tauri stars associated with L1014. Adopting an age range for T Tauri stars, 1-10 Myr, the color-magnitude diagram suggests a distance of ~400-900 pc, rather than the previously assumed distance, 200 pc. This could strongly affect on the mass estimate of L1014-IRS, which is thought to be either a very young protostar or proto-brown dwarf.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Vol.58, No.5, October 25, 200

トラウマ タイケン ノ ウム ト ソノ コウゾウカ カイジ ガ シンシン キノウ ニ オヨボス エイキョウ

The purposes of this study were to compare health, cognitive functioning, and negative rumination between individuals who have experienced trauma and those who do not, and to examine the effect of structured disclosure of trauma on posttraumatic stress reactions (PTSR), health, and cognitive functioning. In Study Ⅰ, participants were 24 undergraduates at 9 or more scores of Impact of Event Scale(IES), which measures PTSR(the trauma group), and 15 undergraduates with no trauma (the no trauma group). Results showed that the trauma group was more unhealthy and ruminative than the no trauma group. In Study Ⅱ, participants in the trauma group were randomly assigned into three groups: the structured disclosure group(n=9), the free disclosure group(n=8), and the control group(n=7). Participants in the structured disclosure group were asked to write adaptive thought of the event. The free disclosure group wrote the deepest emotion and thought about the trauma freely. The control group wrote their plan after the experiment without emotion. Results showed that all the participants in the groups revealed significantly improvement in PTSR, mental health, and cognitive functioning from pre assessment to 1 month follow-up assessment. Results of this study were discussed in connection with previous studies

γ-Tocopherol Accelerated Sodium Excretion in a Dose-Dependent Manner in Rats with a High Sodium Intake

We have previously reported that γ-tocopherol (γ-Toc) displays a natriuretic potency in rats fed a NaCl diet and administered 20 mg γ-Toc. In this study, we investigated whether γ-Toc has natriuretic potency at a dose lower or higher than 20 mg in rats given a NaCl diet. Male rats were fed a control diet or a NaCl diet and administered either placebo or 10, 20 or 40 mg of γ-Toc. The rat urine was collected for 24 hours (divided into 6 hour periods) and the 2,7,8-trimethyl-2-(2'-carboxyethyl)-6-hydroxychroman (γ-CEHC) level, the sodium excretion content, and the urine volume were determined. The 24-hour γ-CEHC and sodium levels in the urine of the NaCl groups given 20 mg or 40 mg γ-Toc were significantly higher than those in the placebo group. The peak levels of urine sodium and γ-CEHC in the NaCl group given 40 mg γ-Toc appeared at 0–6 h, which was a more rapid increase than that seen in the group given 20 mg γ-Toc. The 24-hour urine volumes of the NaCl groups given 10 and 20 mg γ-Toc were significantly higher than the urine volume of the placebo group. Our findings suggested that γ-Toc increased sodium excretion in a dose-dependent manner in rats fed a NaCl diet. Moreover, a high dose of γ-Toc may accelerate its metabolism and cause an increase in the rate of sodium excretion

Increased Monocyte Turnover from Bone Marrow Correlates with Severity of SIV Encephalitis and CD163 Levels in Plasma

Cells of the myeloid lineage are significant targets for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in humans and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in monkeys. Monocytes play critical roles in innate and adaptive immunity during inflammation. We hypothesize that specific subsets of monocytes expand with AIDS and drive central nervous system (CNS) disease. Additionally, there may be expansion of cells from the bone marrow through blood with subsequent macrophage accumulation in tissues driving pathogenesis. To identify monocytes that recently emigrated from bone marrow, we used 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling in a longitudinal study of SIV-infected CD8+ T lymphocyte depleted macaques. Monocyte expansion and kinetics in blood was assessed and newly migrated monocyte/macrophages were identified within the CNS. Five animals developed rapid AIDS with differing severity of SIVE. The percentages of BrdU+ monocytes in these animals increased dramatically, early after infection, peaking at necropsy where the percentage of BrdU+ monocytes correlated with the severity of SIVE. Early analysis revealed changes in the percentages of BrdU+ monocytes between slow and rapid progressors as early as 8 days and consistently by 27 days post infection. Soluble CD163 (sCD163) in plasma correlated with the percentage of BrdU+ monocytes in blood, demonstrating a relationship between monocyte activation and expansion with disease. BrdU+ monocytes/macrophages were found within perivascular spaces and SIVE lesions. The majority (80–90%) of the BrdU+ cells were Mac387+ that were not productively infected. There was a minor population of CD68+BrdU+ cells (<10%), very few of which were infected (<1% of total BrdU+ cells). Our results suggest that an increased rate of monocyte recruitment from bone marrow into the blood correlates with rapid progression to AIDS, and the magnitude of BrdU+ monocytes correlates with the severity of SIVE

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target