Fear of crime and psychological and physical abuse associated with ill health in a Swedish population aged 65-84 years.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the association between fear of crime and/or psychological and/or physical abuse in relation to self-reported physical and psychological health, using a large representative sample of elderly women and men in Sweden. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional national survey. METHODS: Data were taken from a nationwide representative public health survey (2006). Men and women between the ages of 65 and 84 years were selected for the present analyses (4386 men and 4974 women). The response rate for this age group was 59% for men and 70% for women. RESULTS: Psychological and physical abuse against elderly women and men led to higher odds ratios for negative health outcomes, independently of socio-economic status. Strong correlation was found between psychological abuse and negative health outcomes in both men and women, while the correlation was less strong for physical abuse, especially among women. The men had high odds ratios for suicidal thoughts and even for attempted suicide in connection with physical and psychological abuse and fear of crime. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides representative results addressing an extensive negative health outcome panorama caused by fear of crime and exposure to abuse.

Acupuncture for the treatment of vulvar vestibulitis: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: The study was conducted to obtain a preliminary indication of the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of vulvar vestibulitis but also to obtain information how well the women tolerate the treatment. METHODS: Fourteen young women with vulvar vestibulitis according to Friedrich's criteria were enrolled in the study and 13 fulfilled the acupuncture treatment a total of 10 times. For evaluation quality of life (QOL) assessments were made before starting the treatment and then at one week and at three months after it was completed. RESULTS: The treatment was well tolerated and the QOL measurements were all significantly higher after both the last acupuncture and three months later, compared to before the treatment was started. CONCLUSION: The results seem promising, but a larger controlled randomized study should be carried out before the treatment can be recommended for use in clinical practice.

Vulvar vestibulitis: a multi-factorial condition.

OBJECTIVE: To study differences in somatic symptoms and personality dimensions between women with vulvar vestibulitis and a non-symptomatic control group. DESIGN: A case-control study conducted in 1998. SETTING: Two clinics in northern Sweden. SAMPLE: Thirty-eight women, 18-25 years of age, suffering from vulvar vestibulitis, and 70 healthy controls. METHODS: The women completed two questionnaires: the temperament and character inventory to study personality aspects, and the Giessen subjective complaints list, which is a checklist of subjective bodily complaints. RESULTS: Regarding personality aspects the women with vulvar vestibulitis scored significantly higher than the control group, on exclusively one out of seven subscales of the temperament and character inventory (i.e. harm avoidance). This trait is considered to be partly inherited and stable throughout life, and to give the person a tendency to react to problems with pessimistic thoughts, increased anxiety and fatigue. On the Giessen subjective complaints list the women with vestibulitis reported a significantly higher number of somatic complaints in several areas. CONCLUSIONS: The findings that women suffering from vulvar vestibulitis have more bodily complaints than the controls is interpreted as an indication of a psychosomatic element in their illness, which could be primary or secondary. Furthermore, these women are characterised by a particular personality trait, and it is suggested that this trait might influence their experience and management of pain and stress. A multi-factorial origin of vulvar vestibulitis is advocated and a multimodal interdisciplinary treatment approach is suggested. To elucidate further the mechanisms behind this health problem, prospective controlled studies are urgently needed.

Antagonistic pre- and post-copulatory sexual selection on male body size in a water strider (Gerris lacustris).

A crucial question in sexual selection theory is whether post-copulatory sexual selection reinforces or counteracts conventional pre-copulatory sexual selection. Male body size is one of the traits most generally favoured by pre-copulatory sexual selection; and recent studies of sperm competition often suggest that large male size is also favoured by post-copulatory sexual selection. In contrast to this general pattern, this study shows that pre- and post-copulatory sexual selection act antagonistically on male body size in Gerris lacustris. One large and one small male were kept together with two females in this experiment. Large males had a significant mating advantage, but small males copulated longer and gained higher fertilization success from each mating. Large and small males, however, gained similar reproductive success, and there was no overall correlation between mating success and reproductive success. These results suggest that estimates of male fitness based solely on mating success should be viewed with caution, because of potentially counteracting post-copulatory selection.

Vulvar vestibulitis: medical, psychosexual and psychosocial aspects, a case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Vulvar vestibulitis is suspected to be increasingly prevalent among young women, but the etiology is still unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the differences in medical, psychosexual and psychosocial factors between women with vulvar vestibulitis and a control group. METHODS: A case-control study was made with 38 women with vulvar vestibulitis and 71 healthy age-matched controls. All the women answered a structured questionnaire about their medical and gynecological history which included psychosexual and psychosocial background factors and current aspects as well. RESULTS: Women with vulvar vestibulitis have very much the same psychosocial and sexual background factors as their controls, whereas there are many differences in their medical background factors, both gynecological and others. It is very clear that they suffer from many other somatic symptoms more often than their controls. CONCLUSIONS: There are no indications of a primary sexual disturbance in women with vulvar vestibulitis. However, the finding that women with vulvar vestibulitis have many different somatic symptoms indicates a psychosomatic strain in the illness. Regardless of whether this is primary or secondary, it should be taken into consideration when treating the patients.

Alternative spinal, somatosensory pathways investigated with the tactile orienting reaction in the cat.

Previous results indicated the possibility of abolishing the orienting reaction to light tactile stimulation of specific areas below lesions encompassing three sectors of the transverse spinal plane, if all sectors were transected simultaneously. Hence presumably interrupting three different ascending pathways. Two sectors corresponded to the sites of the well known, somatosensory, dorsal column and spino-cervical pathways. Single stage lesion technique now has been used to pinpoint the site of the third pathway. Immediate orienting reactions to both sides were seen before surgery. The orienting reactions remained postoperatively to stimuli applied on the hind limb contralateral to the dorsal column and the spino-cervical lesions. When the hind limb ipsilateral to the dorsal column and the spino-cervical lesions was stimulated five cats showed an absence of orienting reactions. The cats' lesions included the dorsal column and the spino-cervical on one side and the border area between the lateral and ventral funiculi on the other side of the cord. The remaining cats showed either partial or no deficiency of the orienting reactions. These cats' spinal lesions spared the area between the ventral and lateral funiculi. The findings show the possibility of abolishing the tactile orienting reactions from one hind limb with single stage lesions, which include the dorsal column and the spino-cervical pathway on one side, and a pathway located in the border area between the contralateral lateral, and ventral funiculi. This site corresponds to the morphological position of ascending spino-mesencephalic and/or spino-thalamic fibres. Consequently, all of these pathways might provide alternative routes for information about the place of tactile stimuli, which may evoke orienting reactions.

The somatosensory intercollicular nucleus of the cat's mesencephalon.

1. Unitary, neural activity was sampled with tungsten electrodes in the mesencephalic, intercollicular region of cats anaesthetized with chloralose. The units' stereotaxic co-ordinates were noted and they were tested for activation by adequate tactile, visual and acoustic stimuli as well as electrical nerve stimulation. The units' geometrical gradations were afterwards translated into morphological terms by means of unbiased, cytoarchitectonic identifications of those structures which had been penetrated by the electrodes. 2. The primary objectives were the conventional, somatosensory units, which had reliable, low-threshold, tactile receptive fields and could not be activated by the two other types of adequate stimulation. There were 139 such units from a total sample of 495. 3. These somatosensory units were found to occupy many of the region's structures, notably the intercollicular nucleus (INC), the nucleus of the brachium of the inferior colliculus, the stratum griseum intermedium and the stratum griseum profundum of the superior colliculus. INC was the only structure which had an exclusively somatosensory input. 4. The units of INC had tactile receptive fields varying between one and several hundred square centimetres. Convergence of afferent input from outside these fields could sometimes be demonstrated by nerve stimulation. The latencies of activation from the contralateral sciatic nerve were, on average, shorter for units of INC than for the somatosensory units of the other intercollicular structures, and INC units could also follow higher stimulation frequencies. 5. The findings support the assumption that INC may constitute a distinct mesencephalic centre for somatosensory function.

Orienting reactions to light tactile stimuli after single and repeated partial spinal cord lesions in the cat.

Cats which had been trained to remain quietly standing were tested for orienting responses to light tactile stimulation (ORLT) of either hindlimb before and after different single, and subsequently increased, low thoracic spinal cord lesions. The individual lesions covered one dorsal column, and/or the dorsal part of one lateral funiculus, and/or the ventral part of the lateral funiculus, and/or one entire lateral funiculus and/or one or both ventral quadrants. Normal ORLTs were produced from the first post-operative test after each of the above lesions alone, or in combination with one of the others. Acute and chronic disappearances and/or disturbances of the ORLTs were observed for one hindlimb only after lesions involving at least the dorsal column and the dorsal part of the lateral funiculus of the ipsilateral side, as well as the contralateral lateral funiculus. The amount of disturbance varied with the technique in such a way that the number of operations which had been carried out to cause the actual lesion was inversely correlated to the degree of post-operative defect. The findings showed that the severity of the tactile symptoms after spinal cord lesions may depend on the speed with which they had developed. The types of lesions causing defects indicated that cats, under normal conditions, may utilize one of the three ascending spinal pathways for orienting reactions to light tactile stimulation. In relation to the peripheral receptive fields, these pathways are the ipsilateral dorsal column and spinocervical pathways, and a pathway of the contralateral lateral funiculus. The possible spinothalamic character of the crossed pathway has yet to be established.

Partial lesion of dorsal hippocampal afferents and GM1-ganglioside treatment effects on the two-way avoidance in rats.

Acquistion and retention of the two-way avoidance was studied in 32 male Moll-Wistar rats, divided into four groups. The first two received electrolytic dorsal hippocampal afferent injuries and were injected either with GM,-ganglioside or buffer. Two remaining groups were sham-operated and injected similarly with either GM, or buffer. The acquistion and retention of avoidance was better in lesioned than is sham-operated groups. Short avoidance latencies, small number of trials to the first avoidance response, and high intertrial responses frequency were also observed in those groups. Ganglioside treatment tended to elihance all behavioral effects of lesions, contrary to its opposite effects in sham-operated group. The results suggest that the GM, ganglioside administration in lesioned rats decreases pain reactivity and/or unconditioned stimulus signaling properties, since the longest initial shock duration was observed in operated, GM, injected group.

Somatosensory units in the cat's intercollicular region.

Sampling of unitary, neural activity was made with tungsten electrodes in the mesencephalon of cats anaesthetized with chloralose. Possible activation was studied with adequate somatosensory, visual and acoustic stimuli as well as electrical nerve stimulation via electrodes embedded in each forelimb and the contralateral hindlimb. Fifty units or about 10% of the total population were found in clusters of strictly somatosensory units which were activated by light tactile stimulation and with short latency from the contralateral body half. Some of these units had small receptive fields, but others showed convergence of information from large receptive fields which sometimes included parts of the ipsilateral body half. The different clusters appeared to constitute parts of a coherent structure which is located between 3-5 mm lateral to the midline at the anterior/posterior level of the trochlear nucleus, and with slanted dorsal-ventral distribution with the caudal parts above and the rostral parts below the Sylvian aqueduct. A somatotopical arrangement was found with the forelimb rostral to the hindlimb, and the suggested structure may be the somatosensory intercollicular nucleus which has been described by others.