Mechanism of densensitization in DNCB-contact sensitive guinea pigs.

Contact sensitivity to dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) in guinea pigs could be rapidly suppressed by intravenous injection of dinitrobenzene sulfonic acid sodium salt (DNBSO3). This suppression is transient and antigen-specific. Macrophages from desensitized animals are not inactivated as shown by their ability to react, both in vivo and in vitro to lymphokines produced in a separate system. Therefore, effector lymphocytes are considered the target for the desensitizing antigen. Using an adoptive transfer system it was demonstrated that effector lymphocytes are inactivated by a direct effect of the hapten. Since this inactivation can be reversed by trypsin treatment, a receptor blockade of effector lymphocytes is proposed as the mechanism of desensitization of DNCB-contact sensitive guinea pigs. This does not exclude the possibility that additional mechanisms such as suppressor cells, compartmentalization or endogenous proliferation of lymph node lymphocytes may play an additional role.

Alcohol withdrawal in the elderly.

The phenomenon of alcohol withdrawal has seldom been studied in subgroups of patients in withdrawal. We developed a rating scale for measuring alcohol withdrawal that we found to be reliable and valid. The scale, when applied to young (ages 21-33, N = 24) and elderly (ages 58-77, N = 26) groups of patients in alcohol withdrawal, indicated that the elderly group initially had a more severe withdrawal for which they received higher doses of chlordiazepoxide.

Induction of tolerance to DNCB-contact sensitivity in guinea pig fetuses.

1. Female guinea pigs made tolerant before pregnancy do not transfer tolerance to their offspring. This result favours the concept of cellular mechanism of tolerance. 2. Guinea pig fetuses become tolerant when exposed to the tolerogen in the last two weeks of pregnancy. This is due to active tolerization by the tolerogen passing the placental barrier. 3. Fetuses exposed to the antigen earlier did not develop tolerance. This is due to immunological immaturity rather than to insufficiently developed vascularization. No functional active depot of tolerogen is formed. 4. Guinea pigs become immunologically mature between the 54th and 61st day of fetal live.

Review of states' practices on the use of psychotropic medication.

Concerns involved with prescription of psychotropic medication to persons with developmental disabilities to ameliorate maladaptive behavior were described. Responses to a national survey of state agencies regarding statutes, regulations, and operating procedures for initiating and monitoring psychotropic drug regimens were examined. The survey showed that most states had more rules and regulations for persons in institutions than in community settings. It also showed that some states have initiated rules similar to court-ordered guidelines for assessing tardive dyskinesia, restricting the use of antiparkinson drugs and polypharmacy, and implementing periodic drug interruptions. Recommendations were made based on these findings.

The adolescent with myelomeningocele: a review of parent experiences and expectations.

Until recently, persons born with spina bifida rarely lived to adulthood, and the severity of their physical and medical problems has been the source of litigation (e.g., Baby Jane Doe). This study questioned the parents of 39 adolescent survivors about their child's past medical history and psychosocial needs. While all of these adolescents had extensive histories of neurological and/or urological surgeries, most were mainstreamed into regular classroom settings. Three-fourths of the parents rated their adolescent as happy and outgoing. Less than 10% noted a predominant angry or depressed mood. The majority of adolescents had three or more close friends. About 10% stated that their child had problems with alcohol or drugs. Parents evaluated the support they had received on the medical and physical aspect of their child's illness as greater than that on psychosocial issues (e.g., sexuality, vocational needs). The desire for more assistance was expressed in these psychosocial areas (45% for sexuality and 68% for vocational needs) and in teenage issues (57%).

A survey of attitudes concerning contraception and the resolution of teenage pregnancy.

This study reports the results of a survey of 498 respondents in a large midwestern community concerning their attitudes toward making contraceptive services available to teenagers and the manner in which a teenage pregnancy should be resolved. The results indicated that the large majority of respondents approved of the practice of making contraceptives available to teenagers but there were also significant differences in attitudes expressed which were dependent upon demographic characteristics of the respondent. There was also considerable variability in the attitudes expressed concerning the resolution of a teenage pregnancy. The preferred method of resolution depended again on the demographic characteristics of the respondent. Keeping the baby and placing the baby for adoption were the most frequent choices. These results are discussed with relation to the present strong political conservative movement in the nation.

PIP: This study reports the results of a survey of 498 respondents in a large mid-western community concerning their attitudes toward making contraceptive services available to teenagers (only 30% of sexually active adolescents make consistent use of contraception), and the manner in which a teenage pregnancy should be resolved. 80.4% of the respondents were in favor of making contraceptives available to teenagers. However, significant differences were found among the different ages and the educational level of those surveyed, as age increased, support of availability decreased, but as education increased, support also increased. Persons without children were also more likely to approve contraceptive services in schools. 70.8% of the respondents felt that it was not necessary to require parental consent. There was considerable variability in the attitudes expressed concerning the resolution of a teenage pregnancy; 26.6% chose adoption, 16.7% picked abortion; 9.3% chose marriage, and 35.2% chose keeping the baby. Significant differences were found between white and black respondents and the single and separated. When attitudes were analyzed by age, the older the respondent, the more likely he/she was to feel that the pregnant teenager should not keep her baby. The same attitudes was evinced by those with higher levels of educational attainment. 40% of the respondents favored abortion, 52.4% were opposed, and 7% were either uncertain or favored abortion only under certain circumstances. Again there were significant differences by race, marital status, age, and educational level. Despite personal reservation concerning abortion, a clear majority of the respondents favored women having the choice, a finding that was consistent across all ages, races, and the majority of educational groups. The results of the survey are discussed in relation to the present strong political conservative movement in the nation.

The new MAACL scales with adolescents: preliminary reliability and validity determinations.

This study reports on the reliability and concurrent validity of both the trait and state forms of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL) with a high school population, age range of 14-16 years and educational range of 9th and 10th grades (N = 403). Alphas of the four scales (anxiety, depression, hostility, and positive affect) ranged from .67 to .91. Correlations with a check-list of stress-related symptoms and an inventory of the number of extracurricular activities in which the students participated were significant and in the expected direction. Means and standard deviations on the MAACL scales were similar to those of college students. Sex differences were found on some of the scales. The findings indicate that the MAACL is sufficiently reliable and valid to warrant additional use with an adolescent population.

Interpersonal touch among adults in cafeteria lines.

Previous studies have indicated that interpersonal touch decreases with age. In the present study 1012 pairs of college students and 212 pairs of elderly subjects were observed in cafeteria queues. Instances of touch were recorded along with sex, race, and body parts used to touch and touched. College students segregated themselves by race and sex just as the younger students had been observed to do in previous studies. Unlike all previous studies the elderly subjects did not segregate themselves by gender. For college students, touch was highest for female to male combinations; blacks were more likely to touch other blacks and least likely to touch whites. Touch was more likely among elderly subjects for female to female interactions than it was for college students, but there were no differences for the other gender combinations. In college students personal body areas were used to touch those of different gender while impersonal body areas were used to touch those of the same gender; personal body areas were more likely to be touched by others of the other gender. For elderly subjects there were no differences in frequencies with which personal or impersonal areas were involved in touch in relation to gender for either area used to touch or area touched.

Further evaluation of a sensitive method for detecting experimental brain lesions.

Small, unilateral cortical lesions were placed in either medial-anterior, lateral-anterior, or posterior cortex of 20 male, Sprague-Dawley, albino rats. In addition, unilateral sham operations were performed on 8 rats from the same stock. All subjects had been trained prior to surgery with diametrically opposed visual habits mediated by opposite cerebral hemispheres. The opposing habits were, insofar as possible, evenly matched prior to surgery. After surgery, lesioned hemispheres, regardless of locus of lesion, were slower in acquiring the habit they mediated, than were unlesioned hemispheres. Further, unlesioned hemispheres dominated in test trials in which subjects chose one of the two cue doors with both eyes open. These findings confirm that the "interocularly conflicting discrimination" baseline detects a role of extrastriate cortex in mediation of pattern discrimination habits. They further indicated that losses occur without regard to the various locations of lesion employed.

Detection of a deficit in visual discrimination of pattern following lesions of anterior cortex: role of type of motivation.

6 albino rats were trained under appetitive motivation to perform diametrically opposed visual discriminations of pattern via opposite eyes. Small lesions were subsequently placed unilaterally in anterior neocortex. Following a period of post-surgical recovery, subjects were re-trained on the diammetrically opposed discriminations in alternating 10-trial blocks. Every subject made more post-surgical errors on the discrimination mediated by the eye contralateral to the lesion. Since albino rats have virtually complete decussation of the visual system, this indicates selective impairment in mediation of performance of pattern discrimination in the part of the lesioned hemispheres. Thus, findings previously obtained in studies involving aversive motivation are general to appetitively motivated tasks.

MMPI experimental scale correlates of the MAACL--R with male alcoholics.

Concurrent and discriminative validity of the MAACL--R scales were studied by means of correlations with selected MMPI experimental scales (AR, DR, HOS, Poor Morale, and ES) for a sample of 88 male VA alcoholics. Concurrent validity of Anxiety, Depression, Hostility and PASS, and discriminative validity of the Anxiety scale were confirmed.

A personal log method for investigating interpersonal touch.

Most of the research on interpersonal touch has involved public settings but much of our significant contact takes place in private settings. The body-accessibility studies included touch in both public and private settings, but rates of touch and settings were not reported. In the present study 76 subjects kept a log of touches received, their relationship to the toucher, the setting, and their rating of the pleasantness of the touch. There were no gender differences in rates of touch. Most touches occurred in private settings, particularly touches in personal body areas. A variety of sexual touches were reported.

Effect of the elimination of suppressor cells on the development of DNCB contact sensitivity in guinea-pig.

The effect of suppressor cells on the formation of effector cells was studied by comparing the development of DNCB contact sensitivity in cyclophosphamide-treated (suppressor cells eliminated) and non-treated (suppressor cells present) guinea-pigs. From experiments in four different models of generation of effector cells the following conclusions are drawn: (1) impulses activating the formation of effector cells also activate suppressor cells; (2) under conditions of conventional immunization, suppressor cells are activated later than effector cells; (3) elimination of suppressor cells results in an increase in the intensity and duration of specific skin reactions.

Persistent activity of suppressor cells in T cell-mediated immune response.

Tolerance to dinitrochlorobenzene contact sensitivity induced i.v. injection of dinitrobenzenesulfonic acid in guinea pigs is a long-lasting phenomenon (up to 1 year). The tolerogen, however, was traceable in the circulation only up to 3 months after its application. In spite of that, tolerance was adoptively transferred by parabiosis 6 months after being induced. Moreover, active suppressor cells eliminated by cyclophosphamide treatment are able to regenerate in those adoptively tolerized animals. These results indicate that the tolerogenic injection stimulates precursors of suppressor cells to generate active suppressor cells and memory cells of suppression. The further formation of active suppressor cells from memory cells seems to be tolerogen independent, but the existence of specific stimulator cells for suppression may be considered. These cells may bind undetectable small amounts of tolerogen. The recovery of suppression might, however, be also due to recovery of suppressor cells which were temporarily inactivated but not destroyed by cyclophosphamide treatment.

Mechanism of tolerance to DNCB-contact sensitivity induced by immunosuppressive agents.

Specific unresponsiveness to DNCB contact sensitivity has been induced in guinea pigs by a combined application of two immunosuppressive agents, cyclophosphamide and antithymocyte serum, to guinea pigs during the period of sensitization with DNCB. This tolerance was specific since the reactivity to an unrelated hapten (oxazolon) was not impaired by the previous immunosuppressive treatment. The unresponsiveness induced by immunosuppressive treatment has not been reversed by an additional treatment with the high dose of cyclophosphamide known to reverse hapten-induced tolerance, and has not been transferred by parabiosis from tolerant to normal partners. From these results it is concluded that specific unresponsiveness induced by immunosuppressive agents is not mediated by suppressor cells but is rather based on clonal deletion. The relative in unstability of this tolerance may be due to formation of new antigen-reactive cells from undeleted precursors.

Affects, demographic variables, and health.

The revised Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL-R) was given to a national probability sample that consisted of 1,543 adults who also were interviewed, which provided demographic data and self-ratings of health, medication use, and social activities. Standardization procedures have reduced markedly the acquiescence factor and the correlations among the dysphoric affect scales in the MAACL-R. The demographic variables of sex, race, age, education, occupation, income, marital status, religion, geographical area of residence, and size of town or city were related to some of the scales. Positive affect was related directly to self-ratings of health; dysphoric affect was related negatively to these ratings. Frequencies of volunteer activities and social activities in general correlated negatively with depression and positively with positive affect scales.