The Vasarhelyi Method of Child Art Psychotherapy in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services: a stakeholder survey of clinical supervisors.

OBJECTIVES: The Vasarhelyi Method of Child Art Psychotherapy (CAP) is a largely understudied psychotherapeutic modality. This study aims to describe the Vasarhelyi Method of CAP and to describe a stakeholder survey of the views and attitudes of CAP placement supervisors towards CAP among various Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) teams nationwide. METHODS: A phone- and letter-based survey of 17 CAP placement supervisors who oversee CAP masters students attached to CAMHS teams was performed. A questionnaire was designed enquiring about their experiences with CAP in their clinic and their thoughts on the validity of CAP in various conditions/patient demographics. Participants received written correspondence and were asked to return the survey by post; this was followed up by a telephone call to complete missing surveys. RESULTS: In all, 12 (70.6%) complete surveys were returned. Of the 12 respondents, all considered the CAP student to be a valuable member of the team. In total, 10 respondents (83.33%) stated they would make regular use of the service if it were made available to them. With regard to the therapy itself, nine respondents (75%) believed it was better for internalising symptoms than externalising symptoms. Depression, anxiety, attachment difficulties, trauma, deliberate self-harm and possible psychosomatic illnesses are the conditions viewed as receiving the most benefit from CAP. No gender difference was reported. CONCLUSION: CAP is considered an effective modality and valuable addition to a psychotherapeutic repertoire. Further, more extensive studies are needed in this field.

Intracellular ATP-sensitive K+ channels in mouse pancreatic beta cells: against a role in organelle cation homeostasis.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: ATP-sensitive K(+) (K(ATP)) channels located on the beta cell plasma membrane play a critical role in regulating insulin secretion and are targets for the sulfonylurea class of antihyperglycaemic drugs. Recent reports suggest that these channels may also reside on insulin-containing dense-core vesicles and mitochondria. The aim of this study was to explore these possibilities and to test the hypothesis that vesicle-resident channels play a role in the control of organellar Ca(2+) concentration or pH. METHODS: To quantify the subcellular distribution of the pore-forming subunit Kir6.2 and the sulfonylurea binding subunit SUR1 in isolated mouse islets and clonal pancreatic MIN6 beta cells, we used four complementary techniques: immunoelectron microscopy, density gradient fractionation, vesicle immunopurification and fluorescence-activated vesicle isolation. Intravesicular and mitochondrial concentrations of free Ca(2+) were measured in intact or digitonin-permeabilised MIN6 cells using recombinant, targeted aequorins, and intravesicular pH was measured with the recombinant fluorescent probe pHluorin. RESULTS: SUR1 and Kir6.2 immunoreactivity were concentrated on dense-core vesicles and on vesicles plus the endoplasmic reticulum/Golgi network, respectively, in both islets and MIN6 cells. Reactivity to neither subunit was detected on mitochondria. Glibenclamide, tolbutamide and diazoxide all failed to affect Ca(2+) uptake into mitochondria, and K(ATP) channel regulators had no significant effect on intravesicular free Ca(2+) concentrations or vesicular pH. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: A significant proportion of Kir6.2 and SUR1 subunits reside on insulin-secretory vesicles and the distal secretory pathway in mouse beta cells but do not influence intravesicular ion homeostasis. We propose that dense-core vesicles may serve instead as sorting stations for the delivery of channels to the plasma membrane.

Brief visual experience induces immediate early gene expression in the cat visual cortex.

Brief visual experience causes rapid physiological changes in the visual cortex during early postnatal development. A possible mediator of these effects is the immediate early genes whose protein products are involved in the rapid response of neurons to transsynaptic stimulation. Here we report evidence that the levels of immediate early gene mRNAs in the visual cortex can be altered by manipulating the visual environment. Specifically, we find that brief (1 h) visual experience in dark-reared cats causes dramatic transient inductions of egr1, c-fos, and junB mRNAs in the visual cortex but not in the frontal cortex. Levels of c-jun and c-myc mRNAs are unaffected. These results suggest that select combinatorial interactions of immediate early gene proteins are an important step in the cascade of events through which visually elicited activity controls visual cortical development.

Changes in immediate early gene expression during postnatal development of cat cortex and cerebellum.

Postnatal brain development involves interactions between extracellular signals and preprogrammed genetic events. Immediate early genes (IEGs) are a group of genes that are induced by extracellular signals and their protein products alter transcription by binding regulatory elements in other genes. Using Northern and slot blot analysis of total RNA isolated from visual cortex, frontal cortex, and cerebellum of cats, we have determined the postnatal development patterns of mRNA expression for 5 of these genes, c-fos, erg-1, c-jun, jun-B, and c-myc. Each gene had a distinct developmental pattern of mRNA expression, and for a given gene, these patterns were often different in different brain structures. These results suggest that temporal changes in the combinatorial interaction of different IEGs during early postnatal life are important for normal brain development.

Chronic anaemia, hyperbaric oxygen and tumour radiosensitivity.

Anaemia is an important factor in the response of some human tumours to radiotherapy. The outcome is also influenced by whether the treatment is given in air or high pressure oxygen (HPO). The present study examined the relationship between anaemia and tumour response to radiation given in air or HPO in C3H mice transplanted with a mammary adenocarcinoma using a growth delay assay to assess the radiation response. Chronic anaemia was induced by the use of a low iron diet and was characterized by a significant reduction in host haematocrit and whole blood viscosity. In addition, anaemia was associated with a right shift in the oxyhaemoglobin dissociation curve and an increase in the volume doubling time of the tumour; but there was no change in the concentration of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate in the red cells. Radiation studies with these anaemic mice demonstrated that the tumour radiosensitivity was decreased when treatment was given in air. HPO was successful in overcoming the increased radioresistance associated with anaemia. This result suggested that tumours grown in anaemic mice have a higher hypoxic fraction than those grown in control mice. Changes in host physiology with chronic anaemia may contribute to the benefit seen with HPO but such alterations per se may be inadequate to maintain tumour oxygenation when treatment is given in air.