French situation concerning the Swedish Chlamydia trachomatis variant.

In 2006, a plasmid deletion mutant of Chlamydia trachomatis was identified in Sweden that can not be detected with those commercial tests targeting the deleted area. In order to study the spread of this strain in France, a laboratory-based surveillance system was set up by the National Reference Centre for Chlamydiae and the Institut de Veille Sanitaire. Among 1,141 C. trachomatis-positive specimens from all over France, the new variant was only detected in one case. This case was a non-French resident consulting a sexually transmitted infections clinic. Although the new variant does not seem to be established in France as yet, surveillance based on the testing of C. trachomatis-positive samples from all over France continues.

Personal constructs and homosexual stress.

This study introduced and elaborated a personal construct theory approach to the assessment of the potential for homosexual threat (homosexual stress). The measure, modified from personal construct research on death threat, was tested with 20 male and 20 female undergraduates. Those individuals who were more stressed by homosexuality were those with more negative attitudes toward homosexuality. Further, those individuals with the most negative attitudes toward homosexuals were those who saw homosexuality as invalidating more important constructs. Males who reviewed homosexuality as more stressful tended to construe homosexuality as a more personally meaningful issue; females showed the opposite tendency. The homosexual stress measure was independent of authoritarianism and was no highly related to religious fundamentalism. It is hoped that this new measure will give researchers a method of assessing the potential for homosexual threat that is both more direct and less obvious than existing face-valid questionnaires.

A retrospective study of long-term methods of coping with having been sexually abused during childhood.

Methods of coping with childhood sexual abuse were retrospectively studied in a community sample of 54 adult women who had been sexually abused in childhood. From the time the abuse ended until the present, "denial" and "emotional suppression" were the coping methods most commonly employed of the nine methods measured. One purpose of this study was to determine if the methods used to cope with the aftermath of being sexually abused during childhood were associated with current psychological adjustment beyond what could be predicted by the characteristics of the abusive experience per se. A partial correlation analysis and a multiple regression analysis suggested that avoidant/emotion suppressing coping strategies although frequently used and rated by subjects as helpful, were in fact associated with poorer adult psychological adjustment.

Childhood sexual abuse: long-term effects on psychological and sexual functioning in a nonclinical and nonstudent sample of adult women.

The purpose of this study was to explore how the experience of childhood sexual abuse is related to long-term psychological and sexual functioning in a nonclinical and nonstudent community sample of women. Questionnaires were distributed to 1,500 nurses and returned anonymously. Fifty-four women who had been sexually abused as children (age 15 or younger) responded. These subjects were then matched with 54 nonabused control subjects. Although there was no difference on a measure of self-esteem, the abused group reported more symptoms of distress on the Global Severity Index and on seven out of nine subscales of the Derogatis Brief Symptom Inventory. They also reported more disturbance on a scale which examined psychological symptoms that have been commonly reported in the literature to be particularly associated with sexual abuse. These differences between the abused and nonabused groups were evident even after controlling for differences in subjects' perceptions of parental emotional support. Unlike the results for psychological adjustment, however, the abused subjects did not differ from the control subjects on self-reported levels of sexual satisfaction or sexual dysfunction.

[Comparison of the levels of histamine, tryptase, and interleukin-6 for the investigation of anaphylactoid drug reactions]. / Comparaison des dosages de l'histamine, de la tryptase et de l'interleukine 6 pour l'exploration des réactions anaphylactoïdes médicamenteuses.

The biological exploration of the anaphylactoid reaction is based on tryptase and plasma histamine determinations. As this reaction may be considered as a particular case of the acute inflammatory reaction, we have compared, on 25 subjects having presented a drug induces anaphylactoid reaction grade 1 to 3 the plasma level of tryptase, histamine and interleukin 6 (IL6) at 30 and 90 min. On a population of patients having presented an increase of plasma histamine and/or tryptase (n = 14), we have shown that the concentrations of tryptase, histamine and IL6 respectively plateaued (63.9 +/- 70 micrograms/l et 74 +/- 102 micrograms/l), decreased (82.5 +/- 102 mmole/l et 20.5 +/- 27 mmole/l), or greatly increased (19.5 +/- 25.3 ng/l et 320 +/- 745 ng/l) at 30 and 90 min. Correlation between IL6 and the two parameters was only significant for tryptase at 30 and 90 min. Due to the longer lasting kinetic of IL6 (48 h) as compared to histamine and tryptase, IL6 could have a place in the immediate exploration of the anaphylactoid reactions, these results having to be completed by studies on a longer delay and on groups of well defined clinical reactions.

Guilt reactions to sexual fantasies during intercourse.

This study explored how guilt feelings about having sexual fantasies during intercourse are related to frequency of fantasizing, to sexual satisfaction and sexual dysfunction, and to different beliefs about the cause, transgressive nature, and consequences of such fantasizing behavior. Drawing from a sample of 178 men and women with intercourse experience (means age = 27), 84% reported that they fantasized at least some of the time during sexual intercourse. From this sample, those who reported feeling most guilty about having sexual fantasies during intercourse (1 SD or more above the mean, n = 39) were compared to those who felt least guilty (1 SD or more below the mean, n = 43). Those subjects who felt guilty reported having significantly fewer sexual fantasies during intercourse than those who felt the least guilty. They also reported higher levels of sexual dissatisfaction and dysfunction. The high-guilt subjects believed that sexual fantasies during intercourse were significantly more abnormal, immoral, uncommon, socially unacceptable, and harmful to themselves, their partner, and their relationship regardless of whether their partner knew that such fantasies occurred. They also reported that the cause of their fantasizing during intercourse reflected significantly more negatively on their sexual behavior and their general character than did the low-guilt group. No statistically significant differences were found between groups on the causal attribution dimensions of internality, stability, or globality of such fantasies. In general, these findings suggest that guilt reactions about sexual fantasies during intercourse are related to beliefs that such fantasies are deviant and harmful and that such guilt reactions are negatively related to sexual satisfaction and adjustment.