Automatic effects of illness schema activation on behavioral manifestations of illness.

OBJECTIVE: Relatively little research has directly evaluated the schematic nature of illness representations proposed by the common sense model of illness. Four studies tested the hypothesis that illness schema activation leads directly and automatically to behavioral manifestations of illness. METHOD: Study 1 was a survey (N = 970) that evaluated the proposition that the mental representation of common cold symptom experience includes functional deviation from the usual prototypical self. Studies 2 and 3 were experiments that tested effects of cold schema activation using a subliminal priming paradigm on walking speed (Study 2, N = 53) and free recall in a memory task (Study 3, N = 30). Study 4 (N = 65) used a 2 (cold prime vs. control) × 2 (alternate self vs. control) experimental design to investigate attenuation of the effect of the cold prime on free recall. RESULTS: Study 1 confirmed the multifactorial nature of functional self-deviations representing the common cold symptomology. Studies 2 and 3 showed that participants primed with the common cold schema walked more slowly and performed worse on a memory recall task relative to controls in whom the schema was not activated. These effects were automatic in the sense that participants were not aware of the prime or of this influence. In Study 4, priming an alternative self-identity overcame the deleterious effect of automatic common cold schema activation on free recall in a memory task. CONCLUSIONS: Subliminal activation of a schematic representation of illness automatically activates behavioral manifestations of illness. (PsycINFO Database Record

Trimethylaminuria: causes and diagnosis of a socially distressing condition.

Trimethylaminuria is a disorder in which the volatile, fish-smelling compound, trimethylamine (TMA) accumulates and is excreted in the urine, but is also found in the sweat and breath of these patients. Because many patients have associated body odours or halitosis, trimethylaminuria sufferers can meet serious difficulties in a social context, leading to other problems such as isolation and depression. TMA is formed by bacteria in the mammalian gut from reduction of compounds such as trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) and choline. Primary trimethylaminuria sufferers have an inherited enzyme deficiency where TMA is not efficiently converted to the non-odorous TMAO in the liver. Secondary causes of trimethylaminuria have been described, sometimes accompanied by genetic variations. Diagnosis of trimethylaminuria requires the measurement of TMA and TMAO in urine, which should be collected after a high substrate meal in milder or intermittent cases, most simply, a marine-fish meal. The symptoms of trimethylaminuria can be improved by changes in the diet to avoid precursors, in particular TMAO which is found in high concentrations in marine fish. Treatment with antibiotics to control bacteria in the gut, or activated charcoal to sequester TMA, may also be beneficial.

Social-cognitive beliefs, alcohol, and tobacco use: a prospective community study of change following a ban on smoking in public places.

OBJECTIVE: To examine social-cognitive change associated with behavior change after the introduction of a smoke-free public places policy. DESIGN: Adults (N = 583) who use public houses licensed to sell alcohol (pubs) completed questionnaires assessing alcohol and tobacco consumption and social-cognitive beliefs 2 months prior to the introduction of the smoking ban in England on July 1, 2007. Longitudinal follow-up (N = 272) was 3 months after the introduction of the ban. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Social-cognitive beliefs, daily cigarette consumption, and weekly alcohol consumption. RESULTS: Smokers consumed considerably more alcohol than did nonsmokers at both time points. However, a significant interaction of Smoking Status x Time showed that while smokers had consumed fewer units of alcohol after the ban, nonsmokers showed an increase over the same period. There was a significant reduction in number of cigarettes consumed after the ban. Subjective norms concerning not smoking, and perceived severity of smoking-related illness increased across time. Negative outcomes associated with not smoking were reduced among former smokers and increased across time among smokers. Regression analyses showed that changes in subjective norm and negative outcome expectancies accounted for significant variance in change in smoking across time. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that the smoking ban may have positive health benefits that are supported by social-cognitive change.

Illness schema activation and attentional bias to coping procedures.

OBJECTIVE: Relatively little research to date has directly addressed the schematic nature of illness representations proposed by H. Leventhal, J. Weinman, and L. A. Phillips' (1980) common sense model of illness. The present experiments tested the hypothesis that coping information is schematically encoded within the representations of a specific illness. DESIGN: A 2 (primed vs. control) x 2 (past user of coping strategy vs. nonuser of coping strategy) design was used in 2 experiments with independent samples. A subliminal prime was used to activate a common cold schema outside of conscious awareness. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Response latencies in milliseconds for correct responses to a target common cold remedy word on a grammatical decision task served as the dependent measure in each experiment. Target words were Lemsip in Experiment 1 and lozenge in Experiment 2. RESULTS: In each experiment, a significant interaction of Prime x Past Strategy Use was obtained. Participants in whom the "common cold" schema was activated and who also reported high past strategy use demonstrated attentional bias to the name of a popular common cold remedy. CONCLUSION: Activation of a schematic representation of illness may automatically activate information related to coping procedures encoded in memory with the illness.

Does priming a specific illness schema result in an attentional information-processing bias for specific illnesses?

OBJECTIVE: To test a hypothesis derived from H. Leventhal, D. Meyer, and D. Nerenz's (1980) commonsense model that people possess implicit schemas for specific illnesses. DESIGN: A 2 (illness vs. neutral shopping prime) x 2 (illness-related vs. control word) mixed design with repeated measures on the second factor. Participants primed for the common cold (Experiment 1) and cardiovascular disease (Experiment 2) were compared with participants receiving a neutral shopping prime on a modified Stroop color naming task. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Attentional bias to illness related words was calculated as the difference between response latencies to illness words and neutral words under the prime conditions. RESULTS: In Experiment 1, participants primed with common cold showed a response bias to words related to the common cold but not to words related to cardiovascular disease. Attentional bias among participants primed for common cold was significantly correlated with explicit illness representations assessed by the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire. Experiment 2 replicated the findings in a different illness domain. CONCLUSION: Illness-specific illness schemas can be activated.

An integrated physical and genetic map of the rice genome.

Rice was chosen as a model organism for genome sequencing because of its economic importance, small genome size, and syntenic relationship with other cereal species. We have constructed a bacterial artificial chromosome fingerprint-based physical map of the rice genome to facilitate the whole-genome sequencing of rice. Most of the rice genome ( approximately 90.6%) was anchored genetically by overgo hybridization, DNA gel blot hybridization, and in silico anchoring. Genome sequencing data also were integrated into the rice physical map. Comparison of the genetic and physical maps reveals that recombination is suppressed severely in centromeric regions as well as on the short arms of chromosomes 4 and 10. This integrated high-resolution physical map of the rice genome will greatly facilitate whole-genome sequencing by helping to identify a minimum tiling path of clones to sequence. Furthermore, the physical map will aid map-based cloning of agronomically important genes and will provide an important tool for the comparative analysis of grass genomes.