Unpredictable chronic prenatal stress and manifestation of generalized anxiety and panic in rat's offspring.

Often the manifestation of anxiety cannot be explained by known environmental or hereditary factors. With this perspective, it has been reported that prenatal stress may lead to emotional disturbances in the offspring. However, studies relating prenatal stress to anxiety are controversial and generally the stressors used do not mimicks the reality experienced by mothers. Thus, this investigation evaluated the effects of an unpredictable chronic stress scheme applied in one of the three gestational weeks of rats on the manifestation of generalized anxiety and panic disorder in the progeny (males), analyzing, respectively, the avoidances and escapes in the elevated T-maze, at the 1st, 3rd or 6th month of progeny life. Control offspring showed increased generalized anxiety disorder and reduced panic at 6 months. The effects of prenatal stress depended on the gestational week where it occurred and on the progeny age: during the 1st gestational week the generalized anxiety decreased in 6 month old rats. Animals in the 3rd month, prenatally stressed during the last gestational week, showed anxiogenesis and panicogenesis, but effects reverted at the 6th month, when they presented anxiolysis and no changes related to panic. Together the results show that not only the gestational period in which the aversive experience occurred was important, but the age of the evaluated progeny, since the type and the intensity of behaviors related to anxiety may vary with the developmental stage. For the model of stress used in the present study, the effects of prenatal stress were more prominent when the exposure occurred during the 3rd gestational week in rats.

Impact of social separation during pregnancy on the manifestation of defensive behaviors related to generalized anxiety and panic throughout offspring development.

The multiple insecurities, anatomical, physiological and psychological changes arising from the gestational period can generate an overload of stress in the mother and cause disturbances in the offspring, affecting it throughout its development. The existing analysis linking prenatal stress and offspring's anxiety have divergent results, being limited as to gestational week, type of stressor and age of progeny's assessment. Social separation has been described as a stressor that causes increase in anxiety. Thus, the present study evaluated the effects of social separation applied in one of the three gestational weeks of rat dams on the manifestation of the defensive behaviors related to generalized anxiety disorder and panic in the Elevated T Maze of the male progeny in three stages of development (1, 3 or 6 months of life). It was found, in the offspring of grouped (control) dams, increased behaviors associated with generalized anxiety disorder and a reduction of panic-like behaviors throughout development. For animals whose dams were socially separated during pregnancy, the most critical period of exposure was the 2nd gestational week, which affected the acquisition of aversive memory, demonstrated by the impairment on learning of avoidances of the offspring in all ages evaluated. Stressor exposure in this week also increased the avoidances, related to generalized anxiety of progeny in the 1st month and decreased escapes, related to panic in the 3rd month of life and, at the age of 6 months old, an inverse situation, with the reduction of the defensive behaviors associated to generalized anxiety disorder. The results show that, when assessing effects of prenatal stress on the manifestation of anxiety, not only the period of exposure is important, but also the age of offspring assessed.

Interaction between estradiol and 5-HT1A receptors in the median raphe nucleus on acquisition of aversive information and association to the context in ovariectomized rats.

The median raphe nucleus (MRN) is related to stress resistance and defensive responses, a crucial source of serotonergic neurons that project to prosencephalic structures related to stress and anxiety. Estrogen receptors were identified in this mesencephalic structure. It is possible that the estrogen action is related to serotonin effect on somatodendritic 5-HT1A receptors, inhibiting the function of serotonergic neurons and thus preventing of the stress effect and inducing anxiolysis. So, in order to evaluate these aspects, female Wistar rats were ovariectomized and 21 days later were given a direct microinjection of estradiol benzoate (EB) (1200 ng) into the MRN, preceded by microinjections of saline or WAY100.635 (100 ng), a 5-HT1A receptor antagonist. Immediately after the two microinjections, the ovariectomized rats were conditioned with an aversive event (foot shock) session in a Skinner box. Twenty-four hours later, they were exposed to the same context in a test session for 5 min for behavioral assessment: freezing, rearing, locomotion, grooming, and autonomic responses (fecal boluses and micturition). EB microinjection in the MRN prior to the exposure of animals to the foot shocks in the conditioning session did not alter their behavior in this session, but neutralized the association of the aversive experience to the context: there was a decrease in the expression of freezing and an increased rearing activity in the test session. This effect was reversed by prior microinjection of WAY100.635. In conclusion, EB acted on serotonergic neurons in the MRN of the ovariectomized rats, impairing the association of the aversive experience to the context, by co-modulating the functionality of somatodendritic 5-HT1A.

A Influência do afastamento por acidente de trabalho sobre a ocorrência de transtornos psíquicos e somáticos

O presente estudo teve como objetivo verificar a associação entre o afastamento por acidente de trabalho e a ocorrência de ansiedade e de depressão, averiguando se houve desencadeamento de transtornos somáticos e/ou transtornos nas relações sociais dos indivíduos. Em todos os casos estudados, constatamos que houve aumento significativo de sintomas após o afastamento e que o retorno ao trabalho foi impossibilitado devido à persistência da patologia e ao desenvolvimento de outras manifestações. Assim, o afastamento pôde ser considerado um estímulo estressor, pois além de causar transtornos psíquicos provocou alterações orgânicas (AU)

Percepçäo dos pacientes cirúrgicos sobre ansiedade pré - operatória e aspectos interacionais relativos à equipe de saúde e ao ambiente

O estudo apresenta a percepçäo de sessenta e oito pacientes cirúrgicos de um hospital escola em relaçäo à ansiedade pré-operatória e aos aspectos interacionais concernentes à equipe de saúde e ao ambiente.

Ansiedade e infecçoes cirúrgicas: estudo de coorte prospectivo em um Hospital-Escola do Norte do Paraná / Anxiety and surgical infections: prospective cohort study in the Teachining Hospital of the North Paraná region

Como consequência de um mundo em amplo desenvolvimento, a saúde vem sendo alvejada por concepçöes dualistas, onde mente e corpo säo consideradas como partes distintas. Nesse mesmo contexto, vê-se que os pacientes passam a ser assistidos de forma mecânica, sem receberem a atençäo que lhes é devida por parte dos componentes da equipe de saúde. Esses quadro agrava-se quando se somam a ele dados da realidade sócio-econômica que constitui pano de fundo na apresentaçäo de homens mais ansiosos e desequilibrados frente aos eventos da vida. Tal cenário torna-se bem perceptível na hospsitalizaçäo principalmente quando essas pessoas säo encaminhadas a procedimentos anestésicos-cirúrgicos. Paralelamente a esses fatores mais humanísticos, deparamo-nos na atualidade com desafios relacionados a promoçäo de saúde dos indivíduos, dentre eles, as infecçöes nosocomiais, e mais especificamente, as infecçöes cirúrgicas, alvo deste estudo. Tendo como base pressupostos teóricos e a vivência profissional, procuramos entrelaçar duas variáveis através da hipótese de que a ansiedade está associada ao desenvolvimento de infecçöes cirúrgicas. A partir disso propusemo-nos a investigar tal hipótese através de um estudo de coorte prospectivo no Hospital Universitário Regional do Norte do Paraná, na cidade de Londrina - Pr, no período de vinte e oito de março a vinte e quatro de julho de 1989. Foram incluídos na amostra, de acordo com os critérios estabelecidos, sessenta e oito pacientes de ambos os sexos, na faixa etária de vinte a oitenta anos, internados para serem submetidos a um tratamento cirúrgico específico. Visando a conhecer o nível de Ansiedade Traço-Estado de SPILBERGER, constituído por duas escalas: Escala de Ansiedade-Estado (EAE) e Escala de Ansiedade-Traço (EAT). Através dos escores das escalas (de vinte a oitenta) foram estabelecidos quatro níveis de ansiedade: baixo, moderado, elevado e altíssimo. Os pacientes foram observados no período trans-operatório, e no pós-operatório, responderam questionamentos relacionados, a hospitalizaçäo...