The longitudinal relationship between child emotional disorder and parental mental health in the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health surveys 1999 and 2004.

BACKGROUND: Research suggests parental psychopathology has an adverse effect on child mental health. However, due to the interactional nature of parent-child relationships and with a high rate of emotional disorders reported in school-age children, it is important to know whether the effect is reciprocal. METHODS: We explored the longitudinal relationship between child and parent mental health in the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Surveys (N=7,100 child-parent dyads) and their three-year follow-ups. The Development and Well-Being Assessment with DSM-IV diagnostic criteria was used to measure child psychiatric diagnoses, while parental mental health was assessed using the General Health Questionnaire. Multivariable logistic regression was used to explore the longitudinal association between child emotional disorder and parent mental health. RESULTS: Parents of children who had an emotional disorder at baseline were more likely to have poor mental health three years later compared with parents whose children had no psychiatric diagnosis (33.3% versus 16.7%; crude odds ratio=2.52; adjusted odds ratio=2.19, 95% CI=1.58 to 3.05, p<0.001). Children of parents with poor mental health at baseline were more likely to develop an emotional disorder three years later compared with children whose parents had good mental health (5.2% versus 2.5%; crude odds ratio=2.08; adjusted odds ratio=1.63, 95% CI=1.18 to 2.25, p=0.003). LIMITATIONS: The findings of this research are limited by the survey data collected, the measures used and survey dropout. CONCLUSIONS: We detected a bi-directional relationship between child and parent mental health, suggesting that effective intervention for one individual may benefit other family members.

Chronic Kidney Disease Alters Vitamin A Homeostasis via Effects on Hepatic RBP4 Protein Expression and Metabolic Enzymes.

Vitamin A, via retinoic acid (RA), is a critical micronutrient. Normally, plasma concentrations are tightly regulated. Concentrations of vitamin A metabolites (13cis-RA, atRA) and relationships between RBP4 and retinoids have never been fully evaluated in adult patients with CKD. We measured retinoid and RBP4 concentrations in plasma and urine from 55 adult patients with CKD and 21 matched healthy subjects. RBP4 and retinol levels were increased approximately twofold in patients with CKD, with a negative correlation between plasma retinol and eGFR (p = 0.006) and plasma RBP4 and eGFR (p = 0.0007). RBP4 renal clearance was higher in patients with CKD than healthy subjects but not associated with eGFR. Circulating concentrations of atRA increased and concentrations of 13cis-RA decreased in subjects with CKD with no change in RA-to-retinol ratio. Increases in circulating retinol, RBP4, and atRA may be due to increased hepatic RBP4 synthesis, retinyl ester hydrolysis, and/or hepatic secretion of RBP4-retinol.

Spatial accuracy of 3D reconstructed radioluminographs of serial tissue sections and resultant absorbed dose estimates.

Many agents using tumour-associated characteristics are deposited heterogeneously within tumour tissue. Consequently, tumour heterogeneity should be addressed when obtaining information on tumour biology or relating absorbed radiation dose to biological effect. We present a technique that enables radioluminographs of serial tumour sections to be reconstructed using automated computerized techniques, resulting in a three-dimensional map of the dose-rate distribution of a radiolabelled antibody. The purpose of this study is to assess the reconstruction accuracy. Furthermore, we estimate the potential error resulting from registration misalignment, for a range of beta-emitting radionuclides. We compare the actual dose-rate distribution with that obtained from the same activity distribution but with manually defined translational and rotational shifts. As expected, the error produced with the short-range 14C is much larger than that for the longer range 90Y; similarly values for the medium range 131I are between the two. Thus, the impact of registration inaccuracies is greater for short-range sources.

Home teaching in the North-West: a pilot survey.

The home teaching services in three counties and two metropolitan districts in the north-west were surveyed. A questionnaire was used to gather information relating to the number of children and range and types of problems referred, organization and staffing, and changes and developments in the services. Wide differences were found among the individual education authorities in these various aspects of home tuition. Although home teaching demands high professional skills it does not offer an attractive career structure and is very largely staffed by part-time women teachers.