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Interaction between CRHR1 gene and stressful life events predicts adolescent heavy alcohol use
(2007)
Background: Recent animal research suggests that alterations in the corticotropin releasing hormone receptor 1 (CRHR1) may lead to heavy alcohol use following repeated stress. The aim of this study was to examine interactions between two haplotype-tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) covering the CRHR1 gene and adverse life events on heavy drinking in adolescents. Methods: Data were available from the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk, an ongoing cohort study of the long-term outcome of early risk factors followed since birth. At age 15 years, 280 participants (135 males, 145 females) completed a self-report questionnaire measuring alcohol use and were genotyped for two SNPs (rs242938, rs1876831) of CRHR1. Assessment of negative life events over the past three years was obtained by a standardized interview with the parents. Results: Adolescents homozygous for the C allele of rs1876831 drank higher maximum amounts of alcohol per occasion and had greater lifetime rates of heavy drinking in relation to negative life events than individuals carrying the T allele. No gene X environment interactions were found for regular drinking and between rs242938 and stressful life events. Conclusions: These findings provide first evidence in humans that the CRHR1 gene interacts with exposure to stressful life events to predict heavy alcohol use in adolescents.
The psycho-social development of both preterm and term children (n=347) whose mothers reported tocolytic treatment was assessed at the ages of 2, 4.5, 8 years. Term children exposed to tocolysis showed a higher rate of psychiatric disorders as well as poorer cognitive and motor performance than controls. In the preterm children no adverse impact of tocolysis could be found. The results are discussed concerning possible ways in which tocolytic treatment may influence child development. Restrictions because of the preliminary character of this study and the need of further prospective studies to clarify the developmental impact of tocolysis are also considered.
The ralationship between early mother-infant interaction at 3 mo old, biological and psychosocial risks, and later social withdrawal was examined using a hierarchical logistics regression approach. A group of childeren (N=20; aged 4.5-8 yrs old) who were stabily socially withdrawn and a control group of healthy children (N=143) were formed. Variables were entered into the regression models in the follwing order: At first, biological and psychosocial risks and sex, followed by mother and child variables separately, while in a final regression model all of the variables were entered at once. The results show that child behaviors (smilling and gazing) as well as maternal behaviors (facial and motor responsiveness) significantly predict social withdrawal in middle childhood. Among the risks only biolgical risks significantly contribute to later child outcome. These results suggest that a dysfunctional interaction pattern between mother and infant may be a precursor of childhood social withdrawal.
EEG coherence analysis for examining an automatizational deficit in dyslexia - a pilot study Objectives: Do dyslexic children exhibit a general automatizational deficit as well as a phonological deficit? Methods: In 1,6 children aged 9-11 years the reaction time, the number of mistakes and EEG (19 scalp electrodes) were measured in three experiments (verbal and nonverbal). The EEG data was baseline-corrected and after a fast fourier transformation, analyzed with the coherence tool of the Brainvision(C) Software. Results: The dyslexic group made more mistakes than the control group on all tasks but their reaction times were significantly longer only on the verbal tasks. There were no coherence differences on the nonverbal task. On the language-dependent tasks the dyslexics showed higher total-frontal and lower left-frontal coherences only in the theta-frequency range, while in the alpha and beta frequency ranges coherences did not differ. Conclusions: A language-dependent cognitive automatizational deficit in the dyslexic group is assumed that is depicted by the higher synchronization of total-frontal coherences (involvement of the central executive) and is based on the less established functional coupling of cortical subsystems for language processing