Community psychology : panic or panacea

The growing social upheaval and intensifying tensions in South Africa have by their very nature evoked concern and panic among mental health professionals. In an attempt to alleviate the concomittant anxiety and appear to be more responsive to the majority, many psychologists have boarded the community psychology wagon to cross the great divide between the comfortable consultancy room and the masses. In assessing whether community psychology is the appropriate vehicle for crossing the rubicon, we will start with an overview of different models of community psychology focusing on their different conceptualizations of mental illness and how each model sees the role of the psychologist in the context of psycho-social change.

Children and information communication technologies in the media : a study using moral panic theory

This thesis is an investigation of the media's representation of children and ICT. The study draws on moral panic theory and Queensland newspaper media, to identify the impact of newspaper reporting on the public's perceptions of young people and ICT.

Effects of severity of threshing damage on seed quality of Gatton panic Panicum maximum)

Different degrees of severity of threshing were imposed during combine-harvesting of seed of Gatton panic, a cultivar of Panicum maximum , to determine effects of degree of threshing damage on subsequent properties of seed. Threshing cylinder peripheral speeds and concave clearances covering the normal range employed commercially were varied experimentally in the harvest of 2 crops grown in north Queensland. Harvested seed was dried and cleaned, then stored under ambient conditions. The extent of physical damage was measured, and samples were tested at intervals for viability, germination, dormancy and seedling emergence from soil in a glasshouse and in the field over the 2 seasons following harvest. Physical damage increased as peripheral rotor speed rose and (though less markedly) as concave clearance was reduced. As the level of damage increased, viability was progressively reduced, life expectancy was shortened, and dormancy was broken. When the consequences were measured as seedling emergence from soil, the adverse effects on viability tended to cancel out the benefits of dormancy-breaking, leaving few net differences attributable to the degree of threshing severity. We concluded that there would be no value in trying to manipulate the quality of seed produced for normal commercial use through choice of cylinder settings, but that deliberate light or heavy threshing could benefit special-purpose seed, destined, respectively, for long-term storage or immediate use.

Nonlinear measures of respiration: Respiratory irregularity and increased chaos of respiration in patients with panic disorder

Background. Respiratory irregularity has been previously reported in patients with panic disorder using time domain measures. However, the respiratory signal is not entirely linear and a few previous studies used approximate entropy (APEN), a measure of regularity of time series. We have been studying APEN and other nonlinear measures including a measure of chaos, the largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE) of heart rate time series, in some detail. In this study, we used these measures of respiration to compare normal controls (n = 18) and patients with panic disorder (n = 22) in addition to the traditional time domain measures of respiratory rate and tidal volume. Methods: Respiratory signal was obtained by the Respitrace system using a thoracic and an abdominal belt, which was digitized at 500 Hz. Later, the time series were constructed at 4 Hz, as the highest frequency in this signal is limited to 0.5 Hz. We used 256 s of data (1,024 points) during supine and standing postures under normal breathing and controlled breathing at 12 breaths/min. Results: APEN was significantly higher in patients in standing posture during normal as well as controlled breathing (p = 0.002 and 0.02, respectively). LLE was also significantly higher in standing posture during normal breathing (p = 0.009). Similarly, the time domain measures of standard deviations and the coefficient of variation (COV) of tidal volume (TV) were significantly higher in the patient group (p = 0.02 and 0.004, respectively). The frequency of sighs was also higher in the patient group in standing posture (p = 0.02). In standing posture, LLE (p < 0.05) as well as APEN (p < 0.01) contributed significantly toward the separation of the two groups over and beyond the linear measure, i.e. the COV of TV. Conclusion: These findings support the previously described respiratory irregularity in patients with panic disorder and also illustrate the utility of nonlinear measures such as APEN and LLE as additional measures toward a better understanding of the abnormalities of respiratory physiology in similar patient populations as the correlation between LLE, APEN and some of the time domain measures only explained up to 50-60% of the variation. Copyright (C) 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Effect of nortriptyline and paroxetine on measures of chaos of heart rate time series in patients with panic disorder

Tricyclic antidepressants have notable cardiac side effects, and this issue has become important due to the recent reports of increased cardiovascular mortality in patients with depression and anxiety. Several previous studies indicate that serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) do not appear to have such adverse effects. Apart from the effects of these drugs on routine 12-lead ECG, the effects on beat-to-beat heart rate (HR) and QT interval time series provide more information on the side effects related to cardiac autonomic function. In this study, we evaluated the effects of two antidepressants, nortriptyline (n = 13), a tricyclic, and paroxetine (n = 16), an SRI inhibitor, on HR variability in patients with panic disorder, using a measure of chaos, the largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE) using pre- and posttreatment HR time series. Our results show that nortriptyline is associated with a decrease in LLE of high frequency (HF: 0.15-0.5 Hz) filtered series, which is most likely due to its anticholinergic effect, while paroxetine had no such effect. Paroxetine significantly decreased sympathovagal ratios as measured by a decrease in LLE of LF/HF. These results suggest that paroxetine appears to be safer in regards to cardiovascular effects compared to nortriptyline in this group of patients. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Increased opioid dependence in a mouse model of panic disorder

[EN] Panic disorder is a highly prevalent neuropsychiatric disorder that shows co-occurrence with substance abuse. Here, we demonstrate that TrkC, the high-affinity receptor for neurotrophin-3, is a key molecule involved in panic disorder and opiate dependence, using a transgenic mouse model (TgNTRK3). Constitutive TrkC overexpression in TgNTRK3 mice dramatically alters spontaneous firing rates of locus coeruleus (LC) neurons and the response of the noradrenergic system to chronic opiate exposure, possibly related to the altered regulation of neurotrophic peptides observed. Notably, TgNTRK3 LC neurons showed an increased firing rate in saline-treated conditions and profound abnormalities in their response to met5-enkephalin. Behaviorally, chronic morphine administration induced a significantly increased withdrawal syndrome in TgNTRK3 mice. In conclusion, we show here that the NT-3/TrkC system is an important regulator of neuronal firing in LC and could contribute to the adaptations of the noradrenergic system in response to chronic opiate exposure. Moreover, our results indicate that TrkC is involved in the molecular and cellular changes in noradrenergic neurons underlying both panic attacks and opiate dependence and support a functional endogenous opioid deficit in panic disorder patients.