Examination Reveals Adolescent Reaction to Iraq War

University of Cincinnati researchers are reporting what they call a significant pattern among Iraqi adolescents and their reaction to the war in Iraq – the higher the perceived threat of the war, the higher the teens reported their self-esteem. The findings – from a 2004 survey of 1,000 Iraqi adolescents in 10 neighborhoods in Baghdad – are reported in the current issue of the Journal of Adolescence.

Steve Carlton-Ford, a University of Cincinnati associate professor and co-author of the study, says the findings give a rare look at the impact of war on adolescents, explaining that, in general, sociologists and psychologists are examining how war affects small children. Carlton-Ford adds that in the cases of young children, conflict-related events typically lower a child’s psychological well-being. The survey of Iraqi teens was conducted in 2004 by co-author Morton Ender of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, who supervised field surveys with the U.S. Army in the neighborhoods surrounding Baghdad. The study is also authored by UC doctoral student Ahoo Tabatabai.

The authors found that despite obvious threat to the adolescents’ sense of security, the youth were coping fairly well in 2004, with self-esteem levels comparable to that of Palestinian youth. “In the presence of conflict-related trauma one generally observes lower levels of psychological well-being (e.g., PTSD, grief reactions), and sometimes lower self-esteem,” write the authors. “Our results, however, are consistent with a body of theory and research that predicts self-esteem striving and higher self-esteem among the individuals who face indirect threats to central components of their social identities (rather than directly facing traumatic war-related events). In other words, in a situation where we observe a broad social context involving the presence of foreign forces (a clear violation of Muslim principles) combined with general violence throughout Baghdad and Iraq, we also observe a heightened sense of self, at least to the extent that one’s self is tied to one’s nation.”

The study suggests future surveys of adolescents under conditions of armed conflict to track their self-concept as they become young adults.

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Relationship Between Environmental Stress And Cancer

One way environmental stress causes cancer is by reducing the activity level of an enzyme that causes cell death, researchers say.

They found that stress-inducing agents, such as oxidative stress, recruit a protein called SENP1 that cuts a regulator called SUMO1 away from the enzyme SIRT1 so its activity level drops, says Dr. Yonghua Yang, postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Kapil Bhalla, director of the MCG Cancer Center.

This fundamental finding about the relationship between stress and cancer opens the door for treatments that increase SENP1 activity, making it easier for cells that are becoming cancerous to die, says Dr. Yang, first author on a paper published in the November issue of Nature Cell Biology.

“This is one of the things that makes cancer cells so durable, one way they survive so well,” says Dr. Yang. “We want to see if we can block that process and make cells die.” Increased SIRT1 activity – which is routinely present in cancer – even makes cancer cells more resistant to anticancer drugs such as chemotherapy.

The complication is that decreasing programmed cell death, or apoptosis, increases longevity, says Dr. Yang. However he now has evidence that SIRT1 – also under study for its longevity role – has different targets when it comes to cancer promotion and longevity that will provide distinct targets for manipulating each.

“Whether apoptosis is good or bad depends on the circumstances,” says Dr. Yang. “But it’s good for cancer therapy.”

“This paper describes how stress causes desumoylation and sumoylation of SIRT1 and ultimately cancer,” says Dr. Bhalla, Cecil F. Whitaker Jr., M.D./Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Cancer and a study co-author.

“Stress-inducing agents produce the association of this enzyme, SIRT-1, with the desumoylating enzyme, SENP1, so cells become more resistant to stress-induced apoptosis,” says Dr. Bhalla. “Once SIRT1 is desumoylated, it’s less active and you want its activity.”

When SIRT1 is less active, p53, a tumor suppressor gene that also causes apoptosis, becomes more active.

SIRT1, found throughout the body, is a regulator of protein function through a process called acetylation. MCG researchers also found that sumoylation of SIRT1 (combining it with SUMO1) made it more active and sumoylation motif, which enables SUMO1 to combine with SIRT1, is needed to make that happen.

They have added SUMO1 to human cancer cells and increased SIRT1 activity then used SENP1 to cleave it and reduce activity.

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St. Jude Psychologist Says Most Children With Cancer Are Well-Adjusted

Children under treatment for cancer are generally emotionally well-adjusted and no more depressed or anxious than other children their age, according to researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In studies of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress and quality of life, children with cancer do as well as, and often better than their healthy peers.

“We see them as a flourishing population that has adapted to the stress of having cancer and undergoing treatment,” says Sean Phipps, a member of the St. Jude Division of Behavioral Medicine. “They become quite resilient to the long-and short-term emotional and physical effects of their disease and the treatments.”

The unexpected finding that children with cancer are emotionally resilient is important because of the dramatic improvement in survival rates of pediatric cancers. “There has been a shift in research toward the concerns of long-term survivors of pediatric cancers,” Phipps says. “The ability of these children to cope with the after-effects of cancer is the major issue now. What we are learning from this population might help us learn how to improve the quality of life of children who are not doing so well.”

Phipps is the author of an article on adaptive styles in children with cancer that appears in the advanced online issue of Journal of Pediatric Psychology. The article, based on research done by his group and other research teams around the country, was presented at the conference “Psychosocial and Neurocognitive Consequences of Childhood Cancer: A Symposium in Tribute to Raymond K. Mulhern,” held at St. Jude in September 2006, in honor of the late Raymond Mulhern, a pioneer in psychological research in pediatric oncology at the hospital. The symposium’s presentations will also appear in a special December issue of the journal.

The low level of depression among children with cancer does not reflect a state of “illusory mental health,” Phipps says. That is, these children are not simply clinging to an illusion of mental health by denying distress. Rather, many of them simply have a reduced awareness of emotional distress, and they think of themselves as being well-adjusted and content, a response called a “repressive adaptive style.”

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Overstretched Military Lead to Mental Health Problems

Prolonged periods of deployment among Britain’s armed forces is associated with mental health problems, finds a study published on bmj.com.

Deployment is an essential ingredient of military life. However, research shows that an increase in the pace of military operations “operational tempo” may have an effect on health and place strain on families.

The UK armed forces have recommended deployment levels called the harmony guidelines, reflecting the need to balance rest and recuperation with deployment. In times of simultaneous major operations, such as those in Iraq and Afganistan, this tool is helpful for monitoring overstretch as a measure of over-commitment.

So a study carried by Professor Roberto Rona and colleagues at King’s College London, set out to assess whether deployments above these guidelines (calculated as 13 months or more in a three year period) have an effect on psychological health.

They studied the number and duration of deployments in the last three years of a random sample of 5,547 regular military personnel. Mental health and alcohol use were assessed using recognised scoring methods.

Other outcomes included intentions to stay in the military and problems at home during and after deployment.

All analyses were adjusted for factors such as age, gender, rank, marital status and service. Further adjustments were made for role in theatre (combat or support), type of deployment (war or peace enforcement operations), and time spent in a forward area in close contact with the enemy.

They found that those who were deployed for 13 months or more over a three year period were more likely to have symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder and problems at home during and after deployment. This was particularly apparent in those with direct combat exposure. The prevalence of severe alcohol problems also increased with longer deployment.

There was no association between duration of deployment and intention to stay in the military.

The relation between number of deployments and psychological symptoms was less consistent and there was no link between number of deployments and problems at home.


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How We Can Stop Stress From Making Us Obese

Herbert Herzog, Director of the Neuroscience Research Program at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, together with scientists from the US and Slovakia, have shown that neuropeptide Y (NPY), a molecule the body releases when stressed, can ‘unlock’ Y2 receptors in the body’s fat cells, stimulating the cells to grow in size and number. By blocking those receptors, it may be possible to prevent fat growth, or make fat cells die.

“We have known for over a decade that there is a connection between chronic stress and obesity,” says Herzog. “We also know that NPY plays a major role in other chronic stress-induced conditions, such as susceptibility to infection. Now we have identified the exact pathway, or chain of molecular events, that links chronic stress with obesity.”

“There is not much we can do about the increased levels of NPY caused by stress, but we can do something about the damage it causes. If we can interfere before it causes fat to amass, it could have a major impact on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer (which all have links with obesity).”

“Basically, when we have a stress reaction, NPY levels rise in our bodies, causing our heart rate and blood pressure to go up, among other things. Stress reactions are normal, unavoidable, and generally serve a useful purpose in life. It’s when stress is chronic that its effects become damaging.”

Scientists at Georgetown University in Washington D.C, part of this collaborative study, have found a direct connection between stress, a high calorie diet and unexpectedly high weight gain. Stressed and unstressed mice were fed normal diets and high calorie (high fat and high sugar, or so called ‘comfort food’) diets. The mice on normal diets did not become obese. However, stressed mice on high calorie diets gained twice as much fat as unstressed mice on the same diet. The novel and unexpected finding was that when stressed and non-stressed animals ate the same high calorie foods, the stressed animals utilised and stored fat differently.

“Our findings suggest that we may be able to reverse or prevent obesity caused by stress and diet, including the worst kind of obesity; the apple-shaped type, which makes people more susceptible to heart disease and diabetes,” says senior author of the Nature Medicine paper, Professor Zofia Zukowska of Georgetown University. “Using animal models, in which we have either blocked the Y2 receptor, or selectively removed the gene from the abdominal fat cells, we have shown that stressed mice on high calorie diets do not become obese. “Even more surprisingly, in addition to having flatter bellies, adverse metabolic changes linked to stress and diet, which include glucose intolerance and fatty liver, became markedly reduced. We do not know yet exactly how that happens, but the effect was remarkable,” she says.

Herzog believes that these research findings will have a profound effect on the way society will deal with the obesity epidemic. “There are millions of people around the world who have lived with high levels of stress for so long their bodies think it’s ‘normal’. If these people also eat a high fat and high sugar diet, which is what many do as a way to reduce their stress, they will become obese.”

“Until now, the pharmaceutical industry has focused on appetite suppressants with only moderate success. Our hope is that in the near future pharmaceutical companies, using the results of our research, will develop antagonists against the Y2 receptor that will bring about a reduction in fat cells.”






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