Childhood adversities and traumata in Lebanon: a national study

BACKGROUND

The goal of this paper is to map the total occurrence and evaluate the risk of co-occurrence of childhood adversities (CA) and a wide variety of childhood traumatic events (including war) in a national sample.

METHOD

The nationally representative sample included 2,857 respondents and the instrument used was the Composite International Diagnostic Interview which screened for all CAs and traumatic events.

RESULTS

27.9% experienced CAs; the most common were parental death and parental mental/substance use disorder. 70.6% experienced a war-related traumatic event during their lifetime, and around half of them (38.1%) experienced it below the age of 18 years. 51.3% of the subjects experienced a traumatic event not related to war during their lifetime, and 19.2% experienced it before the age of 18 years. Sexual abuse, being a refugee during war, and experiencing a natural disaster were associated with female gender. Having any CA was associated with active war exposure (OR: 4.2, CI: 2.0-8.6); war-related direct personal trauma (OR: 3.9, CI: 1.5-10.0); war-related trauma to others (OR: 2.4, CI: 1.3-4.4); non-war direct personal trauma (OR: 3.8, CI: 2.0-7.4); and any non-war childhood traumatic event (OR: 1.9, CI: 1.1-3.1).

CONCLUSION

Childhood is awash with adversities and traumatic events that co-occur and should be measured simultaneously; otherwise, the effects of a subset of traumata or adversities could be wrongly thought to be the contributor to negative outcomes under study.

Solvent Effect on the Electronic Polarizability of Benzonitrile

In this study, the static and dynamic electronic polarizability of benzonitrile is reported. This property was determined using refraction index measurements of neat benzonitrile and CCl4, THF, C6H12 and CH3CN diluted solutions. The real refractive index of pure benzonitrile was obtained by refractometry, FTIR transmission spectroscopy and Kramers-Kr¨onig transform. These results indicate that the vibrational contribution to the visible refraction is very small, and the electronic polarizabilities calculated with these values agree with reported values. In binary mixtures, the polarizability of benzonitrile was obtained with the refractometric method proposed by Singer and Garito at five frequencies to obtain the dispersion curve. The local field effects were tested within the Onsager and Lorentz local field approach. The static properties in each solvent was obtained by extrapolation of the Cauchy-type dispersion curve to zero frequency, which gave a monotonic increased as a function of the squared frequency. The polarizabilities obtained in this work agree well with theoretical and experimental data, reported by other authors. The static and dynamic electronic polarizability of benzonitrile was found to be little affected by the dielectric nature of the solvent, and the electric deformability is similar to that of the benzene molecule. The effect of the replacement of the C-H group by N in 4-cyano-pyridine and benzonitrile molecules is discussed.

Development of lifetime comorbidity in the World Health Organization world mental health surveys

CONTEXT

Although numerous studies have examined the role of latent variables in the structure of comorbidity among mental disorders, none has examined their role in the development of comorbidity.

OBJECTIVE

To study the role of latent variables in the development of comorbidity among 18 lifetime DSM-IV disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys.

DESIGN

Nationally or regionally representative community surveys.

SETTING

Fourteen countries.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 21 229 survey respondents.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

First onset of 18 lifetime DSM-IV anxiety, mood, behavior, and substance disorders assessed retrospectively in the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview.

RESULTS

Separate internalizing (anxiety and mood disorders) and externalizing (behavior and substance disorders) factors were found in exploratory factor analysis of lifetime disorders. Consistently significant positive time-lagged associations were found in survival analyses for virtually all temporally primary lifetime disorders predicting subsequent onset of other disorders. Within-domain (ie, internalizing or externalizing) associations were generally stronger than between-domain associations. Most time-lagged associations were explained by a model that assumed the existence of mediating latent internalizing and externalizing variables. Specific phobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder (internalizing) and hyperactivity and oppositional defiant disorders (externalizing) were the most important predictors. A small number of residual associations remained significant after controlling the latent variables.

CONCLUSIONS

The good fit of the latent variable model suggests that common causal pathways account for most of the comorbidity among the disorders considered herein. These common pathways should be the focus of future research on the development of comorbidity, although several important pairwise associations that cannot be accounted for by latent variables also exist that warrant further focused study.

Influence of residual disease and extreme drug resistance assays on outcome in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer

5504

Background: Extreme drug resistance (EDR) assays have been used as tools in identifying those agents that are least likely to be of clinical benefit in the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). We sought to examine the effect of obtaining EDR assays on the outcome of patients with EOC in the primary and recurrent setting. Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of demographic, pathologic, EDR assay and outcome data from 377 patients with EOC who had an assay sent at the time of their diagnosis or at recurrence. Univariate followed by multivariate analyses using Cox proportional hazards method were performed to identify and estimate the impact of independent prognostic factors on time to progression (TTP), overall survival (OS) and survival after recurrence (RS). Results: Increasing age was associated with a worse OS and RS (HR = 1.34; 95% CI, 1.14–1.58 and HR = 1.14; 95% CI, 1.00–1.31, for each decade increase in age respectively). Compared with patients with microscopic residual disease, patients who were left with 0.1 to 1.0 cm and >1.0 cm residual disease had an increased risk of recurrence (HR=1.94; 95% CI, 1.33 to 2.84 and HR=3.61; 95% CI; 2.07 to 6.39, respectively) and death (HR = 1.59; 95% CI, 1.03 to 2.45; and HR = 2.14; 95% CI, 1.09 to 4.20, respectively). For patients who recurred, those who did not undergo secondary cytoreductive surgery and patients who were left with >1.0 cm residual had an increased risk of death compared to patients with microscopic residual (HR = 2.13; 95% CI, 1.28 to 3.54; and HR = 2.84; 95% CI, 1.71 to 4.71, respectively). EDR assay results for single agents or combinations did not independently predict patient outcomes. Conclusions: The amount of residual disease continues to be an important prognostic factor, especially when all macroscopic disease is removed both in the primary and recurrent setting. Increasing age is also an independent predictor of OS and RS. EDR assay results do not independently predict or alter the outcomes of patients with EOC who are treated with the current standard of care including optimal cytoreductive surgery followed by platinum and taxane combination chemotherapy in either the primary or recurrent setting.

No significant financial relationships to disclose.

Determinants of outcome in elderly patients with positive sentinel lymph nodes

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Background: Older women are less likely to receive standard of care treatment for breast cancer. This undertreatment may be linked to the perception that elderly patients (pts) may not tolerate or derive benefit from treatment that is often viewed as “too toxic.” Methods: From July 1997 to July 2003, 1,470 pts with invasive cancer with positive sentinel lymph nodes (PSLN) by intraoperative frozen section or final pathologic exam by hematoxylin-eosin and/or immunohistochemistry (IHC). We examined sociodemographic, pathologic, and therapeutic variables that affected the outcome of elderly pts ≥70 years old. A comorbidity score was assigned using Adult Comorbidity Evaluation-27 system. Chi-square, Fisher's exact Wilcoxon tests, and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used. Results: The median age was 53 years (range 21–89) and median tumor size 1.6 cm (range 0.1–11). 1,265 (86.1%) pts were <70 years old and 205 (13.9%) pts were ≥70 years old. 183 (12.5%) pts had IHC only PSLN, 1,021 (69.5%) had 1–3 PSLN, and 266 (18%) ≥4 PSLN. Breast conservation therapy (BCT) was performed in 59.7% of pts. Elderly pts were more likely to have moderate to severe comorbidities (46% vs. 11%, p < 0.0001) and BCT (67% vs. 59%, p = 0.026), compared to pts <70 years old. Elderly pts were less likely to undergo completion ALND (73% vs. 89%, p < 0.0001), adjuvant chemotherapy (43% vs. 90%, p < 0.0001) and radiotherapy following BCT (82% vs. 90%) compared to pts <70 years old. The 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) was not significantly different for elderly pts compared to non-elderly pts (87.7% vs. 91.9%, p = 0.21), on the other hand the 5-year overall survival was significantly worse for elderly pts (80.4% vs. 93.2%, p < 0.0001), a difference that was mainly due to a significantly higher 5-year cumulative incidence of death due to other causes (13.2% vs. 1.9%, p < 0.0001). On multivariate analysis, ER or PR positive status, IHC only PSLN and T1 tumors were the only factors independently associated with improved odds of 5-year DFS. Conclusions: Tumor rather than patient factors were the primary determinants of breast cancer outcomes in our cohort of node positive breast cancer pts. Elderly breast cancer pts with an estimated life expectancy beyond 5 years should receive the same standard of care therapy as their younger counterparts.

No significant financial relationships to disclose.