Psychometric properties of an English short version of the Trier Inventory for chronic Stress.

BACKGROUND: Although a variety of instruments are available that capture stress experience, the assessment of chronic stress has been hindered by the lack of economical screening instruments. Recently, an English-language version of the Trier Inventory for Chronic Stress (TICS-EN) consisting of 57 items according to a systemic-requirement-resource model of health in nine subdomains of the chronic stress experience has been introduced. METHODS: We constructed a new 9-item short version of the TICS covering all nine subdomains and evaluated it in two samples (total N = 685). We then used confirmatory factor analysis to check factorial validity. RESULTS: This version showed a highly satisfactory model fit, was invariant across participant gender, demonstrated a very high correlation with the original TICS (r = .94), and showed a moderate correlation (r = .58) with a measure of perceived stress in the past month. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, this theoretically driven instrument can be recommended as a short version of the TICS in English language.

In vitro phototoxicity of phenothiazines: involvement of stable UVA photolysis products formed in aqueous medium.

This paper reports the results of an in vitro evaluation of the phototoxic potential of stable photoproducts formed by UVA photolysis of three phenothiazines, perphenazine, fluphenazine, and thioridazine, in a water environment. Perphenazine gave a single product due to dechlorination. From thioridazine, the two major products formed; the endocyclic sulfoxide and the endocyclic N-oxide in which the 2-SCH3 substituent was replaced by a hydroxy group were tested. From fluphenazine, two products have been examined as follows: an exocyclic N-piperazine oxide and a carboxylic acid arising from hydrolysis of the 2-CF3 group. The phototoxicity of the isolated photoproducts has been studied in order to determine their possible involvement in the photosensitizing effects exhibited by the parent drugs, using hemolysis and 3T3 fibroblasts viability as in vitro assays. As fluphenazine, perphenazine, and thioridazine did, some photoproducts proved phototoxic. In particular, the perphenazine dechlorinated photoproduct and the thioridazine N-oxide were found to exert phototoxic properties similar to the parent compounds. Therefore, our data suggest that some phenothiazine photoproducts may play a role in the mechanism of photosensitivity of these drugs. Because some of these photoproducts correspond to metabolic products of phenothiazines found in humans, it cannot be ruled out that metabolites of phenothiazines can be phototoxic in vivo.