Depressive mood in students with mild intellectual disability: students' reports and teachers' evaluations.

The present study examined 310 students with mild intellectual disability (ID) who attended special schools and self-contained classes in mainstream schools with regard to their reports of depressive mood, and loneliness and social skills, and teachers' perception of the students' academic, social and behavioural competencies. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed that: students in special schools reported higher levels of depression and felt lonelier than mainstream school students; girls exhibited a greater sense of depressive mood than boys; teachers assessed boys as having higher academic competencies than girls; and boys were considered more easily distracted and less independent. However, teachers considered girls to have more adequate social adjustment, and be more task-oriented and more independent. For both groups, depressive mood can be predicted by distractibility and loneliness; by gender and lower academic competencies for special school students; or mainly by difficulties in social adjustment in the case of mainstream school students.

Cellular adaptation to down-regulated iron transport into lymphoid leukaemic cells: effects on the expression of the gene for ribonucleotide reductase.

Ribonucleotide reductase is an iron-containing enzyme that is essential for DNA synthesis. Whereas previous studies have used various iron chelators to examine the relationship between cellular iron metabolism and ribonucleotide reductase activity in cells, they have not elucidated the relationship between iron transport into cells and the expression of the gene for ribonucleotide reductase. To investigate this, we examined ribonucleotide reductase mRNA, protein and enzyme activity in a novel line of CCRF-CEM cells (DFe-T cells) that display an approx. 60% decrease in their uptake of iron compared with the parental wild-type cell line. We found that DFe-T cells displayed an approx. 40% decrease in ribonucleotide reductase specific enzyme activity relative to wild-type cells without a change in their proliferation. Kinetic analysis of CDP reductase activity revealed an approx. 60% decrease in V(max) in DFe-T cells without a change in K(m). Despite the decrease in enzyme activity, the mRNA and protein for the R1 and R2 subunits of ribonucleotide reductase in DFe-T cells were similar to those of wild-type cells. ESR spectroscopy studies revealed that DFe-T cells had a 22% decrease in the tyrosyl free radical of the R2 subunit, suggesting that a larger amount of R2 protein was present as functionally inactive apo-R2 in these cells. Our studies indicate that ribonucleotide reductase activity in CCRF-CEM cells can be down-regulated by more than 50% in response to down-regulated iron transport without an adverse effect on cell proliferation. Furthermore, our studies suggest a regulatory link between ribonucleotide reductase activity and iron transport into these cells.

Anxiety and self-dissatisfaction in epileptic children.

Twenty epileptic children were compared with regard to their anxiety levels and self-concept measures, to two control groups: (a) non-handicapped children, (b) learning-disabled children. The epileptic children demonstrated higher levels of trait anxiety and dissatisfaction with themselves, as compared to each and both of the control groups. The results stressed the critical value of psychological consultation for the epileptic children and their parents.

Benign cerebellar hemorrhages.

Two patients with cerebellar hemorrhage and a benign outcome stress the potential for spontaneous resolution and clinical recovery in some cases of this disorder. In each patient, resolution of the hemorrhage was noted on the computed tomographic scan. Computed tomography may detect a cerebellar hemorrhage even though on clinical grounds a brainstem localization is favored.