Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Abortion and Euthanasia Among Health Students in Papua New Guinea.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore knowledge and attitudes of health program students towards ethical issues pertaining to the beginning and the end of human life, and associations between these attitudes and demographic variables. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: The study took a mixed-method approach with self-administered survey questionnaires and in-depth interviews. A total of 88 students participated in the survey, and 10 students participated in interviews. The study was conducted among students in the Health Extension Program at a Christian university in Papua New Guinea. RESULTS: Students showed a higher acceptance of abortion than euthanasia. More year-4 students presented significantly deeper knowledge of euthanasia and abortion compared to year-1 students. There were no gender differences regarding knowledge and attitude towards these two bioethical issues. The majority of students opposed the idea of women's right to abortion, which is attributed mainly to socio-cultural reasons. The qualitative analysis indicated a very strong perception that having children 'defines' womanhood and also revealed general disapproval of any form of euthanasia. A low level of acceptance of various forms of euthanasia is associated with a respect for older people in Melanesian society and beliefs that ancestors' support is required for achieving prosperity in life. CONCLUSION: The study offered a comprehensive description and analysis of students' knowledge and attitudes towards ethical issues pertaining to the beginning and the end of human life. Presented a low level of knowledge towards bioethical issues, together with a small proportion of the knowledge gained from lectures and tutorials, indicated inadequate teaching of bioethics and calls for further improvement. In the perspective of rapid social and cultural changes in the Papua New Guinea society, further studies on changing attitudes towards bioethics issues would be valuable.

Somatic Comorbidity and Other Factors Related to Suicide Attempt Among Polish Methadone Maintenance Patients.

OBJECTIVES: Fatal and nonfatal suicide attempts are far more common in opioid-dependent individuals than in the general population. More research is needed to understand the specific risk factors for suicidal behaviors in this patient population, particularly outside of the United States and Western Europe. This study investigated the correlates of suicide attempts among Polish patients in methadone maintenance treatment and interpreted results in the context of findings from other countries. METHODS: The study was based on a sample of 240 individuals recruited from a methadone maintenance clinic in Poland. Participants were interviewed using standardized measures. RESULTS: Consistent with studies in other countries, sexual abuse, depression, alcohol dependence, and impulsivity were associated with suicide attempt. Additionally, those patients with somatic comorbidity had an increase in odds (odds ratio = 2.6) of suicide attempt. CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study suggest a potential benefit to treatment approaches that address somatic concerns of methadone-maintenance patients. More research is needed to identify, assess, and understand possible cultural and regional differences between opioid-dependent populations to better tailor prevention strategies.

Manganese-induced Parkinsonism among ephedrone users and drug policy in Poland.

A recent government's prohibition policy in Poland was partially successful with a reduction of the synthetic drugs market and a decrease in drug-related poisoning mortality rates. However, a new threatening trend is observed. There are a growing number of individuals in Poland and other European countries using legal pharmaceuticals containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine to produce stimulants. This case report describes a history of a male patient with polysubstance dependence who administered self-designed ephedrone derived from Sudafed using potassium permanganate. He revealed significant clinical symptoms of manganese-induced parkinsonism. No effective treatment could be recommended. Awareness of this severe neurological and social consequences should lead to prevention efforts including educational programs and initiatives reducing availability of the legal medications containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. More research is needed to enhance our knowledge about manganism and potential treatment regimens.

Auditory perception of temporal order in centenarians in comparison with young and elderly subjects.

Temporal information processing controls many aspects of human mental activity and may be assessed by examining perception of temporal order in the tens of milliseconds time range. Although existing studies suggest an age-related decline in mental abilities, the data on the deterioration of temporal order perception seems inconsistent. Moreover, any evidence on subjects aged over 70 years is lacking. The present experiment aimed to extend the existing data to extremely old people. Temporal order judgment (TOJ) for auditory stimuli was tested across the life span of approx. 80 years, i.e. in young (mean age 22 years) elderly (66 years) and very old (101 years) subjects. Age-related deterioration of performance was observed, with slight changes in elderly subjects and significant deterioration in centenarians which was more distinct in women than in men. The results confirm age-related decrease in temporal resolution which may be explained by slowing of information processing or of a hypothetical internal-timing mechanism. These effects may be influenced by different strategies used in particular age groups.

Individual differences in temporal information processing in humans.

This article reviews some of our investigations concerning individual differences in temporal information processing. Two different levels of temporal information processing are discussed, namely the low-frequency (i.e., a few seconds time range) and the high-frequency processing level (i.e., some tens of milliseconds range) of temporal information with respect to various experimental paradigms. Evidence has been obtained indicating that the processing of temporal information on these two levels can be influenced by various subject-related factors, out of which age, gender, developmental disorders, auditory experience and localisation of damage in the brain seem to be the most significant.

Reproduction of auditory and visual standards in monochannel cochlear implant users.

The temporal reproduction of standard durations ranging from 1 to 9 seconds was investigated in monochannel cochlear implant (CI) users and in normally hearing subjects for the auditory and visual modality. The results showed that the pattern of performance in patients depended on their level of auditory comprehension. Results for CI users, who displayed relatively good auditory comprehension, did not differ from that of normally hearing subjects for both modalities. Patients with poor auditory comprehension significantly overestimated shorter auditory standards (1, 1.5 and 2.5 s), compared to both patients with good comprehension and controls. For the visual modality the between-group comparisons were not significant. These deficits in the reproduction of auditory standards were explained in accordance with both the attentional-gate model and the role of working memory in prospective time judgment. The impairments described above can influence the functioning of the temporal integration mechanism that is crucial for auditory speech comprehension on the level of words and phrases. We postulate that the deficits in time reproduction of short standards may be one of the possible reasons for poor speech understanding in monochannel CI users.