Actions taken to cope with depression in patients seeking specialist care.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the rates and perceived effectiveness of actions used to cope with depression and the factors influencing these in an outpatient sample seeking help for depression. METHOD: One hundred and seventy-six patients (74 male, 102 female) aged 16-82 years (M = 42, SD = 14.4 years) with a major depressive episode (DSM-IV criteria) were assessed using a number of measures that covered sociodemographics, history of psychiatric illness, actions taken to alleviate depression and their perceived effectiveness. Logistic regression analyses assessed age, gender and illness characteristics associated with the use and perceived effectiveness of strategies adopted to manage depression. RESULTS: Medical interventions were used and perceived to be effective in alleviating depressive symptoms by most of the sample, as were self-help and complementary therapies. Sociodemographic and illness-related characteristics had a significant influence, with younger age and having experienced an episode of anxiety disorder found to be the strongest predictors for the use of coping strategies. Being female was the strongest predictor for their effectiveness. CONCLUSION: A range of actions for depression, including medical and complementary interventions, were used and found to be helpful in a sample that had sought professional help for depression. Gender, age, depression and anxiety factors were all found to predict the use and perceived effectiveness of these strategies.

Erotic transference and a threatened sense of self.

In this study of erotic transference the phenomenon is defined in the manner of Freud (1915) and Blum (1973). It involves a circumscribed behaviour which consists of an erotic preoccupation with the therapist which often has the quality of an obsession. It is prolonged, usually for months or years, is relatively immutable, and can be seen as a milder variant of de Clerembault's syndrome. It is suggested that the psychic purpose of the preoccupation is to maintain a threatened sense of self. The erotic content of the preoccupation is likely to be a consequence of the sexualization of the early relationship with caregivers, which was impingeing and disruptive of self-development. In an illustrative case, the disturbance of this development was considered to include an impediment to the development of the transitional field, the mother herself replacing the transitional object.

Characterization of the major polypeptide chains of reduced bovine thyroglobulin.

The finding that reduced 19S bovine thyroglobulin showed two major, closely migrating polypeptide bands during electrophoresis in SDS-polyacrylamide gels was presented as evidence that thyroglobulin consists of two nonidentical subunits, referred to as S and F, of approximately the same size (J. Biol. Chem. 253, 1853-1858 (1978)). It was, however, not clear whether the difference in migration rates of the two subunits was due to differences in amino acid or carbohydrate composition or a small difference in size. In this study, several physical and chemical properties of purified S and F polypeptides were investigated. Three methods revealed important differences between them. It was found by cyanogen bromide degradation that S contained one fragment (Mr approximately equal to 20 000) more than F. S eluted ahead of F by column chromatography in SDS. The sedimentation coefficient of S was found to be greater than that of F. However, the two subunits were shown to have similar amino acid and carbohydrate compositions and to be indistinguishable in their interaction with SDS. The different migration rates of S and F can therefore be explained by a small difference in size which agrees with the finding (Endocrinology 108, 1285-1292 (1981)) that a proteolytic enzyme present in commercial horseradish peroxidase can convert S into F.

Evidence that thyroglobulin contains nonidentical half molecule subunits.

Bovine thyroglobulin was extracted from unfrozen glands, purified by sucrose gradient centrifugation, and fractionated into a narrow range in iodine content by RbCl isopycnic centrifugation. The subunit composition of these preparations was studied by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The extent of dissociation of 19 S into 12 S half-molecules followed the known relationship with iodine, i.e. decreased dissociability of 19 S with increased iodine content. The undissociated 19 S band always consisted of three closely spaced, equidistant bands. Reduction of the disulfide bonds of thyroglobulin by mercaptoethanol in SDS solution resulted in the formation of two major and one minor components (S, F, and A). The concentration of A was always less than 10% of the total. The ratio of S to F was, however, about equal in thyroglobulin preparations which ranged in iodine content from 0.2 to 1%. The final ratios were obtained before all the disulfides were reduced. The relative mobilitis of S, F, and A, decreased with increasing extent of reduction. Fully reduced S and F, but not A, migrated slower than unreduced 12 S. The three reduced alkylated polypeptides were purified by preparative SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and their molecular weights were determined by sedimentation equilibrium in 8 M urea. Their Mw and Mz values agreed closely with that of the unreduced 12 S half-molecule subunit, thus indicating that reduction of the disulfide bonds changes the shape but not the molecular weights of the subunits.