Social support, coping strategies and sociodemographic factors in women with breast cancer.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to analyze the associations between perceived social support and sociodemographic variables on coping strategies. METHODS: A prospective, cross-sectional, multicenter study was conducted in 404 women with resected, non-metastatic breast cancer. Participants completed questionnaires: perceived social support (MSPSS), coping strategies (Mini-MAC), and psychological distress (BSI-18). RESULTS: Sociodemographic factors as age, education, and partnership status were associated with coping strategies. As for maladaptive strategies, hopelessness was more frequent in older people and lower educational level; fatalism in older and single people, and cognitive avoidance was associated with lower educational level. Suppor t from family, friends, and partners was associated with a greater fighting spirit. In contrast, high psychological distress (anxiety and depression) was associated with greater use of maladaptive strategies. CONCLUSION: Young people, a high level of education, having a partner, low psychological distress, and seeking social support were associated with the use of adaptive cancer coping strategies.

Ketomethylene analogues of phosphoryl dipeptides related to phosphoramidon: synthesis and inhibition of proteases.

Non-rhamnose-containing phosphoramidon analogues, in which the amide bond was replaced by the isosteric ketomethylene group, have been synthesized in order to stabilize these compounds to peptidase degradation. The key step in this synthesis was suitable alkylation of a 4-ketodiester, prepared from Z-Leu chloromethyl ketone and dimethyl malonate. The ketomethylene dipeptide derivatives P-Leu psi (COCH2)(RS)Xaa-OMe (Xaa = Trp, Phe) are good inhibitors of thermolysin, ACE and specially enkephalinase.

Long-term social isolation in the rat induces opposite changes in binding to alpha 1- and alpha 2-adrenoceptors in the brain and vas deferens.

Rats isolated at the time of calcification of the incisors show, after 14-18 months of social deprivation, an increased number of alpha 1-adrenoceptors labeled with [3H]WB 4101, both in the striatum and in the vas deferens, as well as a decreased number of alpha 2-adrenoceptors labeled with [3H]-clonidine in the vas deferens. Social isolation does not, however, modify the density of [3H]clonidine binding sites in the cerebral cortex. The functional state of alpha-adrenoreceptors in the vas deferens from isolated rats appears to correlate with the binding studies since the isolated tissue is hypersensitive to the contractile effect of exogenous noradrenaline and subsensitive to the inhibitory effect of clonidine on the electrically stimulated preparation.