Developmental Moderators of a Single-Session Incremental Theory of Personality Intervention on Aggressive Behavior.

This study examines two indicators of developmental level (testosterone and grade) as moderators of the effects of a single-session incremental theory of personality intervention on both traditional and online aggressive behaviors. A sample of 535 Spanish adolescents (boys: 50%; age: 12-17 years) participated in a double-blind, randomized controlled trial. Participants were randomized to receive the incremental theory of personality intervention or an alternative educational control condition. The intervention consisted of teaching the belief that people can change. Aggressive behaviors were measured at baseline, one-week posttest, and six-month and twelve-month follow-ups. Testosterone level moderated the effectiveness of the intervention for online aggressive behavior so that, among adolescents with low and medium testosterone levels, those in the control group increased online aggressive behavior, whereas adolescents receiving the intervention remained at similar levels of perpetration. Grade moderated the effectiveness of the intervention on both forms of aggressive behavior, being only effective in Grade 8. Overall, the findings indicate that some preventative interventions can be more effective among adolescents with lower levels of development.

The Effect of an Intervention Teaching Adolescents that People can Change on Depressive Symptoms, Cognitive Schemas, and Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Hormones.

Interest is increasing in developing universal interventions to prevent depression in adolescents that are brief enough to be scaled up. The aim of this study was to test the effects on depressive symptoms, cognitive schemas, and Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Hormones of an intervention focused on teaching an element of an incremental theory of personality, namely, the belief that people can change. We also examined whether grade level moderated the effects of the intervention. A double-blind, randomized, controlled trial was conducted with 867 Spanish adolescent participants (51.9% boys, Grades 8-10) randomly assigned to an incremental theory intervention (n = 456) or an educational control intervention (n = 411). The adolescents completed measures of depressive symptoms and negative cognitive schemas at pretest, at 6-month follow-up, and at 12-month follow-up. A subsample of 503 adolescents provided salivary samples for cortisol and DHEA-S testing. In 8th grade, adolescents who received the incremental theory intervention displayed a greater decrease in depressive symptoms and cognitive schemas and a lower increase in DHEA-S. Moreover, in adolescents who received the intervention, the rate of adolescents with high depression scores decreased by almost 18% whereas in the control group, the rate increased by 37%. Surprisingly, the effects of the intervention were in the opposite direction among adolescents in 9th grade. These data indicate that a brief universal intervention could prevent depressive symptoms under some conditions, but developmental characteristics can moderate the effectiveness of this approach.

Genotoxic evaluation of five Angiotesin II receptor blockers: in vivo and in vitro micronucleus assay.

Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) are a new class of drugs for the treatment of hypertension. In this study, we studied the potential genotoxic effects of five ARBs in vivo and in vitro in human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) by means of the cytokinesis-block micronucleous (CBMN) assay in combination with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with a centromeric probe. The nuclear division index (NDI) was used as a measure of cytotoxicity. We also analyzed the association between sex, age, duration of treatment and MN formation. The in vivo study was carried out in 55 hypertensive patients. The in vitro study was performed in 10 control individuals by adding the drugs to the culture medium at a final concentration similar to the levels found in plasma in patients. Our results showed a significant increase in the frequencies of MN and binucleated cells with MN (BNMN) in vivo and especially in vitro. We observed variability in the mean frequency of MN and BNMN among the five drugs analyzed. In vivo, patients treated with Candesartan, Telmisartan and Valsartan showed a statistical significant increase in these parameters, while Olmesartan showed the highest effect in vitro. We also found that the drugs inhibit the NDI in vitro and that Eprosartan, Olmesartan and Telmisartan are the ARBs studied with the highest effect in decreasing the proliferation of the cells. FISH analysis revealed no significant difference between patients and controls in the frequency of centromeric signals. A slight variability, without statistical significance, in the frequency of micronuclei with a centromere signal (CN(+)MN) was found among the different ARBs analyzed, ruling out an aneugenic potential. When accounting for risk factors, we found that in patients there is a positive correlation between MN, BNMN and sex and a negative correlation with duration of treatment.