Neuro-psychiatric symptoms in directly and indirectly blast exposed civilian survivors of urban missile attacks.

BACKGROUND: Blast-explosion may cause traumatic brain injury (TBI), leading to post-concussion syndrome (PCS). In studies on military personnel, PCS symptoms are highly similar to those occurring in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), questioning the overlap between these syndromes. In the current study we assessed PCS and PTSD in civilians following exposure to rocket attacks. We hypothesized that PCS symptomatology and brain connectivity will be associated with the objective physical exposure, while PTSD symptomatology will be associated with the subjective mental experience. METHODS: Two hundred eighty nine residents of explosion sites have participated in the current study. Participants completed self-report of PCS and PTSD. The association between objective and subjective factors of blast and clinical outcomes was assessed using multivariate analysis. White-matter (WM) alterations and cognitive abilities were assessed in a sub-group of participants (n = 46) and non-exposed controls (n = 16). Non-parametric analysis was used to compare connectivity and cognition between the groups. RESULTS: Blast-exposed individuals reported higher PTSD and PCS symptomatology. Among exposed individuals, those who were directly exposed to blast, reported higher levels of subjective feeling of danger and presented WM hypoconnectivity. Cognitive abilities did not differ between groups. Several risk factors for the development of PCS and PTSD were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Civilians exposed to blast present higher PCS/PTSD symptomatology as well as WM hypoconnectivity. Although symptoms are sub-clinical, they might lead to the future development of a full-blown syndrome and should be considered carefully. The similarities between PCS and PTSD suggest that despite the different etiology, namely, the physical trauma in PCS and the emotional trauma in PTSD, these are not distinct syndromes, but rather represent a combined biopsychological disorder with a wide spectrum of behavioral, emotional, cognitive and neurological symptoms.

Spatial processing in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

BACKGROUND: "Global processing bias" is an automatic tendency to process the global picture prior to the local details. The right hemisphere is known to be more dominant in global processing, and some researchers have demonstrated its important role in alertness. Converging evidence implies some dysfunction in right hemisphere activation in people suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Global processing is yet to be understood in ADHD. OBJECTIVE: We examined whether adults with ADHD show deficient global processing and whether this could be alleviated by the presence of an alerting signal. METHOD: Adult participants (20 ADHD, 20 typically developing controls) responded to a global-local Navon task in which they were asked to respond to the large stimulus or the small component stimuli, and to a Navon-like task with an alerting cue. Reaction time and accuracy were measured. RESULTS: Unlike controls, adults with ADHD did not have global precedence; irrelevant global stimuli (when asked to respond to the local level) and irrelevant local stimuli (when asked to respond to the global level) produced similar interference in ADHD participants. Appearance of an alerting cue increased global processing bias (i.e., increased interference from global stimuli in the local block and reduced interference from local stimuli in the global block) for both groups, such that global processing in ADHD participants was comparable to that of controls. CONCLUSION: ADHD participants showed lack of a global processing bias. Most important, global processing bias was reinstated by an alerting cue. Implications for the definition of ADHD, which currently emphasizes failure to pay close attention to details, will be discussed. Moreover, the current results have important implications for social functioning of people suffering from ADHD.

Complete duplication of male urethra in children.

Urethral duplication is a rare congenital anomaly. It may be complete or partial, and each form has its distinctive anatomy, symptom complex, and surgical therapy. Surgical management, utilizing a penile retropubic-transvesical approach, is described.

Buzzwork for development office is "dollar objective".

Tough "marketing" is this year's fund raising "word," a new word is about to take its place--dollar objective. The author outlines the role and function of a development office in context of these changing buzzwords.