Sociocultural and structural perpetuators of domestic violence in pregnancy: A qualitative look at what South Indian women believe needs to change.

In India, reported rates of domestic violence rise as high as 31%. Abuse against pregnant women in India is associated with depressive and PTSD symptoms, and poor birth outcomes, yet no evidence-based interventions have been tested on this population. In this cross-sectional qualitative study, we sought perspective on South Indian women's concerns about abuse during pregnancy and what they believed would help. Participants cited economic dependence on husbands and sociocultural structures as factors perpetuating domestic violence. Women also described resilience factors that can protect against abuse. Our participants highlighted a requisite for interventions within health and social systems.

Mind-body medicine therapies for a range of depression severity: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: Of the 34 million adult Americans (17%) using mind-body medicine therapies, 8 million (24%) have anxiety/depression. The evidence for using mind-body therapies to address varying depressive symptoms in populations with and without other chronic comorbidities is reviewed. METHODS: Systematic literature searches of PubMed (Medline), Embase, CINAHL, and the seven databases encompassed by Current Contents, Web of Science, and Web of Knowledge were conducted. Studies designed as prospective control-comparison, adult population, English, at least 2 weeks long, sample size >30, and with primary or secondary outcome as depression measured on an established scale were included. Methodologic quality was evaluated using the modified scale for assessing scientific quality of investigations (SASQI) for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). RESULTS: Ninety papers of about 2900 met both inclusion and exclusion criteria; 60% of them scored a SASQI >9 and were deemed of sufficient quality to be included in the review; 74% of these selected quality papers demonstrated positive effects on the improvement of depressive symptoms. All mind-body modalities included in the study had at least one positive study. For cancer patients, several studies noted the positive effects of yoga and combination therapies on depression severity. For both diagnosed depression and fibromyalgia, several studies noted the positive effects of mindfulness on depression severity. CONCLUSION: The use of evidence-based mind-body therapies can alleviate depression severity. They could be used with established psychiatric treatments of therapy and medications. The likely long-term increased cost-effectiveness of integrating these therapies deserves further investigation.

Determining Ca2+-sensor binding time and its variability in evoked neurotransmitter release.

The speed and reliability of neuronal reactions are important factors for proper functioning of the nervous system. To understand how organisms use protein molecules to carry out very fast biological actions, we quantified single-molecule reaction time and its variability in synaptic transmission. From the synaptic delay of crayfish neuromuscular synapses the time for a few Ca(2+) ions to bind with their sensors in evoked neurotransmitter release was estimated. In standard crayfish saline at room temperature, the average Ca(2+) binding time was 0.12 ms for the first evoked quanta. At elevated extracellular Ca(2+) concentrations this binding time reached a limit due to saturation of Ca(2+) influx. Analysis of the synaptic delay variance at various Ca(2+) concentrations revealed that the variability of the Ca(2+)-sensor binding time is the major source of the temporal variability of synaptic transmission, and that the Ca(2+)-independent molecular reactions after Ca(2+) influx were less stochastic. The results provide insights into how organisms maximize reaction speed and reliability.