Computer simulation of cerebral microhemodynamics.

Microvascular network hemodynamics was simulated by computer in an anatomically reconstructed cerebral microvascular network. A video microscope system was used for three-dimensional mapping of the vessel network in the rat brain cortex. The complete topology, length and mean diameter of the microvessels were determined. The distribution of blood flow and red cell flux in the network was calculated based on vessel resistance estimated from geometrical data and a rheological model of blood. This model described apparent relative blood viscosity as a function of vessel diameter and local discharge hematocrit. The calculations predicted highly heterogeneous cell flux distribution at any feed hematocrit between 10 and 40 percent. The frequency distribution of microvessel hematocrit was bimodal and included values exceeding the feed hematocrit value. A probabilistic simulation of cell transit resulted in transit time distributions which agree with experimental findings. The most probable transit time and capillary path length and 4s and 300 microns, respectively.

Child's reaction to mother's abortion: case report.

PIP: This psychiatric report is of a case of family members being affected by the choice of abortion within it. A 5-year-old child was referred for psychiatric evaluation because of aggressive behavior toward his young female sibling, poor peer relationships, and multiple tics. 2 factors seemed most important in the playing out of the emotional sequelae of this therapeutic abortion: quality of mothering and influence of the abortion. This boy had unknown maternal care from a grandmother with whom he lived after his father died while his mother was pregnant, and she decided to terminate the pregnancy. The child was hospitalized himself a few months after the abortion, and this probably also was a factor in his behavioral disturbances and intrapsychic conflict. His mother subsequently became pregnant again and carried this child to term. The boy attacked his younger sibling soon after the sibling was brought home from the hospital. It is speculated that the abortion contributed to the boy's intrapsychic conflict, in that he viewed his mother's abortion, which was mutilative surgery in his mind, as the punishment for aggressive and hostile impulses, and, via identification with the aggressor, viewed himself as mutilated and castrated.^ieng

When the psychotherapist is black.

The authors present a case report of a white neurotic man treated in long-term psychoanalytic therapy by a black woman psychiatrist. The defense mechanism of reversal--the therapist was white in the patient's early dreams--was evident not only in this patient but in several other white patients treated by the black therapist. The authors suggest that, contrary to the opinions of a few other authors, the reality issues of racial differences can be dealt with successfully in this kind of interracial psychotherapy.

Psychoses following therapeutic abortion.

PIP: The literature concerning therapeutic abortion suggests that there are few significant psychiatric sequelae of the procedure among women with no previous psychiatric history, and when emotional disturbances do result, they are related to the patient's environment rather than the termination itself. However, 2 case reports are presented in which the patients functioned normally before the abortion but subsequently experienced psychoses precipitated by guilt over the procedure. Both women experienced visual hallucinations and the psychotic thought processes around the time they would have delivered, and had to be hospitalized. These cases suggest that the rationalization and intellectualization of the abortion experience may not constitute adequate defenses aginst guilt, and point to the necessity of physician awareness that the abortion procedure may produce morbidity.^ieng

Autofellatio: a power and dependency conflict.

The literature concerning autofellatio is reviewed, and two additional cases are reported. A third case of a neurotic patient in whom there was a reversal of an autofellatio fantasy is presented. These cases seem to involve narcissism, dependency, and power conflicts as have those cases previously reported in the literature.

Depressive disorders and religious conversions.

The sparse psychiatric literature concerning religious conversions is reviewed. Four case histories of diagnosed depressive illness followed by religious conversion are presented. In two obsessive-compulsive patients, the religious experience failed to resolve the depression, and both ended in suicide. Two hysterical personalities had a resolution of depressive symptoms following the religious experience. The authors suggest that religious conversion dynamically strengthens repression in hysterical persons, but in some cases fails to resolve obsessive isolation of affect and ambivalence.