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Biomedical subjects

C Stinson

Publications and source records attributed to C Stinson.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Relation of Lake Ontario fish consumption, lifetime lactation, and parity to breast milk polychlorobiphenyl and pesticide concentrations.

Lactating female members and spouses of male members of the New York State Angler Cohort who agreed to provide breast milk samples were the subjects of this study. Questionnaires were provided to participants focusing on Lake Ontario fish consumption, reproductive history, and lactation history. Milk samples were analyzed for 77 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) congeners, 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis (p-chlorophenyl)-ethylene (DDE), a metabolite of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), and 1,1a,2,2,3,3a, 4,5,5,5a,5b,6-dodecachlorooctahydro-1,3, 4-methano-1H-cyclobuta[cd]pentalene (Mirex). The percentage of samples with quantifiable levels, above the limit of detection (LOD), varied among the individual congeners from 10 to 100%. Nine PCB congeners (designated by their IUPAC No.) and DDE were found in all of the 100 samples analyzed. These include the following, in decreasing order of concentration: DDE>153>138>180>118>187>188>177>200. Total PCB concentrations were estimated by taking the sum of the concentrations of all PCB congeners (up to 77 congeners) above their respective LOD in a given sample. PCB concentrations increased with increasing concentration of milk lipid. Lipid adjusted PCB concentrations increased as a function of maternal age. PCB congener profiles in milk favored the higher chlorinated congeners, with the four highest congeners having 5 to 7 chlorine atoms. Fish eaters had a significantly higher level of several major PCB congeners with congeners 153 and 138 being 1.36 and 1.34 times higher, respectively. PCB and DDE concentrations, expressed on a lipid basis, varied inversely with parity. The total number of months of lifetime lactation varied inversely with the total PCB concentration in breast milk. A similar relationship was evident for DDE. These data are of use for risk assessment in estimating the relative exposure to these environmental contaminants in breast fed infants whose mothers consumed contaminated Lake Ontario fish.

Adult

Comparison of PCB congeners and pesticide levels between serum and milk from lactating women.

Samples of blood and milk were obtained from lactating women participating in the New York State Angler study. A total of seven women gave one blood and one milk sample at time intervals between blood and milk collection different for each woman. The time between samples varied from 3 to 318 days. One subject provided a second milk sample 219 days after the first milk sample. The samples were analyzed for 69 PCB congeners, DDE (a metabolite of DDT), Mirex, and hexachlorobenzene (HCB). Lipid content was determined by gravimetric analysis. The congener profiles in serum and milk were similar for each individual but different among all subjects. The sum of the concentrations of the congeners present above the limit of detection was used to estimate the total PCB concentration that was in the range of 2.6 to 5.8 ng/g of serum and 3.5 to 14.1 ng/g of milk. The ratio of serum to milk concentrations varied from 0.18 to 1.66 with a mean of 0.65+/-0.49 showing no consistency among individuals prior to adjusting the data for lipid content. The total PCB levels normalized for lipid content were 320-728 ng/g of serum lipid and 239-428 ng/g of milk lipid. The range of the lipid adjusted serum/milk ratio was 1.1 to 2.8 and the mean+/-SD serum/milk ratio was 1.9+/-0.5. The ranges of lipid adjusted serum concentration of DDE, HCB, and Mirex were 95 to 591, 8 to 48, and 3 to 29 ng/g lipid, respectively. The ranges of lipid adjusted milk concentration of DDE, HCB, and Mirex were 90 to 577, 11 to 22, and 1 to 10 ng/g lipid, respectively. For DDE, HCB, and Mirex, the means of the individual lipid adjusted serum to milk ratios were 1.5+/-0.7, 2.5+/-1.5, and 5. 3+/-4.6, respectively. Considerable differences were found among lipid adjusted concentrations of these environmental pollutants in serum and milk samples from the same individual. This suggests that body burden estimates in lactating women using different matrices may not be equivalent even when lipid adjusted values are used.

Animals

Cyclical patterns of states of mind in psychotherapy.

OBJECTIVE: A quantitative study of shifts in states of mind was conducted to demonstrate a clinically useful mode of observation. This mode categorizes observations of a patient's mental state into well-modulated, overmodulated, undermodulated, and shimmering patterns. METHOD: The authors used reliable systems for scoring a patient's state of mind on videotapes of all sessions of her brief psychotherapy and, using separate procedures, scored the topics of discourse. These data were then examined by means of a lagged log-linear sequential analysis for patterns of shifts from one state to another and for concurrent shifts in topics. RESULTS: The findings indicated nonrandom shifts in state. Patterns of shifting from a well-modulated state to alternative states and back again were overrepresented. Such shifts were related to conflictual topics of discourse. CONCLUSIONS: Observing such shifts in mental state may help psychotherapists to formulate the contents of conflict and also to make technical interventions to stabilize optimal states for doing the work of psychotherapy.

Cognition

Topics and signs: defensive control of emotional expression.

This single-case study examined frank disclosure of important topics in a brief exploratory psychotherapy, including topics closely related to a recent, unintegrated stressor life event. Quantitative measures of emotion and control variables showed heightened levels of both emotionally and defensive control during discourse on the topic of the stressor event. In future studies, such measures of verbal and nonverbal signs of emotional expression and defensive control might be used to identify topics in an unresolved state.

Adjustment Disorders

Pathological grief: an intensive case study.

Pathological mourning is such an excessive, blocked, or distorted process that psychiatric signs and symptoms develop. Explanation of how and why these signs and symptoms form could deepen an understanding of both normal and pathological mourning. Because many variables are involved in such explanations, intensive case study is a desirable methodology because it permits a detailed look at how various factors interact (Brewer and Hunter 1989; Luborsky and Mintz 1972; Luborsky and Spence 1971; Nessleroade and Ford 1985). While a patient may complain of symptoms as experiences that endure or occur episodically over days and weeks, a clinician observes psychiatric signs in the here-and-now seconds and minutes of an interview. Relating signs and symptoms to each other and to other variables in order to form a theoretical model of their formation requires exploration of data across long and short time frames. It is important to understand how the here-and-now phenomena combine to form patterns across longer periods of the individual's life. Hence, we developed a combined macro- and microanalytic approach to intensive case studies.

Adaptation, Psychological

Toxicant extraction efficiency and branchial NaCl fluxes in lampreys exposed to Kepone.

Freshwater fish (larval lampreys Petromyzon marinus) occupied plastic tubes and ventilated aqueous solutions (around 1.0 mg/L) of the organochlorine pesticide Kepone at 13 degrees C. The efficiency with which Kepone was extracted from solution during a single pass through the pharynx, and the effect of Kepone on fluxes of Na+ and Cl- across the gills were measured. The efficiency with which lampreys extracted Kepone from local tap water averaged 55-66%, confirmed by measuring Kepone accumulation within the lampreys (as 14C-equivalents), using a mass-balance approach. The extraction efficiency matches predictions based on studies using teleosts. Extraction efficiencies declined slowly throughout the exposure period and related inversely to ventilatory rates. In ion-flux measurements, Kepone produced a 40% decline in the rate of influx of Cl- across the pharynx. Effluxes of Na+ and Cl- were not affected, nor was influx of Na+. These latter findings are difficult to reconciliate with accepted theories of Kepone's toxic action; they may relate to the fact that lampreys are unusually tolerant to Kepone poisoning.

Animals