Lisiane Bizarro

Expectativas e beber problemático entre universitários

Problematic drinking is recurrent among college students and is associated with a variety of negative consequences. Therefore, it is important to understand risk factors for this phenomenon. The present study assessed the relationship between expectations over alcohol effects and risk drinking pattern among college students. Participants were 165 college students with average age of 22 years old (dp= 2,5) who responded to the AUDIT and IECPA inventories. Results indicated that 44% of the participants were risk consumers and 48% had high positive expectations, among them facilitation of social interaction, decrease and/or escape of negative emotions, enhanced sexual pleasure, positive effects on activity, mood and self evaluation. There was a correlation between problematic drinking and positive expectations. To investigate the relationship between pattern of use and expectations over alcohol effects favours planning of therapeutical interventions and more precise preventive strategies aiming at reducing the risks of problematic drinking among college students.

Prenatal exposure to nicotine impairs performance of the 5-choice serial reaction time task in adult rats

Cigarette smoking is associated with a wide variety of adverse reproductive outcomes, including increased infant mortality and decreased birth weight. Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke, of which nicotine is a major teratogenic component, has also been linked to the acceleration of the risk for different psychiatric disorders, including conduct disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Whether this increased risk is influenced by the direct effects of gestational nicotine exposure on the developing fetus remains uncertain. In this study we provide experimental evidence for the effects of prenatal nicotine exposure on measures of attention and impulsivity in adult male rats. Offspring of females exposed during pregnancy to 0.06 mg/ml nicotine solution as the only source of water (daily consumption: 69.6±1.4 ml/kg; nicotine blood level: 96.0±31.9 ng/ml) had lower birth weight and delayed sensorimotor development measured by negative geotaxis, righting reflex, and grip strength. In the 5-choice serial reaction time test, adult rats showed increased numbers of anticipatory responses and omissions errors, more variable response times, and lower accuracy with evidence of delayed learning of the task demands when the 1 s stimulus duration was introduced. In contrast, prenatal nicotine exposure had no effect on exploratory locomotion or delay-discounting test. Prenatal nicotine exposure increased expression of the D5 dopamine receptor gene in the striatum, but did not change expression of other dopamine-related genes (DRD4, DAT1, NR4A2, and TH) in either the striatum or the prefrontal cortex. These data suggest a direct effect of prenatal nicotine exposure on important aspects of attention, inhibitory control, or learning later in life.

Pharmacogenetics of smoking cessation therapy

Nicotine dependence is a major health problem, with a large amount of smoking‐related premature deaths and disabilities. The dependence mechanism of nicotine is especially complex and is under strong genetic influence. Smoking cessation is associated with substantial health benefits. Evidence from animal and human studies suggests that genetic polymorphisms influencing pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of nicotine may have great potential for aiding smoking treatment. There are more than 30 association studies and one genome‐wide association study (GWAS) between genetic polymorphisms and smoking cessation following nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and/or bupropion therapy. However, only a few candidate genes or regions were analyzed more than twice and even these genes require additional investigations in different therapeutic schemes. There are a growing number of new pharmacologic options that have not been pharmacogenetically assessed according to published literature. In addition, molecular genetics studies are needed to assess the functional mechanisms of some putative association results. Taken together, the preliminary findings are promising but raise the need for new studies with adequate sample sizes and adjustment for several potential confounding factors frequently neglected, such as comorbidity and sociodemographic factors. The current state of the art in the field encourages an optimist view that personalized treatment approaches may become possible. However, the current scientific evidence still does not support the use of pharmacogenetic tests in routine smoking cessation therapy.

Gestational exposure to nicotine in drinking water: teratogenic effects and methodological issues

Individual differences in nicotine effects lead to questions about appropriate experimental procedures for prenatal nicotine exposure in rodent models. The objective of this study was to develop a method for gestational studies in rats based on oral nicotine exposure, and to evaluate the neurodevelopmental effects. Female Lister hooded rats were exposed to nicotine solutions both before and during pregnancy. These female rats were divided into groups consuming solutions of different concentrations such that animals that initially consumed the solutions most readily were exposed to progressively higher concentrations. Offspring of these female rats were evaluated in a test battery measuring maturational and developmental milestones. Female rats ingested nicotine solutions at levels that provided blood nicotine concentrations of 10–60 ng/ml, at daily dose levels of 2.9–6.2 mg/kg. Solutions with concentrations below 0.06 mg/ml were well tolerated with some moderate adverse effects at the highest dose. Concentrations above 0.08 mg/ml led to a large drop in fluid consumption and in body weight. Strong teratogenic effects of prenatal nicotine exposure were observed at concentrations above 0.04 mg/ml, including developmental and maturational delays shown by measures of pinnae detachment, fur appearance, incisor eruption, eye opening and righting reflex. Negative geotaxis, grip strength and weight gain were impaired and postnatal mortality was increased. This study design provides a model for the impact of prenatal exposure to nicotine at blood levels comparable with those in medium and heavy smokers. There were marked developmental and behavioural deficits induced in the offspring of nicotine-exposed female rats.

Neonatal hypoxia-ischemia induces attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder-like behavior in rats

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be caused by genetic or environmental factors. Among environmental factors, perinatal complications are related, such as neonatal hypoxia-ischemia (HI). Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate whether HI contributes to the development of characteristics related to ADHD in adult rats, and to correlate the behavioral results with brain damage volume. Male Wistar rats were divided into 2 groups: HI and control. The HI procedure consisted of a permanent occlusion of the right common carotid artery followed by a period of hypoxia (90 min; 8% O₂ and 92% N₂) on the 7th postnatal day. Two months later, animals were evaluated in the open field test during a single 5-min session, and in the 5-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT), over 25 weeks. Our results demonstrated that animals submitted to HI manifest cognitive impairments in task acquisition, deficits in sustained attention, and increases in impulsivity and compulsivity in response to task manipulation in the 5-CSRTT. Locomotor activity observed in open field did not differ between groups. Moreover, brain volume loss in the total hemisphere, cerebral cortex, white matter, hippocampus, and striatum were observed in HI animals, especially on the side ipsilateral to the lesion. From these results, we can infer that neonatal HI is an environmental factor that could contribute to the development of behavioral characteristics observed in ADHD that are associated with general brain atrophy.

The Improvement of Emotion and Attention Regulation after a 6-Week Training of Focused Meditation: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Self-regulatory trainings can be an effective complementary treatment for mental health disorders. We investigated the effects of a six-week-focused meditation training on emotion and attention regulation in undergraduates randomly allocated to a meditation, a relaxation, or a wait-list control group. Assessment comprised a discrimination task that investigates the relationship between attentional load and emotional processing and self-report measures. For emotion regulation, results showed greater reduction in emotional interference in the low attentional load condition in meditators, particularly compared to relaxation. Only meditators presented a significant association between amount of weekly practice and the reduction in emotion interference in the task and significantly reduced image ratings of negative valence and arousal, perceived anxiety and difficulty during the task, and state and trait-anxiety. For attention regulation, response bias during the task was analyzed through signal detection theory. After training, meditation and relaxation significantly reduced bias in the high attentional load condition. Importantly, there was a dose-response effect on general bias: the lowest in meditation, increasing linearly across relaxation and wait-list. Only meditators reduced omissions in a concentrated attention test. Focused meditation seems to be an effective training for emotion and attention regulation and an alternative for treatments in the mental health context.

Attentional bias modification in smokers trying to quit: A longitudinal study about the effects of number of sessions☆

Attentional bias modification (ABM) to avoid smoking-related cues is a potentially new intervention in addition to existing therapy to stop smoking. We examined immediate and long-term changes in attentional bias and treatment outcomes from multiple ABM sessions in 67 smokers trying to quit. After assessing attentional bias baseline, participants were randomly allocated to one of three training groups: three sessions of ABM (avoid 3); two sessions of placebo-ABM and one session of ABM (avoid 1); and three sessions of placebo-ABM (avoid 0). At baseline, all groups had similar positive attentional bias, which became negative at 24h post-training. After 1 month, avoid 1 and avoid 3 still exhibited negative attentional biases. Only avoid 3 maintained this effect at 6-month, but not at 12-month assessments. ABM produced a long-lasting automatic and maintained avoidance to smoking-related cues which depended on number of sessions; however its effects on treatment outcomes are uncertain.

Attention, locomotor activity and developmental milestones in rats prenatally exposed to ethanol.

Decline of attentional performance as a function of time engaged on a task and hyperactivity are features shared by children and adults with fetal alcohol syndrome or attentional deficit and hyperactivity disorders.

Avaliação da formação e trajetória profissional na perspectiva de egressos de um curso de psicologia

The objective of this work was to gather knowledge on the career formation and trajectories of psychologists who graduated in the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. A semi-structured 18-topic questionnaire on professional activity, evaluation of undergraduate course and suggestions to improve curriculum was sent by e-mail or postal mail to 143 alumni, graduated between 1997 and 2004. 79 alumni (78,4% women) replied. Results indicated that 88% of the alumni work as psychologists, most of them had a first job as clinical psychologists (41,7%) and 88,6% sought further academic or professional courses. Regarding the undergraduation course, 29,4% indicated that clinical Psychology was more privileged during the course. The main suggestions for a new curriculum were the creation of non-existent disciplines and greater theoretical diversity. These results show that the professional profile of these psychologists tend to be orthodox, have a favorable professional perspective and the suggestions meet the recent curriculum directives for the Psychology courses.

Attentional avoidance of smoking cues in former smokers

It has been speculated that attentional bias (AB) to smoking cues is a permanent feature of addiction. The objective of the present study was to investigate if abstinence duration has an influence on AB. Performance on a visual probe task of three groups (recent, intermediate and prolonged) of ex-smokers (n=62, mean age 50±11 years) with different abstinence durations was compared. Target/Control images were presented at three stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs: 200, 500, and 2000 ms) on a 17-inch monitor. Former smokers avoided target images (TIs). Mean reaction time to control images was shorter than to TIs, confirming the attentional avoidance of TIs. Attentional avoidance of TIs and the lower emotional valence of these stimuli may have been a strategy to avoid relapse. Sustained avoidance to smoking-related cues may be a predictor of long-term abstinence. Direct training of AB away from drug cues may improve the results of smoking cessation therapy.