The stress system is essential for humans and other organisms to survive. However, when stress is prolonged it can have pathological effects on the brain. To experience long-term unemployment is often stressful, for it has been shown to correlate with depression, low self- esteem, learned helplessness and self-destructive behavior. Long-term unemployment also seems to have physiological consequences, for it has been shown to correlate with cortisol dysregulation. The hippocampus is a highly adaptable part of the brain located in the temporal lobe and is long known for its sensitivity to cortisol dysregulation due to stress. The aim of this thesis is to study how long-term unemployment affects physical and psychological well- being, focusing in particular upon finding out whether it affects the hippocampus. The results suggest that that the kind of stress caused by long-term unemployment is similar to the stress affecting the hippocampus. It thus seems to be a reasonably hypothesis that long-term unemployment has a negative influence upon the brain, and the hippocampus in particular.However, there is an additional issue that one needs to take into account. For some studies have shown that people with poor mental health are more likely to be unemployed. If poor mental health is associated with physiological disorders (including a damaged hippocampus), this implies that not only can long-term unemployment (via stress) affect the hippocampus, but a damaged hippocampus (along with other physiological factors) can increase the probability to become unemployed. This means that the relationship between long-term unemployment and a damaged hippocampus need not be a one-way causal relationship.

Placebo treatments are inert but are known to alleviate symptoms across numerous clinical conditions. One of the most studied placebo effects is placebo analgesia, which is a placebo effect limited to pain relief. This thesis aims to introduce the current state of research regarding the neuroscience of placebo analgesia and specifically to present research findings regarding the neurotransmission. Studies have demonstrated that placebo analgesia can be elicited through two separate processes interacting with each other; manipulation of expectations and through conditioning. These processes seem to affect neurotransmission in different ways. Many brain areas have been found to be correlated to placebo analgesia. Besides the pain-processing brain areas, studies point to that the prefrontal cortex can have a vital role in the placebo analgesic effect. Known neurotransmitters that have shown to be involved in placebo analgesia are endogenous opioids, cholecystokinin (CCK), and endocannabinoids. Studies point to that endogenous opioids are involved in the placebo analgesic effect when elicited by expectation or conditioned by an opioid drug. CCK act on placebo analgesia by affecting the release of endogenous opioids and endocannabinoids seem to be involved in placebo analgesia while it occurs due to conditioning with non-opioid drugs. Getting a better understanding of placebo analgesia and find ways to apply this knowledge in the clinical context could powerfully develop the whole medical society.

Uppsatsen "Att leva med bonussyskon – Om de biologiska barnens situation i familjehemmen" ur ett föräldra- samt professionellt perspektiv är utförd och skriven av Annie Dahlbom. Denna studie syftar till att få kunskap om de biologiska barnens situation och behov i familjehemmen. Följande frågeställningar har ställts : Hur ser familjehemsföräldrar och familjehemssekreterare på de biologiska barnens delaktighet och roll? Vilka upplevelser och erfarenheter får biologiska barn i och med familjens uppdrag? Har biologiska barn ett behov av stöd och hjälp för sin egen del och i så fall hur? Denna studie är av kvalitativ karaktär och bygger på semistrukturerade intervjuer med familjehemssekreterare samt familjehemsföräldrar. Studiens resultat visar att biologiska barn i familjehem anses ha en betydelsefull roll för uppdraget och är i hög grad delaktiga i den dagliga vården av det placerade barnet. Familjehemmets egna barn har ingen delaktighet vid möten eller i kontakten med socialtjänsten. Upplevelserna av att fungera som familjehem är av både positiv och negativ karaktär där förlorad tid med föräldrar samt goda och nyttiga kunskaper är exempel på sådana. Samtliga informanter tror att någon form av gruppverksamhet skulle vara ett bra forum för de biologiska barnen. / This essey "living with bonus siblings- Biological children’s situation within their family’s work as a foster family" have been written and executed by Annie Dahlbom. The purpose of this essay is to understand the biological situation within their family’s work as a foster family. How will the biological children react on their family’s mission? I want to gain knowledge about how these children’s participation takes place within the separate parts of their family’s work. Is there a need for shoring and help for foster homes own children according to their situation? The following questions have been asked to fulfill the purpose of this study: How do foster parents and professionals describe the biological children's participation and role? What experiences have biological children in the family's mission? Have biological children need support and help for their own part, and if so, how? This study is qualitative in nature and based on semi-structured interviews with professionals and foster parents.The results demonstrate that the biological children of the foster family have a significant role in the mission and is heavily involved in the daily care of the child is placed. The foster family’s own children have no involvement in meetings or in contact with social services. The experiences of serving as foster homes are both positive and negative character where lost time with parents as well as good and useful knowledge is examples of such. All respondents believe that some form of group activity would be a good forum for the biological children.

The purpose of this study was to gain knowledge and a picture of how foster parents perceive their task, the role of the placed children and their biological parents.  Even how they perceived their family have been affected by the mandates removal. Consistently showed the most positive experiences with strong ties to the children placed. However, there are experiences of the need for additional guidance, support, education and contact with the client to enhance a sense of competence in the task and prevent collapse. Burnout experienced often based in the placed child's difficulties in integration. That often grounded on the biological mother's lack of acceptance of the placement in the foster home. Aggression based on this lack of acceptance experienced by family homes to be something that the mother in the family home had to respond. By contrast, more children in the family home were something that the family home learns was positive and facilitated the integration of the placement. Furthermore, accountability of the role of foster parents experienced greater than accountability in the biological role of parents.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka och tydliggöra vissa skydds- och riskfaktorer som finns för barn placerade i familjehem. Den ansats som användes till denna studie var kvalitativ och urvalet till denna skedde genom kvoturval. Efter urvalet genomfördes halvstrukturerade intervjuer med fem stycken respondenter. Genom intervjuerna fick jag en tydligare bild av vilka faktorer som kunde inverka positivt eller negativt för de placerade barnen. Betydelsen av att familjehem samtalade med barn påvisades och genom detta bekräftades och hördes de placerade barnen. Det framgick tydligt att socialsekreterare ville ha mer tid för att kunna hålla regelbundna kontakter till barnen samt att kunna ge adekvat handledning till familjehemmen. Om socialsekreterarna kunde upprätthålla goda och täta kontakter gav det i flesta fall gensvar på ett positivt sätt utav vården, tilliten hos barnen ökade även gentemot socialsekreteraren. Slutsatsen är att tiden är en bristvara som blir en riskfaktor i hela vårdprocessen. Barnen är beroende av goda relationer till både socialsekreterare och familjehem, de är även i stor utsträckning till gagn för de placerade barnen om de biologiska föräldrarna är delaktig i vården. Således kan vi se vården som ett samspel mellan olika faktorer.

Familjehemsplaceringar är en viktig insats i den sociala barnavården. Efterfrågan på familjehem är stor medan svårigheterna att rekrytera nya familjehem ökar. Synen på familjehemsvården har förändrats från att ha varit ett permanent ersättningshem till att bli ett kompletterande hem för barnet. Detta innebär att det placerade barnet skall uppmuntras till att ha kontakt och umgänge med de biologiska föräldrarna och målet är att barnet skall flytta hem. Detta innebär att fosterföräldrarna skall samarbeta med barnets biologiska föräldrar. Syftet med denna studie är att förstå hur fosterföräldrarna upplevde sin roll, och hur de samarbetade med de biologiska föräldrarna och vilken roll socialtjänsten hade i detta samarbete. För att få svar på detta så gjorde vi kvalitativa intervjuer med åtta familjehem. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt har vi valt Goffmans (2006) dramaturgiska perspektiv som belyser samspelet mellan olika aktörer. Fosterföräldrarna upplevde att de hade höga krav på sig själva, socialtjänsten och allmänheten. Resultatet visade att respondenterna hade olika erfarenheter, både positiva och negativa, av samarbetet med de biologiska föräldrarna och socialtjänsten. Fosterföräldrarna påtalade att det många gånger var problematiskt att samarbeta med de biologiska föräldrarna och att socialtjänsten hade stor betydelse för att samarbetet skulle bli bra. Fosterfamiljerna lyfte fram att de upplevde det svårt att få en kontinuerlig kontakt med sina socialsekreterare. / Family home placement plays a contributing roll in social childcare. The demand is great for family homes and the need in finding new homes is ever increasing. The way in which family homecare is looked upon has changed and it is no longer regarded as a permanent replacement home but instead as a complementary home for the child. This means that the child who is placed in a family home must be encouraged to have contact and spend time with the biological parents in the aim that the child will return home. Therefore cooperation is necessary between foster parents and the child's biological parents. The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of how the foster parents see their roll and how they interact with the biological parents, as well as the cooperation they receive from social services. In order to answer these questions we have implemented qualitative interviews with eight family homes. We chose to use Goffman's dramaturgical perspective as our theoretical basis in order to highlight the interplay between the different actors. Foster parents felt that they had high expectations of themselves, of the social workers and of the general public. The results of this study show that the respondents had different experiences, both positive and negative in regard to cooperation between the biological parents and the social services. Foster parents complained of difficulties working with the biological parents and that the social services played an important roll in making sure that cooperation between both parties was achieved. Foster families revealed that they found it difficult to uphold regular contact with their social secretary.

<p>Familjehemsplaceringar är en viktig insats i den sociala barnavården. Efterfrågan på familjehem är stor medan svårigheterna att rekrytera nya familjehem ökar. Synen på familjehemsvården har förändrats från att ha varit ett permanent ersättningshem till att bli ett kompletterande hem för barnet. Detta innebär att det placerade barnet skall uppmuntras till att ha kontakt och umgänge med de biologiska föräldrarna och målet är att barnet skall flytta hem. Detta innebär att fosterföräldrarna skall samarbeta med barnets biologiska föräldrar. Syftet med denna studie är att förstå hur fosterföräldrarna upplevde sin roll, och hur de samarbetade med de biologiska föräldrarna och vilken roll socialtjänsten hade i detta samarbete. För att få svar på detta så gjorde vi kvalitativa intervjuer med åtta familjehem. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt har vi valt Goffmans (2006) dramaturgiska perspektiv som belyser samspelet mellan olika aktörer. Fosterföräldrarna upplevde att de hade höga krav på sig själva, socialtjänsten och allmänheten. Resultatet visade att respondenterna hade olika erfarenheter, både positiva och negativa, av samarbetet med de biologiska föräldrarna och socialtjänsten. Fosterföräldrarna påtalade att det många gånger var problematiskt att samarbeta med de biologiska föräldrarna och att socialtjänsten hade stor betydelse för att samarbetet skulle bli bra. Fosterfamiljerna lyfte fram att de upplevde det svårt att få en kontinuerlig kontakt med sina socialsekreterare.</p> / <p>Family home placement plays a contributing roll in social childcare. The demand is great for family homes and the need in finding new homes is ever increasing. The way in which family homecare is looked upon has changed and it is no longer regarded as a permanent replacement home but instead as a complementary home for the child. This means that the child who is placed in a family home must be encouraged to have contact and spend time with the biological parents in the aim that the child will return home. Therefore cooperation is necessary between foster parents and the child's biological parents. The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of how the foster parents see their roll and how they interact with the biological parents, as well as the cooperation they receive from social services. In order to answer these questions we have implemented qualitative interviews with eight family homes. We chose to use Goffman's dramaturgical perspective as our theoretical basis in order to highlight the interplay between the different actors. Foster parents felt that they had high expectations of themselves, of the social workers and of the general public. The results of this study show that the respondents had different experiences, both positive and negative in regard to cooperation between the biological parents and the social services. Foster parents complained of difficulties working with the biological parents and that the social services played an important roll in making sure that cooperation between both parties was achieved. Foster families revealed that they found it difficult to uphold regular contact with their social secretary.</p>

Studien gjordes i syfte att undersöka hur familjehemsföräldrar kan uppleva att deras uppdrag som familjehem påverkar dem själva, deras biologiska barn och deras relationer. Fokusgruppsintervjuer genomfördes med två grupper innehållande fem familjehemsföräldrar i varje grupp. Fokusgrupperna bestod av fem kvinnor och fem män emellan 33 och 61 år. En intervjuguide och en mindre enkät skapades och användes under intervjuerna som spelades in på ljudfiler. Databearbetningen bestod av en fenomenologisk, hermeneutisk analysmetod. Analysen gav tre slutliga teman: kommunikationens betydelse inom familjehemmet och i dess kontakt med omvärlden utanför hemmet; familjehemsuppdragets positiva och negativa påverkan på grundfamiljens relationer inom och utom familjen och familjehemsuppdragets positiva och negativa effekter på personlig och psykologisk utveckling hos föräldrar och biologiska barn i familjehem. Kommunikation och är ett centralt begrepp i livsvärlden för de i studien deltagande familjehemsföräldrarna. Relationer och psykologisk utveckling påverkas både positiv och negativt. Resultaten i studien är i linje med tidigare forskning och kommunikation, gränssättning och empati visade sig vara användbara verktyg i uppdraget som familjehem för föräldrarna i studien. Uppsatsen generar en modell som fick namnet Familjehemsdynamik. Modellen beskriver vilka effekter uppdraget som familjehem kan ha på individerna i grundfamiljen. / The study was done in order to investigate how foster parents experience how foster care affects themselves, their biological children and their relationships. Focus group interviews were conducted with two groups of five foster parents in each group. The focus groups consisted of five women and five men between 33 and 61 years old. An interview guide and a smaller survey was created and used during the interviews that were recorded on audio files. Data processing consisted of a phenomenological, hermeneutic analysis. The analysis gave three final themes: the importance of communication within the foster home and in their contact with the world outside the home; the impact of foster care on the biological children and their parents' relations within and outside the foster home and the positive and negative impact on personal and psychological development on parents and biological children in foster homes. Communication is a central concept in the foster carers everyday life. Relationships and psychological development is influenced both positively and negatively. The results of the study are in line with previous research. Communication, boundaries and empathy are key elements in foster care. The paper generated a model named Fostering care family dynamics. The model describes potential effects of fostering on the individuals in the biological family.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2007. / Härtill 6 uppsatser.

This thesis contains an overview of the mechanisms of addiction as well as a description of the impairments related to drug abuse. The general view of addiction is that it depends on three characteristics that have separate neural mechanisms, called “wanting”, liking and learning. “Wanting” is described as a desire evoked by reward cues, liking refers to the pleasure of getting a reward and learning is described in terms of classical conditioning. “Wanting” and liking are usually in agreement but in addiction they are dissociable, that is, wanting a drug but getting no pleasure from it. Reward cues, acquired through learning, awakes the motivation to obtain the drug again. This can be problematic when trying to cease drug taking. The dopamine system in the brain is much discussed in relation to addiction and its neural correlates. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is suggested to be altered in addiction, and this may underlie some of the impairments discussed. Addiction is also strongly related to cognitive impairments such as working memory problems, impulsivity, attentional problems and decision-making impairments. Affective impairments, such as empathy problems, may also to have some connection to addiction, although this is less clear.