No description available.

This research examined romantic partners’ stress reactivity to relationship conflict through the lens of a threat vs. challenge perspective. We assessed the DHEA-S to cortisol ratio (anabolic balance) as an index of 330 newlywed partners’ threat or challenge orientations to a conflict discussion with their spouse and then examined whether these orientations were predicted by their attachment styles. Consistent with predictions, anxious attachment predicted lower anabolic balance trajectories, compared to secure attachment. Results were decomposed into DHEA-S and cortisol components. DHEA-S levels were found to be more congruent with challenge, while cortisol levels were more congruent with threat.

No description available.

Endometriosis is defined as the presence of endometrial cells outside the uterine cavity. The underlying symptom is pain, endometriosis is often associated with primary or secondary sterility, and it is assumed to be involved in the development of female dyspareunia and algopareunia. There are many theories regarding the cause of the disease, however, none of them affects the complex state of the disease which occurs in the population according to statistics in 10-15 % of women. In women with a diagnosis of sterility and infertility, the incidence of endometriosis is described in more than 40 %. Also, more than 50 % of women describe the most diverse forms of dyspareunia and algopareunia that affect not only women's own lives but also their relationships. The illness thus becomes important not only from a purely medical point of view but also from a psychosocial point of view. It should be noted that there is currently no known specific laboratory marker to diagnose endometriosis. Likewise, there is no unambiguous solution within the therapy, whether it is conservative, surgical, or combined. An important fact is that endometriosis is diagnosed with a considerable delay, according to statistics; it takes up to 11 years from the discovery of the first, often indefinite symptoms, to the unequivocal...

<p>This thesis reports on the effects of stress management on long-term pain patients and on a healthy sample from IT and media companies; two groups that are commonly exposed to high stress levels. Even if there are important differences between these two groups, there are similarities such as the necessity for effective stress management. Stress-related and musculoskeletal disorders are major public health issues in most industrialized countries and are expected to become increasingly common during the coming decades. The pathogenic plastic changes in the CNS and immune system caused by long-term stress pose severe burdens to individuals, organizations as well as society in general. Thus, stress management may be essential to maintain and improve long-term health and wellbeing and to proactively counteract stress-related ill-health.</p><p>This thesis is based on four papers: Paper I assessed the effects of massage as compared to relaxation tapes in long-term pain patients. Paper II validated some of the Visual Analogue Scale questions that were to be used in paper III and IV. Paper III assessed the effects on mental and physical wellbeing and biological stress markers from a web-based stress management and health promotion tool. Paper IV aimed at mapping out predictors for trends (improvement vs. worsening) in self-rated health (SRH) over a period of one year.</p><p>The overall results indicate that individually focused stress management interventions in long-term pain patients as well as on a healthy, working population may have short-term beneficial effects on psychological and physiological stress, health and wellbeing. On a long-term basis the beneficial changes seem to revert. In paper four, it is indicated that the stress management intervention is not a significant predictor of long-term changes in SRH. Rather, other factors such as health perception, sleep quality and sense of coherence predicted improvement in SRH over time.</p>

<p>Organ-specific autoimmunity constitutes a large health problem, where both the clinical management and our understanding of the pathogenetic mechanisms need to improve. Women with Addison's disease have abnormally low levels of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), its sulphate ester (DHEA-S) and androgens relative to age, and many patients complain of physical and mental fatigue and low stress tolerance. To define a suitable dose, the effect of oral DHEA replacement was evaluated in women with Addison's disease. </p><p> DHEA was administered for three months to nine women with Addison's disease in either of two doses, 50 mg (n=5) or 200 mg (n=4). A dose of 50 mg restored the DHEA(S) and androgen levels to normal without altering the insulin sensitivity, body composition or serum lipid profile.</p><p> Autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type I (APS I) is a rare but useful model disorder of autoimmunity, characterised by multiple organ-specific autoimmune manifestations and high-titre autoantibodies and with adrenocortical insufficiency, Addison's disease, as one of its cardinal manifestations. Approximately 10-20% of APS I patients suffer from autoimmune hepatitis, which carries a high mortality, if untreated. The presence of putative antigenic targets in the liver was investigated.</p><p> Cytochrome P4501A2 (CYP1A2) and aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) were identified as hepatic autoantigens with the use of APS I sera for immunofluorescent staining of normal human liver, Western blot of microsomal and cytosol fractions of human liver homogenate, and immunoprecipitation of <i>in vitro</i> transcribed and translated radioactively labelled proteins. The presence of CYP1A2- and AADC-antibodies was significantly correlated to AIH, and CYP1A2 antibodies inhibited enzyme activity <i>in vitro</i>.</p><p><i> In conclusion</i>, a daily replacement dose of 50 mg of DHEA sufficiently restores levels of DHEA, DHEA(S) and androgens in women with Addison's disease, without severe side-effects. We have further identified CYP1A2 and AADC as hepatic autoantigens associated with autoimmune hepatitis in APS I.</p>

Organ-specific autoimmunity constitutes a large health problem, where both the clinical management and our understanding of the pathogenetic mechanisms need to improve. Women with Addison's disease have abnormally low levels of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), its sulphate ester (DHEA-S) and androgens relative to age, and many patients complain of physical and mental fatigue and low stress tolerance. To define a suitable dose, the effect of oral DHEA replacement was evaluated in women with Addison's disease. DHEA was administered for three months to nine women with Addison's disease in either of two doses, 50 mg (n=5) or 200 mg (n=4). A dose of 50 mg restored the DHEA(S) and androgen levels to normal without altering the insulin sensitivity, body composition or serum lipid profile. Autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type I (APS I) is a rare but useful model disorder of autoimmunity, characterised by multiple organ-specific autoimmune manifestations and high-titre autoantibodies and with adrenocortical insufficiency, Addison's disease, as one of its cardinal manifestations. Approximately 10-20% of APS I patients suffer from autoimmune hepatitis, which carries a high mortality, if untreated. The presence of putative antigenic targets in the liver was investigated. Cytochrome P4501A2 (CYP1A2) and aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) were identified as hepatic autoantigens with the use of APS I sera for immunofluorescent staining of normal human liver, Western blot of microsomal and cytosol fractions of human liver homogenate, and immunoprecipitation of in vitro transcribed and translated radioactively labelled proteins. The presence of CYP1A2- and AADC-antibodies was significantly correlated to AIH, and CYP1A2 antibodies inhibited enzyme activity in vitro. In conclusion, a daily replacement dose of 50 mg of DHEA sufficiently restores levels of DHEA, DHEA(S) and androgens in women with Addison's disease, without severe side-effects. We have further identified CYP1A2 and AADC as hepatic autoantigens associated with autoimmune hepatitis in APS I.

This thesis reports on the effects of stress management on long-term pain patients and on a healthy sample from IT and media companies; two groups that are commonly exposed to high stress levels. Even if there are important differences between these two groups, there are similarities such as the necessity for effective stress management. Stress-related and musculoskeletal disorders are major public health issues in most industrialized countries and are expected to become increasingly common during the coming decades. The pathogenic plastic changes in the CNS and immune system caused by long-term stress pose severe burdens to individuals, organizations as well as society in general. Thus, stress management may be essential to maintain and improve long-term health and wellbeing and to proactively counteract stress-related ill-health. This thesis is based on four papers: Paper I assessed the effects of massage as compared to relaxation tapes in long-term pain patients. Paper II validated some of the Visual Analogue Scale questions that were to be used in paper III and IV. Paper III assessed the effects on mental and physical wellbeing and biological stress markers from a web-based stress management and health promotion tool. Paper IV aimed at mapping out predictors for trends (improvement vs. worsening) in self-rated health (SRH) over a period of one year. The overall results indicate that individually focused stress management interventions in long-term pain patients as well as on a healthy, working population may have short-term beneficial effects on psychological and physiological stress, health and wellbeing. On a long-term basis the beneficial changes seem to revert. In paper four, it is indicated that the stress management intervention is not a significant predictor of long-term changes in SRH. Rather, other factors such as health perception, sleep quality and sense of coherence predicted improvement in SRH over time.

Η νόσος του Parkinson χαρακτηρίζεται από τη βαθμιαία, εκλεκτική νευροεκφύλιση των ντοπαμινεργικών νευρώνων της μελαινοραβδωτής οδού. Η μειωμένη δραστηριοποίηση των ντοπαμινεργικών υποδοχέων που προκαλείται από την ανεπάρκεια ντοπαμίνης τροποποιεί τη λειτουργία των βασικών γαγγλίων και αναστέλλει τα κινητικά συστήματα. Ιδανικό πειραματικό μοντέλο αποτελεί το μοντέλο weaver, το οποίο εμφανίζει το ίδιο μοτίβο νευροεκφύλισης με τους παρκινσονικούς ασθενείς καθώς και περισσότερη από 70% μείωση της ντοπαμίνης στο ραβδωτό σώμα. Το γεγονός πως δεν υπάρχει σήμερα αποτελεσματική θεραπεία που να σταματά ή να αναστρέφει την εξέλιξη της νόσου, δημιουργεί την ανάγκη ανακάλυψης ενός φαρμακευτικού σχήματος το οποίο θα έχει νευροπροστατευτική δράση και θα περιορίζει τις παρενέργειες. Προηγούμενα αποτελέσματα της ομάδας μας δείχνουν σημαντική επιβίωση των ντοπαμινεργικών κυττάρων στο μοντέλο weaver μετά από χρόνια χορήγηση του ενδογενούς νευροστεροειδούς DHEAS, του χημικού αναλόγου του ΒΝΝ-50 (το οποίο δε μεταβολίζεται σε οιστρογόνα) και του φαρμακευτικού συνδυασμού του ΒΝΝ-50 με τη Ν-ακετυλοκυστεΐνη (NAC), με το τελευταίο να επαναφέρει πλήρως τον αριθμό των κυττάρων στη μέλαινα ουσία. Στην παρούσα εργασία θελήσαμε να διερευνήσουμε τους μηχανισμούς μέσω των οποίων επιτυγχάνεται η νευροπροστασία που προκαλεί η συγχορήγηση του συνδυασμού BNN-50/ΝAC. Για το σκοπό αυτό, αξιολογήσαμε την αντιαποπτωτική, καθώς και την αντιοξειδωτική δράση του σχήματος BNN-50/NAC. Οι δύο δείκτες επιλέχθηκαν λαμβάνοντας υπόψιν τον κεντρικό ρόλο του αποπτωτικού θανάτου στη διαδικασία της νευροεκφύλισης, καθώς και το ρόλο του οξειδωτικού στρες στην παθογένεια της νόσου. Τα αποτελέσματα μας υποδεικνύουν πλειοτροπική δράση του φαρμακευτικού συνδυασμού BNN-50/NAC, η οποία εκφράζεται μέσω της ισχυρής αντιαποπτωτικής και αντιοξειδωτικής του δράσης. / Parkinson 's disease is characterized by the progressive, selective neurodegeneration of the dopaminergic neurons of the nigrostriatal pathway. The decreased activation of dopamine receptors caused by insufficient dopamine levels, modifies the function of the basal ganglia circuit and inhibits the mobility systems. The weaver model consists an ideal model for neuroprotection studies, which exhibits the same pattern of neurodegeneration as the parkinsonian patients and more than 70% decrease of dopamine in the striatum. The fact that there is currently no effective treatment to attenuate or reverse the disease progression, creates the need for discovery of a drug combination which will exhibit neuroprotective effect and reduce the side effects. Previous results of our group, have shown a significant survival of dopaminergic neurons in weaver mice after chronic administration of endogenous neurosteroid DHEA-S, the chemical analog BNN-50 (which is not metabolized to estrogens) and the combination of the BNN-50 with N-acetylcysteine (NAC,with the latter combination completely rescuing the number of dopaminergic cells of the substantia nigra. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanisms of neuroprotection induced by coadministration of combination BNN-50/NAC. For this purpose, we evaluated the possible antiapoptotic and antioxidant action of the BNN-50/NAC combination. Our results suggest a pleiotropic effect of the BNN-50/NAC drug combination, that is expressed through strong antiapoptotic and antioxidant activity.