A sample of fifty-seven pathological gamblers and one hundred and fifteen controls (two per pathological gambler, matched as regards age and sex) was investigated. This sample received a complex battery of psychometric tests designed to evaluate two different axes: psychopathology and intelligence. The results obtained show that pathological gamblers have an unstable family and work background, that pathological gambling correlates with other addictions (alcohol, illness prone behavior, absenteeism, risk working, living alone and bereavement), that all the general and specific psychopathology vectors were significant in the addicts, and that the pathological gamblers' intelligence has characteristic factors.

333 Background: Unbiased genome-wide analyses of gene expression patterns have been successfully used for the molecular classification of breast cancer into subtypes that have clear relevance for prognosis and development of treatment plans. For colorectal cancer (CRC), however, a molecular classification is still missing. Methods: Using gene expression data of 188 stage I-IV colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, a molecular subtype classification was developed. The classifier was validated in 543 stage II and III patients and the subtypes were analyzed for correlation to clinical information, mutations in the kinome, known molecular marker status and chemotherapy response. Results: CRC is a heterogeneous disease that consists of at least three major intrinsic subtypes (A-, B-, C-type). The heterogeneity of the intrinsic subtypes is largely based on three biological hallmarks of the tumor: an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, deficiency in mismatch repair genes that result in a high mutation frequency associated with MSI, and cellular proliferation. C-type patients have the worst outcome, a mesenchymal gene expression phenotype, and show no benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy treatment. Patients having A-type or B-type tumors have a better clinical outcome, a more proliferative and epithelial phenotype, and benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. B-type tumors showed a low overall kinome mutation frequency (1.6%), while both A-type and C-type patients harbor a higher mutation frequency (respectively 4.2 and 6.2%), in agreement with their mismatch repair deficiency. Conclusions: We have developed a diagnostic single sample predictor that allows the classification of CRC tumors of different intrinsic molecular subtypes. These subtypes are potentially clinically relevant, as they differ in their underlying biology and clinical outcome and consequently require different treatment strategies. [Table: see text]

The objective of this study is to compare the prevalence of smoking among young students of the area of La Garrotxa between 1982 and 1986. Two surveys were made, following the same methodology, interviewing two samples of student population 13 to 25 years old. The total number of interviewed students were 1,039 in 1982 and 1,133 in 1986. The smoking prevalence was lower in 1986 than in 1982, decreasing from 55% to 35%. This difference was due to a decrease in the prevalence of those younger than 17 in both sexes and remained stable after adjusting for age, sex and school. The initial age for experimental smoking was delayed by 1 year from 1982 to 1986. The proportion of smoker parents was not different between both periods. We conclude that smoking habit has decreased in younger people, and this is probably due to a delay in the age of smoking initiation.

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