No abstract

OBJETIVO: Estudar a relação entre o consumo de substâncias psicoativas e o comportamento sexual de estudantes de uma escola pública de segundo grau na cidade de São Paulo. MATERIAL E MÉTODOS: Foram colhidos 689 questionários, que foram respondidos por alunos com idades entre 13 e 21 anos. Os questionários continham questões sobre o consumo de substâncias psicoativas e comportamento sexual. Assim, comparou-se as diferenças de comportamento sexual entre os usuários e os não usuários de drogas. RESULTADOS: Os usuários de drogas ilícitas (n=366) referiram: maior história de relação sexual completa: 80,8% dos usuários contra 57,6% dos não usuários (n=305), (p< 0,001); início mais precoce da atividade sexual (média de 15,2 anos entre os usuários contra 15,7 anos dos não usuários, p<0,05); mais pagamento por sexo (31,1% entre os usuários contra 15% dos não usuários, p<0,001); e tendência a menor uso de preservativos (56,8% entre os usuários contra 65,3% dos não usuários, p<0,10). Estes resultados também se repetiram quando foi estudado cada tipo de droga separadamente e a associação de diferentes tipos de drogas. CONCLUSÕES: A freqüência de uso de drogas não alterou o comportamento sexual. As substâncias que apresentaram associação com mais comportamento sexual de risco foram o álcool e a maconha. O uso de crack esteve associado com início precoce de vida sexual.

The effect of ocular artefacts on spectral EEG parameters is assessed statistically. These artefacts are caused by movements of the eyeball and/or of the lid. Further, methods for correcting ocular artefacts are presented and evaluated. This methodological study is based on data from an investigation comparing the EEG of schizophrenic patients (n = 17) with healthy controls (n = 15). Ocular artefacts are monitored by the bipolar vertical and the bipolar horizontal electro-oculogram (EOG). It is shown that the influence of ocular artefacts on the measured electrical activity in the frontal region is larger than the cerebral potentials which the EEG is ideally intended to record. The more frequent occurrence of blinks and eye movements in schizophrenic patients may lead to an artificial enhancement of slow frequency EEG power for schizophrenics and eventually "false significances". In contrast to this, we found more significant group differences when correcting for EOG artefacts than without it. This can be attributed to a very much inflated sample variability of the uncorrected EEG, due to the individually varying EOG power. We conclude that it may not be sufficient to select visually epochs for analysis that are considered artefact-free. Rather, one should monitor EOG artefacts and apply an appropriate correction.

NMDA receptor density as measured by the specific binding of [³H]MK 801 was significantly decreased (about 20%) in the frontal but not in the parietal cortex of postmortem brain samples of Alzheimer''s disease (AD) patients (n = 21), when compared with control brains (n = 20). Membrane fluidity was not altered in the frontal cortex samples, but was slightly reduced in the parietal cortex samples of the AD patients. Since AD-specific histopathological changes (densities of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles) were about similar in both areas, it is concluded that the reductions of NMDA receptor densities in the frontal cortex is independent of AD-specific histopathological changes and of changes of membrane fluidity.

Using data from the São Paulo Megacity Mental Health Survey and logistic regression models, we studied how childhood neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and family violence were related to adult hypertension and heart disease. After adjustment for sociodemographic factors, child physical abuse was associated with hypertension and heart disease, whereas family violence was associated with hypertension. Efforts to curb child physical abuse could potentially reduce subsequent hypertension and heart disease.