Pleasure-seeking Behavior Research Articles

The Contribution of the Brain-Gut Axis to the Human Reward System.

The human reward network consists of interconnected brain regions that process stimuli associated with satisfaction and modulate pleasure-seeking behaviors. Impairments in reward processing have been implicated in several medical and psychiatric conditions, and there is a growing interest in disentangling the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms. The brain-gut axis plays a regulatory role in several higher-order neurophysiological pathways, including reward processing. In this context, the aim of the current review was to critically appraise research findings on the contribution of the brain-gut axis to the human reward system. Enteric neuropeptides, which are implicated in the regulation of hunger and satiety, such as ghrelin, PYY3-36, and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), have been associated with the processing of food-related, alcohol-related, and other non-food-related rewards, maintaining a delicate balance between the body's homeostatic and hedonic needs. Furthermore, intestinal microbiota and their metabolites have been linked to differences in the architecture and activation of brain reward areas in obese patients and patients with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. Likewise, bariatric surgery reduces hedonic eating by altering the composition of gut microbiota. Although existing findings need further corroboration, they provide valuable information on the pathophysiology of reward-processing impairments and delineate a novel framework for potential therapeutic interventions.

The Never Ending Pursuit of Satisfaction: How the Brain Modulates Pleasure Seeking Behavior

The Never Ending Pursuit of Satisfaction: How the Brain Modulates Pleasure Seeking Behavior

The Relationship of Substance Abuse with Attachment and Emotion Regulation

Objective: The purpose of this study to examine the characteristics of substance use (SU) and its relationship with psychiatric symptoms, emotion regulation and attachment in youth and young adults with substance abuse in the southeast region of Turkey who have been exposed to repetitive trauma.
 Method: Forty-four patients with substance use complaints completed Sociodemographic Form, Addiction Profile Index (BAPI), BAPI-Clinical Form. Association of SU disorder diagnosis with both emotion regulation as measured by the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and the attachment style as measured by Parent Attachment Tool is evaluated.
 Results: Our sample consists of 44 male patients a mean age of 23.77 years. All of them can read and write, but none of them are university graduates. The rate of being single in marital status is 66%. 60% of them have a low income level. 45% of them do not work. 25% of the sample meets the addiction criteria. Compared to the addicted and non-addicted groups, the addicted groups had significantly higher scores on inadequate anger control, lack of safe behavior, pleasure-seeking behavior, impulsivity, depression, and anxiety. The non-addicted group had a higher mean for cognitive reappraisal. The non-addicted group had a higher mean for cognitive reappraisal. Inadequate anger control, pleasure seeking behavior and duration of anxiety about substance use were found to be risk factors for addiction.
 Conclusions: The addicted group is different from the non-addicted group for BAPI subscales and ERQ subscale- a cognitive reappraisal. The current findings expand our understanding of the psychological and behavioral aspects of addiction, especially in provinces such as Şırnak, where traumatic life events are repeated, as there are many risk factors for SUD.

Early postnatal treatment with clomipramine induces female sexual behavior and estrous cycle impairment

Administration of clomipramine (CMI), a tricyclic antidepressant, in early stages of development in rats, is considered an animal model for the study of depression. This pharmacological manipulation has induced behavioral and physiological alterations, i.e., less pleasure-seeking behaviors, despair, hyperactivity, cognitive dysfunction, alterations in neurotransmitter systems and in HPA axis. These abnormalities in adult male rats are similar to the symptoms observed in major depressive disorders. One of the main pleasure-seeking behaviors affected in male rats treated with CMI is sexual behavior. However, to date, no effects of early postnatal CMI treatment have been reported on female reproductive cyclicity and sexual behavior. Therefore, we explored CMI administration in early life (8–21 PN) on the estrous cycle and sexual behavior of adult female rats. Compared to the rats in the early postnatal saline treatment (CTRL group), the CMI rats had fewer estrous cycles, fewer days in the estrous stage, and longer cycles during a 20-day period of vaginal cytology analysis. On the behavioral test, the CMI rats displayed fewer proceptive behaviors (hopping, darting) and had lower lordosis quotients. Also, they usually failed to display lordosis and only rarely manifested marginal or normal lordosis. In contrast, the CTRL rats tended to display normal lordosis. These results suggest that early postnatal CMI treatment caused long-term disruptions of the estrous cycle and female sexual behavior, perhaps by alteration in the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axes and in neuronal circuits involved in the regulation of the performance and motivational of sexual behavior as the noradrenergic and serotonergic systems.

The transition from pediatric to adult care for youth with epilepsy: Basic biological, sociological, and psychological issues

Transition from pediatric to adult health care for adolescents with epilepsy is challenging for the patient, family, and health care workers. This paper is the first of three that summarize the main findings from the 2nd Symposium on Transition in Epilepsies, held in Paris from June 14-25, 2016. In this paper we describe five basic themes that have an important effect on transition. First, there are important brain changes in adolescence that leave an imbalance between risk taking and pleasure seeking behaviors and frontal executive function compared with adults. Second, puberty is a major change during the transition age. The three most important but separate neuroendocrine axes involved in puberty are gonadarche (activation of the gonads), adrenarche (activation of adrenal androgen production), and activation of the growth hormone-insulin like growth factor. Third, sexual debut occurs during the transition years, and at an earlier age in adolescents with epilepsy than controls. Adult sexual performance is often unsatisfactory. Although AED-induced alterations in sexual hormones and temporal lobe epilepsy may play a role in hyposexuality, depression, anxiety, and other social factors appear most important. Fourth, psychological development is very important with an evolution from an early stage (ages 10-13years) with concrete thinking, to a middle stage (ages 14-17) with analytic and more abstract introspective thinking, and then to a late stage (ages 18-21) with at least the beginnings of adult reasoning. Epilepsy may derail this relatively orderly progression. Adolescents with autistic spectrum disorder may present with severe behavior problems that are sometimes related to undiagnosed epilepsy. Fifth, bone health in adolescence is critical to establish adequate mineralization for all of adult life. While AED interference with Vitamin D metabolism is important, there is evidence that the effects of AEDs on bone are more complex and involve changes in remodeling. Hence, some non-inducing AEDs may have a significant effect on bone health. All five of these themes lead to recommendations for how to approach adolescents and young adults during transition and some specific interventions to achieve maximum long-term adult independence and quality of life.

Transition to injecting drug use in Iran: A systematic review of qualitative and quantitative evidence

BackgroundInjection drug use, a behavior associated with significant adverse health effects, has been increasing over the past decade in Iran. This study aims to systematically review the epidemiological and qualitative evidence on factors that facilitate or protect the transition to injection drug use in Iran. MethodsWe conducted electronic searches in five international (Medline, Web of Science, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO), one regional (IMEMR) and three Iranian (Iranmedex, Iranpsych, IranDoc) databases, as well as contacting experts in the field. Two trained researchers screened documents to identify relevant studies and independently dual-extracted data following pre-specified protocol. We applied principles of thematic analysis for qualitative data and applied a random effect meta-analysis model for age of first injection. ResultsA total of 38 documents from 31 studies met eligibility criteria, from which more than 50% were implemented from 2006 to 2008. The weighted mean age of first injection was 25.8 (95% Confidence Interval: 25.3–26.2). Between 1998 and 2011, the age of first injection was relatively stable. Overall, drug users had used drugs for 6–7 years before they started injection use. Heroin was the first drug of injection in the majority of the cases. We identified factors influencing the initiation of or transition to injection use at various levels, including: (1) individual (pleasure-seeking behavior, curiosity and development of drug dependency commonly reported), (2) social and environmental (role of peer drug users in the first injection use, the economic efficiency associated with injections and the wide availability of injectable form of drugs in the market). ConclusionHarm reduction policies in Iran have almost exclusively focused on drug injectors in Iran. However, given the extent of the non-injection drug use epidemic, evidence from this study can provide insight on points of interventions for the prevention of the transition to injection use.

The Effects of Preeclampsia on Perinatal Risks and Infant Temperaments Among Mothers With Antenatal Depression.

Preeclampsia and depression are two most prevalent disorders known to affect pregnant women and unborn infant. However, few studies have prospectively examined the adverse influence of the in-utero exposures to the two disorders on the optimal development in their offspring, including mortality, adverse birth outcomes, and infant temperament styles. (1) To examine whether exposures to preeclampsia and antenatal depression were associated with developmental indices of offspring at birth and temperament at 3 months; and (2) To evaluate how preeclampsia and antenatal depression associated with offspring temperamental style. Prospective cohort study with regular assessment of mother's blood pressure at each prenatal visit: offspring were followed till 3 months. Two prenatal clinics, New York City, USA. A cohort of 233 pregnant women was followed throughout pregnancy. Of those, 141 provided ratings of infant temperament at three months. Diagnostic outcome of maternal depression by clinical interviewers blind to preeclampsia status, were ascertained using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders. The development of preeclampsia, defined by the onset of hypertension (> 140/90 mm HG) after 20 weeks' gestation, accompanied by 300 mg of protein, monitored via electronic medical records. Birth outcomes were assessed via standardized ratings at delivery. Infant temperament was reported by the mother at three months, using 91-item IBQ-R (Infant Behavioral Questionnaire-Revised). Preeclampsia was associated with an over 5-fold increased risk for fetal/infant mortality, a 3- to 7-fold increased risk for poorer birth outcomes, and flatter affect and distress in infants. Furthermore, infants born to preeclamptic mothers with co-occurring depression displayed lower levels of smile/laughter, high-intensity pleasure seeking behavior, perceptual sensitivity, and approach behavior. Preeclampsia was associated with a few difficult temperament styles in the first three months after birth. Moreover, its negative impact was amplified by mother's antenatal depression. Our findings regarding additive risk for negative infant outcomes in babies exposed to preeclampsia and antenatal depression suggests that the development of early detection programs to identify and monitor women who are at heightened risk for these conditions can potentially have a positive influence on long-term infant neurobehavioral development.

Association of dopamine D2 receptor and leptin receptor genes with clinically severe obesity

The brain reward circuits that promote drug abuse may also be involved in pleasure seeking behavior and food cravings observed in severely obese subjects. Drug addiction polymorphisms such as the TaqI A1 allele of the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) are associated with cocaine, alcohol, and opioid use, but few studies have linked DRD2 to food craving. Other genes such as the leptin receptor gene (LEPR) and mu-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) that affect appetite and pleasure centers in the brain may also influence food addiction and obesity. The three genes together may function synergistically. To evaluate associations between candidate genes, food craving, overeating, and BMI, we administered questionnaires including Power of Food Scale and Food Craving Inventory, conducted anthropometric measures, and collected blood from patients undergoing weight-loss treatment. Questionnaires and DNA specimens were collected for 80 participants. Participants were mostly female (74%) and Caucasian (79%), with an average age of 53 years old. Mean BMI for all participants was 43 kg/m2 and was significantly associated in a linear fashion with Food Craving Inventory scores (P=0.0001) and Power of Food (P=0.02). The DRD2 TaqI A1 allele was significantly associated with BMI (P=0.04), while LEPR Lys109Arg and OPRM1 A118G variants were not. We stratified DRD2 by LEPR and OPRM1, and observed a significant interaction (P = 0.04) between DRD2 and LEPR, and a marginally significant interaction (P=0.06) between DRD2 and OPRM1. Genes associated with addictive behavior and appetite control may therefore, in combination, markedly influence development of clinically severe obesity.

The Emotion Paradox of Anhedonia in Schizophrenia: Or Is It?

Anhedonia has long been considered a core clinical feature of schizophrenia.1–3 The most common definition of anhedonia is that it reflects a diminished capacity to experience pleasure. Although this definition clearly applies to many individuals diagnosed with major depression,4–7 recent empirical evidence suggests that it may not adequately describe the affective abnormalities characteristic of schizophrenia.8 For example, individuals with schizophrenia report levels of current (ie, in the moment) positive emotion and arousal that are comparable to healthy controls when exposed to stimuli in the laboratory (for meta-analyses, see Cohen and Minor, 2010; Llerena et al 2012),9,10 show similar increases in positive emotion when engaged in activities in their daily lives,11,12 and display comparable neural activation to controls when reporting their current positive emotions in response to pleasant stimuli (see Taylor et al13 for a meta-analysis). Such evidence has led some to conclude that anhedonia should no longer be viewed as a diminished capacity for pleasure in this patient population.8,9,14,15 However, it is clear that not all aspects of emotional experience are normal in schizophrenia. For example, compared with healthy controls, patients typically report reductions in pleasure when queried during clinical interviews that obtain retrospective (ie, past) or prospective (ie, future) reports of pleasure,16–18 as well as questionnaires that use trait (eg, Positive and Negative Affect Scale19 or hypothetical (eg, Chapman Anhedonia Scales)20 self-report formats. Experience sampling studies also indicate that schizophrenia patients have a reduced frequency of pleasurable experiences compared with controls,11,12,21,22 suggesting a diminution in pleasure-seeking behavior. At first glance, findings indicating normal in-the-moment experience of positive emotion appear to be at odds with those indicating diminished pleasure across all types of noncurrent positive emotion reports obtained via retrospective, prospective, trait, and hypothetical self-report formats. Some have even termed this apparent discrepancy the “emotion paradox” in schizophrenia to reflect a violation of the commonsense notion that reports of emotional experience obtained across different self-report formats should converge. But is this the case? Should one expect self-reports of current and noncurrent (eg, prospective, retrospective) positive emotion to be similar? A large body of research on healthy individuals indicates that reports of current and noncurrent positive emotion typically show low correlations23,24 and that healthy individuals expect more pleasure in the future and remember more pleasure in the past compared with what they actually experience in the moment.25 Overestimation of past and future relative to current positive emotions, as well as low correlations between these types of self-reports, is thought to occur because self-reports of current and noncurrent emotion require access to different sources of emotion knowledge.26 In the field of affective science, the sources of emotion knowledge that are accessed when making prospective, retrospective, and current reports of positive emotion are well-delineated. In their seminal article on the “Accessibility Model of Emotional Self-Report,” Robinson and Clore26 review this literature and discuss how reports of current feelings require access to experiential emotion knowledge, whereas reports of noncurrent feelings (eg, retrospective, prospective, trait, and hypothetical) require access to semantic emotion knowledge. Semantic emotion knowledge includes beliefs about which types of emotions are likely to be elicited by specific situations (eg, “Social interactions are enjoyable”), as well as general beliefs that a person holds about himself or herself (“I am generally a happy person”). When viewed in relation to the accessibility model, overestimation of past and future relative to current positive emotion occurs because healthy individuals access semantic knowledge stores when making these noncurrent emotion reports, and thus rely on beliefs about how they generally feel or how specific situations make them feel. In healthy individuals, overestimation of noncurrent positive emotion therefore at least in part reflects that most healthy individuals believe that they are generally in a moderately positive mood and that specific types of situations (eg, vacations) are pleasurable.26

Sex, Drugs, and American Jurisprudence: The Medicalization of Pleasure

This paper explores the role of medical arguments in cases where courts have overturned statutes that burden pleasure-seeking behavior, such as non-procreative sexual activity or the use of endorphin-inducing substances. It speculates the characterization of the individual interests at stake as medical rather than pleasure-related, and the framing of state interests as moral rather than medical, facilitates the judicial decriminalization of pleasure-seeking behavior. This approach to framing individual and state interests is explored and developed in the context of statutes that burden non-procreative sexual intimacy, including key cases on contraception, abortion, and “obscene devices.” After developing the paradigm of medicalization through the lens of the sexual intimacy cases, the paper investigates the conspicuous absence of any discussion of pleasure in these cases and in legal discourse more generally. Finally, the paper explores the continuing criminalization of endorphin-inducing substances and argues that the use of medicalization in the sexual intimacy cases may provide an effective model for challenging certain statutes that burden substance use.

Imaging Emotion in Schizophrenia: Not Finding Feelings in All the Right Places

Imaging Emotion in Schizophrenia: Not Finding Feelings in All the Right Places

Circadian activity of corticosterone in an animal model of depression: Response to muscarinic cholinergic stimulation

Neonatal treatment with clomipramine (CMI) in rats induces multiple behavioral alterations during adulthood that resemble certain symptoms of human depression, such as impairments of pleasure-seeking behaviors. CMI may also induce permanent changes in the reactivity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical axis (HPA) to different stimuli; however, the endocrinal changes induced by this treatment are still a matter of debate. In the present study, we evaluated the levels of corticosterone in rats treated in the neonatal period with CMI in basal conditions (0, 6, 12 and 18 h after lights on) and after treatment with the antidepressant fluoxetine (FLX; 5 mg/kg for 14 days). To evaluate the response of the HPA axis to a cholinergic agonist, we analyzed the effect of oxotremorine administration (OXO; 0.4, 0.8 mg/kg) on plasma levels of corticosterone. Administration of OXO took place at the beginning of each one of the two phases of the light–dark cycle (time points 0 and 12 h, respectively). Results showed an increase in basal plasma levels of corticosterone in CMI-treated rats at time point zero and at 6 h after the onset of the light period. While treatment with FLX reversed the increase in corticosterone plasma levels in CMI-treated rats, the results regarding cholinergic stimulation indicate that those rats do not respond to the administration of a low dose of OXO (0.4 mg/kg) at the onset of the dark phase (time point 12 h). In conclusion, this study supports the hypothesis that neonatal treatment with CMI induces a hypersecretion of corticosterone in adulthood that was reversed through treatment with the antidepressant FLX. The CMI-treated rats showed a hyporesponse to cholinergic stimulation with OXO at low doses and at the beginning of the dark phase. Thus, the present results do not support the assumption that an increased sensitivity of the muscarinic cholinergic system is one of the possible correlates of the behavioral alterations seen in CMI-treated rats.

Explaining Addiction

Explaining Addiction Eric Matthews (bio) Keywords addiction, disease, compulsion, rationality "A Liberal Account of Addiction" is a major contribution to the discussion of addiction, its treatment, and the social and policy issues which arise from it. Questioning as it does many generally accepted assumptions about addictive behavior, particularly the use of hard drugs, it will provoke even those who do not agree with it to rethink their positions. Many of its suggestions are relevant also, in my opinion, to thinking about other areas of psychiatric interest. Nevertheless, I want to argue that its authors have perhaps not freed themselves sufficiently from some common assumptions, in particular about the nature of mental disorder, and that their argument might benefit from such liberation. The central assumption that I have in mind is that understanding human actions is nothing but understanding the brain activity that accompanies them. If so, then a pattern of behavior can count as a 'mental disorder' in any clinically or legally relevant sense only if it is the result of a brain disease, causing a breakdown in normal brain functioning. Starting from this assumption, the authors seek to show, by means of evidence from neuroscience, that addiction to drugs does not have a unique 'neural substrate,' distinct from that of any other kind of pleasure-seeking behavior. When we have a pleasurable experience of any kind, as they point out, dopamine is normally released within the brain. This, they say, activates the 'reward' pathways, making the person more likely to repeat the behavior that gives rise to the pleasurable experience in question—whether it is eating, sex, or injecting heroin. Addiction, they argue, is therefore just a tendency to repeat an intensely pleasurable experience, whatever the nature of that experience might be. The particular chemistry of the substance involved in this particular form of pleasure is, they argue, irrelevant—all that matters is that the experience it gives someone is pleasant. Addiction, they conclude, is not in itself a symptom of disorder, in need of medical treatment, but just a particular example of normal human pleasure seeking (if perhaps more 'wanton' than some others). A slightly different, although connected, line of argument is that addiction cannot be a sign of disorder because it does not undermine normal autonomy. The fact that addiction can cease when circumstances change, or simply as a person gets older, for instance, is cited as evidence that addicts are not the victims of irreversible neurological adaptations that make them incapable of responding to reasons to change their behavior. Therefore, they conclude, addiction is not the same as compulsion or involuntary movement, but a perfectly rational and chosen way of behaving. Addicts do not lack willpower: They are capable of giving up their addiction, but choose not to. They are different from non-addicts, or even from those 'addicted' to weaker pleasures, like chocolate, in [End Page 23] that they prefer to pursue their addiction even at the expense of social and family responsibility, or of a prudent concern for their own long-term selfinterest. But that does not make them irrational: It means only that they have a different, but equally valid, hierarchy of goods from other people. Addicts do not act 'robotically'; it is just that drugoriented desires are peculiarly strong. And even if they do regard their addictive behavior as morally undesirable, their continuance in it in the face of their own moral objections is not a sign of abnormality or disorder: Most human beings do things sometimes that they find pleasurable, even if they also see them as morally objectionable. Underlying these arguments, and also the view which they oppose, is a certain philosophical picture of human beings and their behavior. According to this picture, human psychology is simply the reflection of human neurophysiology. Thus, for instance, although the authors claim that their account of addiction is relatively 'skeptical,' and has less explanatory power than that of their opponents, they nevertheless seem to accept at least the possibility of a complete account, which will only come about as a result of 'further advances in biological and psychological science.' But that seems to imply that a more complete understanding of why addicts behave...

Adolescents and androgens, receptors and rewards

Adolescence is associated with increases in pleasure-seeking behaviors, which, in turn, are shaped by the pubertal activation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis. In animal models of naturally rewarding behaviors, such as sex, testicular androgens contribute to the development and expression of the behavior in males. To effect behavioral maturation, the brain undergoes significant remodeling during adolescence, and many of the changes are likewise sensitive to androgens, presumably acting through androgen receptors (AR). Given the delicate interaction of gonadal hormones and brain development, it is no surprise that disruption of hormone levels during this sensitive period significantly alters adolescent and adult behaviors. In male hamsters, exposure to testosterone during adolescence is required for normal expression of adult sexual behavior. Males deprived of androgens during puberty display sustained deficits in mating. Conversely, androgens alone are not sufficient to induce mating in prepubertal males, even though brain AR are present before puberty. In this context, wide-spread use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) during adolescence is a significant concern. AAS abuse has the potential to alter both the timing and the levels of androgens in adolescent males. In hamsters, adolescent AAS exposure increases aggression, and causes lasting changes in neurotransmitter systems. In addition, AAS are themselves reinforcing, as demonstrated by self-administration of testosterone and other AAS. However, recent evidence suggests that the reinforcing effects of androgens may not require classical AR. Therefore, further examination of interactions between androgens and rewarding behaviors in the adolescent brain is required for a better understanding of AAS abuse.

Euthymic Patients with Bipolar Disorder Show Decreased Reward Learning in a Probabilistic Reward Task

Bipolar disorder (BPD) features cycling mood states ranging from depression to mania with intermittent phases of euthymia. Bipolar disorder subjects often show excessive goal-directed and pleasure-seeking behavior during manic episodes and reduced hedonic capacity during depressive episodes, indicating that BPD might involve altered reward processing. Our goal was to test the hypothesis that BPD is characterized by impairments in adjusting behavior as a function of prior reinforcement history, particularly in the presence of residual anhedonic symptoms. Eighteen medicated BPD subjects and 25 demographically matched comparison subjects performed a probabilistic reward task. To identify putative dysfunctions in reward processing irrespective of mood state, primary analyses focused on euthymic BPD subjects (n = 13). With signal-detection methodologies, response bias toward a more frequently rewarded stimulus was used to objectively assess the participants' propensity to modulate behavior as a function of reinforcement history. Relative to comparison subjects, euthymic BPD subjects showed a reduced and delayed acquisition of response bias toward the more frequently rewarded stimulus, which was partially due to increased sensitivity to single rewards of the disadvantageous stimulus. Analyses considering the entire BPD sample revealed that reduced reward learning correlated with self-reported anhedonic symptoms, even after adjusting for residual manic and anxious symptoms and general distress. The present study provides preliminary evidence indicating that BPD, even during euthymic states, is characterized by dysfunctional reward learning in situations requiring integration of reinforcement information over time and thus offers initial insights about the potential source of dysfunctional reward processing in this disorder.

Aggregation of Health Behaviors among Fourth Graders in Northern Taiwan

Purpose To investigate the aggregation of health behaviors among fourth graders in northern Taiwan. Methods This study conducted an analysis of data collected from the 2001 Child and Adolescent Behaviors in Long-term Evolution (CABLE) project, which included a sample of 2075 fourth grade students. Factor analysis and cluster analysis were used to investigate the aggregation patterns. Results After factor analysis, we found that the 18 health behaviors could be grouped under five factors. These five factors were named: healthy behavior, rule-breaking behavior, substance use behavior, violent behavior, and pleasure-seeking behavior, according to the characteristics of the various health behaviors grouped under each of them. Each study subject was assigned points for each of these five factors and then cluster analysis was used to divide the subjects into four different clusters. The names of these clusters and the percentage of subjects within them were as follows: healthy group (43.47%), violent group (29.11%), pleasure-seeking group (22.55%), and rebellious group (4.87%). Conclusions A total of 56.53% of the study sample were grouped under unhealthy groups (violent group, pleasure-seeking group and rebellious group), which indicates that already more than half of the students had lifestyles that put their health at risk. It was suggested that health and educational organizations need to place importance on behavioral problems in children and adopt early prevention measures.©2006 Society for Adolscent Medicine.

Changing Paradigms, Competitive Strategies and Role of “Integrated Marketing Communication in Building Brands in Indian Market”

Building Brands in Indian market is on an evolutionary process. The behavior of Indian consumer can not be simply grouped as emerging market behavior. The demand level in the emerging market is flat at the base and the consumption is more commodities centric. The customers choose products and brands that satisfy the basic needs than for reasons of emotion or pleasure seeking behavior. Hence brands those deliver price value are more successful in the market. While building a brand the brand manager spends every media pie in talking about this basic proposition. Horizontally large chunks of the population do not have purchasing power in an emerging market and do not qualify to be customers of brand centric marketing. Though brands exist in these segments but they only play the identification and differential function; they are not delivery vehicles of brand value to the customers. The researches conducted on Indian market speak a different story. Segments, which are assumed to have no purchasing power, were found to be using quite a good number of product categories including the consumer durable. The Indian marketers avoided entering in to the rural markets due to poor purchasing power parity with urban customers, abysmal infrastructure network and lesser avenue for brand promotion. It is observed that the rural customer has started using the up market and urban brands faster and started using products and brands almost similar to the urban customers. Most of the FMCG majors and consumer durable companies are looking at rural markets as the growth drivers of the future. So this typicality in brand penetration and acceptance across demographics and geographic segments have brought unique attempts and experiments in building brands in Indian market. This paper is an attempt to conceptually evaluate the alternate brand paradigms and see how they contribute towards building brands as a competitive advantage. The author has also made an attempt to develop an alternative brand building model through the use of effective integrated marketing communication and advertising in particular in Indian market. This paper highlights situations where the brand manager can use alternate platform and copy formats in building brands.

Corticosterone and Testosterone Levels after Chronic Stress in an Animal Model of Depression

Neonatal administration of clomipramine (CMI) in rats induces behavioral changes during adulthood, such as impairments of pleasure-seeking behaviors. However, the endocrine changes induced by this treatment are controversial. In the present study, we analyzed the levels of corticosterone and testosterone in rats neonatally treated with CMI in response to chronic stress by repeated immersion in cold water. Results obtained in the forced swim test corroborated the effect of neonatal CMI administration, showing a significant increase in immobility time. The testosterone response to stress was similar in both control and CMI-treated rats. Concerning corticosterone, there was a significantly lower response to stress in CMI-treated rats. The data suggest that CMI induces permanent changes in the reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, without affecting the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis.

Masculine sexual behavior features in the Flinders sensitive and resistant line rats

The Flinders sensitive (FSL) and resistant (FRL) lines of rats have been selectively bred for their differences in cholinergic sensitivity. The FSL rats display hypersensitive responses to agonists of muscarinic receptors. In addition, the FSL rats display behavioral alterations that support the notion that this strain could be useful as an animal model of depression. These abnormalities include increase in rapid eye movement sleep, decrease of saccharin consumption after stress, and reduced exploratory behavior in a novel open field. On the other hand, sexual behavior is a pleasure-seeking behavior that should be altered in a mood disorder characterized by anhedonia. In the present study, spontaneous masculine sexual behavior features were analyzed, both during 30-min tests as well as during a satiety test. Results showed that, compared to outbred Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats, both the FSL and the FRL rats displayed some behavioral impairment, like a marked decrease of the ejaculatory frequency. During the satiety tests, both the FSL and the FRL rats became exhausted sooner than their SD controls. In addition to considering the present results in terms of alterations in specific neurotransmitter systems, endogamy is proposed as a possible source of the behavioral alterations.

Problem Behavior in Chinese Adolescents in Taiwan

This study was primarily designed to provide an empirical basis for a better structural definition of problem behavior in Chinese adolescents. Anonymous self-ratings of 130 problem behaviors were obtained for 2432 male and 2723 female students drawn from 14 junior high schools in the Taipei area. In analyzing the data, the 130 behaviors were first classified into 16 categories through content analysis by two personality psychologists. Category scores were then computed by unweighted summation of self-ratings over the problem behaviors in each category to generate 16 composite variables. Separate factor analyses of the composite variables were finally conducted, one for each sex. Two major unrotated factors emerged with substantial cross-sex invariance and were labeled General Maladjustment and Outward-Inward Orientation. Through oblique rotation, two psychologically meaningful factors were identified and named as Delinquent Behavior (further divided into two subgroups, namely, Pleasure-Seeking and Rule-Violating Delinquent Behavior) and Neurotic Behavior.