Cognitive Emotion Regulation in Children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

BACKGROUND

Childhood cancer, as one of the life threatening and most serious health problems, considerably influences the cognitive and social functions of children with cancer and their families; however, surprisingly enough, these children are quite compatible with their peers and even function better emotionally compared with normal children. This matter still remains to be a mystery.

METHODS

In this study, the ability of ignoring negative stimuli as a technique of emotion regulation was investigated in children with cancer. For this purpose, 78 children (33 girls and 45 boys aged 3 to 12 years) with pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and 89 healthy children (52 girls and 37 boys aged3 to 12 years) participated in this study. At the first stage, a number of positive,negative and neutral pictures were displayed to children. At the second stage, they were asked to identify the pictures from among a collection.

RESULTS

Data analysis by MANOVA indicated that children with cancer, compared with healthy children, could recognize more positive images than negative ones. Furthermore, it was found that age, sex, duration of hospital stay, duration of disease and financial situation had an effect on the difference between the two groups.

CONCLUSION

Positive bias memory can explain low depression and lack of symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder in children with ALL. Attention shifting is multifactorial phenomenon and neurologic factors and family support play important role in this happening.

"Vitality" a Missing Link in Adjustment to Childhood Cancer

BACKGROUND

A number of randomized trial studies and longitudinal researches emphasize that despite problems in social adjustment and cognitive damages, children with cancer demonstrate good emotional adjustment.

METHODS

Most of the research findings in this area are obtained using objective tools such as questionnaires. "Vitality of children", as a drawing tool, was used as a basis to draw a comparison between children with cancer and healthy children in this study. Accordingly, 112 children with cancer (5 girls and 57 boys aged 3 to 12 years) and 123 healthy children (77 girls and 46 boys aged 3 to 12 years) participated in the study.

RESULTS

Findings showed that the vitality of the two groups differed significantly. Perhaps, children with cancer repress negative emotions and avoid expressing their feelings. MANOVA was used to compare the vitality scores between groups and to explore the impact of different variables.

CONCLUSION

Making use of such tools that indirectly examine the emotional experience of children with cancer would be beneficial. Neglecting this issue can cause children with cancer to be deprived of r receiving supportive counselling.

Acetylcholinesterase activity in the developing olfactory bulb: a biochemical study on normal maturation and the influence of peripheral and central connections

In the newborn rat olfactory bulb (OB), the specific activity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is about 20% of the adult value. During postnatal development, the specific activity remains unchanged until day 10; a growth spurt of 5X is observed between days 10 and 25, when adult values (90 nmoles ACh/min/mg protein; 6 nmol/min/mg wet wt.) are reached. However, total activity shows continuous increase slowly at first and rapidly between days 10 to 30, reaching a plateau by day 60. Between birth to day 60 total activity increases 65X. To determine the influence of peripheral and central connections on the development of AChE activity in the OB, rats were subjected to unilateral olfactory denervation and/or transection of olfactory peduncle, carried out either neonatally or at day 30; the bulbs were assayed a month later (days 30 and 60 respectively). It was found that in both neonatal and 30-day-old rats, denervation caused a 15% decrease in total activity, while transection led to more than 60% reduction. In the older rats, the reduction due to transection represented the degenerative loss of activity, but in the neonatally transected bulbs the growth of some cholinergic elements continued although very slowly. Between birth to day 30, total AChE activity increased only 12X in completely isolated OB, 25X in transected OB and 40X in denervated OB, compared to 45-50X in control OB. In the transected and isolated bulbs specific activity of AChE was also reduced significantly (25-50% depending on age and operation). These results suggest that while centrifugal fibers are the main source of cholinergic activity in the mature as well as the developing OB, the olfactory nerve and some intrabulbar sources such as cholinergic cells or cholinoceptive membranes also contribute to AChE activity in the OB. These intrinsic sources of AChE activity can persist and even show some growth in the developing olfactory bulb in the absence of the centrifugal fibers and/or the olfactory afferents.