PsychAntenna

Despite the fact that R-rated movies are movies targeted toward adults, many teens still view such movies with permission from their parents or guardians.

But a new study finds one more reason why parents should not let their kids watch those movies: adolescents who watch R-rated movies are more likely to try alcohol at a young age.

In a study of 6,255 children, researchers examined the relationship between watching R-rated movies and the probability of alcohol use across different levels of “sensation seeking,” which is a tendency to seek out risky experiences.

“The study found that watching R-rated movies affected the level of sensation seeking among adolescents,” noted James D. Sargent, a pediatrician at Dartmouth Medical School.

“It showed that R-rated movies not only contain scenes of alcohol use that prompt adolescents to drink, they also jack up the sensation seeking tendency, which makes adolescents more prone to engage in all sorts of risky behaviors.”

“There is another take home point in the findings. When it comes to the direct effect on alcohol use, the influence of R-rated movies depends on sensation seeking level.”

“High sensation seekers are already at high risk for use of alcohol, and watching a lot of R-rated movies raises their risk only a little. But for low sensation seekers, R-rated movies make a big difference. In fact, exposure to R-rated movies can make a low sensation seeking adolescent drink like a high sensation seeking adolescent,” Sargent explained.

The Dartmouth pediatrician said that one possible explanation is high sensation seeking adolescents tend to get their experiences out on the street. They hang around other high sensation seekers, who are also engaging in risky behaviors, so there is less room for movies to make a difference in their risk for alcohol use.

“The message to parents is clear. Take the movie ratings literally. Under 17 should not be permitted to see R-rated movies,” Sargent said.

The study was based on telephone surveys of 6,522 adolescents aged 10-14 years. The children were surveyed every 8 months for a period of two years from 2003 through 2005.

Parental consent and adolescent consent was obtained prior to interviewing each respondent. To protect confidentiality, adolescents indicated their answers to sensitive questions by pressing numbers on the telephone, rather than speaking aloud. The study sample mirrored the U.S. adolescent population with respect to age, sex, household income and census region, but with a slightly higher percentage of Hispanics and a slightly lower percentage of Blacks.

Sensation seeking was based on how individual subjects identified with statements like: “I like to do scary things, I like to do dangerous things, I often think there is nothing to do, and I like to listen to loud music.” Adolescents were also asked if they had ever tried alcohol that their parents were not aware of. This excluded adolescents who initiated drinking with sips of alcohol provided by parents. R-rated movie watching was measured by asking respondents if they had watched a random selection of movie titles drawn from box office hits during 2003 that had grossed at least $15 million. The movie titles included movies that had G (general audience), P/G (parental guidance) and R (restricted) ratings.

The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The study was published in the March issue of Prevention Science.

Source: Society for Prevention Research

Smoking reduces the risk of Parkinson’s disease, but it appears to be the length of time a person’s smokes, not the amount of cigarettes smoked per day.

Smoking a larger number of cigarettes per day may not reduce the risk.

“These results could guide the development of studies on various tobacco components with animal models to help understand the relationship between smoking and Parkinson’s disease,” said study author Honglei Chen, MD, PhD, of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

“Research to reveal the underlying chemicals and mechanisms is warranted; such studies may lead to a better understanding of the causes of Parkinson’s disease. However, given the many adverse consequences of smoking, no one would suggest smoking in order to prevent Parkinson’s disease.”

The study involved 305,468 AARP members age 50 to 71 who completed a survey on diet and lifestyle at the time and again about 10 years later. During that time, 1,662 of the people had developed Parkinson’s disease, or about one-half of one percent.

Current smokers were 44 percent less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than people who had never smoked. People who had smoked in the past and quit were 22 percent less likely to develop Parkinson’s than people who had never smoked.

People who smoked for 40 or more years were 46 percent less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than people who never smoked. Those who smoked for 30 to 39 years were 35 percent less likely to have the disease than nonsmokers. In contrast, those who smoked for one to nine years were only eight percent less likely to get the disease.

The risk of developing Parkinson’s disease did not change based on how many cigarettes a person smoked per day.

Chen noted that studies have shown that smoking is not associated with a slower progression of the disease once Parkinson’s develops or a reduced risk of death, so he said there is no evidence to support the use of nicotine or other smoking-related chemicals in treating the disease.

The new study was published in the March 2010, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Source: American Academy of Neurology

A study of Rhesus monkeys links a mother’s flu while pregnant to changes in their babies’ brains that are similar to changes in brains in humans with schizophrenia. Monkeys do not get schizophrenia.

It is the first study done with monkeys that examines the effects of flu during pregnancy.

Results from this study support findings from rodent studies suggesting this type of infection may increase the risk of schizophrenia in the offspring, said lead author Sarah J. Short, Ph.D.

“This was a relatively mild flu infection, but it had a significant effect on the brains of the babies,” Short said.

“While these results aren’t directly applicable to humans, I do think they reinforce the idea, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that pregnant women should get flu shots, before they get sick.”

In the study, 12 rhesus macaques were infected with a mild influenza A virus 1 month before their baby’s due date, early in the third trimester of pregnancy. For comparison, the study also included 7 pregnant monkeys who did not have the flu.

When the babies were 1 year old, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were taken of their brains. Researchers also assessed the babies’ behavioral development at that time.

The babies born to flu-infected mothers showed no evidence of direct viral exposure. Their birth weight, gestation length and neuromotor, behavioral and endocrine responses were all normal.

However, the MRI scans revealed significant reductions in overall brain size in the flu-exposed babies. In addition, the scans found significant reductions of “gray matter” (the portion of brain tissue that is dark in color) especially in areas of the brain called the cingulate and parietal lobe, and significant reductions of “white matter” (brain tissue that is lighter in color) in the parietal lobe.

The cingulate is located in the middle of the brain, but spans a broad distance from front to back and relays information from both halves of the brain. This structure is important for numerous cognitive function related to emotions, learning, memory, and executive control of these processes to aid in decision-making and anticipation of rewards. In addition this structure also plays a role in regulating autonomic processes, such as blood pressure and respiratory control. The parietal lobe comprises a large section on both sides of the brain between the frontal lobes and the occipital lobes, in the back of the brain. This part of the brain integrates information from all the senses and is especially important for combining visual and spatial information.

“The brain changes that we found in the monkey babies are similar to what we typically see in MRI scans of humans with schizophrenia,” said Gilmore.

“This suggests that human babies whose mothers had the flu while pregnant may have a greater risk of developing schizophrenia later in life than babies whose mothers did not have the flu. Normally that risk affects about 1 of every 100 births. Studies in humans suggest that for flu-exposed babies, the risk is 2 or 3 per 100 births.”

Most of the work of the study was done at the Harlow Center for Biological Psychology, which is part of Wisconsin’s Department of Psychology. The center’s director, Christopher Coe, Ph.D., is senior author of the study. Gilmore, a schizophrenia researcher who has led several studies that used MRI scans of newborn human brains, led the analysis of MRI data in the pregnancy and influenza study.

The study was conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found. Short worked on the study while earning her doctorate at Wisconsin and now is a post-doctoral fellow at UNC working with John H. Gilmore, M.D., professor of psychiatry in the UNC School of Medicine.

The study was published online by the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Source: University of North Carolina School of Medicine

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