Hepatitis B is what we used to originally known as just simply serum hepatitis. Hep B has been recognized as this new name since World War II. The virus is responsible for current epidemics in parts of Asia and Africa. Recognized as endemic in China and various other parts of Asia, the Hepatitis B virus has infected over one third of the world’s current population. Hepatitis B is in the Hepadnavirus family. Meaning that it consists of a proteinaceous core particle that has the viral genome inside of it in the form of double stranded DNA. It also has an outside lipid-based envelope that contains embedded proteins. These envelope proteins on the outside are involved in viral binding and release into susceptible cells. Where as the inner capsid refinds the DNA genome to a cell’s nucleus where it transcribes viral mRNAs. Although HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and Hepatitus are not related they are both viruses that use reverse transcription process. This also include HTLV. Hepatitis B’s genome is DNA, and reverse transcription is one of the latter steps of the entire process which results in making new viral particles. HIV on the other hand has an RNA genome and reverse transcription is one of the first steps in replication of the virus. Hepatitis B is most commonly transmitted through direct exposure to bodily fluids that contain the virus. This is a wide category but in most cases includes: – Re-using contaminated needles and syringes – Uncleanly Blood transfusions – Unprotected sexual contact – Direct transmission from mother to child during childbirth The dominant mode of transmission depends largely on the prevalence of the disease in a given area. For example if areas such as North America drug abuse and unprotected sex are the primary mode of infection. Where as in areas such as such as China where Hepatitis B is very prevalent, the vertical transmission (mother to child) is the most common. A mother who is positive for the Hepatitis B surface virus has a 20% risk of passing the infection to her offspring during birth. That percentage can rise to as high as 90% if the mother is also infected with the hepatitis B e antigen. The older a person is at the time of infection, the greater the risk that their body will not clear the infection. Hepatitis B infection can lead to a permanent inflammation of the liver, the result of this inflammation leads cirrhosis. These affects largely increase the likelyhood of developing liver cancer.

Question: Many of the symptoms and signs that you describe apply to other personality disorders as well (for instance, the histrionic, the antisocial and the borderline personality disorders). Are we to think that all personality disorders are interrelated? Answer: The classification of Axis II personality disorders – deeply ingrained, maladaptive, lifelong behavior patterns – in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition, text revision [American Psychiatric Association. DSM-IV-TR, Washington, 2000] – or the DSM-IV-TR for short – has come under sustained and serious criticism from its inception in 1952. The DSM IV-TR adopts a categorical approach, postulating that personality disorders are «qualitatively distinct clinical syndromes» (p. 689). This is widely doubted. Even the distinction made between «normal» and «disordered» personalities is increasingly being rejected. The «diagnostic thresholds» between normal and abnormal are either absent or weakly supported. The polythetic form of the DSM’s Diagnostic Criteria – only a subset of the criteria is adequate grounds for a diagnosis – generates unacceptable diagnostic heterogeneity. In other words, people diagnosed with the same personality disorder may share only one criterion or none. The DSM fails to clarify the exact relationship between Axis II and Axis I disorders and the way chronic childhood and developmental problems interact with personality disorders. The differential diagnoses are vague and the personality disorders are insufficiently demarcated. The result is excessive co-morbidity (multiple Axis II diagnoses). The DSM contains little discussion of what distinguishes normal character (personality), personality traits, or personality style (Millon) – from personality disorders. A dearth of documented clinical experience regarding both the disorders themselves and the utility of various treatment modalities. Numerous personality disorders are «not otherwise specified» – a catchall, basket «category». Cultural bias is evident in certain disorders (such as the Antisocial and the Schizotypal). The emergence of dimensional alternatives to the categorical approach is acknowledged in the DSM-IV-TR itself: “An alternative to the categorical approach is the dimensional perspective that Personality Disorders represent maladaptive variants of personality traits that merge imperceptibly into normality and into one another” (p.689) The following issues – long neglected in the DSM – are likely to be tackled in future editions as well as in current research: The longitudinal course of the disorder(s) and their temporal stability from early childhood onwards; The genetic and biological underpinnings of personality disorder(s); The development of personality psychopathology during childhood and its emergence in adolescence; The interactions between physical health and disease and personality disorders; The effectiveness of various treatments – talk therapies as well as psychopharmacology. All personality disorders are interrelated, at least phenomenologically – though we have no Grand Unifying Theory of Psychopathology. We do not know whether there are – and what are – the mechanisms underlying mental disorders. At best, mental health professionals record symptoms (as reported by the patient) and signs (as observed). Then, they group them into syndromes and, more specifically, into disorders. This is descriptive, not explanatory science. Sure, there are a few etiological theories around (psychoanalysis, to mention the most famous) but they all failed to provide a coherent, consistent theoretical framework with predictive powers. Patients suffering from personality disorders have many things in common: Most of them are insistent (except those suffering from the Schizoid or the Avoidant Personality Disorders). They demand treatment on a preferential and privileged basis. They complain about numerous symptoms. They never obey the physician or his treatment recommendations and instructions. They regard themselves as unique, display a streak of grandiosity and a diminished capacity for empathy (the ability to appreciate and respect the needs and wishes of other people). They regard the physician as inferior to them, alienate him using umpteen techniques and bore him with their never-ending self-preoccupation. They are manipulative and exploitative because they trust no one and usually cannot love or share. They are socially maladaptive and emotionally unstable. Most personality disorders start out as problems in personal development which peak during adolescence and then become personality disorders. They stay on as enduring qualities of the individual. Personality disorders are stable and all-pervasive – not episodic. They affect most of the areas of functioning of the patient: his career, his interpersonal relationships, his social functioning. The typical patients is unhappy. He is depressed, suffers from auxiliary mood and anxiety disorders. He does not like himself, his character, his (deficient) functioning, or his (crippling) influence on others. But his defences are so strong, that he is aware only of the distress – and not of the reasons to it. The patient with a personality disorder is vulnerable to and prone to suffer from a host of other psychiatric problems. It is as though his psychological immunological system has been disabled by his personality disorder and he falls prey to other variants of mental illness. So much energy is consumed by the disorder and by its corollaries (example: by obsessions-compulsions, or mood swings), that the patient is rendered defenceless. Patients with personality disorders are alloplastic in their defences. They have an external locus of control. In other words: they tend to blame the outside world for their mishaps. In stressful situations, they try to pre-empt a (real or imaginary) threat, change the rules of the game, introduce new variables, or otherwise influence the world out there to conform to their needs. This is as opposed to autoplastic defences (internal locus of control) typical, for instance, of neurotics (who change their internal psychological processes in stressful situations). The character problems, behavioural deficits and emotional deficiencies and lability encountered by patients with personality disorders are, mostly, ego-syntonic. This means that the patient does not, on the whole, find his personality traits or behaviour objectionable, unacceptable, disagreeable, or alien to his self. As opposed to that, neurotics are ego-dystonic: they do not like who they are and how they behave on a constant basis. The personality-disordered are not psychotic. They have no hallucinations, delusions or thought disorders (except those who suffer from the Borderline Personality Disorder and who experience brief psychotic «microepisodes», mostly during treatment). They are also fully oriented, with clear senses (sensorium), good memory and a satisfactory general fund of knowledge. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual [American Psychiatric Association. DSM-IV-TR, Washington, 2000] defines «personality» as: «…enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself … exhibited in a wide range of important social and personal contexts.» Click here to read the DSM-IV-TR (2000) definition of personality disorders. The international equivalent of the DSM is the ICD-10, Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders, published by the World Health Organization in Geneva (1992). Click here to read the ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for the personality disorders. Each personality disorder has its own form of Narcissistic Supply: HPD (Histrionic PD) – Sex, seduction, «conquests», flirtation, romance, body-building, demanding physical regime; NPD (Narcissistic PD) – Adulation, admiration, attention, being feared; BPD (Borderline PD) – The presence of their mate or partner (they are terrified of abandonment); AsPD (Antisocial PD) – Money, power, control, fun. Borderlines, for instance, can be described as narcissist with an overwhelming separation anxiety.
They DO care deeply about not hurting others (though often they cannot help it) – but not out of empathy. Theirs is a selfish motivation to avoid rejection. Borderlines depend on other people for emotional sustenance. A drug addict is unlikely to pick up a fight with his pusher. But Borderlines also have deficient impulse control, as do Antisocials. Hence their emotional lability, erratic behaviour, and the abuse they do heap on their nearest and dearest.

What is endometriosis? Endometriosis is one of those diseases that you’ve probably heard the name of before, but aren’t really sure how it’s caused or what its symptoms are. You may wonder who is most at risk for contracting it and whether there is a cure. The first question is relatively easy to answer. The answer to the second question is, sadly, no. As of yet there is no cure. Who is at risk? The good news is that if you are a man, you are out of danger. The bad news, unfortunately, is that if you every female is at risk from the time of their first period. So, then what is endometriosis, physically speaking? What happens to a woman who has it? The disease gets its name from the endometrium, which is the name for the tissue that lines the uterus. When a woman suffers from the disease, the endometrium grows outside the uterus. Why does this happen? That’s part of the problem. Nobody has yet learned why this occurs in some women. The tissue typically grows outside the uterus in somewhere in the pelvic cavity. The actual site of this tissue growth can take place in several places. It can occur either on or beneath the ovaries; or on the tissues behind the uterus; or on the bowels of the bladder. In extremely rare cases, it has even been know to grow outside the pelvic cavity. So what happens as a result of this tissue growth? Usually it develops into larger growths that can be referred to as tumors, lesions, or implants. Though they may be called tumors, they are typically not cancerous and don’t usually lead to developing any kind of cancer. These tumors can be painful, however. The pain can range from moderate to quite severe. They can also lead to infertility. The physiological changes that take place during a woman’s menstrual cycle affects these growths. The walls lining the uterus thicken each month as part of the reproductive cycle. If no pregnancy develops, the uterus sheds this lining and the woman experiences the bleeding associated with her period. However, a woman who has endometriosis also experiences bleeding on the growths outside the uterus. But since this tissue cannot be shed like the uterus lining, internal bleeding results and scar tissue develops. Depending on where the growth are located, this can lead to a variety of complications. A surgical procedure called a laparoscopy is needed to fully diagnose endometriosis. Though done under anesthesia, a laparoscopy is a relatively minor procedure in which a lighted tube is inserted into the abdomen through a small incision. This device is called a laparoscope and it allows the doctor examine the organs and determine if any growths are present. Although there is no cure yet for endometriosis, treatment does exist. Unfortunately, it ranges from medication to treat the pain to hysterectomies to remove the affected areas. The only problem with this is that there has been a high rate of recurrence even among women who undergone this procedure. The answer to the question what is endometriosis is, alas, not a happy one.

Rash in short: is an acute and widespread temporary reddish eruption on the skin. A rash can develop in individuals that are sensitive to a particular drug, prescription or nonprescription. The rashes are characterized by itching of an intensity that can interfere with sleep or normal activities. The rash results from the entire body reacting to the drug itself and usually develops early in treatment rather than after the drug has been taken for a period of time. Rash is a change in the skin which affects its appearance and or texture. Most often a rash is localised to one part of the body, but other times it can have an affect on the entire body. Rashes can cause the skin to change color, become bumpy, dry, itchy, swell among other things that can result in alot of pain. Because of the wide array of rash symptoms treatments also vary widely. A proper diagnosis should look at all of the visual and physical symptoms of the rash, and also what the possible cause of the rash was. Often times the area in which the rash exists can tell alot about it’s condition, and where it is going. Rashes are often times associated and a result of diseases. For example, measles with cause a rash, that begins a few days after the fever begins. The most common causes of rashes today are: allergies, (ex. allerfic reaction to: foods, animeals, dyes, medicines, insect stings,etc), skin contact with an irritant, infection or reaction to a vaccine, skin diseases such as eczema or acne, autoimmune disorders such as psoriasis, cancer or other disease, pregnancy and, exposure to sun or heat.