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Compulsive buying is an excessive behavior that has begun to receive attention from researchers in recent years. The current study provides an overview of research on compulsive buying and examines the psychiatric co-morbidity in a German female treatment seeking compulsive buying sample in comparison with age and gender-matched normal buying control groups. Thirty women suffering from compulsive buying disorder, 30 community controls, and 30 bariatric surgery candidates were assessed with the German versions of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV diagnoses (SCID). Women with compulsive buying disorder showed significantly higher prevalence rates of affective, anxiety, and eating disorders compared to community controls, and suffered significantly more often from affective and anxiety disorders compared to bariatric surgery candidates. The compulsive buying group presented with the highest rates of personality disorders, most commonly avoidant, depressive, obsessive-compulsive, and borderline personality disorder, and reported the highest prevalence rates of other impulse control disorders, especially for intermittent explosive disorder. The findings suggest an elevated psychiatric co-morbidity in patients with compulsive buying disorder.

Aims: It was decided to demonstrate by the present observations to which extent beneficial long-term effects on metabolic control, body weight and microalbuminuria can be attained by applying intensive insulin therapy (IIT) to type 2 diabetic patients, particularly when using insulin lispro., Methods: In our observational study, clinical data were evaluated during 6, 12 and 36 months after participation in our structured inpatient insulin treatment and teaching programme in 25 patients with conventional insulin therapy (CT), in 10 patients with IIT using human normal insulin and in 15 patients with IIT using insulin lispro who all could be followed for 3 years in our outpatient diabetic clinic., Results: In the CT-treated patients, HbA1c decreased from 10.2 +/- 0.4% to 7.6 +/- 0.2% (average +/- SEM) after 3 years. Body weight increased from 27.8 +/- 0.9 kg/m2 to 28.6 +/- 0.9 kg/m2, insulin dose increased from 29 +/- 3 U/day to 48 +/- 5 U/day (all p < 0.05), urinary albumin concentration was only transiently reduced. In the IIT-treated patients using human normal insulin, HbA1c fell from 10.6 +/- 0.8% to 7.9 +/- 0.5%, body weight increased from 27.8 +/- 1.4 kg/m2 to 29.8 +/- 1.3 kg/m2, urinary albumin concentration was reduced from 26 +/- 10 mg/l to 13 +/- 3 mg/l (all p < 0.05). Insulin dose increased only slightly from 57 +/- 6 U/day to 63 +/- 7 U/day. In the IIT-treated patients using insulin lispro HbA1c fell from 8.4 +/- 0.5% to 6.7 +/- 0.3%, body weight increased from 27.6 +/- 1.0 kg/m2 to 28.7 +/- 1.3 kg/m2, insulin dose from 36 +/- 5 U/day to 50 +/- 7 U/day, urinary albumin concentration was reduced from 23 +/- 4 mg/l to 13 +/- 4 mg/l (all p < 0.05). Blood pressure remained uninfluenced by insulin therapy., Conclusion: In our patients, we observed a beneficial long-term effect on metabolic control of IIT-treatment using insulin lispro, which was evident over the complete 3-year observation period, together with an only moderate increase in insulin dose and a clinically acceptable increase in body weight, but a remarkable reduction of microalbuminuria. Thus, clinical outcome was superior to that in patients treated with CT or IIT using human normal insulin.

When "creating" transgenic mouse strains it is not possible to predict their phenotype with certainty, particularly not with respect to welfare. The generation of models for (human) diseases deliberately implies a compromised health ranging from minor (clinically inapparent) to lethal. To ensure animal welfare requirements and apply the criteria of the 3R, a careful phenotype characterisation and welfare assessment has to be done routinely for each newly produced strain, at individual and strain level, starting by the standardised monitoring of founders and their consequent generations. A comprehensive form has been developed for a standardised characterisation of transgenic mouse strains. It is subdivided into basic and detail information. It can be kept up to date continuously in the form of a computerised database, incorporating growing knowledge and experience of the strain. Basic information mainly serves the requirements of housing and breeding facilities as well as the authorities in view of animal welfare measures, detail information mainly serves the interests of research and efficiency.