European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 21, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Moil of aging psychologist at he University of Chicago. A focus on fear of heart attacks begins around 50 in Many people As men Slart to die irom them in noticeable women Neugarten has Lound. Do not focus so much on their own health during the 50s As they do on that of their husbands Many Lear being widowed. In their 50s, As never before people confront the fact Here Are Lime limits to their lives Karp said and begin to " look at projects they Lake on in terms of whether they can reasonably be completed at this Point in life or even. Whether they want to spend the remaining years working. On hem. Karp g findings Are based on in depth interviews of 72. Men and women Between the Ages 50 and 60. The. J interviews reported in the current Issue at the. Cer oncologist. Were designed to learn How people sea themselves their careers and aging. I while those interviewed Ware All professionals mainly academics doctors and lawyers researchers see their. Responses Ai typical of most Meri and women.". However work he class people who leave school earlier and marry earlier tend to go through the stages of j psychological development about live years earlier on average,.than do professionals said David Gutmann a psychologist at Northwestern University who is also studying psychological changes during mid life. -. The new focus on the 50s highlights the subjective " nature of aging itself a process that allows people to perceive themselves us either much younger or much older than their actual chronological age for almost Alt the men and women Karp studied the idea were aging As they reached their 50s s seemed knew they were no longer Young but still could. Not quite believe it Karp said. Even so they do not think. Of themselves As old. Some of the strongest reminders of aging were physical changes,.-. The Shock was not just that they were noticeably less. Agile or had less endurance during sports signs that begin in the 30s and 40s but that they had suffered serious illnesses or knew people their age who had become seriously ill. Several of those studied had had heart attacks others had undergone major surgery and others had problems like arthritis and prostate trouble that they saw As diseases of the old or went through changes like menopause.,although they saw old age As Distant most thought it began somewhere around 70 they saw their physical. Disa Liljes As the first undeniable Harbinger of old age. The psychological Impact Olther physical problems waa particularly Strong according to Karp because most swathe True Mark of old age not As reaching some specific year of me but As the Onset of physical impairment. Other signals of aging come Iron the workplace. The Peak of a work career particularly for professionals has typically been achieved by the Early 60s end. Sometimes in the 40s, recent research has shown. Most men reach the highest rung they will on the organizational ladder by their 50s," Karp said. Many feet topped out. They know where they la be Lor the rest of their occupational -. For Many women though the experience is quite. Different. For those who look Lime out of careers to raise. Children and then snarled or resumed a career As children had grown the 50s Are a time when the Pace of their careers Are accelerating. Many of Iho women had followed what they Call the Standard version being helpmate to their husbands mothers to their children and putting their careers on hold Karp said. Many did t enter the work Force until their 40s." the result is that during their 50s, men and women often. Have opposite attitudes toward their careers. The men Are developing an exit Menla Lily Calci Laling How Many years ate Letl at Werk. But the women of the same age Are thinking about making their Maik said Karp. West people with children become grandparents during their sos studies have shown yet another Signaigo people that they Are aging Karp said., another powerful reminder was the symbolic moaning the number 50. Reaching 50is, in terms of the actual. Average life Span about two thirds of the Way through life but because 50 Marks Hall a Century the. Birthday carries a Strong symbolic connotation of being the raid Point. Karp found marking the entry into the last Hall of we. Even though birthdays at each decade arc usually marked by a special Celebration those for 50 Are often unusually Large with thai symbolic moment comes a change in Iho. Meaning of Lime. Even though people in their 50s Don l see themselves As old there s a reversal of the direction of time Neugarten said. You count the number o birthdays Lell instead of How Many you be b a hot hash is itchy prickly and provocative like a. Sudden Spika Llever that produces wean and Cranky irritability. Totally absorbed in some intellectual problem i will suddenly feel like i be just opened an oven door to lilt Tio lid Otla Tii Ikey roaster allowing a Stream of steam to Ese Apo and slap my Taco Barbara Raskin in hot flashes by Sandy Rovner Washington Post Arbara Raskin s Besl Sesing description of the phenomenon that overtakes just about All women one Way or another,.sooneror later can expected of turn up in the scientific literature. Thai s because researchers Are trying to relate the hot hash to the mood disorders that May or May not be part o the so called change of he process until now for . Biological and behavioural Lamilia cations menopause has not been studied systematically. There Are two prevalent contradictory and Yel simultaneously held views of the menopause in society and in the medical yield says or. David r Rubinow clinical director of the National Institute of mental health. One View he says holds that there is nothing special about menopause nothing that would make mood and behavioural changes More Likely to occur at that Lime than at any other Lime of Lite the other holds that menopause is unique and ubiquitous. This school maintains Hal everybody experiences it probably men too at an earlier age and thai it is characterized by certain specific mood and behavioural symptoms both views Rubinow says developed but of an Ages old controversy Over whether menopause actually causes certain behavioural symptoms of so called inv Luliona melancholia that remarkable term no longer in much use. Essentially Means that you re depressed because you re getting old and shr Veling up. To one questions Tho link Between menopause and hoi flashes but some new population studies suggest Shat mood disorders Are no More prevalent in the menopausal age group roughly 45 Loiso than in other age groups because of that epidemiologists Are inferring says rub now. Thai there could be nothing unique about menopause that May result in particular types of behaviour or mood syndromes. That line of reasoning he says is vary Law adjust because the prevalence of affective mood disorder is similar in the grief Pausal age group does not mean that in lad for some people it is the menopause itself that May play a major role in either the development or the expression of whatever disorders show up in other words while the prevalence May be similar the cause May be different. Rubinow and a learn of nigh researchers have been. Studying women As they reach the climacteric the rather fuzzy Point at which menopausal symptoms appear and one that varies widely Iron woman to woman and following them through the menopause itself. / Hub now and his learn including psychiatrist Peter Schmidt and social worker Chris Hoban Are documenting the experiences of the Volunteer women in their studies in a Way that has not been done by lord with sell reporting of experiences and feelings blood tests and tests of brain chemicals hormones and other physical and behavioural manifestations they Are particularly interested in the interplay Between perceptions of changes in moods and feelings and certain physical symptoms associated with menopause such As sleep disturbances and hot lushes. Scientists now distinguish Between the hot hush and the hot Tho flush is a phenomenon linked to a withdrawal of the hormone oestrogen and can be measured As a Rise in temperature by sensitive equipment. The hot Flash is desc bed As the perception of heat by the individual and in Many women bul not All it occurs during the most women have flushes but not All of the flushes include hashes. Nor do scientists know just what ii is about the withdrawal of oestrogen or other hormones that causes these temperature regulation glitches but researchers Are looking at the Complex relationship among body temperature mood and behaviour. For example Schmidt and he ban have Lound patients who were so distressed by their hot flushes that they developed symptoms similar to Whoso in certain kinds of. Panic anxiety disorders. Their discomfort and embarrassment led to great worry and became so profound that them refused to leave their houses says Rubinow people have identified certain pieces of Iho Puzzle of hot Rubinow says pointing to its link to oestrogen deprivation also the lushes can be treated with oestrogen and several other compounds. Bui unfortunately nobody knows what the neurobiology of the hot Lush is and How in to of her brain1 activity it May either mimic a panic attack Rubinow explains or act. As a sensitizing experience to induce changes in behaviour. And since hot Hughes occur during sleep there s nothing like having your sleep shot to hell to make you kinds of alterations in a sense of mood so How do these women feel while it May be line that they Are no More prone to major depressions than Are younger or older women Schnmidt and Hoban have found certain recurrent though Olen Subtle mood changes there May be a sense of Emolion numbness not sadness or anxiety necessarily but a sense whet things which wore once a source of Joy and pleasure Are less so there May be a sense of not being in control a sense could have been managed easily in the past have become More Dill Cuil to handle there is a perception of lessened Powers of concentration More distr a lability. There is a Strong sense that something has changed but an inability to pinpoint just what it is. It is Rubinow says important to recognize that in a woman s life menopause like the Onset of menstruation. And the postpartum the period following a birth is a time of tremendous potential biological variability there is a voluminous history thai would suggest Hal All these periods of reproductive endocrine change Are associated with behavioural and physiological irch2t,1989 the stars and stripes Page 15
