Anger dies hard—in some over long stretches of time, in others not at all. Michael Van Burger understands this better than anyone. After years of therapy he still stuffs down anger over the most negligible slights. "I just smile and nod and it really internally is very unpleasant," says the 32-year-old Manhattan hair stylist. "My heart races. I start to stutter. I feel like the blood is boiling out of my face. And I get a major headache." People like Van Burger who have a history of headache and hold in or onto anger may be exacerbating the problem by triggering chronic headaches, clinical psychologist Robert Nicholson told Discover Magazine. "Little research has been done on the role that anger has and managing your anger has in relationship to headache," explains Nicholson, of St. Louis University School of Medicine and lead researcher of a study on anger and headache. "Some choose to manage their anger by holding their anger in. We know from research that that can have some negative impacts on their health." © ScienCentral, 2000-2004.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 5589 - Posted: 06.24.2010

(Philadelphia, PA)—Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that norepinephrine (adrenaline) plays an important role in animals in determining behavioral effects in some of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants, regardless of which biochemical pathway the drug uses to alleviate symptoms of depression. This finding -- published in the May 2004 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences -- should help scientists design more effective drugs for patients. Using genetically-altered mice unable to produce norepinephrine, they tested behavioral changes brought on by two different antidepressant classes. With the exception of one drug, they found that those lacking norepinephrine did not respond to the drugs. “Millions of Americans suffer from major depressive disorders and this study helps us understand how antidepressant drugs are processed to produce clinical therapeutic effects. It helps us understand how to redesign better drugs and which treatments will work better for which patients,” says the study’s lead author, Irwin Lucki, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology and Director of the Behavioral Psychopharmacology Laboratory at Penn.

Keyword: Depression; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 5588 - Posted: 06.24.2010

More pavements may encourage Americans to walk. HELEN PEARSON Public-health officials in the United States are proposing a new and drastic way to fight the onslaught of obesity: they want to redesign entire towns to make them exercise-friendly. The suggestion comes amid increasing concern over the population's growing girth: around two-thirds of adult Americans are now classed as overweight or obese. Many recent health campaigns urge people to walk, cycle or be otherwise active during the day. But that's easier said than done; in a typical US housing estate, the only way to reach workplaces, shops and schools is by car. Many streets lack pavements, and cycle paths are virtually unheard of. To really fight the flab, US public-health officials are now realizing that they may have to change the entire layout of towns. The suburban mansion and sport-utility vehicle(SUV) may fulfil the American dream, they say, but it is taking an unforeseen toll on health. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 5587 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Neuroscience can at last explain why we can't see faults in our partners or children. Raj Persaud reports Can science help us to understand love? Many argue that a Shakespearean Sonnet, Rachmaninov piano sonata or Jane Austen novel is much better at communicating insights into why we become irresistibly drawn to one person. But now neuroscience promises to offer revealing new insights that could solve some of the mysteries at the heart of love. A study of whether there are different forms of love has been launched by Dr Andreas Bartels and Prof Semir Zeki from the Wellcome Department of Neuroimaging at University College London. They have attempted to unravel for the first time whether the love between a parent and a child is the same as the emotion shared by lovers and whether all forms of intense attachments are basic variations on the same theme. Scientists have a cold eyed view of the purpose of love. The tender intimacy and selflessness of a mother's love might be celebrated by inspiring music, literature and art. Many great artists have been profoundly affected by the relationship between mother and child, as depicted by Da Vinci's Virgin and Child, Van Gogh's First Steps and so on. © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.

Keyword: Emotions; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5586 - Posted: 06.24.2010

State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed a lawsuit yesterday charging one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world with hiding significant information about risks of its antidepressant medicine Paxil for use in teenagers. Last year the Food and Drug Administration warned that patients under age 18 should not take Paxil because of a possible increased risk of suicidal impulses. The warning followed a similar action in England. In 2002, more than 2 million prescriptions for Paxil were written for children and adolescents in the United States. The lawsuit, the first of its kind from a state attorney general's office, states that GlaxoSmithKline engaged in "repeated and persistent fraud by concealing and failing to disclose to physicians information about Paxil." The only antidepressant medicine approved for children is Prozac, yet once a medicine is federally approved for adults it can be prescribed "off label" for any medical or psychiatric condition, including use in children. Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.

Keyword: Depression; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 5585 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Dr. Luanne Metz, an associate professor of neurosciences and physician-scientist in the Neuroscience Research Group at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine, has found that minocycline, a drug currently used to treat such conditions as acne, decreases the activity of lesions in the brains of people suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS). The results of her study are published in the May edition of the Annals of Neurology. The randomized study looks at ten people with active relapsing-remitting MS - characterized by clearly defined attacks (relapses) followed by partial or complete recovery (remissions). It assesses the effect of oral minocycline on people with active lesions in their brains. Each participant was given an MRI at the onset of the study, and then every four weeks after that, to determine whether or not the lesions caused by MS were getting worse or stabilizing. "For reasons that are still unclear, people with MS suffer from immune system malfunctions which trigger attacks of the nerve cells and myelin in the central nervous system,” says Metz, Director of the Calgary Health Region’s world renowned MS Clinic. “Current treatments being used today do not eliminate MS completely – they only lessen the severity and slow progression of the disease. Our new findings are exciting because we discovered that minocycline significantly reduces the activity of the lesions in the brain. These findings offer us the possibility of a new and safe treatment option for people with MS.”

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 5584 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Campaigners have urged the government to stop tobacco companies adding chocolate and other similar ingredients to cigarettes. It follows reports that British American Tobacco has been carrying out tests on chocolate and alcohol-flavoured cigarettes. The company says the tests are part of a long-running programme to improve the flavour and casing of cigarettes. But campaigners say it could encourage children to smoke. Scientists from BAT have been testing the impact of 482 different ingredients on cigarettes. These include chocolate, cocoa, wine, sherry, maple syrup and vanilla. Some of these are already use in its cigarettes. "The tests were carried out at an independent laboratory in Canada," a spokeswoman for BAT told BBC News Online. "BAT like every other tobacco company uses different substances to enhance the flavour of cigarettes. We are not alone in this and we make no secret of it." (C)BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 5583 - Posted: 06.03.2004

A new drug to treat ADHD - attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - has been licensed for use in the UK. The launch will reignite the debate about whether it is right to use drugs to control the condition, thought to affect around 5% of children. The drug, amoxetine, has been welcomed as an alternative treatment if existing drugs do not help. But some experts say diet should be used to manage children's symptoms instead. Unlike currently available drugs, amoxetine, which will be available on prescription from July, is not a stimulant, and therefore is unlikely to carry a potential for abuse. Children with ADHD have extreme difficulty sitting still, learning or concentrating. Looking after affected children can be exhausting for parents. Guidelines from the NHS watchdog the National Institute of Clinical Excellence say only the most severely affected should be given drug therapy. Until now, only the methylphenidate class of drugs - which includes Ritalin - have been available to treat ADHD. Some doctors have expressed concern it could lead to depression or be abused by drug-users because of its amphetamine content. (C)BBC

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 5582 - Posted: 06.03.2004

What goes on in the brain of a gambler? Researchers have found that the feeling of excitement might be linked to the release in the brain of dopamine, a chemical associated with the pleasure people get from eating, sex, and drugs. David Zald, psychology professor at Vanderbilt University, and his team used positron emission topography (PET) to observe the brain activity in nine people who were given gambling-like activities to perform. "The main thing that we wanted to see, first off, was whether we could image dopamine release in humans while they were winning money," says Zald. "Our key hypothesis was that we would indeed be able to see dopamine release while people are winning money." In the first gambling-like activity, the person chose one of four cards, knowing a reward of one dollar was possible, but not knowing when; in other words, the reward was unpredictable. In the second activity, the people knew they would get the reward with every fourth card chosen, so the reward was predictable. In the third activity, people chose cards without expecting to get a reward at all. © ScienCentral, 2000-2004.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 5581 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers seize moment to make tobacco data public. MICHAEL HOPKIN Public-health researchers have unveiled a project to tackle what they describe as information concealment by the UK-based multinational firm British American Tobacco (BAT). The group aims to publish some 8 million pages of the company's documents on an independent website, making them more easily accessible. The researchers accuse BAT of obstructing public attempts to access papers at its depository in Guildford, UK, and allege that some files detailing the company's activities have been removed or altered. The facility, they say, limits visitor numbers, doesn't provide an easily searchable index of its material, and does not allow onsite photocopying of documents. Visitors must request copies from BAT, which can take up to 12 months to arrive. "This sort of conduct raises questions as to the true public availability of the depository's contents," says Kelley Lee, a public-health expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a project member. BAT denies that any files have been deleted. Regarding access to the depository, "it was never designed to work like a public library", says Michael Prideaux, BAT's corporate and regulatory affairs director. He adds that researchers are welcome to reproduce material given to them by BAT. (C) Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 5580 - Posted: 06.03.2004

Genetic technique may yield BSE-proof calves. MICHAEL HOPKIN Researchers in the United States and Japan claim to have created cow embryos that cannot produce the protein responsible for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Without it, the animals should be immune to mad cow disease. A “handful" of the BSE-free cows will be born early next year, the researchers say. The calves will be tested with a small dose of mad cow protein to see whether they are truly resistant to the disease. The BSE-causing protein, called a prion, is present in both healthy and diseased cattle; it is only when it twists out of shape that it causes problems. When normal prion protein comes into contact with the disease-causing version it can flip into the malignant form, causing rogue prions to spread through the brain. This leads to coordination problems, behavioural changes and death. The US and Japanese researchers aimed to bypass this problem by creating genetically engineered cows that do not produce prions at all. This means that they should be safe from small doses of diseased prions, explains James Robl, president of biotechnology firm Hematech in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and one of the leaders of the team. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 5579 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Sherry Seethaler University of California, San Diego neurobiologists have uncovered evidence that sheds light on the long-standing mystery of how the brain makes sense of the information contained in electrical impulses sent to it by millions of neurons from the body. In a paper published this week in the early on-line version of the journal Nature, a UCSD team led by Massimo Scanziani explains how neurons, or nerve cells, in the brain sort out information before deciding how to respond. The paper will appear in a forthcoming print issue of Nature. Light, sound and odors, for example, are transformed by our sensory organs into a code made of series of electrical impulses that travel along neurons from the body to the brain. Information about the onset and the intensity of a stimulus is thought to be sent to the brain by the timing and frequency of these electrical impulses. How information is sorted by the brain has been an open question. The group discovered that different neurons in the brain are dedicated to respond to specific portions of the information. Copyright ©2001 Regents of the University of California.

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 5578 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Flexible brain-wiring could guard against epilepsy. TANGUY CHOUARD The nervous system is not hard-wired, according to research on spinal cord cells in tadpole embryos. Nerve cells can change their function as they develop, responding to their own electrical activity rather than playing a role that is preordained by genetics, say US biologists. Scientists thought that the precise nature of each nerve cell was determined by an irreversible programme of development, initiated by the cell's genetic code. But Nick Spitzer and his fellow neurobiologists from the University of California, San Diego, challenge that fatalistic view in this week's Nature1,2. The team finds that certain patterns of electrical activity in a young nerve cell can override its basic genetic instructions, changing the way that the cell will communicate with its peers. Nerve cells use neurotransmitter chemicals to talk to each other, and different chemicals will either excite or inhibit activity in neighbouring cells. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Epilepsy; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 5577 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Sitting blindfolded with a device equipped with 144 pixels in his mouth, any journalist would wonder about his career choice. But after a few minutes of experimentation, you have to recognize that the system developed by neuropsychologist Maurice Ptito of Université de Montréal, together with colleagues in Denmark and the United States , to allow blind people to “see with their tongue” appears strangely effective. In just the first few minutes, the subject is able to build up a fairly clear picture of the letter “T” placed in various positions and transmitted by electrical impulses to the device on his tongue. The Tongue Display Unit (TDU) can activate areas that are normally reserved for visual information and are unused when someone suffers from congenital blindness. “The tongue will never replace the eye, of course,” says Prof. Ptito. “But for people born blind, the cerebral cortex, which is normally used for vision, is reactivated by this device. The electrical activity, recorded by a scan, is very clear about this.” When we press the researcher to find out more about possible applications of this system, he delights in describing a miniaturized system worthy of the Bionic Man. “We can imagine a camera installed in the eye, which transmits an image from a device worn on the belt. This would send an electrical stimulus to the lingual stimulator mounted on a trip indicator the user wears under the palate. To have access to the camera’s images, all he would have to do is press his tongue against it.” In the shorter term, we can imagine a system that would replace the Braille alphabet. In fact, if the tongue were capable of “reading” the letters of the alphabet, it would be able to read texts broadcast via electrical signals. When it has been perfected, this system could considerably improve the quality of life of blind persons. It would be a “hands-off” non-invasive system.

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Vision
Link ID: 5576 - Posted: 06.24.2010

St. Paul, Minn. – People with low income are more likely to develop brain cancer, according to a study published in the May 25 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study compared the rate of brain cancer among people with low income (those enrolled in Medicaid) to all other people who developed brain cancer in the state of Michigan. Medicaid is a government program providing medical assistance for people with very low incomes. The study was conducted by identifying all of the new cases of brain cancer that occurred during a two-year period in the state of Michigan, and classifying those with low income as those who were eligible for Medicaid. Brain cancer cases occurring in people under age 25 or over age 84 were not included. A total of 1,006 cases were studied. The overall rate of brain cancer was 8.1 cases per 100,000 people. Of those with low incomes, there were 14.2 cases per 100,000 people, compared to 7.5 cases per 100,000 for all other persons. The difference was greatest among younger people. Men under age 44 with low incomes were at least four times more likely to develop brain cancer than those not classified as having low income. Women with low incomes under age 44 were at least 2.6 times more likely to develop brain cancer than those who were not classified as having low income.

Keyword: Miscellaneous; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 5575 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Javacia N. Harris Doctors have long said that repeatedly losing and regaining weight won't sculpt the body of your dreams. Now, Seattle researchers have found that so-called "yo-yo dieting" might even make you sick. A recent study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington says frequently losing and regaining weight may weaken the immune system, leaving the dieter more susceptible to illness. In a study of overweight but otherwise healthy women, scientists found that people who intentionally lost and regained weight five times or more in the past 20 years had a weakened immune system compared to those who maintained the same weight for five or more years. The results provide strong evidence that yo-yo dieting could be a health risk, said Cornelia Ulrich, senior author of the study and an assistant member of Fred Hutchinson's Public Health Sciences Division. This new information could serve as a warning to the 50 percent of women in Western countries who the study says are trying, or have recently tried, to lose weight. Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

Keyword: Obesity; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 5574 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By GARDINER HARRIS PHOENIX, — In the midst of a worldwide debate on whether depressed children should be treated with antidepressant drugs like Prozac, a landmark government-financed study has found that Prozac helps teenagers overcome depression far better than talk therapy. But a combination of the two treatments, the study found, produced the best result. The study, sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, was the first to compare psychotherapy and drug treatment for depressed adolescents. Statistically, the researchers found, talk therapy — in which a patient discusses problems with a therapist — was by itself no more effective in reducing the depression than treatment with placebos. But when combined with drug treatment, psychotherapy appeared to provide added benefit and to reduce the risk of suicide. The findings are likely to reassure psychiatrists, pediatricians and others who increasingly prescribe antidepressants to teenagers and children. Millions of young people take the drugs. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 5573 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. Preliminary results from the world's largest survey on mental health indicate that mental illness is widespread and undertreated, and that wealthy people with mild illness receive more and better treatment than poor people with severe illness. From 1 to 5 percent of the populations of most of the countries surveyed had serious mental illness, according to the findings, being published today in The Journal of the American Medical Association. And in most of the countries, 9 to 17 percent of those interviewed had had some episode of mental illness in the last year, whether serious or less severe, said the study, by researchers from the World Health Organization and Harvard Medical School. Around the world, the authors found, mental illness causes as many lost days of work as any physical problem like cancer, heart attack or back pain."The level of role impairment we found to be associated with serious mental disorders was staggering: more than a month in the past year when the respondents reported being totally unable to work," said one chief author, Dr. Ronald C. Kessler, a professor of health care policy at Harvard. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression; Schizophrenia
Link ID: 5572 - Posted: 06.02.2004

Summer is approaching, but that doesn't mean kids should stop using their brains. New research confirms that during the teen years, the brain is ripe for learning new things. Scientists used to think there was a spurt of the production of gray matter, the tissue of the brain responsible for information processing, during the first eighteen months of life, and then a steady decline. But in the late 1990s, brain scientist Jay Giedd discovered a second spurt of gray matter production just before puberty, followed by a period of "pruning" during the teenage years. "The second wave increases throughout childhood, peaks at about age eleven in girls and twelve in boys, and then in the teen years it prunes or thins down," Giedd explains. "The teen brain is particularly active in terms of the growth of connections and pruning back of those connections. It's a very tumultuous time in terms of the brain development story." Now, a new study reveals for the first time the actual sequence of brain development between the ages of five and twenty. Giedd, chief of brain imaging at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and his colleagues at the NIMH and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), have created a unique time-lapse 3D animation of the maturing brain by using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to scan the brains of thirteen healthy children and teenagers every two years for ten years. © ScienCentral, 2000-2004.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 5571 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Kenneth J. Bender, Pharm.D., M.A., Psychiatric Times Two advisory committees of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration met in an unusual joint session in February to consider whether antidepressant treatment provokes suicidality in children. At the end of this first of two planned meetings, they recommended that the FDA warn practitioners about this possible risk. The Psychopharmacological Drugs Advisory Committee and the Pediatric Subcommittee of the Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee received summaries of spontaneous drug reports and of experiences in clinical trials with children; called expert witnesses on suicide research; and heard dramatic testimony from families of suicide victims, as well as from those whose children had benefited from antidepressant treatment. According to Russell Katz, M.D., the events identified in the clinical studies by the pharmaceutical manufacturers will be independently reclassified by a group at Columbia University with particular expertise in adolescent suicidality. At a second meeting this summer, the committees may also hear expert testimony on improving prospective assessment and monitoring for suicidality and possibly improving antidepressant clinical trial designs to more clearly ascertain whether benefit outweighs risk. © 2004 Psychiatric Times. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Depression; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 5570 - Posted: 06.24.2010