Erik Baard When the physicians come to me,/ My heart rejects their remedies;/ The magicians are quite helpless,/ My sickness is not discerned./ To tell me “She is here” would revive me! If this Ancient Egyptian poem is any guide, lovesickness has been with us for more than 3,000 years. But psychiatrists may be unintentionally “curing” us of that experience and other aspects of romantic love with modern antidepressant medications. So argue the anthropologist Helen Fisher, and the psychiatrist James Thomson Jr. Their case, sketched out in Fisher’s recent book, Why We Love (Henry Holt, £13.22), centres on how certain antidepressants could be blocking chemical pathways in the brain that were paved by evolution to help us meet and keep mates. Copyright 2004 Times Newspapers Ltd.

Keyword: Depression; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5131 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Tired? Got the blues? Maybe testosterone can help. Or not. By Nancy Shute When Joe Marcklinger hit his 50s, he found himself feeling tired and blue--way too often. He tried taking antidepressants but had a hard time accepting one of the drugs' most common side effects--sexual dysfunction. Then Marcklinger's wife, Maureen, a psychiatric nurse, heard about research using the male sex hormone testosterone to treat depression. She urged her husband to check it out. "Within a few days I started feeling mentally better," says Marcklinger, 57. "I started feeling more energy." He now finds it easier clambering over fences while on the job with his surveying business in Sudbury, Mass., and has better muscle tone. "You know how older guys look weak? I'm not like that." Things are better in the bedroom, too. In the past few years, the number of men taking supplements of the male sex hormone testosterone has soared, fueled by baby boomers feeling the slights of middle age. The market has also been boosted by the availability of skin gels that are much easier to use than the unpleasant injections or dangerous pills of years past. The number of men taking "testosterone replacement therapy" increased 29 percent from 2001 to 2002, when nearly 2 million prescriptions were written, and the Internet is awash with ads selling the sex hormone--despite the fact that testosterone is available only by prescription. The Web site for AndroGel, one of the leading treatments, shows the needle of a gas gauge drooping at Empty. "Fatigued? Depressed mood? Low sex drive?" the site asks. With "testosterone restored," the needle leaps to "Full." Risks. Only one problem: There's no clear proof that testosterone replacement therapy combats fatigue, depression, or low sex drive in healthy men. In fact, there's little proof of either the benefits or the risks of supplemental testosterone, because no large, long-term studies have been done. Although there are intriguing hints that testosterone may reduce age-related bone and muscle loss, there are also ominous suggestions that extra testosterone could be life threatening. The No. 1 concern: prostate cancer. Copyright © 2004 U.S. News & World Report,

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Depression
Link ID: 5130 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Many people know about the dangers of prenatal alcohol exposure, particularly the damaging effects that heavy drinking can cause to a child's cognitive development. A study published in the March issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research has found that even light to moderate drinking during pregnancy may interfere with learning and memory during adolescence. "We have known for a long time that drinking heavily during pregnancy could lead to major impairments in growth, behavior, and cognitive function in children," said Jennifer Willford, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and the study's first author. "This paper clearly shows that even small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy can have a significant impact on child development." "Learning and memory are cornerstones for success in school and in everyday life," added Sarah Mattson, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, and associate director of the Center for Behavioral Teratology at San Diego State University. "Disruption of the ability to learn and remember new information jeopardizes the job of children, that is, to go to school. The inability to learn new information in the verbal or nonverbal domain will interfere with a child's ability to achieve alongside his or her peers."

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 5129 - Posted: 03.15.2004

Whether depression is linked to having an under-active thyroid gland has been debated for many years. Research published in BMC Psychiatry this week suggests that some patients with depression may be suffering from a subtle autoimmune thyroid condition, which could hinder their recovery. The study also suggests that physicians could use indicators of thyroid function to predict patients' responsiveness to antidepressants. As inpatients with depression often undergo routine thyroid tests, the data that physicians would need to create such a prediction are likely to be available to them already. Researchers from Greece studied 30 patients suffering from major depression, and 60 healthy people as controls. Each patient was examined by two psychiatric experts, who assessed their condition during a structured interview. The researchers then tested the thyroid function of all the volunteers.

Keyword: Depression; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 5128 - Posted: 03.15.2004

Companies are starting to turn to powerful brain-scan technology in order to figure out how we choose which products to purchase By Clint Witchalls Newsweek International - The woman lying in the huge, doughnut-shaped magnet having her brain scanned is perfectly healthy. Radiologists at the Neurosense clinic in south London aren't looking for lesions or lumps. Instead, they've set up a periscope that allows her to view a series of videotaped advertisements. She doesn't have to do anything but watch—and perhaps daydream about whether a particular brand of chocolate seems yummy, or what it would be like to drive that new family sedan. While she's thinking, the doctors are looking to see if certain brain circuits are active and, if so, how excited they get. Her experience could foretell the future of marketing. Sellers have always expended a great deal of time and energy trying to figure out what potential buyers really think (as opposed to what they say when you ask them). Now, using powerful brain-scan technology, they can do so scientifically. Ford of Europe uses such "neuromarketing" techniques to better understand how consumers make emotional connections with their brands. DaimlerChrysler has funded several research projects at the University of Ulm in Germany, using brain-imaging technology to decode which purchasing choices go into buying a car. Firms like Oxford-based Neurosense have sprung up to make neuromarketing a bona fide business tool. "The 1990s were declared 'the Decade of the Brain'," says Justine Meaux, a neuroscientist and marketing strategist at BrightHouse, an Atlanta, Georgia-based neuromarketing company. "We learned more about neuroscience in those 10 years than in the entire history that preceded them. I think business neuroscience is just one more field of inquiry." © 2004 MSNBC.com

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 5127 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Paradoxically, a single MHC class II allele, HLA-DQ0602, confers susceptibility to narcolepsy but prevents development of type I diabetes. Clinical immunologist Lars Fugger and structural biologist Yvonne Jones, both at Oxford University, have compared the crystal structure of the allele with those of two similar MHC molecules that respectively predispose to type 1 diabetes and protect against narcolepsy.1 They have identified unique features of several pockets within the peptide-binding groove of HLA-DQ0602 that could explain the contradiction through differential influences on T-cell stimulation. In particular, says Fugger, the extra large P4 pocket selectively accommodates a candidate auto-antigenic peptide that might stimulate autoreactive T cells in narcolepsy, a potential autoimmune disorder. For diabetes, the unusual stability of the P9 pocket could promote development of regulatory T cells able to actively suppress disease-causing T cells. "In many ways," he adds, "I would say that narcolepsy and diabetes could be mirrors of each other." © 2004, The Scientist LLC,

Keyword: Narcolepsy
Link ID: 5126 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service Taking a nutrient called choline during pregnancy could "super-charge" children's brains for life, suggests a study in rats. Offspring born to pregnant rats given the supplement were known to be faster learners with better memories. But the new work, by Scott Swartzwelder and colleagues at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, US, shows this is due to having bigger brain cells in vital areas. Choline, a member of the vitamin B family, is found in egg yolks, liver and other meats - "exactly the kind of things people were told not to eat" due to their high cholesterol content, says Swartzwelder. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 5125 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Bruce Bower Researchers have traditionally theorized that the frontal cortex, a brain region linked to mental faculties such as planning and reasoning, expanded to an unprecedented extent during human evolution. However, a new analysis of brains from many different mammals takes the uniqueness out of our frontal cortex. Lemurs, gibbons, chimpanzees, and other primates have roughly the same proportion of brain tissue devoted to the frontal cortex as people do, say Eliot C. Bush and John M. Allman of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Lions, hyenas, and other carnivores display a substantially smaller frontal cortex relative to the rest of the brain. "People aren't special in regard to frontal-brain size," Bush says, "but there appear to be important differences between primates and carnivores in the way the frontal cortex is put together." Copyright ©2004 Science Service.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 5124 - Posted: 06.24.2010

COLLEGE STATION, - Ranjita Misra really hates having to give parents something new to worry about, but the Texas A&M University health researcher says parents -- especially minority parents -- now need to be concerned about Type 2 or adult-onset diabetes. "Childhood obesity and diabetes is a very new area. We did not have this problem a few years ago. Consequently, patients, health providers and family members are at a loss as to how to deal with the situation," Misra notes. Both diabetes and obesity among children has reached epidemic proportions as the fast-food restaurants are geared mostly to children and families. However, in recent days, the fast-food industry has made headlines by modifying their menus to be healthier. One example of the problem she cites is from a colleague who reported the case of an obese five-year-old diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, a disease that previously had a typical age of onset in the early 40s.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 5123 - Posted: 03.13.2004

Brain scientists think they have produced new evidence that supports the idea that men are more likely than women to get sexually aroused by visual images. Stephan Hamann of Emory University in Atlanta and colleagues did brain scans on 14 men and women in their twenties as they watched a series of sexual and nonsexual images. The sexual images caused much more activity in two regions of the men's brains than in the same areas of the women's brains, particularly in the amygdala, a primitive area that plays a key role in regulating emotions. The heightened brain activity occurred even though the women said they were more aroused by the sexual images than the men did. © 2004 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Vision
Link ID: 5122 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By CLAUDIA FELDMAN, Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle A local researcher has advanced the search for cures for central nervous system injuries by using a naturally occurring substance produced in the body to eliminate scar formation and promote nerve regeneration. "It's major," says Stephen Davies, who hopes the seeds of his research one day will help patients with paralysis and head injuries. Davies' work with rats and the anti-scarring agent called decorin was published earlier this week in the European Journal of Neuroscience. He says decorin, administered directly to the spinal cord injury with a tiny pump, suppressed inflammation and scar formation. Decorin also provided a hospitable environment for new nerve fibers to grow, pass through the injury site and keep growing. Without the decorin, Davies found the scar tissue presented a physical and molecular barrier to nerve fiber growth.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 5121 - Posted: 03.13.2004

By CLAUDIA FELDMAN, Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle A local researcher has advanced the search for cures for central nervous system injuries by using a naturally occurring substance produced in the body to eliminate scar formation and promote nerve regeneration. "It's major," says Stephen Davies, who hopes the seeds of his research one day will help patients with paralysis and head injuries. Davies' work with rats and the anti-scarring agent called decorin was published earlier this week in the European Journal of Neuroscience. He says decorin, administered directly to the spinal cord injury with a tiny pump, suppressed inflammation and scar formation. Decorin also provided a hospitable environment for new nerve fibers to grow, pass through the injury site and keep growing. Without the decorin, Davies found the scar tissue presented a physical and molecular barrier to nerve fiber growth.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 5120 - Posted: 03.13.2004

Experts have warned doctors not to start patients on high doses of the antidepressant Seroxat. The Committee on Safety of Medicines says patients should initially be given a dose of 20mg a day. But it revealed that last year 17,000 people were given higher doses, which could increase the risk of side effects such as insomnia and nausea. There have also been claims Seroxat is addictive and can increase the risk of violent behaviour in some patients. Guidance for doctors already states that adults taking Seroxat, a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) should be started on a dose of 20mg. But the CSM said it decided it was necessary to issue a reminder after the scale of prescribing at higher doses became clear. It said there was no evidence that giving patients with depression a higher dose made the treatment more effective. (C) BBC

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 5119 - Posted: 03.12.2004

By ROBIN FINN OBESITY is our medical buzzword for the day: has to be. After all, the House of Representatives has just approved the so-called cheeseburger bill - pretty whimsical nickname given this week's release of a government report declaring fat second only to tobacco as a harbinger of preventable morbidity - a slice of legislation that prevents tubby consumers from suing restaurants for making them obese. The prevailing opinion? People, not French fries, should be accountable for their flab. Barbra E. Minch, the tempest-in-a-teapot type who is president of the William F. Ryan Community Health Center on West 97th Street, is just relieved to see obesity making headlines. She even uses herself as Exhibit A: she recently switched from potato chips, her gastronomic downfall, to pretzels. But here's the rub: she had medical help. And here's the second rub: she footed the bill. When Ms. Minch's doctor didn't like the look of her cholesterol count and suggested she visit a nutritionist, she discovered that her health insurance wouldn't cover the tab. She paid for two visits out-of-pocket. Her patients at Ryan aren't as flexible. But they're just as much at risk, if not more so. Infuriating. Listen to her boil. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 5118 - Posted: 03.12.2004

By Lynn Yarris Rare is the man who has never been implored by his mate to stop and ask for directions, and rarer still is the man who has complied. Women have for many years been asking the question: Why won't men ask for directions? Now one man has stepped up to provide an answer. The answer that neurobiologist-turned science writer Richard C. Francis provides in his book, ``Why Men Won't Ask for Directions: The Seductions of Sociobiology,'' is likely to infuriate those who subscribe to the sociobiology theories of E.O. Wilson and Richard Dawkins. The central idea behind sociobiology is that if evolution drives the structures and functions of our biological makeup, it must also drive our social behavior. Francis calls sociobiologists ``radical adaptationists'' because of their dogged attempts to explain away every single aspect of human behavior in terms of natural selection. ``Part of the appeal of sociobiology is its simplicity; with a little ingenuity it is easy to play the find the benefit game,'' he says. ``Part of the appeal is its universality; by focusing on evolutionary benefits you can explain almost anything, even a seemingly pathological behavior like rape.''

Keyword: Evolution; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5117 - Posted: 03.12.2004

Plunging grades, low self-esteem and depression don’t have to be hallmarks of adolescence. As this ScienCentral News video reports, researchers now believe unhealthy changes in your child’s attitude or schoolwork may be linked to lack of sleep. Many children slink past bed times the way the craftiest of thieves slip by security—with careful preparation and flawless backup plans. But new research shows that sleep-deprived middle-schoolers experience significant decreases in self-esteem, increased instances of depression and significant dips in grades. Jean Rhodes, professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, studied sleep in nearly 2,500 Chicago school children, aged 11 to 14-years-old. She reported in the January/February issue of the journal Child Development that as various factors suck the sleep out of children, a host of negative side effects result. "The fewer hours of sleep that children got, the more depressed they were, the higher number of depressive symptoms [they had], and the lower their self-esteem and the lower their grades," Rhodes explains. © ScienCentral, 2000-2004.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 5116 - Posted: 06.24.2010

First signal of disease could provide future test for early stages of neurodegenerative illnesses (Philadelphia, PA) – Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have linked smell loss in mice with excessive levels of a key protein associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Smell loss is well documented as one of the early and first clinical signs of such diseases. If smell function declines as the levels of this protein increase in brain regions associated with smelling, the research could validate the use of smell tests for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. Their findings appear in the March 12th issue of the journal Brain Research, the commemorative volume 1000. "The loss of smell – or olfactory dysfunction – has been known for more than a decade as an early sign of several neurodegenerative diseases, but we have never been able to link it to a pathological entity that is measurable over time," said Richard Doty, PhD, Professor and Director of Penn's Smell and Taste Center, who is also the team leader of the study. "By tying decrements in the ability to smell to the presence of key disease proteins, such as tau, we may well be able to assess the degree of progression of selected elements of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders by scores on quantitative smell tests." A total of ten mice were evaluated in this experiment – five mice that were genetically engineered to be a model for human Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, and five normal control mice that do not overexpress tau proteins. Olfactory dysfunction was evaluated by measuring the amount of time the mice spent investigating unfamiliar odors, such as peppermint or vanillin. Unlike normal mice, those with smell deficits do not spend much time investigating such odors, and do not show a preference for "novel" odors over "familiar" odors.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 5115 - Posted: 06.24.2010

You've likely heard its praise. Users claim that the drug Ecstasy heightens their senses and makes them feel less inhibited. It also provides pep, they say, enabling them to dance and party long into the night. Sound pretty great? Unfortunately, there's a downside. Even though nicknames such as Disco biscuits, Scooby snacks, and Sweeties imply that the drug is as harmless as frosted flakes, popping Ecstasy pills can create several negative, sometimes dangerous, effects. For example, during the period of the drug's high, about four to six hours, you may feel confused, nauseous, paranoid, and sweaty. In addition, it may trigger a sharp increase in body temperature and kidney or heart failure. Accumulating research now indicates that this list of pitfalls may be even longer. Studies find evidence that encounters with Ecstasy also can possibly injure the brain and create lasting problems. Copyright © 2004 Society for Neuroscience

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 5114 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN PHILADELPHIA, — The expanding recreational use of crystal methamphetamine and Viagra is apparently fueling increases in syphilis, H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases among gay and bisexual men in the United States, according to new studies reported here on Wednesday. At a meeting on preventing sexually transmitted diseases, Dr. Samuel J. Mitchell of the San Francisco Health Department said a study had found that 17.4 percent of 1,263 gay men who had gone to the city's sexually transmitted disease clinic had used crystal in the four weeks before their visit. Crystal users were more than twice as likely as nonusers to be infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, 4.9 times as likely to receive a diagnosis of syphilis and 1.7 times as likely to test positive for gonorrhea. Dr. William Wong of the San Francisco Health Department said that another study found that gay men who used both crystal and Viagra together were 6.1 times as likely to receive a diagnosis of syphilis as those who did not use either drug. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 5113 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Usha Sutliff Psychopaths have physical abnormalities in two key brain structures responsible for functions ranging from fear detection to information processing, a USC clinical neuroscientist has found in two studies that suggest a neuro-developmental basis to the disorder. Adrian Raine, a professor of psychology and neuroscience in the USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, focused his research on two parts of the brain: the hippocampus, a portion of the temporal lobe that regulates aggression and transfers information into memory; and the corpus callosum, a bridge of nerve fibers that connects the cerebral hemispheres. “Scientists have implicated different brain regions with respect to antisocial and aggressive behavior, and all are important and relevant,” Raine said. “But it goes beyond that to the wiring. Unless these parts of the brain are properly wired together, they’ll never communicate effectively. They’ll never result in appropriate behavior,” he said.

Keyword: Aggression
Link ID: 5112 - Posted: 06.24.2010