by Frank Vocci, Ph.D. Psychiatric Times Vol. XX Issue 5 Drug abuse and addiction continue to be among the largest and most challenging health and social problems facing society. They affect both the well-being of the individual and the health of the public. In 2001, 15.9 million Americans 12 years and older reported using an illicit drug in the past month, and more than 4.6 million met the DSM-IV criteria for requiring treatment (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2002). The encouraging news is that breakthrough discoveries in science continue to refine our understanding of drug abuse and addiction and are yielding new opportunities to translate basic research findings into tangible treatment products. The processes underlying drug abuse and addiction are complex, and recent findings suggest that addiction does not just involve changes in the neural substrates of positive reinforcement but changes in motivational and cognitive systems as well. The challenge then, is to identify the mechanisms that dampen drug cravings or rewards without interfering with motivation for natural rewards. © 2003 Psychiatric Times. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 3800 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by H. Michael Zal, D.O. Psychiatric Times Social phobia (also called social anxiety disorder) is the third most common mental health problem in the United States, affecting more than 10 million Americans. It is exceeded only by major depressive disorder and alcohol dependence (Kessler et al., 1994). Because prevalence estimates vary based on the diagnostic criteria, assessment methods and population used, lifetime prevalence estimates range from 0.5% to 16.0% (Furmark et al., 1999, as cited in Lang and Stein, 2001). In Western countries, recent surveys estimate the lifetime prevalence of social phobia at 7% to 13% (Furmark, 2002). In 1998, the International Consensus Group on Depression and Anxiety developed a consensus statement on social anxiety disorder that provides guidelines for diagnosis and treatment (Ballenger et al., 1998). Individuals with social phobia experience the clinical anxiety-fear triad of worry, avoidance behavior and physical complaints commonly seen in general anxiety and the other anxiety disorders but with a unique twist--a paralyzing fear of being scrutinized (Table 1). © 2003 Psychiatric Times. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Depression; Stress
Link ID: 3799 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By SANDRA BLAKESLEE Diagnoses of autism have nearly doubled in the last four years among children in California, state officials reported yesterday. They said they could not explain the increase. "The number of cases is accelerating," said Dr. Ron Huff, a senior psychologist at the Department of Developmental Services, who oversaw preparation of the report, "and we do not know why." Whether the California figures reflect a nationwide trend is not clear, since reporting practices vary from state to state. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is studying the issue in 13 states. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 3798 - Posted: 05.19.2003

The tangerine-scented crested auklet is the first bird found to send fragrant signals. JOHN WHITFIELD You smell a group of crested auklets before you see them, says Julie Hagelin. "It's like someone is peeling a tangerine next to you," she says. The citrus-scented seabirds are the first found to communicate using odour. The birds seem to use perfume to make themselves attractive, Hagelin's team has discovered. Crested auklets (Aethia cristatella) live in Alaska; a breeding colony can be 100,000 strong. When birds meet, they press their bills against each other's necks - feathers here have the strongest smell. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 3797 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Montreal, . A new discovery by scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University may provide insights into Multiple Sclerosis. In a study published in the May issue of the Journal of Neuroscience (J. Neuroscience 2003 23: 3735-3744), Dr. Tim Kennedy and colleagues have discovered that a protein called netrin-1 directs the normal movement of the cells that become oligodendrocytes in the developing spinal cord. Oligodendrocytes are the cells that provide critical support for the nerve cells – they make myelin, the electrical insulation of the central nervous system. They are also the cells that degenerate and die in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Although oligodendrocytes play an essential role in the nervous system, many aspects of their basic cell biology are not well understood, which is one of the reasons why MS is such a mystery. This research finding identifies a fundamental mechanism that directs migrating oligodendrocyte precursor cells. This has implications for understanding demyelinating diseases such as MS, where even a small myelin deficit can lead to functional impairment of the nerve cell. An estimated 50,000 people have MS, which is most often diagnosed in young adults. Its devastating effects last a lifetime and may include problems in seeing or speaking, difficulty with balance and coordination, and even paralysis. “Dr. Kennedy's research will contribute to the growing body of knowledge which is developing new therapies for MS," said Dr. William McIlroy, MS Society of Canada national medical advisor.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 3796 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New findings reveal fetuses recognize mother's voice in-utero (Kingston, Ont.)- New research findings on the ability of a fetus to recognize its mother's voice and even distinguish it from other female voices confirms what scientists have speculated about for more than 20 years - that experiences in the womb help shape newborn preferences and behaviour. Dr. Barbara Kisilevsky, a Queen's University professor of nursing along with a team of psychologists at Queen's and obstetricians in Hangzhou, China, found that fetuses are capable of learning in the womb and can remember and recognize their mother's voice before they are even born. Their research findings are published in the current issue of the international journal Psychological Science. © Queen's University

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Language
Link ID: 3795 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Thirty percent of soldiers who go to war end up with PTSD, according to Dennis Charney, chief of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Mood & Anxiety Disorders Research Program. But why do some soldiers get the disorder, while others do not? A study at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina revealed that some soldiers in the Army’s Special Forces Units were less likely to suffer from PTSD than their non-Special Forces counterparts. Researchers discovered that during rigorous training exercises, these elite soldiers produced more Neuropeptide-Y, a brain chemical that helps you stay focused on a task even under stress. “The more Neuropeptide-Y you generated, the less likely you were to be distressed,” says Dr. Matthew Friedman, director of the National Center for PTSD. Armed with this knowledge, the researchers’ next step is to explore prevention. A low level of Neuropeptide Y in a person may be a marker that helps doctors identify which people may be more vulnerable to developing PTSD, and perhaps these people could be given a drug to enhance their neuropeptide Y level. “I think of it as a morning after pill,” says Freidman. “If you are exposed to trauma, if you’ve been raped or mugged or exposed to a terribly violent World Trade Center catastrophe plane crash, is there something you can take in the immediate aftermath that will protect you against later developments? I think that the research is very, very exciting. I think it is emblematic of where the field has to go, which is to understand vulnerability and resilience, and then to understand if we can help people to achieve resilience through our own version of vaccination, immunization or just training them to deal with trauma.” © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 3794 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service An experimental drug given to a UK teenager with the human form of mad cow disease appears to have stopped the fatal disease in its tracks. The controversial treatment may even have improved 18-year-old Jonathan Simms' condition, according to his father. Pentosan polysulphate had never been used in humans for treating vCJD before being injected directly into Jonathan's brain. The treatment began in January 2003 after the family won a High Court ruling against the UK's National Health Service. The NHS had refused to allow doctors to carry out the procedure with an untested drug. But the court ruled the treatment acceptable, as without treatment Jonathan was certain to die. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 3793 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Hormone therapy tempts aging men, but its risks haven't yet been reckoned Ben Harder With each passing birthday, Mr. Y feels increasingly frail. His bones have grown fragile, his strength has slipped, and his muscles have given way to fat. His sex drive has waned, and his once-keen mind seems perpetually fogged. He often feels gloomy. Vigor has turned to fatigue, zest to melancholy. In body and in mind, he has grown old. While advanced age naturally brings certain declines, a growing number of men who might identify with the fictive Mr. Y are looking to hormone-replacement therapy to stave off the advance of the characteristic signs. Specifically, they're taking prescribed, synthetic forms of testosterone. Declining concentrations of natural androgens, which include testosterone and related male sex hormones, may be at least partially responsible for physical and mental signs of aging in some men. Accumulating research suggests that supplemental testosterone can stall or counteract some aspects of these declines, but the specifics are far from resolved. What's more, it will take years to determine whether the treatment is doing most men more harm than good. As the first substantial studies are concluding, some doctors are optimistic. Testosterone therapy "can make the process of aging more tolerable," says Alvaro Morales, a urologist at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. "I'm all in favor of giving [certain aging men] therapy, but they have to be followed closely." Copyright ©2003 Science Service.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 3792 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By GINA KOLATA Each year, 300,000 Americans have bypass surgery to improve blood flow to their hearts. Most of the operations succeed. But a minority of patients leave the hospital confused or forgetful, unable to think clearly or unable to concentrate. "Pumpheads," some doctors privately call those patients, and the information shows that a third or more may be affected. As the term implies, doctors attributed the problems to the pump, the heart-lung machine that takes over during surgery when doctors literally stop a heart from beating so that they can repair its blocked vessels. Doctors theorize that something about the pump — little fat fragments or tiny clots that may be thrown into the blood or maybe blood pressure levels in the brain that are too high or too low — may be causing damage. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 3791 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Since the introduction of chlorpromazine in psychiatry in 1952, all antipsychotic drugs with proven efficacy have been dopamine (DA) D2 receptor antagonists. It has been suggested that positive schizophrenic symptoms (such as hallucinations) are associated with increased subcortical DA neurotransmission, and negative and cognitive symptoms with impaired mesocortical DA function. Studies on striatal D2 receptor densities in drug-naive schizophrenic patients have indicated that deviation in D2 density is larger among patients vs. controls, and although some patients have markedly elevated D2 levels, the D2 densities do not differ substantially at group level. Although DA neurotransmission in basal ganglia may be more important for motor functions rather than for emotions and behavioral symptoms, D2 binding studies have previously concentrated in the striatum, because there have been no suitable in vivo -ligands available for measuring extrastriatal D2 receptor binding. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that extrastriatal D2/3 density in temporal and cingulate cortex is lower among drug naive schizophrenic patients when compared with matched controls.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 3790 - Posted: 05.13.2003

ATLANTA -- Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN) researchers have demonstrated that genetically identical mice placed in different environments both pre- and post-natally differ dramatically as adults in their stress responses and learning abilities. The finding, reported in the May issue of Nature Neuroscience, suggests that pre- and post-natal maternal environments, when taken together, play a strong role in determining the stress profile and cognitive development of genetically identical mice. In the study led by Darlene Francis, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and Thomas Insel, MD, former director of the CBN and current director of the National Institute of Mental Health, the scientists selected two in-bred mouse strains known to differ in their stress reactivity (high versus low) and cognitive performance. All the mice within each in-bred strain were identical. To gauge the influence of different uterine and early-life environments on development, the scientists transferred embryos from recently mated low-stress (B6) female mice to female surrogates from the strain that displayed high-stress reactive profiles (BALBs). For comparison purposes, they also transferred embryos to surrogate females within the same strain.

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Stress
Link ID: 3789 - Posted: 05.13.2003

Three out of four young people who go to clubs or concerts regularly are risking permanent hearing damage, research suggests. The Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) has found that of the two thirds of young people who regularly go clubbing, three quarters of them regularly experience signs of hearing damage after a night out. These include ringing in their ears and or dullness of hearing. The research also shows that while almost half of young people know that the ringing in their ears after a night out is a sign of damage, 59% are not aware this damage is irreversible. Brian Dow, joint head of campaigns at RNID, said: "Social noise exposure has tripled in the UK since the early 1980s, meaning that it is now even more important for people to take steps to look after their hearing. "Prevention is always better than cure, especially in this case as there is no remedy for hearing damage. (C) BBC

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 3788 - Posted: 05.08.2003

By CLAUDIA DREIFUS DENVER — As a young physician in the 1960's, Dr. Floyd E. Bloom was part of the team from the National Institutes of Health that uncovered the principles behind the drugs that are now used to treat depression. Since then, he has been the director of behavioral neurobiology at the Salk Institute, the chairman of the neuropharmacology department at the Scripps Research Institute and the chief of the neuropharmacology laboratory at the National Institute of Mental Health. Now, he is the chairman of Neurome, a San Diego company involved in brain research. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 3787 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By LES LINE In a rite of spring nearly as old as the Nebraska sandhills, greater prairie chickens and sharp-tailed grouse gather before dawn on their respective dancing grounds at Valentine National Wildlife Refuge in the north-central part of the state. While females watch, the males lower their heads, raise their tails, spread their wings, inflate colorful air sacs on their necks and stamp their feet while making hollow cooing or moaning sounds. The basic purpose of this elaborate display is to attract a mate. Indeed, the dancing ground, or lek, is the avian equivalent of a singles bar, said Dr. Robert Gibson, a behavioral ecologist and professor of biological sciences at the University of Nebraska. But Dr. Gibson, who has studied lekking behavior around the world, is convinced there is more going on. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 3786 - Posted: 05.08.2003

By NICHOLAS WADE The homelands of the Indo-European languages stretch from Dublin to Delhi. But Hadza, a tongue that is one of a kind, is spoken by just 1,000 people near Lake Eyasi in Tanzania. Why do the world's languages have so uneven a distribution pattern? Two researchers theorize that much of the answer has to do with events that began 10,000 years ago, as crop plants were domesticated in different regions. The invention of agriculture has long been invoked to explain the spread of the Indo-European languages. Now, Dr. Jared Diamond of the University of California at Los Angeles and Dr. Peter Bellwood of the Australian National University in Canberra have applied the concept to 15 major language families. Their article appeared in the April 25 issue of Science. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 3785 - Posted: 05.08.2003

EAST LANSING, Mich. – If the evolution of complex organisms were a road trip, then the simple country drives are what get you there. And sometimes even potholes along the way are important. An interdisciplinary team of scientists at Michigan State University and the California Institute of Technology, with the help of powerful computers, has used a kind of artificial life, or ALife, to create a road map detailing the evolution of complex organisms, an old problem in biology. In an article in the May 8 issue of the international journal Nature, Richard Lenski, Charles Ofria, Robert Pennock, and Christoph Adami report that the path to complex organisms is paved with a long series of simple functions, each unremarkable if viewed in isolation.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 3784 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A protein defective in two types of muscular dystrophy also appears to be important in repairing damaged muscle, according to Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers at the University of Iowa College of Medicine. The discovery reveals the first known component of the machinery that repairs the damaged membrane in a muscle fiber. Further studies of this and related proteins could lead to a better understanding of disorders that affect cardiac and skeletal muscles. Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Kevin Campbell and Dimple Bansal led the research group that published its findings in the May 8, 2003, issue of the journal Nature. Campbell and his colleagues reported that their studies in mice showed that a mutant form of the muscle protein dysferlin prevents normal muscle repair in limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2B (LGMD2B) and Miyoshi Myopathy (MM). Campbell and his colleagues at the University of Iowa College of Medicine collaborated with Paul McNeil and his laboratory at The Medical College of Georgia. ©2003 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Muscles
Link ID: 3783 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A new MR imaging technique used to study white matter in the brain has found something intriguing--the brains of Alzheimer's patients show some of the same signs as the immature brains of children. Diffusion tensor MR imaging examinations were performed on 60 normal persons, ranging in age from infancy to late adulthood, says Jeffrey Lassig, MD, of the University of Michigan, and lead author of the study. The part of the brain that connects the two halves of the brain was studied. When the brain is immature the water molecules in the white matter of the brain move (diffuse) more freely. As the brain ages, the water molecules seem more constrained, he says. "When we compared 13 Alzheimer's patients' brains to 13 others of the same age with no signs of dementia, the Alzheimer's patients' brains showed significantly higher water molecule diffusion.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Brain imaging
Link ID: 3782 - Posted: 05.08.2003

Offers more complex model of brain aging A study in rats matching the activity of 146 genes with brain aging and impaired learning and memory produces a new picture of brain aging and cognitive impairment. The research, by scientists at the University of Kentucky, uses powerful new gene microarray technology in a novel way to match gene activity with actual behavioral and cognitive performance over time, resulting in the identification of this wide range of aging- and cognition-related genes (ACRGs). Importantly, the changes in gene activity had mostly begun in the mid-life of the rats, suggesting that changes in gene activity in the brain in early adulthood might set off cellular or biological changes that could affect how the brain works later in life. The report appears in the May 2003 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. It provides more information on genes already linked to aging, including some involved in inflammation and oxidative stress, and also describes additional areas in which gene activity might play a role in brain aging. These include declines in energy metabolism in cells and changes in the activity of neurons (nerve cells) in the brain and their ability to make new connections with each other. In addition, other areas in which genes appear to play an influential role involve increases in cellular calcium levels which could trigger cell death, cholesterol synthesis (also implicated in Alzheimer's disease in other research), iron metabolism and the breakdown of the insulating myelin sheaths that when intact facilitate efficient communication among neurons.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Alzheimers
Link ID: 3781 - Posted: 05.08.2003