A combination of psychotherapy and antidepressant medication appears to be the most effective treatment for adolescents with major depressive disorder — more than medication alone or psychotherapy alone, according to results from a major clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The study was published in the October 2007 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. The long-term results of the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS) found that when adolescents received fluoxetine (Prozac) alone or in combination with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) over the course of 36 weeks, they recovered faster than those who were receiving CBT alone. However, taking fluoxetine alone appeared to pose some safety concerns for the teens. During treatment, those taking fluoxetine alone had higher rates of suicidal thinking (15 percent) than those in combination treatment (8 percent) and those in CBT alone (6 percent), particularly in the early stages of treatment. This suggests that while treatment with fluoxetine may speed recovery, adding CBT provides additional safeguards for those vulnerable to suicide, according to the researchers. "Depression in teens is a serious illness that can and should be treated aggressively," said NIMH Director Thomas R. Insel, M.D. "TADS provides compelling evidence for families and clinicians that the most effective way to treat depression in teens is with a two-pronged approach. It reassures us that antidepressant medication combined with psychotherapy is an effective and safe way to help teens recover from this disabling illness."

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 10801 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Alison Motluk Anorexia and ecstasy use activate some of the same brain pathways, according to researchers who used mice to arrive at their conclusions. The findings hint that the condition works in a similar way to drug addiction, and may also point the way towards new drugs treatments for the eating disorder. Those diagnosed with anorexia nervosa restrict their food intake even though they may be in desperate need of energy. The condition has one of the highest mortality rates for any mental disorder, and there are few effective treatments currently available. Valerie Compan at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Montpellier, France, is one of a growing number of researchers who believes that anorexia works in a similar way to addiction and that sufferers become "hooked" on the self-control involved. After noticing that ecstasy (also called MDMA) use induces appetite suppression, she decided to investigate possible similarities further. Compan and colleagues focused on the nucleus accumbens, a reward centre in the brain with a high density of serotonin receptors – known as 5-HT4 receptors – that are known to play a role in addictive behaviour. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 10800 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Treating people who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea by administering continuous positive airway pressure can lower a person's risk of heart attack and stroke, a small study suggests. Obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, is a condition in which a person's airway is partially or completely blocked during sleep, leading to a lack of oxygen and frequent waking. According to the study, it occurs in nine per cent of middle-aged women and 24 per cent of men. A CT scan of a brain following a stroke. Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with an increased risk of death from heart disease or stroke. (CBC) The condition is associated with an increased risk of death from heart disease or stroke. "The majority of patients with OSA share several risk factors for atherosclerosis [the hardening of the arteries leading to heart disease], including obesity, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, insulin resistance, and hyperglycemia," said T. Douglas Bradley and Dai Yumino, both of the Sleep Research Laboratory at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute at the Centre for Sleep Medicine and Circadian Biology at the University of Toronto, in an editorial in the same issue of the journal. © CBC 2007

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 10799 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health have discovered two gene differences-- or "markers"-- that seem to increase the risk of suicidal thoughts after starting an antidepressant. If confirmed, the finding could lead to a test to identify patients at risk for the rare but serious adverse reaction. They say that's crucial because untreated depression is the most important cause of actual suicides. "Antidepressants are the treatment for depression and the treatment for depression is the best way to prevent suicide," says Gonzalo Laje, who led the NIMH work. "Our long term goal is to make sure that people with depression feel that they can safely take an antidepressant." The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) issued a "Black Box" warning -- its highest-level warning-- against this side effect in children and adolescents. But, following that warning, in 2004 actual suicides spiked in those age groups. (Read this reporter's commentary on that agency's expansion of the warning to young adults here). NIMH researchers attribute that to a decrease in antidepressant prescriptions. (Statistics for 2005 and on are not yet available.) © ScienCentral, 2000-2007

Keyword: Depression; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 10798 - Posted: 06.24.2010

PHOENIX - It sounds like science fiction but it’s true: A killer amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds until you die. Even though encounters with the microscopic bug are extraordinarily rare, it’s killed six boys and young men this year. The spike in cases has health officials concerned, and they are predicting more cases in the future. “This is definitely something we need to track,” said Michael Beach, a specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better,” Beach said. “In future decades, as temperatures rise, we’d expect to see more cases.” According to the CDC, the amoeba called Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEER-ee-uh FOWL’-erh-eye) killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995 to 2004. This year health officials noticed a spike with six cases — three in Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona. The CDC knows of only several hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia in the 1960s. In Arizona, David Evans said nobody knew his son, Aaron, was infected with the amoeba until after the 14-year-old died on Sept. 17. At first, the teen seemed to be suffering from nothing more than a headache. © 2007 MSNBC.com © 2007 Microsoft

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 10797 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Kevin Ochsner Few questions are more fundamental than that of how we learn. Indeed, this question has been central to psychological inquiry from the time of the first experimental psychology labs in the late 1800s. Ever since, a primary goal of psychology research has been to describe how we acquire and retain the information necessary for survival. Most of this work, however, has concerned direct, first-person learning. There is another mode of learning, however, famously alluded to by Yogi Berra when he said, "You can observe a lot just by watching." As these sage and inimitable words suggest, we learn not just through direct experience but also by observing others' experiences. Although (vicarious) learning through observation is common, and in many situations may be more adaptive and efficient than learning through direct experience, few researchers had tried to unpack the bases of this ability in the brain until recently. The study under review here, "Learning Fears by Observing Others: The Neural Systems of Social Fear Transmission," by Andreas Olsson and Elizabeth Phelps, takes the exploration of vicarious learning to a new level. In this brain imaging study, Olsson and Phelps recorded neural activity in participants who were watching a video clip of someone learning through classical fear conditioning, which involves learning to associate a neutral stimulus (like a colored shape) with an intrinsically aversive stimulus (in this case a shock). © 1996-2007 Scientific American, Inc

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Emotions
Link ID: 10796 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CBC News Cockroaches, like humans, have dramatic daily variations in their ability to learn, say biologists at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. More pointedly, cockroaches could use a strong cup of coffee in the morning, but appear to need no boost in the evening, according to their study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Professor Terry Page holds one of the cockroaches that he used in his research. (Daniel Dubois, Vanderbilt University) "This is the first example of an insect whose ability to learn is controlled by its biological clock," Terry Page, professor of biological sciences, said in a release. Most studies on learning and circadian rhythms have focused on mammals. For example, recent experiments with humans have found that people's ability to acquire new information is reduced when their biological clocks are disrupted. In the current study, the researchers taught individual cockroaches to associate peppermint — a scent they normally find slightly distasteful — with sugar water, causing them to favour it over vanilla, a scent they like very much. The researchers trained individual cockroaches at different times in the 24-hour day/night cycle and then tested them to see how long they remembered the association. © CBC 2007

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 10795 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Steve Mitchell Two genes involved in chemical signaling in the brain may help explain why antidepressants increase the risk of suicide in some people, according to a new study. Concerns about the safety of antidepressants arose a few years ago when studies began to indicate that the drugs increased the risk of suicide in some adolescents and children. British regulatory officials in 2003 banned the use in minors of several medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and in 2004 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded that all classes of antidepressants should carry a warning about the risk in children, adolescents, and young adults (ScienceNOW, 3 February 2004). Although the suicide link is well-established, it is not clear how antidepressants trigger suicidal behavior or thoughts in some people. Seeking to shed some light on this question, a team of researchers led by Francis McMahon of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Maryland, looked at 68 genes in 1915 adults with major depression who were treated with the SSRI citalopram. The researchers were searching for genetic variations that might be associated with suicidal thoughts, and they may have hit pay dirt. © 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Depression; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 10794 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Brian Vastag A mercury-containing vaccine preservative is not associated with problems in speech, intelligence, memory, coordination, attention, or other measures of childhood development, a large new study finds. Child-health experts say that the results should allay concerns that thimerosal, a preservative first added to vaccines in the 1930s, affects children's brains. "The study was enough to convince me that this small amount of mercury ... was not harmful to the children," says Michael Goldstein, vice president of the St. Paul, Minn.–based American Academy of Neurology. "I think it's one more piece of evidence that thimerosal doesn't have any negative association with health outcomes," says Penelope Dennehy, professor of pediatrics at the Brown University School of Medicine in Providence, R.I. The study, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, enrolled 1,047 children, from 7 to 10 years old, whose health needs had been covered from birth by four health maintenance organizations. The researchers combed the health plans' records to assess how much thimerosal each child received through the first 7 months of life. ©2007 Science Service

Keyword: Autism; Neurotoxins
Link ID: 10793 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Sara Selis Clinicians and patients are increasingly seeking nonconventional treatments as adjuncts to conventional therapies for schizophrenia. Here, a discussion of the most promising complementary therapies and how to use them. Given the burdens of living with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, and the increasing emphasis on improving patients' quality of life, it's no wonder that clinicians and patients are seeking additional treatment options for psychotic disorders. Clinicians who use, study and advocate for nonconventional or "complementary" therapies in psychiatry -- treatments ranging from dietary supplements to Chinese herbs to yoga -- see an opportunity to expand the acceptance and use of these therapies as adjuncts to conventional treatments for schizophrenia. These practitioners acknowledge that the evidence supporting most nonconventional therapies for schizophrenia is still decidedly modest: The number of rigorous, well-designed studies is limited, and research findings on several of the therapies are inconsistent. Still, dozens of studies in recent years have found evidence that when combined with antipsychotics, several nontraditional therapies -- most notably Omega-3 fatty acids, glycine, folate, Chinese herbal medicines, yoga practices and spiritually focused group therapy -- yield measurable and sometimes clinically significant benefits in some schizophrenic patients. Based on limited and mainly small or uncontrolled studies, nonconventional therapies may be effective particularly in easing negative symptoms, cognitive symptoms and/or antipsychotic side effects. © 2007 CMP Healthcare Media LLC,

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 10792 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Sarah Yang, BERKELEY – Neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have for the first time measured the electrical activity of nerve cells and correlated it to changes in blood flow in response to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a noninvasive method to stimulate neurons in the brain. Their findings, reported in the Sept. 28 issue of the journal Science, could substantially improve the effectiveness of brain stimulation as a therapeutic and research tool. TMS works by generating magnetic pulses via a wire coil placed on top of the scalp. The pulses pass harmlessly through the skull and induce short, weak electrical currents that alter neural activity. Yet the relative scarcity of data describing the basic effects of TMS, and the uncertainty in how the method achieves its effects, prompted the researchers to conduct their own study. "There are potentially limitless applications in both the treatment of clinical disorders as well as in fundamental research in neuroscience," said Elena Allen, a graduate student at UC Berkeley's Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute (HWNI) and co-lead author of the study. "For example, TMS could be used to help determine what parts of the brain are used in object recognition or speech comprehension. However, to develop effective applications of TMS, it is first necessary to determine basic information about how the technique works." Copyright UC Regents

Keyword: Vision; Brain imaging
Link ID: 10791 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CBC News Compounds produced in the digestive system have been linked to autistic-type behaviour in laboratory settings, potentially demonstrating that what autistic children eat can alter their brain function, say scientists from the University of Western Ontario. They announced their findings Thursday in Ottawa. (CBC) UWO researchers investigated the "gut-brain" connection after many parents of autistic children reported significant improvements in the behaviour of their autistic children when they modified their diet, eliminating dairy and wheat products, Dr. Derrick MacFabe, the director of a research group at UWO in London, Ont., told CBC News Thursday. Researchers were particularly interested in one dietary characteristic the autistic children seemed to exhibit, he said. "Certainly, a lot of these children had peculiar cravings for high-carbohydrate foods that caused their behaviours," he said. "We were interested in finding a link between certain compounds that are produced by bacteria in the digestive system — particularly those occurring with early childhood infections." © CBC 2007

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 10790 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By BENEDICT CAREY Variations in two genes may increase the likelihood that a person will report suicidal thoughts after taking an antidepressant, researchers reported yesterday. The finding could help doctors develop tests to predict which patients will do well on such medications and which will react badly. The authors of the study, which was released to reporters yesterday and will appear in The American Journal of Psychiatry on Monday, said that the findings were preliminary and would need to be verified by further testing. The study focused on reactions to only one drug, Celexa from Forest Laboratories, and found no link between the gene variations and dangerous behavior like suicide attempts. This distinction is critical, because doctors do not know whether people who report thoughts of ending their lives are at increased risk to act on them. The one patient in the study who attempted suicide consistently denied having any suicidal thoughts. The findings come at a time when psychiatrists, regulators and some former patients are locked in a furious debate about the risks of antidepressant drugs, which include products like Prozac from Eli Lilly and Zoloft from Pfizer. In recent years, health regulators have required that drug makers post strong warnings on antidepressant labels, saying that some young patients may be at increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior. Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 10789 - Posted: 09.28.2007

Susana Martinez-Conde DB is a 67-year-old man who has been blind to the left half of his visual field since age 26, following a neurosurgical operation. The operation, which was necessary to remove a vascular malformation in his occipital lobe, unfortunately destroyed the part of DB's right hemisphere corresponding to the primary visual cortex. The primary visual cortex, also called area V1, is the brain's largest area and one of over two dozen regions dedicated to vision. V1 serves many important functions. Among them, it relays visual information from the eyes to higher cortical visual areas. Since DB lost the right half of area V1, it did not surprise his doctors that he became blind in the left half of his visual field. (The right part of the brain processes visual information from the left half of the visual field, and vice versa.) But they were astounded that, although DB denied seeing any visual targets presented to the left visual field, he was nevertheless able to accurately "guess" many properties of targets presented there, such as shape, specific location and other aspects one could only know of by seeing them. DB's ability to provide accurate information about unseen targets is called "blindsight." Blindsight is thought to be due to information flow through secondary neural pathways that bypass area V1 but which nevertheless convey a small amount of visual information to higher visual cortices. For some unknown reason, these secondary routes are not sufficient to maintain the feeling of sight. Thus the blindsight patient has the subjective feeling that he or she is blind, and reports visual information only when forced to take a guess. © 1996-2007 Scientific American, Inc. Al

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 10788 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Matt Kaplan Whereas most animals run away from the dangers of the African savannas, meerkats, brave little souls that they are, race toward them. Large groups run headlong at venomous snakes and other potential predators, harassing them with jeering noises and pokes from their tiny claws. Scientists have long thought the meerkats were somehow protecting their colony, but new research suggests that the odd behavior may also be a way for younger meerkats to learn more about their enemies. If so, then it may lead biologists to take a second look at other social species, such as prairie dogs and vervet monkeys, which behave similarly. Biologists Beke Graw and Marta Manser of the University of Zurich in Switzerland studied meerkats in the wild. When they released cobras and other predators near the colony, the meerkats mobbed the snakes and became aggressive. They also mobbed innocuous critters, such as moles and squirrels--even empty cages--but eventually lost interest and drifted away. Meerkats responded differently according to their age. Adults between 1 and 2 years of age mobbed intruders longer and growled, barked, and poked more intensely than did younger and older animals, the team reports in this month's issue of Animal Behaviour. This age pattern has also been found in several other cooperative behaviors in meerkats such as baby-sitting and colony guarding, in which youngsters follow adults and over time mimic them. "It would seem that mobbing is also a part of social learning, a kind of class in predator recognition, if you like, and that hasn't been demonstrated in mammals before," says Graw. © 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Keyword: Aggression
Link ID: 10787 - Posted: 06.24.2010

David Robson A computer program that emulates the human brain falls for the same optical illusions humans do. It suggests the illusions are a by-product of the way babies learn to filter their complex surroundings. Researchers say this means future robots must be susceptible to the same tricks as humans are in order to see as well as us. For some time, scientists have believed one class of optical illusions result from the way the brain tries to disentangle the colour of an object and the way it is lit. An object may appear brighter or darker, either because of the shade of its colour, or because it is in bright light or shadows. The brain learns how to tackle this through trial and error when we are babies, the theory goes. Mostly it gets it right, but occasionally a scene contradicts our previous experiences. The brain gets it wrong and we perceive an object lighter or darker than it really is – creating an illusion. Subtle similaritiesUntil now there has been no way of knowing whether this theory is correct. Beau Lotto and David Corney at University College London, UK, think they have finally done it. They created a program that learns to predict the lightness of an image based on its past experiences – just like a baby. And just like a human, it falls prey to optical illusions. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Vision; Robotics
Link ID: 10786 - Posted: 06.24.2010

"Very unpleasant. As if I've just buried my nose in a t-shirt that's just been taken off by a guy who's been exercising, just unbelievably, unbelievably strong and then our collaborators who can't smell it at all. It's an amazing, it's an amazing difference in opinion."Genetics researcher Leslie Vosshall is talking about a component of male sweat-- the sex hormone androstenone. She and her colleagues found that some people love it, some hate it and some can't smell it at all-- and that it all depends on what form of a particular gene they possess. Scientists have long known there is some kind of genetic link to odor perception based on studies such as those done with twins. But no one had ever proved that a particular gene caused a difference in peoples' perception of a specific odor. Associate professor Vosshall and research associate Andreas Keller of The Rockefeller University, along with their collaborators at Duke University, are the first to do just that, with a component of male sweat. The substance they studied, a hormone called androstenone, is a derivative of the sex hormone testosterone. The lining of the nose has millions of smell receptor cells (olfactory sensory neurons). Each of these cells has one of about 400 types of differently shaped receptors. Each receptor will accept one odor molecule with a matching shape. In the artist's rendition to the right, you can see a receptor molecule inserting itself into a receptor. This triggers signals to the brain allowing a person to smell it. © ScienCentral, 2000-2007.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 10785 - Posted: 06.24.2010

R. Douglas Fields A recent study used brain scans to examine both the effects that both one-time and cumulative high-altitude climbing have on the human brain. The findings are not elevating for those of us who love to climb. Climbing Mount Everest is not so difficult; the hard part is getting down intact. According to a recent brain imaging study, almost no one does. Of thirteen climbers in the study who attempted Mount Everest, none returned without brain damage. The study also scanned the brains of climbers who attempted less extreme summits. For those of us who love to climb, the results are less than elevating. It seems that almost no one, whether the weekend warrior chaperoned to the summit or the seasoned mountaineer, will return from the high peaks with a brain in the same condition it was in beforehand. The first scientific study of the effects of high altitude on the human brain were made by nineteenth century Italian physiologist Angelo Mosso, who made direct observations on a man whose brain was partly exposed as a result of an accident. Mosso, peeking into the man's skull, observed vague changes in swelling of the brain, but the crude methods available at the time limited his analysis. Now a similar experiment has been done with modern noninvasive brain imaging. In the study reviewed here, "Evidence of Brain Damage After High-Altitude Climbing by Means of Magnetic Resonance Imaging," neurologists Nicholas Fayed and colleagues at the Clinica Queron and Miguel Servet University Hospital in Zarogoza, Spain, gave MRI brain scans to 35 climbers (12 professionals and 23 amateurs) who had returned from high-altitude expeditions, including 13 who had attempted Everest. © 1996-2007 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 10784 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Nikhil Swaminathan You may be hard-pressed to recall events after a night of binge drinking, but a new report suggests that low to moderate alcohol consumption may actually enhance memory. "There are human epidemiological data of others indicating that mild [to] moderate drinking may paradoxically improve cognition in people compared to abstention," says Maggie Kalev, a research fellow in molecular medicine and pathology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and a co-author of an article in The Journal of Neuroscience describing results of a study she and other researchers performed on rats. "This is similar to a glass of wine protecting against heart disease, however the mechanism is different." Kalev and Matthew During, a professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and a principal investigator of gene therapy at Auckland, initially set out to study the role of N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptors in the neuronal processes of normal and diseased animals. (NMDA receptors are critical to memory, because they regulate the strength of synapses (spaces) between nerve cells through which the cells communicate.) But during their research, they discovered that memory was enhanced when one of its subunits, known as NR1, was strengthened in the hippocampus (a central brain region implicated in episodic memory). They then reviewed previous experiments, which had turned up a link between alcohol consumption and NR1 activity. © 1996-2007 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 10783 - Posted: 06.24.2010

LOS ANGELES, -- A mercury-based preservative once used in many vaccines does not raise the risk of neurological problems in children, concludes a large federal study that researchers say should reassure parents. The study did not examine autism, however. A separate study due out in a year will look at that issue, said scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who published the results in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. Discussion PolicyDiscussion Policy CLOSEComments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post. They found no clear link between early exposure to the preservative thimerosal and problems with brain function and behavior in children ages 7 to 10. The results are in line with past research. Thimerosal has not been used in childhood vaccines since 2001, although it is still found in some flu vaccine. © 2007 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Autism; Neurotoxins
Link ID: 10782 - Posted: 06.24.2010