Using a cognitive behavioral therapy called "prolonged exposure" appears more effective than "present-centered" therapy, a supportive intervention to treat female military veterans and active duty women with posttraumatic stress disorder, according to a study in the February 28 issue of JAMA. "Events such as the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the war in Iraq, and hurricane Katrina have focused attention on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder that can result from exposure to traumatic events like combat, rape, assault, and disaster. Posttraumatic stress disorder is characterized by symptoms of re-experiencing the traumatic event, avoiding reminders of the event or feeling emotionally numb, and a state of increased psychological and physiological tension. The disorder is associated with psychiatric and physical illnesses, reduced quality of life, and substantial economic costs to society", according to background information in the article. "Lifetime prevalence in U.S. adults is higher in women (9.7 percent) than in men (3.6 percent) and is especially high among women who have served in the military." There has been no prior study to evaluate treatment for PTSD in this group. Paula P. Schnurr, Ph.D., of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Center for PTSD, White River Junction, Vt., and Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, N.H., and colleagues conducted a study to compare the effectiveness of two types of treatments for PTSD, prolonged exposure and present-centered therapy. Prolonged exposure is a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in which a patient is asked to vividly recount a traumatic event repeatedly until the patient's emotional response decreases and to gradually confront safe but fear-evoking trauma reminders.

Keyword: Stress; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 10025 - Posted: 03.01.2007

Heidi Ledford Tadpoles can achieve something that humans may only dream of: pull off a tadpole's thick tail or a tiny developing leg, and it'll grow right back — spinal cord, muscles, blood vessels and all. Now researchers have discovered the key regulator of the electrical signal that convinces Xenopus pollywogs to regenerate amputated tails. The results, reported this week in Development, give some researchers hope for new approaches to stimulating tissue regeneration in humans1. Researchers have known for decades that an electrical current is created at the site of regenerating limbs. Furthermore, applying an external current speeds up the regeneration process, and drugs that block the current prevent regeneration. The electrical signals help to tell cells what type to grow into, how fast to grow, and where to position themselves in the new limb. To investigate, Michael Levin and his colleagues at the Forsyth Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology in Boston, Massachusetts, sorted through libraries of drug compounds to find ones that prevent tail regeneration but do not interfere with wound healing. One such drug, they found, blocks a molecular pump that transports protons across cell membranes; this kind of proton flow creates a current. ©2007 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 10024 - Posted: 06.24.2010

UNITED NATIONS: Up to one billion people suffer from neurological disorders including Alzheimer's, epilepsy and strokes, the World Health Organization said in a study released Wednesday. U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said the report by the Geneva-based WHO found that health systems need strengthening to better help people with the disorders. The report, "Neurological Disorders: Public Health Challenges," says that as many as 6.8 million people across the globe die every year as a result of ailments that affect the brain. At least 50 million people suffer from epilepsy, and 24 million are affected by Alzheimer's, brain injury, stroke and neuro-infections, the report said. About 326 million suffer from migraines. "Despite the fact that highly effective, low-cost treatments are available, as many as nine out of 10 people suffering from epilepsy in Africa go untreated," said Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general for the WHO. The report pointed out that motorcyclists should wear helmets and car passenger should wear seat belts to prevent brain injuries. © 2007 the International Herald Tribune

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 10023 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Marlowe Hood, AFP — Frogs that began life as male tadpoles can be changed into females by estrogen-like pollutants similar to those found in the environment, according to a new study. The results may shed light on one reason up to a third of frog species around the world are threatened with extinction. The study is set to appear in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in May. In a laboratory at Uppsala University in Sweden, scientists exposed two species of frogs to levels of estrogen similar to those detected in natural bodies of water in Europe, the United States and Canada. The results were startling: whereas the percentage of females in two control groups was under 50 percent — not unusual among frogs — the sex ratio in three pairs of groups maturing in water dosed with different levels of estrogen were significantly skewed. Even tadpoles exposed to the weakest concentration of the hormone were, in one of two groups, twice as likely to become females. The population of the two groups receiving the heaviest dose of estrogen became 95 percent female in one case, and 100 percent in the other. © 2007 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 10022 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Perfectionists are more prone to developing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) after an infection, a study has suggested. University of Southampton researchers asked 620 people with gastroenteritis about stress and their illness. Those who pushed themselves or were particularly anxious about symptoms were more likely to develop IBS. Experts said the study, published in Gut, may explain why only some people develop IBS after a gut infection. Up to one in 10 people develop it after a having a bacterial gut infection, having previously been healthy. Such infections cause inflammation and ulceration in the bowel and can cause severe vomiting and rectal bleeding. In this study, each person was checked three and six months after their initial bout of bacterial gastroenteritis to see if they had developed IBS symptoms such as diarrhoea, constipation, abdominal pain and bloating. In all, 49 people had IBS at both points. Women were more than twice as likely to have IBS as the men. Those with IBS were significantly more likely to have reported high levels of stress and anxiety and psychosomatic symptoms than those who did not develop the condition. They were also significantly more likely to be "driven", carrying on regardless until they were forced to rest, which the researchers say simply makes the initial condition worse and longer-lasting, potentially leading to IBS. (C)BBC

Keyword: Neuroimmunology; Stress
Link ID: 10021 - Posted: 02.27.2007

By ABIGAIL ZUGER, M.D. If lightning strikes once, then why not again? This irrational logic will tempt the victims of any senseless tragedy to believe in miracles, or so Portia Iversen assures us by way of explaining her long, determined slog toward a miracle of her own. Whether she actually found one or not, readers will have to decide for themselves. Iversen’s second son, Dov, was born in 1992, a normal baby who suddenly was not normal at all. Before he was a year old he was reacting strangely to noises and making strange noises of his own. At 3, nonverbal and mesmerized by objects, he was given a diagnosis of autism. By the time he was 8, Dov still could not talk and was virtually impossible to communicate with. The family home was jammed with his toys, therapists and aides, and Ms. Iversen and her husband had established a foundation to speed autism research. Then Ms. Iversen heard intriguing news about another autistic boy. In Bangalore, India, Soma Mukhopadhyay had single-handedly managed to teach her severely autistic son, Tito, to communicate with such sophistication that he was writing poetry on a laptop computer, and could articulate how it felt to be him. “Men and women are puzzled by everything I do,” Tito wrote. “My parents and those who love me are embarrassed and worried. Doctors use different terminologies to describe me. I just wonder.” Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 10020 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JANE E. BRODY The death of Libby Zion, an 18-year-old college student, in a New York hospital on March 5, 1984, led to a highly publicized court battle and created a cause célèbre over the lack of supervision of inexperienced and overworked young doctors. But only much later did experts zero in on the preventable disorder that apparently led to Ms. Zion’s death: a form of drug poisoning called serotonin syndrome. Ms. Zion, who went to the hospital with a fever of 103.5, had been taking a prescribed antidepressant, phenelzine (Nardil). The combination of phenelzine and the narcotic painkiller meperidine (Demerol) given to her at the hospital could raise the level of circulating serotonin to dangerous levels. When she became agitated, a symptom of serotonin toxicity, and tried to pull out her intravenous tubes, she was restrained, and the resulting muscular tension is believed to have sent her fever soaring to lethal heights. Now, with the enormous rise in the use of serotonin-enhancing antidepressants, often taken in combination with other drugs that also raise serotonin levels, emergency medicine specialists are trying to educate doctors and patients about this not-so-rare and potentially life-threatening disorder. In March 2005, two such specialists, Dr. Edward W. Boyer and Dr. Michael Shannon of Children’s Hospital Boston, noted that more than 85 percent of doctors were “unaware of the serotonin syndrome as a clinical diagnosis.” Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 10019 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Maia Szalavitz "Paradoxically liberating" is how Phil Schwarz has described his Asperger's syndrome diagnosis. He was in his late 30s at the time, and he had number of things on his mind: A software developer in Framingham, Mass., Schwarz had been labeled "gifted" as a child and had graduated third in his high school class. For years he had struggled with depression and a feeling that he was not living up to the promise of his past. What's more, he had begun to worry about his toddler's delayed language development and repetitive play style. But he had no idea how the diagnosis that his son Jeremy would receive might affect his own identity. Jeremy turned out to have a form of high-functioning autism. Later the same year, Schwarz received his own diagnosis with the related Asperger's syndrome. Only then did he realize that his long-standing difficulties with socializing, sensitivity to loud noises and bright light, and what he calls a "syncopated conversational style," were all related, both to one another and to being on the autistic spectrum. "It allowed me to make sense of everything through a new lens," says Schwarz, who is now vice president of the Asperger's Association of New England. © 2007 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Autism; Intelligence
Link ID: 10018 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer Everybody knows chocolate can be good for your love life, even if it's not so good for the teeth and waistline. Now there's another excuse to indulge: It may be good for your brain. Scientists funded in part by the Mars Inc. candy company delivered the not-unwelcome news Sunday morning during what was described as the first systematic review of chocolate's effects on learning and memory. A two-hour symposium on the neurobiology of chocolate, billed as a potentially "mind-altering experience," drew a standing-room-only crowd during the annual meeting in San Francisco of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Five years ago, a similar meeting popularized evidence suggesting that flavanols, a chemical found in the beans from which chocolate is made, have beneficial effects on cardiovascular health. Now it seems chocolate might do even more. Sunday's session wasn't sugarcoated, however: Experts cautioned that chocolate usually loses its flavanols during processing. The latest studies used a specially made laboratory drink extra-rich in flavanols. Flavanol-type nutrients also can be found in many fruits and vegetables, such as blueberries and pomegranates. Folk wisdom suggesting that darker chocolates contain more of the good stuff turns out to be false. © 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 10017 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Irene Klotz, Discovery News — Worrying about a math test will do more than set your stomach churning. Researchers say tying up the brain with stress-related emotions actually leaves less short-term memory available for computations. "Worry is more than a common complaint," said University of Nevada psychologist Mark Ashcraft. "It turns out it really does make a difference in how students are doing in math." The researchers found that highly proficient students are more susceptible to math stress than their lesser-able colleagues who typically turn to short cuts, such as guessing and estimating, to solve difficult math problems. When anxiety blocks working memory, however, the talented students are left with fewer resources to correctly answer questions. "They did them quicker but more incorrectly," said Sian Beilock, a University of Chicago associate professor in psychology. "All of a sudden they start looking for the short cuts." People with a high level of working memory depend on it heavily during problem solving, the researchers found. © 2007 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Stress
Link ID: 10016 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By CAROLYN SAYRE Neuroscientists have long been convinced that the first few years of life are a crucial period for brain development--a time when connections between neurons are being forged at a prodigious rate as a baby learns to make sense of the external world. Interfere with that process, and you can cause permanent, irrevocable damage. If a child is born blind, for example, it's pretty much over by age 6. You can fix the eyes, and they might be able to perceive light and dark. Without the right visual circuitry in place, though, there's no way to form images--the essence of true sight. But then there's the patient known as S.R.D. Discovered by researchers four years ago in Ahmedabad, India, she was a 32-year-old, dirt-poor maid who had been born with severe cataracts. They were removed surgically when she was 12--and within a year, despite what neuroscientific dogma would have predicted, S.R.D. learned to see. Her case, described in the December issue of Psychological Science, is forcing scientists to rethink their long-held beliefs about vision. "There is a critical period for perfect acuity," says Pawan Sinha, associate professor of neuroscience at M.I.T. and a co-author of the paper. "But there is not a critical period for learning to do complex visual tasks." This surprising insight had its genesis in 2002 when Sinha traveled to his native India --where nearly half a million children suffer from blindness. Many of these cases would have been preventable with the proper medical care, and, says Sinha, "I wanted to help the children get treatment." So with funding from the National Institutes of Health, he launched Project Prakash (it means "light" in Sanskrit), a humanitarian initiative to help expand eye care in India. © 2007 Time Inc.

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Vision
Link ID: 10015 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A large proportion of genetically caused deafness in humans may be reversible by compensating for a missing protein, based on discoveries in mice. Emory University researchers have found that in mice, increasing the amount of the protein connexin26 in the ear's cochlea compensates for an absence of another protein, connexin30. The findings come 10 years after scientists first discovered that connexin26 mutations cause much of the deafness diagnosed at birth. Xi (Erick) Lin, PhD, associate professor of otolaryngology and cell biology at Emory University School of Medicine, was lead author of the study, published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/104/4/1337). "There are millions of deaf people affected by mutations in this one gene, connexin26," he says. "Congenital hearing loss is one of the most common human genetic birth defects, and that is why in almost all the states universal newborn hearing screening is mandated by law [including Georgia]." In people without congenital hearing loss, connexin26 and connexin30 work together to form the cochlea's hybrid junction gaps, which facilitate intercellular communication. But when one of the proteins is missing, the hybrid junction gaps fail to work, and the cochlea's hair cells die off, leaving the body incapable of translating sounds into nerve impulses.

Keyword: Hearing; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 10014 - Posted: 02.24.2007

Smoking cigarettes causes the same changes to the brain as using illicit drugs like cocaine, a study suggests. US researchers compared post-mortem brain tissue samples from smokers, former smokers and non-smokers. Their findings, published in Journal of Neuroscience, suggested smoking causes changes to the brain which are evident years after someone has quit. A UK expert said the changes might explain why smokers found it hard to stop - and why they then relapsed. The researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Nida) looked at samples of human brain tissue from the nucleus accumbens and the ventral midbrain - brain regions that play a part in controlling addictive behaviours. Eight samples were taken from people who had smoked until their deaths, eight from people who had smoked for up to 25 years before their death and eight non-smokers. All died of causes unrelated to smoking. The scientists looked at levels of two enzymes - protein kinase A and adenylate cyclase. Both translate chemical signals, such as dopamine, which exist outside the cells, into a form that can be understood inside. Smokers were found to have higher levels of these enzymes in the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain that processes information related to motivation and reward, which virtually all illicit drugs act upon. But levels of both enzymes were also found to be high in the area of the midbrain that responds to dopamine, which acts as a "reward chemical" in smokers and former smokers. (C)BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 10013 - Posted: 02.24.2007

By Nikhil Swaminathan Imagine being deep in conversation at a cocktail party, while all around you other guests are trading war stories and gossip. To make sense of all the noise (that is, properly process the scene and know where to focus one's attention), the brain has to take in and integrate all the sensory clues. Classical neuroscience dictates that information gathered by each sense is synthesized after being processed in proprietary areas. But, recent research suggests that the integration of signals must come earlier, so that, for instance, a face can be matched with a voice, a sound with a touch, a smell with a taste. A German research team is helping to overturn traditional theories by mapping the response to visual stimuli of distinct areas of the auditory (hearing) cortex in the brains of macaque monkeys. The scientists, who report their findings in this week's issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, reveal that pockets in the rear of the region used for processing sounds actually show a heightened response to watching a video, even if the sound is muted. This phenomenon could possibly be part of an innate mechanism to localize the source of a sound and may be useful to scientists trying to combat conditions characterized by audition deficits, such as dyslexia. Christoph Kayser, a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, says that his team mapped the auditory cortex in monkeys, segmenting it into 11 fields based on the frequency of sound each section processes. "This allows us to search for what parts of the brain are generally activated by auditory stimuli," he says, "and to separate an auditory field—for example [the] primary auditory cortex from higher auditory fields." © 1996-2007 Scientific American, Inc

Keyword: Hearing; Vision
Link ID: 10012 - Posted: 06.24.2010

WASHINGTON -- Drugs prescribed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder will include guides to alert patients and parents of the risks of mental and heart problems, including sudden death. The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that it directed the manufacturers of Ritalin, Adderall, Strattera and all other ADHD drugs to develop the guides. In May 2006, the agency told manufacturers to revise the labels of the drugs to reflect concerns about the cardiovascular and psychiatric problems. Draft versions of the guides posted on the FDA Web site include discussion of reports of increased blood pressure and heart rate in ADHD patients, as well as cases of sudden death in some who have heart problems and heart defects. In adult patients, the reported problems also include stroke and heart attack. The alerts also cover psychiatric problems, such as hearing voices, unfounded suspicions and manic behavior, of which there is a slightly increased risk in patients who take the drugs, the FDA said. The guides also tell patients and their parents of precautions they can take to guard against the risks. Wednesday's announcement came roughly a year after two panels of FDA advisers recommended that the drugs include such patient medication guides. The announcement covers 15 drugs, including extended-release, patch and chewable versions of some of them. © Copyright 1996-2007 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 10011 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By John Tierney Kudos to the readers (we’ll get to the honor roll later) who aced the models’ quiz and solved the mystery of their misery. (If you didn’t try yet, you can take it here.) And special kudos to the readers who brought something more to the table: field reports from the fashion world confirming the scientists’ theory. As some of you divined, the models for the higher-priced brands looked the least happy, and the bigger football players were the ones without smiles on their faces. (You’ll find the list of answers and details below.) These faces exemplified the trends found by social psychologists at New Mexico University. In the models experiment conducted by Timothy Ketelaar, Jennifer Davis and Peter Jonason, pictures were randomly chosen from advertisements for products that were either “elite” (pricier than average, like Versace shirts and Coach eyeglasses) or “folk” (cheaper than average, like Paul Frederick shirts and Marchon glasses). The pictures were cropped so that only the faces, not the clothes or hairstyles, were visible. Then the pictures were shown to people who were asked to rate the facial expressions. Compared with the folk models, the elite models looked less happy and less embarrassed. They were more likely to have neutral expressions or to show anger or disgust. Judging from their cold glares on the runway, it seems something has gone terribly wrong in the lives of fashion models. It doesn’t matter where they are – the fashion shows earlier this month in New York, last week’s in London, this week’s in Milan. No place is up to their standards. They look perpetually peeved, as if there’s nothing so hellish as wearing new clothes in exchange for thousands of dollars. What do they want–more money? Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 10010 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Drug therapy can extend survival and improve movement in a mouse model of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), new research shows. The study, carried out at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), suggests that similar drugs might one day be useful for treating human SMA. "This study shows that treatment can be effective when started after the disease appears," says Kenneth H. Fischbeck, M.D., of the NINDS, who helped lead the new study. The finding is important because most children with SMA are diagnosed after symptoms of the disease become obvious, he adds. The report appears in the February 22, 2007, advance online publication of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.[1] SMA is the most common severe hereditary neurological disease of childhood, affecting one in every 8,000-10,000 children. Babies with the most common form of the disease, called SMA type I, develop symptoms before birth or in the first few months of life and have severe muscle weakness that makes it difficult for them to breathe, eat, and move. They usually die by age two. Other forms of SMA are not as severe, but still cause significant disability. While some symptoms of SMA can be alleviated, there is currently no treatment that can change the course of the disease. SMA is caused by mutations in a gene called SMN1. Investigators studying the genetics of SMA have found that there is another gene, called SMN2, on the same chromosome. While the normal form of SMN1 produces a full-length functional protein, most of the protein produced by SMN2 is truncated and unable to function. The relatively small amount of normal SMN protein produced by the SMN2 gene can reduce the severity of the disease. Therefore, investigators are searching for drugs that can increase the amount of normal protein produced by this gene.

Keyword: Movement Disorders
Link ID: 10009 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — An Australian lizard endures what may be the world's worst pregnancy — due to anatomical restrictions, pregnant Australian stumpies must hold a gut-busting infant weighing more than a third as much as an adult, without any swelling or extra body space. The feat is equivalent to a woman giving birth to a seven-year-old child. "I can't think of another animal that has such a large gestational load," said Suzy Munns, who last week experienced a veritable baby boom with mother stumpies she had collected from the south Australian desert. Munns, a researcher in the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at James Cook University, is conducting ongoing studies on how these lizards, which can grow to over 15 inches in length, survive such a difficult pregnancy. Munns' findings were published recently in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. The largest members of the skink family, stumpies give birth to a single infant that is, on average, 35 percent of the mother's body weight. The growing fetus lies on top of the mother's lungs and digestive tract such that, in the latter stages of gestation, the females can no longer move much or eat. © 2007 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 10008 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By SCOTT HAIG "And now would you please choose a number from one to 10 describing your pain — one being almost no pain and 10 the worst pain imaginable." The ER nurse's voice seemed to trail off as she got to the end of the mandated recitation. She had the patient look at a graphic on her clipboard as he answered. The graphic was a 10cm line with numbers like a ruler, as well as upside down smiley faces depicting progressively greater discomfort — the VAS (visual analog pain scale). Patients are supposed to tell our nurses how much pain they feel by pointing to a spot along the line. I knew why the gusto had gone out of the nurse's voice. One of the patient's arms was horribly broken and bent at an ungodly angle. She had just started a large-bore IV in the other. And while her big fat needle pierced him three or four times before it found blood, this stolid 60-year-old Eastern European block of a man had made not a sound. His face hadn't registered a flicker of pain, his arm stayed still, even his hand remained limp. No reaction to this needle torture promised an unsatisfying go at the VAS. But dutifully she administered. Protocol. "One," said Jacob. That meant she was not even supposed to offer him a pain med; the purpose of the VAS is, among other things, to decide "scientifically" when to give pain drugs. © 2007 Time Inc.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 10007 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Phil Berardelli WASHINGTON, D.C.--At a conference here yesterday, researchers reported that even low levels of light from incandescent, fluorescent, or other humanmade sources can befuddle creatures that require a period of nighttime darkness. The findings add to the evidence that artificial lighting is interfering with the development, reproduction, and survival of species across the taxonomic spectrum. All animals--from one-celled critters to humans--produce melatonin, a hormone that regulates cell metabolism, protects against the formation of cancerous tumors in larger animals, and allows many mammals and humans to enjoy restful sleep. But the hormone accumulates most efficiently in recurring or total darkness, such as in regular day-night cycles. When those cycles are disrupted, so is melatonin production. On the behavioral side, even seeing artificial illumination--such as street lights or indoor lamps shining through windows--at night can throw off foraging and migration in many species. To find out how brighter nights are altering metabolism and reproduction, herpetologist Bryant Buchanan of Utica College in New York and colleagues exposed snails and larval frogs to different levels of artificial light over periods lasting up to 2 months. With even the slightest amount of artificial light, the percentage of frogs developing normally dropped as low as 15%, compared with about 40% under more natural lighting conditions and nearly 100% in darkness. The snail experiments produced similar results. (C) 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 10006 - Posted: 02.23.2007