By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — Cows mull over problems and, when they solve them, sometimes the apparently brainy bovines display measurable signs of happiness and even jump for joy, according to findings announced at a recent conference on animal feelings and awareness. The conference, entitled "From Darwin to Dawkins: the science and implications of animal sentience," was organized by the Compassion in World Farming Trust. In addition to the cow findings, information also was presented on caring chimpanzees, manipulating parrots, emotional sheep, concerned cats, flies that concentrate and a gorilla that swears when angered. The delegates from nearly 50 nations who attended the conference believe the studies collectively suggest that animals are thinking, feeling, sentient beings that can experience emotions comparable to those felt by humans. "We have to understand that we are not the only beings on this planet with personalities and minds," said keynote speaker Jane Goodall, who outlined her observations on a range of chimpanzee behaviors, from barbarity to altruism. "Even if science can't prove everything about animal sentience, it's high time we gave them the benefit of the doubt." Copyright © 2005 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Emotions; Animal Rights
Link ID: 7109 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Crack cocaine is being injected - not just smoked - by a significant number of US drug users, reveals the first large survey of the practice. The phenomenon is particularly worrisome because it is associated with more high-risk behaviour, such as sharing needles and having unprotected sex, than other intravenous drugs. Cocaine is nature's most powerful stimulant and is used by an estimated 14 million people worldwide. In powdered form, it is a hydrochloride salt and can either be snorted or dissolved in water and injected. But in the 1980s, people began using baking soda to strip away the hydrochloride, forming a rock crystal, or crack, that can be smoked. And sometime in the mid-1990s, people began mixing crack with vinegar or other acids to make an injectible form of the drug. "But we weren't sure how common this behaviour was," says Scott Santibanez, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, US. So he and colleagues analysed data taken in the late 1990s on the behaviours and blood test results from almost 2200 young, intravenous drug users. The study sampled six sites around the US. "We found out crack injection was more common than we expected," Santibanez told New Scientist. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 7108 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Siobhan McDonough Getting a good night's sleep is hard for many adults and that often means poorer health, lower productivity on the job, more danger on the roads and a less vibrant sex life. "By 3 to 4 in the afternoon, I'm starting to feel brain-drained and I need that caffeine to pick me back up again," said Becky Mcerien, 50, of Philadelphia. She gets about 6.5 hours of sleep a night - slightly less than the adult average of 6.9 hours reported by the National Sleep Foundation. Many experts say adults need a minimum of seven to nine hours of sleep a night. A poll for the foundation, released Tuesday, indicates that three-quarters of adults say they frequently have a sleep problem, such as waking during the night or snoring. Most people ignore the problem and few think they actually have one. Only half of those polled were able to say they slept well on most nights. "I get what I need to function," said Guillermo Sardina, 55, of Hamilton, N.J., who averages six or seven hours a night. "I sleep through the night. I'm a sound sleeper. ... I don't even remember my dreams." © 2005 The Associated Press

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 7107 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Mary Otto Dawn Rieck sat at the dining room table in her split-level house at Andrews Air Force Base, chain-smoking. She wore a distant yet acute expression, as if she were trying to read the wind. She was listening to her daughter play. At that moment, her middle child, Jessica Marie Caughlin, 11, was not beating her 4-year-old brother or killing her big sister's hamster or cutting the goldfish in two. She was not threatening to stab her mother. The knives were all locked in the garage. With this child, however, her mother is always anticipating the next disaster. It's like that for many parents who are raising children with serious mental illness. With nerves and budgets, jobs and marriages regularly strained, they are consumed in the struggle to care for their children. Some say they need help that neither private insurance nor the public health system comes close to covering. Yet this day, Jessica was simply playing with her two dolls. There was a bad doll named Dana Marie Caughlin. And there was a good doll named Princess Angel. "Give me one feather from your wing," Jessica commanded Princess Angel. With the feather, Jessica blessed Dana Marie -- who rose up from the floor and flew briefly, happily -- only to crash again. © 2005 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 7106 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A new gene has jumped into the mix of factors that might predispose people to schizophrenia. If additional work supports the finding, the study may provide researchers with potential new drug targets for the disease. People with schizophrenia suffer hallucinations, delusions, and deteriorating social skills. Researchers believe the disease may be up to 80% genetic, with environmental or physiological factors accounting for the rest. As many as 10 different genes have been found that predispose people to schizophrenia to varying extents. But additional chunks of chromosomes also associate with the condition, including at least two to three large regions on chromosome 5. To take a closer look at the role played by chromosome 5, molecular psychiatrist Hugh Gurling at University College London and colleagues examined 450 volunteers with schizophrenia and 450 volunteers with no family history of the disease. Different versions of genes can vary at single points in their sequence, and these variations are called SNPs. The team found that particular SNPs were more common in schizophrenics than in volunteers without the disease. Two of the SNPs lay within a gene called Epsin 4, the researchers report online 25 March in the American Journal of Human Genetics. Epsin 4 is responsible for making a protein involved in packaging and releasing the neurotransmitters that nerve cells use to communicate with one another, and obvious Epsin 4 mutations can now be sought in schizophrenics, the researchers say. Copyright © 2005 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 7105 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Findings may lead to early diagnosis of the disorder and possible therapies Seeing is doing – at least it is when mirror neurons are working normally. But in autistic individuals, say researchers from the University of California, San Diego, the brain circuits that enable people to perceive and understand the actions of others do not behave in the usual way. According to the new study, currently in press at the journal Cognitive Brain Research, electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings of 10 individuals with autism show a dysfunctional mirror neuron system: Their mirror neurons respond only to what they do and not to the doings of others. Mirror neurons are brain cells in the premotor cortex. First identified in macaque monkeys in the early 1990s, the neurons – also known as "monkey-see, monkey-do cells" – fire both when a monkey performs an action itself and when it observes another living creature perform that same action. Though it has been impossible to directly study the analogue of these neurons in people (since human subjects cannot be implanted with electrodes), several indirect brain-imaging measures, including EEG, have confirmed the presence of a mirror neuron system in humans. The human mirror neuron system is now thought to be involved not only in the execution and observation of movement, but also in higher cognitive processes – language, for instance, or being able to imitate and learn from others' actions, or decode their intentions and empathize with their pain.

Keyword: Autism; Vision
Link ID: 7104 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Catriona Purcell, ABC Science Online — Australian marsupials can see in full color, new research has found, making them the only other mammals apart from primates to do so. A team led by Catherine Arrese from the University of Western Australia in Perth reports findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a journal of the U.K.'s Royal Society. Most people think marsupials lack color vision, said Arrese, but her team's investigation of Australian quokkas (Setonix brachyurus) and quendas (Isoodon obesulus) have found otherwise. They looked at cone cells at the top of the retina and the rear of the animals' eyes and found three distinct cone types that enable full color vision. Arrese said marsupials, along with other mammals including dogs, cats and horses, were previously thought to have only two types of cone cells, which meant they could not detect several colors including ultraviolet, blues or reds. But she has found short wavelength sensitive (SWS) cone cells that pick up ultraviolet or blue light; medium wavelength sensitive (MWS) cells that pick up colors along the middle of the light spectrum; and long wavelength sensitive (LWS) cells that pick up reds. Copyright © 2005 Discovery Communications Inc

Keyword: Vision; Evolution
Link ID: 7103 - Posted: 06.24.2010

GPs should offer exercise on prescription to all patients with depression, says a report. The Mental Health Foundation said there was mounting evidence that a supervised exercise programme could treat mild to moderate depression as well as drugs. Its report said there were growing concerns about the side effects of anti-depressants - and their over-use. However, it said GPs are still turning to anti-depressants as their first line of treatment. The cost of antidepressant prescriptions in England has risen by more than 2,000% over the last 12 years. Clinical guidelines promote the use of exercise for the treatment of depression. They also state that anti-depressants should not be used as a first-line treatment for mild depression, and that all but one of the newer SSRI drugs should not be given to under 18s. But the MFH report - Up and Running? - found only 5% of GPs use exercise as one of their three most common treatment responses. Many of the GPs surveyed for the report did not believe exercise was an effective treatment. And the report said most common alternative approaches - psychotherapy and counselling - are often in short supply, with patients being asked to join long waiting lists. As a result, the report found 78% of GPs had prescribed an anti-depressant in the last three years despite believing that an alternative treatment might have been more appropriate. (C)BBC

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 7102 - Posted: 03.29.2005

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR THE FACTS Some bleary-eyed travelers swear by melatonin as a way to beat jet lag. But experts say research on the hormone's effectiveness is far from clear-cut. Over the years, more than a dozen studies have tried to determine whether melatonin can ease symptoms of jet lag by adjusting the body's internal clock to new time zones. Some have shown that it helps in small doses; others have found that it is no better than a placebo. Dr. Michael Terman, a sleep expert at the New York State Psychiatric Institute who published a study on melatonin and jet lag in 1999, said the split stemmed from confusion over how jet lag is defined. While taking melatonin has been shown to help reset body rhythms, he said, there is little evidence that it can alleviate symptoms of jet lag that result from the stress of traveling itself - running through busy airports, an altered diet, sudden weather changes, the prospect of meeting new business clients. All of these contribute to exhaustion and sleep disturbances. "We cannot say that all of the symptoms of jet lag are unequivocally due to circadian rhythm shifting," Dr. Terman said. "We see for example that some people traveling long distances barely complain of jet lag even though their internal clocks are undergoing marked change." Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 7101 - Posted: 03.29.2005

By Jennifer Huget, Special to The Washington Post You see them huddled against the wind outside office buildings, cupping hands to protect tiny flames. You see them in their cars, faces blurred by clouds of smoke. You smell them when they're sitting next to you on the Metro. You hear them ask the salesclerk for a pack of Marlboro Lights, and you wonder: Who are these people? By now, overwhelming evidence shows that smoking ravages your body, encourages fatal disease and shortens your life. And these facts are well publicized, indeed unavoidable: Well-funded anti-smoking campaigns have succeeded in painting the once-glamorized habit as dirty, smelly, costly and unsexy. Bans restrict smoking in all kinds of places where people used to light up. And yet 22.5 percent of U.S. adults -- 46 million Americans -- continue to smoke. Why? We put the question to several smokers, particularly people you might expect to know better, interviewing them first via e-mail, then by phone; their comments here come from both sorts of contacts. We were not out to endorse their habit, or to preach (although we'd much rather be referring them to the Center for Tobacco Cessation at www.ctcinfo.org, a site funded by the American Cancer Society and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). We just wanted to understand it better. © Copyright 1996-2005 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 7100 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By DAN HURLEY Medical marijuana is now legal in 11 states, and bills to legalize it are pending in at least 7 more. The drug is also at the heart of a case being considered by the United States Supreme Court. Yet there remains much confusion over whether marijuana in fact has any significant medical effect. "People subjectively report benefits," said Dr. Joseph I. Sirven, an epilepsy specialist and associate professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Scottsdale, Ariz. "There's a whole Internet literature suggesting what a wonderful thing it is. But the reality is, we don't know." In an editorial last year in the journal Neurology, Dr. Sirven pointed out that the best studies of marijuana's effects on humans have so far shown little objective evidence of benefit in patients with epilepsy or multiple sclerosis. And a growing body of research indicates that, at least in teenagers, heavy marijuana use over a period of years significantly increases the risk of developing psychosis and schizophrenia. In the Supreme Court case, two California residents, Angel McClary Raich and Diane Monson, brought a suit against federal officials in October 2002 to defend their use of marijuana after six of Ms. Monson's marijuana plants were seized and destroyed by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company |

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 7099 - Posted: 03.29.2005

By DENISE GRADY STANFORD, Calif. - Kathleen Young had no reason to believe she was anything but healthy. She led a hectic life, running a tree-trimming business with her husband, studying to become a nurse and bringing up three daughters, ages 10, 12 and 13, in Raymore, Mo. But in an instant last September, everything changed. While working out at the gym, Mrs. Young, 41, suddenly went blind in her left eye. Minutes later, her head began to pound. The diagnosis, after an M.R.I. and other tests, was almost beyond comprehension: a rare disease had created blockages in arteries deep inside her skull, cutting off blood flow to part of her brain and causing a stroke, which had partly blinded her. The disorder, called moyamoya disease, is so uncommon that her family doctor admitted he had never heard of it. The name is Japanese for puff of smoke, which is what the disease looks like on X-rays: a wispy cloud of fragile blood vessels that develop in the brain where normal vessels are blocked. It was first identified in Japan in 1959. When Mrs. Young looked it up, what she learned was devastating. The disease causes a progressive narrowing of the internal carotid arteries, which carry blood to the brain. Patients suffer multiple strokes, mental decline and, usually, death from brain hemorrhage. The cause is unknown, and there is no cure. Reading a textbook chapter on it, she was stunned to realize that much of the information came from autopsies. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 7098 - Posted: 03.29.2005

Durham, N.C. – Determining which variants of particular genes patients with epilepsy carry might enable doctors to better predict the dose of drugs necessary to control their seizures, suggest basic findings by researchers at the Duke University Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP) and the University College London. Patients often undergo a lengthy process of trial and error to find the dose of anti-epilepsy drugs appropriate for them. The researchers found that variants of two genes were more likely to be found in patients who required higher dosages of anti-epileptic drugs. The findings suggest that, by incorporating genetic tests into the prescription process, physicians might improve outcomes for patients with epilepsy, said the researchers. A similar approach might also prove useful for other conditions, such as Parkinson's disease and cancer, in which patients' drug dosage requirements vary substantially, they added. Rigorous clinical study is required before any such method could be put into practice, the researchers emphasized. In the March 28, 2005, early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the investigators report the first clear evidence linking variation in genes involved in the action or metabolism of the anti-epileptic drugs, carbamazepine and phenytoin, to the drugs' clinical use. The study is the first to emerge from a partnership, aimed at tailoring the treatment of epilepsy to patients' genetic makeup, between the Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy at the University College London and the Duke Center for Population Genomics and Pharmacogenetics, a center of the IGSP. © 2001-2005 Duke University Medical Center.

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 7097 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Much of the controversy surrounding research on stem cells hinges on the source of the cells--particularly whether they come from embryonic sources or adult ones. Now research published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides new insight into the abilities of stem cells taken from hair follicles. The results indicate that these adult stem cells can develop into neurons. Inside a hair follicle is a small bulge that houses stem cells. As hair follicles cycle through growth and rest periods, these stem cells periodically differentiate into new follicle cells. Yasuyuki Amoh of AntiCancer, Inc. and his colleagues isolated stem cells from the whiskers of mice and tested their ability to become more sophisticated cell types. The researchers cultured the cells and after one week discovered that they had changed into neurons and two other cell types, known as astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, that are associated with neurons. According to the report, when left for longer periods lasting weeks or months, the stem cells could differentiate into a variety of cell types, including skin and muscle cells. © 1996-2005 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Stem Cells
Link ID: 7096 - Posted: 06.24.2010

For some smokers, slapping on a patch or chewing some gum may not be enough to help them kick the habit. As this ScienCentral News video reports, psychologists have shown that for some, giving up for good may require long-term counseling as well as medication. Although there’s an array of effective treatments available over-the-counter or from the doctor that help many people successfully give up smoking, as many as 440,000 Americans still die each year from smoking-related illnesses. Part of the problem is that for some smokers who want to quit those treatments just don't seem to work. "It's really important to look at methods that are helpful to people who are chronic smokers, who are long-term smokers; who are seriously addicted; who, despite all the social pressure there are on people to quit, haven't been able to quit," explains addiction psychologist Sharon Hall, from the University of California, San Francisco. Hall believes that the reason those short-term treatments fail for some people is that smoking is a complex and chronic addiction. "We know that nicotine is a very addicting drug and that smoking cigarettes is a very efficient way of delivering nicotine to the brain. So, it becomes physically very addicting," she explains. But smoking is more complex that just the physical addiction. "There's a tremendous number of factors that play into whether someone smokes or whether they can quit smoking," says Hall. "There are social factors. People tend to smoke with friends. They tend to smoke with one group and not with another. There are psychological factors: people report smoking under stress, they report smoking being related to mood." And when trying to give, nicotine-replacement may help with the physical addiction, but fails to deal with the psychological properties of a smoking addiction. (C) ScienCentral, 2000-2005.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 7095 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Durham, N.C. – Gene therapy methods that specifically target muscle may reverse the symptoms of a rare form of muscular dystrophy, according to new research in mice conducted by medical geneticists at Duke University Medical Center. Infants born with the inherited muscular disorder called Pompe disease usually die before they reach the age of two. The researchers also said their approach of targeting corrective genes to muscles may have application in treating other muscular dystrophies. Patients with Pompe disease have a defect in a key enzyme that converts glycogen, a stored form of sugar, into glucose, the body's primary energy source. As a result, glycogen builds up in muscles throughout the body, including the heart, causing muscles to degenerate. Using genetically altered mice in which the gene for the enzyme had been rendered nonfunctional, the researchers demonstrated they could introduce the functioning gene and correct glycogen buildup in heart and skeletal muscle. The findings suggest that such an approach should be considered as a potential gene therapy strategy for Pompe disease patients, the researchers report in a forthcoming issue of Molecular Therapy (now available online). © 2001-2005 Duke University Medical Center

Keyword: Muscles
Link ID: 7094 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Kenneth J. Bender, Pharm.D., M.A. As a three-generation study was published with new evidence that major depression can afflict families from one generation to the next, genomic research reported associated heightened risk for depression and specific treatment response with particular genotypes. The 20-year longitudinal family study found twice the rate of depression or anxiety in children whose parents and grandparents also had depression than in children without such a history (Arch Gen Psychiatry 2005;62[1]:29A-36). Two other recent publications offered examples of mechanisms for such familial vulnerability: In one, a defect in a gene that codes the enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase-2, integral to serotonin synthesis, was linked to depression risk (Neuron 2005;45[1]:11-16). In another, a variant in the corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) receptor 1 (CRHR1) gene predicted responsiveness to antidepressants (Mol Psychiatry 2004;9[12]:1075-1082). The longitudinal family study, conducted by Myrna M. Weissman, Ph.D., and colleagues, not only supports numerous other studies of depression risk in offspring of parents with major depression disorder, but finds the risk carried through several generations and suggests that it intensifies as more are affected (Arch Gen Psychiatry 2005;62[1]:29A-36). The researchers found 59.2% of the children of an afflicted parent and grandparent had a psychiatric disorder, most frequently anxiety, at the group's mean age of 12 years. They extrapolated from other data to consider the anxiety disorder at this age to be a precursor of depression in adolescence and young adulthood. © 2005 Psychiatric Times

Keyword: Depression; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 7093 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Leslie Citrome, M.D., M.P.H. The availability of new medications for the treatment of schizophrenia has led to increased optimism for the treatment of this disease. Unfortunately, remission is still uncommon, and researchers continue to categorize "responders" as experiencing a reduction of a mere 20% or 30% on rating scales that measure psychopathology, leaving substantial residual symptomatology and disability. On the other hand, new paradigms and new strategies are emerging that will help optimize the treatments that we can offer. Better recognition of the multidimensional aspect of schizophrenia that includes not only positive symptoms, but also negative symptoms, cognition, mood and hostility/aggression, helps the clinician to target specific treatments for specific symptom clusters. Awareness of the impact of alcohol and substance abuse, and the need to address this issue head-on, is necessary to enhance the potential for recovery. We are better able to examine the course of schizophrenia by paying attention to prodromal and first-episode patients. The article by Matcheri S. Keshavan, M.D., describes the longitudinal course of the illness, together with possible pathophysiological mechanisms. Being better able to identify pathophysiology will allow for more targeted treatments to be developed and help us better understand prognosis. The multiple mechanisms speak to the heterogeneity of what we call schizophrenia and make obvious the fact that we are probably dealing with several actual different diseases. Genetics, as described by Anil K. Malhotra, M.D., may help us explore the molecular lesions that lead to symptoms and offer the promise of knowing when and if early intervention can lead to a change in disease course. © 2005 Psychiatric Times.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 7092 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Like many other marine creatures, Aplysia, a common sea slug, enlists chemical defenses against its predators, but the mechanisms by which such chemical attacks actually work against their intended targets are not well understood by researchers. New work has now shown that such chemical defenses can involve modes of trickery that had not previously been appreciated as components of chemical defense. When attacked by predatory spiny lobsters, sea slugs (also known as sea hares) release an inky secretion, termed ink and opaline, from a pair of glands. The new findings show that Aplysia's defensive secretion includes a variety of chemicals that together comprise a multi-pronged attack on the predator's nervous system, resulting in the usurpation of its normal behavioral control system and a confused response that facilitates the slug's ultimate escape. The team of researchers conducting the study, Cynthia Kicklighter, Zeni Shabani, and Paul Johnson, led by Charles Derby of Georgia State University, discovered that in addition to containing unpalatable, aversive chemicals, Aplysia's inky secretion contains large quantities of chemicals that are also found in the food of spiny lobsters and that indeed these chemicals serve to activate nervous-system pathways that control feeding behaviors of the lobster. The inky secretion also stimulates other behaviors in the lobster, including grooming and avoidance.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 7091 - Posted: 03.29.2005

By Anne Casselman Current levels of obesity truncate American lives by four to nine months, report Jay Olshansky and his colleagues in the latest New England Journal of Medicine. If child and adolescent obesity continue to run rife, another two to five years will be lopped off our life span in the coming decades, dramatically reversing the rise in U.S. life expectancy seen over the past two centuries. Scientists previously expected average American life expectancy to reach 100 years by 2060. “Looking out the window, we see a threatening storm—obesity—that will, if unchecked, have a negative impact on life expectancy,” Olshansky and his colleagues write in their paper. Today two-thirds of American adults are obese or overweight, as are a quarter to a third of American children. This adds up to a 3.3-fold increase in childhood obesity over the past 25 years, mostly due to couch-potato lifestyles and the surging sales of fast, fizzy, and junky food. Obesity increases the risk of heart disease and cancer and is associated with hypertension, asthma, and gastrointestinal problems. It has sparked an epidemic of type 2 diabetes in children, which has increased tenfold over the past 20 years. Having diabetes in adulthood increases the risk of heart attack and shortens lives by about 13 years. Other diabetes-related complications include renal failure, limb amputation, stroke, and blindness. The cost of treating such medical problems will only go up as the age of onset drops. © 2004 The Walt Disney Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 7090 - Posted: 06.24.2010