The development of schizophrenia can be accurately predicted in high risk groups years before symptoms harden into psychosis, say scientists. A team from Edinburgh University has found people who go on to develop schizophrenia show subtle signs at an early stage. This includes social withdrawal, odd behaviour, and feelings of being disconnected from reality. Details are published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. The Edinburgh High-Risk Study, which began in 1994, aims to pin down why some people at high risk of developing schizophrenia go on to develop the condition, while others, apparently equally vulnerable, do not. The latest study focused on 163 young adults, aged 16-24, with two relatives with schizophrenia. The researchers found those who went on to develop schizophrenia tended to be more anxious, more withdrawn and experience more "schizotypal" thoughts than those who remained well. These symptoms often caused very little distress, and had minimal impact on quality of life. They may be short-lived, and followed by years in which they do not occur at all. But the researchers say they can be picked up fairly easily by using simple behavioural tests. The study also found that people who went on to develop schizophrenia tended to show lapses in their memory of events. The researchers believe their work provides strong evidence that schizophrenia is linked to problems with an area of the brain called the temporal lobe, which develop slowly over several years. At this stage, the exact nature of the change that pushes an individual into psychosis is not yet clear. (C)BBC

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 6657 - Posted: 01.05.2005

Women may be more at risk of eating disorders than men because of the way their brain processes information. Scientists found the female brain responds differently to a man's when exposed to certain words concerned with body image. The findings may provide an explanation for why ten times as many women develop anorexia and bulimia than men. The study, by Japan's Hiroshima University, is published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. British experts welcomed the research and said it could lead to a better understanding of how eating disorders develop. A spokesman for the Eating Disorders Assocation said: "We know there are differences between how men and women reason and think. "But this study throws new light on the problem." Eating disorders are a serious problem in the UK. It is estimated that at least 165,000 people, 90 per cent of them women, are affected and that one in ten will die as a result of their condition. Both anorexia, which involves starving the body of food and bulimia, a cycle of starving and bingeing, are closely linked to mental illness. They now account for more deaths among psychiatric patients than anything else. But until now, there has been no obvious trigger for why women get the disorder. Although genetic make-up does have some influence, problems with eating can also be brought on stress at school, depression and even bereavement among family or friends. The latest study hints at an underlying physiological cause. Scientists took 13 men and 13 women and exposed them to a series of tests in which they were asked to read two sets of words. (C)BBC

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 6656 - Posted: 01.05.2005

Monkey stem cells can repair the brain damage caused by Parkinson's disease, Japanese researchers have shown. The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, offer renewed hope of a similar treatment for humans. Until now, research showing stem cell therapy can work in Parkinson's has mainly been carried out on rodents. The Kyoto University team said more research was now needed to prove the treatment was safe and effective. Stem cells are premature cells that are capable of becoming any of a number of mature cells within the body, given the right conditions. Dr Jun Takahashi and colleagues took some stem cells from monkeys and encouraged them to grow into the brain cells, or neurons, that are damaged in Parkinson's disease. These are neurons that produce the chemical messenger dopamine. To encourage their development the researchers exposed the stem cells to a growth factor that is produced exclusively in the area of the brain affected by Parkinson's disease and is thought to have a protective effect on dopamine-producing neurons. These results suggest that transplantation using embryonic stem cells as a clinical therapy for Parkinson's disease is approaching the point of technical feasibility. They then transplanted the stem cell-derived dopamine-producing neurons into monkeys with a condition analogous to human Parkinson's disease. The transplanted cells worked as hoped, and reduced the symptoms of Parkinson's in the monkeys. The researchers said: "These results suggest that transplantation using embryonic stem cells as a clinical therapy for Parkinson's disease is approaching the point of technical feasibility." (C)BBC

Keyword: Parkinsons; Stem Cells
Link ID: 6655 - Posted: 01.05.2005

By George Dvorsky It was hard to believe that that the words were coming from a seven-year-old boy. "Another characteristic of mammals is that they give placental births," he said, "Oh, except marsupials like kangaroos and koala bears." Changing gears slightly he continued, "And then there are animals with endoskeletons and exoskeletons. Humans, because they have bones on the inside of their bodies have endoskeletons, but insects have exoskeletons on the outside." With a vocabulary more closely resembling that of someone in grade nine, he chimed off the bits of scientific triviata as if he were directly linked to Wikipedia. Clearly, this was no ordinary second grader, whom I chatted with recently at a Toronto specialist's office. Compared to other kids with Asperger's syndrome, however, his abilities are considered quite typical. His younger brother, who also has Asperger's, is already doing multiplication tables in his head while most of his kindergarten classmates are still trying to count to 10. The boy also has social interaction and behavioral problems typical of those with Asperger's. He tends to construe all advances from his classmates as bothersome, for example, compulsively chews on his sleeves and frequently stands up to spin in class. This is pretty textbook stuff for "Aspies"—an affectionate moniker that's increasingly coming to be used to refer to those with Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. Copyright © 2002-2004 Betterhumans

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 6654 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Becky Ham, Science Writer Depression can double the risk of death or repeat heart disease in heart attack patients, according to two reviews of more than 40 studies that examine the link between depression and heart disease. The reviews are published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. In the first analysis of 22 studies, patients who were depressed after their heart attacks had a twofold increase in the risk of dying or suffering a new heart problem two years after their heart attack, according to Joost van Melle, M.D., and colleagues of University Hospital Groningen in the Netherlands. In the second analysis of 20 studies by Jürgen Barth, Ph.D., of University of Freiburg in Germany and colleagues, the researchers concluded that depressed patients were twice as likely to die within two years after their first heart disease episode compared with non-depressed patients. According to van Melle, post-heart attack depression is common, affecting nearly 20 percent of all heart attack patients. The two research teams found that the relationship between depression and a higher risk of death and disease stayed consistent despite a variety of ways to measure depression.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 6653 - Posted: 01.05.2005

Who needs drugs when nursing can be such a great high? New research shows that brain scans of suckling moms are indistinguishable from those of virgin rats on cocaine, supporting the idea that nature rewards mothers for nurturing their pups. The work, described in 5 January issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, also sets the stage to better understand the mother-child bond in humans. When given the choice, rats with babies under 8 days of age will choose suckling their pups over cocaine. Researchers believe this strong motivation to nurse has evolved to help mothers bond with their offspring. Previous work involving damaging parts of the brain or blocking neurotransmitters has shown that the reward system of the brain is involved both in suckling and in drug stimulation. But no one had imaged the brain of a conscious rat for these studies. To address this, Craig Ferris of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester and colleagues monitored the effect of suckling and cocaine use in wide-awake mother rats using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the entire brain. When the team compared the MRIs of suckling mother rats to virgin rats given cocaine, it found that the same areas of the brain lit up in both groups. If the mother rats received injections of cocaine, the reward system in their brains dipped in activity below the lactation high, suggesting that lactation somehow interferes with the rewarding effects of cocaine. This work will allow scientists to bridge what we know about rats to humans, says neuroscientist Joan Morrell at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. "And it's a good overview of the systems that get turned on during suckling and drug use." --MARY BECKMAN Copyright © 2005 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 6652 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The replenishment of missing neurons in the brain as a treatment for Parkinson disease reached the stage of human trials over 15 years ago, however the field is still in its infancy. Researchers from Kyoto University have now shown that dopamine-producing neurons (DA neurons) generated from monkey embryonic stem cells and transplanted into areas of the brain where these neurons have degenerated in a monkey model of Parkinson disease, can reverse parkinsonism. Their results appear in the January 3 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Studies of animal models of Parkinson disease as well as clinical investigations, have shown that transplantation of fetal DA neurons can relieve the symptoms this disease. However the technical and ethical difficulties in obtaining sufficient and appropriate donor fetal brain tissue have limited the application of this therapy. These researchers previously demonstrated that mouse embryonic stem cells can differentiate into neurons when cultured under specific conditions. These same culture conditions, technically simple and efficient, were recently applied to primate embryonic stem cells and resulted in the generation of large numbers of DA neurons. In their current JCI study, Jun Takahashi and colleagues generated neurons from monkey embryonic stem cells and exposed these cells to FGF20, a growth factor that is produced exclusively in the area of the brain affected by Parkinson disease and is reported to have a protective effect on DA neurons. The authors observed increased DA neuron development and subsequently transplanted these neurons into monkeys treated with an agent called MPTP, which is considered a primate model for Parkinson disease.

Keyword: Parkinsons; Stem Cells
Link ID: 6651 - Posted: 01.04.2005

By GINA KOLATA With obesity much on Americans' minds, an entire industry has sprung up selling diets and diet books, meal replacements and exercise programs, nutritional supplements and Internet-based coaching, all in an effort to help people lose weight. But a new study, published today, finds little evidence that commercial weight-loss programs are effective in helping people drop excess pounds. Almost no rigorous studies of the programs have been carried out, the researchers report. And federal officials say that companies are often unwilling to conduct such studies, arguing that they are in the business of treatment, not research. "In general, the industry has always been opposed to making outcomes disclosures," said Richard Cleland, the assistant director for advertising practices at the Federal Trade Commission. "They have always given various rationales," Mr. Cleland said, from "'It's too expensive,' to even arguing that part of this is selling the dream, and if you know what the truth is, it's harder to sell the dream." The study, published in today's issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, found that with the exception of Weight Watchers, no commercial program had published reliable data from randomized trials showing that people who participated weighed less a few months later than people who did not participate. And even in the Weight Watchers study, the researchers said, the results were modest, with a 5 percent weight loss after three to six months of dieting, much of it regained. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 6650 - Posted: 01.04.2005

When people drink too much or too often, their brains adapt to the effects of ethanol. And that's what makes stopping so hard for some people. "[In] chronic long-term alcoholism, the brain can adapt to overcome the…repressive nature of ethanol and keep the brain functioning at a useful level," says Sid Strickland, Dean of the Graduate School at Rockefeller University. "So, that's what the brain is trying to do—it's an adaptive response to the depressive quality of ethanol." The adaptation happens when the brain's cells make more molecules called receptors. Receptors receive the chemical messages nerve cells send to each other. The chemical messages are the way that nerve cells communicate. Strickland reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that during alcohol consumption, a gene called tissue plasminogen activator (tPA)—best known as a clot-buster for fighting the effects of stroke and heart-attacks—helps the brain create an enzyme that makes the extra receptors. This finding could eventually make the alcohol withdrawal process easier for those who want to stop drinking. "The idea would be…if a person had chronically abused ethanol, and was wanting to stop that abuse, you could possibly inhibit this [gene] and that would lessen the effects of the abrupt withdrawal," says Strickland. © ScienCentral, 2000- 2005.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 6649 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ROB GILLIES, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TORONTO -- U.S. agriculture officials reaffirmed their support for lifting the ban on Canadian beef despite the discovery of a second case of mad cow disease in Canada, expressing confidence that public health measures will protect American livestock and consumers. Canada's Food Inspection Agency said yesterday that an older dairy cow from the province of Alberta has tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. The results confirmed preliminary tests released last week. Canada suspects the cow became infected through contaminated animal feed. The cow was born in 1996, before a 1997 ban on certain types of feed, the agency said. It did not enter the human food or animal feed supply and posed no risk to the public, the agency said. The disease attacks an animal's nervous system. Food contaminated with the prions that cause it can afflict people with usually fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. ©1996-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 6648 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Experts say they have discovered a way that drinking alcohol impairs driving ability. As well as blighting decision-making powers and balance, it disrupts one's ability to judge depth, the North Dakota State University team found. Drivers who are under the influence of alcohol may not be able to gauge distances, leading to accidents, according to the researchers. Their findings appear in the journal Psychological Science. Dr Mark Nawrot and colleagues looked at a particular type of depth perception, called motion parallax. This is information about the relative depth of objects gleaned from our own motion. For example, under normal conditions, a driver should be able to judge how far away a tree or another vehicle is from their own moving car. It is well known that binocular vision is important for depth perception. To see objects clearly we move our eyes so that the fovea, the area with the best visual acuity, is positioned upon the area of interest. These movements are produced by two different systems - the fast and slow eye movement systems. Fast eye movements allow us to dart our eyes to where we want. Slow eye movements allow us to fixate and track moving objects. Alcohol impairs both eye systems. (C)BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Vision
Link ID: 6647 - Posted: 01.04.2005

CHICAGO – Children who appear to have higher levels of shyness, or a particular gene, appear to have a different pattern of processing the signals of interpersonal hostility, according to a study in the January issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. According to background information in the article, "Neuroimaging studies are beginning to clarify the relationship between the brain's cortical and subcortical activity in regulating the emotional and cognitive functions of behavior." … "A temperamental disposition toward the avoidance of novel and uncertain situations together with a set of behaviors that indicate shyness and discomfort in social interactions are comprehensively named childhood shyness, or behavioral inhibition (BI). Children with high indexes of shyness-BI are at a heightened risk of developing anxiety disorders, in particular social phobia." Marco Battaglia, M.D., from the Istituto Scientifico San Raffaele, Milan, Italy, and colleagues analyzed the responses of 49 third- and fourth-grade schoolchildren (characterized as shy) to different emotional facial expressions. The researchers showed the study participants pictures of boys and girls with facial expressions that depicted joy, neutrality, and anger. The study participants were assessed through questionnaires and responses were also recorded with electrodes measuring brain wave activity.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 6646 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A drug to treat a common eye disease has produced promising results in a major trial, researchers have said. Macugen, known technically as pegaptanib, is the first drug to target the underlying cause of the wet form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). It works by stopping the formation of blood vessels that leak into the eye eventually destroying central vision. The research, sponsored by the drug manufacturers Pfizer, is published in the New England Journal of Medicine. AMD is the leading cause of severe vision loss in patients over the age of 50 in the developed world. Worldwide, approximately seven million people suffer from severe visual impairment caused by wet AMD. The condition is caused by the growth of new blood vessels under the centre of the retina, also known as the macula, which houses the cells that react to light. These blood vessels can leak fluid, causing scar tissue to form and destroying central vision in a period of between two months and three years. There are three subtypes of wet AMD: predominantly classic, minimally classic and occult. Macugen has been shown to be effective in treating all three. It works by blocking a protein called a vascular endothelial growth factor, which plays a crucial role both in the formation of new blood vessels, and their tendency to leak. In the latest research patients given Macugen showed a significantly reduced risk of moderate and severe vision loss. Some maintained, or even improved their vision. (C)BBC

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 6645 - Posted: 01.04.2005

By Reed Williams / Daily Progress staff writer University of Virginia researcher Jeff Holt has lofty ambitions: He hopes to help cure deafness. Holt and his wife, Gwenaelle Geleoc, both of whom are assistant professors in UVa’s Department of Neuroscience, believe their research has brought them one step closer to that goal. Collaborating with 14 scientists from outside UVa, the couple discovered the long-sought protein TRPA1 in mice, and they believe it also exists in humans. Located in the inner ear, TRPA1 converts sound into nerve impulses that are transmitted to the brain, Holt said. Holt called the finding the “scientific equivalent to climbing Mount Everest.” “It might give us a window of opportunity to address deafness in humans,” he said. “People have been looking for this [protein] for 25 years, and that’s why it’s such a big finding.” The 16-person team’s research was published in the journal Nature in early December. According to the findings, TRPA1 is found at the tips of hair-like sensory cells in the inner ear. © 2004 Media General

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 6644 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Confidential papers on anti-depressant drug Prozac that went missing during a murder case have been handed to the US drug regulator by a UK medical journal. The documents, belonging to Eli Lilly, the makers of Prozac, included details of clinical trials of the drug, the British Medical Journal said. The documents reportedly went missing after the relatives of the victims of Joseph Wesbecker started legal action. Mr Wesbecker, who was on Prozac, shot eight people dead in 1989 in the US. Another 12 people were injured during the shooting spree at a printing plant in Louisville, Kentucky. The 47-year-old then shot himself. In 1994, the relatives brought a civil case against Eli Lilly. The company subsequently won the case but was later forced to admit that it had made a secret settlement with the plaintiffs during the trial, which meant that the verdict was invalid, the BMJ reported. Dr Richard Kalpit, the clinical reviewer at the US Food and Drug Administration, the US drugs regulator, who approved the drug, told the BMJ he was not given the data included in the documents. "These data are very important. If this report was done by Lilly or for Lilly, it was their responsibility to report it to us and to publish it." Recent research has suggested children who use Prozac are at greater risk of suicide. And earlier this month the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority said analysis of both published and unpublished data by experts on the Committee on Safety of Medicines showed "a modest increase in the risk of suicide from SSRIs [such as Prozac and Seroxat] compared to placebos [dummy pills]" in adults. The FDA is now reviewing the papers, which were given to the BMJ by an anonymous source. (C)BBC

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 6643 - Posted: 12.31.2004

By REUTERS (Reuters) - The British Medical Journal said on Friday it had sent documents to health regulators in the United States that it said appear to suggest a link between the antidepressant drug Prozac and suicidal behavior. The journal said an anonymous source had provided "missing documents" relating to clinical trials of the drug, made by Eli Lilly & Company. It said the documents had been lost during a product liability suit in 1994. They included reviews and memos that appeared to show Eli Lilly officials were aware in the 1980's that the drug, whose generic name is fluoxetine, had "troubling side effects," the journal said. Officials at Eli Lilly, which is based in Indianapolis, could not immediately be reached for comment on the report. In an article appearing in its Jan. 1 issue, which it posted on its Web site at www.bmj.com on Friday, the journal said it had sent the papers to the Food and Drug Administration. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 6642 - Posted: 12.31.2004

By DAVID TULLER Julius Axelrod, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who helped to discover how chemicals released by nerve cells in the brain regulate mood and behavior, died on Wednesday at his home in Rockville, Md., the National Institute of Mental Health, where he worked for most of his career, said. He was 92. Dr. Axelrod shared the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with two other scientists, Dr. Bernard Katz of Britain and Prof. Ulf von Euler of Sweden. Their work was essential to the development of psychiatric drugs and others and led directly to the development of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the class of antidepressants that includes Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil. The Nobel Foundation cited the men "for their discoveries concerning the transmitters in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation." But Dr. Axelrod's influence extended far beyond the discoveries related to the prize. In the 1940's, even before receiving his doctorate in pharmacology, Dr. Axelrod played a major role in identifying acetaminophen as the pain-relieving chemical in a common headache treatment of the day. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 6641 - Posted: 12.31.2004

By Steve Mirsky In October researchers announced in the journal Nature what could prove to be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time--the fossil remains of a miniature species of humans. The island of Flores, already famous in paleontological circles for having been home to pygmy elephants, also seems to have encouraged the downsizing of a stray group of Homo erectus who wound up there. Small stature was selected until adults were just over three feet tall and deserved to be classified as a new species. Islands, with limited resources, promote this kind of diminution--Scientific American's offices are on the island of Manhattan, and some of us need a boost just to type uppercase letters. You'll be able to read a full-length feature article about the not-quite-full-length people of Flores in our February issue. But I am forced to abandon my consideration of them at this point in favor of a discussion of other research. Because, at the end of September, Nature published a study in which scientists made ferrets watch the movie The Matrix. I'll wait while you read that last sentence again. Indeed, researchers at the University of Rochester made a dozen ferrets watch The Matrix. (The idea of 12 sentient beings exposed to bad acting from stiff guys dressed in cheap suits particularly disturbs me, but that's probably because I was just on jury duty.) Of course, you are no doubt wondering why serious scientists made ferrets watch The Matrix. This question can be answered in three different ways: © 1996-2004 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 6640 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The key to a successful and healthy diet may not be about eating less, but eating differently. Gladys Block, a professor of epidemiology and public health nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley, analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, in which over 4700 American adults reported everything they ate. "These large national surveys collect data on what Americans have eaten, and they collect it in great detail, so there are literally hundreds of thousands of reports about individual food items," explains Block. "So I collapsed those reports into about 150 food groups that represent everything that Americans have eaten in the past 24 hours. Then I was able to rank those foods according to how much of the total calories they contributed." And what she found surprised even her. "Soft drinks were the number one contributor of calories in the United States," she says. "And that group alone contributed over 7 percent of all the calories consumed." Bonnie Taub-Dix, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and a registered dietician for 28 years, likes to describe soft drinks this way: "The most classic visual picture is that a can of cola is like having a can of water with ten packets of sugar in it. Like if you open up ten packets of sugar and put it in a cup of water and swirl it around and taste it, it tastes disgusting—that's a cola." © ScienCentral, 2000- 2004.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 6639 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Achim Schneider We all know that teenagers hate to get up in the morning. But are they really just lazy, or is there a biological cause? A European survey of the sleeping habits of 25,000 people now provides powerful evidence that biology is indeed to blame. Whereas children sleep later and later as they get older, we undergo an abrupt shift at age 20, after which we start sleeping earlier again. The change is so sudden that researchers suggest it should be used to officially mark the end of adolescence. We all go through phases of puberty and adolescence before we reach adulthood. Both periods begin when the reproductive system starts maturing. Scientists agree that puberty ends when bone growth stops - at around 16 years in girls and 17.5 years in boys. But the end of adolescence - a concept that is part social, part psychological and part physiological - has always been less well defined. Our sleep and wake phases are regulated by an internal body clock. Each cycle runs at about 24 hours, but the exact timing varies from individual to individual. People with particularly early cycles, called "larks", tend to go to bed early and wake up early, whereas those with a late cycle ("owls") tend to be more active at night and sleep later in the morning. ©2004 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Sleep; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6638 - Posted: 06.24.2010