By NANETTE GARTRELL How could a psychiatrist in practice for 27 years fail to recognize an anxiety attack? I was interviewing a new patient when the first surge of adrenaline hit, but I couldn't identify the sensation. The patient continued talking about her lifelong struggle with depression. I broke into a sweat and wondered whether I was having a hot flash. I glanced at the clock -- 20 minutes to go. As I summarized the pros and cons of various antidepressants, my voice trembled. Did the patient notice? I felt as if I were disintegrating. I reached for a prescription pad, trying to steady my shaking hand. I had never been seriously depressed or anxious before. Even after my sister's death and my father's suicide, I hadn't needed drugs to cope. But recently, as a close friend was dying of liver cancer, I began to dread going to work. I felt weighed down by my patients and their pain. I asked myself, Was I in worse shape than they were? My partner Dee, who is also a psychiatrist, suggested an antidepressant. She recommended bupropion, since, unlike some antidepressants, it doesn't cause a sleepy, fuzzy brain. I had prescribed it frequently -- including to patients who were physicians themselves -- with favorable results. Within 10 days, I developed insomnia, agitation and tremors. I lost the ability to distinguish between sadness and the drug's side effects. When the panic attacks started, I worried I would end up like my father, who took his life after years of anxiety. Initially, I checked in with Dee once each day. Soon I was calling her hourly between patients. I needed every ounce of energy to concentrate at work. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 4746 - Posted: 01.04.2004

Scientists have identified a gene in the cerebral cortex that apparently controls the developmental clock of embryonic nerve cells, a finding that could open another door to tissue replacement therapy in the central nervous system. In a new study, the researchers found that they could rewind the clock in young cortical cells in mice by eliminating a gene called Foxg1. The finding could potentially form the basis of a new method to push progenitor cells in the brain to generate a far wider array of tissue than is now possible. The study, led by researchers at NYU School of Medicine, is published in the January 2, 2004 issue of Science magazine. "What we found was a complete surprise," says Gordon Fishell, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at New York University School of Medicine. "No one had believed that it was possible to push back the birth date of a cortical neuron. There is this central tenet governing the process of brain development, which says that late progenitor cells [forerunners of mature cell types] cannot give rise to cell types produced earlier in development," he explains.

Keyword: Stem Cells; Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 4745 - Posted: 01.04.2004

Physics underlies rhythms of South American birdsong. PHILIP BALL The synchronized rhythms of South American ovenbirds may be driven by simple physics, say researchers, rather than deep-rooted musical talent. The thrush-sized Hornero, Furnarius rufus, is common to Brazil and Argentina and famed for its oven-shaped nest. When a male and female strike up song, the male begins by singing roughly six notes per second and gradually upping the tempo. Instead of keeping pace with her partner, the female punctuates his beat with one of her own1. The result is "a most appealing rhythm," say Rodrigo Laje of City University in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Gabriel Mindlin of the University of California at San Diego. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Animal Communication
Link ID: 4744 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Study hints at vital job for two-faced proteins. HELEN PEARSON Mystery proteins called prions, which can flip between two different shapes, might help in laying down memories, according to US researchers. The finding hints at an entirely new set of roles for the proteins. Prions are unusual in the protein world: when they adopt one of their guises, they can reproduce, converting other identical proteins into copies of themselves. Often such replicating prions are harmful - they clog up the brains of cattle with mad cow disease and patients with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Now a team led by Eric Kandel at Columbia University in New York has found that a prion-like protein called CPEB may help nerve cells store memories. A transient electrical signal in the brain might flip CPEB into its prion form, the researchers suggest, helping to create a permanent memory trace. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Prions; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4743 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A fuller understanding of signaling in the brain of people with this disorder offers new hope for improved therapy By Daniel C. Javitt and Joseph T. Coyle Today the word "schizophrenia" brings to mind such names as John Nash and Andrea Yates. Nash, the subject of the Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind, emerged as a mathematical prodigy and eventually won a Nobel Prize for his early work, but he became so profoundly disturbed by the brain disorder in young adulthood that he lost his academic career and floundered for years before recovering. Yates, a mother of five who suffers from both depression and schizophrenia, infamously drowned her young children in a bathtub to "save them from the devil" and is now in prison. The experiences of Nash and Yates are typical in some ways but atypical in others. Of the roughly 1 percent of the world's population stricken with schizophrenia, most remain largely disabled throughout adulthood. Rather than being geniuses like Nash, many show below- average intelligence even before they become symptomatic and then undergo a further decline in IQ when the illness sets in, typically during young adulthood. Unfortunately, only a minority ever achieve gainful employment. In contrast to Yates, fewer than half marry or raise families. Some 15 percent reside for long periods in state or county mental health facilities, and another 15 percent end up incarcerated for petty crimes and vagrancy. Roughly 60 percent live in poverty, with one in 20 ending up homeless. Because of poor social support, more individuals with schizophrenia become victims than perpetrators of violent crime. Medications exist but are problematic. The major options today, called antipsychotics, stop all symptoms in only about 20 percent of patients. (Those lucky enough to respond in this way tend to function well as long as they continue treatment; too many, however, abandon their medicines over time, usually because of side effects, a desire to be "normal" or a loss of access to mental health care). Two thirds gain some relief from antipsychotics yet remain symptomatic throughout life, and the remainder show no significant response. © 1996-2003 Scientific American, Inc

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 4742 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By SANDRA BLAKESLEE By tinkering with yeast and sea slugs, scientists have found a surprising possible explanation for the way the human brain stores long-term memories. Those lowly creatures possess an unusual protein that exists in two shapes. In one shape, the protein is sluggish or inactive. In its second shape, the protein perpetuates itself indefinitely but can also harmlessly switch back to the inactive form. Researchers believe that in higher organisms the same protein may exploit this second shape to confer lasting stability to sites on brain cells, called synapses, that store the memories of a lifetime. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Prions; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4741 - Posted: 12.25.2003

The Canadian Press TORONTO -- A major and previously unreported mechanism behind brain cell death in stroke has been defined by a team of Toronto researchers. The findings represent a paradigm shift in science's understanding of why strokes kill brain cells, said lead author Dr. Michael Tymianski, a neurosurgeon at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre at Toronto Western Hospital. "This is a paper that constitutes what we feel to be a quantum leap in our understanding of why brain cells die during a stroke,'' he said in an interview. "Essentially the paper uncovers the dominant mechanism by which these cells die that had been completely overlooked in the past.'' Copyright © 2003 CanWest Interactive Inc.

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 4740 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Scientists have discovered a new process for how memories might be stored, a finding that could help explain one of the least-understood activities of the brain. What's more, the key player in this process is a protein that acts just like a prion – a class of proteins that includes the deadly agents involved in neurodegenerative conditions such as mad cow disease. The study, published as two papers in the Dec. 26 issue of the journal Cell, suggests that this protein does its good work while in a prion state, contradicting a widely held belief that a protein that has prion activity is toxic or at least doesn't function properly. "For a while we've known quite a bit about how memory works, but we've had no clear concept of what the key storage device is," says Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research Director Susan Lindquist, who coauthored the study with neurobiologist Eric Kandel at Columbia University. "This study suggests what the storage device might be – but it's such a surprising suggestion to find that a prion-like activity may be involved."

Keyword: Prions; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4739 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Shankar Vedantam,Washington Post Staff Writer A recent report criticizing the funding priorities of the federal government's National Institute of Mental Health has reignited controversy over the organization's direction and destiny -- with the top official at the institute echoing some of the criticism himself. The percentage of funds devoted to severe mental illnesses has shrunk even as the institute's budget has doubled, according to the report issued last month by psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey's Treatment Advocacy Center, the Public Citizen Health Research Group and other mental health experts. The report has created sharp divisions among the many mental health experts, advocacy groups and professional organizations that have stakes in the agency's mission and direction, and has illustrated the growing gap between scientific and popular visions of mental health research. Ultimately, the issue may be decided not within the NIMH but on Capitol Hill. © Copyright 1996-2003 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 4738 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Alzheimer's disease may be linked to processing problems in part of the brain that triggers daydreams. Activity in this area normally reduces or shuts down when somebody has to concentrate on a task at hand. But scientists at Washington University in St Louis have found evidence from brain scans that this may not be the case in people with Alzheimer's. The work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may lead to new diagnostic tests. The researchers found there are parts of the brain in young people that are very active when they are day dreaming. But when they are asked to do something, they seem to have the ability to shut down activity in these areas. (C) BBC

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 4737 - Posted: 12.24.2003

Faults in the brain's wiring may cause some cases of schizophrenia in young people, say scientists. A team from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York found brain abnormalities in children with the condition. They believe these changes disrupt the transmission of signals that regulate behaviour. The research was presented at a meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. The researchers used a sophisticated scanning technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). They found abnormalities in tissue known as white matter in an area of the brain called the frontal lobe, which controls emotions and many thinking processes. (C) BBC

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 4736 - Posted: 12.24.2003

by Erik Ness Attention, parents: Now that you've seen your kids' first report cards of the year, it's time for a little homework of your own. No doubt you're doing the best you can to ensure your little ones' eventual membership in Mensa -- promoting stimulating dinner conversation, reading a chapter together each night, maybe even playing Mozart during bath time. But wait -- there's more. You'll find your next assignment in the pages of Colleen Moore's Silent Scourge: Children, Pollution, and Why Scientists Disagree. You probably already know that lead is not an appropriate component of any cerebral calisthenics program. But nor is it the only pollutant that can stunt intellectual development. In Silent Scourge, Moore, a developmental psychologist, reviews the case against lead and five additional types of pollutants -- mercury, PCBs, pesticides, noise, and radioactive and chemical wastes. With the possible exception of noise, most people recognize these pollutants as harmful and wouldn't actively incorporate them into K-12 curriculums or meal plans. But that doesn't mean we've got the necessary information -- or power -- to protect kids from them. Each of these pollutants has been the object of protracted debate, the kind of media-moderated, he-said/she-said dispute that frequently leaves us more worn down than wised up. Moore cuts through the confusion, using lay language to explain the dangers each pollutant poses to child development, including intellectual function, behavior, emotional state, and overall physical and psychological well-being. © 2003, Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Neurotoxins; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4735 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By MATTHEW L. WALD and ERIC LICHTBLAU WASHINGTON, — A sick cow slaughtered about two weeks ago near Yakima, Wash., has tested positive for mad cow disease in early laboratory results, the first such case in the United States, the secretary of agriculture said on Tuesday. Shortly after the announcement, Japan said it was banning imports of American beef. The South Korean agriculture ministry said in a statement that South Korea was also halting American beef imports and that it was pulling American beef products off supermarket shelves. [On Wednesday morning, Russia, Thailand and Hong Kong also announced that they too were banning imports of American beef products.] Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 4734 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service Cohabiting is better for men's mental health, but marriage is better for women's happiness, suggests a new study. The study of nearly 4,500 men and women in the UK also reveals that men and women who stick with their first enduring relationship enjoy good mental health. However, where men recover from serial break-ups, women fare much worse. In fact it may be much better for a woman's mental health to stay single than to have loved and lost, suggests the study by Michaela Benzeval at Queen Mary, University of London and colleagues. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4733 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ERIC NAGOURNEY If you're looking for a nice smoky place, it is hard to do better than some casinos. So when scientists from the University of Minnesota wanted to see how people were affected by secondhand tobacco smoke, they asked a group of volunteers to roam among the slot machines and gambling tables for a while to see what happened. After just four hours or so, the volunteers had significant amounts of a biochemical marker in their urine traceable only to a known carcinogen in tobacco, the researchers reported yesterday. Writing in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, a medical journal, they said the study was the first to look at carcinogen levels in people exposed to smoke in a commercial setting. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 4732 - Posted: 12.23.2003

ST. PAUL, MN – New research finds that deficiencies in the hippocampus play a key role in alcoholism-related Korsakoff's syndrome, a memory disorder. The deficiencies are comparable to those found in the brains of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the December 23 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers used MRI to compare the brains of five men with alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome to 20 men with Alzheimer's disease and 36 healthy men. The brains of all Korsakoff's patients and Alzheimer's patients were comparable in significant volume loss in the hippocampus, which plays an important role in memory functions. Greater hippocampal damage was correlated to a higher memory deterioration index score for the Korsakoff's patients. The study authors also reported a similar correlation in Alzheimer's patients, where poor memory performance correlated with smaller hippocampal size. "Awareness of the clinical and radiological similarities between Korsakoff's syndrome and Alzheimer's disease may help with the detection of each," said study author Edith V. Sullivan, PhD, of Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, Calif. "Although controversial, we believe that the nature of the memory impairment in these disorders is the same, while their overall profiles are different."

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4731 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Chemical might help human cells reach clinic. ERIKA CHECK A humble marine snail has helped scientists to unravel the signals that keep stem cells young. Human embryonic stem (ES) cells can give rise to almost all of the body's different cell types. They could eventually provide patients with replacement tissues - but there are some roadblocks that currently prevent researchers from putting the cells into patients' bodies. One problem is that scientists don't yet know how to control the cells' transformations into other types. Another is that the cells cannot be grown without help from mouse cells, which means that they could be contaminated with mouse proteins. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Stem Cells; Regeneration
Link ID: 4730 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post Staff Writer Scientists are gaining new insights into the role of temperament in making some people vulnerable to physical disease through studies exploring how stress influences the immune system, weakening disease-fighting cells and creating fertile environments for pathogens. This month, a carefully done study showed that shy men have much less resistance to the AIDS virus than extroverted men and benefit far less from treatment with antiretroviral drugs. It is the first study to demonstrate through laboratory tests a connection between being introverted and the course of AIDS in individuals, researchers said. Such studies are sketching in the details behind the growing awareness that the workings of the body and mind cannot be neatly compartmentalized into the departments and disciplines taught in medical school. As a result, paying attention to the emotional state of patients with infectious and chronic diseases is increasingly more than a matter of good bedside manner; it is becoming an essential part of treatment. © 2003 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Stress; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 4729 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A senior UK Government scientist has said he may resign after reports he was not put forward for an honour because of his support for animal experiments. Colin Blakemore, head of the Medical Research Council (MRC), has called for the government to issue a statement backing experiments on animals. Professor Blakemore said the move undermined the MRC's aim of engaging with the public about research. MPs say they will begin an inquiry into the honours system in the new year. Professor Blakemore said he understood his name was blocked because of his work with animal experimentation, but pointed out other scientists who worked on animals "but don't speak about their work" had been given honours recently. "I take it to mean because I have been willing to engage publicly on that very sensitive but very important issue [my name was blocked]," Professor Blakemore told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. (C) BBC

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 4728 - Posted: 12.22.2003

Why are humans nearly hairless? And why do some wish to become more so? AT THE back of a hairdresser's shop, just off Piccadilly in London, an Irish beautician called Genevieve is explaining what a “Brazilian” is as she practises her art on your correspondent. A Brazilian strip, some are surprised to learn, is nothing to do with Latin American football. Between each excruciating rip, she explains that she is going to remove nearly all my pubic hair, except for a narrow vertical strip of hairs the width of a couple of fingers. This is known colloquially as the “landing strip”. In only a few years, this form of waxing has gone from the esoteric to the everyday and is starting to rival the ordinary bikini wax in popularity. At the same time the bikini wax is becoming a normal procedure for women of all ages: the youngest person Genevieve has waxed is a 12-year-old girl. Women are styling their pubic hair into hearts, stars and arrows. It is one of the more notable developments in hairdressing since the permanent wave. Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2003

Keyword: Evolution; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4727 - Posted: 06.24.2010