By MELODY PETERSEN BOSTON, — Dr. David P. Franklin decided within weeks of accepting a job with the drug maker Warner-Lambert that he had become a crucial component in an apparent corporate plan to illegally market an epilepsy drug called Neurontin, he said today. In his first extensive interview since filing a federal lawsuit against the company in 1996, Dr. Franklin said he thought he had little choice but to blow the whistle on what he says was a scheme to ignore federal regulations and market Neurontin for more than a dozen uses it was not approved to treat. "We were truly experimenting on patients, which put them at risk," said Dr. Franklin, 41, a microbiologist and a former fellow at Harvard Medical School who worked as a medical liaison for Warner-Lambert. "I was involved in this, trained and asked to deceive physicians and take advantage of their trust, and I'm embarrassed by that." Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 3546 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Animal behaviorists have something new to crow about. Researchers at the University of Washington have found a species of crow that distinctly alters its behavior when attempting to steal food from another crow, depending on whether or not the other bird is a relative. The Northwestern crow (Corvus caurinus) uses a passive strategy when it attempts to take food from kin but becomes aggressive when it tries to steal a morsel from a non-related crow. This is believed to be the first time that such a behavior pattern has been observed in any bird species. The findings are published in the current issue of the journal Bird Behavior by Renee Robinette Ha, a UW lecturer in psychology, and James Ha, a research associate professor of psychology. In a companion paper to be published in the next issue of the journal Animal Behavior, the Has, a husband-wife team, quantified scrounging or thievery attempts among Northwest crows. When birds found valuable items such as small fish or clams, other birds tried to steal the food 46 percent of the time and 41 percent of those attempts were successful.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 3545 - Posted: 03.12.2003

Unreal but strongly held beliefs, delusions and hallucinations are characteristic of someone suffering from schizophrenia. This devastating mental illness distorts the thinking processes of its victims. Schizophrenics may hear voices telling them that someone is out to harm them, or they may feel that their thoughts are being broadcast for everyone to hear, according to Richard Warner, medical director at the Mental Health Center at Boulder County in Colorado. Currently, the most widely available treatment is a variety of medications. But Warner says they are not completely effective for everyone, and in fact can be ineffective for many. He points out that, “only one of the newer drugs really works on what we call ‘treatment-resistant schizophrenia’—[for which] the other drugs don’t work—and that’s Clozapine.” But he adds that like all other schizophrenia drugs, even this has negative side effects like weight gain, seizures and diabetes. Now some psychologists in the United Kingdom have shown that schizophrenics can get a reality check by talking in detail about their feelings and experiences. They found that, when combined with medication, a therapy known as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help schizophrenics make sense of their experiences. © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 3544 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Dilip V. Jeste, M.D., and Elizabeth W. Twamley, Ph.D. Psychiatric Times March 2003 Vol. XX Issue 3 With the aging of the baby boomers, the number of people in the United States older than 65 is projected to double from about 35 million today to nearly 70 million by 2030. There will be a disproportionately greater increase in the number of elderly Americans who suffer from a mental illness--from approximately 6 million today to about 15 million by 2030 (Jeste et al., 1999a). Younger adults who have a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, currently have a significantly shorter life span than those without mental illness. The average life span of these patients is expected to increase, thanks to improved pharmacologic and other treatments, as well as general improvement in health and nutrition. In addition, as people in the general population live longer, the numbers of individuals who will develop psychotic disorders in later life will also grow. One of the most disenfranchised groups in health care is older people with psychotic disorders. The health-related well-being of older patients with psychosis living in the community is comparable to (or even slightly worse than) that of outpatients with AIDS (Patterson et al., 1996). Acute psychotic symptoms in older people may reflect delirium or metabolic causes. Chronic and persistent psychotic symptoms belong to one of two groups: primary psychotic disorders (such as schizophrenia, delusional disorder, psychotic mood disorder) or psychosis secondary to dementia or other general medical conditions. Two important chronic psychotic disorders in older people that will be discussed in this article are schizophrenia in late life and psychosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). © 2003 Psychiatric Times. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Alzheimers
Link ID: 3543 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Modern humans derive fully from Cro-Magnons, Stanford anthropologist contends David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor For generations, scientists have puzzled and argued over one of the great mysteries in the genealogy of the early humans: What really happened to the big-boned, heavy-browed Neanderthal people who vanished from Earth thousands of years ago? And why were they succeeded so swiftly by the Cro-Magnon people, who were the first truly modern humans? Museums, movies, books and magazines depict the relatively sophisticated lives and dwellings of our lithe-limbed Cro-Magnon kin whose astonishing art graces cave walls all over Europe. By comparison, the Neanderthals are portrayed as lumbering, uncouth "cavemen," unable to fashion tools and weapons beyond crude clubs and spears. ©2003 San Francisco Chronicle

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 3542 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JANE E. BRODY The phrase "it can't be done" does not seem to be a part of the vocabulary of Dr. Janice E. Brunstrom. Born 40 years ago, she was three months premature and weighed just three pounds. She has cerebral palsy that cripples both legs. Her parents were told she would be mentally retarded, a prospect that seemed highly unlikely when she learned to read at 4 and was further refuted when she became her high school's valedictorian. College, medical school and advanced training in pediatrics and pediatric neurology then gave her the qualifications to establish what may well be the world's most comprehensive center for children with cerebral palsy at St. Louis Children's Hospital. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Movement Disorders
Link ID: 3541 - Posted: 03.11.2003

By DAVID BERREBY NEWTON, Mass. — At age 40 Jonathan Shay had life by the tail. He had his own lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and several papers published in prestigious journals. He was focused on the biochemistry of brain-cell death, with its relevance to strokes. But life takes sudden twists. As Sophocles wrote in Athens 2,400 years ago, no one should be counted happy who is still alive. Dr. Shay soon had reasons to contemplate that line, and plenty of time. That year he turned 40, Dr. Shay, the professional student of strokes, had one of his own. He emerged from a coma paralyzed on his entire left side. Not long after, his marriage ended. The family business — which had paid the bills for his lively intellectual life through graduate school in sociology, a medical degree and a Ph.D. in neuroscience — hit hard times. Medical research grants were getting scarcer, so even as he pulled himself together he found his work stalled. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Stroke; Apoptosis
Link ID: 3540 - Posted: 06.24.2010

UCLA neuroscientists using positron emission tomography (PET) brain imaging have discovered distinct patterns of brain activity that predict the effectiveness of paroxetine, or Paxil, in treating obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) vs. major depression. Published in the March 2003 edition of the peer-reviewed American Journal of Psychiatry, the study is the first to compare neurobiological predictors of response to the same treatment across different disorders. Since patient responses to treatment options vary widely, the findings demonstrate the potential for using brain scans prior to treatment to tailor psychiatric care. "The study demonstrates the potential of functional brain imaging to predict how a patient will respond to treatment," said lead investigator Dr. Sanjaya Saxena, director of the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute's OCD Research Program and associate professor-in-residence of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine. "Pretreatment brain scans hold promise for accelerating the sometimes painstaking process of identifying the best treatment for an individual patient and speeding development of new interventions."

Keyword: OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Brain imaging
Link ID: 3539 - Posted: 03.11.2003

By Ann Quigley, Contributing Writer, Health Behavior News Service A portion of the brain that helps us respond to odors and process emotions may be malfunctioning in severely depressed individuals, say researchers who measured the brain activity of individuals presented with smells like roses and rotten butter. Because odors and emotions are processed in similar brain structures, study of the olfactory system may increase our understanding of the physiological underpinnings of depression, according to the study. Previous studies have attempted to pinpoint exactly what processes in depressed individuals' brains lead to their tendency to remember negative memories over positive ones, and to have a sense of hopelessness regarding the future. Some studies have measured brain responses to emotionally charged images or words, but these methods involve a certain amount of decoding, as individuals can respond to such images differently.

Keyword: Depression; Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 3538 - Posted: 03.11.2003

Don't be too quick to blame your diet, new research suggests ST. LOUIS - Lack of exercise - and not diet - causes obesity and diabetes among those who are predisposed to the conditions, suggests new research on wild baboons by Saint Louis University geriatricians published this month in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. In addition, researchers discovered that obese animals were NOT the ones with the highest cholesterol levels, suggesting cholesterol problems and obesity are triggered by different mechanisms. "Figuratively speaking, if humans don't exercise, some are likely to become obese and as fat as baboons. You're genetically predisposed or you're not," says William A. Banks, M.D., professor of geriatrics in the department of internal medicine and professor of pharmacological and physiological science at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. "Our research suggests some people get obese by not spending all the calories they are taking in rather than taking in a large number of calories."

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 3537 - Posted: 03.11.2003

Mutations in a particular gene may be the cause of a devastating condition that leads to babies being born without eyes. Bilateral Anophthalmia is rare, affecting approximately one in every 100,000 births. It happens when the foetus simply does not develop eyes in the normal way during the first 28 days of pregnancy. The babies are born with empty eye sockets, and are often fitted with prosthetic eyes to allow normal facial development. Researchers from the Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh say that at least some cases may have their roots in a mutation of a gene called SOX2. Their research, published in the journal Nature Genetics, will, say the scientists, reassure parents who fear that the blindness could have been their fault. (C) BBC

Keyword: Vision; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 3536 - Posted: 03.10.2003

Children who Identify with Aggressive TV Characters and Perceive the Violence to be Realistic are Most at Risk for Later Aggression WASHINGTON - Children's viewing of violent TV shows, their identification with aggressive same-sex TV characters, and their perceptions that TV violence is realistic are all linked to later aggression as young adults, for both males and females. That is the conclusion of a 15-year longitudinal study of 329 youth published in the March issue of Developmental Psychology, a journal of the American Psychological Association (APA). These findings hold true for any child from any family, regardless of the child's initial aggression levels, their intellectual capabilities, their social status as measured by their parents' education or occupation, their parents' aggressiveness, or the mother's and father's parenting style. Psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann, Ph.D., Jessica Moise-Titus, Ph.D., Cheryl-Lynn Podolski, M.A., and Leonard D. Eron, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan undertook the study as a follow-up of a 1977 longitudinal study of 557 children, ages 6 - 10, growing up in the Chicago area. In that study, children identified which violent TV shows they watched most, whether they identified with the aggressive characters and whether they thought the violent situations were realistic. Some examples of shows rated as very violent were Starsky and Hutch, The Six Million Dollar Man and Roadrunner cartoons. The current study re-surveyed 329 of the original boys and girls, now in their early 20s. The participants asked about their favorite TV programs as adults and about their aggressive behaviors. The participants' spouses or friends were also interviewed and were asked to rate the participant's frequency of engaging in aggressive behavior. The researchers also obtained data on the participants from state archives, which included criminal conviction records and moving traffic violations. © 2003 American Psychological Association

Keyword: Aggression
Link ID: 3535 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Aficionados may not only treat their automobiles as if they are people, but it now appears that they recognize their cars with the special part of the brain that is also used to identify faces. And, when they try to identify cars and faces at the same time, they are likely to experience a kind of perceptual traffic jam. Those are some of the implications of research conducted at Vanderbilt University and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Researchers there compared how the brains of auto experts and novices process pictures of cars and faces. They found that viewing cars elicits signals from the brains of car experts that are just like the signals evoked by viewing faces in other brains. Moreover, the experts' skill interfered with their ability to identify faces when they were forced to process cars and faces simultaneously. The findings, reported online on March 10 in the journal Nature Neuroscience, directly challenge the widely held view that a small, specialized area in the brain is specially hardwired to recognize faces. When confronted with a novel object, people use different parts of the brain to identify it by breaking it down into pieces. By contrast, the special facial recognition area appears to recognize faces holistically, all at one time, and does so more quickly than the piecemeal approach.

Keyword: Vision; Attention
Link ID: 3534 - Posted: 06.24.2010

WHO? Stanford's Felix Bloch and Harvard's Edward Mills Purcell shared the 1952 Nobel Prize in physics "for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements and discoveries in connections therewith." WHAT? Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) concerns atomic nuclei, which carry positive charges. Many nuclei spin on their axes and generate magnetic fields, like billions of tiny bar magnets. Slightly more than half of these nuclear magnets aim their north-seeking poles toward magnetic north (the so-called low-energy state), but the rest point in the opposite direction (high energy). If a sample is placed in a relatively strong magnetic field at a temperature above absolute zero, each spinning nucleus will wobble around its axis like a top that's been pushed sideways. The rate of this wobble is much lower than that of the spin, which can be billions of revolutions per second. The wobble, called precession, is random among spinning nuclei--unless the sample receives a precise pulse of radio frequency (RF) energy. ©2003, The Scientist Inc.

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 3533 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Smoking-related lung disease can lead to profound changes in the way the brain works, researchers have found. It appears that the brain changes the way it functions in response to a poor oxygen supply. But it also has the ability to switch back again once oxygen levels rise in the blood. It has long been known that smoking causes emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a common disorder in which lung damage over a long period of time impairs the flow of air in and out of the lungs. This causes breathlessness and reduces the capacity to replace carbon dioxide in the blood with new supplies of oxygen. Doctors at the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust and Imperial College London have found that this imbalance can lead to biochemical changes in the brain during the later stages of lung disease. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 3532 - Posted: 03.08.2003

Jane Elliott, BBC News Online Health Staff When Catherine Crossin started suffering from fever, aching and exhaustion she thought she just had a bad case of flu. She took to her bed and waited for the illness to pass. Medics agreed it was probably flu, but soon her condition deteriorated, leaving her paralysed and unable to move even her little finger. She was so ill she needed 11 weeks in hospital to recover. "I couldn't bear anyone to touch me, I was so sensitive. My skin felt as if it was on fire." Her body became badly swollen and she was unable to move her muscles. For a while everyone was in the dark about Mrs Crossin's disease and she had a barrage of tests. "I had always been so healthy. I had never had colds and now I could not do anything," she said. Then doctors found she had a very serious case of polymyositis. Myositis is a relatively uncommon condition, which only affects about five new cases a year for every million people, leaving their muscles badly inflamed. (C) BBC

Keyword: Muscles; Movement Disorders
Link ID: 3531 - Posted: 03.08.2003

By GINIA BELLAFANTE IN her 23 years as a specialist in eating disorders, Dr. Margo Maine has received countless telephone calls from women worried that their teenage daughters might be dieting into a danger zone. But several years ago, Dr. Maine, a psychologist who runs an eating-disorders treatment program with a partner in West Hartford, Conn., noticed a shift in the telephone inquiries. "Increasingly, our calls began to include a significant number of adults seeking help not for their children but for themselves," Dr. Maine said. Some of those callers — women in their late 40's and early 50's — were relapsing after overcoming eating disorders in their youth, and others were experiencing them for the first time. Naomi Burton Isaacs, a public relations executive in New York, had been obsessed about her weight most of her life, she said, but it was only at age 45 that her dieting grew extreme and she developed an addiction to laxatives. She swallowed 25 pills a day. Ms. Burton Isaacs, who is 5-foot-9, withered to 105 pounds. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 3530 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Genetically Altered Rodents Teach Scientists About Disorder -- More than two million people in the United States have schizophrenia, yet the disorder remains a medical mystery. Scientists don't know precisely what causes some brains to produce hallucinations, delusions and disordered thinking. One reason it's particularly hard to study schizophrenia is that it doesn't seem to occur in animals. But as NPR's Jon Hamilton reports, a small group of scientists at the National Institutes of Health are using genetic engineering to reproduce some of the symptoms of schizophrenia -- in mice. At the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md., one laboratory, run by Dr. Jacqueline Crawley, is home to hundreds of mice that have been genetically altered to mimic the symptoms of people with all kinds of mental problems. Some act anxious -- they won't explore exposed areas. Others show a symptom associated with depression -- they give up quickly when placed in stressful situations. But perhaps the most intriguing mouse models are those used to study schizophrenia. Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), explains why. Copyright 2003 NPR

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 3529 - Posted: 03.08.2003

Studying mice, scientists from Johns Hopkins have successfully prevented a molecular event in brain cells that they've found is required for storing spatial memories. Unlike regular mice, the engineered rodents quickly forgot where to find a resting place in a pool of water, the researchers report in the March 7 issue of the journal Cell. The experiments are believed to be the first to prove that subtly altering the chemistry of a certain protein can profoundly affect a brain cell's ability to respond to external stimulation, a process called neuronal plasticity, long thought to underlie learning and memory. By genetically altering part of a receptor that binds glutamate -- the most important excitatory chemical in the brain -- the scientists created a version of the protein that could not be modified by adding phosphate groups. In their experiments, preventing phosphorylation of the receptor kept it from responding normally to external stimulation in the lab and limited how long animals could store new memories.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 3528 - Posted: 03.08.2003

American Heart Association meeting report MIAMI, - Cigarette smoking significantly increases the risk of erectile dysfunction, according to a study reported today at the American Heart Association's 43rd Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention. Men who smoked more than 20 cigarettes daily had 60 percent higher risk of erectile dysfunction, compared to men who never smoked. The data showed a dose-related impact of smoking: the risk of erectile dysfunction was lower in men who smoked fewer cigarettes, but still increased compared to non-smokers. The effect of smoking remained significant after considering other factors known to affect erectile function such as age, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, diabetes and body mass index (BMI).

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 3527 - Posted: 03.08.2003