Beauty may be in the eye of the beer holder rather than the beholder, according to a new study by scientists. Academics in Scotland have found proof of the so-called "beer goggles" effect, following a study involving 80 students. The researchers wanted to measure the infamous phenomenon by which members of the opposite sex become more attractive more alcohol is consumed. They found that men and women who have drunk a moderate amount of alcohol find the faces of the opposite sex 25% more attractive than their sober counterparts. The study also revealed there was no difference in the beer goggle effect between men and women. Students at Glasgow University were shown colour photos of 120 male and female students from St Andrews University aged 18 to 26. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 2499 - Posted: 08.20.2002

by Glen L. Stimmel, Pharm.D., BCPP, and Alice S. Myong, Pharm.D. Psychiatric Times July 2002 Vol. XIX Issue 7 Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is primarily a phenomenon of labeling. Patients are treatment-refractory only because they have been labeled as such by their clinician, even though most patients have the potential to respond to treatment (Guscott and Grof, 1991). The current standard in treating major depression is defined as full remission of symptoms and restoration of functioning (Nierenberg and Wright, 1999). Thus, it could be argued that most patients treated for an acute depressive episode are treatment-resistant since most do not achieve full remission of symptoms with the first somatic or psychosocial treatment they receive (Sackeim, 2001). True TRD is usually defined, however, as a much smaller percentage of patients in whom contributory factors to treatment failure have been ruled out. When a patient presents with presumed TRD, the diagnosis requires re-evaluation to identify comorbid medical or psychiatric conditions that may be interfering with expected clinical response. The next step is to identify "pseudo-resistance," in which the patient, for whatever reason, did not have an adequate antidepressant trial.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 2498 - Posted: 08.20.2002

by Phillipa J. Hay, M.D. Psychiatric Times July 2002 Vol. XIX Issue 7 While anorexia nervosa was the first eating disorder to be recognized through the 19th century reports of Gull (1874) and Lasèque (1873), bulimia nervosa and the less well-defined eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) syndromes are more common. Bulimia nervosa was first described by Russell in 1979 and was introduced into the American Psychiatric Association classification scheme in the 1980 DSM-III, where it was termed bulimia. In clinical samples, however, people with EDNOS may comprise one-third to one-half of patients seen (Hall and Hay, 1991; Herzog et al., 1993). The EDNOS syndromes include people who fall below the diagnostic criteria for bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa. Binge-eating disorder is a third classification of eating disorder and is listed as the sixth example of an EDNOS syndrome in the DSM-IV as "recurrent episodes of binge eating in the absence of the regular use of inappropriate compensatory behaviors characteristic of Bulimia Nervosa" (APA, 1994). It is also in Appendix B with suggested criteria as a diagnostic group for further study. With an estimated point prevalence of 0.5% in young women, anorexia nervosa is not a common condition (Aalto-Setala et al., 2001). A systematic review of 12 cumulative incidence studies reported an estimated mean annual incidence in the general population of 18.46 per 100,000 (SD=21.01) in women and 2.25 per 100,000 (SD=2.63) a year in men (Pawluck and Gorey, 1998). There is limited evidence for changes in the overall incidence of anorexia nervosa over time, although the authors reported a significant increase in its incidence in young women from 1950 to 1992.

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 2497 - Posted: 08.20.2002

(Little Rock) Scientists at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) today [8-14-02] that premature babies are more likely to have significant learning and behavioral problems after the age of five years than babies born full-term. Using sophisticated statistical methodology to analyze 20 years of research around the world, the scientists at UAMS confirmed that children born prematurely have much lower cognitive scores, with lower-than-average learning ability, and more behavioral problems after the age of five years than children born full-term. The scientists call for "concerted efforts of clinicians and neuroscientists to [study] the biological, environmental, and psychosocial mechanisms responsible for these cognitive and behavioral differences."

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 2496 - Posted: 08.20.2002

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University researchers have shown how emotions such as fear or horror travel along separate paths through the brain and are more likely than simple distractions to interfere with a person's efforts to focus on a task such as driving. Using functional MRI to watch human brains in action, the researchers showed that emotional stimuli and "attentional functions" like driving move in parallel streams through the brain before finally meeting up in a specific part of the brain's prefrontal cortex. The results, published in the August 20 issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), help explain why a person who suddenly feels a pang of emotion is especially likely to lose focus. They also may lead to new avenues of research for treating depression, attention-deficit disorder, post-traumatic stress syndrome and other disorders.

Keyword: Emotions; Brain imaging
Link ID: 2495 - Posted: 08.20.2002

A team of researchers asks in a new health journal article, "Are the Fat More Jolly?" What they found was that obesity does not protect people from mental health problems. "The answer," they write, "is a most emphatic 'No.'" Looking at eight different indicators of mental health problems, the researchers examined whether the stereotype of the "jolly fat" is accurate. It's not, says researcher Robert E. Roberts, Ph.D., of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. "There was either no observed association between obesity and psychological dysfunction or the obese were worse off," he and his colleagues write. "… In no case did we observe better mental health among the obese. In sum, the obese were not more jolly."

Keyword: Obesity; Emotions
Link ID: 2494 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 AP Online The Associated Press LONDON - The government on Monday reprimanded scientists who plied mice with drugs and loud dance music to study the effect on their brains. The Home Office said it was taking "infringement action" against Cambridge University researchers who injected mice with the stimulant methamphetamine and subjected them to loud music, including tracks by dance act The Prodigy. Several mice died and others suffered brain damage in the experiment, whose results were published in the journal NeuroReport last year. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Parkinsons
Link ID: 2493 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The startling question came from the pew in front of us. "Did Joshua die?" a friend's daughter asked, craning her neck to look at our family. "Pardon?" Karen asked, as the Sunday church service began. "Did Joshua die?" the little girl repeated. "No, honey," Karen replied, and pointed to Joshua, our 6-month-old son seated next to his mom. "He's right here." The little girl's confusion was understandable. We, too, have marveled at the differences in our son since doctors removed the right half of his brain to control crippling seizures. Copyright 2002 Lansing State Journal

Keyword: Epilepsy; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 2492 - Posted: 08.20.2002

Having trouble sleeping? Maybe a little music will help you sleep. But what Canadian researchers are proposing is not a blast of your favourite pop singer, or a relaxing piece of classical music, but individually tailored "brain music". The therapy has been developed to help insomniacs. A team at the University of Toronto has created music which matches a person's brain waves. When that particular piece of music is played, people's anxiety levels seem to fall, and they are able to relax and sleep. To create the music, researchers study the specific rhythmic and tonal patterns which create a meditative condition in an individual. (C) BBC

Keyword: Sleep; Hearing
Link ID: 2491 - Posted: 08.17.2002

Lower levels could explain disruption in mental function; study points toward better treatments Irvine, Calif., — Levels of a pivotal signal processor in the brain are reduced significantly in people with schizophrenia, a study by scientists at UC Irvine, Weill Cornell Medical College and Rockefeller University has found. The findings suggest that the processor, which helps regulate key neurotransmitters in an area of the brain linked to schizophrenia, could eventually play a key role in reversing the brain dysfunctions associated with the disease. The study appears in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. Dr. William Bunney, the Della Martin professor of psychiatry at UCI; Dr. Paul Greengard, professor of neuroscience at Rockefeller University; and Dr. Hugh Hemmings, professor of anesthesiology at Weill Cornell, and their colleagues found the processor, a chemical called DARPP-32, was reduced in the brains of deceased victims of schizophrenia. UCI Communications Office © copyright 2001 UC Regents

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 2490 - Posted: 06.24.2010

-- Imagine a wall full of clocks with a large dominant clock controlling the synchronization of the peripheral clocks. Now imagine the big clock continuing to keep time, but, as it ages, its connecting signal to the smaller clocks weakens. Some of the smaller clocks eventually become desynchronized and some stop running. This weakening of the signal, rather than a problem with the central timekeeper itself, apparently is the cause of alterations in the biological timing system in aging mammals -- possibly including humans -- according to a new University of Virginia study in the current issue of the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This may explain why older people experience sleep disorders -- the signal from the master clock in the brain has weakened, even as it keeps on ticking. This weakened output causes some of the peripheral clocks in other organs to eventually stop oscillating or to fall out of proper synch, causing sleep disruption and malaise. © 2002 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 2489 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New pathway to cell death found lurking outside of nerve cells LA JOLLA, CA. Scientists at The Burnham Institute report in this week's issue of Science magazine that an ephemeral gas, called nitric oxide, found in the body and as an air pollutant, can activate enzymes on the outside of nerve cells to trigger their demise during stroke and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and AIDS dementia. The enzymes belong to a family known as matrix metalloproteinases or MMPs. When activated in excess, these enzymes chew up the outside of nerve cells, resulting in their death. "The new work uncovers the mechanism of activation of an enzymatic pathway that leads to nerve cell death," said Stuart A. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., a neurologist who is Professor and Director of the Center for Neuroscience and Aging at The Burnham Institute, and head of the team reporting the new findings. "The MMP enzymes act outside of the nerve cell rather than inside," Lipton continued. Previously, the best characterized enzyme pathways that killed nerve cells were found inside nerve cells rather than outside. "The new results also link two previously unrelated scientific fields studying MMP enzymes and nitric oxide gas, both of which were thought to be important in the life and death of nerve cells, but the fact that nitric oxide [abbreviated NO] could activate these enzymes was not previously recognized," commented Lipton.

Keyword: Stroke; Apoptosis
Link ID: 2488 - Posted: 08.17.2002

Copyright © 2002 AP Online By LAURAN NEERGAARD, Associated Press WASHINGTON - Nosy birds snoop on other nests to scope out the best breeding grounds and then remember how to get back to them after a long winter half a world away, researchers say. The study suggests that birds have more complex brains than previously thought - not to mention humanlike preferences for good neighborhoods. The factors that make wild birds choose specific places to nest are important to conservationists. Set up a protected habitat without the right qualities, and the birds won't stick around. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Evolution; Intelligence
Link ID: 2487 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Adolescents who take anabolic steroids to improve their sporting performance could develop irreversible brain changes, it is claimed. There are well-documented health risks to young people who take steroids in high doses, including high blood pressure, liver abnormalities and lowered sperm counts. In addition, problems such as sleep disturbance, confusion, depression, and paranoia can develop. In adult users, these mental effects normally stop if the patient stops taking steroids. However, research on animals by experts at Northeastern University in the US suggests that steroid use in adolescents may permanently alter brain chemistry. This may happen because the brain and nervous system of adolescents is still under development. (C) BBC

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 2486 - Posted: 08.17.2002

Does one cup of coffee keep you on a high all day? It's possible your genes are responsible, according to researchers. Swedish researchers have discovered a protein in the brain which appears to prevent the effects wearing off. Differing levels of this could explain how a cup of coffee can keep some people buzzing for hours whereas others need another fix far more quickly. Coffee works because it binds to and blocks brain nerve cell receptors that play a role in the control of movements. The research, published in the journal Nature, focuses on a protein called DARPP-32. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2485 - Posted: 08.15.2002

By NICHOLAS WADE A study of the genomes of people and chimpanzees has yielded a deep insight into the origin of language, one of the most distinctive human attributes and a critical step in human evolution. The analysis indicates that language, on the evolutionary time scale, is a very recent development, having evolved only in the last 100,000 years or so. The finding supports a novel theory advanced by Dr. Richard Klein, an archaeologist at Stanford University, who argues that the emergence of behaviorally modern humans about 50,000 years ago was set off by a major genetic change, most probably the acquisition of language. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Language; Evolution
Link ID: 2484 - Posted: 08.15.2002

Great apes lack nuts and bolts of language gene. HELEN PEARSON Chimpanzees lack key parts of a language gene that is critical for human speech, say researchers. The finding may begin to explain why only humans use spoken language. Last year scientists identified the first gene, called FOXP2, linked to human language. People with mistakes in this gene have severe difficulties with speech and grammar1. Now Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and his colleagues have compared human FOXP2 with the versions of the gene found in the chimpanzee, gorilla, orang-utan, rhesus macaque and mouse. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Keyword: Language; Evolution
Link ID: 2483 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ANN ARBOR, MI - Scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School have found neural crest stem cells - primitive cells that generate the peripheral nervous system - in the gut of adult laboratory rats. The U-M discovery upsets the widely held belief that neural crest stem cells disappear in animals before birth, once the peripheral nervous system develops. U-M scientists reported their research results in two papers published in the Aug.15 issue of Neuron. "We know that stem cells exist in the adult central nervous system," says Sean J. Morrison, Ph.D., a Howard Hughes Medical Institute assistant investigator and a U-M Medical School assistant professor of internal medicine and of cell and developmental biology. "But this is the first indication that they also remain in the peripheral nervous system - not only after birth, but into adult life." (c) copyright 2002 University of Michigan Health System

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Stem Cells
Link ID: 2482 - Posted: 08.15.2002

Biologists at Vanderbilt and the University of Missouri have uncovered what could be a major clue into the mysterious molecular processes that direct cells to the correct locations within a developing embryo. Understanding the molecular basis of these processes, and how they can go wrong, may ultimately lead to treatments for many birth defects, such as spina bifida that afflicts between 800 to 1,000 babies born each year in the United States. Writing in the August issue of the scientific journal Nature Cell Biology, the researchers report the discovery that a single protein facilitates the movements of cells within the developing embryo of the zebrafish, a small fish that has become an important animal model for studying the development of vertebrates, animals with backbones.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 2481 - Posted: 08.15.2002

CHICAGO – Group interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is equally as effective as group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for treating binge eating disorder, according to an article in the August issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Binge eating disorder (BED) affects 1.5 percent to 2 percent of the general population. BED is characterized by frequent and persistent episodes of overeating, or bingeing where the patient looses the ability to control how much food he or she eats. Bingeing episodes are usually accompanied by feelings of loss of control, distress and guilt. CBT has been the standard therapy for treating BED and focuses on changing unwanted behaviors and the thoughts that are associated with them. CBT requires that the patient complete a considerable amount of homework, such as practicing behavior changing techniques and writing assignments. IPT is a brief, structured psychotherapy that explores social and interpersonal problems.

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 2480 - Posted: 06.24.2010