Individual males rule large prides CHICAGO— Tsavo lions, famous for man-eating at the end of the 19th century, are also novel for being maneless. Now, the first scientific peer-reviewed study of the ecology of Tsavo lions reveals that they have a unique social system. Tsavo lions are the only lions known to live in large groups of females ruled by a single male. The scientists surveyed the lion population of Tsavo East National Park in eastern Kenya, documenting the size and composition of each group and the condition of manes on males. The five resident groups of females they documented had an average of 7.4 adult females per group, large for prides in general. However, each was attended by only one male rather than a coalition of two-to-four males, typical of large prides elsewhere.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 1850 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Young marijuana smokers more likely to have the opportunity to use hallucinogens A study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health provides the first epidemiological evidence that young marijuana smokers are substantially more likely than non-smokers to be presented with the opportunity to try hallucinogens. Once the opportunity for hallucinogen use occurs, marijuana smokers are more likely than non-smokers to actually try it. The study appears in the April issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence. "Research in the past has focused on the causal relationships of drugs, but our study is the first to support the idea of two separate mechanisms linking marijuana and hallucinogen use -- that of increased opportunity and increased use once given the opportunity," says lead author Holly Wilcox, a doctoral candidate in the department of mental hygiene at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Insight into this area teaches us about mechanisms that might help guide new progress for prevention of drug problems."

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 1849 - Posted: 04.11.2002

The anti-smoking drug Zyban has been approved for NHS use - but only for smokers who have made a commitment to give up. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has issued guidance on Zyban, and nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) such as patches and gum. The guidance, for doctors in England and Wales, says smokers must have a target date for when they will quit before NRT or Zyban can be prescribed. Health campaigners have welcomed NICE's decision. Zyban acts on the brain to quash the craving nicotine tobacco products produce, and was hailed as a "wonder-drug" when it was launched in the UK two years ago. But there have since been concerns about the drug. There have been 58 deaths after suspected adverse reactions to Zyban, though the Medicines Control Agency said the link between the drug and the deaths was unproven. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 1848 - Posted: 04.11.2002

Medications also linked to malformations and developmental delay By Nicolle Charbonneau HealthScoutNews Reporter (HealthScoutNews) -- Pregnant women who take anti-epileptic medications face a significant risk that their children will have problems ranging from congenital defects to slow development. A new British study adds to growing evidence that many commonly prescribed anti-epileptic drugs carry this risk, but the researchers caution that not taking the anti-seizure drugs could be even more harmful. Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder in which misfiring electrical impulses in the brain lead to seizures. About 2.3 million Americans have epilepsy, and more than a million are female. SOURCES: John C.S. Dean, M.D., clinical consultant, department of medical genetics, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K.; Patricia McElhatton, Ph.D., head, National Teratology Information Service, and consultant teratologist and lecturer in reproductive teratology, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, U.K.; April 2002 Journal of Medical Genetics Copyright © 2002 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Epilepsy; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 1847 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New technique might prevent blindness in thousands of people, researchers say By Robert Preidt HealthScoutNews Reporter (HealthScoutNews) -- American researchers are working on a new way to repair detached retinas. They've developed a magnetic fluid that pushes damaged retinas back into place -- a technique they say could prevent blindness in thousands of people who can't be helped with current treatments. Human trials may begin within a year, and the procedure could be ready for patient use within a few years, says Dr. J.P. Dailey, an ophthalmologist with Erie Retinal Surgery in Erie, Pa., and an assistant clinical professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. SOURCES: J.P. Dailey, M.D., ophthalmologist, Erie Retinal Surgery, Erie, Pa., and assistant clinical professor, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland; Michael Gorin, M.D., Ph.D., interim chair, ophthalmology department, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; April 10, 2002, presentation, national meeting, American Chemical Society, Orlando, Fla. Copyright © 2002 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 1846 - Posted: 06.24.2010

One test is genetic, the other looks at performance By Serena Gordon HealthScoutNews Reporter WEDNESDAY, (HealthScoutNews) -- While little can currently be done to halt the progression of Alzheimer's disease, the ability to diagnose the disease early will likely be key to effective treatments in the future. To that end, two new studies in the current issue of the journal Neuropsychology report possible new ways of detecting Alzheimer's before typical symptoms have appeared. Using simple neuropsychological tests, the first study found that people who later developed Alzheimer's disease showed subtle differences in their performance on these tests several years before their diagnosis. Meanwhile, the second study examined how variations in a common gene can signal an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease. SOURCES: Mark Jacobson, Ph.D., research psychologist, Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System; Ben Seltzer, M.D., director, Alzheimer's Center, and professor of neurology, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans; April 2002 Neuropsychology Copyright © 2002 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 1845 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Study in rats points to potential human therapy By Nicolle Charbonneau HealthScoutNews Reporter A study by British researchers reports that rats with partial spinal cord injuries regained neurological function and their ability to walk normally after treatment with the enzyme, known as chondroitinase ABC (ChABC). Their findings appear in tomorrow's issue of Nature. While previous research had shown this enzyme could make nerve fibers regenerate in the brain, co-author Dr. James W. Fawcett, a professor at the University of Cambridge's Centre for Brain Repair, says this study is the first demonstration of the enzyme's effect on the spinal cord. SOURCES: James W. Fawcett, M.D., Ph.D., professor, Department of Physiology, Centre for Brain Repair, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England; Lars Olson, Ph.D., professor, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; April 11, 2002, Nature Copyright © 2002 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Regeneration; Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 1844 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Jessie Dean Goodison/Messenger Post Staff April 10, 2002 When autism is a part of your life, how do you deal with it? Nicholas Turco is a special 7-year-old. Turco has Down Syndrome, and was diagnosed about a year ago with autism. He will only eat food that's beige. Autism is a serious, lifelong developmental disability typically diagnosed within the first three years of life. It is a physical disorder due to a neurological defect affecting brain function. However, autism is treatable with early diagnosis and appropriate assistance, which are essential to a child's future development, according to Lisa Polvina, service coordinator from the Health Association in Rochester. This month is National Autism Awareness Month. Copyright © 1995 - 2002 PowerAdz.com LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Keyword: Autism; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 1843 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By TOM SIEGFRIED / The Dallas Morning News You'll never read a best seller called The Joy of Smelling Skunks. It's a title that sounds as repulsive as skunk odor itself. Yet not everybody finds skunk odor so unpleasant. In fact, claims psychologist Rachel Herz, most odors are inherently neither pleasant nor unpleasant. Odors are like the ABCs; you have to learn them, and you usually learn them young. You might even learn to like the smell of skunks. Dr. Herz, of Brown University in Providence, R.I., confesses her feelings for Pepé Le Pew in the latest issue of Cerebrum, a quarterly published by The Dana Forum on Brain Science – an appropriate venue, as smell is, after all, the shortest route to the brain. A bit of the brain actually protrudes into the nostrils, in the form of small nerve cells that extend tiny cilia into the mucus that covers the nasal membrane. The cilia receive chemical messages that come from the air in the form of molecules carrying the essence of odors. ©2002 Belo Interactive

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Learning & Memory
Link ID: 1842 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The Laughter Circuit: In search of the cerebral funny bone By Eric Johnson One winter morning in 1931, at a cemetery in London, Willy Anderson solemnly bowed his head and watched his mother's casket descend into the earth. Suddenly, and to the collective horror of those in attendance, he began to laugh. The outburst was muffled at first, as Anderson desperately covered his mouth, but it soon grew so intense that he had to leave the grave. Hours later, when Anderson still couldn't contain himself, his family took him to a hospital emergency room. The attending doctor checked his pupils and vital signs and could find nothing wrong but recommended that the patient be kept for observation. Two days later, Anderson died. The postmortem revealed that a large aneurysm in an artery at the base of his brain had ruptured, compressing part of his hypothalamus and other adjacent structures. The science of comedy is rooted in such tragedies. For centuries, thinkers from Aristotle to Darwin tried to discern the nature and origins of humor, only to have their ideas trail off without a punch line. But studies of brain-damaged patients like Willy Anderson (his real name is unknown; the medical literature mentions only this pseudonym) have recently been bolstered by sophisticated brain scans of living subjects. Humor researchers, after decades of study—and some ridicule from their colleagues—have zeroed in on the brain's laughter circuit at last. © Copyright 2002 The Walt Disney Company.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 1841 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The popular herbal supplement, St John's wort, is an ineffective treatment for depression, a major study has found. The use of herb has grown massively in recent years as more people opt for so-called natural medicines. Researchers have conducted the largest ever clinical trial into the impact of the herb on major depression - a moderately severe form of the condition. The researchers, from Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, found it had no more impact than a dummy medicine. Dr Jonathan Davidson, director of the Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Program at Duke, said: "Major depression is treatable. But this research suggests that major depression of at least moderate severity should not be treated with St. John's wort. (C) BBC

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 1840 - Posted: 04.10.2002

Hibernation isn't the cushy nap it's cracked up to be. Surviving the winter months means living in a hypothermic limbo that doesn't even qualify as real sleep. Plus, some hibernating animals wake up at regular intervals. Why they do this has been a persistent mystery. But now a group of researchers says that animals periodically rouse themselves from hibernation to rev up their immune systems and fight off infections. The golden-mantled ground squirrel, found throughout much of the western United States, hibernates for 5 to 7 months of the year. After spending the spring and summer fattening up on seeds, nuts, forest fungus, and campers' handouts, the squirrels nest in shallow burrows. While hibernating, the animals throttle down many body systems--slowing their heartbeats, lowering their body temperatures, and shifting their immune systems into low gear. But even after they begin to hibernate, the squirrels still wake up every 7 to 30 days for periods of 8 to 20 hours. A team of neuroscientists led by Brian Prendergast of Ohio State University, Columbus, and David Freeman of the University of California, Berkeley, reasoned that the squirrels might wake to fire up their immune systems. To test this hypothesis, the team simulated bacterial infection in the animals by injecting the dead outer cell coats of bacteria. Nonhibernating squirrels spiked a fever within 2 hours, but hibernating squirrels became feverish only when they awoke on schedule a few days later, the team reports in the April issue of the American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology. These results suggest to the researchers that reviving the immune system could be the main reason for the hibernation interruptions. Copyright © 2002 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 1839 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 AP Online By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press WASHINGTON - A study showing 1,400 college students are killed each year in alcohol-related accidents should change the views of people who see drinking on campus as little more than a rite of passage, researchers and university officials said Tuesday. The federally appointed task force that issued the report plans to distribute the study to college presidents, along with findings about which anti-drinking strategies work and which don't. General campaigns warning of the dangers of alcohol have not been effective, researchers said. They said it is better to teach students to resist peer pressure, show them how alcohol may interfere with academic goals and strictly enforce minimum age laws. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 1838 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Increased anger probably a physical, not emotional, result, South Korean study says By Janice Billingsley HealthScoutNews Reporter (HealthScoutNews) -- The increased anger and irritability stroke sufferers often exhibit may be related to brain damage from the stroke rather than to distress about their condition, scientists in South Korea report. Moreover, that anger and irritability is more common in stroke victims than currently recognized, they add. In a study of 145 people who had suffered a stroke, researchers from the Asian Medical Center in Seoul found a correlation between symptoms of anger and aggression and lesions on parts of the brain that are responsible for producing serotonin -- a brain chemical that moderates behavior. SOURCES: Jong S. Kim, M.D., Karina Davidson, Ph.D., April 2002 Neurology Copyright © 2002 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Stroke; Emotions
Link ID: 1837 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A tiny device that blocks off a "useless" part of the heart may help to prevent a stroke among people who are at increased risk. Scientists say it could help people who suffer from an irregular heartbeat - a condition known as atrial fibrillation. It is estimated that a high proportion of strokes that occur among this group are caused by a blood clot that forms in a small pouch in the heart's upper left chamber. The new device effectively seals off this area - known as the left atrial appendage. Theoretically, this should prevent a blood clot formed in the pouch from travelling to the brain and causing a stroke. (C) BBC

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 1836 - Posted: 04.09.2002

NewScientist.com news service A man with Parkinson's disease whose own neural stem cells were extracted from his brain, grown in the lab, and re-implanted a few months later has shown improvement in his symptoms a year after the transplant, a team of neurosurgeons announced on Monday. The significance of the experiment is still unclear, since only one patient has undergone the procedure and a longer follow-up must be done to assess the real benefits. But if additional transplants confirm the improvement seen in the first patient, the technique might rival, and possibly outshine, other cell-based therapies under investigation. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Parkinsons; Stem Cells
Link ID: 1835 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. Psychiatric Times April 2002 Vol. XIX Issue 4 Evidence is accumulating that the occurrence of severe psychiatric disorders, especially schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, may be increasing. The most visible manifestation of this is the increasing number of severely mentally ill individuals among the homeless population and in the nation's jails. Multiple studies have reported that at least one-third of the approximately 600,000 homeless individuals have a severe psychiatric disorder, and there are suggestions that the problem is getting worse. Similarly, a 1999 U.S. Department of Justice study reported that 16% of inmates in local jails and state prisons -- 275,900 individuals -- had been treated psychiatrically (Ditton, 1999). There are, therefore, five times more psychiatric patients in jails and prisons than the 55,000 remaining patients in state psychiatric hospitals. Headlines are increasingly proclaiming statements such as: "Mental Illness Behind Bars: A Tragic Situation Getting Worse" (Kupers, 2000). (C)2002 CME Inc.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 1834 - Posted: 04.09.2002

by Charles L. Scott, M.D., and Phillip J. Resnick, M.D. Psychiatric Times April 2002 Vol. XIX Issue 4 Because of the increasing concern regarding violence in our communities, clinicians are often asked to evaluate an individual's risk for future aggression. Dangerousness assessments are required in a wide range of situations, such as involuntary hospitalizations, emergency psychiatric evaluations, release of a patient from a hospital, release of a patient from seclusion or restraints, and the evaluation of patients who threaten others. The accuracy of a clinician's assessment of future violence appears related to many factors, including the circumstances of the evaluation as well as the length of time over which violence is predicted. In a classic review of clinicians' accuracy at predicting violent behavior toward others, Monahan concluded that psychiatrists and psychologists are accurate in no more than one out of three predictions of violent behavior among institutionalized patients followed over many years who had both committed violence in the past and who were diagnosed as mentally ill (Monahan and Steadman, 1994, as cited in Borum et al., 1996).

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Aggression
Link ID: 1833 - Posted: 04.09.2002

by Elizabeth F. Loftus, Ph.D., and Deborah Davis, Ph.D. Psychiatric Times April 2002 Vol. XIX Issue 4 Several years ago, in a widely circulated Peanuts cartoon, Lucy hung out her shingle and offered psychiatric help in recovering repressed memories. She told Charlie Brown: "The fact that you can't remember being abducted by aliens and satanically abused is proof that it really happened." About that same time, Walter Goodman reviewed Ofra Bikel's award-winning television program Divided Memories for the New York Times. His review, "Growth Industry: Helping Recall Sexual Abuse," asked if repressed-memory therapy was a cure or a fad. By the time that Divided Memories aired, thousands of people, mostly women, had recovered memories of extreme sexual abuse that had allegedly been totally repressed. A small percentage later recanted their stories, and some sued their therapists for planting false memories.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 1832 - Posted: 04.09.2002

Protein packaging may enhance MRI contrast. PHILIP BALL Images of body tissues and organs could soon be brighter and sharper thanks to a technique developed by Italian chemists. They have made the chemical contrast agents used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) produce a stronger signal by trapping them in protein cages just 12 millionths of a millimetre (nanometres) or so wide1. Such improvements increase the contrast of the images, so they should reveal more detailed information, enabling doctors to better discriminate between different tissue types. The researchers, Silvio Aime and co-workers at the University of Turin, hope to persuade their protein cages to latch onto particular cells, as this would help them to pinpoint diseased tissues. One of the best MRI contrast agents is a molecule containing atoms of the element gadolinium. Injected into the bloodstream, the gadolinium compound accumulates in abnormal tissues such as scar tissue and tumours, so they become brighter in MRI scans. The agent is ultimately passed out of the body in urine. * Aime, S., Frullano, L. & Crich, S.G. Compartmentalization of a gadolinium complex in the apoferritin cavity: a route to obtain high relaxivity contrast agents for mangetic resonance imaging. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 41, 1017 - 1019, (2002). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 1831 - Posted: 06.24.2010