December 2011
60 posts
11 tags
Eva Perone Lobotomized for Pain Control Prior to...
“Now a Yale researcher has uncovered surprising new evidence of a famous patient who apparently received a lobotomy for cancer pain during that time: Eva Perón, the first lady of Argentina, who was known as Evita. The story is an interesting, sad footnote in the history not only of lobotomy, but of pain control.
The nature of Perón’s illness was initially shrouded in silence. Her doctors...
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Child Maltreatment Linked to Reductions of Gray...
“Adolescents who have been maltreated as children show reductions in cerebral gray matter, even if they do not demonstrate psychiatric symptoms, according to new research published in the December issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
High-resolution structural magnetic resonance images of the brains of 42 youths aged 12 to 17 years who self-reported child...
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Personal Experience Agrees: Caffeine Withdrawal...
“Caffeine withdrawal syndrome is being recommended for inclusion in the “main” section of the upcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), report work group members.
This issue, along with several others, was discussed during a presentation on potential changes to the substance use disorders chapter of the DSM-5 at the American Academy...
7 tags
Are you an angry drunk? Your personality gave you...
“Drinking enough alcohol to become intoxicated increases aggression significantly in people who have one particular personality trait, according to new research. But people without that trait don’t get any more aggressive when drunk than they would when they’re sober.
That trait is the ability to consider the future consequences of current actions.
‘People who focus on...
personally, my favorite holiday is the 4th of july
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Another reason to opt out of training for that...
“Intense endurance exercise — such as running a marathon — may induce cardiac damage confined to the right ventricle, a small study showed. Highly trained endurance athletes had reductions in right ventricular function immediately after a race, although it mostly returned to normal about a week later, according to André La Gerche, MBBS, PhD, of the University of Melbourne in...
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Presidential Bonus: Longevity
“Despite the easily observed signs of aging usually seen about halfway through a first term, a stint in the Oval Office appears to be a guarantee of long life, according to a research letter published in the Dec. 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The notion that the constant stress and public scrutiny of being U.S. president accelerates the aging process —...
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Higher Rates of Maltreatment, Violent Death In US...
“Rates of violent childhood death and infant removal from the home are higher in the United States than in a number of other countries, a new study suggests.
Researchers led by Ruth Gilbert, MD, of the University College London Institute of Child Health, found that the rate of violent death for children younger than 11 years was more than 5 times higher in the United States than in Western...
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When will people realize that mental ILLNESS is...
“Individuals with serious mental illness have a lifespan that is 15 to 20 years shorter than that of the general population in 3 countries with high-quality healthcare, new research shows.
Investigators from the Nordic Research Academy in Mental Health in Gothenburg, Sweden, studied the life expectancy of individuals admitted with a mental disorder to a hospital in Denmark, Finland, and...
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Cosmetic Upper Eyelid Surgery Has Other Benefits
Upper blepharoplasty and blepharoptosis repair are functionally indicated and beneficial, according to a report published in the December issue of Ophthalmology.
Kenneth V. Cahill, MD, from Ophthalmic Surgeons and Consultants in Columbus, Ohio, and colleagues analyzed results from 13 studies that examined the functional indications and outcomes of blepharoptosis repair and blepharoplasty…
...
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Antidepressants Help In Stereotyped Repetitive...
“Treatment with the antidepressant fluoxetine may decrease symptoms in adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), new research suggests.
In a small, randomized controlled trial of adults with ASDs, those who received fluoxetine had a significantly greater reduction in repetitive behaviors after 12 weeks than those receiving placebo. In addition, 35% of the fluoxetine group showed...
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Current Smoking, Perceived Lack of Control...
Smoking and feeling a lack of control over life circumstances appear to significantly increase the risk for recurrence of depresson, a large, population-based longitudinal study shows.
‘People with major depression who were current smokers or had low levels of mastery were at an increased risk of repeated episodes of depression,’ the investigators, led by Ian Colman, PhD, from the...
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Depression + Type 2 Diabetes = Higher Risk of...
“Depression coupled with diabetes has been linked to a significantly increased risk of developing dementia compared with diabetes alone.
A large study of more than 19,000 adults with type 2 diabetes showed that those with comorbid depression had a 2-fold higher risk of developing dementia over 5 years compared with their counterparts who did not experience depression.
In addition, younger...
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Your Mom Was Right: Violent Video Games Change...
“Men who can’t pry their fingers off the controllers when it comes to shoot-em-up video games may have changes in areas of the brain associated with emotional and cognitive function, researchers said here.
In a small fMRI study, men who took aim at video game characters for about 10 hours during one week had diminished activity in areas of the brain associated with control of...
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Eating Fish At Least 1X Weekly Prevents Dementia...
“Eating fish at least once a week could help lower older patients’ risk of developing dementia, researchers said here. Those who ate baked or broiled — but not fried — fish on a weekly basis had a greater volume of gray matter in areas of the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease than people who didn’t eat fish as often, Cyrus Raji, MD, PhD, of the...
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Foster Children Receive More, Unnecessary...
Thousands of foster children are receiving unnecessary doses of psychotropic drugs, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
‘According to GAO’s experts, no evidence supports the concomitant use of five or more psychotropic drugs in adults or children, yet hundreds of both foster and nonfoster children in the five states [we studied] had such a drug...
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No Shiz Sherlock: Healthy Options Sparse in...
“Hospital cafeterias have long been an object of jokes about unappetizing food, and results from a recent survey of children’s hospitals in California may add “unhealthy” to the stereotype. A large majority of the 16 hospital eating places surveyed (81%) had high-calorie impulse buying options such as ice cream, cookies, or candy at or near the checkout lines, Lenard...
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Medicare to Cover Obesity Screening & Behavioral...
“Medicare will begin paying for obesity screening and intensive behavioral counseling, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced this week.
CMS, which first floated the obesity coverage plan last September, said it expects more than 30% of the Medicare population to qualify for the new benefit.
Beneficiaries with body mass index values of 30 or more can receive weekly...
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Sympathetic Nervous System Activity Independently...
“Activity in patients’ sympathetic nervous system — the system that controls the fight or flight response — appears to predict how well they will do when trying to lose weight, according to a recent Australian study.
Weight loss in a cohort of 42 previously untreated patients was independently predicted by baseline resting muscle sympathetic nerve burst incidence...
Tai's Psychology Blog: Music and Intelligence →
thisisnotpsychology:
Brain development is still incomplete at birth. Early experiences that stimulate the brain are involved in enhancing its neural growth. A child’s brain develops its full potential with exposure to enriching experiences in early childhood. These stimuli received during…
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Another Reason To Not See Twilight: Triggers...
“The latest release in the popular Twilightmovies features no shortage of cinematic special effects designed to thrill its legions of devoted fans, but 1 scene is reportedly eliciting a response directors probably did not count on: seizures.
The reports are, so far, few and far between, limited to single cases in California and Utah, but they spotlight a growing concern about potential...
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Resident Night Shift: More Time Off, Less Sleep
“A new shift system designed to lighten residents’ work load at Children’s Hospital Boston has inadvertently demonstrated that more time off for residents does not equate with more rest.
Senior author Dr. Christopher Landrigan, a pediatrician who directs the Sleep and Patient Safety Program at Harvard Medical School, called the new shift schedule ‘an experiment that...
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GOP Bill For 2-Year Medicare 'Doc Fix' →
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Over/Underweight Teens at Greatest Risk for...
“The findings stem from a cross-sectional survey of 33,185 Italian high-school students 15 to 19 years of age.
Of those surveyed, 22% reported recent use of cannabis and 12% reported recent use of other addictive substances. In 2% of those surveyed, reported use was 10 times or more in the preceding month.
More than half of the teenagers surveyed said that they had friends abusing (not...
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ED Visits for Nonalcoholic Energy Drinks on the...
“The number of emergency department visits associated with nonalcohol energy drinks is surging, according to a report from the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
In 2005, the agency recorded 1,128 such visits and in 2009 it recorded 13,114 such visits, with the highest number occurring in 2008 (16,055). Data are not yet available for 2010.
‘Energy...
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Top Medical Stories of 2011
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/754297
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AWESOME- Real-life patient encounters:
We had a patient with an ischemic stroke of the parietal lobe do a few writing tasks:
1. We gave her a piece of paper with a circle and asked her to fill in numbers to make it a clock. This is what she drew:
(This demonstrates left-right inversion)
2. We drew a horizontal line and asked her to draw a hash mark at it’s midpoint. This is what she drew:
(This demonstrates her...
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15% Drop in New HIV Infections *BUT* Only 28% of...
“Increased access to HIV services has resulted in a 15% reduction of new infections during the past decade and a 22% decline in AIDS-related deaths in the last 5 years, according to a report released today by the World Health Organization (WHO)…
According to new data presented in the report, improved access to HIV testing services have enabled 61% of pregnant women in eastern and...
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Abnormal Brain Enlargement in Male Regressive...
“Autism typically presents in the first 3 years of life, but in cases of regressive autism, a child appears to be developing normally and then suddenly starts to regress; they lose language and social skills, typically between the ages of 15 and 30 months, and are subsequently diagnosed with the disorder.
The study involved 180 boys and girls between 2 and 4 years old, 114 of whom had...
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How To Respond To Criticisms About Your Specialty →
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Children With High IQ at Risk for Later Drug Use
“Highly intelligent children may be at increased risk for using illicit drugs as adolescents and adults, new research suggests.
In a population-based cohort study that included almost 8000 participants, investigators found that high IQ scores at the age of 5 years were significantly associated with cannabis use at the age of 16 years, and with cannabis and cocaine use in women and...
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Most Adolescents Grow Out of Self-Harm Behaviors
“One in 12 teens engage in self-harm behavior but the vast majority spontaneously stop as they enter adulthood, a large population-based study shows.
Nevertheless, investigators warn that as one of the strongest predictors of completed suicide, self-harm, along with other common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety, may be an important, yet largely unrecognized, component of...
6 tags
American Use of Psychotropic Medications on the...
“A new report shows that 1 in 5 adult Americans took at least 1 psychiatric medication in 2010. In women, the statistic was 1 in 4.
The report, issued by Medco Health Solutions, which conducted the study, analyzed trends in mental health medication usage among approximately 2.5 million insured Americans, comparing use of antidepressants, antipsychotics, attention-deficit/hyperactivity...
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Meth use linked to schizophrenia
“Heavy methamphetamine use may be associated with an increased risk for schizophrenia, new research suggests.
A large cohort study of California inpatients without a history of psychiatric disorders found that those with methamphetamine-related conditions were 9 times more likely to have a subsequent schizophrenia diagnosis than non–drug users, and an almost 1.5- to 3-fold diagnosis risk...
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In New Swine Flu News:
“Three more individuals have been infected with an influenza strain that combines parts of a swine-origin influenza A (H3N2) virus and the pandemic 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus, the CDC reported.
That brings the tally to 18 human infections with swine-origin H3N2 viruses since 2009, including 10 that included the matrix (M) gene from the pandemic strain, Michael Jhung, MD, of the...
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Amyloid Ligand Discriminates Between Alzheimer's &...
“The amyloid ligand Pittsburgh B and fluorodeoxyglucose both accurately discriminated between Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration in positron emission tomography (PET) scans of the brain, researchers found.
Reading of the scans by two experienced physicians showed that Pittsburgh B had a higher sensitivity for Alzheimer’s disease (89.5% average between...
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Watch“Using high-tech imaging in mice, researchers have made movies of autoimmune T cells destroying insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, the precursor of type 1 diabetes (see movie).
Researchers noted that the T cells moved randomly throughout the pancreas, almost aimlessly, until they came upon beta cells where they then released toxic substances that took hours to kill a few beta...