Psychiatry / Psychology
Brain region linked to obsessive disorder risk
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Scientists have located an area in the brain that fails to “kick-in” for people with obsessive compulsive disorder and those at risk of developing the condition.
The discovery could allow researchers to diagnose the debilitating disorder much earlier and better track how drug treatments are working, they reported in the journal Science.
“The main finding is that in people with obsessive compulsive disorder and their unaffected relatives, part of their orbitofrontal cortex didn’t kick in on line as it should have,” said Samuel Chamberlain, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge, who led the study.
D-cycloserine may improve behavioral therapy treatment for anxiety
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Anxiety is a normal human response to stress, but in some, it can develop into a disabling disorder of excessive and irrational fears, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, or posttraumatic stress disorder. Effective treatments are available and can involve either behavioral therapy or medications. Although “it makes intuitive sense that combining these two treatments would result in even better results,” David Tolin, Ph.D. notes that has unfortunately not yet been the case and the majority of the evidence suggests that combined therapy is no more effective than behavior therapy alone, and in some cases can even be less effective. However, Dr. Tolin is one of the three authors on a meta-analysis scheduled for publication on June 15th in Biological Psychiatry, in which they evaluated a potentially important new treatment paradigm for anxiety.
Dr. Tolin explains the impetus behind their analysis: “Recently, several researchers have tried a radically different approach: instead of just throwing two effective monotherapies at the problem, they have instead looked at medications that specifically target the biological mechanisms that make psychotherapy work in the first place.” John H. Krystal, M.D., Editor of Biological Psychiatry and another of the study’s authors, adds that “there has now been a sufficient amount of research in this area to take a step back to look at the basic research conducted in animals and the initial clinical trials.”
Man says prescription drug caused gambling problem
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A former Wall Street banker who said he lost $3 million from compulsive gambling caused by a popular drug used to treat Parkinson’s disease is suing companies involved with the drug for his losses.
The lawsuit, filed in New York State Court on Tuesday, accuses the privately held German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer and Pharmacia & Upjohn of breach of warranty, negligence and negligent misrepresentation.
Randolph Simens, 55, said that he took the drug, Mirapex, from 2002 to 2007 after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and suffering hand tremors.
Eating disorders predict poor function in new moms
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New mothers with a history of an eating disorder appear to have a difficult time adjusting to motherhood, study findings suggest.
Among 44 first-time mothers recruited from prenatal clinics in Stockholm, Sweden, over 90 percent with a history of anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa reported problems adjusting to motherhood in the first 3 months after childbirth, report Dr. Angelica Linden Hirschberg and colleagues from the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm.
The researchers found that 24 of women had a history of anorexia nervosa, an aversion to food and weight gain that can result in life-threatening weight loss. Another 20 had a history of bulimia nervosa, characterized by binge eating, self-induced vomiting, or excessive exercise to prevent weight gain.
Anorexia, ‘bigorexia’ may have same genetic roots
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A new study with twins suggests that for men, the obsession with being too small and undeveloped, known as muscle dysmorphic disorder, may share the same genetic underpinnings as anorexia nervosa.
In five twin pairs, each including one male with anorexia nervosa, Finnish researchers found a “striking familial liability” for traits related to the eating disorder, including major depression, muscle dysmorphic disorder (which is sometimes called ‘bigorexia), and obsessive compulsive disorder. The findings suggest that all of the symptoms have similar genetic roots, the researchers point out.
Anorexia nervosa is rare in men, and the course of the disease is poorly understood, Dr. Anu Raevuori of the University of Helsinki in Finland and colleagues note. To better understand how the illness progresses in men, and to examine the potential familial factors, they identified the five twin pairs from a group of 2,122 male twins born in Finland between 1975 and 1979.
Pregnancy Alone Is Not Associated with Increased Risk for Mental Disorders
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Pregnancy alone does not appear to be associated with an increased risk of the most prevalent mental disorders, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, post-partum women may have a higher risk of major depressive disorder.
Pregnant women and those who have recently given birth are said to be exceedingly vulnerable to psychiatric disorders, according to background information in the article. Psychiatric disorders in these groups of women have been linked to poor maternal health, inadequate prenatal care and adverse outcomes for their children including abnormal growth and development, poor behavior during childhood and adolescence and negative nutritional and health effects. “For these reasons, accurate information about the mental health status of women during pregnancy and the post-partum period is urgently needed.”
Oriana Vesga-López, M.D., of New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, and colleagues analyzed data from interviews of 43,093 individuals who participated in a survey on alcohol, disorders and related conditions. Of these, 14,549 were women (age 18 to 50) who had been pregnant within the past year. Participants reported psychiatric disorders, substance use and whether they had sought treatment.
Alcoholism-associated molecular adaptations in brain neurocognitive circuits
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After many years of heavy drinking, alcohol produces pathological alterations in the brain. In many alcoholics these changes culminate in massive social deterioration and disorders of memory and learning. Severe cognitive impairments occur in approximately 10% of heavy drinkers. Alcoholic dementia is the second leading course of adult dementia in the Western countries, accounting for 10% of the cases, and still represents an unresolved problem. So far no effective pharmacotherapy for memory problems in alcoholics is available.
Nowadays this problem can be approached by innovative research using molecular and epigenetic analyses, which yield new insight into brain pathophysiology.
Molecular dysregulations in endogenous opioids – a neurotransmitter system in the brain that is central to reward function and pain control – are supposed to play a critical role in the development of alcoholism and associated cognitive impairment.
Neurogenesis in the adult brain: The association with stress and depression
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The brain is the key organ in the response to stress. Brain reactions determine what in the world is threatening and might be stressful for us, and regulate the stress responses that can be either adaptive or maladaptive. Chronic stress can affect the brain and lead into depression: Environmental stressors related to job or family situation are important triggers of depressive episodes and major life events such as trauma or abuse amongst the most potent factors inducing depression.
The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that major depression will soon be the world´s greatest public health burden. Thus optimising antidepressive therapy with regard to delayed or insufficient treatment response and unwanted side effects is urgent.
Since the development of novel antidepressants is based upon an improved neurobiological understanding of this condition, new information about the cellular changes that take place in the brain is required.
Regular exercise good for dementia patients: study
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Regular daily exercise benefits elderly women with dementia and these benefits appear to accrue over time, researchers from the Republic of Korea report.
Dr. Yi-Sub Kwak, assistant professor of sports medicine at Dong-Eui University in Busan, and colleagues compared daily functioning as well as mental and physical abilities of 30 women with senile dementia before and after half participated in a regular exercise program.
Their findings, reported in the International Journal of Sports Medicine, suggest “regular exercise improves the mental and physical health in senile dementia [patients],” Kwak told Reuters Health.
‘Mind’s eye’ influences visual perception
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Letting your imagination run away with you may actually influence how you see the world. New research from Vanderbilt University has found that mental imagery - what we see with the “mind’s eye” - directly impacts our visual perception.
The research was published online June 26 by the journal Current Biology in a paper titled, “The Functional Impact of Mental Imagery on Conscious Perception.”
“We found that imagery leads to a short-term memory trace that can bias future perception,” says Joel Pearson, research associate in the Vanderbilt Department of Psychology. and lead author of the study. “This is the first research to definitively show that imagining something changes vision both while you are imagining it and later on.”
Treatment for cigarette, alcohol and drug use in pregnancy improves outcomes for mom and baby
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Pregnant women who receive treatment for substance abuse early in their pregnancy can achieve the same health outcomes as pregnant women with no substance abuse, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in the Journal of Perinatology.
The study, which is the largest to date, examined 49,985 women in Kaiser Permanente’s prenatal care program and found that integrating substance abuse screening and treatment into routine prenatal care helped pregnant women achieve similar health outcomes as women who were not using cigarettes, alcohol or other drugs. This is also the largest study to examine multiple substances: cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, methamphetamines, cocaine and heroin.
“This program can happen everywhere and should become the gold standard for women who are pregnant and using cigarettes, alcohol or other drugs,” said study lead author Nancy C. Goler, M.D., an OB/GYN and Kaiser Permanente regional medical director of the Early Start Program for the organization’s Northern California operations. “The study’s big finding was that study participants treated in the Early Start program had outcomes similar to our control group, women who had no evidence of substance abuse.”
Medication improves alcoholics’ quality of life
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The medication topiramate may not only improve drinking problems in people with alcohol dependence, but boost their quality of life as well, according to a new study.
Topiramate (Topamax) is an anti-seizure drug that has also been shown to reduce drinking in alcoholics—possibly due to it effects on certain brain chemicals thought to be involved in alcohol dependence.
Whether treatment with the drug can also improve alcoholics’ physical and mental well-being, however, has been unclear.
Diabetes linked to depression risk and vice versa
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People being treated for type 2 diabetes are at increased risk for depression, according to a new report, and individuals with depression have a moderately increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
To explore the relationship between diabetes and depression, Dr. Sherita Hill Golden at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and colleagues analyzed data on 6814 subjects who underwent three examinations between 2000 and 2005.
Among 4847 participants without depression at the start of the study, the researchers report, rates of occurrence of depression symptoms during follow-up were similar for people without diabetes and those with untreated type 2 diabetes, but about twice as high in people being treated for type 2 diabetes.
Poor sleep quality and insomnia associated with suicidal symptoms among college students
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Poor sleep quality and insomnia are significantly associated with suicidal symptoms among college undergraduates, according to a research abstract that will be presented on Monday at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).
The study, authored by Rebecca A. Bernert, of Florida State University, focused on 322 college undergraduates between 19-24 years of age. The following symptom measures were administered: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI); Insomnia Severity Index (ISI); Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); and Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS).
According to the results, consistent with past research, PSQI and ISI total scores were significantly associated with greater BDI scores. Elevated scores on the BSS were significantly predicted by higher scores on the ISI and the PSQI, although the latter emerged only as a non-significant trend. Importantly, after BDI scores were entered into the model as a co-variate, ISI and PSQI scores jointly predicted greater BSS scores, though they failed to significantly predict these symptoms independently.
Maternal depression, breastfeeding and a lower socioeconomic status can affect infants’ sleep
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Maternal depression during pregnancy, breastfeeding and a lower socioeconomic status are all associated with less infant sleep duration in the first six months of life, according to a research abstract that will be presented on Monday at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).
The study, authored by Michael D. Nevarez, of Harvard Medical School, focused on 1,676 mother-infant pairs, where the mothers reported their infants’ average 24-hour sleep duration at six months. Also examined were daytime nap and nighttime sleep duration separately.
According to the results, infants’ mean sleep duration at six months, including daytime naps and nighttime sleep, was 12.2 hours per day. Less household income and lower maternal education were associated with shorter infant sleep duration. Compared with Caucasian infants, African-American infants slept 0.94 fewer total hours per day. Also, African-American, Hispanic, and Asian infants slept more hours during daytime naps but fewer hours at night. Infants whose mothers had a history of depression during pregnancy and those who were being breast-fed at six months appeared to sleep fewer total hours per day.
