Psychiatry / Psychology
Ecstasy harms memory in novice users
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People taking the illicit recreational drug Ecstasy show subtle but significant impairment in verbal memory after trying the drug for the first few times, Dutch researchers report.
While novice users in the study had taken a relatively low cumulative dose of about three tablets of Ecstasy, on average, they scored lower on tests that required them to memorize a series of words and then recall them later.
Chronic pain may impede short-term memory
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People who suffer from chronic pain may find their memory taxed by everyday “multitasking,” a new study suggests.
The study, of 24 men and women treated at a pain clinic, found that chronic pain appeared to impair patients’ working, or short-term, memory.
New Mothers Often Not Asked About Depression
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The majority of doctors in North Carolina do not probe for signs of postpartum depression in new mothers, according to a survey conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Of the 228 physicians responding to the survey who said they had seen women for postpartum visits in the previous three months, 79 percent said they were unlikely to formally screen the patients for depression. An estimated 13 percent of new mothers are affected by postpartum depression. The study will be published June 6, 2007 in the North Carolina Medical Journal.
Sexual orientation affects how we navigate and recall lost objects, but age just targets gender
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Researchers at the University of Warwick have found that sexual orientation has a real effect on how we perform mental tasks such as navigating with a map in a car but that old age does not discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation and withers all men’s minds alike just ahead of women’s.
The University of Warwick researchers worked with the BBC to collect data from over 198,000 people aged 20–65 years (109,612 men and 88,509 women). As expected they found men outperformed women on tests such as mentally rotating objects (NB the researchers’ tests used abstract objects but the skills used are also those one would use in real life to navigate with a map).
Efficacy and safety of Aripiprazole as adjunctive therapy in major depressive disorder
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In adults with major depressive disorder, adding aripiprazole to antidepressant therapy (ADT) resulted in significant improvement in the primary endpoint, the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) Total Score. In this six-week, randomized, placebo-controlled study presented here at the 160th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. atypical antipsychotic aripiprazole was added to antidepressants in patients who did not have an adequate response to ADT alone. (1)(Berman, 2007, APA Poster)
These findings are from one of two completed studies evaluating adjunctive aripiprazole with ADT.
High-quality Child Care for Low-income Children Offset the Risk of Later Depression
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Young adults from low-income families who were in full-time early educational child care from infancy to age 5 reported fewer symptoms of depression than their peers who were not in this type of care, according to a new report. The early educational intervention also appears to have protected the children to some extent against the negative effects of their home environments.
The report, from the FPG Child Development Institute (FPG) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, uses data from the Abecedarian Project, a longitudinal study begun in 1972 in which 111 high-risk children were randomly assigned to early educational child care from infancy to age 5 or to a control group that received various other forms of child care. The study is published in the May/June 2007 issue of the journal Child Development.
Children with both autism and ADHD often bully, parents say
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Children with both autism and attention deficit or attention deficit hyperactivity disorders are four times more likely to bully than children in the general population, according to a study released today in the journal, Ambulatory Pediatrics. However, the researchers caution against labeling these children simply as bullies.
“This is the first nationally representative study of bullying behaviors among children with autism. The majority of parents of children with autism and ADD or ADHD were concerned about their children’s bullying behaviors, but there is much we do not yet understand. It is too early to label these children as bullies.” said Guillermo Montes, Ph.D., senior researcher at Rochester, N.Y.-based Children’s Institute. “These children may have pent up energy that needs to be properly channeled, or they may have other underlying behavioral or medical issues that have not been addressed.”
Violent Sleep Disorder Linked to a Form of Dementia
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Mayo Clinic researchers and a group of international collaborators have discovered a correlation between an extreme form of sleep disorder and eventual onset of parkinsonism or dementia. The findings appear in the current issue of the journal Brain http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/.
Clinical observations and pathology studies, as well as research in animal models, led to the findings that patients with the violent rapid eye movement sleep (REM) behavior disorder (RBD) have a high probability of later developing Lewy body dementia, Parkinson’s disease or multiple system atrophy (a Parkinson’s-like disorder), because all of these conditions appear to stem from a similar neurodegenerative origin.
Post-traumatic stress disorder 10 times higher in New Orleans than in the general public
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Hurricane Katrina was the most significant natural disaster to strike the United States. Thousands of people were exposed to destruction, human violence and desperate circumstances. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was likely to be a significant medical issue in the aftermath of Katrina.
In a paper to be presented at the 2007 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Annual Meeting, Professor Lisa D. Mills, MD, Director, Section of Emergency Medicine Ultrasound, Louisiana State University at New Orleans, will show that PTSD was diagnosed in over 38% of the people who came to an interim Emergency Department facility in New Orleans. This is more than ten times higher than the 3.6% prevalence in the general US population. Loss of a loved one and simply staying in New Orleans during the storm were associated with PTSD symptoms.
Anxiety increases mortality risk in heart patients
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Anxiety appears to increase the risk of heart attacks and death in patients who have coronary artery disease, researchers from the United States report.
Coronary artery disease is caused by plaque build-up on the inside walls of the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart, causing them to harden and narrow. This can lead to heart attack, angina (chest pain) and other serious complications.
Treating depression may prolong survival in elderly
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Previous research has shown that depression is associated with an increased risk of mortality in older adults; and now new research indicates that this risk can be reduced through primary care-based depression intervention.
Dr. Joseph J. Gallo, from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues assessed the 5-year risk of death in 1,226 subjects, 60 years of age or older, who entered into a general practice-based clinical trial. The 20 participating primary care practices provided usual care only or usual care plus a depression “intervention,” which involved assessment by a depression care manager.
Mediterranean Diet Halves Risk of Progressive Lung Disease (COPD)
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A Mediterranean diet halves the chances of developing progressive inflammatory lung disease (COPD), reveals a large study, published ahead of print in Thorax.
COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is an umbrella term for chronic progressive lung disease, such as emphysema and bronchitis. It is expected to become the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020, with cigarette smoking the primary factor in its development.
Atrial fibrillation not a risk factor for dementia
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While atrial fibrillation is a significant risk factor for stroke in the very elderly, it does not predict dementia, according to findings published in the medical journal Stroke.
Atrial fibrillation is a heart rhythm disorder (arrhythmia) of the upper chambers of the heart (atria), resulting in disorganized and abnormal contractions, Dr. Tuula Pirttila, of Kuopio University Hospital, Finland, and colleagues report. “Several studies have shown that atrial fibrillation predicts the development of poststroke dementia, whereas others have found no such association.”
Duloxetine improves generalized anxiety disorder
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The results of a study published in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry indicate that treatment with duloxetine, sold under the trade name Cymbalta, improves functioning and enhances the quality of life in patients with generalized anxiety disorder.
Dr. Jean Endicott, of Columbia School of Medicine, New York, and colleagues examined the effectiveness of duloxetine in patients with generalized anxiety disorder who participated in three studies.
Stress of deployment increases risk of child abuse, neglect in military families, UNC study shows
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Rates of abuse and neglect of young children in military families in Texas has doubled since October 2002, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study shows, raising concerns about the impact of deployment on military personnel and their families across the country.
The study, published in the May 15, 2007 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, was designed by UNC School of Public Health researchers to measure the impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on military and non-military families. The researchers chose to study Texas because of the large military population there and the availability of data.
