Corpus Callosum is written by a psychiatrist at a small community hospital somewhere in midwestern USA. Email to cc.scienceblogger at gmail dot com.
December 29, 2006
Category: Photos of Interest
This is my sister's bulldog, doing what it loves the most. You've got to be careful when doing this, though. It took a while to get this shot, to get one that was not blurry. The dog kept jerking his...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:49 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 28, 2006
Category: Social Commentary
CNN has a report about a cluster of deaths from Anorexia, in Brazil. The subject has become a morbid fascination for Brazilians, and is even the theme of a popular TV soap opera. It has also touched off a...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:11 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Social Commentary
This adds to my respect for Gerald Ford. Ford: Bush made 'big mistake' on Iraq justifications 11:07 p.m. EST, December 27, 2006 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In an interview never before published, former President Gerald Ford said President Bush and...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:38 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 27, 2006
Category: Armchair Musings
I have a confession to make. I once voted for a Republican Presidential candidate. That candidate was Gerald Ford. Why? Several reasons. For one, it was my first time voting, so I was not very good at it yet....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:13 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Neuroscience
NEJM has a very interesting article about the use of PET scans to differentiate between persons with normal cognitive function, those with mild cognitive dysfunction, and those with Alzheimer Disease (AD). Unfortunately, you need a subscription to view the full...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:14 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 26, 2006
Category: Computing
It's kind of technical, but interesting if you care about the inner workings of the machine you are using to read this post. Microsoft Vista has built in an elaborate system to prevent copying of protected digital content. In so...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 11:32 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Psychiatry
Several bloggers have already commented on Johnson & Johnson's new schizophrenia drug, Invega®. The official FDA announcement is here. The first blog post I saw was at Sparkgrass: I'd hate for somebody to have to come up with, ya know,...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:06 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 25, 2006
Category: Humor
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:05 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
And what could be better than this? End of the neo-con dream By Paul Reynolds World Affairs correspondent The neo-conservative dream faded in 2006. The ambitions proclaimed when the neo-cons' mission statement "The Project for the New American Century" was...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 6:13 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 23, 2006
Category: Chatter
You'd think we'd be done with this. Actually, maybe we are, because now the controversy has moved to the UK: Row over cancer jab plan for all schoolgirls Mass vaccination 'will save lives' Parents fear rise in underage sex Gaby...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:42 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
I've been following the fish oil story for a while, ever since a small study in 1999 showed potential benefit in patients with bipolar disorder. The theoretical basis for the study was that omega-3 fatty acids alter neurotransmission in a...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 12:57 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 22, 2006
Category: Medicine
The reason it is interesting, is that it is unexpected, to me at least. I'm always curious when it turns out that something known to affect one bodily system turns out to have an effect somewhere else. Enalapril is a...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:34 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 21, 2006
Category: Humor
This was one of those snap quizzes, where you read an article, answer a couple questions, and get 0.25 CME credits. It had to do with biomarkers for cardiac risk. After plowing through a ton of obscure information about CRP,...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:10 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Personal
So, here I go into Border's last night. Spend $95. Everyone is happy. Then this morning, I get up and they've sent me an email, with a coupon: $20 off a $100 purchase, before 12/24. It came in at 1:27...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:36 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 20, 2006
Category: Humor
PZ's post on Crichton reminded me to point this out. For those of you who don't know, Michael Crichton got kind of nasty, paying back a critic by making up a character in a book. The made-up character had just...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:08 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 19, 2006
Category: Medicine
A hospital in the UK has reported an outbreak of nasty MRSA infections. This time, the organisms are the PVL-producing MRSA. MRSA stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. PVL stands for Panton-Valentine leukocidin. PVL is a toxin produced by the bacteria....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:21 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 18, 2006
Category: Medicine
Psychiatrists sometimes try to get people to take omega-3 fatty acids, in order to reduce symptoms of mood disorders. Although the evidence is not rock-solid, it is fairly good. There is no evidence that it can hurt, and some...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:37 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
Ever hear the phrase, "well, it's not brain surgery!" It seems to imply that brain surgery is a tricky business, requiring a high level of knowledge and skill. Perhaps it does. If you have ever been curious about exactly what...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:21 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 17, 2006
Category: Computing
Our system, who art on raised tile, Hallowed be thy OS. Thy portage come, thy emerge be done, On servers, as it is on workstations. Give us this day, our daily sync, And forgive us our broken ebuilds, As we...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:26 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Personal
We were asked to describe the most notable instance of harsh criticism experienced in our professional careers, and to say whether it was helpful or harmful. Naturally, most of us are our own harshest critics, so my harshest criticism came...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:52 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 16, 2006
Category: Armchair Musings
Ambidextrous More Likely To Be Bisexual; Why Do We Care, Anyway? A new study coming from the University of Guelph. Dr. Michael Peters, a neuropsychologist, analyzed a survey of about 255,000 people, and come up with some interesting findings about...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:46 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 15, 2006
Category: Humor
From the Houston Chronicle: State Rep. Edmund Kuempel has authored a bill that would allow legally blind people to go hunting. They'd be allowed to use laser sights, which are prohibited for fully-sighted hunters. They also would have to have...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:16 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Psychiatry
Since it seems to be a big deal to the New York Times (two articles in two days), I thought I'd comment on this. An FDA advisory panel recently voted to expand the warnings in the product labeling for antidepressants....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:30 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 13, 2006
Category: Medicine
Pay-for-performance is one of the buzzwords in health care financing these days. I haven't been following it much, but Dr. Gault has, over at retired doc's thoughts. His latest: AMA President nails P4P for what it is at AMA Interim meeting....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:09 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 12, 2006
Category: Humor
This picture just cracks me up. I spent a fair amount of time growing up in Ypsilanti, and still have a fondness for the place. Anything that promotes a positive image is welcome. Somewhere, I saw a list...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 11:46 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Energy
Spectrolab, Inc. has announced that they have developed a way to nearly double the efficiency of solar cells. They've done it by creating semiconductor Dagwood sandwiches, with over 20 layers. The basic idea is to have different layers that respond...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:46 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 11, 2006
Category: Psychiatry
According to a study published in the medical journal, Pediatrics, girls and young women who visit eating disorder oriented websites may be harmed by the activity. The funny thing is, is does not matter if the sites encourage eating disorder...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:50 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 9, 2006
Category: Politics
So far, I have resisted commenting on the report of the Iraq Study Group. But this is too good to pass up. From DeLong, who got it from Alter Ego, comes a precious quote from a Presidential press conference: Q...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:46 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Computing
In June, I put up a post noting that open-source browsers accounted for more than 50% of the hits at ScienceBlogs. At that time, Firefox was 48.17%. Since then, Microsoft released IE7, which includes a tabbed interface, and other enhancements...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 12:22 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Social Commentary
Flying carp, also called Asian Silver Carp (among others), present a significant risk to homeland security. The fish can grow to 50, even 100 pounds. Propellers on boats prompt the fish to jump out of the water, sometimes into boats,...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:40 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 8, 2006
Category: Psychiatry
Just when you thought there could not possibly be any more to say about the subject, given the uncertainties inherent in the area, there is yet another study. This one is from analysis of a large patient registry in Finland....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:16 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 7, 2006
Category: Bioethics
This has been a topic at ScienceBlogs before. Now, finally, the New England Journal of Medicine is catching up. They have an editorial on the ethics of vaccination against Human Papilloma Virus. It turns out that there are many facets...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 6:18 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 6, 2006
Category: Science News
Usually, doctors post radiology quizzes with odd clinical findings, or sometimes odd things that people have swallowed, or gotten into their bodies through other means. But this particular image has nothing to do with medicine, or even traditional radiology. Rather,...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:58 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 5, 2006
Category: Medicine
NEJM has a nice, short article on the management of menopausal symptoms. Usually their clinical stuff is subscription-only, but this one is openly accessible. I'm not going to comment on it, specifically, but mention it only because it might be...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:10 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Humor
HT: Liberal Street Fighter....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:03 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 4, 2006
Category: Medicine
I had to think about this for a bit before it made sense (free registration on Medscape required): Does Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Decrease Gastroesophageal Reflux in Patients With Obstructive Sleep Apnea? Twenty-four-hour esophageal pH monitoring was used by Spence...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 11:02 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Psychiatry
This is kind of an old story, I know. Still, every once in a while it is good to revisit these things. When the topic first came up in 2004, it was the subject of much newspaper space and blog...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:22 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 2, 2006
Category: Psychiatry
I have to admit, I was started to see a Consumer Reports article on the "Best Buy" drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. So now treating mental illness is like buying a toaster oven? Seriously, at first...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:09 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
