mental health
omnibrain | December 17, 2006Valentina Sivryukova knew her public service messages were hitting the mark when she heard how one Kazakh schoolboy called another stupid. "What are you," he sneered, "iodine-deficient or something?"
I think I'm going to start using this insult!
I always knew iodine was added to salt at some point for some health reason - but I was never sure actually why that was. It looks like iodine deficiencies can cause all sorts of nasty health problems:
Studies show that iodine deficiency is the leading preventable cause of mental retardation. Even moderate deficiency, especially in pregnant women and…
omnibrain | December 16, 2006Another classic...So I was watching Mythbusters the other night and they were testing a number of "mind contol" devices - they used EEG, etc. They even decided that a couple methods were "plausible."I decided what I could find out there on the internet...
The first place I looked was EBay - they really do sell everything (I once almost got an antique proctologists uhh.."probe" - it was going to be a gift .. i promise), but anyway - this picture popped up. Only $799.99!
Control people's minds with this amazingly simple technology. The Mind Control Machine converts your voice into something…
omnibrain | December 16, 2006
A number of people have noticed that after getting transplants their personality changes - and not only that- their personality changes to reflect the donors personality.
...though she was born and raised in Tucson, she never liked Mexican food. She craved Italian and was a pasta junkie. But three years ago, all that changed for Jaime Sherman, 28, when she underwent a heart transplant at University Medical Center, after battling a heart defect since birth. "Now I love football, baseball, basketball. You name it, I follow it," said Sherman, a psychology student at Arizona State University. "…
grrlscientist | December 13, 2006A recent government report tells how antidepressants can actually increase the risk of suicidal behavior for people up to age 24. It plans new warning labels and says users of all ages should be closely monitored.
Still, mental health experts worry that additional warnings could curtail use of the drugs and ultimately do more harm than good.
Dr. John Mann, a Columbia University psychiatrist, suggested simply replacing the proposed expanded warnings with the recommendation that doctors more closely monitor their patients.
"We can do more good by providing more treatment for depressed…
omnibrain | December 12, 2006
I was reading this great post from Shrink Rap about sex with fish:
Being close to our nation's capitol we also sometimes get folks with politician-related delusions. They get arrested while traveling to Washington to confront the "devil-worshipers" controlling the government, or to get in touch with their "relatives" who happen to live in the White House. (Bush and Clinton would be surprised to learn how many patients they've fathered.) Presidential threateners are rare, but do show up occasionally. I understand the Secret Service even has a team that functions as something of an assertive…
purepedantry | December 1, 2006Trushina et al from the Mayo Clinic have made a big advance in understanding the etiology of Huntington's disease.
Huntington's disease is a progressive and ultimately fatal disease that is characterized by uncontrollable limb movements and progressive dementia and psychosis. It is 100% penetrant and shows autosomal dominant inheritance in the causative gene called Huntingtin. We know that Huntingtin has a triplet repeat region -- the same three nucleotides over and over again -- that can be of variable size. Have a relatively short one and you are fine. Have long one and you are going…
purepedantry | November 27, 2006Mind Hacks covers an article in the Financial Times about delusions and how brain damage affects cognition:
Some researchers have argued that this is the basis of a similarly curious syndrome, known as Capgras delusion, where someone believes that their friend, spouse or relative has been replaced by a near-identical looking impostor.
In Capgras delusion, it is thought that the same problem with automatic emotional response is present, but that the person attributes the problem to external changes in the world ("it's something to do with my wife...") and reasoning problems lead to the…
purepedantry | November 20, 2006Women are more susceptible to Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) even when the type of the stressful event is controlled for:
Males experience more traumatic events on average than do females, yet females are more likely to meet diagnostic criteria for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), according to a review of 25 years of research reported in the November issue of Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
The authors reviewed 290 studies conducted between 1980 and 2005 to determine who is more at risk for potentially traumatic events (PTE) and…
purepedantry | September 12, 2006GNIF Brain Blogger has a good article describing the DSM -- Diagnostic and Statistcal Manual of Mental Disorders -- that is used by psychiatrists to diagnose mental health issues of all types. Drawbacks and benefits are discussed.
In spite of some rather notable problems with the DSM -- for example, in earlier editions homosexuality was still listed as a mental disorder -- I have to sympathize with the people who write it. In contrast to most other areas, most psychiatric disorders are syndromic in nature and lacking in definitive lab tests. This makes diagnosing them an act of guessing…