psychiatry
j7uy5 | July 15, 2007We
already knew that
rel="tag">varenicline
could be used to help people stop smoking. Now there is a
report that it can help reduce alcohol consumption, at least for rats.
This was reported in
title="Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences">PNAS
(Varenicline, an α4β2
nicotinic acetylcholine receptor
partial agonist, selectively decreases ethanol consumption and seeking)on
an open-access basis, and echoed in a report in Scientific
American (
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=ACE9FF1E-E7F2-99DF-31F26EC00AA05F4A&sc=I100322">Need
a Cigarette and a…
j7uy5 | July 14, 2007A
couple of
href="http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec16/ch221/ch221g.html"
rel="tag">Parkinson's Disease related items came
across the news wires,
briefly. There are lessons in both of them, but both leave me
with unresolved questions.
The first one I noticed was a report based upon a journal article,
rev="review"
href="http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/69/2/187">Risk
factors for somnolence, edema, and hallucinations in early Parkinson
disease. The second was based on a
different article (in the same journal),
href="http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/01.wnl…
j7uy5 | July 10, 2007This
is starting to look like a never-ending saga, and I have written
about it extensively before. But this latest update certainly
deserves some attention.
It comes from an article (
href="http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/ajp;164/7/1029">Suicide
Attempts Among Patients Starting Depression Treatment With Medications
or Psychotherapy) and an editorial (
rev="review"
href="http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/ajp;164/7/989">Antidepressants
and Suicidal Behavior: Cause or Cure?) in the
latest (July 2007)
issue of the
href="http://ajp.psychiatryonline.…
neurophilosophy | July 10, 2007
The Maze by William Kurelek (1927-1977); on display at the Novas Gallery in Southwark as part of an exhibition called Redefining Bedlam: The Art of Healing the Mind, which features more than 200 works by artists with mental illnesses, and runs until August 18th.
The Maze was painted just a few miles away from the Novas Gallery, in 1953, while Kurelek was a patient at the Maudsley Hospital in Denmark Hill. Read his own description of the painting, and see Out of the Maze, which he painted in 1971, below.
(Click both pics to enlarge)
The subject, seen as a whole, is of a man (…
j7uy5 | July 9, 2007
Insurance companies have discriminated against their mentally ill
customers for years. Sadly, they have done so with t he
comlicity of the Federal government.
There have been many attempts to change this, but the attempts
generally are made by constituents who have little power, and meet with little success.
Another attempt is underway.
href="http://snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=87f720da-802a-23ad-4cb7-acdae2631a38&Region_id=&Issue_id=">Kerry
and Snowe have introduced a bill,
href="http://www.govtrack.us/…
j7uy5 | July 8, 2007On
June 21, 2007, the American Psychiatric Association issued a press
release on the subject of video game addiction. Apparently,
it had been rumored n the media that the APA was going to have a vote
on whether to classify excessive video gaming as an addiction.
That was never a possibility. Official changes in diagnostic
categories only occur when the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders">diagnostic
manual is changed, and the next change is not due until 2012.
Furthermore, the current procedure for changing diagnostic methodology…
omnibrain | July 4, 2007There is a great article today on Slate about why the pretty ridiculous idea that vaccinations containing trace amounts of mercury cause autism will never go away. Here's the first little part of the article:
At the recent 12-day hearing into theories that vaccines cause autism, the link between the disorder and the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine came across as shaky at best. As for the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal, which was used in other vaccines, witnesses showed that in all known cases of actual mercury poisoning (none of which caused autism), the dose was hundreds or…
j7uy5 | July 3, 2007T
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">his
is another post in a series detailing the selection of antidepressant
medication. Use the "Antidepressants" link in the
"Categories"
part of the sidebar to find the other posts in the series.
In this post, I am sort of assuming that the reader has read the
previous posts, or has an adequate fund of general knowledge on the
subject.
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bupropion" rel="tag">Bupropion
is not a member of a family. Most antidepressants can be
placed
in a family of drugs that share similar properties, but there is no
other drug…
omnibrain | July 2, 2007There has been a whole lot crap floating around the press in the last couple weeks since the trial started that is seeking to link vaccination with higher incidence of autism. Now a survey funded by one of these anti-vaccination groups is correlating, through a random telephone survey, more mental health issues like ADHD with vaccination. So why do you think this correlation exists? Is there a simple way of simply explaining away this correlation (think less pirates = more global warming).
Here's some of the info from medical news today:
The survey, commissioned by Generation Rescue,…
omnibrain | June 29, 2007Are you a politician or currently considering a run for office?
Do you agree with Richard Nixon that drugs are "public enemy number one in the United States"?
Are you worried that smoking marijuana makes you insane, turns you into a violent criminal or causes death?
Do you worry daily about why prohibition failed?
Do you think the War on Drugs is a great idea?
Are you stressed out about these things and need an easy way out? Incarcerex may be for you!
Take a look at this great spoof from drugpolicy.org!
Does your politician suffer from Chronic Re-Election Paranoia (CREEP)? Do you think our…
j7uy5 | June 29, 2007A
recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine caught my attention,
because it has significant implications for stress management by
physicians. The study also generated a bit of
attention in the popular media. For example, this article in
NYT:
title="NYT permanent link via RSS"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/health/26doctors.html?ex=1340510400&en=f56fa2071d6a6fa7&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">Study
Says Chatty Doctors Forget Patients
By GINA KOLATA
Published: June 26, 2007
...To their surprise, the researchers discovered that doctors talked…
j7uy5 | June 15, 2007I
suppose this is good, although it is too little too late. It
would be a lot better to prevent these casualties in the first place.
href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070615/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/military_mental_health;_ylt=AkK1R.ayIAt68x7AdfLqKR.s0NUE">Army
plans to hire more psychiatrists
PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Overwhelmed by the number of soldiers returning from war
with mental problems, the Army is planning to hire at least 25 percent
more psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers.
A contract finalized this week but not yet announced calls…
j7uy5 | June 9, 2007Why
is it that recovering persons with alcoholism should not drink
near-beer (beer with little or no alcohol)?
...Hank
had been dry for several weeks thanks to a radical withdrawal program,
but a simple walk past Pete's Tavern on any given night almost erased
his will to abstain. During the daytime he did not feel a craving for
alcohol, but when he passed the bar in the evening--when he saw the
warm light through the windows and heard the glasses clinking--he would
be sorely tempted to run inside for a beer. Addiction researchers call
this phenomenon "conditioned desire." If a person had…
j7uy5 | June 3, 2007
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">This is
an interesting drug. Rarely prescribed, but interesting.
It is older than what we typically give today. It
is an antidepressant with a twist.
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">In
order to understand why it is interesting, you need to know a little
bit about the pharmacology of the drug.
rel="tag" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoxapine">Amoxapine
is a tricyclic antidepressant, in my book, or at least in my
head; but I have seen it referred to as a tetracyclic. It
depends on whether you think all the rings have to have…
j7uy5 | May 30, 2007
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Amitriptyline-2D-skeletal.png">
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">This post is
about amitriptyline, one of the oldest
antidepressants on the market in the USA. It also used to be
the
most widely-prescribed antidepressant.
I've decided to not attempt an encyclopedic style of description of the
pharmacological action of the individual antidepressants.
That is
readily available already at Wikipedia, among others. But in
order to fully understand the topic, those who are not familiar with
the pharmacology should probably go to the general…
omnibrain | May 29, 2007Growing up I used to read Omni magazine and would always see all sorts of devices that supposedly could induce lucid dreams or tapes that had subliminal messages recorded along with Bach to create special brain states where you'd be particularly receptive to messages like - "you will be psychic... you can lift objects with your mind...you will be rich and successful... you will quit smoking crack...etc etc etc" Let me tell you - I'm not psychic or rich! Although...I never did take up smoking crack so maybe the tapes did work! I eventually forgot about these tapes and devices for many years…
j7uy5 | May 28, 2007
Fast
Company
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"> has an
amusing and interesting
href="http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/96/open_boss.html">article
on
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy">pychopathy.
Being a business-oriented magazine, they ask "Is your boss a
psychopath?" But one could just as easily apply the same
principles to other important people in your life, such as politicians.
They even have a quiz useful for making armchair diagnoses.
href="http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/96/open_boss-quiz.html">Quiz:
Is Your Boss a Psychopath?
[1] Is he…
omnibrain | May 26, 2007Here's what PsyBlog has to say about Omni Brain:
Best humorous (but still scientific) psychology blog
The danger with mixing science and humour is slipping into the 'geek trap' where clever people try to be too clever. Omni Brain easily avoids this. Funky finger pictures on this post about sexual orientation and finger length.
Just to let you guys know... the only way we avoid being too clever is by not actually being very clever ;) haha...
Thanks for the props!
Check out the rest of their psychology blog reviews (which are great!) here.
Oh, and the beanie baby Freud doesn't have anything…
j7uy5 | May 24, 2007I
noticed the incidental coincidence of these two news items:
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-me-zuska24may24,1,6736477.story?coll=la-news-science">Joseph
Zuska, 93; Navy doctor developed treatment for alcoholism
href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10374760">Gaps
in Mental Care Persist for Fort Carson Soldiers
The
first item is an obituary for a Navy physician; the second is a NPR
news item in which they follow up on the changes that took place at a
particular military base, after an earlier news article exposed
undesirable practices in the…
omnibrain | May 24, 2007Ahh silly research - gotta love it!
SAN DIEGO -- Anakin Skywalker, aka Darth Vader, suffers from a controversial mental condition and could use some couch time in a shrink's office, a team of researchers declared this week.
"He's suffering. And he's suffering from a disorder," said Dr. Eric Bui, a psychiatrist in Toulouse, France, who co-wrote a study that diagnosed one of the most villainous and heroic characters in the Star Wars canon as having borderline personality disorder.
According to the authors, who reported their findings at the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting in…