psychiatry
neurophilosophy | May 30, 2008
SciCurious has written an interesting post about Sigmund Freud's experiments with cocaine.
Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was also a pioneer of psychopharmacology; as well as being one of the first to scientifically investigate the properties and effects of cocaine, he also played a key role in the growth of the pharmaceuticals industry.
In 1884, Freud read a paper which described the effects of cocaine on Bavarian soldiers. The author, a German physician named Theodor Aschenbrandt, reported that the drug suppressed the appetite and increased mental powers and endurance.
Intrigued,…
j7uy5 | May 28, 2008
href="http://www.researchblogging.org">
alt="ResearchBlogging.org"
src="http://www.researchblogging.org/images/rbicons/ResearchBlogging-Medium-White.png"
height="50" width="80">Just as
we learn of favorable studies about rTMS (see yesterday's post on this blog), studies that suggest
that ECT could be surpassed, the ECT camp fires again. A new
study by Sackeim indicates that a new form of ECT is highly effective,
with lower negative impact on cognition. The difference is in
the length of the electrical pulse. They use what they call
an ultrabrief pulse (0.3 millisecond), as…
j7uy5 | May 27, 2008Jonah posted an
href="http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/05/tms.php">interesting
video of
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_magnetic_stimulation"
rel="tag">Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
on The Frontal Cortex. That got me to
wondering if there was anything new.
In January 2007, the US FDA
href="http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/07/briefing/2007-4273b1_00-index.htm">concluded
that rTMS was safe, but they were unconvinced of its effectiveness.
Their conclusion
href="http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jan07/comments/1697">was
arguable,
but the…
j7uy5 | May 22, 2008
alt="ResearchBlogging.org"
src="http://www.researchblogging.org/images/rbicons/ResearchBlogging-Medium-White.png"
align="left" border="0" height="50" hspace="3"
vspace="3" width="80">I have to admit, I
retain some skepticism about the concept of
href="http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2008/04/seasonal_affective_disorder_th_2.php">Seasonal
Affective Disorder. Research such as the topic of
this post helps, though, to lend some credibility to the concept.
It is true that exposure to bright light therapy (BLT) can alleviate
symptoms of SAD. That alone would seem to verify the…
j7uy5 | May 12, 2008A while back,
href="http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2007/11/sherwin_nuland_a_history_of_el.php">Gred
Laden and
href="http://ectweb.blogspot.com/2007/10/video-of-lecture-on-electroconvulsive.html">Dr.
Shock independently linked to a remarkable video.
In it, a famous author-surgeon-professor reveals that he had
had an episode of severe depression. Moreover, he underwent
treatment with electroconvulsive therapy. It worked, he got
back to work, and went on to have a distinguished career. The
video can be seen here --
href="http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/189">Sherwin Nuland…
j7uy5 | May 4, 2008Dinah, writing at Shrink Rap, got
href="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/05/02/meanness-and-psychiatry-dont-mix/?mod=WSJBlog">mentioned
in the Wall Steet Journal, of all places. Her post "
href="http://psychiatrist-blog.blogspot.com/2008/05/my-therapist-is-creep.html">My
Therapist is a Creep" caught the attention of their health
blogger, Scott Hensley.
j7uy5 | April 16, 2008“Doctors think, ‘Well, of course
she’s depressed — she’s dying of breast
cancer,’” he said.
I do see that kind of response sometimes, not just with regard to
terminally ill patients. The physician does not think the
depression should be treated, because it is felt to be an expected
response to the situation.
If I even show up in an emergency department with a gunshot wound in my
abdomen, I sure hope the doc doesn't refuse to treat it, saying "of
course he's bleeding to death, he's been shot in the spleen."
The fact is, some patients with terminal cancer do develop major
depression. But…
j7uy5 | April 4, 2008Medscape has one of their brief 0.25 CME articles on the subject of
methylphenidate (Ritalin, et. al.) and the effect
it has on sleep. (You have to register to read it, but
registration is free.)
This is interesting because it illustrates nicely how
psychopharmacology can be confusing. In this post, I try to
show some of the ways in which this confusion can occur.
href="http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/571987">Stimulant
Improves Sleep in Adults With ADHD
News Author: Pauline Anderson
CME Author: Charles Vega, MD
March 26, 2008 — A study suggests that the central nervous
system…
j7uy5 | March 24, 2008GrrlScientist wrote
href="http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/02/diagnosing_bipolar_disorder_wi.php">a
post last month about a potential genetic test for bipolar
disorder. Read that first to get some background.
Now, it turns out that a company is selling a testing kit that you can
use yourself, in the privacy of your own home, to see if you have genes
that increase the risk of bipolar disorder.
href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/23/health/main3960929.shtml">At-Home
Psychiatric Gene Tests Stir Debate
New Methods Of Testing Patients' Risk May Lead To More…
j7uy5 | March 24, 2008This item just appeared on the news tubes, and I thought I'd pass it
along.
href="http://news.monstersandcritics.com/health/news/article_1396601.php/Distinguishing_signs_of_early_dementia_from_depression_is_tricky">Distinguishing
signs of early dementia from depression is tricky
Mar 24, 2008, 3:07 GMT
Berlin - It's often difficult to differentiate between early stages of
dementia and depression, but a precise psychiatric examination can
help, said the German society for psychiatry, psychotherapy and
neurology in Berlin.
'An Alzheimer dementia usually begins with creeping…
j7uy5 | March 20, 2008A reader pointed me to this article, by Miriam Axel-Lute, about the
Nonsensical Gyrations that Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield (of New
Jersey) is going through to try to avoid paying for health care:
href="http://www.metroland.net/back_issues/vol31_no10/looking_up.html">What’s
Healthy?
If you were an insurance company trying to cut your costs, how would
you do it? Emphasize prevention over cure? Cover birth control? Allow
coverage of cheaper alternatives, like in-home care over nursing homes
or examine ways to encourage use of primary care providers over the
emergency room?
Or…
j7uy5 | March 7, 2008The LA Times has a story about the author's own
struggle with
href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000923.htm">panic
disorder and agoraphobia.
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/scimedemail/la-hew-panic3mar03,0,2971333.story">
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/scimedemail/la-hew-panic3mar03,0,2971333.story">For
a Paxil-free life, she'll take the long route
It takes some time, but this student learns there's no quick
fix for panic attacks.
By Summer Beretsky, Special to The Times
March 3, 2008
Some people can't stand the word "irregardless…
j7uy5 | March 3, 2008Hoisted
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2008/02/clear_think_about_the_overmedi.php#comment-768312">from
the comments:
I find it particularly alarming that children are
prescribed some of these drugs. How much is truly known about how
various psychiatric drugs affect the development of the brain? If a
fifteen-year-old is put on a regimen of SSRI inhibitors, how will it
affect him down the road? If he's on them long enough, will he
experience any adverse effects when he's thirty-five or forty? For that
reason, I think that physicians should be extremely sparing in
prescribing…
j7uy5 | February 28, 2008Judith Warner has some insightful essays in the NYT column, pertaining
to the long-raging question about whether psychiatric patients are
style="font-style: italic;">overmedicated or
style="font-style: italic;">undermedicated.
One of the essays addresses the question directly:
style="font-weight: bold;"
href="http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/overselling-overmedication/">Overselling
Overmedication
Judith Warner
February 14, 2008
...In the book, Barber
argues that Americans are being vastly
overmedicated for often relatively minor mental health concerns. This
over-…
j7uy5 | February 11, 2008I noticed while writing this, that the word
style="font-style: italic;">numb, if modified
by adding the suffix -er,
becomes an entirely different word.
style="font-style: italic;">Number does not
convey the meaning of more
numb.
According to Answers.com, number
is a adjective, with the root numb.
The thing is, it only works if spoken; if written, it is
ambiguous. Ambiguity can be useful, but usually it is just a
nuisance.
Anyway.
href="http://www.charlesbarberwriting.com/pages/author.html"
rel="tag">Charles Barber wrote a book,
href="http://www.charlesbarberwriting.…
j7uy5 | February 7, 2008Zyprexa Adhera is a new formulation of
href="http://zyprexa.com/index.jsp">Eli LIlly's
antipsychotic medication,
href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a601213.html">olanzapine.
It contains the same active ingredient as the pills, but it
is a long-acting injection. It is supposed to last two to
four weeks.
There is not a lot of specific information available yet. It
is not on the market yet, either. The milestone is that in
was just recommended for approval by the
title="Food and Drug Administration">
href="http://www.fda.gov/">FDA.
Background:…
omnibrain | February 1, 2008Here's a wonderful spoof of .. well... I'm not really sure what. Perhaps an old Documentary focusing on the diseases of the mind? In any case it's terribly entertaining.
j7uy5 | January 25, 2008Usually I cringe when I see yet another newspaper article about
suicide. But I always read them. This time, I did
cringe, but needlessly. The article turned out to be OK.
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/washington/24fda.html?ei=5090&en=69952ee3ab69a7b3&ex=1358917200&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print">F.D.A.
Requiring Suicide Studies in Drug Trials
By
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/gardiner_harris/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
title="More Articles by Gardiner Harris">GARDINER HARRIS
January 24, 2008
src…
omnibrain | January 18, 2008Just a short note via Sports Illustrated:
Georgia football legend Herschel Walker is expected to reveal in an upcoming book that he has multiple personalities -- a revelation that surprises the man who coached the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner.
...
"Breaking Free" will chronicle Walker's life with multiple personality disorder, according to Shida Carr, the book's publicist at Simon & Schuster.
Carr said the book will be published in August, but gave no other details and declined to provide excerpts.
I wonder whether this developed after football? I'm curious to see the book when it comes…
omnibrain | January 18, 2008Don't play any of the embedded videos if you've ever had a seizure.
Now that we're done with the warning...
We've all heard of the Pokemon incident in Japan where nearly 700 school aged children were admitted to the hospital with "convulsions, vomiting, irritated eyes and other symptoms" common to epilepsy. This lead to a number of government investigations and media companies searching their offerings to determine whether any of their shows had similar scenes that might induce photosensitive epilepsy. According to a CNN report of the incidents:
Dr. Yukio Fukuyama, a juvenile epilepsy…