299 posts · 165,462 views
Brain Blogger covers topics from multidimensional biopsychosocial perspectives. It reviews the latest news and stories related to neuroscience, psychiatry, and neurology. It serves as a focal point for attracting new minds beyond the science of the mind-and-brain and into the biopsychosocial model.
Brain Blogger
299 posts
Sort by Latest Post, Most Popular
View by Condensed, Full
- March 16, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 62 views
My Nephew and his Brain, Part 2 – Revealed to be Complicated
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Continued from Part 1. After we had arrived at the new hospital and my nephew had been placed into the Pediatric ICU (PICU), the doctors started running more tests, and in conjunction with what the ER doctor had found out, my nephew was diagnosed with a seizure disorder or, as it is more commonly known, [...]... Read more »
Fisher RS, van Emde Boas W, Blume W, Elger C, Genton P, Lee P, & Engel J Jr. (2005) Epileptic seizures and epilepsy: definitions proposed by the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE). Epilepsia, 46(4), 470-2. PMID: 15816939
- March 12, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 36 views
Deep Brain Stimulation – A New Frontier in Psychiatry
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
For as long as the brain has been seen as the site of mental activity, it has followed that altering brain function should be implemented to treat mental illness. Second generation antidepressants and psychotherapy are currently the least invasive ways of affecting brain function but they leave too many patients only partially improved, and have [...]... Read more »
Lakhan, S., & Callaway, E. (2010) Deep brain stimulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder and treatment-resistant depression: systematic review. BMC Research Notes, 3(1), 60. DOI: 10.1186/1756-0500-3-60
- March 9, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 37 views
Psychotropics and Youth, Part 3 – Equip Teachers with Prescription Pads?
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Contentious debate is brewing over the large role educators play role in recommending what students receive psychotropics, even though they have limited knowledge of treatment. Consider the standards by which one teacher described the benefits of psychotropics to researchers in a recent pilot investigation: the children are “better able to attend to their work… they [...]... Read more »
Wegner, L. (2005) Pediatricians and Antidepressant Medications: Black Box or Black Hole?. PEDIATRICS, 116(1), 233-235. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2005-0928
Lien, M., Carlson, J., Hunter-Oehmke, S., & Knapp, K. (2007) A Pilot Investigation of Teachers' Perceptions of Psychotropic Drug Use in Schools. Journal of Attention Disorders, 11(2), 172-177. DOI: 10.1177/1087054707300992
Lakhan, S., & Hagger-Johnson, G. (2007) The impact of prescribed psychotropics on youth. Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health, 3(1), 21. DOI: 10.1186/1745-0179-3-21
- March 3, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 48 views
Tall Tales of Diabetic Amputations
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Diabetes is the leading cause of nontraumatic amputation in developed nations. Lower-limb amputations are particularly common in type 2 diabetes and impose a substantial burden on the patient’s and caregiver’s quality of life, as well as profound economic and health care burdens for the individual and society. Many studies have attempted to outline the risk [...]... Read more »
Tseng, C. (2006) Prevalence of lower-extremity amputation among patients with diabetes mellitus: Is height a factor?. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 174(3), 319-323. DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.050680
Rajamani, K., Colman, P., Li, L., Best, J., Voysey, M., D'Emden, M., Laakso, M., Baker, J., & Keech, A. (2009) Effect of fenofibrate on amputation events in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (FIELD study): a prespecified analysis of a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, 373(9677), 1780-1788. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60698-X
- February 28, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 59 views
Psychotropics and Youth, Part 2 – The Solutions
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
“Prescribed psychotropic medications are now high on the research agenda,” assert Lakhan and Hagger-Johnson. Their study advocates new approaches to research to address the rising concern over dramatic increases in psychotropic prescriptions for both children and young. Our first post delineated the five erroneous myths often adhered to when prescribing youth’s psychotropic medication. Here are the [...]... Read more »
Lakhan, S., & Hagger-Johnson, G. (2007) The impact of prescribed psychotropics on youth. Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health, 3(1), 21. DOI: 10.1186/1745-0179-3-21
- February 25, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 69 views
How Your Brain Groups Words
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
When you say or hear a concrete noun, such as “apple”, what happens in your mind? Even without seeing a physical apple in front of you, your brain is drawing up an image of an apple, maybe the last one you ate or saw in the stores or on TV. A team of researchers at [...]... Read more »
Just, M., Cherkassky, V., Aryal, S., & Mitchell, T. (2010) A Neurosemantic Theory of Concrete Noun Representation Based on the Underlying Brain Codes. PLoS ONE, 5(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0008622
- February 19, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 75 views
You Have a Right to Choose if we Agree
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
My first encounter with informed medical consent came as a young law student. I was assigned to assist a lawyer in the defense of an older man who had refused treatment for leukemia. His daughter objected, and asked the court to appoint her to be his conservator so she could compel him to undergo treatment. When [...]... Read more »
Buchanan, A. (2004) Mental capacity, legal competence and consent to treatment. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 97(9), 415-420. DOI: 10.1258/jrsm.97.9.415
- February 17, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 56 views
Measuring Quality in Primary Care
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Increasing attention is focused on the quality of healthcare provided in the United States, as well as options for controlling costs. Quality and cost measurements are important in assessing access to and satisfaction with healthcare services and managing cost and payment practices; a sufficient sample size of patients is necessary to reliably interpret the results [...]... Read more »
Gosden T, Forland F, Kristiansen IS, Sutton M, Leese B, Giuffrida A, Sergison M, & Pedersen L. (2000) Capitation, salary, fee-for-service and mixed systems of payment: effects on the behaviour of primary care physicians. Cochrane database of systematic reviews (Online). PMID: 10908531
Landon, B., O’Malley, A., & Keegan, T. (2009) Can Choice of the Sample Population Affect Perceived Performance: Implications for Performance Assessment. Journal of General Internal Medicine. DOI: 10.1007/s11606-009-1153-z
Gosden, T., Forland, F., Kristiansen, I., Sutton, M., Leese, B., Giuffrida, A., Sergison, M., & Pedersen, L. (2001) Impact of payment method on behaviour of primary care physicians: a systematic review. Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, 6(1), 44-55. DOI: 10.1258/1355819011927198
- February 13, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 110 views
Psychotropics and Youth, Part 1 – The Five Myths
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
“The dramatic rise in prescriptions [of psychotropics for children and young adults] has alarmed several commentators,” according to Lakhan and Hagger-Johnson. In their article, they trace this problem to five erroneous myths that influence prescribing: 1) Children are little adults. During adolescence, the brain changes rapidly. As a result, therapeutic benefits, potential adverse occurrences, and drug interactions [...]... Read more »
Lakhan, S., & Hagger-Johnson, G. (2007) The impact of prescribed psychotropics on youth. Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health, 3(1), 21. DOI: 10.1186/1745-0179-3-21
Hankin, B., Abramson, L., & Siler, M. (2001) A prospective test of the hopelessness theory of depression in adolescence. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 25(5), 607-632. DOI: 10.1023/A:1005561616506
- February 11, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 68 views
When It Comes to Aging, Size Matters
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Recently, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists who defined the role and functionality of an enzyme important to the aging process. They outlined just how chromosomes — those vital, thread-like molecules of DNA that contain our genes — are protected against being destroyed. It turns out that a telomere [...]... Read more »
Bize, P., Criscuolo, F., Metcalfe, N., Nasir, L., & Monaghan, P. (2009) Telomere dynamics rather than age predict life expectancy in the wild. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 276(1662), 1679-1683. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2008.1817
Das, B., Saini, D., & Seshadri, M. (2009) Telomere Length in Human Adults and High Level Natural Background Radiation. PLoS ONE, 4(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0008440
Huzen, J. (2010) The emerging role of telomere biology in cardiovascular disease. Frontiers in Bioscience, 15(1), 35. DOI: 10.2741/3604
Marian, C., Cho, S., Mcellin, B., Maher, E., Hatanpaa, K., Madden, C., Mickey, B., Wright, W., Shay, J., & Bachoo, R. (2010) The Telomerase Antagonist, Imetelstat, Efficiently Targets Glioblastoma Tumor-Initiating Cells Leading to Decreased Proliferation and Tumor Growth. Clinical Cancer Research, 16(1), 154-163. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-09-2850
- February 9, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 99 views
“I Feel Your Pain” – The Neural Basis of Empathy
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Last month, a terrible earthquake raised havoc in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. While the Haitians in Port-au-Prince are miles away from us, witnessing media images of their physical and emotional suffering moves us tremendously, and motivates many of us to respond to their distress with monetary and other donations. In a sense, this is an amazing human [...]... Read more »
Rizzolatti, G., & Craighero, L. (2004) THE MIRROR-NEURON SYSTEM. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27(1), 169-192. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.neuro.27.070203.144230
Rizzolatti, G. (1996) Premotor cortex and the recognition of motor actions. Cognitive Brain Research, 3(2), 131-141. DOI: 10.1016/0926-6410(95)00038-0
Decety, J., & Meyer, M. (2008) From emotion resonance to empathic understanding: A social developmental neuroscience account. Development and Psychopathology, 20(04), 1053. DOI: 10.1017/S0954579408000503
- February 7, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 89 views
Speaking in Tongues – A Neural Snapshot
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
“Asaria isa asaria ari masheetee sadabada vena amina gotaya menda meshela mosha nami ki toro ma…” Glossolalia, or speaking in tongues, has fascinated thinkers ever since the “tongues of angels” descended upon early believers as a gift from the Holy Ghost in the New Testament of the Bible. This unusual mental state, characterized by utterances that [...]... Read more »
Francis, L. (2003) Personality and Glossolalia: A Study Among Male Evangelical Clergy. Pastoral Psychology, 51(5), 391-396. DOI: 10.1023/A:1023618715407
NEWBERG, A., WINTERING, N., MORGAN, D., & WALDMAN, M. (2006) The measurement of regional cerebral blood flow during glossolalia: A preliminary SPECT study. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 148(1), 67-71. DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2006.07.001
- February 5, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 89 views
Neuro Case 1 – Using Transcranial Doppler for Basilar Artery Occlusion
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Welcome the first of a series of neurological cases to be featured on Brian Blogger. We will periodically choose the most enlightening cases from the Journal of Medical Case Reports (JMCR) for which I serve as an Associate Editor. I will present the case as published, discuss the implications of the findings or techniques employed, [...]... Read more »
Nicoletti, G., Albano, G., Sanguigni, S., Tardi, S., Malferrari, G., Del Sette, M., Bruno, F., & Nicolai, A. (2010) Transient basilar artery occlusion monitored by transcranial color Doppler presenting with a spectacular shrinking deficit: a case report. Journal of Medical Case Reports, 4(1), 13. DOI: 10.1186/1752-1947-4-13
Kassab, M., Majid, A., Farooq, M., Azhary, H., Hershey, L., Bednarczyk, E., Graybeal, D., & Johnson, M. (2007) Transcranial Doppler: An Introduction for Primary Care Physicians. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 20(1), 65-71. DOI: 10.3122/jabfm.2007.01.060128
Rubiera M, & Alexandrov AV. (2010) Sonothrombolysis in the management of acute ischemic stroke. American journal of cardiovascular drugs : drugs, devices, and other interventions, 10(1), 5-10. PMID: 20104930
- February 3, 2010
- 10:37 AM
- 88 views
Journal Retracts Autism Research
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
In 1998, a landmark study was published in the medical journal The Lancet. It was the first major research that suggested a link between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. Almost immediately following publication, the rates of vaccination plummeted and the incidence of measles escalated among children. Since then, the subject has been the source [...]... Read more »
Herbert MR. (2010) Contributions of the environment and environmentally vulnerable physiology to autism spectrum disorders. Current opinion in neurology. PMID: 20087183
Kinney, D., Barch, D., Chayka, B., Napoleon, S., & Munir, K. (2010) Environmental risk factors for autism: Do they help cause de novo genetic mutations that contribute to the disorder?. Medical Hypotheses, 74(1), 102-106. DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2009.07.052
WAKEFIELD, A., MURCH, S., ANTHONY, A., LINNELL, J., CASSON, D., MALIK, M., BERELOWITZ, M., DHILLON, A., THOMSON, M., & HARVEY, P. (1998) Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children. The Lancet, 351(9103), 637-641. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(97)11096-0
- February 1, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 82 views
Crossing the Line from Physician to Journalist
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
The recent coverage of the devastation and destruction after the earthquake in Haiti has had an unintended consequence; the public is now questioning the legitimacy and ethics of the physicians who masquerade as journalists. For decades, there has been an increased interest in and awareness of the need for physicians and the medical community to work [...]... Read more »
Anthony, S., Lozano-Calderon, S., & Ring, D. (2007) Stigmatization of Repetitive Hand Use in Newspaper Reports of Hand Illness. HAND, 3(1), 30-33. DOI: 10.1007/s11552-007-9052-4
Campbell, N., Heath, J., Bouknight, J., Rudd, K., & Pender, J. (2009) Speaking Out For Mental Health: Collaboration of Future Journalists and Psychiatrists. Academic Psychiatry, 33(2), 166-168. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ap.33.2.166
Catherine, N., Ko, J., & Barr, R. (2008) Getting the Word Out: Advice on Crying and Colic in Popular Parenting Magazines. Journal of Developmental , 29(6), 508-511. DOI: 10.1097/DBP.0b013e31818d0c0c
- January 29, 2010
- 09:24 AM
- 127 views
Ginkgo Biloba Ineffective… Again
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Many parents have cried “How many times do I have to tell you?” at their young children when trying to get their attention or emphasize specific behaviors. Now, pharmacists and other medical practitioners are beginning to feel like these parents: “How many times do we have to tell you that Ginkgo biloba is not all [...]... Read more »
Canis, M., Olzowy, B., Welz, C., Suckfüll, M., & Stelter, K. (2009) Simvastatin and Ginkgo biloba in the treatment of subacute tinnitus: a retrospective study of 94 patients. American Journal of Otolaryngology. DOI: 10.1016/j.amjoto.2009.09.004
Kaschel, R. (2009) Ginkgo biloba: specificity of neuropsychological improvement-a selective review in search of differential effects. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, 24(5), 345-370. DOI: 10.1002/hup.1037
Leistner, E., & Drewke, C. (2010) and Ginkgotoxin . Journal of Natural Products, 73(1), 86-92. DOI: 10.1021/np9005019
Snitz, B., O'Meara, E., Carlson, M., Arnold, A., Ives, D., Rapp, S., Saxton, J., Lopez, O., Dunn, L., Sink, K.... (2009) Ginkgo biloba for Preventing Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: A Randomized Trial. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 302(24), 2663-2670. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2009.1913
- January 26, 2010
- 10:39 AM
- 103 views
The Smart Ones are Living Longer
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
A child with a high IQ is more likely to get good grades, be accepted to a prestigious college, accrue successes in life and career, and make healthy lifestyle choices compared to lower-IQ peers. Now, a Swedish study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) concludes that children with a high IQ also have a [...]... Read more »
Aberg, M., Pedersen, N., Toren, K., Svartengren, M., Backstrand, B., Johnsson, T., Cooper-Kuhn, C., Aberg, N., Nilsson, M., & Kuhn, H. (2009) Cardiovascular fitness is associated with cognition in young adulthood. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(49), 20906-20911. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0905307106
Batty, G., Deary, I., & Macintyre, S. (2007) Childhood IQ in relation to risk factors for premature mortality in middle-aged persons: the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s study. Journal of Epidemiology , 61(3), 241-247. DOI: 10.1136/jech.2006.048215
Batty, G., Gale, C., Tynelius, P., Deary, I., & Rasmussen, F. (2008) IQ in Early Adulthood, Socioeconomic Position, and Unintentional Injury Mortality by Middle Age: A Cohort Study of More Than 1 Million Swedish Men. American Journal of Epidemiology, 169(5), 606-615. DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwn381
Batty, G., Shipley, M., Mortensen, L., Boyle, S., Barefoot, J., Gronbaek, M., Gale, C., & Deary, I. (2008) IQ in late adolescence/early adulthood, risk factors in middle age and later all-cause mortality in men: the Vietnam Experience Study. Journal of Epidemiology , 62(6), 522-531. DOI: 10.1136/jech.2007.064881
Batty, G., Wennerstad, K., Smith, G., Gunnell, D., Deary, I., Tynelius, P., & Rasmussen, F. (2009) IQ in Early Adulthood and Mortality By Middle Age. Epidemiology, 20(1), 100-109. DOI: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e31818ba076
Der, G., Batty, G., & Deary, I. (2009) The association between IQ in adolescence and a range of health outcomes at 40 in the 1979 US National Longitudinal Study of Youth. Intelligence, 37(6), 573-580. DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2008.12.002
Hart, C. (2003) Childhood IQ, Social Class, Deprivation, and Their Relationships with Mortality and Morbidity Risk in Later Life: Prospective Observational Study Linking the Scottish Mental Survey 1932 and the Midspan Studies. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65(5), 877-883. DOI: 10.1097/01.PSY.0000088584.82822.86
Gordon, A. (2008) Breastfeeding, Breast-Milk Feeding, Breast Feeding, and IQ: Unknown and Known Knowns. Archives of General Psychiatry, 65(12), 1457-1458. DOI: 10.1001/archpsyc.65.12.1457
Lager, A., Bremberg, S., & Vagero, D. (2009) The association of early IQ and education with mortality: 65 year longitudinal study in Malmo, Sweden. BMJ, 339(dec11 1). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.b5282
- January 22, 2010
- 03:16 PM
- 144 views
Too Much Information?
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
How things have changed. Once information was a precious commodity, jealously guarded by the elite who deliberately withheld it from the masses in order to keep them in their place. Now information is everywhere, available to everybody, all of the time. While the democratization of information is undoubtedly a force for good, is there such [...]... Read more »
Clauson, K., Polen, H., Boulos, M., & Dzenowagis, J. (2008) Scope, Completeness, and Accuracy of Drug Information in Wikipedia. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 42(12), 1814-1821. DOI: 10.1345/aph.1L474
- January 18, 2010
- 12:17 PM
- 110 views
Coping with Trauma – Lessons from Resilient Individuals
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Most individuals at some point of their life experience events that are stressful. While some people seem to crumble to the deleterious effects of stress, others sail through adverse situations. Chronic or acute stress is associated with a wide range of psychosocial disorders. So what are the factors and the possible neurobiological mechanisms associated with [...]... Read more »
Feder, A., Nestler, E., & Charney, D. (2009) Psychobiology and molecular genetics of resilience. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(6), 446-457. DOI: 10.1038/nrn2649
- January 13, 2010
- 11:45 AM
- 117 views
Worried Well on the Web
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Eight out of every ten Americans have searched for medical information online. Three-quarters of these searchers do not scrutinize the quality, validity, or date of the information. With the overabundance of healthcare information available on the World Wide Web, people looking for quality medical information could easily be led astray. The unnecessary escalation of health [...]... Read more »
Kappen, T., & van Dulmen, S. (2008) General practitioners' responses to the initial presentation of medically unexplained symptoms: a quantitative analysis. BioPsychoSocial Medicine, 2(1), 22. DOI: 10.1186/1751-0759-2-22
Peters, S., Rogers, A., Salmon, P., Gask, L., Dowrick, C., Towey, M., Clifford, R., & Morriss, R. (2008) What Do Patients Choose to Tell Their Doctors? Qualitative Analysis of Potential Barriers to Reattributing Medically Unexplained Symptoms. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 24(4), 443-449. DOI: 10.1007/s11606-008-0872-x
Salmon, P., Ring, A., Humphris, G., Davies, J., & Dowrick, C. (2009) Primary Care Consultations About Medically Unexplained Symptoms: How Do Patients Indicate What They Want?. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 24(4), 450-456. DOI: 10.1007/s11606-008-0898-0
topics
join us!
Do you write about peer-reviewed research in your blog? Use ResearchBlogging.org to make it easy for your readers — and others from around the world — to find your serious posts about academic research.
If you don't have a blog, you can still use our site to learn about fascinating developments in cutting-edge research from around the world.
News
Editor's Selections: How NOT to quit smoking, publish a journal, hand-off patients, and help your child learn
Editor's selections: corporate water abuse, vanishing audiophiles, artificial coffee smelling and 60k-year-old canteens
Editor's Selections: An asteroid killed the dinosaurs, innate immunity and obesity, and vaccinia virus in Brazil
