435 posts · 451,886 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.
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- February 28, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 528 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
- 593 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
- 691 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
- 629 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
- 523 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
- 796 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
- 530 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
- 454 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
- 1,486 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
- 513 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
- 769 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
- 505 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
- 400 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
- 664 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
- 495 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
- 537 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
- January 7, 2010
- 11:22 AM
- 711 views
One Puff Forward, Two Pounds Back
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Considerable improvements have been made in the health of the population of the United States in the last three decades owing to healthy living interventions, specifically a reduction in smoking. However, during the same period, substantial increases in the incidence of overweight and obesity have adversely impacted the health of the same population. A new [...]... Read more »
Lubetkin, E., & Jia, H. (2009) Health-Related Quality of Life, Quality-Adjusted Life Years, and Quality-Adjusted Life Expectancy in New York City from 1995 to 2006. Journal of Urban Health, 86(4), 551-561. DOI: 10.1007/s11524-009-9344-9
Stewart, S., Cutler, D., & Rosen, A. (2009) Forecasting the Effects of Obesity and Smoking on U.S. Life Expectancy. New England Journal of Medicine, 361(23), 2252-2260. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa0900459
Reuser, M., Bonneux, L., & Willekens, F. (2009) Smoking Kills, Obesity Disables: A Multistate Approach of the US Health and Retirement Survey. Obesity, 17(4), 783-789. DOI: 10.1038/oby.2008.640
Wang, Y., Colditz, G., & Kuntz, K. (2007) Forecasting the Obesity Epidemic in the Aging U.S. Population**. Obesity, 15(11), 2855-2865. DOI: 10.1038/oby.2007.339
van Baal, P., Hoogenveen, R., de Wit, G., & Boshuizen, H. (2006) Estimating health-adjusted life expectancy conditional on risk factors: results for smoking and obesity. Population Health Metrics, 4(1), 14. DOI: 10.1186/1478-7954-4-14
- January 3, 2010
- 02:17 PM
- 653 views
Income Inequality and Health Outcomes
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
During the last several decades, industrialized countries have experienced a growing gap between the rich and the poor. This income inequality is believed to damage health, with even modest associations between inequality and health outcomes having substantial ramifications for society as a whole. While most analyses of income inequality and health have revealed inconsistent results, [...]... Read more »
Kondo, N., Sembajwe, G., Kawachi, I., van Dam, R., Subramanian, S., & Yamagata, Z. (2009) Income inequality, mortality, and self rated health: meta-analysis of multilevel studies. BMJ, 339(nov10 2). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.b4471
SUBRAMANIAN, S., & KAWACHI, I. (2006) Whose health is affected by income inequality? A multilevel interaction analysis of contemporaneous and lagged effects of state income inequality on individual self-rated health in the United States. Health , 12(2), 141-156. DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2004.11.001
LYNCH, J., SMITH, G., HARPER, S., HILLEMEIER, M., ROSS, N., KAPLAN, G., & WOLFSON, M. (2004) Is Income Inequality a Determinant of Population Health? Part 1. A Systematic Review. The Milbank Quarterly, 82(1), 5-99. DOI: 10.1111/j.0887-378X.2004.00302.x
Ichida, Y., Kondo, K., Hirai, H., Hanibuchi, T., Yoshikawa, G., & Murata, C. (2009) Social capital, income inequality and self-rated health in Chita peninsula, Japan: a multilevel analysis of older people in 25 communities. Social Science , 69(4), 489-499. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.05.006
- December 25, 2009
- 08:00 AM
- 516 views
Is a Slim Santa Claus Coming to Town?
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
Once upon a time, a lively old man named Santa Claus worked very hard — all by himself, not exploiting animals or short people — to make safe, educational toys to deliver to children all over the world on Christmas Eve. Santa exercised regularly, and ate a balanced diet of whole grains and plenty of [...]... Read more »
Grills, N., & Halyday, B. (2009) Santa Claus: a public health pariah?. BMJ, 339(dec16 1). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.b5261
- December 24, 2009
- 11:11 AM
- 518 views
Stimulants May Offer Protection in ADHD
by Shaheen Lakhan in Brain Blogger
As many as 10% of children suffer from attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a neuropsychiatric behavioral disorder characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. ADHD can cause significant functional, social, and psychological impairment in children and adults. ADHD treatment in children has been controversial, since the mainstay of treatment is stimulant medications, including methylphenidate and amphetamines. Parents [...]... Read more »
Biederman, J., Monuteaux, M., Spencer, T., Wilens, T., MacPherson, H., & Faraone, S. (2008) Stimulant Therapy and Risk for Subsequent Substance Use Disorders in Male Adults With ADHD: A Naturalistic Controlled 10-Year Follow-Up Study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 165(5), 597-603. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2007.07091486
Mannuzza, S., Klein, R., Truong, N., Moulton, J., Roizen, E., Howell, K., & Castellanos, F. (2008) Age of Methylphenidate Treatment Initiation in Children With ADHD and Later Substance Abuse: Prospective Follow-Up Into Adulthood. American Journal of Psychiatry, 165(5), 604-609. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2008.07091465
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