Health posts
- May 24, 2016
- 03:07 AM
- 217 views
Around 1 in 5 with autism will experience seizure or seizure disorder
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
The paper by Jennifer Jaskiewicz and colleagues [1] recently offered a further important insight into the relationship between autism and seizure or seizure disorder (i.e. epilepsy).Based on the examination of records of nearly 50,000 children and young adults diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared with approximately quarter of a million 'not-autism' participants, authors reported some interesting trends. Concluding that some 19% of participants with autism experienced "s........ Read more »
Jennifer Jaskiewicz, Apryl Susi, Elizabeth Hisle-Gorman, David Dennison, Gregory Gorman, Cade Nylund, & Christine Erdie-Lalena. (2016) Quantification of Risks of Seizure in Autism. Neurology. info:/
- May 23, 2016
- 10:39 AM
- 312 views
Emotional Processing: A Key to Depression Treatment?
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In my last post I reported on the use of machine learning to aid in predicting response to depression treatment.Another interesting depression prediction tool is being investigated in a trial in England funded by the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.This trial uses a visual facial recognition tool. The hypothesis is that early antidepressant action can be identified by changes in facial emotional recognition.This trial stems from work by Catherine Harmer Ph.D. from the University of Oxford. He........ Read more »
Pringle A, & Harmer CJ. (2015) The effects of drugs on human models of emotional processing: an account of antidepressant drug treatment. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 17(4), 477-87. PMID: 26869848
- May 23, 2016
- 02:48 AM
- 221 views
Sex-specific immune response to Candida albicans in schizophrenia and beyond
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
I have quite a bit of time for the various members of the Stanley Division of Developmental Neurovirology at Johns Hopkins on this blog. Not least because of the interesting work of one researcher in particular - Emily Severance - as a name behind some potentially very important research on how food, infection and immune function might come together in complicated conditions such as [some] schizophrenia and [some] bipolar disorder (see here and see here).Continuing their 'gut-brain' theme (........ Read more »
Severance, E., Gressitt, K., Stallings, C., Katsafanas, E., Schweinfurth, L., Savage, C., Adamos, M., Sweeney, K., Origoni, A., Khushalani, S.... (2016) Candida albicans exposures, sex specificity and cognitive deficits in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. npj Schizophrenia, 16018. DOI: 10.1038/npjschz.2016.18
- May 22, 2016
- 04:04 PM
- 318 views
How depression and antidepressant drugs work
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Treating depression is kind of a guessing game. Trying to find a medication that works without causing side effects can take months, or more likely, years. However, new research demonstrates the effectiveness of ketamine to treat depression in a mouse model of the disease and brings together two hypotheses for the cause of depression.
... Read more »
Ren, Z., Pribiag, H., Jefferson, S., Shorey, M., Fuchs, T., Stellwagen, D., & Luscher, B. (2016) Bidirectional Homeostatic Regulation of a Depression-Related Brain State by Gamma-Aminobutyric Acidergic Deficits and Ketamine Treatment. Biological Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2016.02.009
- May 21, 2016
- 10:21 AM
- 291 views
Quick Aspirin Use Reduces Stroke Risk in TIA
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
A free full-text commentary in the Lancet summarizes recent evidence of the benefit of aspirin in stroke prevention.This commentary focused on what is called secondary prevention. Secondary prevention is defined as prevention following events related to the disease in question.So secondary prevention in stroke would be reduction in stroke risk in those who have had a stroke or pre-stroke syndromes such as transient ischemic attacks (TIA).The key take-home message from the commentary by Graeme Ha........ Read more »
Hankey, G. (2016) The benefits of aspirin in early secondary stroke prevention. The Lancet. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30511-6
- May 21, 2016
- 02:57 AM
- 333 views
Add-on nutraceuticals for depression?
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
It came as no surprise to me that the systematic review and meta-analysis article by Jerome Sarris and colleagues [1] found what it did in relation to the use of [certain] adjunctive (add-on) nutraceuticals alongside antidepressants to reduce depressive symptoms: some of them might actually be clinically useful.With no medical or clinical advice given or intended, the authors report that "adjunctive use of SAMe, methylfolate, omega-3, and vitamin D with antidepressants" might be something to con........ Read more »
Sarris J, Murphy J, Mischoulon D, Papakostas GI, Fava M, Berk M, & Ng CH. (2016) Adjunctive Nutraceuticals for Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses. The American journal of psychiatry. PMID: 27113121
- May 20, 2016
- 03:52 PM
- 319 views
You are what you eat: Immune cells remember their first meal
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Scientists have identified the trigger for immune cells' inflammatory response -- a discovery that may pave the way for new treatments for many human diseases. Immune cells play essential roles in the maintenance and repair of our bodies. When we injure ourselves, immune cells mount a rapid inflammatory response to protect us against infection and help heal the damaged tissue.
... Read more »
Helen Weavers, Iwan R. Evans, Paul Martin, & Will Wood. (2016) Corpse engulfment generates a molecular memory that primes the macrophage inflammatory response. Cell. DOI: http://dx.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.04.049
- May 20, 2016
- 10:50 AM
- 311 views
Predicting Depression Treatment Response: Machine Learning
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Treatment of depression remains primarily an uninformed clinical process. Several effective drug and psychotherapy interventions are available. However, there is no reliable way to determine which treatment is likely to be the most effective for an individual patient.A recent study that used machine learning techniques to address this problem has been published.A research team from Yale University used clinical data from the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) tr........ Read more »
Chekroud AM, Zotti RJ, Shehzad Z, Gueorguieva R, Johnson MK, Trivedi MH, Cannon TD, Krystal JH, & Corlett PR. (2016) Cross-trial prediction of treatment outcome in depression: a machine learning approach. The lancet. Psychiatry, 3(3), 243-50. PMID: 26803397
- May 20, 2016
- 02:53 AM
- 249 views
On the question of valproate use and pregnancy
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
I very much want to stress the point that 'no medical or clinical advice is given or intended' on this blog before proceeding further with discussions based on the commentary paper by Richard Balon & Michelle Riba titled: 'Should Women of Childbearing Potential Be Prescribed Valproate?' [1].Valproate, as in preparations like sodium valproate, has been a particular talking point in recent years as a consequence of something of an emerging body of peer-reviewed science suggesting that its use ........ Read more »
Balon R, & Riba M. (2016) Should women of childbearing potential be prescribed valproate? a call to action. The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 77(4), 525-6. PMID: 27137420
- May 19, 2016
- 11:53 AM
- 371 views
To Beat Sleep Apnea, Try the Didgeridoo
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
People with sleep apnea are at war with their windpipes. But they might be able to get some help from a different kind of wind pipe—namely, the Australian Aboriginal instrument called the didgeridoo.
In sleep apnea, obstructed airways stop a person's breathing over and over at night. It's normal for the throat muscles to relax during sleep, but for sleep apnea sufferers this relaxation combines with other factors to make breathing impossible. Apnea leads to broken sleep, snoring, and exh........ Read more »
Puhan MA, Suarez A, Lo Cascio C, Zahn A, Heitz M, & Braendli O. (2006) Didgeridoo playing as alternative treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome: randomised controlled trial. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 332(7536), 266-70. PMID: 16377643
- May 19, 2016
- 11:33 AM
- 271 views
Language Disorder in Preschoolers
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Well-designed large population-based studies of the prevalence and correlates of learning disabilities in preschool children are rare.A research group working out of University College London has address that issues with a large study of language disorder in a group of over 7000 4 and 5 year olds in England.A stratified group of 529 children received a comprehensive assessment of language along with assessment of IQ, social, emotional and behavior function.The study found the following important........ Read more »
Norbury, C., Gooch, D., Wray, C., Baird, G., Charman, T., Simonoff, E., Vamvakas, G., & Pickles, A. (2016) The impact of nonverbal ability on prevalence and clinical presentation of language disorder: evidence from a population study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.12573
- May 19, 2016
- 03:09 AM
- 259 views
Brain GABA levels and autism meta-analysed
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
The paper by Remmelt Schür and colleagues [1] provides some (brief) blogging fodder today and the observation that following a "systematic literature review and meta-analysis of 1 H-MRS studies" brain GABA levels were found to be significantly lower in cases of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) than compared to control (not autism) populations.GABA - gamma-Aminobutyric acid - has been something of interest for quite a few years in autism research circles (see here). It's particular role ........ Read more »
Schür RR, Draisma LW, Wijnen JP, Boks MP, Koevoets MG, Joëls M, Klomp DW, Kahn RS, & Vinkers CH. (2016) Brain GABA levels across psychiatric disorders: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis of 1 H-MRS studies. Human brain mapping. PMID: 27145016
- May 18, 2016
- 09:36 AM
- 327 views
Video Tip of the Week: JGI user meeting videos, and MetaSUB
This week’s Video Tip of the Week is actually a whole bunch of videos. Although I’ll highlight one here as our tip, there are many great talks from the recent JGI Genomics of Energy & Environment meeting. Although typically we focus on specific software tools for our tips, I think this is a nice case […]... Read more »
Afshinnekoo, E., Meydan, C., Chowdhury, S., Jaroudi, D., Boyer, C., Bernstein, N., Maritz, J., Reeves, D., Gandara, J., Chhangawala, S.... (2015) Geospatial Resolution of Human and Bacterial Diversity with City-Scale Metagenomics. Cell Systems, 1(1), 72-87. DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2015.01.001
Alexa B.R. McIntyre, Lindsay Rizzardi, Angela M Yu, Gail L. Rosen, Noah Alexander, Douglas J. Botkin, Kristen K. John, Sarah L. Castro-Wallace, Aaron S. Burton, Andrew Feinberg.... (2015) Nanopore Sequencing in Microgravity. bioRxiv. DOI: 10.1101/032342
- May 18, 2016
- 02:57 AM
- 304 views
Siblings of probands with autism: preferential screening suggested?
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"Psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders cluster among siblings of probands with ASD [autism spectrum disorder]."That was the research bottom line presented in the paper by Elina Jokiranta-Olkoniemi and colleagues [1] who extracted data from the Finnish Prenatal Study of Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders (FIPS-A). FIPS-A has been mentioned previously on this blog (see here) but this time around the aim was to look not at the various risk factors potentially associated........ Read more »
Jokiranta-Olkoniemi, E., Cheslack-Postava, K., Sucksdorff, D., Suominen, A., Gyllenberg, D., Chudal, R., Leivonen, S., Gissler, M., Brown, A., & Sourander, A. (2016) Risk of Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Among Siblings of Probands With Autism Spectrum Disorders. JAMA Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.0495
- May 17, 2016
- 02:35 PM
- 267 views
Nurses Frequently Attending Church Live Longer
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
The Harvard-based Nurses' Health Study has been a remarkably productive longitudinal health study.My wife has been a subject in this study and frequently completes interval questionnaires regarding her health status.A recent publication looked at the relationship between religious service attendance and mortality in the Nurses's Health Study cohort.This manuscript tried to provide a more valid look at the relationship between religiosity/spirituality and health. Previous studies have found a lin........ Read more »
Li, S., Stampfer, M., Williams, D., & VanderWeele, T. (2016) Association of Religious Service Attendance With Mortality Among Women. JAMA Internal Medicine. DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1615
- May 17, 2016
- 02:43 AM
- 321 views
Immigrant background and risk of offspring ADHD
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"The likelihood of being diagnosed with ADHD [attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder] was significantly increased among children of two immigrant parents... and children of an immigrant father."So said the findings published by Venla Lehti and colleagues [1] continuing a research theme from this authorship group (see here) on how immigration might, for various reasons, bring about an increased or decreased risk of certain behavioural and/or psychiatric outcomes. This time a........ Read more »
Lehti V, Chudal R, Suominen A, Gissler M, & Sourander A. (2016) Association between immigrant background and ADHD: a nationwide population-based case-control study. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines. PMID: 27133554
- May 16, 2016
- 03:50 PM
- 264 views
Converting cells to burn fat, not store it
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Researchers have uncovered a new molecular pathway for stimulating the body to burn fat -- a discovery that could help fight obesity and cardiovascular disease.By focusing on a protein known as folliculin, and knocking out the gene that produces it in fat cells, the researchers triggered a series of biomolecular signals that switched the cells from storing fat to burning it.
... Read more »
Yan, M., Audet-Walsh., Manteghi, S., Rosa Dufour, C., Walker, B., Baba, M., St-Pierre, J., Giguère, V., & Pause, A. (2016) Chronic AMPK activation via loss of FLCN induces functional beige adipose tissue through PGC-1α/ERRα. Genes , 30(9), 1034-1046. DOI: 10.1101/gad.281410.116
- May 16, 2016
- 03:34 PM
- 365 views
Novel Borrelia Species Causes Lyme Disease with High Spirochetemia
by Pranab Chatterjee in Zoonoticus
In a recent paper in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, Pritt et al have identified a new genospecies of Borrelia which is attributed to have caused several cases of Lyme disease, marked by a high degree of spirochetemia. In their research article abstract, they state: Methods At the Mayo clinic, from 2003 to 2014, we tested […]... Read more »
Pritt BS, Mead PS, Johnson DK, Neitzel DF, Respicio-Kingry LB, Davis JP, Schiffman E, Sloan LM, Schriefer ME, Replogle AJ.... (2016) Identification of a novel pathogenic Borrelia species causing Lyme borreliosis with unusually high spirochaetaemia: a descriptive study. The Lancet. Infectious diseases. PMID: 26856777
- May 16, 2016
- 02:40 AM
- 293 views
More [metabolomic] evidence for dysbiosis and some autism?
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
The paper by Xiyue Xiong and colleagues [1] (open-access available here) took my attention recently and some further evidence contributory to the idea that the trillions of wee beasties that call our gastrointestinal (GI) tract home - collectively known as the gut microbiome - might have some important links to at least 'some' autism.Describing the results of "a GC/MS based metabolomic approach" - GC-MS being gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and metabolomic(s) being the analysis o........ Read more »
Xiong X, Liu D, Wang Y, Zeng T, & Peng Y. (2016) Urinary 3-(3-Hydroxyphenyl)-3-hydroxypropionic Acid, 3-Hydroxyphenylacetic Acid, and 3-Hydroxyhippuric Acid Are Elevated in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. BioMed research international, 9485412. PMID: 27123458
- May 15, 2016
- 03:22 PM
- 303 views
Brain cells that aid appetite control identified
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
It's rare for scientists to get what they describe as "clean" results without spending a lot of time repeating the same experiment over and over again. But when researchers saw the mice they were working with doubling their weight within a month or two, they knew they were on to something.
... Read more »
Djogo, T., Robins, S., Schneider, S., Kryzskaya, D., Liu, X., Mingay, A., Gillon, C., Kim, J., Storch, K., Boehm, U.... (2016) Adult NG2-Glia Are Required for Median Eminence-Mediated Leptin Sensing and Body Weight Control. Cell Metabolism, 23(5), 797-810. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2016.04.013
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