Health posts
- May 5, 2016
- 02:26 PM
- 256 views
Ketamine Metabolite Linked to Rapid Antidepressant Effect
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Model of crytalized ketamine moleculeStandard antidepressant therapies typically take two weeks or more to begin to act.Ketamine is an anesthetic drug recently demonstrated to have a rapid antidepressant effect.The mechanism for this effect is unknown. A recent mouse study of ketamine and metabolites of ketamine show some potentially groundbreaking insight for the treatment of depression.This study found these significant findings:Ketamine like most organic compounds is made of boty an R an........ Read more »
Zanos, P., Moaddel, R., Morris, P., Georgiou, P., Fischell, J., Elmer, G., Alkondon, M., Yuan, P., Pribut, H., Singh, N.... (2016) NMDAR inhibition-independent antidepressant actions of ketamine metabolites. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature17998
- May 5, 2016
- 10:23 AM
- 102 views
Left Kidney Donation Preference
by Cristy at Living Donor 101 in Living Donors Are People Too
During living kidney donation, the left kidney is most often taken because the right kidney rests behind the liver. In simple terms, it’s easier to access the left kidney. But it also appears that the left kidney has a longer renal vessel than the right (an important consideration that is rarely, if ever, mentioned during …
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Özdemir-van Brunschot, D., van Laarhoven, C., van der Jagt, M., Hoitsma, A., & Warlé, M. (2015) Is the Reluctance for the Implantation of Right Donor Kidneys Justified?. World Journal of Surgery, 40(2), 471-478. DOI: 10.1007/s00268-015-3232-0
- May 5, 2016
- 02:53 AM
- 316 views
NAC for 'social impairment' in youth with autism... probably not
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"The results of this trial indicate that NAC [N-acetylcysteine] treatment was well tolerated, had the expected effect of boosting GSH [glutathione] production, but had no significant impact on social impairment in youth with ASD [autism spectrum disorder]."So said the results reported by Logan Wink and colleagues [1] (open-access) who, continuing an autism research theme, looked at whether this important L-cysteine prodrug might have more to give when it comes to a........ Read more »
Wink, L., Adams, R., Wang, Z., Klaunig, J., Plawecki, M., Posey, D., McDougle, C., & Erickson, C. (2016) A randomized placebo-controlled pilot study of N-acetylcysteine in youth with autism spectrum disorder. Molecular Autism, 7(1). DOI: 10.1186/s13229-016-0088-6
- May 4, 2016
- 02:34 AM
- 330 views
The developmental correlates of asthma (again)
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
Can I just get it out of the way? May the 4th be with you.OK. The results from Mark Strom & Jonathan Silverberg [1] caught my eye recently and further evidence of a 'correlation' between asthma and developmental and/or behavioural outcomes. This time around it was "caregiver-reported speech disorders in US children" and how the appearance of asthma, hay fever and/or food allergy might show some important relationships with something like speech disorder. This follows other, similar work from........ Read more »
Strom MA, & Silverberg JI. (2016) Asthma, hay fever and food allergy are associated with caregiver-reported speech disorders in US children. Pediatric allergy and immunology : official publication of the European Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology. PMID: 27091599
- May 3, 2016
- 12:05 PM
- 205 views
Depression Symptoms and Alzheimer's Risk
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
An important study was published today in Lancet Psychiatry. This study examined the role of depression symptoms in risk for later development of dementia including Alzheimer's disease.Previous work on this topic has relied on cross-sectional risk factor design. However, the study published today used a prospective longitudinal design for elderly individuals participating the Rotterdam study.Depressive symptoms were measured over time and compared to latter risk for development of dementia......... Read more »
Mirza, S., Wolters, F., Swanson, S., Koudstaal, P., Hofman, A., Tiemeier, H., & Ikram, M. (2016) 10-year trajectories of depressive symptoms and risk of dementia: a population-based study. The Lancet Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(16)00097-3
- May 3, 2016
- 12:00 PM
- 158 views
"The Biggest Loser": Long-term Effects
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Yesterday I posted a link to a New York Times article that posted a summary outcome in fourteen participants in TV's "The Biggest Loser" show.The study found a trend towards post-show weight gain for 13/14 of the participants.Four participants actually gained so much weight that after six years they weighed more than before participating in the show.A key finding from the study was this weight gain could be explained by a metabolic response resulting in up to 800 calories less burned daily ........ Read more »
Fothergill, E., Guo, J., Howard, L., Kerns, J., Knuth, N., Brychta, R., Chen, K., Skarulis, M., Walter, M., Walter, P.... (2016) Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after “The Biggest Loser” competition. Obesity. DOI: 10.1002/oby.21538
- May 3, 2016
- 11:36 AM
- 145 views
Delirium and Aortic Valve Surgery Outcome
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Delirium is an acute confusional state that is common in elderly hospitalized patients.I think of it light a sign of acute brain failure requiring aggressive attentional for detection and treatment of any reversible underlying causes.Delirium in elderly hospitalized patients is a marker for poor outcome in a variety of medical and surgical subjects.A recent study published by a Norwegian team found effects on outcome for delirium following surgical aortic valve replacement. The key findings from........ Read more »
Eide LS, Ranhoff AH, Fridlund B, Haaverstad R, Hufthammer KO, Kuiper KK, Nordrehaug JE, Norekvål TM, & Delirium in Octogenarians Undergoing Cardiac Surgery or Intervention-CARDELIR Investigators. (2016) Delirium as a Predictor of Physical and Cognitive Function in Individuals Aged 80 and Older After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation or Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. PMID: 27106745
- May 3, 2016
- 02:58 AM
- 290 views
Machine learning applied to autism screening going big time?
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
Machine learning, when machines, er.. learn, is of growing interest to the autism research field. The names Wall and Duda have filled quite a few posts on this blog (see here and see here for example) on this topic and their suggesting that applying machine learning algorithms to something like autism screening and detection could cut down on time taken and resources used.As per the publication of the paper by Daniel Bone and colleagues [1] it appears that others working in autism research are a........ Read more »
Bone D, Bishop S, Black MP, Goodwin MS, Lord C, & Narayanan SS. (2016) Use of machine learning to improve autism screening and diagnostic instruments: effectiveness, efficiency, and multi-instrument fusion. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines. PMID: 27090613
- May 2, 2016
- 02:45 PM
- 385 views
Origin of synaptic pruning process linked to learning, autism and schizophrenia identified
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Vaccines don't cause autism, but because the brain is so complex, we still don't know how much of it works so figuring out the real causes (as in more than one) of autism has been slow going. Well, researchers have identified a brain receptor that appears to initiate adolescent synaptic pruning, a process believed necessary for learning, but in this case it is one that appears to go awry in both autism and schizophrenia.... Read more »
Sonia Afroz, Julie Parato, Hui Shen Sheryl, & Sue Smith. (2016) Synaptic pruning in the female hippocampus is triggered at puberty by extrasynaptic GABAA receptors on dendritic spines . eLife. info:/
- May 2, 2016
- 01:10 PM
- 89 views
Kidney Donors Suffer More Pain
by Cristy at Living Donor 101 in Living Donors Are People Too
The authors compared 30 living kidney donors with 30 other individuals who underwent a nephrectomy (kidney removal) because of a tumor. They found that living kidney donors experienced more pain than the comparison group, and they asked for (and were given) more pain medications. Wang, J., Fu, Y., Yuan, T., & Wang, N. (2015). Comparison …
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Wang, J., Fu, Y., Yuan, T., & Wang, N. (2015) Comparison of Postoperative Analgesic Requirements in Living Donors and Patients Undergoing Similar Surgical Procedures. Transplantation Proceedings, 47(6), 1896-1900. DOI: 10.1016/j.transproceed.2015.04.088
- May 2, 2016
- 02:55 AM
- 302 views
On defining chronic fatigue syndrome / myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME)
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
Most people who know a little bit about chronic fatigue syndrome / myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) will probably understand the potential importance of the findings reported by Leonard Jason and colleagues [1] (open-access available here). Suggesting that there may be "four groupings of patients" when it comes to how we "name and define the illnesses", this research group who surveyed over 500 people "in the United States, Great Britain, and Norway" report on one of the biggest challenge........ Read more »
Jason LA, McManimen S, Sunnquist M, Brown A, Furst J, Newton JL, & Strand EB. (2016) Case definitions integrating empiric and consensus perspectives. Fatigue : biomedicine, health , 4(1), 1-23. PMID: 27088059
- April 30, 2016
- 02:55 PM
- 378 views
Salts in the brain control our sleep-wake cycle
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Insomnia, fun fact those of us who have served or are serving in the military have a much higher incidence of sleep problems. So if you are like me and have ever been prescribed something to help you sleep, you know that there are some unwanted side effects. For instance the time I lost memory of a whole day of interacting with people to the ambien I had taken the night before, not fun. Thankfully Danish researchers found that the level of salts in the brain plays a critical role in whether we a........ Read more »
Ding, F., ODonnell, J., Xu, Q., Kang, N., Goldman, N., & Nedergaard, M. (2016) Changes in the composition of brain interstitial ions control the sleep-wake cycle. Science, 352(6285), 550-555. DOI: 10.1126/science.aad4821
- April 30, 2016
- 02:45 AM
- 297 views
The 'anti-neuroinflammatory activity' of oxytocin
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
Whilst the package inserts of the various drugs that modern medicine has at its disposal provides important information on potential mode of action, there is a growing realisation that drugs generally have quite a few more molecular targets than are perhaps listed. Take for example the quite commonly used (in some parts of the world anyway) compound called melatonin that in some instances can provide almost miraculous relief when it comes to sleeping issues under certain circumstances. A d........ Read more »
Yuan L, Liu S, Bai X, Gao Y, Liu G, Wang X, Liu D, Li T, Hao A, & Wang Z. (2016) Oxytocin inhibits lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation in microglial cells and attenuates microglial activation in lipopolysaccharide-treated mice. Journal of neuroinflammation, 13(1), 77. PMID: 27075756
- April 29, 2016
- 11:02 AM
- 501 views
Bringing ‘Dirty’ Mice Into Labs Opens A World Of Possibilities
by Rita dos Santos Silva in United Academics
Treating immune disorders might have gotten easier with a new mouse model.... Read more »
Beura, L., Hamilton, S., Bi, K., Schenkel, J., Odumade, O., Casey, K., Thompson, E., Fraser, K., Rosato, P., Filali-Mouhim, A.... (2016) Normalizing the environment recapitulates adult human immune traits in laboratory mice. Nature, 532(7600), 512-516. DOI: 10.1038/nature17655
Mestas, J., & Hughes, C. (2004) Of Mice and Not Men: Differences between Mouse and Human Immunology. The Journal of Immunology, 172(5), 2731-2738. DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.172.5.2731
Shultz, D. (2016) Can ‘dirty mice’ save animal research?. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf4153
Reardon, S. (2016) Dirty room-mates make lab mice more useful. Nature, 532(7599), 294-295. DOI: 10.1038/532294a
- April 29, 2016
- 09:38 AM
- 379 views
Hunting For The Signatures of Cancer
Signatures of Mutational Processes Extracted from the Mutational Catalogs of 21 Breast Cancer Genomes. Credit:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2012.12.008Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, with approximately 14 million new cases and 8.2 million cancer related deaths each year (Source: WHO). A family history of cancer typically increases a person's risk of developing the disease, yet most cancer cases have no family history at all. This suggests that a combination of both ge........ Read more »
Siegel, R., Miller, K., & Jemal, A. (2015) Cancer statistics, 2015. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 65(1), 5-29. DOI: 10.3322/caac.21254
Alexandrov LB. (2015) Understanding the origins of human cancer. Science (New York, N.Y.), 350(6265), 1175. PMID: 26785464
Alexandrov LB, Nik-Zainal S, Wedge DC, Aparicio SA, Behjati S, Biankin AV, Bignell GR, Bolli N, Borg A, Børresen-Dale AL.... (2013) Signatures of mutational processes in human cancer. Nature, 500(7463), 415-21. PMID: 23945592
Alexandrov LB, Nik-Zainal S, Siu HC, Leung SY, & Stratton MR. (2015) A mutational signature in gastric cancer suggests therapeutic strategies. Nature communications, 8683. PMID: 26511885
- April 29, 2016
- 02:33 AM
- 307 views
Organophosphate exposure and ADHD?
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"Children with higher urinary DMP [dimethylphosphate] concentrations may have a twofold to threefold increased risk of being diagnosed with ADHD [attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder]."So said the results presented in the paper by Yu and colleagues [1] who looking at "97 doctor-diagnosed ADHD cases and 110 non-ADHD controls who were 4-15 years of age" examined urine and blood samples for various factors including "biomarkers of OP [organophosphate] pesticide exposure." Th........ Read more »
Yu CJ, Du JC, Chiou HC, Chung MY, Yang W, Chen YS, Fuh MR, Chien LC, Hwang B, & Chen ML. (2016) Increased risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder associated with exposure to organophosphate pesticide in Taiwanese children. Andrology. PMID: 27070915
- April 28, 2016
- 11:19 AM
- 86 views
Psychiatric Complications in Living Liver Donors
by Cristy at Living Donor 101 in Living Donors Are People Too
The authors studied 142 donors who underwent live-donor liver transplantation at Nagoya University Hospital between April 2004 and July 2014. None of the living donors had pre-existing psychological complaints prior to donation. 4.2% developed psychiatric complaints after donation, including major depressive disorder, panic disorder, conversion disorder, and substance use disorder. (my emphasis) “all donors received …
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Kimura, H., Onishi, Y., Sunada, S., Kishi, S., Suzuki, N., Tsuboi, C., Yamaguchi, N., Imai, H., Kamei, H., Fujisiro, H.... (2015) Postoperative Psychiatric Complications in Living Liver Donors. Transplantation Proceedings, 47(6), 1860-1865. DOI: 10.1016/j.transproceed.2015.06.021
- April 28, 2016
- 02:55 AM
- 309 views
What parents of children with autism expect from their child's therapists
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
"Parents ultimately wanted therapists to produce positive outcomes for their children and were willing to sacrifice other desired qualities, as long as the therapy program was effective."and"The SLPs [Speech-Language Pathologists] expressed strong support for evidence-based practice (EBP) and indicated that they thought parents expected their children would be provided with evidence-based interventions."Those quotes come from two papers recently published in the same journal; the first........ Read more »
Edwards, A., Brebner, C., Mccormack, P., & Macdougall, C. (2016) “More than blowing bubbles”: What parents want from therapists working with children with autism spectrum disorder. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 1-13. DOI: 10.3109/17549507.2015.1112835
Trembath, D., Hawtree, R., Arciuli, J., & Caithness, T. (2016) What do speech-language pathologists think parents expect when treating their children with autism spectrum disorder?. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 1-9. DOI: 10.3109/17549507.2016.1139625
- April 27, 2016
- 04:55 PM
- 454 views
Addiction, it’s in your genes… maybe
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Why does one person who tries cocaine get addicted, while another might use it and then leave it alone? Why do some people who kick a drug habit manage to stay clean, while others relapse? And why do some families seem more prone to addiction than others? According to a new study, the road to answering these questions may have a lot to do with specific genetic factors that vary from individual to individual.
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Flagel, S., Chaudhury, S., Waselus, M., Kelly, R., Sewani, S., Clinton, S., Thompson, R., Watson, S., & Akil, H. (2016) Genetic background and epigenetic modifications in the core of the nucleus accumbens predict addiction-like behavior in a rat model. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201520491. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1520491113
- April 27, 2016
- 10:35 AM
- 361 views
Food to Restore a Heart
by Aurametrix team in Health Technologies
We know that diet, exercise and low-stress life will keep the heart healthy. But sometimes things happen that are beyond our control. Thanks to more coordinated, faster emergency response and improved treatment, heart attacks aren't as deadly as they used to be. But survivors still face a substantial risk of further cardiovascular events. How to restore after a heart attack and prevent another one? What to do besides obvious things such as taking medications, reducing stress, calories, avoidin........ Read more »
Li S, Flint A, Pai JK, Forman JP, Hu FB, Willett WC, Rexrode KM, Mukamal KJ, & Rimm EB. (2014) Low carbohydrate diet from plant or animal sources and mortality among myocardial infarction survivors. Journal of the American Heart Association, 3(5). PMID: 25246449
Li S, Flint A, Pai JK, Forman JP, Hu FB, Willett WC, Rexrode KM, Mukamal KJ, & Rimm EB. (2014) Dietary fiber intake and mortality among survivors of myocardial infarction: prospective cohort study. BMJ (Clinical research ed.). PMID: 24782515
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