All posts; Tags Include "Clinical Psychology"
- August 9, 2016
- 11:16 AM
- 156 views
Genetics of Depression: Secondary Markers
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In my previous post, I highlighted a recent study of genetics and major depression from the 23andMe database.I have had a chance to review this manuscript in more detail. One of the findings of interest involved secondary marker or secondary phenotypes.Fifteen genetic loci were identified in this 23andMe sample using a discovery and replication data set.Secondary phenotypes with the highest correlation with the 17 SNPs identified in the study included (effect) :Taking a selective serotonin reupt........ Read more »
Hyde CL, Nagle MW, Tian C, Chen X, Paciga SA, Wendland JR, Tung JY, Hinds DA, Perlis RH, & Winslow AR. (2016) Identification of 15 genetic loci associated with risk of major depression in individuals of European descent. Nature genetics. PMID: 27479909
- July 29, 2016
- 11:22 AM
- 203 views
Elite Cyclists and Brain Fatigue Resistance
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In a Brain Post from 2012 I reviewed a study of fatigue in elite athletic performance. This study supported a key role in the brain insula in regulating the perception of exercise-induced fatigue. You can access this post by clicking HERE.An update on this topic was recently published in PloS One by a research team in Australia.This study compared performance on a cognitive task after extreme 20 minute cycling time trial. Professional cyclists were compared to recreational cyclists on the Stroop........ Read more »
Martin K, Staiano W, Menaspà P, Hennessey T, Marcora S, Keegan R, Thompson KG, Martin D, Halson S, & Rattray B. (2016) Superior Inhibitory Control and Resistance to Mental Fatigue in Professional Road Cyclists. PloS one, 11(7). PMID: 27441380
- July 12, 2016
- 11:36 AM
- 104 views
Dextromethorphan for Alzheimer's Disease Agitation
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In my last post I summarized a review of the pharmacology of the drug dextromethorphan.This drug is receiving significant attention for disorders in neuroscience medicine. A phase 2 clinical trial of dextromethorphan-quinidine (DM-Q) was published last fall in JAMA.Here are the key design and results from this study:Subjects: 220 subjects with a diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease with clinically significant agitation.Randomization Design: This was a five week trial of 3:4 random........ Read more »
Cummings JL, Lyketsos CG, Peskind ER, Porsteinsson AP, Mintzer JE, Scharre DW, De La Gandara JE, Agronin M, Davis CS, Nguyen U.... (2015) Effect of Dextromethorphan-Quinidine on Agitation in Patients With Alzheimer Disease Dementia: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA, 314(12), 1242-54. PMID: 26393847
- July 11, 2016
- 11:41 AM
- 237 views
When Laughing Isn't Funny
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Inappropriate uncontrollable laughing or crying is common in many neuroscience medicine disorders including after traumatic brain injury or stroke. It can be socially embarrassing and restrict opportunities for social interaction.This loss of control over emotional responses is known by the term pseudobulbar affect or PBA. Until recently, few therapeutic options were available to treat this condition. Now a relatively new drug Nuedexta uses a combination of dextromethorphan and quinide to treat ........ Read more »
Taylor CP, Traynelis SF, Siffert J, Pope LE, & Matsumoto RR. (2016) Pharmacology of dextromethorphan: Relevance to dextromethorphan/quinidine (Nuedexta®) clinical use. Pharmacology . PMID: 27139517
- June 14, 2016
- 12:18 PM
- 254 views
Nurturing the Gifted
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
My photo of Mozart No one denies the importance of public education. Raising graduation rates and academic ability in the general population are highly accepted education system goals. Additionally, identification of learning disorders and the barriers to academic progress are the focus of many.However, the study of the gifted is perhaps no less important but this topic receives less attention and research.Matthew Makel and colleagues at Duke University and Vanderbi........ Read more »
Makel MC, Kell HJ, Lubinski D, Putallaz M, & Benbow CP. (2016) When Lightning Strikes Twice: Profoundly Gifted, Profoundly Accomplished. Psychological science. PMID: 27225220
Kell HJ, Lubinski D, Benbow CP, & Steiger JH. (2013) Creativity and technical innovation: spatial ability's unique role. Psychological science, 24(9), 1831-6. PMID: 23846718
- June 6, 2016
- 11:50 AM
- 241 views
Neuroscience Medicine: The Time Has Come
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
As basic and clinical sciences advance, it becomes increasing important to understand the role of multidisciplinary efforts in scientific progress. In this post, I propose rethinking and renaming the medically-related neuroscience disciplines into a new specialty called neuroscience medicine.Basic neuroscience research has evolved and emerged as a powerful discipline due to the increasing use of multidisciplinary research teams. Basic neuroscience involves collaboration of various scientifi........ Read more »
Insel, T. (2005) Psychiatry as a Clinical Neuroscience Discipline. JAMA, 294(17), 2221. DOI: 10.1001/jama.294.17.2221
- June 2, 2016
- 12:11 PM
- 284 views
The Future of Neuroscience Education
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
I spent the majority of my career in medical education and saw significant changes over time.One encouraging sign was the emergence of neuroscience as a respected and beneficial academic discipline.Now, a new perspective on Neuroscience Training for the 21st Center has been written by Huda Akil and colleagues. This perspective is recently published in the journal Neuron with free access to the full-text manuscript.Here are my notes from reading this perspective. Readers can access the free full-........ Read more »
Akil, H., Balice-Gordon, R., Cardozo, D., Koroshetz, W., Posey Norris, S., Sherer, T., Sherman, S., & Thiels, E. (2016) Neuroscience Training for the 21st Century. Neuron, 90(5), 917-926. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.05.030
- June 1, 2016
- 12:35 PM
- 265 views
Pain Prevalence in Dementia
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
The development of speech and language impairment in dementia presents barriers in many clinical domains.One important clinical domain is assessment and management of pain. Dementia may preclude spontaneous or interview-elicited pain reporting.A report today in MedicalXpress noted reduced reporting of pain in patients with diabetes and cognitive impairment.I was able to locate one free full-text manuscript reviewing the prevalence of pain in various types of dementias. This literature review fou........ Read more »
van Kooten J, Binnekade TT, van der Wouden JC, Stek ML, Scherder EJ, Husebø BS, Smalbrugge M, & Hertogh CM. (2016) A Review of Pain Prevalence in Alzheimer's, Vascular, Frontotemporal and Lewy Body Dementias. Dementia and geriatric cognitive disorders, 41(3-4), 220-32. PMID: 27160163
- May 27, 2016
- 10:24 AM
- 323 views
Prenatal Smoking and Offspring Schizophrenia
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
The topic prevention of brain disorders is commonly neglected. This is despite increasing evidence for evidence-based support for prevention opportunities.This issue is highlighted in a recent study out of Finland that examined prenatal nicotine metabolite levels and offspring diagnosis of schizophrenia.In this study, Solja Niemela and the Finnish research team examined all live births in Finland between 1983 and 1998.What makes this study powerful is the measurement of maternal serum coti........ Read more »
Niemelä, S., Sourander, A., Surcel, H., Hinkka-Yli-Salomäki, S., McKeague, I., Cheslack-Postava, K., & Brown, A. (2016) Prenatal Nicotine Exposure and Risk of Schizophrenia Among Offspring in a National Birth Cohort. American Journal of Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.15060800
Talati A, Bao Y, Kaufman J, Shen L, Schaefer CA, & Brown AS. (2013) Maternal smoking during pregnancy and bipolar disorder in offspring. The American journal of psychiatry, 170(10), 1178-85. PMID: 24084820
- May 26, 2016
- 10:02 AM
- 279 views
Free Alcohol Use Reduction App
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
An investigational app and online program to reduce alcohol intake is now available free to the public.This tool is an application of cognitive bias modification. A link to a study supporting cognitive bias modification is noted in the citation below. Click on the PMID link to get to the abstract.The program uses a 15 minutes per day tool for four days.The program was developed at the London School of Economics by Professor Paul Dolan.Users who sign up to use the tool will be providing data to f........ Read more »
Gladwin TE, Rinck M, Eberl C, Becker ES, Lindenmeyer J, & Wiers RW. (2015) Mediation of cognitive bias modification for alcohol addiction via stimulus-specific alcohol avoidance association. Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research, 39(1), 101-7. PMID: 25623410
- May 23, 2016
- 10:39 AM
- 281 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 20, 2016
- 10:50 AM
- 289 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 19, 2016
- 11:33 AM
- 254 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 5, 2016
- 02:26 PM
- 236 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
- February 11, 2016
- 03:26 PM
- 638 views
Religion linked to reduced levels of stress hormones in young American Blacks
Compared with Whites, Black Americans have high levels of an important stress hormone called cortisol circulating in their bloodstream. No-one really knows why this is, but the differences remain even after you take into account social and psychological factors. It seems likely that simply being black exposes you to a cumulative effect of increased lifetime [Read More...]... Read more »
Assari, S., Moghani Lankarani, M., Malekahmadi, M., Caldwell, C., & Zimmerman, M. (2015) Baseline Religion Involvement Predicts Subsequent Salivary Cortisol Levels Among Male But not Female Black Youth. International Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, 13(4). DOI: 10.5812/ijem.31790
- January 27, 2016
- 05:00 PM
- 323 views
Getting rid of the Ghost People
by Eva Alisic in Trauma Recovery
Patrick became a child soldier at the age of 13, abducted by Ugandan rebels.
Schultz and Weisaeth (2015) describe his story, his mental health problems, and his treatment, a local cleansing ritual. They conclude that the ritual is safe, effective, and perhaps even more powerful than Western-style therapy. ... Read more »
Schultz, J., & Weisæth, L. (2015) The power of rituals in dealing with traumatic stress symptoms: cleansing rituals for former child soldiers in Northern Uganda. Mental Health, Religion . DOI: 10.1080/13674676.2015.1094780
- December 2, 2015
- 11:37 AM
- 318 views
Treatment Guidelines for Problem Gambling
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Basal ganglia may be involving in gambling disorderProblem gambling effects a number of individuals who engage in gambling behavior.Gambling behavior that meets criteria as a Gambling Disorder according to the criteria of DSM-5 includes four or more of the following over a consecutive 12 month period of time:Increased quantity of money gambled to achieve excitementRestlessness/irritability when attempting to cut down gambling behaviorRepeated unsuccessful attempts to cut down or stop gamblingPre........ Read more »
Lee KM, Chan HN, Cheah B, Gentica GF, Guo S, Lim HK, Lim YC, Noorul F, Tan HS, Teo P.... (2011) Ministry of Health clinical practice guidelines: management of gambling disorders. Singapore medical journal, 52(6), 456. PMID: 21732000
- November 23, 2015
- 12:06 PM
- 636 views
Gambling and Brain Frontal-Striatum Connections
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
For the remainder of 2015, Brain Posts will focus on pathological gambling and also highlight the top-viewed posts for the year.Functional connectivity is a relatively recent brain imaging technique that provides a new look at brain circuitry at rest and with tasks.Resting state connectivity using fMRI provides a snapshot of brain connections in each individual. There is increasing study of resting connectivity in individuals with disorders in neuroscience medicine compared to control population........ Read more »
Koehler S, Ovadia-Caro S, van der Meer E, Villringer A, Heinz A, Romanczuk-Seiferth N, & Margulies DS. (2013) Increased functional connectivity between prefrontal cortex and reward system in pathological gambling. PloS one, 8(12). PMID: 24367675
- November 18, 2015
- 01:00 PM
- 612 views
Predictors of Poor Outcome After Traumatic Brain Injury
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
The outcome following traumatic brain injury (TBI) is often unpredictable and variable.Two individuals with similar types of TBI can have quite different outcomes ranging from total disability to functional employment.Torun Finnanger and colleagues from Norway and Australia recently reported on a study that examined a number of predictor variables on self-reported outcome following TBI.In this study, 67 adolescents and adults with moderate to severe TBI completed baseline assessments and were fo........ Read more »
Finnanger TG, Olsen A, Skandsen T, Lydersen S, Vik A, Evensen KA, Catroppa C, Håberg AK, Andersson S, & Indredavik MS. (2015) Life after Adolescent and Adult Moderate and Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: Self-Reported Executive, Emotional, and Behavioural Function 2-5 Years after Injury. Behavioural neurology, 329241. PMID: 26549936
- November 16, 2015
- 11:40 AM
- 681 views
Smell Test in Screening for Parkinson's Disease Risk
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Molecular model of polypeptide parkinIdentification of early or prodromal stages of the diseases of neuroscience medicine is an important clinical and research goal.Identification of prodromal illness allows for enhanced surveillance and initiation of secondary prevention interventions.Impairment of smell or olfactory sensation is a key early clue for Parkinson's disease (PD).Danna Jennings and colleagues recently published an important study of the role of smell impairment in prodromal PD.This ........ Read more »
Jennings D, Siderowf A, Stern M, Seibyl J, Eberly S, Oakes D, Marek K, & PARS Investigators. (2014) Imaging prodromal Parkinson disease: the Parkinson Associated Risk Syndrome Study. Neurology, 83(19), 1739-46. PMID: 25298306
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