psychiatry
neurophilosophy | September 3, 2007
In The rise and fall of the prefrontal lobotomy, I discussed the heart-breaking case of Howard Dully, whose stepmother had him lobotomized when he was12 years old.
Dully relates his story in My Lobotomy, an autobiographical book which is co-authored by novelist and journalist Charles Fleming. My Lobotomy is published today in the U.S., and in a few month's time in the U.K.
Both Dully and Fleming have contacted me recently, and Fleming has kindly agreed to send me a copy of the book, so I'll write more about it when I've read it. Meanwhile, you can read more about it on Dully's blog…
j7uy5 | August 29, 2007
Sexual assault is a common and serious problem. It is
hypothesized that misconceptions (rape myths) may play a role in this.
About 50% of sexual assaults involving adolescent or young adult female
victims occur in the context of alcohol consumption. The
authors of a recent study from the University of Michigan Institute for
Research on Women and Gender and the Substance Abuse Research Center
investigated this in a recent study. The full text is $ for
access, but the abstract is openly accessible and a press release is
available
href="http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id…
j7uy5 | August 25, 2007This
controversy has been evolving for the past three years.
Perhaps at this point it is no longer newsworthy.
But often, after a topic fades from the radar of the MSM,
there are new findings.
The journal, Psychological Medicine, has published
a study about the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in persons
treated with an antidepressant (
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoxetine" rel="tag">fluoxetine)
for conditions other than depression.
href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1219444">Evaluating
suicide-related…
neurophilosophy | August 23, 2007 Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric condition which is characterized by intrusive thoughts and ritualized and repetitive behaviours, such as excessive hand-washing, which are performed in order to neutralize the obsessions. OCD is one of a spectrum of disorders that includes Tourette's Syndrome, autism and bipolar disorder.
OCD affects approximately 2% of the population, and is listed by the World Health Organization as being amongst the top 10 most debilitating illnesses, in terms of decreased quality of life and loss of income. It is often treated - only mildly…
neurophilosophy | August 22, 2007Reuters reports that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved the use of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in children and teenagers.
j7uy5 | August 16, 2007This is from a small study, so it would be inappropriate to
draw a broad conclusion from it. Still, it is kind of
interesting.
href="http://baywood.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=searchcitationsresults,2,2;">
href="http://baywood.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=searchcitationsresults,2,2;">Bupropion
in the Treatment of Outpatients with Asthma and Major Depressive
Disorder
E. Sherwood Brown, Lana A. Vornik, David A. Khan, A. John Rush
The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine
Issue:
Volume…
omnibrain | August 16, 2007According to an article in Salon, via Mind Hacks:
The American Psychological Association, the world's largest professional organization of psychologists, is poised to issue a formal condemnation of a raft of notorious interrogation tactics employed by U.S. authorities against detainees during the so-called war on terror, from simulated drowning to sensory deprivation. The move is expected during the APA's annual convention in San Francisco this weekend.
The APA's anti-torture resolution follows a string of revelations in recent months of the key role played by psychologists in the development…
j7uy5 | August 10, 2007It is
reasonably well established that treatment with bright light is
effective for
href="http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2007/07/seasonal_affective_disorder_th_1.php">seasonal
affective disorder (SAD). The standard treatment is
to have someone expose their face to 10,000
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lux">Lux
of bright light every morning, for 30 minutes, preferably at the same
time each day. Early studies indicated that it is the
intensity,
not the color, that matters.
This is all very good, but bright light treatment sources are
necessarily big, fragile, and use a lot of…
j7uy5 | August 10, 2007A
while back, Shelly wrote a nice introduction to
title="Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder">ADHD
at
Retrospectacle:
href="http://scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle/2007/07/the_neuroscience_of_adhd_1.php">The
Neuroscience of ADHD. Read that first, for
background, then consider this to be a minor addendum. There
are still people who believe that
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention-deficit_hyperactivity_disorder"
rel="tag">ADHD is not real. This is a
good example of the scientific findings to the contrary. It
is an open-access article (there is one every
month)…
sb admin | August 10, 2007Video of a Second Life virtual reality simulation of psychosis in schizophrenia, created by UC Davis Professor of Psychiatry Peter Yellowlees.
Also, create a psychotic VR therapeutic scenario with NeuroVR (from Positive Technology Journal).
neurophilosophy | August 5, 2007
According to a new paper in the British Medical Journal, there is an association between duration of deployment and incidence of alcohol problems and post-traumatic stress disorder in British troops:
Personnel who were deployed for 13 months or more in the past three years were more likely to fulfil the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder...and have multiple physical symptoms...A significant association was found between duration of deployment and severe alcohol problems. Exposure to combat partly accounted for these associations. The associations between number of deployments…
j7uy5 | August 3, 2007I
happened to run across a couple of articles pertaining to cultural
influences on mental health. Neither presented modern
first-world culture in a positive light.
The two articles are:
href="http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/abstract/191/50/s71">Schizophrenia
outcome measures in the wider international community; and
rev="review"
href="http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/164/8/1173">A
Longitudinal Study of the Use of Mental Health Services by Persons With
Serious Mental Illness: Do Spanish-Speaking Latinos Differ From
English-Speaking Latinos and Caucasians?…
j7uy5 | August 2, 2007
title="Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences">PNAS
has an open-access article describing the current state of knowledge of
the genetics of
rel="tag">autism. The authors looked at
information from the Autism
Genetic Resource Exchange and two other databases; one from
the University of Michigan, the other from the
href="http://www.iancommunity.org/">Interactive Autism
Network (IAN) Research Database. Their findings
indicated that most cases of autism can be explained by one of two
mechanisms. The concluded that most cases arise from
spontaneous mutations, with a…
neurophilosophy | July 27, 2007
This week's issue of The Lancet contains the most comprehensive meta-analysis to date of the link between cannabis and psychosis:
The evidence is consistent with the view that cannabis increases risk of psychotic outcomes independently of confounding and transient intoxication effects, although evidence for affective outcomes is less strong. The uncertainty about whether cannabis causes psychosis is unlikely to be resolved by further longitudinal studies such as those reviewed here. However, we conclude that there is now sufficient evidence to warn young people that using…
omnibrain | July 27, 2007Stop smoking pot immediately! You WILL go CRAZY!!! Panic!
The study by Zammit and colleagues, published in the medical journal the Lancet, reanalyzed data from seven long-term studies on psychotic illnesses and marijuana involving 61,000 participants.
The researchers filtered out about 60 factors, such as preexisting mental illness and the use of other illicit drugs, and considered IQ and social class, to try to isolate the effect of marijuana, Zammit said.
Most of the studies that were analyzed indicated a range of increased risk for frequent users from 50% to 200%, with the average being…
neurophilosophy | July 25, 2007
The New York Times has an obituary of Albert Ellis, a highly innovative psychotherapist who died yesterday at the age of 93.
In the 1950s, Ellis broke with tradition by rejecting the theories of Sigmund Freud, which were widely used at the time.
As an alternative, Ellis developed a method called Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), which involved encouraging his patients to alter their behaviour by focusing on current events in their lives.
This new method, along with that developed by Aaron T. Beck, would later form the basis of cognitive behaviour therapy.
neurophilosophy | July 24, 2007
LOBOTOMY (from the Greek lobos, meaning lobes of the brain, and tomos, meaning cut) is a psychosurgical procedure in which the connections the prefrontal cortex and underlying structures are severed, or the frontal cortical tissue is destroyed, the theory being that this leads to the uncoupling of the brain's emotional centres and the seat of intellect (in the subcortical structures and the frontal cortex, respectively).
The lobotomy was first performed on humans in the 1890s. About half a century later, it was being touted by some as a miracle cure for mental illness, and its use became…
neurophilosophy | July 21, 2007
This beautiful illustration comes from a textbook called Cerrahiyetu'l Haniyye (Imperial Surgery) by Serefeddin Sabuncuoglo (1385-1470), who lived and practised medicine in Amasya in northern Anatolia.
Sabuncuoglo's book, which was published in 1465, is the first illustrated textbook of surgery. It contains several sections devoted to the treatment of psychiatric conditions. The illustration above depicts the use of cauterization (the burning of small areas of tissue) to treat various neuroses.
(Found via this post at Mind Hacks)
j7uy5 | July 18, 2007
There is new information
indicating that an
rel="tag">oxytocin
nasal spray could be used to
treat shyness. Oxytocin is a peptide hormone best known for
its role in childbirth and breastfeeding. These are known as
peripheral actions, meaning they take place outside of the central
nervous system (CNS).
However,
it also is
known as a neurotransmitter, having effects within the CNS.
It
has been touted as a chemical that can increase trust and reduce fear.
It also has been claimed to have a role in the difference in
how
href="http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/471090,CST-FTR-…
neurophilosophy | July 16, 2007Via email: International Psychoanalysis.
Specially for Caledonian, who was disappointed that I didn't explicitly state the unscientific nature of Sigmund Freud's theories in my post about the psychology of Alfred Hitchcock.