By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 19, 2010

A provocative theory on the effect of strategies used to cope with stress may explain mental and physical health variations among ethnic groups.

When people are under chronic stress, they tend to smoke, drink, use drugs and overeat to help cope. These behaviors trigger a biological cascade that helps prevent depression, but they also contribute to a host of physical problems that eventually contribute to early death.

University of Michigan social scientist James S. Jackson and colleagues discuss the hypothesis in an article published in the American Journal of Public Health.

The theory helps explain a longtime epidemiological puzzle: why African-Americans have worse physical health than whites but better psychiatric health.

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/19/coping-strategies-help-mental-harm-physical-health/13932.html

 

ScienceDaily (May 19, 2010) — A newly published study reported that children with new/recent onset epilepsy have significantly slowed expansion of white matter volume compared to healthy children over a two year interval. The reduced white matter volume may affect brain connectivity and influence cognition.

Results of this study conducted by researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health are now available online and will appear in the July issue of Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy.

Epilepsy, a common nervous system disorder, frequently develops in early childhood and causes recurrent seizures. Seizures can range from mild staring spells to major convulsions. According to the Epilepsy Foundation there are 326,000 children under the age of 15 with epilepsy in the U.S. More than 45,000 new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed in children each year.

A research team, led by Bruce Hermann, Ph.D., investigated the neurodevelopmental changes in brain structure in children with new or recent-onset epilepsy. Thirty-four healthy children (control group) and 38 with new/recent onset epilepsy were enrolled in the study. The epilepsy group contained 21 children with localization-related epilepsy and 17 with idiopathic generalized epilepsy. Children in both groups had a mean age of 12.9 years and underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at baseline and 2 years later.

At the 2 year follow-up, seizure frequency was evaluated. During the prior year, 53% of children with epilepsy were seizure free; 34% reported only one seizure. In the remaining children with epilepsy, 5% reported monthly, 5% weekly, and 3% daily seizures.

“Our study determined that children with new or recent-onset epilepsy exhibited an altered brain development pattern characterized by delayed age-appropriate increase in white matter volume,” said Dr. Hermann. The research team found that total cerebral white matter volume increased significantly in the healthy control group over the 2-year period. However, the epilepsy group did not show significant change in white matter volume in the total cerebrum and across all lobes — the difference from normal controls being most pronounced in the frontal lobes.

Researchers suspect that the delayed white matter volume increase in children with epilepsy may affect cognitive development by reducing brain connectivity. With altered brain development, children with epilepsy may also experience impaired executive function — mental tasks such as organizing, planning, and paying attention which are commonly reported in people with epilepsy.

“Research into the symmetry between patterns of cognitive change and age-appropriate brain development remains to be addressed in childhood epilepsy,” concluded Dr. Hermann. “Further exploration of how subtle neurodevelopmental alterations in brain development affect cognition is needed. Longer term follow-up is also needed to determine whether this finding represents a temporary delay in brain development versus a fixed difference.”

Journal Reference:

1. Bruce P. Hermann, Kevin Dabbs, Tara Becker, Jana E. Jones, Adan Myers y Gutierrez, Gary Wendt, Monica A. Koehn, Raj Sheth, Michael Seidenberg. Brain development in children with new onset epilepsy: A prospective controlled cohort investigation. Epilepsia, 2010; DOI: 10.1111/j.1528-1167.2010.02563.x

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100519081554.htm

 

ScienceDaily (May 19, 2010) — A newly published study reported that children with new/recent onset epilepsy have significantly slowed expansion of white matter volume compared to healthy children over a two year interval. The reduced white matter volume may affect brain connectivity and influence cognition.

Results of this study conducted by researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health are now available online and will appear in the July issue of Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy.

Epilepsy, a common nervous system disorder, frequently develops in early childhood and causes recurrent seizures. Seizures can range from mild staring spells to major convulsions. According to the Epilepsy Foundation there are 326,000 children under the age of 15 with epilepsy in the U.S. More than 45,000 new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed in children each year.

A research team, led by Bruce Hermann, Ph.D., investigated the neurodevelopmental changes in brain structure in children with new or recent-onset epilepsy. Thirty-four healthy children (control group) and 38 with new/recent onset epilepsy were enrolled in the study. The epilepsy group contained 21 children with localization-related epilepsy and 17 with idiopathic generalized epilepsy. Children in both groups had a mean age of 12.9 years and underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at baseline and 2 years later.

At the 2 year follow-up, seizure frequency was evaluated. During the prior year, 53% of children with epilepsy were seizure free; 34% reported only one seizure. In the remaining children with epilepsy, 5% reported monthly, 5% weekly, and 3% daily seizures.

“Our study determined that children with new or recent-onset epilepsy exhibited an altered brain development pattern characterized by delayed age-appropriate increase in white matter volume,” said Dr. Hermann. The research team found that total cerebral white matter volume increased significantly in the healthy control group over the 2-year period. However, the epilepsy group did not show significant change in white matter volume in the total cerebrum and across all lobes — the difference from normal controls being most pronounced in the frontal lobes.

Researchers suspect that the delayed white matter volume increase in children with epilepsy may affect cognitive development by reducing brain connectivity. With altered brain development, children with epilepsy may also experience impaired executive function — mental tasks such as organizing, planning, and paying attention which are commonly reported in people with epilepsy.

“Research into the symmetry between patterns of cognitive change and age-appropriate brain development remains to be addressed in childhood epilepsy,” concluded Dr. Hermann. “Further exploration of how subtle neurodevelopmental alterations in brain development affect cognition is needed. Longer term follow-up is also needed to determine whether this finding represents a temporary delay in brain development versus a fixed difference.”

Journal Reference:

1. Bruce P. Hermann, Kevin Dabbs, Tara Becker, Jana E. Jones, Adan Myers y Gutierrez, Gary Wendt, Monica A. Koehn, Raj Sheth, Michael Seidenberg. Brain development in children with new onset epilepsy: A prospective controlled cohort investigation. Epilepsia, 2010; DOI: 10.1111/j.1528-1167.2010.02563.x

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100519081554.htm

 

Article Date: 19 May 2010 – 2:00 PDT

A Swedish investigation has compared choir singing and group discussion in irritable bowel syndrome in the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

Source: Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/189153.php

 

Article Date: 19 May 2010 – 2:00 PDT

A Swedish investigation has compared choir singing and group discussion in irritable bowel syndrome in the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

Source: Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/189153.php

 

Article Date: 19 May 2010 – 2:00 PDT

This study formulates the hypothesis that rufinamide, a drug so far used against epilepsy, may also be effective in bipolar disorder, depressive and anxiety disorders, panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, and substance use disorders. It is just an hypothesis based on two cases that needs to be confirmed by specific studies.

Source: Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics  

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/189154.php

 

Article Date: 19 May 2010 – 2:00 PDT

This study formulates the hypothesis that rufinamide, a drug so far used against epilepsy, may also be effective in bipolar disorder, depressive and anxiety disorders, panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, and substance use disorders. It is just an hypothesis based on two cases that needs to be confirmed by specific studies.

Source: Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics  

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/189154.php

 

ScienceDaily (May 18, 2010) — Tourette syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by tics like grimacing, blinking and vocalizations, is normally treated in children and teens with one of several antipsychotic medications. But such drugs usually don’t eliminate all the tics, and worse, they can often have side effects, acting as sedatives, causing weight gain and impairing cognitive function.

Now, a multisite study led by a UCLA researcher has developed an effective, non-medication treatment for children and adolescents with Tourette’s and related tic disorders that has shown improvement similar to that found in recent anti-tic medication studies.

Lead study author John Piacentini, a UCLA professor of psychiatry and his colleagues at seven sites around the nation found that a specialized form of behavior therapy called comprehensive behavioral intervention for tics, or CBIT, significantly reduced chronic tics and tic-related problems in children and adolescents.

Almost 53 percent of children receiving CBIT were rated as significantly improved, compared with 19 percent of those receiving a comparison treatment, and the degree of improvement with CBIT was similar to that found in recent anti-tic medication studies.

The study appears in the May 19 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Tourette syndrome, which affects approximately six out of every 1,000 children and adolescents, is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by motor and vocal tics, including eye blinking, facial grimacing, head jerking, throat clearing, sniffing and grunting. Although the repetition of curse words is often portrayed as the defining feature of the syndrome, cursing is an uncommon symptom and is not required for diagnosis of the disorder.

“Besides its physical manifestations, Tourette syndrome can cause a number of other problems,” Piacentini said. “It is often associated with other psychiatric problems, difficulties in school, work and social functioning, and, in severe cases, can be disabling.

“Historically, Tourette syndrome has been treated with antipsychotic medications, which reduce tics but are associated with side effects that often limit their usefulness in children. So the development of an effective non-medication treatment for children with this disorder is a major therapeutic advance,” he said.

CBIT is built on the observation that tics are preceded by unwanted feelings or sensations which in turn are temporarily relieved by the tics. In this treatment, children learned to recognize when a tic was about to occur and to engage in a voluntary action incompatible with the tic until the unwanted sensation passed.

In addition, parents were taught how to promote these management strategies in their children and to minimize stressful situations in their children’s environments associated with tic worsening.

In the multisite study, 126 children between the ages of 9 and 17 with moderate to severe Tourette syndrome or Chronic Tic Disorder were randomly assigned to CBIT or to a supportive counseling and education program about Tourette syndrome. Approximately one-third of the children entered the study on a stable dose of anti-tic medication.

The study showed that CBIT resulted in a significantly greater reduction in tic severity and tic-related problems than the supportive counseling. Almost 53 percent of children receiving CBIT were rated as significantly improved, compared with 19 percent of those receiving the comparison treatment.

The degree of improvement with CBIT was similar to that found in recent anti-tic medication studies. Benefits were observed in both children who were on a tic medication and children not on medication. Adverse treatment effects, including tic worsening, were rare in both CBIT and supportive counseling. Treatment gains for CBIT were maintained over time, with 87 percent of available responders showing continued benefits six months after treatment had ended.

“The fact that CBIT works about as well as the standard medications for tics but without the negative side effects greatly expands the available treatment options for chronic tic disorders,” said Susanna Chang, a UCLA assistant professor of psychiatry and a study author. “Importantly, CBIT also emphasizes the development of skills that foster autonomy and empowerment, allowing for patients and their families to take a more active role in treatment than previously indicated.”

Piacentini noted that additional studies are underway using neuroimaging and other neuroscientific techniques to examine the brain mechanisms underlying how CBIT might work. In addition, investigators are currently working with the Tourette Syndrome Association and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to teach CBIT to clinicians who treat children with tic disorders and to develop new versions of CBIT for use with younger children and by nurses and other health care professionals.

Other authors on the study included Douglas Woods, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Lawrence Scahill and James Dziura, of Yale University; Sabine Wilhelm and Thilo Deckersbach, of Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School; Alan Peterson, of the University of Texas Health Science Center; Dr. John Walkup and Golda Ginsburg, of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and Weil-Cornell Medical School; and Sue Levi-Pearl, of the Tourette Syndrome Association.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The authors report no conflict of interest.

Story Source:

Adapted from materials provided by University of California – Los Angeles. Original article written by Mark Wheeler.

Journal Reference:

1. John Piacentini; Douglas W. Woods; Lawrence Scahill; Sabine Wilhelm; Alan L. Peterson; Susanna Chang; Golda S. Ginsburg; Thilo Deckersbach; James Dziura; Sue Levi-Pearl; John T. Walkup. Behavior Therapy for Children With Tourette Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA, 2010; 303 (19): 1929-1937 [link]

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100518180930.htm
 

 

ScienceDaily (May 18, 2010) — Tourette syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by tics like grimacing, blinking and vocalizations, is normally treated in children and teens with one of several antipsychotic medications. But such drugs usually don’t eliminate all the tics, and worse, they can often have side effects, acting as sedatives, causing weight gain and impairing cognitive function.

Now, a multisite study led by a UCLA researcher has developed an effective, non-medication treatment for children and adolescents with Tourette’s and related tic disorders that has shown improvement similar to that found in recent anti-tic medication studies.

Lead study author John Piacentini, a UCLA professor of psychiatry and his colleagues at seven sites around the nation found that a specialized form of behavior therapy called comprehensive behavioral intervention for tics, or CBIT, significantly reduced chronic tics and tic-related problems in children and adolescents.

Almost 53 percent of children receiving CBIT were rated as significantly improved, compared with 19 percent of those receiving a comparison treatment, and the degree of improvement with CBIT was similar to that found in recent anti-tic medication studies.

The study appears in the May 19 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Tourette syndrome, which affects approximately six out of every 1,000 children and adolescents, is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by motor and vocal tics, including eye blinking, facial grimacing, head jerking, throat clearing, sniffing and grunting. Although the repetition of curse words is often portrayed as the defining feature of the syndrome, cursing is an uncommon symptom and is not required for diagnosis of the disorder.

“Besides its physical manifestations, Tourette syndrome can cause a number of other problems,” Piacentini said. “It is often associated with other psychiatric problems, difficulties in school, work and social functioning, and, in severe cases, can be disabling.

“Historically, Tourette syndrome has been treated with antipsychotic medications, which reduce tics but are associated with side effects that often limit their usefulness in children. So the development of an effective non-medication treatment for children with this disorder is a major therapeutic advance,” he said.

CBIT is built on the observation that tics are preceded by unwanted feelings or sensations which in turn are temporarily relieved by the tics. In this treatment, children learned to recognize when a tic was about to occur and to engage in a voluntary action incompatible with the tic until the unwanted sensation passed.

In addition, parents were taught how to promote these management strategies in their children and to minimize stressful situations in their children’s environments associated with tic worsening.

In the multisite study, 126 children between the ages of 9 and 17 with moderate to severe Tourette syndrome or Chronic Tic Disorder were randomly assigned to CBIT or to a supportive counseling and education program about Tourette syndrome. Approximately one-third of the children entered the study on a stable dose of anti-tic medication.

The study showed that CBIT resulted in a significantly greater reduction in tic severity and tic-related problems than the supportive counseling. Almost 53 percent of children receiving CBIT were rated as significantly improved, compared with 19 percent of those receiving the comparison treatment.

The degree of improvement with CBIT was similar to that found in recent anti-tic medication studies. Benefits were observed in both children who were on a tic medication and children not on medication. Adverse treatment effects, including tic worsening, were rare in both CBIT and supportive counseling. Treatment gains for CBIT were maintained over time, with 87 percent of available responders showing continued benefits six months after treatment had ended.

“The fact that CBIT works about as well as the standard medications for tics but without the negative side effects greatly expands the available treatment options for chronic tic disorders,” said Susanna Chang, a UCLA assistant professor of psychiatry and a study author. “Importantly, CBIT also emphasizes the development of skills that foster autonomy and empowerment, allowing for patients and their families to take a more active role in treatment than previously indicated.”

Piacentini noted that additional studies are underway using neuroimaging and other neuroscientific techniques to examine the brain mechanisms underlying how CBIT might work. In addition, investigators are currently working with the Tourette Syndrome Association and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to teach CBIT to clinicians who treat children with tic disorders and to develop new versions of CBIT for use with younger children and by nurses and other health care professionals.

Other authors on the study included Douglas Woods, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Lawrence Scahill and James Dziura, of Yale University; Sabine Wilhelm and Thilo Deckersbach, of Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School; Alan Peterson, of the University of Texas Health Science Center; Dr. John Walkup and Golda Ginsburg, of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and Weil-Cornell Medical School; and Sue Levi-Pearl, of the Tourette Syndrome Association.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The authors report no conflict of interest.

Story Source:

Adapted from materials provided by University of California – Los Angeles. Original article written by Mark Wheeler.

Journal Reference:

1. John Piacentini; Douglas W. Woods; Lawrence Scahill; Sabine Wilhelm; Alan L. Peterson; Susanna Chang; Golda S. Ginsburg; Thilo Deckersbach; James Dziura; Sue Levi-Pearl; John T. Walkup. Behavior Therapy for Children With Tourette Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA, 2010; 303 (19): 1929-1937 [link]

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100518180930.htm
 

 

Gary McKinnon is hoping to avoid U.S. prosecution for hacking by approaching the new coalition government

by Jeremy Kirk

Britain’s new government is giving fresh consideration to a hacker’s plea to postpone an upcoming court hearing in a long-running bid to avoid a U.S. trial that could send him to prison for decades.

The U.K.’s Home Office, which oversees criminal justice affairs, is reviewing a letter from lawyers for Gary McKinnon, who was charged in the U.S. in 2002 for breaking into military and government computers.

McKinnon is scheduled for a judicial review hearing in the High Court on May 25 and 26 on the basis of his diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, a neurological disorder related to autism characterized by deficiencies in social interaction.

Theresa May, the new home secretary from the Conservative party, is expected to issue a response “as soon as possible,” according to a Home Office spokesman.

“The Home Secretary has received a letter from Gary McKinnon’s legal team asking her to agree to an adjournment of the Judicial Review in light of further representations,” according to a Home Office statement.

McKinnon’s case has risen in profile over the last couple of years, with celebrities, along with politicians, voicing their support for him.

The recent change in government could help his cause. Some members of the U.K.’s new coalition government have been highly critical of the circumstances of McKinnon’s case.

Last year, David Cameron — now Britain’s prime minister — criticized the extradition treaty McKinnon was subject to. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat’s leader who is deputy prime minister, said last year he opposed extraditing McKinnon given his medical condition.

The U.K. government approved McKinnon’s extradition in 2006, but his lawyers undertook a series of court maneuvers that have kept him from being extradited.

McKinnon had asked to be prosecuted in the U.K., but the request was denied on the basis that U.S. authorities wanted jurisdiction over the case and because most of the witnesses are in the U.S.

McKinnon was indicted by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in 2002 for hacking into 97 military and NASA computers between February 2001 and March 2002. He could face up to 60 years in prison.

McKinnon has remained free in the U.K. but isn’t allowed to use a computer. He has publicly admitted to hacking the computers using a program called “RemotelyAnywhere,” a remote access tool.

McKinnon has said that many of the computer systems still had their default passwords — considered a poor security practice — and that other passwords were easy to obtain.

McKinnon, who went by the name “Solo,” contends he was merely searching for proof of the existence UFOs and didn’t harm the systems. The U.S. military contends that McKinnon deleted critical files from its computers, which hampered its efforts after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Source:  http://www.itworld.com/legal/108187/new-british-government-considers-mckinnons-appeal

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