 
Contrary to popular belief, psychopaths are not psychotic. They do not suffer from delusions or hallucinations, which are the classic signs of psychosis. Instead, as the similar term “sociopath†implies, they suffer from a disease of their social conscience and empathy. Although they may at first appear friendly and considerate, their primary objective is to use other people for their own personal gain. Hollywood tends to portray the more extreme versions of this mental illness, as in the psychopathic killer who rapes, tortures, and murders. People with less severe forms of sociopathy lie, cheat, and steal without any concern for others. Some experts believe that psychopaths are incapable of feeling love, which raises the question as to whether they lack the qualities that make humans “human.â€
Article Date: 28 Apr 2010 – 3:00 PDT
Psychopaths are known to be characterized by callousness, diminished capacity for remorse, and lack of empathy. However, the exact cause of these personality traits is an area of scientific debate. The results of a new study, reported in the May 2010 issue of Elsevier’s Cortex, show striking similarities between the mental impairments observed in psychopaths and those seen in patients with frontal lobe damage.
One previous explanation for psychopathic tendencies has been a reduced capacity to make inferences about the mental states of other people, an ability known as Theory of Mind (ToM). On the other hand, psychopaths are also known to be extremely good manipulators and deceivers, which would imply that they have good skills in inferring the knowledge, needs, intentions, and beliefs of other people. Therefore, it has been suggested recently that ToM is made up of different aspects: a cognitive part, which requires inferences about knowledge and beliefs, and another part which requires the understanding of emotions.
Dr Simone Shamay-Tsoory, from the University of Haifa in Israel, along with colleagues from The Shalvata Mental Health Care Center and the Rambam Medical Center, tested the hypothesis that impairment in the emotional aspects of these abilities may account for psychopathic behaviour. Earlier research from the same group had shown that patients with damage to the frontal lobes of the brain lack some of the emotional aspects of Theory of Mind, so they speculated that psychopathy may also be linked to frontal lobe dysfunction.
The emotional and cognitive aspects of Theory of Mind abilities were examined for participants in the new study, which consisted of a number of different groups: criminal offenders, who had been diagnosed as having antisocial personality disorder with highly psychopathic tendencies, patients with damage to the frontal lobes of the brain, patients with damage to other areas of the brain, and healthy control subjects. The pattern of impairments in the psychopathic participants showed a remarkable resemblance to those in the participants with frontal lobe damage, suggesting that an underlying cause of the behavioural disturbances observed in psychopathy may be dysfunction in the frontal lobes.
 
Article Date: 28 Apr 2010 – 5:00 PDT
A significant proportion of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients treated with cognitive behavior therapy have a positive response within four weeks of treatment, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.
“Patients who quickly achieve treatment gains – for example, IBS symptom relief – may be spared the cost and inconvenience of follow-up care of little therapeutic value. This scenario may lead to the development of self-guided treatments based on multimedia technology, such as Web, DVD and smartphone, and free up trained clinicians to focus on more severely affected patients,” said Jeffrey M. Lackner, PsyD, of the University at Buffalo, SUNY, and lead author of the study. “Conversely, patients who do not respond within a set number of sessions early on could be immediately identified and triaged or ‘stepped up’ to potentially more powerful treatment(s) rather than bearing the cost, demoralization and frustration that comes with treatment failure.”
In a study funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, doctors investigated whether patients who achieved rapid, substantial and sustained symptom improvements relatively early in treatment (by week four) – called “rapid responders” – maintain treatment gains, compared with non-rapid responders. A total of 71 patients were randomly assigned to undergo 10 weekly, one-hour sessions of cognitive behavior therapy or four, one-hour cognitive behavior therapy sessions over 10 weeks. Rapid responders were classified as patients who reported adequate relief of pain, adequate relief of bowel symptoms and a decrease in total IBS severity scores of greater than or equal to 50 by week four.
Of patients undergoing cognitive behavior therapy, 30 percent were rapid responders, of whom 90 percent to 95 percent maintained gains at the immediate and three-month follow-up examinations. Although the rapid responders reported more severe IBS symptoms at baseline, they achieved more substantial, sustained IBS symptom reduction than non-rapid responders. Both dosages of cognitive behavior therapy had comparable rates of rapid responders.
“We don’t believe the rapidity of response is simply because rapid responders had less severe IBS when they began treatment. In fact, rapid responders had more severe IBS symptoms and quality of life impairment than other patients. Nor did we find evidence to support the notion that patients responded more rapidly just because they were less distressed,” added Dr. Lackner. “Further research is needed to clarify whether rapid responders maintain treatment response longer term and, if so, what drives the durability of treatment response.”
The great majority of rapid responders (92 percent) showed lasting benefit that persisted three months after treatment ended with no evidence of deterioration. This suggests that rapid response is a relatively robust, clinically meaningful and enduring clinical phenomenon. In fact, rapid responders maintained or continued to improve on the gains made in treatment.
IBS is a common disorder of the intestines that leads to abdominal pain or discomfort and changes in bowel habits. Some people with IBS have constipation (difficult or infrequent bowel movements), others have diarrhea (frequent, loose stools), while some people experience both. Sometimes the person with IBS has a sudden urge to move the bowels.
Source:
Alissa J. Cruz
American Gastroenterological AssociationÂ
 
BBC News and The New York Times have just each published articles on the US Army’s treatment of psychologically traumatised soldiers so different that you’d think they were talking about entirely distinct programmes.
Two articles have just appeared on the BBC website giving a very positive view of the US military’s treatment of Army veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health problems.
The articles largely focus on the programme at Fort Hood and despite some peculiarities (it mentions treatment includes acupuncture, reiki, sound therapy and seemingly chakra-based meditation) the picture is of a small but promising approach to treating psychologically disabled soldiers.
In contrast, The New York Times presents a damning picture of the treatment programme in which the service is poorly organised, where prescription and illicit drug abuse is rife and where clinicians rely largely on large doses of medication to manage soldiers’ symptoms.
It’s hard to know what to make of the articles, as the BBC seem to have made no effort to ask any difficult questions, while the NYT article seems to be largely based on interviews of soldiers who felt they were poorly dealt with, while the Army’s own surveys discussed in the piece suggest most are happy with the services.
The stuff about New Age treatments is just a bit odd. Is this where the First Earth Battalion have got to these days?
UPDATE: Thanks to PsychFun for pointing out they are, in fact, two distinct programmes! (Grabbed from the comments)
The WTU talked about in the NYT article is a military unit for wounded soldiers, many of whom have PTSD. The BBC article is talking about a 3 week intensive PTSD treatment program, as your own link shows. Darn those confusing US Army acronyms!
Link 1 and Link 2 to BBC News articles.
Link to New York Times article.
 
Published: April 27, 2010
HERNANDO, Miss. (AP) — If there is a single phrase Hernando Middle School teacher Cherie Fowler could pick to describe the differences in the education her students face as opposed to the rest of the student body it would be, “fair is not always equal.”
Fowler is the Asperger/autism inclusion teacher at Hernando Middle. The students in the program she began two years ago attend the same academic classes as general education students. However, others may see the assistance given these students — who are often academically gifted but suffer from social deficits — as making school easier for them.
Fowler’s students are allowed to type assignments others would have to write by hand. They are allowed the use of other assistance devices and some assignments can be shortened.
Each student is still required to have passing grades and meet all the state of Mississippi benchmarks for their grade level. It’s their job to stay on par academically and it is her job to do everything possible to help them get through the day.
What the extra assistance does, Fowler said, is level the playing field.
“For a student with Asperger syndrome, making it through an eight-hour school day is like working 48 hours straight for the average adult,” Fowler said.
Read More:Â http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/04/27/autisticstudentplayingfield_ap.html
 
Hallucinogenic drugs including LSD and Ecstasy are being used by doctors in tests to treat conditions including cancer anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Scientists are once again striving to prove that psychedelic drugs can be of medical benefit more than four decades after authorities clamped down on their use for both recreational and research purposes.
There are a handful of studies currently taking place across the U.S. with drugs like LSD, MDMA (Ecstasy) and psilocybin, the main ingredient of ‘magic mushrooms’.
While the research is still preliminary, early results from a New York University study suggest that participants are less fearful of death and have less general anxiety. They are also said to have greater acceptance of the dying process with no major side effect.
Rick Doblin, executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, said: ‘There is now more psychedelic research taking place in the world than at any time in the last 40 years.
‘We’re at the end of the beginning of the renaissance.’
He said that more than 1,200 people attended a conference in California last weekend on psychedelic science.
But doing the research is not easy, Mr Doblin and others say, with U.S. government funders still leery and drug companies not interested in the compounds they can’t patent. That pretty much leaves private donors.
‘There’s still a lot of resistance to it,’ said David Nichols, a Purdue University professor of medicinal chemistry and president of the Heffter Institute, which is supporting the NYU study.
‘The whole hippie thing in the 60s has kind of left a bad taste in the mouth of the public at large.
‘When you tell people you’re treating people with psychedelics, the first thing that comes to mind is Day-Glo art and tie-dyed shirts.’
Psilocybin has been shown to invoke powerful spiritual experiences during the four to six hours it affects the brain.
A study published in 2008, in fact, found that even 14 months after healthy volunteers had taken a single dose, most said they were still feeling and behaving better because of the experience. They also said the drug had produced one of the five most spiritually significant experiences they’d ever had.
Read More(Includes Video of Study) …Â http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1268331/LSD-Ecstasy-used-combat-cancer-anxiety-post-traumatic-stress-disorder.html
 
Police used a Taser gun on a man suffering an epileptic fitÂ
By Daily Express Reporter
POLICE used a Taser gun on a man suffering an epileptic fit, it emerged yesterday. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is to probe how officers dealt with him.
The 40-year-old collapsed at a gym but paramedics asked for police back-up after he bit and punched them. An officer discharged a 50,000-volt Taser into the man, who was also restrained.
After more than two weeks in hospital, he alleged officers were negligent and used excessive and unnecessary force in the incident at the gym in Whalley Range in November. The matter was referred by Greater Manchester Police to the IPCC.
IPCC Commissioner Ms Naseem Malik said: “This man suffered an epileptic seizure and it is clear paramedics were struggling to treat him due to the violence of that seizure. Our investigation will be thorough and examine the appropriateness of officers’ actions.â€
Source:Â http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/169094/Police-fire-Taser-as-man-has-fit/
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More than half of parents and carers questioned in research by autism charity Treehouse said they had been openly criticised by passers-by about their child’s behaviour. Almost a third said their child had been excluded from playing with other children due to their condition.
Three-quarters said they believed members of the public thought their children were “naughty”, with 87 per cent complaining people stared at their child, causing families to feel isolated and avoid going out.
And almost half of people believe autistic children are maths geniuses, a fallacy stemming from the film Rain Man.
The study coincides with Treehouse’s campaign, “Talk about Autism”, supported by broadband firm Talk Talk. The condition affects one in 100 people in the UK.
Source:Â http://news.scotsman.com/health/Majority-think-autistic–children.6257378.jp
 
Epileptic seizures are caused by chaotic electrical activity in the brain
Researchers have shed new light on the mechanism behind epilepsy attacks in the brain, revealing a potential new target for drug treatment.
Around half a million people in the UK have some form of epilepsy.
Until recently the focus of research has been on cells called neurons, but a US study points to a completely different cell.
Nature Neuroscience journal reports its behaviour may be key to uncontrolled brain activity behind the condition.
Epilepsy attacks, which can manifest as fits in some people, or “absences” in others, are caused by too much electrical signalling from the brain’s neurons.
However, in many cases, the reason for this over-activity is poorly understood.
 |
 By better understanding the detailed events that occur in epilepsy, we are gaining knowledge that could ultimately lead to better treatments Dr Douglas Coulter, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
|
Scientists now believe that, in some cases, although the problem happens at the neuron the underlying reason may be the failure of surrounding cells to help control this activity.
The latest study, from the Tuft University School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, provides the strongest evidence yet that a cell called an astrocyte is the culprit.
The astrocyte is known to have a wide range of functions, including supplying nutrients to other brain cells, and even helping the brain cope with damaged nerve cells.
In some brain diseases, the astrocytes swell up and behave differently, and it is this condition which the researchers believe is linked to epilepsy.
No inhibition
They induced this swelling in brain samples from mice, then tested whether this made a difference to the ability of the brain cells to “turn down”, or inhibit, the brain signals from specific neurons.
They found that the enlarged astrocytes led to reduced levels of a brain chemical known to inhibit electrical signalling from the neurons.
Dr Douglas Coulter, one of the researchers, said: “We already know that inhibition is a powerful force in the brain.
“In epilepsy, inhibition is not working properly, and uncontrolled signalling leads to epileptic seizures.
“By better understanding the detailed events that occur in epilepsy, we are gaining knowledge that could ultimately lead to better treatments for epilepsy, and possibly for other neurological diseases.”
Professor Vincenzo Crunelli, a neuroscientist from the University of Cardiff, said other research, including his own, now pointed towards a role for astrocytes in various different types of epilepsy.
He said the finding might be particularly relevant in a form of epilepsy called temporal lobe epilepsy, which can be resistant to treatment.
He said: “This certainly suggests that the astrocytes may be involved in maintaining this over-excitation of the neurons.
“If this is the case, it offers the chance of a new therapeutic target.”
Article Date: 27 Apr 2010 – 1:00 PDT
Laughter is a highly complex process. Joyous or mirthful laughter is considered a positive stress (eustress) that involves complicated brain activities leading to a positive effect on health. Norman Cousins first suggested the idea that humor and the associated laughter can benefit a person’s health in the 1970s. His ground-breaking work, as a layperson diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, documented his use of laughter in treating himself with medical approval and oversight into remission. He published his personal research results in the New England Journal of Medicine and is considered one of the original architects of mind-body medicine.
Dr. Lee S. Berk, a preventive care specialist and psychoneuroimmunology researcher at Loma Linda University’s Schools of Allied Health (SAHP) and Medicine, and director of the molecular research lab at SAHP, Loma Linda, CA, and Dr. Stanley Tan have picked up where Cousins left off. Since the 1980s, they have been studying the human body’s response to mirthful laughter and have found that laughter helps optimize many of the functions of various body systems. Berk and his colleagues were the first to establish that laughter helps optimize the hormones in the endocrine system, including decreasing the levels of cortisol and epinephrine, which lead to stress reduction. They have also shown that laughter has a positive effect on modulating components of the immune system, including increased production of antibodies and activation of the body’s protective cells, including T-cells and especially Natural Killer cells’ killing activity of tumor cells. Their studies have shown that repetitious “mirthful laughter,” which they call Laughercise©, causes the body to respond in a way similar to moderate physical exercise. Laughercise© enhances your mood, decreases stress hormones, enhances immune activity, lowers bad cholesterol and systolic blood pressure, and raises good cholesterol (HDL).
As Berk explains, “We are finally starting to realize that our everyday behaviors and emotions are modulating our bodies in many ways.” His latest research expands the role of laughter even further.
A New Study: Humor versus Distress, Effect on and Appetite Hormones
Berk, along with his colleague Dr. Jerry Petrofsky at Loma Linda University, and their team have recently completed a new study, which is being presented at the 2010 Experimental Biology conference in Anaheim, CA between April 24-28, 2010.
Read More …Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/186698.php
Article Date: 27 Apr 2010 – 0:00 PDT
Researchers at the Ansary Stem Cell Institute and the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College discovered that mice missing a single gene developed repetitive obsessive-compulsive-like behaviors. The genetically altered mice, which behaved much like people with a certain type of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), could help scientists design new therapies for this debilitating condition.
The researchers made this serendipitous discovery while looking at the role of a gene, called Slitrk5, which they had earlier linked to blood stem cells and vascular cells. In the April 25 online edition of Nature Medicine they report how, in follow-up studies, mice in which the gene was disabled (“knocked-out”) demonstrated obsessive self-grooming and extreme anxiety. Further study showed that the frontal lobe-to-striatum circuitry of the brains of these mice were altered in the same ways that are implicated in OCD in humans.
This discovery links Slitrk5 to development of OCD-like behaviors, and offers scientists a new mouse model of the disorder, say the study’s senior co-investigators, Dr. Shahin Rafii and Dr. Francis S.Y. Lee. Dr. Rafii is director of the Ansary Stem Cell Institute and professor in genetic medicine Weill Cornell Medical College and and an HHMI investigator. Dr. Lee is associate professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the Medical College.
“Overall, our data suggest that Slitrk5 may have a central role in the development of the core symptoms of OCD — self-injurious, repetitive behavior and increased anxiety,” Dr. Rafii says. “Very few psychiatric disorders have been linked to a single gene, and it will be important to find out if patients with the disorder have an alteration of Slitrk5.”
The findings may help scientists better understand both development and treatment for one or more of the several different types of human OCD behaviors, say Drs. Sergey Shmelkov and AdÃlia Hormigo, the study’s co-lead authors and members of the Ansary Stem Cell Institute. Dr. Shmelkov is an assistant research professor of genetic medicine, and Dr. Hormigo is an assistant professor of neurology at Weill Cornell Medical College and a neurologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
“We can’t draw direct parallels between mice and humans, because OCD behavior in mice shows up as excessive self-grooming, and in humans there is a broad spectrum of behaviors, from hand-washing to other compulsive actions as well as obsessive thoughts,” says Dr. Lee. “But our finding of altered brain functioning suggests a very strong link at this point to some of the issues seen in humans.”
The research team cannot say why a gene found in blood stem cells and vascular cells could be implicated in a behavioral brain disorder, but they speculate that “cross-talk” between the vascular system in the brain and neurons in brain tissue may be the link.
Dr. Rafii and his colleagues had previously identified Slitrk5 in the progenitor stem cells that create blood, and they subsequently demonstrated that the protein created by this gene is expressed in leukemia, embryonic stem cells, and in subsets of endothelial cells, which are the basic building blocks for the circulatory system.
In this study, the researchers were looking at the effects created when the Slitrk5 gene was “knocked out” in laboratory mice and replaced with a “reporter” gene. “We did this because we wanted to look at the effect on the blood system, which is what we are primarily interested in,” says Dr. Shmelkov. “But we didn’t find anything, which was frustrating.”
But then Dr. Shmelkov and Dr. Hormigo noticed that some of the knockout mice began to develop facial lesions, and over time, all of the mice without Slitrk5 eventually developed the same skin issues. They also noticed that the mice were hyperactive and seemed to groom themselves a lot. The researchers videotaped this behavior and quantified it, and found that the knockout mice groomed themselves significantly more than did wild-type mice, which served as the experimental control. A set of follow-up experiments with scientists from Dr. Lee’s laboratory, Dr. Kevin Bath and Iva Dincheva, concluded that the mice were also considerably more anxious compared with control mice.
The scientists gave Prozac, a standard drug used in the treatment for patients with OCD, to both sets of mice, and found that excessive grooming stopped completely in the experimental animals. “Now that we have this mouse model, we can test new therapies for OCD that can ultimately be applied to humans,” says Dr. Hormigo. “We know Prozac works to ameliorate some OCD symptoms in humans — the drug also worked for our OCD mice — but the effect can be temporary and more targeted treatments are needed.”
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/186662.php