The pressures of school life are forcing many teachers to visit the doctor and take time off sick, a survey has suggested.

An increasing workload, long hours and inspections are damaging teachers' health, according to a poll by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).

It found that a quarter of those questioned (25%) said their current job had led to them taking sick leave from work, while two in five (40%) had visited the doctor.

Three in five (60%) of the school staff questioned said they had thought about changing jobs, while a similar proportion (58%) admitted they had considered leaving the profession.

One further education tutor in South Yorkshire told the survey: "I suffered a nervous breakdown due to pressures within work and was off for six months. Unfortunately the workload pressure and the over-critical atmosphere has not altered. All staff are jumpy and waiting for the next put-down."

And a primary school teacher from Manchester said: "I would like to go to the GP but I am worried about taking time off due to the lack of empathy from senior staff on my return."

The poll questioned nearly 1,300 people working in state and private schools and colleges in the UK. It comes as ATL is expected to debate a motion at its annual conference in Manchester on the effects of heavy workloads.

ATL's poll reveals that nearly three quarters (73%) of those surveyed said their job is having a negative effect on their health and well-being, while 64% said it is damaging their professional abilities and 62% said it is affecting their relationships with family and friends.

Asked specifically what it was in their job that was causing problems, the most common answer was workload, chosen by 84%, followed by long hours (69%), pressure of inspections (47%) and meeting targets (43%). Nearly eight in 10 (79%) said their workload has increased in the last two years.

ATL general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said: "The demands and pressures on those working in schools and colleges is escalating. It is not surprising that so many teachers and lecturers are considering leaving the profession and it is particularly concerning that so many newly qualified teachers are unhappy."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/teachers-off-sick-pressure-230043325.html

A breakthrough in a stem-cell programme funded by the UK-based MND Association has greatly improved the chances of developing effective treatments for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) of which the predominant form is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

An international team led by the UK's University of Edinburgh and King's College London, and Columbia University in New York, has for the first time made living human motor neurones that feature key properties of MND/ALS. They made the diseased nerve cells using stem cells derived from adult skin.

Having such a laboratory model of a disease to hand vastly improves the speed with which potential new drugs can be screened, and helps expand understanding of the disease.

Programme leader Dr Siddharthan Chandran, Professor of Neurology at the University of Edinburgh, and colleagues, write about this key milestone in the 26 March online, ahead of print, issue of PNAS.

Chandran said in a statement:

"Using patient stem cells to model MND in a dish offers untold possibilities for how we study the cause of this terrible disease as well as accelerating drug discovery by providing a cost effective way to test many thousands of potential treatments."

Motor Neuron Disease (MND) is a term that covers several different conditions distinguished by the premature degeneration of motor nerves (called neurones or neurons).

As the disease progresses, it causes weakness and wasting of muscles, leading to gradual loss of mobility in arms and legs, and difficulties with speech, swallowing and breathing.

There are four main types of MND, each affecting people in different ways. The most common form is ALS, which is characterised by weakness and wasting in the limbs.

Average life expectancy for ALS is from two to five years from onset of symptoms, although there are rare examples of people with ALS living much longer than this, perhaps the most famous being the 70-year-old British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking who was diagnosed in his early 20s.

A rare, inherited form of MND is caused by a mutation in the TDP-43 gene (the mutation is known as M337V). Although the mutation itself is rare, the protein that the gene codes for plays a key role in the majority of MND cases.

For their study, Chandran and colleagues took skin cells from a 56-year male donor with the rare form of the TDP-43 gene, and using a cocktail of chemicals, "reprogrammed" them to become first stem cells (induced pluripotent stem cells or iPSCs, not unlike the ones derived from embryos), and then motor neurones.

The motor neurones with the abnormal TDP-43 were different to motor neurones made from skin cells of healthy people in several distinct and important features. For instance, they did not live as long and they were more vulnerable to damage.

The researchers also found that the protein from the faulty TDP-43 gene had a greater tendency to aggregrate and form clumps. This "misaccumulation" is a hallmark of diseased neurones in MND and offers scientists the first ever opportunity to observe directly the effect of abnormal TDP-43 on living human cells.

In a statement, the MND Association, describes the study as "proof of principle" that skin cells can be successfully converted into diseased motor neurones and a significant milestone in the £800,000 programme, whose aim is to produce a robust human cell model of MND that faithfully reflects the cellular events happening in the patient, and can be used by scientists around the world.

Dr Brian Dickie, director of research development at the MND Association, said the achievement was also "testament to the importance of international collaboration, with eminent scientists from leading institutions around the world focused on the common goal of understanding and, ultimately, defeating this devastating disease".

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/243521.php

FRIDAY, March 23 (HealthDay News) -- In the past decade, the number of children receiving a diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has risen by 66 percent, new research indicates.

In 2000, just 6.2 million physician office visits resulted in a diagnosis of ADHD. By 2010, that number had jumped to 10.4 million office visits.

"This study is really like a 10,000 foot aerial view of this issue," said study author Dr. Craig Garfield, an assistant professor of pediatrics and medical social sciences at Northwestern University in Chicago. "We looked at the trends in visits to doctors for ADHD over the last decade, and we were interested in overlaying some of the FDA's public health advisories and the introduction of new medications to see the effect on those trends."

The findings are published in the March/April issue of Academic Pediatrics.

ADHD is now a common condition in children and teenagers in the United States, according to background information in the study. The parent-reported incidence of the disorder is about 10 percent, or 5.4 million children. Symptoms of ADHD include an inability to focus, trouble controlling emotions and hyperactive behavior, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

Treatment for ADHD may include medications -- usually stimulant drugs -- and behavioral therapies, according to the NIMH. However, new medications -- and new health concerns -- altered treatment decisions over the decade studied.

In 2002, a nonstimulant medication, Strattera (atomoxetine), was approved for use in ADHD. In 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warnings that sudden death and suicidal thinking had been linked to Strattera. That same year, the FDA also expressed concern about a potential link between amphetamine-dextroamphetamine (Adderall) and cardiovascular risks, as well as adverse psychiatric symptoms. That same warning was extended to all approved ADHD medications in 2007, according to the study.

For their study, Garfield and his colleagues reviewed data from a national database from 2000 to 2010. They examined office visits for patients younger than 18.

In addition to finding a 66 percent increase in the number of office visits resulting in an ADHD diagnosis, they also found that more children were being treated for ADHD by child psychiatrists than by pediatricians. At the start of the study, about one in four children saw a psychiatrist for their condition. By the end of the study, more than one in three was visiting a psychiatrist for ADHD.

Despite possible concerns about safety, stimulant medications remain the mainstay of treatment. In 2000, 96 percent were treated with these medications, while 87 percent were receiving stimulant medication for their ADHD symptoms in 2010, the study found.

The use of Strattera, a nonstimulant drug, dropped from 15 percent in the year it was introduced (2002) to 6 percent by 2010. The use of other nonstimulant treatments, such as clonidine (Catapres/Kapvay/Nexiclon), guanfacine (Intuniv/Tenex) and Wellbutrin (buproprion), was relatively constant, but reached a high of 13 percent in 2010 following the introduction of extended-release Intuniv, the researchers found.

One previous study, published online last September in the American Journal of Psychiatry, found that about 2.8 million children were taking ADHD medications. Those authors said their use has risen gradually, likely because more teenagers are taking these medications.

The authors of the current study don't think there's suddenly been a dramatic rise in the number of children with ADHD, but instead believe that public awareness campaigns, media coverage of ADHD and advertisements for new medications are probably some of the driving factors behind the rise in diagnoses.

"There's more of an awareness on the part of the parents about this disease," said Garfield.

He said that the authors don't know why more people are taking their children to see psychiatrists for treatment, but said if the trend continues, parents may have trouble finding a doctor to care for their child's ADHD, given the shortage of psychiatrists.

Other experts agreed that the incidence of ADHD probably isn't going up that quickly. "I don't think these data reflect true prevalence. I think it's the total frequency of visits related to ADHD is going up," said Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York in New Hyde Park, N.Y.

"The American Academy of Pediatrics is encouraging pediatricians to play a more active role in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD, so it's interesting to see that psychiatrists over time are now treating more," he said. "Pediatricians may be referring more, or as safety concerns have been raised by the FDA, it may be that families prefer to see a specialist."

source:http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/03/23/adhd-diagnosis-rates-rose-sharply-in-past-decade?page=2

With more states opting to legalize the sale of medical marijuana, researchers are taking a closer look at the use of cannabis to treat chronic illnesses.

Dr. Manny Alvarez, senior managing health editor of FoxNews.com, recently sat down with the Medicine Hunter, Chris Kilham, to find out how it’s being studied.

Dr. Manny: Now from the medical marijuana perspective, as far as the treatment of chronic illnesses, what is it about cannabis that makes it that special?

Medicine Hunter: Well, it seems that there are primarily two things – there's the THC, that's what people associated with getting high. And that appears to have a saliatory effect on the eyes in case of glaucoma. For people who are suffering from chemotherapy and can't eat, it helps to get their appetite back. And we also know that it is a potent pain reliever – and science on that goes back to the 1890s.

But there’s another agent in cannabis that is getting more attention now, and that is called cannabidiol. And this is something that you can swallow by the bucket-full, and it won't get you high at all. But it appears to have profound nerve-protective and brain-enhancing properties. And interestingly enough, it also induces an anti-anxiety effect.

So this appears to be a very important agent, perhaps useful in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.

DM: Are they extracting that particular chemical off the marijuana?

MH: There seem to be two pathways that people are taking. You've got G.W. pharmaceuticals in Britain that has come out with a whole cannabis fluid spray. You've got people also isolating cannabidiol and playing with that in the lab.

I don't know how this is all going to settle out – I mean, as a whole-plant person, I'm inclined toward the whole extract. But it does appear that this may also have anti-cancer properties, and that's very intriguing.

DM: Is marijuana addictive?

MH: I would say that people can absolutely become dependent upon it. But not physiologically addictive. And, as you know, that's not just parsing terms – I mean physiological addiction, you go through very grave withdrawal.

But people can become dependent on it just as they can on any substance.

DM: Tell me about this study in the American Journal of Pediatrics talking about pregnant Jamaican women and the use of pot.

MH: Melanie Dreher, who is the dean of nursing at Rush Medical Center in Chicago, did a study in Jamaica. It was actually published in the American Journal of Pediatrics in 1994, but now it's re-circulating because of all the interest in the neuroprotective properties.

Basically, she studied women during their entire pregnancy, and then studied the babies about a year after birth. And what she studied was a group of women who did smoke cannabis during pregnancy and those who didn't. She expected to see a difference in the babies as far as birth weight and neuro tests, but there was no difference whatsoever. The differences that the researchers did notice, that are unexplained and kind of curious are that the babies of the women who had smoked cannabis -- and we're talking about daily use during their pregnancy -- socialized more quickly, made eye contact more quickly and were easier to engage.

We don't know why this is so, but all the old saws of smoking during pregnancy will result in low birth weight did not show up -- at least in the Jamaican study. In U.S. studies where we've seen a similar investigation, women have concurrently been abusing alcohol and other drugs as well.

Alvarez said it’s interesting to note that there may be neuroprotective properties present in cannabis and the cannibidiol extract, but that smoking of any kind in pregnant women is discouraged.

More research is needed when it comes to medical marijuana, he added.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/03/20/researchers-study-neuroprotective-properties-in-cannabis/#ixzz1pjoKsG20

For the past 40 years, radiation has been the most effective method for treating deadly brain tumors called glioblastomas. But, although the targeting technology has been refined, beams of radiation still must pass through healthy brain tissue to reach the tumor, and patients can only tolerate small amounts before developing serious side effects.

A group of researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio have developed a way to deliver nanoparticle radiation directly to the brain tumor and keep it there. The method doses the tumor itself with much higher levels of radiation - 20 to 30 times the current dose of radiation therapy to patients - but spares a much greater area of brain tissue.

The study, published in the journal Neuro-Oncology, has been successful enough in laboratory experiments that they're preparing to start a clinical trial at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center, said Andrew Brenner, M.D., Ph.D., the study's corresponding author and a neuro-oncologist at the CTRC who will lead the clinical trial.

"We saw that we could deliver much higher doses of radiation in animal models," Dr. Brenner said. "We were able to give it safely and we were able to completely eradicate tumors."

The radiation comes in the form of an isotope called rhenium-186, which has a short half-life. Once placed inside the tumor, the rhenium emits radiation that only extends out a few millimeters.

But simply putting the rhenium into a brain tumor would not work well without a way to keep it there - the tiny particles would be picked up by the bloodstream and carried away. That problem was solved by a team led by nuclear medicine physician William T. Phillips, M.D., and biochemist Beth A. Goins, Ph.D., in the Department of Radiology; and Ande Bao, Ph.D., a medical physicist and pharmaceutical chemist in the Department of Otolaryngology, all of the School of Medicine at the UT Health Science Center. They encapsulated the rhenium in miniscule fat molecules, or liposomes, about 100 nanometers across.

"The technology is unique," Dr. Brenner said. "Only we can load the liposomes to these very high radioactivity levels."

The doctors hope to launch the clinical trial by summer.

source:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243138.php

When life’s stresses and problems begin to accumulate and you need an outlet to vent your emotions, it’s always wise to seek professional help. A therapist is someone to confide in, who can help you through the psychological difficulties you face.

But in order to achieve the best results, you’ll need to find a therapist with whom you can communicate and build a rapport. But finding the right person can be often be a tricky and time consuming task. To help accelerate the process, here’s a guide to finding the perfect therapist.

Accessibility

When sifting through the range of therapists on offer to you, a few key considerations can help you refine your search. Dr. Robert Epstein, a research psychologist and developer of an online mental health screening test, says there are several important deciding factors to consider when choosing a therapist.

“Cost, accessibility, the relevant experience of the therapist, and your comfort level,” should all play a significant role in your decision making, he says. “If the therapist is too expensive for you or too much trouble for you to visit, you probably won’t stick with the process.”

Recommendations

Personal recommendations can be invaluable in your search for a new therapist. If possible, try asking the advice of someone who has experienced similar emotional troubles to your own. If you feel uncomfortable speaking with a friend, your regular physician or healthcare professional should be able to recommend a mental health specialist. Certain online directories can also help you to locate therapists in your area, and some even offer customer reviews and recommendations.

Check Credentials

A therapist’s credentials can tell you a lot about how adept they will be at helping you through your problems. Of course, strong qualifications are always critical, but it’s also important that they are experienced enough in a specific area to cater to your needs. “These days, even if the therapist is assigned to you by an HMO, it’s pretty easy to find out about a therapist’s experience and training,” Epstein says. “If you suffer from a phobia, you’re probably better off with a therapist who has a lot of experience treating phobias or who has even had specific training in that area.”

Trial Session

If you’re feeling a little skittish about committing to a new therapist, you might consider booking for a trial session with the prospective psychoanalyst to test the waters and try to establish some potential chemistry. Of course, very little progress can be made in just one session, but it can provide you with a perspective on how you may progress together in the future. Use this time to evaluate your prospective therapist, particularly if you are feeling apprehensive or unsure about the process.

It’s important to be inquisitive during this all-important first meeting – ask about the process of therapy, how long it may take, and what kind of outcomes you might expect. If you feel comfortable with the answers you should be able to proceed to the next level with greater confidence.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/03/08/how-to-choose-right-therapist/#ixzz1obEGGLyN

With no specific clinical preventive care guidelines targeting young adults, health care providers are missing key opportunities to improve the health of this population through preventive screening and intervention.

Yet a new study from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) shows that when the ages of 18-26 years are carved out of existing professional guidelines across specialty groups, there are a broad number of evidence-based recommendations that can inform the care of young adults.

The transition from adolescence to young adulthood can be a challenge often associated with greater engagement in health damaging behaviors, with the highest rates of mental health problems, substance abuse and sexually transmitted infections

Because these health problems largely are preventable, primary care visits can present a key opportunity to improve the health of young adults, with evidence supporting the efficacy of preventive services. But this group also is the least likely to be insured, seek outpatient care or have a primary care physician, according to researchers.

"This is really a key time to intervene," said lead study author Elizabeth Ozer, PhD, an associate professor of pediatrics in the UCSF Division of Adolescent Medicine. "Yet even when young adults use primary care, they infrequently receive preventive health care".

The study, "Young Adult Preventive Health Care Guidelines: There But Can't be Found," is available in the March 2012 issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The research team conducted a careful analysis of existing guidelines for adolescents and adults and identified preventive care guidelines relevant to young adults.

According to the authors, the expansion of health insurance to young adults up to age 26 years through the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) creates an urgent need for specific guidelines for young adult preventive care. While the ACA provides an "unprecedented opportunity," to improve the health of young adults, it also will create an influx of this population seeking services, thus increasing the demands on the health care system, and the need to provide preventive services, the team states.

Recent data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) found that in the first quarter of 2011, approximately 2.5 million more young adults had health insurance compared to the previous year.

"The good news is that there is no need to reinvent the wheel when developing comprehensive preventive services for young adults. Existing evidence based guidelines can inform this process," said Ozer. "This review is an important first step in moving forward to create guidelines for young adult health care that outline a core set of preventive services that will better enable clinicians and young adults to talk full advantage of the primary care opportunity."

source:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/242566.php

A study shows that heart attack patients with depressed mood upon admission for care are likely to be readmitted again in the future for heart events and chest pains. Mental health is long thought to play a crucial role in several systems like immune and digestive systems, but its direct role in cardiovascular health is poorly understood. Recently, researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel studied how mental health can have an impact to cardiovascular health.

In the study, researchers used data from 632 patients aged 65 who were admitted due to myocardial infarction between 1992 and 1993. They were followed up until 2005, taking note of their medical history to monitor recovery.

Although a lot of heart attack patients are likely to be readmitted in some future time due to adverse cardiac events, researchers found out that those patients who were identified as ‘mildly depressed’ during initial admission are more likely to be hospitalized later because of adverse cardiac health problems. Patients who were identified as ‘clearly depressed’ are found to spend more time in the hospital compared to those with lower scores, even when accounting for other significant factors like presence of other illnesses, smoking and socioeconomic status.

Clearly shows that psychiatric investment may have a positive effect

The study has important ramifications for those who are suffering or at risk for heart diseases like myocardial infarction. This means that people with diagnosis of major depressive disorder and having depressed mood face more complicated future if they are hospitalized due to heart attacks.

Frequent hospitalizations means that more funds is needed to support emergency and continuing care. It is to note that treatment for heart disease is expensive, especially in serious cases. Longer hospital stays also place a big financial burden.

But it also gives insight on the fact that psychiatric support to reduce depression could be a big payoff. The costs for treating depression is clearly low compared to management and rehabilitation of heart disease.

Depressed individuals often fail to adhere to good lifestyle choices

Depression makes it more difficult for people to observe healthy lifestyle, say the researchers. Depressed people often have bouts of insomnia, eat poorly and engage in less exercise, drink more alcohol or smoke more. Healthy lifestyle choices are deemed very important and therefore often taught to cardiac patients before they are discharged into the community.

Depressed patients are also less likely to engage in outpatient care and rehabilitation programs. This makes them at more risk of having another potentially deadly cardiac event in the near future.

Psychiatric support as part of recovery

The study is good because it involved a lot of participants that were followed for several years. It clearly shows that prognosis of heart attack is linked to overall state of mental health. Researchers recommended that care providers follow closely cardiac patients with low and depressed mood, and offer psychiatric support as part of management.

The study was supported by Israel National Institute for Health Policy and Health Services Research. The study is available in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research.

source:http://www.mentalhealthnewstoday.com/091210-depressed-mood-correlated-with-heart-attack-risk

Neuroscientists at Stanford University School of Medicine wanted to know whether the power of romance could overcome physical pain. They recruited 15 students who were early in an intense relationship and subjected their left hands to thermal pain—enough to hurt, but not to harm them. When the students focused on a photograph of the person they loved, they felt less of a burning sensation than when gazing at a picture of an equally attractive acquaintance. In their peer-reviewed, 2010 study, the researchers concluded that romantic feelings activated regions of the brain involved with endogenous opioids, the body's natural pain relievers, and dopamine, a neurotransmitter tied to cravings and rewards.

[U.S. News's Best Hospitals 2012 can help you find premier hospitals in your city.]

The findings don't suggest people should seek out love affairs, notes Sean Mackey, chief of Stanford's pain management division. But they do indicate that engaging in "emotionally salient and rewarding experiences" can trigger the brain to provide relief, he says.

Since the brain is the epicenter of pain in the body, natural and medicinal strategies to relieve discomfort often focus there. For example, when you stub your toe, skin receptors send electrical signals through nerve fibers to the spinal cord and then up to the brain. Some of these fibers run like insulated telephone wires and carry the signals rapidly; others connect through web-like neural connections and travel more slowly.

In the case of a stubbed toe, the signals move rapidly up insulated nerve fibers to the brain's thalamus, which acts as a relay station and directs them to the sensory cortex. The signals are then interpreted by the brain as a sharp pain. The slower impulses, traveling through the web-like neural fibers, become a throbbing ache felt through the entire toe, a warning to treat the area gingerly while it heals.

As all this is happening, the brain also sends messages to the spinal cord that can amplify or dampen the pain. For example, a football player might jam his knee, but barely notice amid the excitement of a game. Most people can recall similar experiences, such as discovering bruises that they can't remember getting. These phenomena occur because of the brain's ability to filter out pain while the body engages in more urgent matters. Known as descending neural inhibitory control, it varies from person to person, says Andrea Trescot, a pain specialist in Jacksonville, Fla.

The brain's emotional control center, the limbic system, adds a second dimension, responding to how a person feels about pain or interprets its significance. David Kloth of Danbury, Conn., a pain specialist and spokesman for the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, notes that genetics, upbringing, and the cultural practices of various ethnic groups can all affect how pain is felt.

For example, Kloth says, people who were coddled as children by their parents every time they had small injuries may react strongly as adults to the slightest discomfort. This conditioning may contribute to the development of psychosocial problems such as anxiety, depression, or stress, which can amplify pain.

Temporary or acute pain, caused by minor ailments like a sprain or a burn, usually resolves itself after the affected region heals. When an acute situation goes unresolved or causes a malfunction in the nervous system, however, the pain cycle becomes self-perpetuating. In these cases, diagnosis and treatment can be challenging because the pain signals may reverberate throughout the nervous system, disguising the original source.

Mackey says research has shown that chronic pain should be viewed similarly to chronic diseases, like diabetes, since it likely will require the same kind of sustained, comprehensive treatment plan. But understanding and utilizing some of the options for activating the brain-nerve relationship remains central to the process:

The medicinal approach. While the goal should always be to find the root cause of pain, medication can be used to provide short-term relief. Different drugs address various aspects of the neural pathways and are effective in blocking pain signals from getting to the brain, says Charles Inturrisi, professor of pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. These are the major categories

Anti-inflammatory medications, ranging from aspirin to nonsteroidal drugs and steroids, act on the nerves that detect pain on the periphery of the body. They generally succeed best with problems like osteoarthritis, where bones wear on each other, or an inflamed wound.

Anti-seizure drugs may correct the spontaneous misfiring of sensory neurons, which can occur with herniated disks, headaches, or chronic regional pain syndrome, also known as CRPS.

Antidepressants build up the brain's ability to block descending pain signals and work for many conditions involving nerve injury. (They do not require the person to be emotionally depressed.)

Opioids and some synthetic narcotics tone down ascending sensations of pain and amplify descending inhibitory signals. Doctors use opioids with care. They can be addictive, since they activate the brain's ventral tegmental area, which is related to the limbic system and rewards people during pleasurable activities like eating or having sex. Opioids are most appropriate for acute pain, but may be used carefully with chronic pain, Trescot says.

[Finding Effective Treatment for Your Chronic Pain]

A homeostatic process. A form of medical acupuncture being practiced increasingly in the United States blends Chinese approaches, developed over 1,500 years, with a Western understanding of neurophysiology, says Gary Kaplan of McLean, Va., who is board-certified in medical acupuncture, family medicine, and pain medicine. Acupuncturists place fiber-thin needles at varying depths, often between ¼ and 2 inches, at carefully mapped points on the body, depending on the diagnosis. The needles arouse the nerves and release endorphins, which activate opioid receptors in the spinal column and brain, relieving the pain. Acupuncture stimulates the release of neurotransmitters, and the increase in their production seems to be progressive with long-term treatment. "It's a homeostatic process," says Kaplan. The goal is to bring the body back to its normal ability to self-heal.

Mind over matter. Research has shown that people can activate their descending pathways to block pain by distracting themselves with work, family, or hobbies they enjoy. Studies also have found that clinical hypnosis can help patients learn how to alter activity in specific areas of the brain, says Mark Jensen, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Washington Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. For example, hypnotic suggestions can reduce patient discomfort by decreasing activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, the area of the brain that processes the emotional response to pain. Such suggestions can also target the sensory cortex, which determines components of pain such as its intensity and what it feels like. A variety of disciplines are examining the use of hypnosis, which has been employed in dental procedures and studied as an aid to reduce pain in women with breast cancer.

[In Chronic Pain? You Might Need Psychotherapy]

Stanford's Mackey is currently exploring how to teach patients to manage their own pain. In 2006 he used functional magnetic resonance imaging scans to successfully train patients to consciously increase or decrease activity in the regions of their brains that processed the pain they experienced. While the research continues, Mackey hopes the approach will eventually be refined sufficiently to allow for its widespread use.

source:http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/articles/2011/12/07/how-the-brain-interprets-pain-and-how-to-get-relief?page=2

Researchers measured people's physical and psychological responses while they used Facebook, performed a stressful task, or just relaxed, and found each of these activities appears to have a different effect on mood and arousal. Dr. Maurizio Mauri of the Institute of Human, Language and Environmental Sciences at IULM University in Milan, Italy, and colleagues, write about their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. A press statement on the study was released earlier this week.

In their background information, the researchers explain that few studies have tried to find out which aspects of the social networking experience makes sites like Facebook so successful, although it is known that their use can have both positive and negative effects.

For their study, they measured specific psychophysiological patterns in 30 healthy volunteers aged 19 to 25 during a three-minute exposure to each of three conditions: (1) while using Facebook (via their own personal accounts), (2) while observing a slide show of natural landscapes (a relaxation condition), or (3) while completing a Stroop test and mathematical task (a stress condition).

The Stroop test is often used to create a stressful condition in experiments: you are rapidly given names of colours (eg, RED, YELLOW, BLUE) and you have to say not the name that is spelled out but the colour of the letters (so if the word RED is written in blue, you have to say "blue").

The measures included skin conductance, blood volume pulse, brainwave patterns (using electroencephalograms), muscle activity (using electromyography), breathing activity, and pupil dilation.

When they analyzed and compared the results, the researchers found that the pattern for Facebook use was significantly different to the patterns for stress and relaxation. And more than this, they found that the biological signals for Facebook use correspond to what they describe as the "Core Flow State", a fairly new concept, which is characterized by "high positive valence and high arousal".

Core Flow is a concept that is only just beginning to be pinned down in terms of objective measurements. Some researchers describe it as a state that people reach in which their skills are challenged and they are highly aroused and enjoying what they do. Others say it is like a biological signal that makes people want to repeat their experience, and some studies have found flow is linked to quality of performance and quality of life.

In terms of the use of Facebook in this study, the researchers saw flow as "an optimal experience" that people appreciate and seek out. While the experience of flow is subjective, they tentatively suggest it is characterized by "positive valence and high arousal", which they attempted to assess with a cluster of measures that have been proposed in some previously unpublished studies.

The researchers conclude that their findings support the idea that the successful spread of social networking sites like Facebook might be linked to a specific cluster of positive emotional states that users experience when they use their accounts.

They suggest the study also helps to open up the new field of "affective computing", which examines the emotional landscape of human-computer interactions.

According to comscore, social networking is the most popular online activity, reaching some 1.2 billion users worldwide (200 million more than email). Nearly one in 5 minutes online is spent on social networking, and 75% of that is on Facebook.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD

Copyright: Medical News Today

Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241440.php

By reverse engineering human skin cells to become induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and then coaxing them to become neural dopamine cells, scientists in the US have developed a way to study a genetic cause of Parkinson's disease in lab-made neurons. Their findings, which they write about in the 7 February issue of Nature Communications, reveal some potential new drug targets for Parkinson's and a new platform to screen treatments that might mimic the protective functions of parkin, the gene they investigated.

Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological disorder that results from the death of dopamine-secreting neurons in a region of the brain that controls movement. In the US there are 500,000 people with Parkinson's disease, and 50,000 new cases every year. There is no cure.

Most cases have no specific cause, but around 1 in 10 can be attributed to known genetic factors. One of these is mutations in the parkin gene.

To study the effect of the parkin gene in brain cells, you have to study live human neurons. But they are hard to study because they live in complex networks in the brain, ruling out the possibility of extracting them. 

And you can't use animals, because when they lack the parkin gene, they don't develop Parkinson's disease: human neurons are thought to have "unique vulnerabilities" in this respect.

(The suggestion is that the larger human brain uses more dopamine to support the neural computation that is needed to enable us to walk on two legs, compared to the four-legged movement of almost all other animals.)

But in 2007, scientists in Japan described how they made human stem cells (iPSCs) without using embryos, and since then, lead author of the Nature Communications study, Dr Jian Feng from the University at Buffalo (UB) in New York, and colleagues, have been looking for a way to use the technology to study neurons with mutations in the parkin gene.

Feng, a professor of physiology and biophysics in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, said in a press statement that the advent of iPSCs was a "game-changer" for their field of work:

"Before this, we didn't even think about being able to study the disease in human neurons."

"The brain is so fully integrated. It's impossible to obtain live human neurons to study," he added.

For their study, Feng and colleagues reverse engineered human skin cells to make iPSCs. The skin cells came from four people: two with a rare type of Parkinson's disease where parkin causes the disease, and two healthy people who served as controls.

"Once parkin is mutated, it can no longer precisely control the action of dopamine, which supports the neural computation required for our movement," said Feng. 

Feng and colleagues also found that mutations in parkin stop it being able to tightly control the production of monoamine oxidase (MAO), which catalyzes dopamine oxidation.

"Normally, parkin makes sure that MAO, which can be toxic, is expressed at a very low level so that dopamine oxidation is under control," said Feng. 

But they found that when it is mutated, parkin loses the ability to regulate MAO, so the level goes up.

"The nerve cells from our Parkinson's patients had much higher levels of MAO expression than those from our controls. We suggest in our study that it might be possible to design a new class of drugs that would dial down the expression level of MAO," explained Feng, who noted that one of the drugs currently used to treat Parkinson's disease slows the activity of MAO and in trials has been shown to slow disease progression.

Fend said they discovered that a key reason for the death of dopamine neurons was oxidative stress due to there being too much MAO around. But before the neurons die, the precise action of dopamine in helping the neural computations that support movement, is disrupted by mutations in parkin.

"This paper provides the first clues about what the parkin gene is doing in healthy controls and what it fails to achieve in Parkinson's patients," said Feng.

When the researchers delivered normal parkin into the neurons with the mutations, the defects were reversed. This is what makes them think such neurons could be used as a platform for screening new drug candidates that could mimic the protective effect of normal parkin.

The University of Buffalo has applied for patent protection on the screening platform. 

Although parkin mutations are responsible for a small proportion of Parkinson's cases, the researchers believe that understanding how the gene works could be relevant to all cases of the disease.

source:http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241373.php

America's rising rates of obesity in virtually all age groups is partly due to biological factors, researchers from the Cincinnati Diabetes and Obesity Center reported in the journal Cell Metabolism. Approximately one third of all American adults are obese today, and the percentage continues to rise, says the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Co-author, Randy Seeley, PhD, said:

"While we don't usually think of it this way, body weight is regulated. How much we weigh is influenced by a number of biological systems, and this is part of what makes it so hard for people to lose weight and keep it off.

To understand the obesity epidemic, we must figure out how our environment alters these biological systems to encourage weight gain."

In our society today, there is an over-abundance of calorie-rich, high-fat foods, which encourages weight gain. What we consume can change parts of our brain that regulate how much we weigh.

High-fat diets inhibit the actions of leptin in the brain

Dr. Seeley explained:

"Leptin is a key hormone that is secreted from fat tissue, or adipose tissue, and its main function is to inhibit appetite. Via a number of molecular mechanisms, eating a high-fat diet reduces the actions of leptin in the brain. This miscommunication can lead to increased food intake and weight gain.

Evolutionary speaking, we are designed to want to eat foods that are high in fat and gain weight because it made it easier to survive times when food was not available," he continues. "However, that is no longer a real concern since food is almost always available, but we still have a biological desire to eat these calorically dense foods. So, how do we intervene and change this drive? "

Obesity not only has adverse health consequence, but financial and social ones too. Seeley believes there are a number of key points in successful therapeutic interventions which need to be applied.

Dr. Seeley said:

"The key issue is to find ways to take these biological systems that usually make it hard to lose weight and make them work for us to so that it is easier for obese individuals to lose weight," he says. "As we understand the molecular interaction between what we eat and these brain circuits that regulate our body weight, we can design interventions that reduce the body weight that our bodies defend.

This will mean that people trying to lose weight would be able to work with their biology, rather than trying to use will power to overcome their biology that pushes them back to their obese state. Such an endeavor will ultimately require a wide range of scientists from different fields to reduce both the human and monetary costs of the obesity epidemic

By Linda Carroll

Patients often see multiple doctors before they get their headaches diagnosed – and Harry Potter, it turns out, is no exception.

Back in 2007 a leading headache specialist, after poring through Harry’s headache history, concluded that the boy’s intermittent stabbing head pain must be due to migraines. The specialist, Dr. Fred Sheftell, along with some colleagues described the diagnosis in a paper published in the journal Headache.

But the diagnosis didn’t completely fit Harry’s symptoms and over the years several other specialists have chimed in with their own expert opinions.

Now, with clues that came from the final chapter of Harry’s biography by J.K. Rowling, experts think they finally have the correct diagnosis - nummular headache. And they’ve described their reasoning in the most recent edition of Headache.

Many neurologists have never heard of nummular headaches, says the lead author, Dr. Matthew Robbins, an assistant professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the director of inpatient services at the Montefiore Headache Center.

And that’s partly because these kinds of headaches have only recently been identified and codified, he explained.

The telling symptom pointing to nummular headaches, Robbins says, is that every time Harry suffers from head pain it’s in a small spot in exactly the same place.

Another line of evidence: nummular headaches can be sparked by a head injury, like the one that led to Harry’s lightning bolt scar.

Robbins and his colleagues studied nummular headaches in dozens of real patients. A telling sign is the lesions that “have been described to occur in scalp regions of [nummular headache] patients, although admittedly, none of these cutaneous lesions manifested in the shape of a lightning bolt,” the researchers explained in their article.

You may be wondering why experts spend their time diagnosing fictional characters. It’s a good way to educate the public about a condition that can occur in children and often goes unrecognized, Robbins says.

“If you can get the word out to people who are suffering, it’s a positive thing,” Robbins says, adding, “and we had some fun along the way.”

source:http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/03/10312775-harry-potters-headache-finally-diagnosed

The world's biggest companies have got a new way of convincing you to buy their products – by getting inside your head. Brands including Google, Facebook and ITV are turning to mind-reading technology to help them develop products and create adverts that people like.

Traditionally, focus groups have been used to tell marketeers what they think of adverts. Unfortunately for advertisers, some people don't tell the truth.

Faced with the prospect of consumers hiding their emotions – perhaps a middle-aged man reluctant to reveal that he shed a tear at a sentimental John Lewis Christmas advert – a new breed of "neuromarketer" has emerged, armed with medical technology to probe consumers' brains for genuine responses.

"We put a cap on your head that measures your brain impulses," said AK Pradeep, a pioneer of neuromarketing science and chief executive of NeuroFocus, one of the biggest players in a booming industry. "We measure all parts of your brain continuously. Second by second, we measure how much attention you're paying. We get [to learn] what emotions you're experiencing and what memories you're memorising."

Pradeep says watching people's brains via caps covered in electrodes or magnetic scanners that are normally used by hospitals to detect cancer is better than direct questioning because, "when you ask people to tell you how they feel, the very act of thinking about a feeling changes the feeling".

NeuroFocus grades adverts against the emotions the advertisers wished to evoke on a scale of 10 (perfect; don't change a thing) to zero (requires major surgery). Low-scoring ads are sent back with suggestions of changes to make them more appealing.

A spokesman for NeuroFocus, which was bought last year by the $5bn global measurement and analytics firm Nielsen, said the company has worked with Google, Microsoft, Intel, Facebook, PayPal, Hewlett-Packard and Citigroup, but refused to provide details of adverts or products involved. "It's not just one company and one advertiser; it is all sorts of companies and brands around the world," Pradeep said. "They come to us and say, 'Please run our campaign through the neural lab.'"

Gemma Calvert, a former Oxford University neurologist who founded rival company Neurosense, said neuromarketing has "completely changed our understanding of the brain" and is now so advanced that she is "able to predict how customers will behave".

She said Neurosense, which monitors blood flow to detect activity levels in different parts of the brain, worked with GMTV to provide evidence that consumers were more receptive to advertising early in the morning. The company's website also lists clients including McDonald's, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and GlaxoSmithKline.

"Neuroscience has completely changed our understanding of the brain. This information is not a flash-in-the-pan," Calvert said. "We are trying to find out what aspects of the images [in adverts] are having effect on the reward system – and making them [the brand] more likeable." For example, she said, if research showed a chocolate bar's crunchiness made it appealing, she would advise manufacturers to make it more crunchy.

Calvert said one restaurant asked her to determine the best aroma to tempt customers. "One client was interested in pumping a fragrance into a restaurant to change the way people perceived the food they were going to eatthere. Certain fragrances encourage different eating habits; we were trying to determine which are the most effective."

She said the research has led to brands changing their logos, packaging and even theme tunes: "We are changing the way brands understand themselves so they can better understand their audiences." The techniques are also used in the development of new products: "There are lots of products that have been developed with knowledge about the brain and psychology that's been derived from this stuff," she said.

Duncan Stewart, a director of technology research at auditing firm Deloitte, estimates that "more than 10% of prime time TV adverts" have been developed using neuromarketing techniques. He said that neuromarketing was first used in the creation of adverts in 2006-7, before becoming more mainstream in 2009-10.

"The industry is growing well in excess of 100%," he said. "It is used in TV, film, advertising and social media. People have been creating iconic ads for decades and have always wanted to know what people really think of them. Now they can."

• This article was amended on 15-16 January 2012. A line saying "Neilsen bought NeuroFocus for $5bn" should have read "NeuroFocus, which was bought last year by the $5bn global measurement and analytics firm Nielsen".

Mental Health Minister Mark Butler said undertaking paid work was "critical" to a person's recovery from ill mental health and the draft roadmap, endorsed by all state and territory governments, laid out a plan to make that a reality for sufferers.

"Our roadmap recognises that good mental health is a whole-of-life issue and that non-clinical support is just important as the clinical support we provide," Mr Butler told The Australian Online.

"Undertaking paid work and being able to participate in meaningful activity and make social connections can be critical to people's recovery from mental illness."

The 42-page draft roadmap is the result of a Council of Australian Governments agreement last August that tasked representatives from each state and territory to better focus the nation's mental health reform agenda.

It outlines five key directions for the sector including promoting good mental health and preventing suicide, early detection and intervention, support for consumers and carers, increased participation in society and addressing service access gaps.

The roadmap stated short and long-term actions for employment assistance including increased funding for support services required after a period of hospitalisation, incentives for employers looking hire someone with a mental illness and stigma reduction activities in workplaces.

According to the 2010 National Mental Health Report reduced productivity associated with mental illness in the employed workforce costs the nation $5.9 billion annually.

Mental health advocates have been long calling for increased support for mentally-ill people to return to, or remain in, paid work but until now there has been no clear measurable goal committed to by the government.

Former Australian of The Year and mental health campaigner Patrick McGorry said while the roadmap was a good start the government needed to ensure it had the funding to back it up.

"If you want to complete a journey as well as a roadmap you need modern sophisticated vehicles and you need fuel," Professor McGorry told The Australian Online.

"You've got to have a guarantee that the tank, or finances, is filled up repeatedly. That's where I think the big threat to achieving this goal comes from."

The opposition's mental health spokeswoman Concetta Ferravanti-Wells questioned the timing of the draft roadmap's release.

"The Gillard government claims to have mental health as a second term priority but it has released its 42-page draft version of its Roadmap and then given people only two weeks to comment," Senator Fierravanti-Wells said.

"In case they had not noticed, many people are still on annual leave or preparing to return their children to school. Is this really a consultation period or a gesture to trick people into thinking they have had a say?"

The draft is open for public consultation until February 1.

What is Mental Illness: Mental Illness Facts

Mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.

Serious mental illnesses include major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder. The good news about mental illness is that recovery is possible.

Mental illnesses can affect persons of any age, race, religion, or income. Mental illnesses are not the result of personal weakness, lack of character or poor upbringing. Mental illnesses are treatable. Most people diagnosed with a serious mental illness can experience relief from their symptoms by actively participating in an individual treatment plan.

In addition to medication treatment, psychosocial treatment such as cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, peer support groups and other community services can also be components of a treatment plan and that assist with recovery. The availability of transportation, diet, exercise, sleep, friends and meaningful paid or volunteer activities contribute to overall health and wellness, including mental illness recovery.

Here are some important facts about mental illness and recovery:

* Mental illnesses are serious medical illnesses. They cannot be overcome through "will power" and are not related to a person's "character" or intelligence. Mental illness falls along a continuum of severity. Even though mental illness is widespread in the population, the main burden of illness is concentrated in a much smaller proportion-about 6 percent, or 1 in 17 Americans-who live with a serious mental illness. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that One in four adults-approximately 57.7 million Americans-experience a mental health disorder in a given year

* The U.S. Surgeon General reports that 10 percent of children and adolescents in the United States suffer from serious emotional and mental disorders that cause significant functional impairment in their day-to-day lives at home, in school and with peers.

* The World Health Organization has reported that four of the 10 leading causes of disability in the US and other developed countries are mental disorders. By 2020, Major Depressive illness will be the leading cause of disability in the world for women and children.

* Mental illness usually strike individuals in the prime of their lives, often during adolescence and young adulthood. All ages are susceptible, but the young and the old are especially vulnerable.

* Without treatment the consequences of mental illness for the individual and society are staggering: unnecessary disability, unemployment, substance abuse, homelessness, inappropriate incarceration, suicide and wasted lives; The economic cost of untreated mental illness is more than 100 billion dollars each year in the United States.

* The best treatments for serious mental illnesses today are highly effective; between 70 and 90 percent of individuals have significant reduction of symptoms and improved quality of life with a combination of pharmacological and psychosocial treatments and supports.

* With appropriate effective medication and a wide range of services tailored to their needs, most people who live with serious mental illnesses can significantly reduce the impact of their illness and find a satisfying measure of achievement and independence. A key concept is to develop expertise in developing strategies to manage the illness process.

* Early identification and treatment is of vital importance; By ensuring access to the treatment and recovery supports that are proven effective, recovery is accelerated and the further harm related to the course of illness is minimized.

* Stigma erodes confidence that mental disorders are real, treatable health conditions. We have allowed stigma and a now unwarranted sense of hopelessness to erect attitudinal, structural and financial barriers to effective treatment and recovery. It is time to take these barriers down.

Recovery workers who responded first to the WTC site were exposed to both extreme mental trauma and to an extraordinary environmental disaster. The attacks on the WTC have led to two persistent health problems among the rescue workers - PTSD and respiratory ailments - due to the extreme emotional trauma of witnessing such enormous destruction and deaths, as well as the unprecedented physical hazards, such as exposure to the explosion of jet fuel and the smoldering debris fire. 

SOURCE:http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jan/06/memory-loss-begins-at-45-says-study