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Brain Posts
230 posts
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- February 12, 2012
- 01:21 PM
- 18 views
Cell Phone Use and Risk of Brain Cancer
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In my last post I examined the epidemiology of brain tumors using a summary of the latest data from the United States. The summary noted the slight decline in the number of malignant brain cancers over the last twenty years.One area of concern that is receiving increased attention is the potential for cell phone risk to raise the risk of brain cancers.Obviously if cell phone use was a very large effect one might have expected an increase in the rates of brain tumors and cancer over th........ Read more »
Frei, P., Poulsen, A., Johansen, C., Olsen, J., Steding-Jessen, M., & Schuz, J. (2011) Use of mobile phones and risk of brain tumours: update of Danish cohort study. BMJ, 343(oct19 4). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d6387
- January 28, 2012
- 05:38 PM
- 2 views
Epidemiology of Brain Cancer
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
A recent summary of the trends in cancer highlighted the epidemiology of brain and other nervous system tumors. In the United States, 213,500 brain and other nervous system tumors were diagnosed during the four year period from 2004 through 2007.Brain and other nervous systems (ONS) tumors rank fourteenth in the top 15 cancers for men and fifteenth in the top 15 cancers for women in the United States.Overall rates for brain and ONS tumors during this period were 22.37 per 100,000 for men a........ Read more »
Kohler, B., Ward, E., McCarthy, B., Schymura, M., Ries, L., Eheman, C., Jemal, A., Anderson, R., Ajani, U., & Edwards, B. (2011) Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2007, Featuring Tumors of the Brain and Other Nervous System. JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 103(9), 714-736. DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djr077
- January 23, 2012
- 03:18 PM
- 1 view
Parent Training and Conduct Disorder Outcome
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Three previous posts examined the clinical neuroscience disorder antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). This condition results in high societal costs for crime and incarceration for individuals with ASPD.ASPD appears to have significant genetic contributions and brain imaging studies show abnormal brain maturational patterns in the premotor cortex area as well as impaired processing of facial emotional expression.Antisocial personality is an early age of onset disorder with conduct disord........ Read more »
Drugli MB, Larsson B, Fossum S, & Mørch WT. (2010) Five- to six-year outcome and its prediction for children with ODD/CD treated with parent training. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 51(5), 559-66. PMID: 20015193
- January 20, 2012
- 11:40 AM
- 144 views
Brain Imaging in Antisocial Personality: II
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
This is the second in a series of posts looking at recent imaging findings in antisocial personality. In the first post, I reviewed an fMRI study that found deficits in connectivity maturation involving the premotor cortex in a sample of incarcerated juveniles.In this post, I will review a study looking a emotional face processing. Accurately assessing the emotions of others and adjusting ones own behavior is a key component to social development and appropriate social behavior.Indiv........ Read more »
Passamonti L, Fairchild G, Goodyer IM, Hurford G, Hagan CC, Rowe JB, & Calder AJ. (2010) Neural abnormalities in early-onset and adolescence-onset conduct disorder. Archives of general psychiatry, 67(7), 729-38. PMID: 20603454
- January 19, 2012
- 09:22 AM
- 113 views
Brain Imaging in Antisocial Personality: I
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is linked to a variety of emotional and behavioral abnormalities with significant public health implications.Key components of antisocial personality disorder include irritability with anger dysregulation. Individuals with ASPD are quick tempered with anger outbursts commonly leading to physical or emotional aggressiveness towards others.The emotional and behavioral abnormalities in ASPD may provide a model for studying specific brain regions controll........ Read more »
Shannon BJ, Raichle ME, Snyder AZ, Fair DA, Mills KL, Zhang D, Bache K, Calhoun VD, Nigg JT, Nagel BJ.... (2011) Premotor functional connectivity predicts impulsivity in juvenile offenders. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(27), 11241-5. PMID: 21709236
- January 18, 2012
- 09:40 AM
- 108 views
Twin Study of Antisocial Personality Disorder
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Twin studies provide a valuable method to explore the genetic and environmental contributions to a variety of clinical neuroscience disorders.Twin studies use a method where identical twins (monozygotic) sharing 100% of their genes are compared to non-identical twins (dizygotic) who share 50% of their genes.Disorders that are entirely environmental would be found at the same rates in non-identical twins and indentical twins. Disorders with a strong genetic contribution would be more likely........ Read more »
Kendler KS, Aggen SH, & Patrick CJ. (2012) A Multivariate Twin Study of the DSM-IV Criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder. Biological psychiatry, 71(3), 247-53. PMID: 21762879
- January 17, 2012
- 11:26 AM
- 105 views
The Economic Costs of Brain Disorders
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Clinical disorders involving the brain are common and produce a variety of economic costs to society.Cost analyses provide an overview of the types of disorders and their relative contribution to the overall costs to society. Such types of analyses can aid public health officials in targeting strategies to reduce the burden of brain disorders.Andlin-Sobocki and colleagues recently published an analysis of the costs of brain disorder in Europe. This study included both neurological an........ Read more »
Olesen J, Gustavsson A, Svensson M, Wittchen HU, Jönsson B, on behalf of the CDBE2010 study group, & the European Brain Council. (2012) The economic cost of brain disorders in Europe. European journal of neurology : the official journal of the European Federation of Neurological Societies, 19(1), 155-162. PMID: 22175760
- January 16, 2012
- 10:06 AM
- 90 views
The Neuropsychology of Opioid Abuse
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
This is the last post in a series on prescription opioid abuse and dependence. Prescription opioid overdose fatalities is a growing public health problem in the United States. This problem varies by state of residence. There are effective pharmacological strategies for the treatment of opioid dependence, but relapse rates are high.With this growing problem, an important clinical question is "What are the cognitive effects of chronic opioid use/abuse/dependence?". One of ........ Read more »
Fernández-Serrano MJ, Pérez-García M, & Verdejo-García A. (2011) What are the specific vs. generalized effects of drugs of abuse on neuropsychological performance?. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 35(3), 377-406. PMID: 20451551
- January 13, 2012
- 09:56 AM
- 136 views
Suboxone Treatment for Prescription Opioid Abuse
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Chemical Structures for Buprenorphine and NaloxoneIn three previous posts I have reviewed several aspects of prescription opioid abuse including posts on epidemiology, toxicology and clinical pathways to abuse.Given the growing numbers of individuals with prescription opioid abuse, safe and effective treatment options become increasingly important.Opioid withdrawal can be quite painful and often leads to resumption of opioid use. Treatment of opioid withdrawal can include non-opioid drugs ........ Read more »
Weiss RD, Potter JS, Fiellin DA, Byrne M, Connery HS, Dickinson W, Gardin J, Griffin ML, Gourevitch MN, Haller DL.... (2011) Adjunctive counseling during brief and extended buprenorphine-naloxone treatment for prescription opioid dependence: a 2-phase randomized controlled trial. Archives of general psychiatry, 68(12), 1238-46. PMID: 22065255
- January 5, 2012
- 01:29 PM
- 130 views
Pathways to Prescription Opioid Overdose
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
The majority of initial prescriptions for opioid analgesics in acute pain management occur without development of a pattern of misuse or abuse.However, in some individuals, opioid prescriptions produce a pathway for misuse, abuse and risk of opioid overdose death. In two previous posts, I have outlined the epidemiology of opioid overdose death and the toxicology of these compounds.Risk factors for the development of prescription opioid drugs have not been extensively studied. However........ Read more »
Paulozzi, L., Kilbourne, E., Shah, N., Nolte, K., Desai, H., Landen, M., Harvey, W., & Loring, L. (2011) A History of Being Prescribed Controlled Substances and Risk of Drug Overdose Death. Pain Medicine. DOI: 10.1111/j.1526-4637.2011.01260.x
- January 4, 2012
- 01:32 PM
- 166 views
Prescription Opioid Overdose Toxicology
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
My previous post examined the epidemiology of rise in opioid abuse and opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. The number of these deaths has increased fourfold in the last decade and appears to be higher in states with higher rates of prescriptions for the opioid drug class.Members of the prescribed opioid compounds includes the following generic (Trade name) drugs in the U.S.:MethadoneOxycodone (Oxycontin/Percodan)Hydromorphone (Vicodin/Lortab)Meperidine (Demerol)Hydromorphone (Dilaudid)Codei........ Read more »
Wolf BC, Lavezzi WA, Sullivan LM, & Flannagan LM. (2005) One hundred seventy two deaths involving the use of oxycodone in Palm Beach County. Journal of forensic sciences, 50(1), 192-5. PMID: 15831018
Darke S, Duflou J, & Torok M. (2011) Toxicology and characteristics of fatal oxycodone toxicity cases in New South Wales, Australia 1999-2008. Journal of forensic sciences, 56(3), 690-3. PMID: 21361931
- January 3, 2012
- 12:25 PM
- 151 views
Epidemiology of Prescription Opiate Abuse in U.S.
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Prescription opiate abuse and accidental deaths are on the rise in the U.S. The Center for Disease Controls (CDC) estimates that opiate pain reliever drugs were responsible for approximately 74% of all prescription drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2008.The CDC recently published a study of the epidemiology of opiate pain reliever deaths in the U.S. between 1999 and 2008 the last year full statistics are available. The trends in this area are a public health concern driving efforts........ Read more »
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2011) Vital signs: overdoses of prescription opioid pain relievers---United States, 1999--2008. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 1487-92. PMID: 22048730
- December 21, 2011
- 12:50 PM
- 156 views
Slow Wave Sleep Deprivation in Depression
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Sleep abnormalities commonly occur in depression and are included in the diagnostic criteria for the disorder. Acute sleep deprivation temporarily improves the symptoms of major depression in approximately 50 to 60 percent of patients. The mechanism for this effect is not well understood. Sleep architecture abnormalities in depression include reduced REM latency (period of time from falling asleep to first REM period). A significant amount of research has focused on REM s........ Read more »
Landsness EC, Goldstein MR, Peterson MJ, Tononi G, & Benca RM. (2011) Antidepressant effects of selective slow wave sleep deprivation in major depression: a high-density EEG investigation. Journal of psychiatric research, 45(8), 1019-26. PMID: 21397252
- December 20, 2011
- 12:45 PM
- 235 views
Antidepressant Effects in Healthy Brains
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In a previous post I summarized some of what is known about the effect of antidepressants in healthy brains. This issue is important because antidepressant drugs have indications outside of mood and anxiety disorders including peripheral neuropathy and migraine prophylaxis. Additionally, understanding the effects of antidepressants in healthy brains may also provide insight into the brain mechanisms related to depression.A recent fMRI imaging study provides some additional insight in........ Read more »
McCabe C, & Mishor Z. (2011) Antidepressant medications reduce subcortical-cortical resting-state functional connectivity in healthy volunteers. NeuroImage, 57(4), 1317-23. PMID: 21640839
- December 19, 2011
- 01:08 PM
- 217 views
Glutamate Receptors and Genetics of ADHD
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Genetic association studies in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been inconsistent despite a heritability estimated as high as 90% for the disorder.Recently, novel approaches examining gene copy number variations (CNV) have shown promise in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.... Read more »
Elia J, Glessner JT, Wang K, Takahashi N, Shtir CJ, Hadley D, Sleiman PM, Zhang H, Kim CE, Robison R.... (2011) Genome-wide copy number variation study associates metabotropic glutamate receptor gene networks with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Nature genetics. PMID: 22138692
- December 14, 2011
- 12:44 PM
- 490 views
Brain and Gut in Processing Emotion
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex in BlueIntense emotional experiences frequently occur with bodily sensations such as a rapid heart rate or gastrointestinal distress.It appears that bodily sensation (interoception) can be an important source of information when judging one's emotional. How the brain processes interoception is becoming better understood. However, how the brain integrates interoceptive signals with other brain emotional processing circuits is less well understood.Terasawa and........ Read more »
Terasawa, Y., Fukushima, H., & Umeda, S. (2011) How does interoceptive awareness interact with the subjective experience of emotion? An fMRI Study. Human Brain Mapping. DOI: 10.1002/hbm.21458
- December 13, 2011
- 01:01 PM
- 524 views
Weight Suppression and Bulimia Recovery
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Weight suppression is a variable that is defined as highest ever historical weight minus current weight. It represents a measure of the level of weight lost since being at the highest weight over a lifetime.Although many individuals with bulimia nervosa are within normal weight ranges, these individuals tend to have higher levels of weight suppression than those without an eating disorder.Weight loss in bulimia may increase drive for binge eating. Weight suppression may similarly be ........ Read more »
Lowe, M., Berner, L., Swanson, S., Clark, V., Eddy, K., Franko, D., Shaw, J., Ross, S., & Herzog, D. (2011) Weight suppression predicts time to remission from bulimia nervosa. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 79(6), 772-776. DOI: 10.1037/a0025714
- December 12, 2011
- 12:16 PM
- 494 views
Best Test for Diagnosing Alzheimer's Dementia
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
PET Image Normal Definitive diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) from other forms of dementia is a complex clinical challenge. Positron imaging tomography (PET) scans are widely available in the United States. A more recent approach has used the estimation of brain amyloid levels using an amyloid ligand Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB). PiB imaging is primarily a research tool at the present.I have previously summarized some of the research related to PiB imaging from a lectur........ Read more »
Rabinovici GD, Rosen HJ, Alkalay A, Kornak J, Furst AJ, Agarwal N, Mormino EC, O'Neil JP, Janabi M, Karydas A.... (2011) Amyloid vs FDG-PET in the differential diagnosis of AD and FTLD. Neurology, 77(23), 2034-42. PMID: 22131541
- December 7, 2011
- 01:23 PM
- 201 views
Risk Factors for ADHD Symptoms in Childhood
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
U.S. Survey Rates of Ever Being Diagnosed with ADHD (ages 4-17)ADHD symptoms emerge early in childhood and vary over time. In some children, symptoms will resolve without treatment. For others, ADHD symptoms persist and in some children the symptoms may worsen.Identifying risk factors for poor prognosis of early childhood ADHD symptoms would assist in targeting secondary prevention interventions. Galera and colleagues recently outlined a study of early risk factors for ADHD symptoms ........ Read more »
Galera, C., Cote, S., Bouvard, M., Pingault, J., Melchior, M., Michel, G., Boivin, M., & Tremblay, R. (2011) Early Risk Factors for Hyperactivity-Impulsivity and Inattention Trajectories From Age 17 Months to 8 Years. Archives of General Psychiatry, 68(12), 1267-1275. DOI: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.138
- December 6, 2011
- 12:21 PM
- 200 views
Brain Correlates of Emotional Intelligence
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Insula Cortex Highlighted in BlueEmotional intelligence (EI) is a concept that has received more attention in the lay press than in the field of neuroscience research.EI has been defined an individual's ability to be aware of their own emotions as well as the emotions of others. Using this information to guide thinking and action is felt to be important in a variety of interpersonal situations. Individuals with limited EI faces challenges in the social aspects of work, friendship and marri........ Read more »
Takeuchi, H., Taki, Y., Sassa, Y., Hashizume, H., Sekiguchi, A., Nagase, T., Nouchi, R., Fukushima, A., & Kawashima, R. (2011) White matter structures associated with emotional intelligence: Evidence from diffusion tensor imaging. Human Brain Mapping. DOI: 10.1002/hbm.21492
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