INFORMATION:
This work was supported by grants from the National Institute on Mental Health, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the International Bipolar Foundation.
Media contact: william.hathaway@yale.edu
ACNP, founded in 1961, is a professional organization of more than 700 leading scientists, including four Nobel Laureates. The mission of ACNP is to further research and education in neuropsychopharmacology and related fields in the following ways: promoting the interaction of a broad range of scientific disciplines of brain and behavior in order to advance the understanding of prevention and treatment of disease of the nervous system including psychiatric, neurological, behavioral and addictive disorders; encouraging scientists to enter research careers in fields related to these disorders and their treatment; and ensuring the dissemination of relevant scientific advances.
Brain scans link frontal abnormalities to suicidal behaviors in adolescents, young adults
2014-12-09
(Press-News.org) Phoenix, AZ (December 9th, 2014) - Abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex and related brain areas are observed in adolescents who have attempted suicide, according to a report today at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual meeting in Phoenix Arizona. The study suggests that deficits in frontal systems may be associated with risk for suicide attempts in youths with mood disorders.
Most suicide attempts occur in the context of mood disorders, including bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. Bipolar disorder has a prevalence of 3-4% in the U.S. population, and 25-50% of those affected attempt suicide; 15-20 % of individuals with the disorder die as a result. Early intervention is needed as suicidal behavior often first presents in adolescence. The development of new interventions, however, requires a better characterization of how features of brain structure and function are linked to the development of suicidal behaviors.
Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Hilary Blumberg and colleagues at the Yale School of Medicine examined brain structure and function in adolescents and young adults, 14 - 25 years of age. Sixty-eight participants with bipolar disorder, of whom 26 attempted suicide, were compared with 45 healthy volunteers matched for age and gender. The investigators found that, compared with bipolar patients who did not attempt suicide and healthy control subjects, the participants who attempted suicide showed less integrity of white matter in key frontal brain systems, including the uncinate fasciculus, a fiber tract that connects the frontal lobe with key brain areas that control emotion, motivation, and memory. What was remarkable was that the deficits in the structural connections were linked to weaker connections between the prefrontal cortex and amygdala, suggesting that the white matter abnormalities disrupt the ability of these system components to work together. Further, there were links between the circuitry deficits and suicidal ideation, the number of suicide attempts and the relative lethality of those prior suicide attempts.
This work presents an important first step in understanding the neurobiology of how suicidal thoughts and behaviors are generated and may facilitate earlier identification of individuals at risk and development of targeted interventions to stop suicide.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Immunotherapy shows clinical benefit in relapsed transplant recipients
2014-12-09
A multicenter phase 1 trial of the immune checkpoint blocker ipilimumab found clinical benefit in nearly half of blood cancer patients who had relapsed following allogeneic stem cell transplantation, according to investigators from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who developed and lead the study.
The study reported at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting is the first in which ipilimumab was given in multiple doses over an extended time period, the researchers said.
At a median follow-up time of six months, "We have seen less toxicity than expected and a strong ...
PRM-151 therapy well tolerated in patients with advanced myelofibrosis
2014-12-09
A study that investigated the potential of the compound PRM-151 (PRM) for reducing progressive bone marrow fibrosis (scarring) in patients with advanced myelofibrosis has shown initial positive results. Myelofibrosis is a life-threatening bone marrow cancer.
The study, led by Srdan Verstovsek, M.D., Ph.D., professor of leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, showed the compound was well tolerated in observing 27 patients. Verstovsek's research results were presented today at the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual ...
Improving health through smarter cities: Debut of a major new global science collaboration
2014-12-09
Aiming to empower planners and policy-makers to achieve better health for billions of people living in fast-growing urban areas, world health, environmental, behavioural and social science experts today launched a major new interdisciplinary scientific collaboration.
Programme goals:
Empowering planners and policy-makers with better science to create healthy urban environments and improve wellbeing;
Identify and manage unintended health consequences of urban policy;
Understand connections between cities and planetary change
Leading the consortium of science ...
Debate on safety of e-cigarettes continues
2014-12-09
Opposing views on the potential impact of electronic cigarettes on public health are published in the open access journal BMC Medicine. The commentaries, by two experts, differ in their views on the topic but are united in their call for a rational discussion based on evidence.
The authors examine the WHO's recommendations earlier this year. One recommendation was that smokers should not use e-cigarettes and has now been withdrawn, and the other is that policymakers should implement their strict regulation, which is still in force.
In one of the commentaries, Peter ...
Heart disease patients advised to avoid being outside in rush hour traffic
2014-12-09
Sophia Antipolis, 09 December 2014: Heart disease patients have been advised to avoid being outside during rush hour traffic in a paper published today in European Heart Journal.1 The position paper on air pollution and cardiovascular disease was written by experts from the European Society of Cardiology and also recommends decreasing the use of fossil fuels.
Professor Robert F. Storey, corresponding author of the paper, said: "More than 3 million deaths worldwide are caused by air pollution each year. Air pollution ranks ninth among the modifiable disease risk factors, ...
Combining insecticide sprays and bed nets 'no more effective' in cutting malaria
2014-12-09
There is no need to spray insecticide on walls for malaria control when people sleep under treated bed nets, according to new research.
Use of insecticide sprayed on internal walls, when combined with insecticide-treated bed nets in homes, does not protect children from malaria any more effectively than using just insecticide-treated bed nets, the research led by Durham University and the Medical Research Council's Unit in The Gambia found.
The researchers said this was important as insecticide-treated nets and insecticide sprayed on walls are commonly used for controlling ...
Pricing for new drugs lacks transparency
2014-12-09
The system that allows patients rapid access to expensive new treatments lacks transparency and penalises small and low-income countries unable to negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers. Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the authors of an essay on market-access agreements for anti-cancer drugs, say that while the underlying strategy is to help reduce the likelihood of health systems paying for treatments that turn out not to be cost-effective, the agreements can also be seen as an opportunistic way for pharmaceutical manufacturers ...
Wealth, power or lack thereof at heart of many mental disorders
2014-12-09
Donald Trump's ego may be the size of his financial empire, but that doesn't mean he's the picture of mental health. The same can be said about the self-esteem of people who are living from paycheck to paycheck, or unemployed. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, underscores this mind-wallet connection.
UC Berkeley researchers have linked inflated or deflated feelings of self-worth to such afflictions as bipolar disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, anxiety and depression, providing yet more evidence that the widening gulf between rich and ...
The Lancet: Combining insecticide spraying and bed nets no more protective against malaria than nets alone
2014-12-09
The combined use of spraying insecticide inside homes and insecticide-treated bed nets is no better at protecting children against malaria than using bed nets alone, a study in The Gambia suggests. The findings, published in The Lancet, should encourage donors to invest their limited resources in additional bed nets, the more cost-effective solution to tackling malaria*.
Lead author Professor Steve Lindsay, a disease ecologist at Durham University in the UK explains, "Our findings do not support any universal recommendation for indoor residual spraying as an addition ...
Blocking receptor in brain's immune cells counters Alzheimer's in mice
2014-12-09
The mass die-off of nerve cells in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease may largely occur because an entirely different class of brain cells, called microglia, begin to fall down on the job, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
The researchers found that, in mice, blocking the action of a single molecule on the surface of microglia restored the cells' ability to get the job done -- and reversed memory loss and myriad other Alzheimer's-like features in the animals.
The study, to be published online Dec. 8 in ...