(Press-News.org) New Rochelle, NY, September 8, 2010—Pediatric-onset obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette's disorder (TD) share similarities in their underlying genetic and environmental factors, psychiatric features, and treatment methods. Advances in understanding the neurobiological basis of these disorders and discovering new and more effective therapies are highlighted in a special issue on OCD and TD in Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). The entire issue is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/cap
Guest editors Barbara J. Coffey, MD, MS, from the New York University Child Study Center, and Judith Rapoport, MD Chief, Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH describe the current reality of these challenging neuropsychiatric disorders in the editorial, "Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Tourette's Disorder: Where Are We Now?" They conclude that "studies are still few, and validated predictors, moderators and mediators of treatment response are still very much needed."
Riluzole, a drug approved for treating patients with the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), has shown promise in psychiatric conditions such as OCD in children and is currently being studied in a clinical trial that will assess its efficacy and side effects in young people who have not benefited from standard-of-care treatments. Paul Grant, Jane Song, and Susan Swedo from the National Institute of Mental Health (Bethesda, MD) describe the potential for riluzole to help control OCD symptoms based on its ability to block the release of glutamate from nerve cells. Although the drug appears to be generally well tolerated at therapeutic doses, cases of pancreatitis in children, an uncommon adverse effect associated with riluzole use, are cause for concern, as the authors report in the article, "Review of the Use of the Glutamate Antagonist Riluzole in Psychiatric Disorders and a Description of Recent Use in Childhood Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder."
James Leckman, MD, and colleagues from Yale University (New Haven, CT) and University of Groningen (The Netherlands) present a review of the literature describing the current understanding of how various brain circuits, neural networks, and chemical neurotransmitters are involved in causing the motor and vocal tics associated with Tourette's disorder. In the article, "Neurobiological Substrates of Tourette's Disorder," the authors propose that improved imaging technology will help identify specific brain circuits that might be targets for new drug development.
Tanya Murphy, MD, Roger Kurlan, MD, and James Leckman, MD, from University of South Florida (Tampa), Overlook Hospital (Summit, NJ), and Yale University School of Medicine, explore the suspected role of infectious agents and, in particular, Group A Streptococcus, in OCD and TD. In the article "The Immunobiology of Tourette's Disorder, Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcus, and Related Disorders: A Way Forward," they review the evidence that points to pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with Streptococcus, called PANDAS, discuss the ongoing controversy regarding infectious triggers of these disorders, and call for the National Institutes of Health to convene a panel of experts to explore new treatment opportunities based on an infectious disease mechanism.
"We are proud that two of our Associate Editors and two of the nation's leading experts, Drs. Judy Rapoport and Barbara Coffey, have edited this important issue on disorders that affect millions of children and adolescents in our country today," says Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, and President, Child Mind Institute, New York, NY, and Director of the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY.
INFORMATION:
Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published bimonthly in print and online. The Journal is dedicated to child and adolescent psychiatry and behavioral pediatrics, covering clinical and biological aspects of child and adolescent psychopharmacology and developmental neurobiology. A complete table of contents and a free sample issue may be viewed online at www.liebertpub.com/cap
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 60 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at www.liebertpub.com.
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 140 Huguenot St., New Rochelle, NY 10801-5215 www.liebertpub.com
Phone: (914) 740-2100 (800) M-LIEBERT Fax: (914) 740-2101
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(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Among Asian-Americans living in California, Laotian/Hmong-Americans have the lowest survival rates for the most common type of liver cancer, a new study by researchers with the UC Davis School of Medicine has found.
The study, the largest population-based examination of liver cancer rates among Asian-Americans, highlights a profound disparity that calls for targeted outreach to detect and treat the disease earlier among Laotian/Hmong-Americans, said Moon Chen Jr., a professor of hematology and oncology in the UC Davis School of Medicine.
"We ...
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — In an unanticipated finding, researchers at the UC Davis School of Medicine have discovered that, during early adulthood, the brain produces new excitatory neurons, and that these neurons arise from non-neuronal support cells in an area of the brain that processes smell.
The study, conducted in mice, is the first to demonstrate that pyramidal neurons in the mature brain stem are generated by precursors of glial cells — non-neuronal support cells — and that these new neurons likely are capable of transmitting information to widespread regions of ...
The widespread use of a simplified clinical tool to estimate future coronary risk could lead to the classification of millions of Americans into different risk groups than when using the original, "gold-standard" tool. Millions of patients may have been misclassified into higher-risk groups and therefore potentially over-treated, while others may have ended up in lower-risk groups and therefore potentially under-treated for heart disease. The study¹, led by William Gordon from Weill Cornell Medical College in the US and colleagues, is published in the Journal of General ...
A method that is widely used to predict the risk of a major coronary event may over- or underestimate risk for millions of Americans, according to a study directed by a researcher at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco.
The method in question is the simplified version of the so-called Framingham model, which is used to estimate a patient's 10-year risk of a heart attack, stroke, or other coronary event based on risk factors such as age, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and smoking. National guidelines recommend using ...
Rosemont, Ill. – The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) recently approved and released an evidence-based clinical practice guideline on the diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infections of the hip and knee. Clinical practice guidelines are one avenue the Academy uses to ensure that patients receive high quality care. A periprosthetic joint infection occurs when bacteria or other foreign organisms enter the wound during or at any point following joint replacement surgery, sometimes even years after surgery. An infection can cause the joint to be painful or cause ...
The complex fracture pattern created by the earthquake in Concepción (Chile) on 27 February 2010 was to a certain extent predictable. GPS observations from the years before the earthquake showed the pattern of stresses that had accumulated through the plate movements during the past 175 years in this area. The stress distribution derived from the observations correlates highly with the subsequent fracture distribution. In all likelihood the tremor removed all the stress that had accumulated since the last earthquake in this region, which was observed by Charles Darwin in ...
Health and social services are facing a new challenge, as many illicit drug users get older and face chronic health problems and a reduced quality of life. That is one of the key findings of research published in the September issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing.
UK researchers interviewed eleven people aged 49 to 61 in contact with voluntary sector drug treatment services.
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New research into how music conveys emotion could benefit the treatment of depression and the management of physical pain.
Using an innovative combination of music psychology and leading-edge audio engineering the project is looking in more detail than ever before at how music conveys emotion.
The project, at Glasgow Caledonian University is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The research could lead to advances in the use of music to help regulate a person's mood, and promote the development of music-based therapies to tackle ...
Milan, 9 September, 2010 – In our dynamic 3D world, we can encounter a familiar face from any angle and still recognize that face with ease, even if the person has, for example, changed his hair style. This is because our brain has used the 2D snapshots perceived by our eyes (like a camera) to build and store a 3D mental representation of the face, which is resilient to such changes. This is an automatic process that most of us are not consciously aware of, and which appears to be a challenge for people with a particular type of face-blindness, as reported in the September ...
Milan, 9 September 2010 – The human brain is a powerful simulation machine. Sports professionals and amateurs alike are well aware of the advantages of mentally rehearsing a movement prior to its execution and it is not surprising that the phenomenon, known as motor imagery, has already been extensively investigated. However, a new study published in the September 2010 issue of Elsevier's Cortex (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex) suggests that there may be more to motor imagery than previously thought. A group of neuroscientists in Italy have shown that the brain is ...
