In Canada, in stark contrast with the rest of the world, wealthy men increase their likelihood of being overweight with every extra dollar they make. The new study was led by Nathalie Dumas, a graduate student at the University of Montreal Department of Sociology, and presented at the annual conference of the Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS).

“Women aren’t spared by this correlation, but results are ambiguous,” says Dumas. “However, women from rich households are less likely to be obese than women of middle or lower income.” [continue reading…]

Scientists have discovered a mechanism that helps to explain resilience to stress, vulnerability to depression and how antidepressants work. The new findings, in the reward circuit of mouse and human brains, have spurred a high tech dragnet for compounds that boost the action of a key gene regulator there, called deltaFosB.

A molecular main power switch – called a transcription factor – inside neurons, deltaFosB turns multiple genes on and off, triggering the production of proteins that perform a cell’s activities.

“We found that triggering deltaFosB in the reward circuit’s hub is both necessary and sufficient for resilience; it protects mice from developing a depression-like syndrome following chronic social stress,” explained Eric Nestler, M.D., of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, who led the research team, which was funded by the  National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). [continue reading…]

The LA Times looks at the spike in bipolar diagnoses being diagnosed in children.

They are some of the most troubled children that psychiatrists ever see. They have raging tempers and engage in reckless behaviors that frequently land them in the principal’s office, even the hospital. But are they bipolar?

In the last 15 years, diagnoses of bipolar disorder in children have skyrocketed as much as fortyfold, according to some estimates. The condition — defined by severe mood swings, between depression and mania, lasting for weeks or month at a time — has traditionally been considered a lifelong condition in adults and is treated through tranquilizers and antidepressants. link to continue reading

Source: LA Times