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Several weeks after mild brain ischemia, mice display a depressive-like syndrome characterized by increased anxiety, inactivity and “cheerlessness”. These symptoms of depression following a stroke are associated with the delayed loss of nerve cells in the brain’s reward regions. This is the major finding of a study published in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry.
Scientists at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin collaborating with researchers from Bochum, Magdeburg and Boston were able to show that delayed treatment of laboratory mice with cipramil, an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) family, not only prevented the development of depression, but also attenuated the subacute degeneration of nerve cells in the brain’s reward system after stroke. At the same time, the area in the brain directly affected by the stroke turned out to be smaller in those mice which had received the antidepressant. “These results indicate that antidepressants from the SSRI group protect nerve cells. This effect can also be harnessed even when medication is started days after the stroke,” explains psychiatrist Prof. Golo Kronenberg, who works on the subject of “Depression after Stroke” at the Center for Stroke Research Berlin (CSB) at Charité. [continue reading…]
The peak risk for misusing prescription pain relievers occurs in mid-adolescence, specifically about 16 years old and earlier than many experts thought, according to a new study by Michigan State University researchers.
The results, based on recent nationwide surveys of nearly 120,000 U.S. adolescents, suggest prevention programs may need to be introduced earlier, in childhood and early adolescence, said James C. Anthony of MSU’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
Recent trends show clinicians and public health professionals are prescribing more pain relievers, and research suggests an increased misuse of these drugs and increased rates of overdose deaths, said Anthony, who supervised the research of postdoctoral fellow Elizabeth Meier and graduate student Jonathan Troost.
“While much of the previous thinking was that misuse of these drugs emerged in the final year of high school and during the college-age years, we found that for adolescents the peak risk of starting to misuse these painkillers generally occurs earlier, not during the postsecondary school years,” Anthony said. “We suspect many physicians, other prescribing clinicians and public health professionals, will share our surprise in this finding.”
The study, supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and MSU, was published today in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a network publication of the Journal of the American Medical Association. [continue reading…]
When children with autism were randomly compared with typically developing children or children with other developmental disorders, biomarkers correctly identified more than thirty percent of autistic children without incorrectly identifying a single non-autistic child. Image: istockphoto
utism is difficult to diagnose because of a lack of specific biological markers and a variability of symptoms, ranging from mild in some individuals to severely disabling in others.
Now a team of University of Washington and Battelle scientists have identified metabolites in urine that could potentially predict young children at risk of developing autism.
The varying degrees and manifestations of this developmental brain condition are collectively called autistic spectrum disorder. ASD is characterized by impaired social interactions, difficulty in communicating, and repetitive behaviors. Many other symptoms also can be present, including anxiety, depression, learning disabilities, sleep disorders, and gastrointestinal problems.
Currently, diagnosing a child with ASD requires a thorough evaluation by a team of health professionals from a wide range of specialties. Early intervention often can reduce or prevent the more severe symptoms and disabilities associated with ASD.
Autism specialists and many other people look forward to a day when a test for a biological marker might detect autism risk in young children. To this end, Seattle researchers evaluated porphyrins in the urine of children to determine if the levels of these metabolites could predict ASD. [continue reading…]
