Health & Healthcare | November 18, 2009 | By T. A. McNamee, MD | 1 Comment
A New Look at Medical Errors in Residency Training
It’s a phenomenon that medical educators have long suspected but haven’t been able to prove: a rise in medical errors when newly-hatched physicians begin their residency training programs in July. This suspected occurrence has been studied several times, but until recently, no conclusive evidence existed that it actually was true. For the first time, a study based in Australia has been able to demonstrate that this really does happen, but perhaps not for the reasons you’d suspect. Read more →
Articles & Studies | November 14, 2009 | By Jennifer Gibson, PharmD | 1 Comment
Cancer – To Screen or Not to Screen?
I once treated a patient who was in her 90s. She was less than 5 feet tall and had never weighed more than 90 pounds. But, she was tough as nails and had lived a great life. I came to advocate for her when the internist at the skilled nursing facility in which she lived insisted that she have a mammogram. She had already been diagnosed with breast cancer in her 70s, but was healthier than anyone else her age now. She knew that even if she did receive another diagnosis of breast cancer at this stage in her life, it would probably not be treated and it almost certainly would not shorten her life. She refused the mammogram, much to the dismay of the healthcare providers that treated her like a checklist of tests and screenings and medications. She lived to be well over 100 years old, without her mammogram. Read more →
Psychiatry & Psychology | November 10, 2009 | By Dirk Hanson, MA | 2 Comments
The Evolution of Depression
Millions of people around the world suffer from depression, the most common mental disorder of all. Since depression appears to be largely genetic, several long-standing questions continue to bedevil researchers. Have the genes for clinical unipolar depression undergone selective evolution–or is depression a random product of mutation, evolutionary drift, or other non-selective forces?
The symptoms of depression are found in every culture and time period, from the ancient Greeks to modern New Yorkers, from the !Kung of southern Africa to ranchers in the American West. Why is depression so much more common than any other major mental illness? Clearly, it is a malfunction, a maladaptation — or is it? Read more →
Articles & Studies | November 06, 2009 | By Jennifer Gibson, PharmD | 1 Comment
A Small Sip from the Fountain of Youth
The search for eternal youth is as old as time itself. The theme of immortality winds its way through religion, mythology, poetry, fiction, and modern movies. Usually, stories of those who have achieved immortality expose the curse of eternal life, rather than the blessing of perpetual youth. While living forever may never be possible, life expectancy is steadily increasing, and healthier — that is, more youthful — aging may actually be possible.
New research published in the medical journal The Lancet posits that most babies born since the year 2000 will live to be at least 100 years old. Read more →
Other Recent Articles
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- Are Physicians Spending Too Much Time Diagnosing Patients?
- Possible Medical Application of a Smart Drug
- Two Wrongs Make a Right – Abnormal Brain Circuitry May Stop Abnormal Movement
- If Herbal Medicine is Medicine, Shouldn’t it be Treated as Such?
- Off-Label Use of Psychiatric Medications Common for Veterans
- How Culture Shapes Our Mind and Brain
- New Report on the Use of Antidepressants During Pregnancy
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Sunday, November 22, 2009
- Marijuana Withdrawal Syndrome
- Why Do Schizophrenics Smoke Cigarettes?
- Natural Good, Chemical Bad - Right?
- The Genetics of Alcoholism
- Religion - A "Natural" Phenomenon?
- Creating an Artificial Brain
- What is Free Will?
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - An Inside Look
- Reflections on Plasticity
- Time for a Change - Gender Reassignment
- How Culture Shapes Our Mind and Brain
- Logging On for Psychotherapy
- The Neural Basis of the Self
- Prevention of Adolescent Depression
- The Curse of the Nocebo Effect
- Narcolepsy Treatment May Lead to Abuse
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome – A Medical Mystery
- Swine Flu - A Lose-Lose Situation for Public Health Authorities
- Post-Partum Psychosis - Rare but Real
- If Herbal Medicine is Medicine, Shouldn't it be Treated as Such?
- A New Look at Medical Errors in Residency Training
- Cancer – To Screen or Not to Screen?
- The Evolution of Depression
- A Small Sip from the Fountain of Youth
- Why So Serious About The Self?
- Is Knowledge Power? Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing
- Bruxism and the Brain
- Are Physicians Spending Too Much Time Diagnosing Patients?
- Possible Medical Application of a Smart Drug
- Two Wrongs Make a Right – Abnormal Brain Circuitry May Stop Abnormal Movement
- If Herbal Medicine is Medicine, Shouldn’t it be Treated as Such?
- Off-Label Use of Psychiatric Medications Common for Veterans
- How Culture Shapes Our Mind and Brain
- New Report on the Use of Antidepressants During Pregnancy
- Post-Partum Psychosis – Rare but Real
- Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction
- Religion – A “Natural” Phenomenon?
- Hearing Voices – Underpinnings of Auditory Hallucinations
- The Neural Basis of the Self
- Effect of Early Life Stress on Behavior and Cognition
- Recently ,i visited USA,where i met twq ladies who were having depression,one wa...
- you can not stop being you , therefore you have no free will , i thought that ne...
- It is possible to recover from this, I did but it took a good 3 years. My full s...
- Dear Readers,
I have enjoyed the manifold benefits of cannabis for several de...
- Dear Carolyn
First apologys for spelling, typos etc- it comes with the ME.
...
- Do you know if research has been done to study POCD in someone who has had mulit...
- Roger Sperry, PhD, now deceased, was one of the foremost thinkers of the mind an...
- I find that new residents make diagnostic errors because they have been taught t...
- When given time prior to birth, I sit down and talk to the parents in plain Engl...
- I think its the byproduct of the over-functional brain. Our irrational emotional...
- Good to see the research. While there may not be such easy to collate evidence ...
- Hi! Thanks for posting this! For anyone interested in how online therapy can be ...
- it most important part of our body so we must care for it...And also advise to...
- In my humble opinion if you believe an effect is real enough to do you good, you...
- I think that the the religion has an evolutionary basis, when the human brain st...
- Hi Dirk,
A very thoughtful article. I wonder if it might not be useful to go b...
- OMG!!! I HAD smoked every day for 23yrs and had to stop 3 months ago because of ...
- Interesting stuff. However, while I wouldn't say the experiment sounds "ridicul...
- It doesn't surprise me to find depressed mothers have depressed children. Dr. S...
- It's hardly surprising that belief involves the brain....
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Neuroscience & Neurology
October 25, 2009 | 3 Comments | By Jennifer Gibson, PharmD
Are Physicians Spending Too Much Time Diagnosing Patients?
Dizziness is responsible for nearly 3 million emergency room visits every year in the United States. In most of the cases, the dizziness is caused by a benign inner ear problem, or is the result of short-lived discomfort or distress, including anxiety, depression, or certain phobias. However, approximately 4% of patients that present to the emergency room complaining of dizziness are experiencing a stroke or transient ischemic attack. Since more than half of patients with dizziness who are experiencing a stroke show no other symptoms, misdiagnosis is frequent and common. Now, a study published in the journal Stroke reports that a simple one-minute bedside eye exam could be more effective in diagnosing stroke than Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Read more →
More In Neuroscience & Neurology
- Two Wrongs Make a Right – Abnormal Brain Circuitry May Stop Abnormal Movement
- How Culture Shapes Our Mind and Brain
- Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction
- The Neural Basis of the Self
- Creating an Artificial Brain
Neuroscience & Neurology
Opinion
October 28, 2009 | 2 Comments | By Joseph Kim, MD, MPH
Bruxism and the Brain
Do you grind your teeth at night? Bruxism is the technical term for teeth grinding or teeth clenching that usually occurs in sleep. Bruxism may lead to jaw pain, shoulder pain, ear ache, and all sorts of other physical ailments.
Have you ever wondered why some people grind their teeth at night? Some people clench their jaw and grind their teeth during the day, but nocturnal or night-time bruxism is what I’m referring to right now. I know many people who grind their teeth in their sleep and they have to wear night guards to protect the enamel on their teeth. Read more →
More In Opinion
- Religion – A “Natural” Phenomenon?
- Natural Good, Chemical Bad – Right?
- Time for a Change – Gender Reassignment
- What is Free Will?
- Medical Controversy – When Does Life Begin?
Opinion
Psychiatry & Psychology
November 10, 2009 | 2 Comments | By Dirk Hanson, MA
The Evolution of Depression
Millions of people around the world suffer from depression, the most common mental disorder of all. Since depression appears to be largely genetic, several long-standing questions continue to bedevil researchers. Have the genes for clinical unipolar depression undergone selective evolution–or is depression a random product of mutation, evolutionary drift, or other non-selective forces?
The symptoms of depression are found in every culture and time period, from the ancient Greeks to modern New Yorkers, from the !Kung of southern Africa to ranchers in the American West. Why is depression so much more common than any other major mental illness? Clearly, it is a malfunction, a maladaptation — or is it? Read more →
More In Psychiatry & Psychology
- Why So Serious About The Self?
- New Report on the Use of Antidepressants During Pregnancy
- Post-Partum Psychosis – Rare but Real
- Hearing Voices – Underpinnings of Auditory Hallucinations
- Logging On for Psychotherapy
Psychiatry & Psychology

