Yearly Archive for 2008
Neuroscience & Neurology | By November 14, 2008 | By RD, MD | 1 Comment
Electrical Brain Stimulation Improves Hand Motor Skills
Since its discovery many years ago, harnessing the power of electricity has been an ongoing endeavor. Benjamin Franklin’s eighteenth century experiments with electricity ushered in the evolution of the modern battery. In the middle of the last century, electricity was introduced as a remedy for difficult psychiatric disorders. “Shock treatment,” as it was known then, was used to treat many psychiatric diseases by inducing seizures. Now called electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), its mechanism of action is still unknown and its use is under strict guidelines set forth by the American Psychiatric Association. ECT is now reserved for severe psychiatric conditions when other treatments are deemed inadequate. Read more →
- New Drug Approval - Lacosamide for Epilepsy
- Why Infidelity May Not Be Cheating Anymore
- Alzheimer’s Drug to Treat Binge Eating Disorder
- Brain Blogging, Forty-First Edition
- Diagnosing Child Abuse
- Hypnosis and Chronic Pain
- Hitler’s Guide to Propaganda - The Psychology of Coercion
- McCain’s Health Issues Reflect His Character
- Obama and McCain - Friend or Foe of Science?
- My Amygdala Made Me Vote for McCain/Obama
- Meditate to Learn Compassion
In October, the Federal Drug Administration approved lacosamide as add-on therapy for adults with partial seizures. The approval is based on data from multiple phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials involving approximately 1300 people. The study participants were aged 16 years or older, and experienced between... Read more →
Cheating implies some sort of deviation form the norm — staying faithful. But as new research suggests, the chances of infidelity in a relationship now varies between 40 and 76%; and this implies that infidelity itself could be the new norm. “It’s very high,” according to researcher... Read more →
Memantine (Namenda) is approved to treat Alzheimer’s disease, but may also be effective in treating binge eating disorder. A new study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders demonstrates memantine’s effectiveness in a small group of patients with binge eating disorder. Binge eating... Read more →
Welcome to the forty-first edition of Brain Blogging. In this round, we discuss the likelihood of bipolar children becoming bipolar adults, problems with learning during multi-tasking, how magnets can improve your mood, and many more topics. Remember, we review the latest blogs related to the brain and... Read more →
Unquestionably, child abuse is one of the most devastating and horrendous issues faced by health practitioners. Not only because of the vulnerability of the victim and the implications for their future health but also because of the senselessness of this violence. In a BMJ editorial, Naomi Sugar explains... Read more →
Chronic pain is a widespread challenge, affecting as many as 50 million Americans, and lacks effective treatment options. The American College of Rheumatology defines chronic pain as pain occurring at least 4 days per week for at least 3 months. If there is pain at 11 or more of the 18 defined trigger... Read more →
Adolf Hitler was a monster. The revolution he spawned changed the world landscape forever. But have you ever wondered how he did it? How did Hitler convince 70 million rational people to engage in horrible atrocities and wage war against the world? Although his agenda was decidedly negative, Hitler was... Read more →
You can’t have skeletons in the closet if you want to be the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces. As Election Day draws near, I imagine that both McCain and Obama are exhausted; both have been run through the ringer. After all, they must endure non-stop campaigning schedules, high pressure... Read more →
In the last presidential debate there were only a few zingers. One came from John McCain who, after Barack Obama compared him to G. W. Bush, emphatically stated, “If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.” Since the debate Obama’s running mate, Joe... Read more →
There is an old British saying, “a bird in hand is worth more than two in the bush.” Using this metaphor, John McCain is the known quantity (bird in the hand) and Barack Obama is relatively unknown (two in the bush). McCain has been in the public eye for over 35 years. The sheer number of... Read more →
Is compassion a skill that can be perfected, like playing a musical instrument or competing in sports? A study published this spring suggests: Yes. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin assert that cultivating compassion and kindness through learned meditation practices can make a person more empathetic. Previous... Read more →
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
- The Anti-Psychiatry Movement
- Vaccines - A Two-Edged Sword
- Should Doctors Have Guns?
- Extremist Muslim Doctors Do More Than Heal
- Woman Comparable to Men in Domestic Violence: Stereotypes and their Consequences
- God And Religion: Is It All In Our Heads?
- Anti-Smoking Campaign Doesn't Mess Around
- The Bipolar Trend
- Are You Vegetarian? How Do You Get Enough Protein?
- The Implications of Implanted Chips
- The Science of Brain Freeze
- Is War A Psychosis?
- The Biopsychosocial Model of Health & Illness
- Unhinging from Theory: Autism and Opinions
- Mind-Body: We Want Evidence, Don't We?
- Encephalon, Thirty-Third Edition
- Meditation for Troubled Minds: Can the Mind Heal the Mind?
- Acknowledging Vaccination Concerns
- Health Care and Politics II - The Democrats
- Usually It's Cheaper to Pay Than to Go To Court
- Giving Thanks All Year Long
- How Much Social Capital Do You Have?
- Should Doctors Engage in Racial Profiling?
- Going Green for Health Inequality
- Are Boys Really More Hard-Wired for Math than Girls?
- The Need for Post-Marketing Surveillance of Drugs
- Musical Medicine - Recovery After a MCA Stroke
- Are We Worshipping Celebrities or Heroes?
- Alcohol 101 - the Best Class on Campus
- School Bullies - Is the Amygdala to Blame?
- Reversing the Irreversible - Neuromotor Prostheses for Spinal Cord Injury
- How Much is a Pound of Prevention Worth?
- Electrical Brain Stimulation Improves Hand Motor Skills
- New Drug Approval - Lacosamide for Epilepsy
- Why Infidelity May Not Be Cheating Anymore
- Alzheimer’s Drug to Treat Binge Eating Disorder
- Brain Blogging, Forty-First Edition
- Diagnosing Child Abuse
- Hypnosis and Chronic Pain
- Hitler’s Guide to Propaganda - The Psychology of Coercion
- May the guidance of God (Allah) be upon you Mr Macher,
In your case against t...
- JJ: This is very true - here in the US the fear campaign has worked wonders in m...
- Hi Blogger. I can see from your posts that you're copying and pasting from a re...
- Thanks for visiting my site and giving this article link. I hope my readers and ...
- And lastly this: A sixteenth-century Swiss chemist named Paracelsus gave us th...
- the number of cases of measles and reported deaths from measles for the years 19...
- From the NY Time Aug 24 2008:
There has been an upsurge of measles cases in t...
- Typhoid - In 1911 immunisation of US army troops with typhoid vaccine became com...
- I'm still waiting for the name of the acceptable English translation of the Kor...
- And I will leave you with this one Shivers - From a study of more than 17,000 Ca...
- The internet is the last refuge of scoundrels, like Guy Macher, or whois2811, an...
- In light of the Muslim attacks in India, I find my brain telling me that religio...
- Please substitute sports for celebrity, and tell me if there is any difference....
- Hi again, you will just have to go through a search engine and look for T.I.R.L ...
- Hi Herd Rebel I don't know what took place but the e-mail link I gave for visiti...
- Hi Herd Rebel, it surely is a catch 22 situation, because here in Britain you ca...
- I agree with the need for more quality outdoor space such as nature trails which...
- Hey Evan, see below, I'm copying this entire message. I looked at some of these ...
- Really? I have some friends in Australia and UK (I just threw UK in there) and ...
- Researchers found that applying transcranial direct current stimulation, a weak ...


