Monthly Archive for August, 2009
Do Warning Labels Work?
While illicit drug use in the United States is certainly a public health concern, the increasing use of legal, over-the-counter (OTC) drugs for non-medical use is alarming. The most recent data available from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health reports that 3.1 million people aged 12 to 25 years had used an OTC drug to get high. Dextromethorphan (DXM) -- a cough suppressant available in nearly 150 OTC products -- is the biggest target of misuse. Now, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) is voluntarily placing warning labels on DXM-containing products to caution buyers about teen medicine abuse.
How Young is Too Young to Diagnose Depression?
Any parent can attest that the “Terrible 2’s” are a moody, temperamental time in the life of a toddler. Many kids are irritable and seem to throw temper tantrums for no reason, and some engage in more destructive behaviors like biting, hitting, and kicking themselves or others. Unfortunately, for some children, this phase lasts well beyond their third birthday. Are these kids just demonstrating the outward signs of emotional immaturity, or are they suffering from clinical depression? A new study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and published in Archives of General Psychiatry suggests it may be the latter.
Swine Flu – A Lose-Lose Situation for Public Health Authorities
After the great SARS terror of 2002 which was predicted to cause more devastation than AIDS, and the bird flu panic of 2006 when we were warned that a quarter of Britons might die, we now have the great swine flu crisis of 2009. But just as SARS and bird flu failed to deliver on their predicted devastation (together, they were responsible for an estimated 1031 deaths globally), so will the great swine flu disaster also fade away into the annals of health scares that never were?
Creating an Artificial Brain
Dr. Henry Markram recently announced that he expects to have a computer model of the human brain in ten years. As part of the Blue Brain Project, he is part of a team trying to "reverse-engineer the mammalian brain."The human brain is exceedingly complex. There are about 100 billion neurons within the human central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) with an estimated 100 trillion synapses (connections between neurons).
Popular Posts
- The Love Drug
- Women After Sex
- Fatty Acids and Suicide Risk
- Mind Games - Science's Attempts at Thought Control
- Mental Health Disorders Prevalent Among Youth Worldwide
- Is Giftedness Nothing More than Good Genes?
- Risks of Personalized Medicine
- Behind the Masks - The Mysteries of Dissociative Identity Disorder
- The NeuroSocial Network
- Inside Your Brain on Holiday
Future Posts
Latest Posts
- Media Violence Leads to Real Violence
- Intelligence – Are You Holding Back Your Brain?
- Childhood Aggression Predicts Health Care Use Later in Life
- The Brain’s Border Patrol – Blood Brain Barrier
- Risks of Personalized Medicine
- BED-head and Obesity – Food for Thought
- Salvia Divinorum – DEA Control over Magic in the Mint
- Mighty Microglia – The Brain’s Immune Cells Key to Treating Brain Diseases
- Does Personality Play a Role in the Stress of Caregiving?
- Economic Burden of Poor Mental Health
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