One Professor’s Observations of the World of Psychology….
Emily Underwood of Science Magazine is hosting a terrific panel discussion on DSM 5 that you won’t want to miss:
Thursday, May 23rd
3-4 p.m. EDT
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencelive/
Emily’s guests will be the following:
Allen Frances of Duke University
William Eaton of Johns Hopkins University
Frank Farley of Temple University
This is guaranteed to be a very lively discussion!
Today is officially Mental Health Day. The American Psychological Association (APA) has asked all of us who blog on mental health related issues to participate by publishing a blog that relates to mental health. According to the APA, Congress designated May as Mental Health Month in 1949 to raise public awareness of the issues.
So, what exactly should I write about? I am a researcher, not a clinician, so the topic that immediately came to mind was the controversy over the soon-to-be-published and much anticipated DSM 5. I’ve written elsewhere about this topic here.
All editions of the DSM have provoked their share of controversies. Are we over-diagnosing conditions and pathologizing normal behaviors? Or are we under-diagnosing conditions and preventing people from obtaining the treatment they need? This edition has its share–do we need a category for “attenuated psychosis syndrome” or will this result in the use of antipsychotic medications with all of their substantial side effects by normal people? Should we worry about the fact that the number of participants in the DSM process with financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry has jumped from 14% to 70% from DSM IV to DSM 5? Is the price of the DSM 5 ($199) too steep?
For me, the biggest news is the rejection of the DSM 5 as a source for researchers by non other than the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Thomas Insel, director of NIMH, had this to say: “…the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure.” Instead, the NIMH has launched its own “Research Domain Criteria Project” (RDoC) to move away from a symptoms-based approach, like that of the DSM, to a more causal approach emphasizing similarities in genetics, brain circuits, and cognitive processes among different types of psychological disorders.
It seems to me that this apparent rejection of the DSM 5 by NIMH really caught the attention of the American Psychiatric Association (another APA), which publishes the DSM and depends on the sales of the book for the majority of its income. On May 13, NIMH issued a press release that seemed more conciliatory. The press release says “DSM-5 and RDoC represent complementary, not competing, frameworks for this goal.”
Another player in this mix is the World Health Organization’s ICD system, which is also in the process of a revision slated for publication in 2015. Unlike the DSM, the ICD system is freely distributed. While the ICD is promoted to a worldwide audience, the DSM is used primarily in the United States. In recent revisions, the DSM and ICD committees have worked more closely together to work out inconsistencies.
It will be interesting to watch as these diagnostic systems go into effect. As a researcher and a neuroscientist, I’m already liking what I’m reading about RDoC. When we find that the candidate genes associated with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are quite similar, it makes no sense to have one disorder described in one place in the DSM and the other in a completely different section in the manual.
Hopefully, the end result of the discussion about classification systems will be improved care for the people with the disorders. I personally think we have a very long way to go in this direction, and I welcome any efforts that lead to less stigma and better outcomes.
Watching the Grape vines start to bud!
Here is what I am reading today:
“Basketball superstar Michael Jordan wore his North Carolina shorts underneath his Chicago Bulls shorts in every game; Curtis Martin of the New York Jets reads Psalm 91 before every game. And Wade Boggs, former third baseman for the Boston Red Sox, woke up at the same time each day, ate chicken before each game, took exactly 117 ground balls in practice, took batting practice at 5:17, and ran sprints at 7:17. (Boggs also wrote the Hebrew word Chai (“living”) in the dirt before each at bat. Boggs was not Jewish.) Do rituals like these actually improve performance?”
have a second helping of insects!
“A new report from the U.N. says that eating insects (high in protein, low in fat) can help fight global warming, pollutions, and yes, hunger. And if the suggestion catches on, it could even be great for small businesses.
The concept of eating insects as part of a regular diet is known as entomophagy is already practiced by an estimated two billion people, according to the report, which was issued on Monday, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
In 2012, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation named Dr. Aaron T. Dossey’s “All Things Bugs” company the winner of the foundation’s annual Grand Challenges Explorations contest. The group received a grant to pursue its project to come up with viable insect protein options to combat malnutrition in children.”
“”White matter integrity actually peaks around the same absolute age in both chimpanzees and humans, but humans may experience more degradation because they live longer. Perhaps the need to retain brain capacity late in life is one reason increased brain size was selected for in human evolution,” Preuss says. The senior author is James Rilling, PhD, Yerkes researcher, associate professor of anthropology at Emory and director of the Laboratory for Darwinian Neuroscience. Collaborators at the University of Oslo also contributed to the paper.”
“Led by Bing Ren of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Joseph Ecker of The Salk Institute for Biological Studies and James Thomson of the Morgridge Institute for Research, the scientists also describe novel genetic phenomena likely to play a pivotal role not only in the genesis of the embryo”
“A recent study led by Joseph Ferraro, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology at Baylor, offers new insight in this debate with a wealth of archaeological evidence from the two million-year-old site of Kanjera South (KJS), Kenya. The study’s findings were recently published in PLOS One.”
“The research was published May 8 in the open access journal PLOS ONEby Dirk Wildgruber and colleagues from the University of Tuebingen, Germany.
Laughter in animals is a form of social bonding based on a primordial reflex to tickling, but human laughter has come a long way from these playful roots.”
“Neuroprosthetics: Prosthetic arms are getting ever more sophisticated. Now they just need a sense of touch. The Modular Prosthetic Limb will help patients to feel and manipulate objects just as they would with a native hand. Nature Publishing Group”
This first computer in 1948 could hold a whopping 8kb.
Here is what I am reading today:
“The human ear cannot hear these infrasound signals. However, by playing the data faster than true speed, Georgia Tech faculty member Zhigang Peng increased the sound waves’ frequency to audible levels. The Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology’s Data Managment Center provided the data.
“The sound started at about 10 hours after the explosion and lasted for another 10 hours in Georgia,” said Peng, an associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. He’s confident that the sound is associated with the meteor impact because a slow propagation of the sound waves can be seen across the entire collection of USArray stations, as well as other stations in Alaska and polar regions.”
“”We think this one type of cell may be useful in treating several types of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders in a targeted way,” said Arnold Kriegstein, MD, PhD, director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF and co-lead author on the paper.”
“”The human capacity for complex symbolic math is clearly unique to our species,” says co-author Jessica Cantlon, assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester. “But where did this numeric prowess come from? In this study we’ve shown that non-human primates also possess basic quantitative abilities. In fact, non-human primates can be as accurate at discriminating between different quantities as a human child.”"
“”It is unclear why so many physicians who specialize in the management of ADHD — child neurologists, psychiatrists and developmental pediatricians — fail to comply with recently published treatment guidelines,” said Andrew Adesman, MD, senior investigator and chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park. “With the AAP now extending its diagnosis and treatment guidelines down to preschoolers, it is likely that more young children will be diagnosed with ADHD even before entering kindergarten. Primary care physicians and pediatric specialists should recommend behavior therapy as the first line treatment.”"
“”Athletic participation may prevent involvement in violence-related activities among girls but not among boys because aggression and violence generally might be more accepted in boys’ high school sports,” said senior author Tamera Coyne-Beasley, MD, MPH, FSAHM, FAAP, professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.”
“”Texting while driving has become, in the words of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a ‘national epidemic,’” said principal investigator Alexandra Bailin, a research assistant at Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York.
Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death among teenagers, and using a phone while driving significantly increases the risk of accidents in this age group. The specific act of texting while driving has been found to raise the risk of a crash by 23 times, leading many to conclude that texting while driving is more dangerous than driving while intoxicated.”
Here is what I am reading today:
“In a potentially seismic move, the National Institute of Mental Health – the world’s biggest mental health research funder, has announced only two weeks before the launch of the DSM-5 diagnostic manual that it will be “re-orienting its research away from DSM categories”.
In the announcement, NIMH Director Thomas Insel says the DSM lacks validity and that “patients with mental disorders deserve better”.”
“”Just finding these metals isn’t the issue; it’s the levels that matter,” said study principal investigator S. Katharine Hammond, professor of environmental health sciences. “Some of the toxic metals are occurring at levels that could possibly have an effect in the long term.” Lipstick and lip gloss are of special concern because when they are not being blotted on tissue or left as kiss marks, they are ingested or absorbed, bit by bit, by the individual wearing them, the study authors said. ”
“Dr Guy Barry from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland and Professor John Mattick from Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research showed that levels of the long non-coding RNA called ‘Gomafu’ drop dramatically when a neuron is activated in the normal brain, causing a chain of other regulatory events to occur inside the cell.”
“”Scientists have long wondered whether aging occurs independently in the body’s various tissues or if it could be actively regulated by an organ in the body,” said senior author Dongsheng Cai, M.D., Ph.D., professor of molecular pharmacology at Einstein. “It’s clear from our study that many aspects of aging are controlled by the hypothalamus. What’s exciting is that it’s possible—at least in mice—to alter signaling within the hypothalamus to slow down the aging process and increase longevity.”"
“The mutation is in the gene known as casein kinase I delta (CKIdelta). “This is the first gene in which mutations have been shown to cause a very typical form of migraine,” said senior investigator Louis J. Ptáček, an investigator at HHMI and a professor of neurology at UCSF. “It’s our initial glimpse into a black box that we don’t yet understand.”"
“As a national leader in neonatology, UCSF’s mission is to initiate and rigorously pursue both basic science and clinical research to better treat, and one day eliminate, neonatal diseases. UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital is one of the top ranked children’s hospitals in the country, and is committed to training physician-scientists to investigate human development and the root causes of congenital anomalies. “The findings are a significant advance in developmental biology that will help to understand the basis of certain birth defects that alter the number or specification of fingers and toes,” said David Rowitch, MD, PhD, chief of neonatology at the children’s hospital.”
“That excuse is no longer valid. Neuroscientists now understand some of the ways that brain circuits for memory, emotion and attention malfunction in various mental disorders. Since 2009 clinical psychologist Bruce Cuthbert and his team at the National Institute of Mental Health have been constructing a classification system based on recent research, which is revealing how the structure and activity of a mentally ill brain differs from that of a healthy one.”
“”We have the ability to capture information from the brain and use it to control the robotic arm,” said Dr. Elizabeth Tyler-Kabara, who presented her team’s latest findings on the technology Tuesday, at the annual meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, in New Orleans. However, she stressed, “we still have a ton to learn.”"
“”The striking finding is that you have a massive shift of receptors from one set of nerve endings impinging on these neurons to another set,” said Ken Mackie, professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington. “Before, activating this receptor inhibited the secretion of orexin; now it promotes it. This identifies potential targets where an intervention could influence obesity.”"
“Normally, the circulatory system of the body is isolated by tight junctions between the endothelial cells of the capillaries inside the brain. There is also a thick basement membrane composed of matrix proteins, as well as astrocytic endfeet surrounding the capillaries. Nutrients required by the brain, such as glucose and amino acids, are actively transported across this barrier by specific membrane-bound transporter proteins. There are also specific efflux pumps, that remove certain molecules that might occasionally breach the BBB.”
“The research is the first to use brain scans to look for a link between math-learning abilities and brain structure or function, and also the first to compare neural and cognitive predictors of kids’ responses to tutoring. In addition, it provides information on the differences between how children and adults learn math, and could help researchers understand the origins of math-learning disabilities. The study was published online April 29 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”
CLICK on the picture above, 
CLICK on the above link
CLICK above to read more & 
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Apr | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
If you teach Psychology,
Powered by Word Press