Laura’s Psychology Blog

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:

• why having rituals work

“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 and aging

“”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.”

• how genes are turned off and on

“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”

• tools around 2 million years ago??

“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.”

• how we perceive laughter

“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

“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 Russian Meteor heard ten hours later in America

“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.”

• growing brain cells

“”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.”

• counting peanuts

“”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.”"

• ADHD crisis – problems with providers

“”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.”"

• benefits of sports teams

“”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 and driving… its what some kids do

“”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:

• abandoning the DSM?

“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”.”

• kiss and die??

“”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. ”

• faulty neural activation and schizophrenia

“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.”

• brains and the key to ageing?

“”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.”"

• mutation and migraines

“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.”"

• something newly understood in development

“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.”

• DSM-5 ignores biology of mental illness

“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.”

• moving things with your mind

“”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.”"

• brain shift and overeating

“”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.”"

• crossing the blood-brain barrier

“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.”

• predicting the benefit of math tutoring in children

“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.”

My Presentation “Be the Scientist” at the Western Psychological Association Conference in Reno, Nevada this past weekend! So many interesting young scholars!

Here is what I am reading today:

• autism risks

“Senior author Harvey Kliman, M.D., research scientist in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the Yale School of Medicine, and research collaborators at the MIND Institute at the University of California, Davis, have found that abnormal placental folds and abnormal cell growths called trophoblast inclusions are key markers to identify newborns who are at risk for autism.”

• the role in healing the brain

“”The injury recovery process is complex,” said senior author Chay T. Kuo, M.D., PhD, George W. Brumley Assistant Professor of Cell Biology, Pediatrics and Neurobiology at Duke University. “There is a lot of interest in how new neurons can stimulate functional recovery, but if you make neurons without stopping the bleeding, the neurons don’t even get a chance. The brain somehow knows this, so we believe that’s why it produces these unique astrocytes in response to injury.”"

• the enemy of my friend

“Prof. Michael E. McCullough discussed the research he and his colleagues, Eric J. Pedersen and Dr. Robert Kurzban, conducted. “As a psychologist who does a fair amount of laboratory experimentation,” McCullough tells Phys.org, “I was rather surprised by some of the inferential holes in the studies that others were holding up as ‘proof’ for the existence of altruistic punishment. For starters, much of the most widely-touted work had been conducted in such a fashion that subjects were simply asked, in advance of interacting with a stranger, whether they would punish that the stranger if the stranger were to harm, help, or treat indifferently the participant. Generally,” he notes, “I think we can all agree that we expect the behavioral effects of life’s slings and arrows to come after those slings and arrows, but the economic third-party punishment games that are so important for the claim that altruistic punishment exists shine a spotlight on behaviors that occurred before their supposed causes had even happened. It was easy to design an experiment that solved this problem – and actually, I was also surprised to discover that no one had conducted this experiment before us.”"

• developmental neurobiology

“”The mechanisms that control the expansion and folding of the brain during fetal development have so far been mysterious,” says Professor Magdalena Götz, a professor at the Institute of Physiology at LMU and Director of the Institute for Stem Cell Research at the Helmholtz Center Munich. Götz and her team have now pinpointed a major player involved in the molecular process that drives cortical expansion in the mouse. They were able to show that a novel nuclear protein called Trnp1 triggers the enormous increase in the numbers of nerve cells which forces the cortex to undergo a complex series of folds. Indeed, although the normal mouse brain has a smooth appearance, dynamic regulation of Trnp1 results in activating all necessary processes for the formation of a much enlarged and folded cerebral cortex.”

• anxiety and exercise

“People who may feel forced to exercise could include high school, college and professional athletes, members of the military or those who have been prescribed an exercise regimen by their doctors, said Benjamin Greenwood, an assistant research professor in CU-Boulder’s Department of Integrative Physiology.

“If exercise is forced, will it still produce mental health benefits?” Greenwood asked. “It’s obvious that forced exercise will still produce peripheral physiological benefits. But will it produce benefits to anxiety and depression?”"

• “APS” and weight loss

“Overweight or obese women were randomly allocated to one of two study groups an intervention group and a control group. The intervention group received an MRP Support app. The control group received a static app based on the information available with the MRP. A total of 58 adult women) participated in the 8-week trial.”

• do you lose weight ‘virtually’ with ‘virtual reality?’

“Looking at the results from twenty overweight and obese individuals after 3 months of a weight loss program at a weekly clinic delivered via face-to-face or virtual reality and then 6 months of weight maintenance delivered via virtual reality, the investigators found virtual reality compares favorably with face-to-face for weight loss and may facilitate greater weight maintenance. Debra Sullivan, lead investigator, adds, “Although we found weight loss was significantly greater for face-to-face compared to virtual reality, weight maintenance was significantly better for virtual reality.”"