Preliminary new research discussed today at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology’s Annual Meeting finds that oxytocin, when administered using intravenous fluid and nasal technology may have significant positive effects on adult autism patients.
A panel of academic, industry and government representatives, presenting at the ACNP Annual Meeting, concluded that several factors have impeded the development of novel treatments for mental illness, including: incomplete understanding of the impact of mental illness on the brain; continued skepticism of results from animal models for certain disorders, and an outdated paradigm of treatment and the industry preference toward so-called “me-too” drugs.
Adolescents who play violent video games may exhibit lingering effects on brain function, including increased activity in the region of the brain that governs emotional arousal and decreased activity in the brain’s executive function, which is associated with control, focus and concentration, revealed in a study.
A London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine team revealed that women who are very underweight before they become pregnant are 72% more likely to miscarry in the first three months of pregnancy.
Researchers in the Oregon Health & Science University Digestive Health Center are first to report that screening people with chronic heartburn or pre-cancer of the esophagus in an office setting using a “skinny scope” is as accurate, less expensive and less risky than a traditional sedated screening in a procedure room — and patients prefer it. The findings are published online and in print in this month’s issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
Taking your child to a pediatric subspecialist may mean a big-time travel commitment, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health have found.
A Food and Drug Administration panel will meet on the issue to insure the safety of popular heart stent on Thursday and Friday. Medical journals are rushing studies into print, and powerful doctor groups are reconsidering treatment guidelines.
The ebb and flow of such autoimmune diseases as multiple sclerosis, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis has long been a perplexing mystery to scientists. But new findings from the Stanford University School of Medicine bring scientists closer to solving the puzzle, identifying a molecule that appears to play a central role in these relapses.
A “super” form of the enzyme Akt1 could provide the key to boosting the effect of tumor vaccines by extending the lives of dendritic cells, the immune-system master switches that promote the response of T-cells, which attack tumors, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the “advance online publication” section of the current issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology.
One study, to be published in the December issue of Pediatrics, is the first to confirm that pro-eating disorder Web sites may promote dangerous behaviors in adolescents with eating disorders.