INTERESTING TIMES

Left-handed people really do have different brains and genes from right-handed people. Yet left-handed people are almost never included as study subjects in scientific research. Therefore in an article in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Roel Willems and his colleagues from the Donders Institute and Max Planck Institute in Nijmegen call for more research into left-handed people. The article was published online on 12 February 2014.

Left-handed people are rarely included as study subjects for brain or genetic research because the differences with right-handed people cause noise in the final results. However, left-handed people form about ten percent of the entire population and their brains and genes contain interesting information about the functioning of both halves of the brain as well as about several psychiatric disorders. 'Research into left-handed people is therefore interesting because of the noise they cause', thinks neuroscientist Roel Willems from the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour at Radboud University Nijmegen. With the opinion article he calls upon his fellow researchers to stop excluding left-handed people from studies.

Missed chance for the neurosciences

'One of our studies from 2009 clearly shows why research into left-handed people is so vital', says Willems. 'According to the textbooks, facial recognition takes place in the right half of the brain. Our research revealed that the same process takes place in both halves of the brain in the case of left-handed people, but with the same final outcome. That is a fundamental difference. And left-handed people might process other important information differently as well. The minimal amount of research into this is, in my view, a missed chance for the neurosciences.'

SOURCE
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-02-scientists-urged-excluding-left-handed-people.html

Bruises fade and skin heals, but the mind remembers. Physical punishment is still prevalent among US families. This study found the prevalence of physical punishment without "more severe child maltreatment" was 5.9%. Boys get physically punished more than girls, 59.4% to 40.6%. Blacks get beat more than whites. Asians and Pacific Islanders (including native Hawaiians) were the least likely to get whupped by their own parents.

The harsher the physical (or emotional) punishment was, the higher the odds of an axis I or II diagnosis. Axis I diagnoses include major depression, dysthymia, mania, mood disorders, phobias, anxiety disorders, and drug and alcohol abuse or dependence. Axis II diagnoses include several individual personality disorders and cluster A and B disorder diagnoses. The researchers concluded that 2-7% of all mental disease is attributable to childhood abuse.

SOURCE
http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/767353?src=cmemp
( the stats )

Twenty eight percent (28%) of US households are now just one person living alone. This is the most ever. These singles are the biggest spenders, contributing 1.9 trillion to "the economy" each year. (According to The Week 2/10/12 which is in turn quoting Fortune magazine)

And another factoid from the same source: the number of US prisoners age 65 and over has increased 63% between 2007 and 2010. I guess we're keeping them put away so long that now they need more medical care, and it's becoming an issue. The total number of prisoners has been flat for that same period.

This is a new finding. The earlier in life that the traumatic insult occurs, the greater the effect. The brain develops differently as a result, and there is a great chance of comorbidities. SOURCE: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/749564?src=mpnews&spon=12

Also interesting, the mortality gap between normal people and those with mental illness is getting larger. All current mental health efforts are not yet improving the odds of survival for those with bipolar and shizophrenia. SOURCE: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/749687?src=mpnews&spon=12

On managing aggressive schizophrenics: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/749195?src=mp&spon=12

According to this short update on a new study that is. They tested 5 SSRI's on over 800 patients and found them "moderately" beneficial, with 3 of the SSRI's showing greater responses than the others. They want us to prescribe these antidepressants in addition to the antipsychotics that are standard 1st line therapies. My question: If the mechanisms of these 5 tested meds are the same, and presumably the doses are the same, why the difference in response among them? And how did placebo do? I'd like to know more about the stats--I don't just trust anybody's interpretation of stats these days. I certainly don't take for granted that anything medscape tells me is true, though I am interested in their conventional medicine perspective. Oh and I have more questions. What megacorp(s) made those 5 SSRI's? And what megacorp(s) paid for the research?

Heather D Hodgson Schleich, MDE, BA
spoke at NCNM on May 10, 2010
"Ms H" from Ontario to the kids
she speaks to kids groups a lot
( notes turned out pretty interesting, definitely consult this presentation if ever speaking about street drug usage )

Well so we already knew that drugs that increase serotonin levels decrease bone density over time. Medscape's new report says that osteoporosis is associated not just with SSRIs, but with benzos and some mood stabilizers other than lithium. Tricyclic antidepressants are protective for bones, but they have other gnarly side effects.

They've also found that mental disorders themselves have significant bone correlations. Dementia, schizophrenia and alcohol dependence are associated with reduced bone density. Depression is associated with less osteoporosis---which makes sense if you think that a lot of depression is due to low serotonin levels. Bipolar disorder and drugs other than alcohol were not found to have any correlation with osteoporosis.

Aside: FDA has released new warning that Tramadol (an opioid) increases suicide risk.

ABILIFY/aripiprapazole
new med
something to add to antidepressant if SSRI doesn't work for you
abilifytreatment.com
SE: suicide, stroke, high blood sugar, coma, death, siezure, trouble swallowing
not approved for dementia

DrWelch txs low T if pt has sx and levels below 3000
( notes from Miller's 2010 pharm class )