Is There a Relationship between Depression and Dementia? A study by neuropsychiatric researchers at Rush University looked at and dementia and depression. The study is in the July 30, 2014, online issue of Neurology ®, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Up until now studies have shown that people with depression are more…
How Do Drugs From 1 Psychiatric Disorder Treat Symptoms of Another How is it that Lamotrigine, an antiepileptic, can help depression, a seemingly different disorder altogether? And why can Prozac, an antidepressant, help reduce anxiety? Or an antipsychotic for schizophrenia help depression? In other words, how is it that drugs for one type of major…
Physical Exercise Improves Memory Two recent experiments, one involving people and the other mice, suggest that regular exercise improves memory. However, different types of exercise affect the brain differently and there are other things that can be done to help your memory. For example, if you don’t want to do exercise then something you could…
TMS Helps Stroke Patients Improve Language Function A new study done at the Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School shows that Trans Cranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) can improve language function in stroke patients with chronic speech-language problems. A stroke (or CVA, as they are referred to in medicine— a cerebral vascular accident)…
Glia – No respect After Einstein’s death, his brain was preserved for future study. Scientists were naturally curious to see how the brain of this genius compared with the brain of a person of ordinary intelligence. Would there be an abundance of neurons (grey matter) or some unusual wiring of the neurons that distinguished his…
Causes of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder People with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, have recurrent thoughts and behaviors that can be crippling. This form of mental illness can affect anyone, from adults to the elderly. It’s also not uncommon to hear of children with OCD either, it’s believed that they can be genetically influenced to have the…
Part II-PTSD And Painful Memories There are many approaches to the treatment of the anxiety, fear, depression and other symptoms of PTSD that do not involve medication. The most common non-pharmacological treatment is trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Cognitive restructuring helps people make sense of the bad memories. Sometimes people remember the event differently than how…
Part I: Memory Formation and Drug Research on PTSD An article entitled Erasing Painful Memories in the May 2012 issue of Scientific American reviews some of the current research on the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Memory is no longer seen as a passive process of recording impressions. Rather, it is ongoing activity at the cellular…
