Bipolar: Suicidal Behavior Varies Among Different Phases

January 1, 2007, HELSINKI, Finland ~~ There are marked differences in suicidal behavior during the different phases of bipolar disorder, new research has found.

Researchers from Finland screened more than 1,600 psychiatric inpatients and outpatients for bipolar disorder and examined how suicidal ideas and risk varied among the different phases: depression, mixed, manic, and hypomanic.

The study found marked differences between the phases in terms of suicide attempts and suicidal ideas. Hopelessness predicted suicidal behavior during the depressive phase, whereas severity of depression and a younger age predicted suicide attempts during mixed phases.

While the researchers said there was a relatively small sample size of people in some of the phases, their study could serve to alert clinicians to warning signs of suicide during the different phases of bipolar.

The study, which appeared in the Journal of Affective Disorders in January, was entitled “Suicidal behavior during different phases of bipolar disorder.”

Article Source: BP Canada Magazine (Spring 2007)

Brain's 'Default Mode' Awry In SCHIZOPHRENIA

Source:Yale University
Date:March 14, 2007

Science Daily — The “default mode,” or baseline condition when the brain is idling, is not properly coordinated in patients with schizophrenia and this aberrant activity may be caused by poor connectivity between brain networks, a Yale School of Medicine researcher reports.

Co-author Godfrey Pearlson, M.D., professor of psychiatry, said he and his colleagues found that regions of the brain known previously to be individually abnormal in patients with schizophrenia, also function abnormally in concert in the default mode network.

“In addition, the extent of the default mode abnormalities correlated with the severity of auditory hallucinations, delusional thoughts, and attention deficits that are hallmarks of schizophrenia,” Pearlson said.

Although the exact role of the default network is unknown, it is thought to involve response to stimuli as well as self-referential and reflective activity that includes memory retrieval, inner speech, mental images, emotions, and planning of future events.

Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that alters patients’ perception, thought processes, and behavior as evidenced by hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech or behavior, social withdrawal, and varied cognitive deficits. Episodic memory and attention are significantly impaired in schizophrenia.

A central feature of schizophrenia is disturbed integration of activity across multiple brain regions, or dysfunctional connectivity between frontal temporal brain regions. Symptoms of schizophrenia have been attributed to a failure of functional integration or aberrant connectivity among regions or systems of the brain.

The study included 21 patients with schizophrenia and 22 healthy subjects. The group performed a straightforward task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging in which they were asked to detect an infrequent target sound within a series of standard and novel sounds. In the healthy subjects, the default mode network resonated slowly and regularly as observed by blood flow. In the patients with schizophrenia, the activity in the brain increased and was significantly more irregular, although they performed equally well on the task.

Abigail Garrity of Trinity College was the lead author and Vince Calhoun of the Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital was the senior author. Co-authors included Dan Lloyd of Trinity College and Kristen McKiernan and Kent Kiehl of the Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital.
The study was supported by, among other funders, the National Institutes of Health in a MERIT grant to Pearlson.

Reference: American Journal of Psychiatry 164: 450-457 (March 2007)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070313172329.htm

CATS & DOGS CHILLING OUT WITH PROZAC

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- A growing number of U.S. pets and zoo animals are overcoming anxieties and mellowing their behavior with the use of human anti-depressants, a report said.

The Los Angeles Times said over the last decade, Prozac, Buspar and Amitriptyline have been introduced into the veterinary world to treat cats for indoor spraying, dogs and birds for separation anxiety and self-destructive compulsive grooming.

Veterinarians who prescribe psychoactive drugs, such as Dr. Elyse Kent, owner of Westside Hospital for Cats in Los Angeles, do not immediately pull out prescription pads. Instead, they do medical work-ups on animals to rule out physical causes for destructive or neurotic actions and prefer to use behavior modification instead of, or along with drug therapy. "We try to use these medications short-term," Kent told the Times, "because they are not with
out side-effects."

The Los Angeles Zoo had a male orangutan with respiratory problems, and after consulting with a psychiatrist, put the primate on the antidepressant Remeron in 2005. The ape's appetite improved. It fathered a healthy baby in 2005 and is now being weaned off the antidepressant, the report said.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Quirks&article=UPI-1-20070110-10593400-bc-us-petpills.xml

ALZHEIMER and DEMENTIA: Brain Structure Changes

Science Daily — People who develop dementia or Alzheimer's disease experience brain structure changes years before any signs of memory loss begin, according to a study published in the April 17, 2007, issue of Neurology®, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers say these findings may help identify people at risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which leads to Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers performed brain scans and cognitive tests on 136 people over the age of 65 who were considered cognitively normal at the beginning of the five-year study. Participants were then followed annually with neurologic examination and extensive mental status testing. By the end of the study, 23 people had developed MCI, and nine of the 23 went on to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The brain scans of the 23 people with memory loss were then compared to the 113 people who remained cognitively normal.

Compared to the group that didn't develop memory problems, the 23 people who developed MCI or Alzheimer's disease had less gray matter in key memory processing areas of their brains even at the beginning of the study when they were cognitively normal.

"We found that changes in brain structure are present in clinically normal people an average of four years before MCI diagnosis," said study author Charles D. Smith, MD, with the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington and member of the American Academy of Neurology. "We knew that people with MCI or Alzheimer's disease had less brain volume, but before now we didn't know if these brain structure changes existed, and to what degree, before memory loss begins."

In addition, the study found those people destined to develop MCI had lower cognitive test scores at the beginning of the study compared to the group that didn't develop memory problems, even though these scores were still within normal range.

"These findings of structural changes in cognitively normal people before memory loss begins aren't surprising given Alzheimer's disease may be present for many years before symptoms of the disease begin to appear," said Smith.

The study was supported by grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Institute on Aging Alzheimer's Disease Centers Program (ADCs).

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by American Academy of Neurology.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070416160805.htm