MINNEAPOLIS — A new study is sounding the alarm for patients taking dozens of common prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Researchers find that taking a particular class of drug, anticholinergics, increases the risk of developing mild thinking and memory problems.
The study shows there are about 100 of these types of drugs in widespread use. These medications treat everything from colds to high blood pressure to depression.
The research, published in the journal Neurology, finds that people with genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease are particularly susceptible to these issues. Overall, scientists reveal patients with no cognitive issues are 47 percent more likely to develop a mental impairment if they’re taking at least one anticholinergic drug.
A new study provides an extraordinary close-up of the menagerie of neural cell types, yielding possible leads for neurological and psychiatric treatments.
With a pig-filled demonstration, Neuralink revealed its latest advancements in brain implants this week. But what do scientists think of Elon Musk’s company’s grand claims?
Sleep has critical roles in health and regeneration, and one of those is clearing the brain of metabolic waste, according to researchers from the US and Denmark.
Now, as reported in the journal Nature Communications, they’ve discovered in mice that the time of day matters, suggesting the process is controlled by circadian rhythms.
“Our group has shown that just being awake or asleep drastically changes how well the brain can clear waste,” says lead author Lauren Hablitz from the University of Rochester Medical Centre.
A total of 5,726 participants had their memory tested. Out of the 24 substances that were assessed for improving memory, these are the 5 most promising nootropics.
The researchers, Prof. Itamar Kahn of the Technion’s Rappaport Faculty of Medicine in Israel and Prof. Nancy Ratner of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC), claimed that such a breakthrough demonstrates a potential new treatment for cognitive damages in the brain white matter, the areas of the central nervous system.
“The participants treated with AMX0035 demonstrated a significant slowing of ALS disease progression as measured by the ALSFRS-R. This is a milestone in our fight against ALS,” said Sabrina Paganoni, MD, Ph.D., principal investigator of the CENTAUR study.
An experimental medication slows the progression of the neurodegenerative disease called Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, according to recently released results from a clinical trial run by investigators at the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the company that manufactures the medication. The findings, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, offer hope that a treatment may one day be available for patients with ALS, a fatal condition with no cure that attacks the nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord to progressively hinder individuals’ ability to move, speak, eat, and even breathe.
Called AMX0035, the oral medication is a combination of two drugs, sodium phenylbutyrate and taurursodiol, that each target a different cell component important for protecting against nerve cell death.
In the CENTAUR trial, 137 participants with ALS were randomized in a two-toone ratio to receive AMX0035 or placebo. Over six months, participants who were treated with AMX0035 had better functional outcomes than those treated with placebo as measured by the ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-R), a questionnaire that evaluates several activities of daily living such as a patient’s ability to walk, hold a pen or swallow food.
Electrons may have some type of extremely rudimentary mind.
While there are many versions of panpsychism, the version I find appealing is known as constitutive panpsychism. It states, to put it simply, that all matter has some associated mind or consciousness, and vice versa. Where there is mind there is matter and where there is matter there is mind. They go together. As modern panpsychists like Alfred North Whitehead, David Ray Griffin, Galen Strawson, and others have argued, all matter has some capacity for feeling, albeit highly rudimentary feeling in most configurations of matter.
Panpsychists look at the many rungs on the complexity ladder of nature and see no obvious line between mind and no-mind. Philosopher Thomas Nagel famously asked in 1974 what is it like to be a bat, to echolocate and fly? We can’t know with any certainty, but we can reasonably infer, based on observation of their complex behaviors and the close genetic kinship between all mammals and humans—and the fact that evolution proceeds incrementally—that bats have a rich inner life. By the same logic, we can look steadily at less-complex forms of behavior that allow us to reasonably infer some kind of mind associated with all types of matter. Yes, including even the lowly electron.
Worldwide, 800,000 people die annually due to suicide (1 every 40 seconds) — There are more than twice as many suicides as homicides — Suicide is now the 10th leading cause of death in the US, and the 2nd leading cause of death among individuals between ages of 10 and 34 — Dr. Christine Moutier, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, joins me on ideaXme to discuss her organization’s work in suicide prevention science and impacting these disturbing trends — #Ideaxme #Suicide #Depression #MentalHealth #Psychiatry #Anxiety #Stress #Trauma #Coronavirus #Burnout #WellBeing #Resilience #Health #Wellness #Longevity #Aging #IraPastor #Bioquark #Regenerage National Institute of Mental Health National Academy of Medicine.
Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador and founder of Bioquark, interviews Dr. Christine Moutier, MD, Chief Medical Officer, at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).
Ira Pastor comments:
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), close to 800,000 people die due to suicide every year, which is one person every 40 seconds. Suicide is a global phenomenon and occurs throughout the lifespan, and there are indications that for each adult who died by suicide, there may have been more than 20 others attempting suicide.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “Leading Causes of Death Report”, in 2017 suicide was the tenth leading cause of death overall in the United States, claiming the lives of over 47,000 people; Suicide was the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10 and 34, and the fourth leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 35 and 54. There were more than twice as many suicides in the United States as there were homicides.
Aiding Suicide Prevention Through Psychiatry.
Dr. Christine Moutier, MD is the Chief Medical Officer at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Dr. Moutier earned her medical degree and training in psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, and has been a practicing psychiatrist, professor and dean in the UCSD School of Medicine, medical director of the Inpatient Psychiatric Unit at the VA Medical Center in La Jolla, and has been clinically active with diverse patient populations, such as veterans, Asian refugee populations, as well as physicians and leaders with mental health conditions. She also served as co-investigator for the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression study (STAR*D), a large National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) trial on the treatment of refractory depression.
Dr. Christine Moutier’s Career in Psychiatry and Mental Resilience.
