Psychiatry

One nice thing about a 'psychodynamic blog' is that it can be about anything, since any issue involving humans will have a psychodynamic aspect. But when looking for a story about psychodynamics it is hard to find more content than a story about a drug addict.

Much data of note are coming to light of late regarding factors which diminish some of the ravages of aging. I posted on this recently. However, several abstracts from the ongoing Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease, in Vienna, Austria, deserve comment.

Patients who are depressed suffer from somatoform pain more often than non-depressed patients, according to new research from scientists at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

Is there a difference between autobiographical memory and episodic memory? Are they identical, as some researchers have treated them, or is autobiographical memory “a superordinate system with episodic memory as a subsystem.”

Insulin resistance is a well-known underlying mechanism in such metabolic disorders as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and dyslipidemia, all of which increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

A poster by Daniel L. Murman, MD, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and colleagues asks a key question in this era of managed care, tightening healthcare budgets, and possible comprehensive healthcare reform: could a tool that measures the level of care needed by patients with Alzheimer’s disease be used to help evaluate the cost effectiveness of AD treatments and therapies?

The presenter discusses objective, design, and results of this study, which was undertaken to examine the long-term effect of combined pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions in geriatric patients with depression, mixed dementia, and cardiovascular comorbidities.

Today’s featured resource is the Internet-based Forecasting of the Burden of Alzheimer’s Disease (iFBAD) website developed by Ron Brookmeyer, PhD, Elizabeth Colantuoni, PhD, and colleagues in the Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

From a pharmacologic perspective metoclopramide is much closer to antipsychotic drugs, in that it is, in part, a blocker of central dopamine receptors.

Kara M. Erwin discusses the challenges faced by Alzheimer’s disease researchers seeking to find brain donors.

The theme for the Tuesday session was “Alzheimer's disease Biomarkers: Update from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.”

Rodrigo O. Kuljis discusses the challenges to our understanding of neurodegenerative disorders and to the development of effective treatments and prevention presented because we lack a “satisfactory, unanimously agreed and unifying conceptual scheme” for them.

The number of people with Alzheimer's and dementia – both new cases and total numbers with the disease – continues to rise among the very oldest segments of the population in contradiction of the conventional wisdom.

Each morning at the 2009 ICAD conference, there is a media session featuring researchers who will be speaking or presenting that day. The session is recorded and posted online as brief videos. The theme for the Monday session was “Risk Factors for Alzheimer's; Update on Alzheimer's Prevalence/Incidence.”

MDNG is always on the lookout for new online resources for physicians and patients that promotes more effective communication, enhances the physician patient relationship, and helps patients and caregivers take a more active role in treatment.

Data presented at the 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in show that combination therapy with the investigational drug dimebon (latrepiridine) and donepezil HCl tablets was well tolerated in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

Pediatric researchers at Children’s Hospital Philadelphia have discovered that there are hundreds of gene variations seen more often in children with ADHD than children who do not have the disorder.

Physicians who spend 30 minutes asking a patient about family history of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse can gather enough information to approximate a patient’s risk for developing a disorder.

A significant portion of the genetic basis of schizophrenia can be traced to the cumulative effect of a large number of common genetic variants, researchers have discovered.

A trained depression care manager may be the key factor in treating older adults for depression in a primary care setting, new research shows.

Cognitive behavior therapy is ineffective for the treatment and prevention of relapses of many psychiatric disorders, particularly schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression, new research has found.

Among adults at risk for type 2 diabetes, individuals with untreated depression have "significantly lower" insulin sensitivity than those who are not depressed, a new study has found.

Ever since the Surgeon General warned of the dangers associated with smoking nearly 50 years ago, special interest groups have pressed Congress to grant the FDA authority to regulate or ban tobacco products.

Is a wireless practice right for you? If so, what components would benefit you most, and what should you know about them before making the jump?

A study has found that the children of parents who have an anxiety disorder are at a much greater risk for developing an anxiety disorder themselves.