How traumatic memories hide in the brain, and how to retrieve them

http://goo.gl/tmZj1H

It's difficult for therapists to help these patients, Radulovic said, because the patients themselves can't remember their traumatic experiences that are the root cause of their symptoms.

The best way to access the memories in this system is to return the brain to the same state of consciousness as when the memory was encoded, the study showed.

"The brain functions in different states, much like a radio operates at AM and FM frequency bands," Radulovic said. "It's as if the brain is normally tuned to FM stations to access memories, but needs to be tuned to AM stations to access subconscious memories. If a traumatic event occurs when these extra-synaptic GABA receptors are activated, the memory of this event cannot be accessed unless these receptors are activated once again, essentially tuning the brain into the AM stations."


IU School of Medicine researchers report biomarkers and apps that predict risk of suicide

http://goo.gl/7nJj4L

People being treated for bipolar disorder and other psychiatric illnesses are at greater risk of attempting suicide, but physicians may now have tools to predict which of those individuals will attempt it and intervene early to prevent such tragedies from occurring.

Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine reported Tuesday in the Nature Publishing Group's leading journal in psychiatry, Molecular Psychiatry, that they have developed blood tests and questionnaire instruments that can predict with more than 90 percent accuracy which of those patients will begin thinking of suicide, or attempt it.

"We believe that widespread adoption of risk prediction tests based on these findings during healthcare assessments will enable clinicians to intervene with lifestyle changes or treatments that can save lives," said Alexander B. Niculescu III, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and medical neuroscience at the IU School of Medicine and attending psychiatrist and research and development investigator at the Richard L. Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center.


Long-term brain changes persist years after drug abuse and recovery

http://goo.gl/xVYAQs

It's known that brain changes are present in drug addicts even when they have been abstinent for a short period of time. Now new research shows that alterations persist in long-term abstinent heroin-depended individuals as well.

Through the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging, investigators analyzed the brains of 30 heroin-addicted individuals after a long period of abstinence (more than 3 years) and compared the results with those of 30 healthy controls.

The team found that in the former heroin users, there was significant dysfunctional activity in the nucleus accumbens region of the brain, an area that is involved in appetitive drive and reward-seeking behavior.

The Journal of Neuroscience Research findings suggests that intense craving for drugs may be triggered in the presence of stressors or other environmental cues in individuals who have successfully remained abstinent for long periods of time. Taking this into consideration may aid the development of treatment and rehabilitation strategies for those suffering from drug addiction.


Fish Oil Supplements Could Prevent The Onset Of Psychotic Disorders

Presumably by preventing inflammation......

http://goo.gl/yQd9kR

Since current treatments for schizophrenia can only relieve symptoms, and omega-3 PUFAs are considered safe and generally beneficial for health, scientists decided to investigate their potential as a possible preventative measure. Although tests cannot assert who will and will not develop schizophrenia, over the years scientists have identified a clinical syndrome characterized by various signs and symptoms that is associated with an extremely high risk of developing a psychotic disorder. These “ultra-high risk” criteria tend to gradually manifest throughout adolescence and have helped clinicians identify young people who are likely to transition to psychosis.

Given that early intervention is generally associated with better outcomes, scientists from the University of Melbourne decided to investigate whether omega-3 PUFA supplementation in these high-risk individuals could prevent progression to psychotic disorder. The first phase of their research began almost 10 years ago when they enrolled 81 participants between the ages of 13 and 25 into a clinical trial. Half the individuals received omega-3 PUFAs for 12 weeks, and the others received placebos. They found that the intervention successfully prevented a first episode of psychotic disorder for up to one year.

Depression, bipolar may raise heart disease risk in teens

http://goo.gl/4HcgL2

The team found that teenagers with major depression or bipolar disorder were more likely to have a number of risk factors for heart disease - including hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity, type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis - compared with teenagers without these mood disorders.

The increased cardiovascular risk factors identified among adolescents with bipolar or major depression were not fully explained by other factors, such as lack of exercise, smoking or drug abuse, according to the statement authors.

While medication for mood disorders is associated with weight gain, hypertension, high cholesterol and increased blood sugar levels, the team notes that the majority of the teenagers included in the studies were not receiving such medication.


Study indicates first steps towards preventing suicide attempts by offenders

http://goo.gl/la0FP0

The age-adjusted risk of suicide for male offenders leaving prison is eight times the national average, and over a quarter of fatal suicide attempts happen within four weeks of release. Almost a quarter of all deaths under Probation Service supervision are catalogued as suicides, often by violent means.

Those at most risk are so-called 'revolvers' or 'churners' - frequently in and out of prison. Their lives revolve between chaotic existences in the community and spells in custody. As such, often they are not under the supervision of probation services, neither do they have meaningful contact with primary care or specialist mental health services.

The research team interviewed 35 male offenders from a Category B medium secure prison in the South West of England. Interviews took place one week prior to and approximately six weeks after release. The interviewees were aged between 18 and 52.

Eighteen of the 35 interviewees had attempted suicide at some time. Most had troubled personal lives: 24 had experienced family breakdown or abandonment as children; 26 had tales of physical abuse or neglect; and 15 experienced excessive drug and alcohol use in their family homes. All reported recent personal problems.


Fermented foods, neuroticism, and social anxiety

http://goo.gl/vvleik

Overall, research on probiotics and anxiety is still in its early stages. According to the authors, this is the first study to provide some extremely limited observational evidence for the efficacy of probiotic supplementation to fight, specifically, social anxiety, and thus, they did not mean to infer causality. Regardless, due to several limitations imposed by the study design, and the huge number of possible confounding variables, this study should solely serve as preliminary evidence, especially considering how strong of a confounding variable exercise is, as several papers have demonstrated its anxiolytic effects. However, if further well-conducted RCTs can suggest a causal role, independent of exercise and other possible confounding variables, probiotics or fermented foods consumption could potentially serve as great low-risk supplement to traditional treatment for social anxiety.


Trauma experiences change the brain even in those without PTSD

http://goo.gl/epUasw

Trauma may cause distinct and long-lasting effects even in people who do not develop PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), according to research by scientists working at the University of Oxford's Department of Psychiatry. It is already known thatstress affects brain function and may lead to PTSD, but until now the underlying brain networks have proven elusive.

Led by Prof Morten Kringelbach, the Oxford team's systematic meta-analysis of all brain research on PTSD is published in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews. The research is part of a larger programme on PTSD in British war veterans run by the Scars of War Foundation based at The Queen's College, University of Oxford. The foundation uses neuroscience to advance understanding of the effects of war and disaster.

The research team's initial survey of the scientific literature for all the published studies reporting brain activity in individuals with a diagnosis of PTSD yielded over 2000 records. This number was then reduced using stringent criteria to ensure the highest possible data quality for processing with meta-analytic tools.

The team separated studies by type of control group: trauma-exposed (those who had experienced trauma but did not have a diagnosis of PTSD) and trauma-naïve (those who had not experienced trauma), and compared the individuals with PTSD to both groups. This yielded an insight into how the abnormalities in functional brain activity in PTSD comprise a whole-brain network.

The analysis showed that there were differences between the brain activity of individuals with PTSD and that of the groups of both trauma-exposed and trauma-naïve participants.

This suggests that even in the absence of symptoms, trauma may have an enduring effect on brain function. Critically, the research found that in parts of a region of the brain called the basal ganglia, brain activity was different when comparing people with PTSD to the trauma-exposed group.