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Posts Tagged ‘Depression’

First ever replication of a GxE in psychiatric genetics

Posted in CRHR1, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia According to the authors of  “Protective effect of CRHR1 gene variants on the development of adult depression following childhood maltreatment: replication and extension“  [PMID: 19736354], theirs is “the first instance of Genes x Environment research that stress has been ascertained by more than 1 study using the same instrument“.  The gene they [...]

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Bigger genetic studies, more missing heritability

Posted in Chromosome structural variants, Intronic or repetitive sequences, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 5, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Twin studies have long suggested that genetic variation is a part of healthy and disordered mental life.  The problem however – some 10 years now since the full genome sequence era began – has been finding the actual genes that account for this heritability. It sounds simple on paper – just collect lots of folks [...]

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Feeling good about feeling bad

Posted in 5HTT, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Just a pointer to a great book – The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder by Allan V. Horwitz and Jerome C. Wakefield.  Its an in-depth treatment on the many reasons and contexts in which we – quite naturally – feel sad and depressed and the way in which diagnostic [...]

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Photoperiod sensitive humans bloom much like spring flowers

Posted in Suprachiasmatic nucleus, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Image by noahg. via Flickr If you’ve started to notice the arrival of spring blossoms, you may have wondered, “how do the blossoms know when its spring?“  Well, it turns out that its not the temperature, but rather, that plants sense the length of the day-light cycle in order to synchronize their  own life cycles [...]

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Video library of mental illness

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on November 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia pointer to symptommedia.org – fantastic video resource of specific symptoms of mental illness. “The intention of these clips are to be used in the classroom setting as visual compliments to the written description of symptoms for psychological phenomena found in the DSM handbook.”

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Know thy epigenome in fatal purpose of the Heart

Posted in Cerebellum, Frontal cortex, NTRK2, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image by sludgegulper via Flickr Few events are as hard to understand as the loss of a loved one to suicide – a fatal confluence of factors that are oft scrutinized – but whose analysis can provide little comfort to family and friends.  To me, one frightening and vexing aspect of what is known about [...]

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Interview with Dr. Christina Barr

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Many thanks to Dr. Christina S. Barr from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism-Laboratory of Clinical and Translational Studies, National Institutes of Health Animal Center for taking the time to comment on her team’s recent publication, “Functional CRH variation increases stress-induced alcohol consumption in primates” [doi:10.1073/pnas.0902863106] which [...]

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echoblog: understanding how neuromodulator (genes) help the brain compute

Posted in 5HTT, Dopamine, Noradrenaline, acetylcholine, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image by jurvetson via Flickr pointer to: Computational Models of Basal Ganglia Function where Kenji Doya provides computational explanations for neuromodulators and their role in reinforcement learning. In his words, “Dopamine encodes the temporal difference error — the reward learning signal. Acetylcholine affects learning rate through memory updates of actions and rewards. Noradrenaline controls width [...]

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interview with Michael Corbin – everyminute.org

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on June 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia In this podcast, Michael Corbin, founder of everyminute.org, shares some of his personal background, interests and efforts in the area of suicide prevention and mental health advocacy. You can reach Michael via email or the website contact page.

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CpG methylation bears witness to childhood abuse in victims of suicide

Posted in EGR1, Glucocorticoid receptor, Hippocampus, tagged , , , on February 27, 2009 | 5 Comments »

Image by allthewhile via Flickr It is commonly known that some of us handle stress better than others.  Some can calmly accept the dire economic news of an impending layoff while others may fret incessantly day-in-and-out and endure many a sleepless night.  Why ?  What are some of the brain systems that mediate the effects [...]

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Piccolo leads a long commute away from major depressive disorder

Posted in Kinesin, PCLO, tagged , , , on January 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Commuting to work is a total drag.  Commuting to work in New York City is not just a total drag, but THE definitive commuting nightmare.  Still, when one ponders the masses of people (more than 2 million each day) who tread in, out and around Manhattan, its pretty remarkable that one can [...]

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FDA approves non-invasive brain stimulation for treatment resistant depression

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on November 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia re-posting from NARSAD news … FDA approves an amazing new form of non-invasive magnetic brain stimulation for treatment resistant depression. Great video demonstrates the methodology and its ability to interfere with neural processing with a high degree of temporal and spatial specificity.  A new treatment that one day might be guided by [...]

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AMPA receptor polymorphisms add to antidepressant – suicide puzzle

Posted in 5HTT, AMPA receptor, GRIA3, GRIK2, Glutamate, tagged , , , , on September 1, 2007 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia The recent paper, “Genetic Markers of Suicidal Ideation Emerging During Citalopram Treatment of Major Depression” finds that among 68 candidate genes, markers for 2 AMPA-type glutamate receptors (rs4825476, rs2518224: GRIA3 and GRIK2) show significant association in 120 individuals who experienced suicidal ideation in a large medication trial for major depressive disorder. Many [...]

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Ancient Greeks bear gifts rejecting the “my genes made me do it” defense

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment »

Image by onecle via Flickr I much enjoyed the June 15th podcast “Blame it on my genes” hosted at the New York Academy of Sciences. Here, Professor Paul Appelbaum lays out a biological framework for behavioral genetics wherein genes influence an individual’s sensitivity to experience in ways that predispose or insulate them from illness. As [...]

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Brain based algorithms and personalized medicine

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on May 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia I much enjoyed Helen Mayberg’s October 13th podcast, “Paths to Recovery in Major Depression: Insights from Functional Neuroimaging” hosted by Science & the City, the webzine of the NY Academy of Science. One comment that stuck with me was her mention of ‘brain-based algorithms’ for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. [...]

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