Actress and author Kristen Johnson writes a first-person essay on addiction in the New York Times (7/21, Johnston, Subscription Publication) and laments how little is done about it in the US. Johnson, who also founded SLAM, NYC to create a “recovery high school” in New York City, describes a culture that views addicts largely as part of a running reality show of celebrities instead of “an epidemic that now claims more lives per year than car accidents” and “kills more people per year than guns.” She adds, “Yet there is zero government financing for research” and “no swanky benefits to raise funds.” She also laments that “a minuscule percentage of those who suffer can afford to get help,” while addicts are imprisoned rather than treated. She says addiction deserves “some respect.”

Related Links:

— “Turning Addiction Into a Sideshow, “Kristen Johnston, The New York Times, July 19, 2013.

USA Today (7/20, Weintraub) reported that, being that there are currently no treatments to stop or cure Alzheimer’s, “researchers believe prevention may be key to avoiding its memory and quality of life [QoL] challenges. Taking preventive measures against dementia involves common sense, healthy activities – exercising regularly, eating well, sleeping enough – as well as keeping your brain active and challenged.” The article went on to summarize research on Alzheimer’s recently presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.

Related Links:

— “Keys to preventing Alzheimer’s disease, “Karen Weintraub, USA Today, July 20, 2013.

The Washington Post (7/22, Schulte) reports that a new report from the nonprofit research center Child Trends shows that while children under the age of 6 “are resilient, war can take a steep and potentially long-lasting toll during their critical early years, when the brain is growing rapidly and children are developing a sense of trust in the world.” The report notes that children “can exhibit the same anxiety, depression, stress and aggression that some older children and adults experience” after “multiple deployments, long separations, and often tense and awkward reunions with parents returning from war, particularly when the parent has been physically or mentally traumatized.”

Related Links:

— “Strain on military families affects young children, report says, “Brigid Schulte, The Washington Post, July 21, 2013.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune (6/21, Griffin) reports, “Only about 30 percent of African-Americans who have been diagnosed with a mental illness seek counseling, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and only one in three who need psychiatric care receive it.” Researchers have found issues of poverty, community violence, and unemployment could put African Americans at higher risk for mental illness, but a history of mistrust for the medical establishment, as well fears of being stigmatized can keep many from getting treatment.

Related Links:

— “For African-Americans, many hurdles in seeking mental health care, “Ashley Griffin, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 20, 2013.

Medwire (6/21, Piper) reports that treatment adherence directly improves the quality of life for schizophrenia patients, according to the results of a study published online June 11 in the journal European Psychiatry. Using the Quality of Life Scale, the researchers at the University of Manchester, UK, assessed the “363 patients who had had schizophrenia for a median of 12 years” and found that over the course of one year, the compliant patients’ “scores improved by an average 9.18 points.” The study team also noted improvements on the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale and the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia, among the patients who followed their treatment regimens, with “average decreases of 2.79 for positive symptoms, 3.03 for negative symptoms, and 2.56 for depressive symptoms.”

Related Links:

— “Treatment adherence predicts QoL in schizophrenia, “Lucy Piper, Medwire, June 21, 2013.

The New York Times (6/21, Gorman, Subscription Publication) reports, “Researchers in Germany and Canada have produced a new map of the human brain…that shows a three-dimensional reconstruction of a human brain in unprecedented detail.”

The AP (6/21, Ritter) reports, “To make the atlas, researchers sliced a cadaver brain from a 65-year-old woman into 7,400 thin sections, stained them to reveal tiny features, and photographed each one.” The researchers “then…used computers to combine the data into a 3-D digital model.”

The Los Angeles Times (6/21, Healy) reports, “The BigBrain atlas, produced after a five-year effort, was hailed by neuroscientists as a technological tour de force that promises to speed discoveries in an increasingly important field.”

The Washington Post (6/21, Kim) reports, “The atlas creators, who are from Canada and Germany, have made the ultrahigh-resolution model – 50 times more detailed than a typical scan – publicly available in a free online format.” The research was also published in Science.

The CNN (6/21) “The Chart” blog reports, “Researchers who study neuroscience can use BigBrain to simulate how a brain develops normally or how it degenerates in conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, said Alan Evans of the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University and senior author on the paper.”

The Time (6/21, Sifferlin) “Healthland” blog reports, “The reference brains that have existed before have generally not been able to provide microscopic level detail, and have stopped at about 1 mm resolution, the limit of MRI images.” But, “BigBrain…has the potential of providing a better understanding how the brain’s cells are assembled and interact with each other.” Also covering the story are AFP (6/21) reports, HealthDay (6/21, Goodman), BBC News (6/21, Ghosh), and MedPage Today (6/21, Smith).

Related Links:

— “3-D Map of Human Brain Gives Unprecedented Detail, “James Gorman, The New York Times, June 20, 2013.

HealthDay (6/20, Dotinga) reports that a study published online June 19 in JAMA Psychiatry suggests that children of depressed mothers may develop fewer emotional problems by spending time at a daycare facility. After following “1,759 children between the ages of five months and five years,” researchers found that around 12 percent of the children of non-depressed mothers showed signs of emotional problems, whereas 32 percent of the children of depressed mothers showed signs of emotional problems. However, when put in daycare, only seven percent of children whose mothers were depressed showed signs of emotional problems, which the researchers attributed to the structured environment and opportunities to socialize daycare provides.

Related Links:

— “Day Care May Help Kids of Depressed Moms, “Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, June 19, 2013.

USA Today (6/20, Payne) reports, “A stroke may leave some survivors with post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD], which may hinder their recovery, according to a study” published online yesterday in the journal PLoS One. Approximately “23% of patients who survive a stroke or transient ischemic attack, a brief interruption of blood flow to the brain, have PTSD symptoms within a year, the study finds.” Approximately “11% have chronic PTSD, in which symptoms last three months or longer, more than a year later,” the study found.

The Los Angeles Times (6/20, Balukjian) “Science Now” blog reports that study lead author Donald Edmondson, PhD, MPH, “an assistant professor at Columbia University, previously established that PTSD is common among heart attack survivors and that it is linked to an increased risk of later developing heart disease. This led his team to question how often stroke victims develop PTSD.”

HealthDay (6/20, Gray) reports, “For the study, the researchers analyzed nine prior studies of stroke or transient ischemic attacks (TIAs).” HealthDay Adds, “Together, the studies included more than 1,100 survivors who were either interviewed or given questionnaires.”

Related Links:

— “Nearly 1 in 4 stroke survivors develop PTSD, study shows, “Cathy Payne, USA Today, June 19, 2013.

Bloomberg News (6/18, Lopatto, Ostrow) reports, “Researchers from Harvard University’s School of Public Health found that pregnant women exposed to high levels of diesel particulates or mercury were twice as likely to have an autistic child compared with peers in low-pollution areas.” Bloomberg News adds, “The findings, published today in Environmental Health Perspectives, are from the largest US study to examine the ties between air pollution and autism.”

Related Links:

— “Autism Tied to Air Pollution, Brain-Wiring Disconnection, “Elizabeth Lopatto & Nicole Ostrow, Bloomberg News, June 17, 2013.

The New York Times (6/15, Dao, Subscription Publication) reported that in the “two decades since the 1991 Persian Gulf war, medical researchers have struggled to explain a mysterious amalgam of problems in thousands of gulf war veterans, including joint pain, physical malaise and gastrointestinal disorders. In some medical circles, the symptoms were thought to be psychological, the result of combat stress. But recent research is bolstering the view” that the symptoms of Gulf War illness “are fundamentally biological in nature.”

The Los Angeles Times (6/14, Zarembo) reported, “Their bodies reacted differently to physical exertion, and their brains had atrophied in different regions. None of the patterns were seen in a control group of healthy subjects.” Two separate groups of veterans emerged from the researchers data. One had increased pain levels after exercise, and the other suffered from a condition that caused the heart the race after exercise.

Related Links:

— “Researchers Find Biological Evidence of Gulf War Illnesses, “James Dao, The New York Times, June 14, 2013.