Psychiatric diagnoses ‘neither necessary nor sufficient’ for access to NHS care in UK

A new study, published in the Journal of Mental Health, finds psychiatric diagnoses are seldom used as entry criteria for NHS mental health services in the UK. Despite controversy over their validity, and the damage they can do to people who receive the labels, psychiatric diagnoses are usually argued to be essential for accessing care, determining treatment options, communicating between […]

Continue reading »

Deep inside the brain: Mapping the dense neural networks in the cerebral cortex

Mammalian brains, with their unmatched number of nerve cells and density of communication, are the most complex networks known. While methods to analyze neuronal networks sparsely have been available for decades, the dense mapping of neuronal circuits is a major scientific challenge. Researchers from the MPI for Brain Research have now conducted connectomic mapping of brain tissue from the cerebral […]

Continue reading »

The first test to detect dysphagia in patients with cognitive problems

Researchers from the Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Centre (CIMCYC) of the University of Granada (UGR) have designed a test to detect dysphagia, a disorder that prevents people from swallowing when eating. It affects 8 percent of the world’s population. Dysphagia is prevalent among older people in particular (30 percent to 40 percent of the elderly people admitted to hospitals […]

Continue reading »

Schizophrenia risk gene linked to cognitive deficits in mice

Researchers have discovered in mice how one of the few genes definitively linked to schizophrenia, called SETD1A, likely confers risk for the illness. Mice genetically engineered to lack a functioning version of the enzyme-coding gene showed abnormalities in working memory, mimicking those commonly seen in schizophrenia patients. Restoring the gene’s function corrected the working memory deficit. Counteracting the gene’s deficiencies […]

Continue reading »

Scientists reveal novel oncogenic driver gene in human gastrointestinal stromal tumors

Sarcomas—cancers that arise from transformed mesenchymal cells (a type of connective tissue)—are quite deadly. Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common human sarcoma and are initiated by activating mutations in the KIT receptor tyrosine kinase. Micro-GISTs are a smaller variation of clinical GISTs and are found in one-third of the general population without clinical symptoms. Although the micro-GISTs and […]

Continue reading »

New approach to shutting down breast cancer recurrence shows promise in mice

A new approach to treat advanced breast cancer shuts down the growth of cells that become resistant to standard hormone therapy, according to Duke Cancer Institute animal studies. The research, which is likely to be tested in clinical trials within the year, identified and targeted vulnerabilities that appear in nearly all estrogen-positive breast cancers that develop resistance to current treatments. […]

Continue reading »

Study looks at pediatric firearm-related eye injuries in the U.S.

(HealthDay)—A quarter of all U.S. ocular firearm injuries occur within the pediatric population, according to a study published online Oct. 10 in JAMA Ophthalmology. Rebecca Weiss, M.D., of the Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York, and colleagues used data collected from the National Trauma Data Bank to analyze firearm-related ocular injuries (1,972 injuries) for pediatric patients (younger than 21 […]

Continue reading »

Drug treats inflammation associated with genetic heart disease that can be deadly in young athletes

When young athletes experiences sudden cardiac death as they run down the playing field, it’s usually due to arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM), an inherited heart disease. Now, Johns Hopkins researchers have shed new light on the role of the immune system in the progression of ACM and, in the process, discovered a new drug that might help prevent ACM disease symptoms […]

Continue reading »
1 5 6 7 8 9 51