ADHD Med Use During Pregnancy and Risk of Birth Defects
Adults, including women of reproductive age, are increasingly being prescribed medications to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) but little evidence has been available about whether exposure to these drugs during early pregnancy may increase the risk of birth defects. A new study conducted by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in collaboration with investigators in the five Nordic countries leverages data from multiple large cohorts to define and quantify what, if any, increased risk may be posed by taking the most commonly used ADHD medications. The team found that one medication, methylphenidate, increased risk of heart defects by a small amount while another medication, amphetamines, did not. Their findings are published this week in JAMA Psychiatry. Read More |
Protein Structure Could Unlock New Treatments for Cystic Fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis is a severe hereditary disease of the lung, for which there is currently no cure. The underlying cause of the disease is a malfunction of the chloride channel CFTR, which prevents the secretion of chloride in certain body cells. This leads to dehydration of the mucus layer in the lung. A promising approach for treating cystic fibrosis is the activation of the calcium-activated chloride channel TMEM16A as an alternative route for chloride efflux. Since TMEM16A is expressed in the same epithelium as CFTR, its activation could restore hydration of the mucus layer. TMEM16A is part of a protein family whose members facilitate the flow of negatively charged chloride ions or lipids across the cell membrane. Read More |
Fear of Losing Control and its Role in Anxiety Disorders
Did you lock the front door? Did you double-check? Are you sure? If this sounds familiar, perhaps you can relate to people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Help may be on the way. New Concordia research sheds light on how the fear of losing control over thoughts and actions impacts OCD-related behavior, including checking. Although more traditional types of fear -- think snakes, spiders, dogs, etc. -- have been well investigated, this is one of the few studies to focus primarily on the fear of losing control. "We've shown that people who believe they're going to lose control are significantly more likely to exhibit checking behavior with greater frequency," says Adam Radomsky, a psychology researcher in the Faculty of Arts and Science. "So, when we treat OCD in the clinic, we can try to reduce their beliefs about losing control and that should reduce their symptoms." Read More |
Autism Therapy: Social Behavior Restored Via Brain Stimulation
Scientists are examining the feasibility of treating children with autism with neuromodulation after a new study showed social impairments can be corrected by brain stimulation. The research from the O'Donnell Brain Institute provides the first evidence that a specific part of the cerebellum, a region near the brain stem that has long been thought to only have roles in coordinating movement, is critical for autistic behaviors. It also establishes a more accessible target for brain stimulation than many autism-related neural circuits that are buried deep within the brain's folds. "This is potentially quite a powerful finding," said Dr. Peter Tsai, who directed the research from UT Southwestern Medical Center's Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute. "From a therapeutic standpoint, this part of the cerebellum is an enticing target. And although neuromodulation would not cure the underlying genetic cause of a person's autism, improving social deficits in children with autism could make a huge impact on their quality of life." Read More |
How Diabetes in Pregnancy Affects Baby's Heart
Researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have discovered how high glucose levels -- whether caused by diabetes or other factors -- keep heart cells from maturing normally. Their findings help explain why babies born to women with diabetes are more likely to develop congenital heart disease. The study, which was led by Atsushi "Austin" Nakano, a UCLA associate professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology and member of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center, was published today in the journal eLife. When developing heart cells are exposed to high levels of glucose, the researchers found, the cells generate more building blocks of DNA than usual, which leads the cells to continue reproducing rather than mature. Read More |
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Stuttering: Stop Signals in the Brain Disturb Speech Flow
One per cent of adults and five per cent of children are unable to achieve what most of us take for granted -- speaking fluently. Instead, they struggle with words, often repeating the beginning of a word, for example "G-g-g-g-g-ood morning" or get stuck with single sounds, such as "Ja" for "January" although they know exactly what they want to say. What processes in the brain cause people to stutter? Previous studies showed imbalanced activity of the two brain hemispheres in people who stutter compared to fluent speakers: A region in the left frontal brain is hypoactive, whereas the corresponding region in the right hemisphere is hyperactive. However, the cause of this imbalance is unclear. Does the less active left hemisphere reflect a dysfunction and causes the right side to compensate for this failure? Or is it the other way around and the hyperactive right hemisphere suppresses activity in the left hemisphere and is therefore the real cause of stuttering? Read More |
Action Games Expand the Brain's Cognitive Abilities, Study Suggests
The human brain is malleable -- it learns and adapts. Numerous research studies have focused on the impact of action video games on the brain by measuring cognitive abilities, such as perception, attention and reaction time. An international team of psychologists, led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, has assembled data from the last fifteen years to quantify how action video games impact cognition. The research has resulted in two meta-analyses, published in the journal Psychological Bulletin, which reveal a significant improvement in the cognitive abilities of gamers. Psychologists have been studying the impact of video games on the brain ever since the late 80s, when Pacman and arcade games first took roots. The present study focuses on one specific video game genre, action video (war or shooter) games that have long been considered as mind-numbing. Do they influence the cognitive skills of players? Read More |
Medical Marijuana for Children with Cancer? What Providers Think
A study published in Pediatrics examined interdisciplinary provider perspectives on legal medical marijuana use in children with cancer. It found that 92 percent of providers were willing to help children with cancer access medical marijuana. However, providers who are legally eligible to certify for medical marijuana were less open to endorsing its use. While nearly a third of providers received one or more requests for medical marijuana, the lack of standards on formulations, dosing and potency was identified as the greatest barrier to recommending it. These findings reflect survey responses from 288 providers in Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington. Read More |
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Large Genetic Study Links Tendency to Undervalue Future Rewards with ADHD
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have found a genetic signature for delay discounting -- the tendency to undervalue future rewards -- that overlaps with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), smoking and weight. In a study published December 11 in Nature Neuroscience, the team used data of 23andme customers who consented to participate in research and answered survey questions to assess delay discounting. In all, the study included the data of more than 23,000 people to show that approximately 12 percent of a person's variation in delay discounting can be attributed to genetics -- not a single gene, but numerous genetic variants that also influence several other psychiatric and behavioral traits. Read More |
Drug for Spinal Muscular Atrophy Prompts Ethical Dilemmas, Bioethicists Say
When the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug for people with spinal muscular atrophy a year ago, clinicians finally had hope for improving the lives of patients with the rare debilitating muscular disease. But the extraordinary cost of the drug and complicated logistics of delivering it present barriers for many patients, according to experts in bioethics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. They teamed up with colleagues at several other institutions to discuss concerns related to the medication in an article that will be published Dec. 11 in JAMA Pediatrics. Chief among those concerns is that the $125,000-per-dose cost of the drug, nusinersen, could restrict long-term patient access to it and the ability of clinics to provide it. Read More |
Infant Brain Responses Predict Reading Speed in Secondary School
A study conducted at the Department of Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland and Jyväskylä Centre for Interdisciplinary Brain Research (CIBR) has found that the brain responses of infants with an inherited risk for dyslexia, a specific reading disability, predict their future reading speed in secondary school. The longitudinal study looked at the electrical brain responses of six-month-old infants to speech and the correlation between the brain responses and their pre-literacy skills in pre-school-age, as well as their literacy in the eighth grade at 14 years of age. The study discovered that the brain response of the infants with an inherited dyslexia risk differed from the brain responses of the control infants and predicted their reading speed in secondary school. The larger brain responses were related to a more fluent naming speed of familiar objects, better phonological skills, and faster reading. Read More |
Exposure to Air Pollution Just Before or After Conception Raises Risk of Birth Defects
Women exposed to air pollution just prior to conception or during the first month of pregnancy face an increased risk of their children being born with birth defects, such as cleft lip or palate or abnormal hearts. Although the increased risk is modest, the potential impact on a population basis is noteworthy because all pregnant women have some amount of exposure. "The most susceptible time of exposure appears to be the one month before and after conception," says Emily DeFranco, DO, a physician at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and senior author of the study. "Public health efforts should continue to highlight the importance of minimizing population-level exposure to harmful particulate matter in the air." Read More |
Scientists Slow Progression of Fatal Form of Muscular Dystrophy
In a paper published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, Saint Louis University (SLU) researchers report that a new drug reduces fibrosis (scarring) and prevents loss of muscle function in an animal model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), providing a promising approach in designing new medications for those suffering from DMD. DMD is a fatal form of a muscle wasting disorder that affects one out of every 5,000 to 10,000 boys. The illness is caused by mutations in a gene on the X chromosome. With treatment, those with DMD have an average lifespan of around 25 years. Boys with the illness typically need to use a wheelchair by age 12 and require mechanical ventilation to help with breathing. Many eventually suffer cardiac or respiratory failure. Read More |
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