Both people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and their unaffected family members show decreased activity in a brain region that’s key to decision-making, and researchers say the finding could help them identify people who are at risk of developing the disorder.
In a new study, volunteers performed a task that required mental flexibility, as the correct response changed over time. Researchers used a functional MRI to take brain scans during the experiment, and found that people with OCD and their relatives showed decreased activity in the orbitofrontal cortex. The region, located behind the eyes, helps us make decisions and keeps compulsive behaviors, such as gambling and excessive drinking, in check. Some studies have found abnormalities in this region in people with OCD, but its role in the disorder is unclear [ScienceNow Daily News].
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Medical research is getting a little groovier. In a new report, scientists declared that the active ingredient in hallucinogenic “magic mushrooms” had beneficial effects on test subjects who took the substance under a doctor’s supervision. What’s more, the effects lingered; 14 months after the experiment, more than half the subjects reported still feeling an increase in well-being or life satisfaction, in terms of things like feeling more creative, self-confident, flexible and optimistic [AP].
The experiment was one of the few conducted in the four decades since the government cracked down on hallucinogens, banning most research and listing them as a dangerous drugs. Researchers say the study marks another shift in policy, which could yield research with dramatic insights. “These drugs are no longer being confined to rats in test tubes,” said David Nichols, a Purdue University pharmacologist who was not involved in the study. “What we’re looking at is a largely unexplored technology for brain science — it was discovered in the 1940s, set the psychiatry world ablaze in the 1950s, and was aborted by widespread recreational abuse, the reaction of the media and its confluence with the Vietnam war” [Wired News].
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The antismoking drug Chantix was considered a wonder drug for about 18 months; the drug helps people quit smoking by both reducing nicotine cravings and decreasing the pleasure derived from tobacco. Then the reports of scary side effects started leaking out. In November 2007 the Food and Drug Administration announced that the drug had caused suicides, psychosis, paranoia, and hallucinations. A wonder drug no longer, Chantix began to be perceived as a crazy pill.
Yet despite the growing concerns over the drug, a recent investigation has shown that the Veterans Affairs (VA) department continued to test Chantix on veterans who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan and who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In the aftermath of the revelations, Congress has called on the VA to immediately suspend the studies, and the agency is now sending letters to about 33,000 veterans who are taking the anti-smoking drug Chantix, warning them about possible side effects, including thoughts of suicide [AP].
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Three influential psychiatrists from Harvard Medical School seem to have been caught with their hands in the drug-laced cookie jar, and now they’re in big trouble. Two days after it was alleged that the three doctors failed to report a collective $4.2 million in payments from pharmaceutical companies, Harvard and the affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital have launched an investigation into the doctors’ behavior.
The scandal has revived questions about conflicts of interest within the medical profession. The three psychiatrists, Joseph Biederman, Timothy E. Wilens, and Thomas Spencer, have conducted extensive research in child psychiatry, on mental health topics including attention deficit disorder, bipolar disorder and depression. They have often recommended treating young patients aggressively with medications, but they were apparently receiving large payments from the drug-makers at the same time.
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