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Can the Ketogenic Diet Treat Mental Illness? | MedPage Today

Though 3 patients were unable to adhere to the diet for more than 14 days, the researchers concluded that following the ketogenic diet for treatment-refractory mental illness was "feasible, well-tolerated, and associated with significant and substantial improvements in depression and psychosis symptoms and multiple markers of metabolic health." More than 40% of patients experienced remission from their diagnosis, Ede said, and 64% left the hospital on less psychiatric medication than when they entered.

Should I Leave My Husband? The Lure of Divorce

To cope with the stress, I asked my psychiatrist to increase the dosage of the antidepressant I’d been on for years. Sometime around then, I started talking too fast and drinking a lot.

Hypnotic suggestions can make a complex task easy by helping vision fill in the blanks -- ScienceDaily

The results revealed that participants who were highly susceptible to hypnotic suggestion successfully "hallucinated" visual occluders on top of moving objects. This added imaginary element enabled the participants to better visualize the full geometric shapes and more accurately determine their direction of rotation. On average, their success rate improved to approximately 70%, a statistically significant change.

Using Open Questions to Understand 650 People’s Experiences With Antipsychotic Drugs | Schizophrenia Bulletin | Oxford Academic

In this study, 650 people, from 29 countries, responded, in an online survey, to “Overall in my life antipsychotic medications have been _____?” and “Is there anything else you would like to say, or emphasise, about your experiences with antipsychotic drugs?” Of the total participants, 14.3% were categorized as reporting purely positive experiences, 27.9% had mixed experiences, and 57.7% reported only negative ones.

The Art of Dying | The New Yorker

I dodged the Vietnam draft by staying awake for three days and nights on speed, taking any other drugs that came to hand, rolling in dirt, presenting myself at the induction center on Whitehall Street, and trying to coöperate. The draft officials discarded me like a used condom. I felt guilty. I brooded that some guy would have to go in my place. I had faked psychosis so well that my sanity teetered for months afterward.

Hippocampus and memory development

The Geneva team has been following 275 patients aged 6 to 35 years for 18 years: a control groups of 135 individuals -- i.e. individuals without genetic problems -- and 140 people with deletion syndrome, including 53 with moderate to severe psychotic symptoms. "They underwent an MRI every three years so that we could observe their brain development," says Valentina Mancini, a researcher in UNIGE's Department of Psychiatry. "This has helped us create a statistical model that measures and compares the development of the hippocampus in both groups of patients." It was discovered that the hippocampus of the group affected by deletion syndrome, although smaller from the beginning, followed a growth curve identical to that of the control group. "This meant that we could hypothesise that the smaller size of the hippocampus originates in utero during its development in the womb." The UNIGE scientists also observed the subfields of the hippocampus in detail, discovering that one of them -- called CA3 -- was not affected by the decrease in size. "This subfield plays a crucial role in the work of memorisation and seems stronger than the other sub-parts," adds professor Eliez.

Facebook posts better at predicting diabetes, mental health than demographic info -- ScienceDaily

For example, "drink" and "bottle" were shown to be more predictive of alcohol abuse. However, others weren't as easy. For example, the people that most often mentioned religious language like "God" or "pray" in their posts were 15 times more likely to have diabetes than those who used these terms the least. Additionally, words expressing hostility -- like "dumb" and some expletives -- served as indicators of drug abuse and psychoses.

Schizophrenia: 30 genes under suspicion -- ScienceDaily

Alex Schier's team has now identified 30 genes in these regions and has been able to show that they have concrete effects on the structure and function of the brain as well as on various behavioral patterns. "Of the 132 suspects, we were ultimately able to establish a more precise perpetrator profile for 30 genes," said Schier. "One of the perpetrators is the transcription factor znf536, which controls the development of the forebrain. This brain region influences our social behavior and the processing of stress." The research team not only deciphered the function of the individual genes, but also generated an atlas of all genes with their respective consequences for the brain

More Evidence Links Marijuana Use And Psychosis : Shots - Health News : NPR

The study found that those who used pot daily were three times more likely to have a psychotic episode compared to someone who never used the drug. Those who started using cannabis at the age of 15 or less had a slightly more elevated risk than those who started using in later years. Use of high potency weed almost doubled the odds of having psychosis compared to someone who had never smoked weed, explains Di Forti. And for those who used high potency pot on a daily basis, the risk of psychosis was even greater — four times greater than those who had never used.

Infections (or Dr-philia?) correlate with mental disturbances

The study showed that children who had been hospitalised with an infection had an 84 per cent increased risk of suffering a mental disorder and a 42 per cent increased risk of being prescribed medicine to treat mental disorders. Furthermore, the risk for a range of specific mental disorders was also higher, including psychotic disorders, OCD, tics, personality disorders, autism and ADHD.

The link between cannabis use and psychotic-like experiences is largely the result of genetic factors

Karcher and her colleagues found that cannabis use was positively associated with psychotic-like experiences, even after controlling for a number of demographic variables and other substance use measures. But genetic factors accounted for 69.2% to 84.1% of the association. “The study indicates that the relationship between psychotic-like experiences and marijuana use is largely the result of shared genetics,” she explained to PsyPost.

ER patients given ketamine in clinical trials without their consent, FDA finds - STAT

Their report, obtained by Public Citizen through a public records request and shared with STAT, examined additional clinical trials beyond those initially flagged. It found that in four, the hospital IRB “did not determine that informed consent would be sought from each prospective subject” as required by law, while in another five, the IRB granted fast-track review to studies that didn’t qualify for it. At least three of the studies cited by the FDA inspectors involved people brought to the emergency room with “severe” agitation, as assessed by emergency technicians using criteria developed by the researchers. The study leaders apparently persuaded the IRB that such patients could not provide informed consent, and so could be swept into the trial unknowingly. In fact, such patients are considered “vulnerable,” said bioethicist Leigh Turner of the University of Minnesota, who signed the Public Citizen letter. According to federal law, they are supposed to receive special safeguards, such as having a family member or other representative give or decline consent. That did not happen.

Antipsychotics ineffective for treating ICU delirium -- ScienceDaily

he large, multi-site MIND USA (Modifying the INcidence of Delirium) study sought to answer whether typical and atypical antipsychotics -- haloperidol or ziprasidone -- affected delirium, survival, length of stay or safety. "We found, after extensive investigation with medical centers all over the country, that the patients who get these potentially dangerous drugs are not experiencing any improvements whatsoever in delirium, coma, length of stay or survival," said senior author by E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH, professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, associate director of Research for the VA Geriatric Research Education Clinical Center, and co-director of the CIBS (Critical Illness, Brain dysfunction, and Survivorship) Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Researchers screened nearly 21,000 patients at 16 U.S. medical centers. Of the 1,183 patients on mechanical ventilation or in shock, 566 became delirious and were randomized into groups receiving either intravenous haloperidol, ziprasidone or placebo (saline). The investigators found no significant difference in duration of delirium or coma among participants on haloperidol or ziprasidone compared to placebo.

What you don't look for can't hurt your share price...

Only nine of 185 randomized clinical trials and 23 of 259 non-randomized studies and patient reports of methylphenidate in children and adolescents with ADHD reported assessment of psychotic symptoms.

Link between autoimmune disorders and psychosis confirmed in new study

But rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis are also characterised by higher levels of inflammation, so this would not explain the negative relationships we found with these disorders. Although all autoimmune disorders activate the body’s immune system, the exact response differs depending on the disorder. This might go some way to explaining why we found different relationships for individual autoimmune disorders, and suggests that inflammation cannot be the only mechanism.

Frontiers | Increased Risk of Psychiatric Disorders in Allergic Diseases: A Nationwide, Population-Based, Cohort Study | Psychiatry

Of the study subjects, 5,038 (10.8%) developed psychiatric disorders when compared to 9,376 (6.7%) in the control group, with significant difference (p < 0.001). Fine and Gray’s competing risk model analysis revealed that the adjusted HR was 1.659 (95% CI = 1.602–1.717, p < 0.001). In this study, we found that the groups of atopic dermatitis alone and the allergic rhinitis + atopic dermatitis were associated with a lower risk of psychiatric disorders, but all the other four groups, such as bronchial asthma alone, allergic rhinitis alone, bronchial asthma + allergic rhinitis, bronchial asthma + atopic dermatitis, and the combination of all these three allergic diseases, were associated with a higher risk of psychiatric disorders.

Psychotic and Manic-like Symptoms During Stimulant Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder | American Journal of Psychiatry

Combining across stimulant medications, during double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, placebo was not associated with any toxicosis events in 3,990 subjects with a combined duration of treatment of over 425 years. For therapeutic doses of active medication, there were 13 reports of toxicosis in 5,717 subjects with a combined treatment duration of over 800 years. In open-label trials, stimulants were associated with 45 reports of toxicosis in 15,999 subjects with a combined treatment duration of almost 9,400 years. Although there are methodological problems in summing across stimulant medications and across studies that may have different sensitivities for identifying psychotic-like and manic-like symptoms, these numbers suggest as a preliminary estimate that toxicosis will occur in approximately 0.25% of children treated with stimulants, or about 1 in 400—a proportion suggesting an infrequent but not rare effect of therapeutic dosing.

Brain folding provides researchers with an accurate marker to predict psychosis -- ScienceDaily

The researchers looked specifically at the structural relationship in the brain determined by the way that the brain is folded inside the skull, also known as gyrification. "The human brain is not the largest of the mammals -- elephants and dolphins have larger brains than we do, but our brain is much more folded than other species' brains, and that is because it is the most economical way to send signals across a constantly busy system," said Dr. Palaniyappan, noting that this folding pattern is mostly developed by the time a person is two years old.

Hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms associated with the use of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder drugs in children. - PubMed - NCBI

We analyzed data from 49 randomized, controlled clinical trials in the pediatric development programs for these products. A total of 11 psychosis/mania adverse events occurred during 743 person-years of double-blind treatment with these drugs, and no comparable adverse events occurred in a total of 420 person-years of placebo exposure in the same trials. The rate per 100 person-years in the pooled active drug group was 1.48.

Methylphenidate and the risk of psychotic disorders and hallucinations in children and adolescents in a large health system

Mosholder et al.21 reviewed and analysed data from the medication manufacturers on ADHD drugs from 49 randomised controlled clinical trials. They identified a total of 11 psychosis/mania adverse events during 743 person-years of follow-up in 5717 individuals (1.48 events per 100 person-years or one event in every 70 years of treatment) compared with none reported with placebo, giving a number needed to harm of 526.

20 to 30 Percent of Us Hear Something When Viewing Silent Videos, Do You? - Neuroscience News

As the unpaid volunteers were recruited via adverts with text such as “Do you experience ‘hearing motion?’”, it’s certainly possible that there was a self-selection bias. But, on enrolment, the paid participants did not know what the study was about, so, in theory, they should be more representative of the general population. Thirty-one per cent of this paid group (an even higher percentage, in fact, than in the bigger, unpaid group) reported past experience of vEAR. When it came to the survey results, anyone who rated half of the videos at greater than or equal to 3 was identified as experiencing vEAR. Just over 20 per cent of the paid participants fell into this category. Taken with the self reports of past experience of vEAR, the findings suggest that the phenomenon is far from rare. The higher-rated videos often depicted relatively familiar events that are reliably associated with particular sounds (like fists hitting a punchbag), suggesting that an understanding of what’s happening in the scene was involved in causing the illusory sounds.

Another Mass Shooting, Another Psychiatric Drug? Federal Investigation Long Overdue | CCHR International

Despite 27 international drug regulatory warnings on psychiatric drugs citing effects of mania, hostility, violence and even homicidal ideation, and dozens of high profile shootings/killings tied to psychiatric drug use, there has yet to be a federal investigation on the link between psychiatric drugs and acts of senseless violence.

Chapter 5—Medical Aspects of Stimulant Use Disorders - Treatment for Stimulant Use Disorders - NCBI Bookshelf

Some researchers and clinicians describe the development of stimulant-induced psychosis as an evolving process. Panel members depicted MA users as having brief and transient psychotic episodes before a full-blown psychosis emerges after more extensive chronic use. MA users often recognize these early psychotic effects and try to stave them off by self-medicating with alcohol or decreasing drug use. In several articles, Ellinwood and colleagues describe the evolution of MA-induced psychosis as progressively abnormal behaviors--beginning at moderately high doses--with intense feelings of curiosity about the environment and patterns of exploration that result, for example, in examining the punctuation periods in a magazine text for evidence of a secret code (Ellinwood et al., 1973).

Department of Health | The amphetamine withdrawal syndrome

Animal and human studies have confirmed that the methamphetamine withdrawal syndrome may be protracted (the mood disturbance may last up to a year in some cases) and tends to be more severe than cocaine withdrawal (see Cho & Melega, 2002 for a thorough review; Davidson et al., 2001; Volkow, Chang, Wang, Fowler, Franceschi et al., 2001). Similarly, there is some evidence to suggest that individuals who have experienced a methamphetamine-related psychosis are at risk of further psychotic episodes, even in the absence of further psychostimulant use (Yui, Ikemoto, Ishiguro & Goto, 2000).

Engineering euphoria

Isomers of the same molecule, although very similar, often have different effects. For instance, the right-handed isomer of methamphetamine, dextromethamphetamine, is the most potent human stimulant known: This is the “meth” that tweakers crave. But the left-handed isomer of methamphetamine, levomethamphetamine, is a vasoconstrictor with little to no psychoactive effect and is used in nasal decongestants and inhalers. In contrast, both isomers of amphetamine are psychostimulants, so Shire combines both the l- and d- isomers in Adderall, each packaged in two different types of salt carriers. By creating a custom racemic mix of l- and d- isomers, and by using a custom blend of salt carriers for each molecule, Adderall meets the definition of an amphetamine formulation that can be patented for prescription use. In a word: genius. Formulating the perfect blend of speed for children sounds like a task more suited to a crime syndicate than a pharmaceutical company, but Shire put some serious thought into packaging amphetamine into pills for kids with short attention spans. The l- isomer of amphetamine, levoamphetamine, packs a euphoric rush of norepinephrine for a quick and speedy high, with a small release of dopamine for a short period of increased alertness and focus. Levoamphetamine (a.k.a. benzedrine) is a favorite of tweakers who want the most bang for their buck. The d- isomer of amphetamine, dextroamphetamine, produces less of an initial rush but increases the supply of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain’s synaptic clefts for many hours. Dextroamphetamine (a.k.a. dexedrine) is considered by many to be the first “smart drug,” used experimentally to increase focus, memory, and intelligence.

Drug-Induced Psychosis: How to Avoid Star Gazing in Schizophrenia Research by Looking at More Obvious Sources of Light

They administered dextroamphetamine by mouth on days 1, 3, and 5 to 10 healthy volunteers, and measured the effect on striatal dopamine release before exposure, then the day of first exposure, then 2 weeks later after the third dose, using the PET/[11C] raclopride technique. Each dose of amphetamine caused greater dopamine release in the ventral striatum together with greater behavioral responses. Indeed, 1 year later there was a greater psychomotor response and greater increase dopamine release compared to the initial dose, in the ventral striatum, progressively extending to the dorsal caudate and putamen (Boileau et al., 2006). Such findings have led to the “dopamine sensitization” hypothesis of schizophrenia which postulates that a sensitized dopamine system is responsible for the genesis of psychotic symptoms (Peleg-Raibstein et al., 2009).