New research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham pinpoints the relationship between primary brain tumors and the onset of epileptic seizures and reveals that a drug used to treat Crohn’s disease inhibits those seizures and may be able to slow a tumor’s growth. The onset of seizures is a common symptom in gliomas and often is the first sign of a brain tumor. Sen. Ted Kennedy had a seizure in May 200 ...

New stem cell lines developed from the skin of adults living with bipolar disorder are providing researchers at the University of Michigan Health System an unprecedented opportunity to delve into the genetic and biological underpinnings of the devastating mood disorder. Scientists will be able to link new findings – such as how gene expression is affected by different medications – to extensive clinical and ...

Yoga is commonly seen as a practice beneficial to body and mind. Increasingly, yoga is being taken a step further and applied as a form of complementary and alternative medicine in treating psychiatric disorders. Can this ancient lifestyle practice for spiritual awareness stand up to testing standards required by modern science to prove that it is an effective treatment? Included in this report is a link to ...

Compared with changes in biomarkers, changes in cognitive abilities appear to be stronger predictors of whether an individual with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) will develop Alzheimer’s disease, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. ...

An extreme form of pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting known as hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) takes a heavy toll on thousands of women each year and can lead to hospitalization and pregnancy termination. But new research suggests pregnant women are not the only victims. A joint study by UCLA and the University of Southern California has found that children whose mothers suffered from HG while carrying them ...

The potato’s stereotype as a fattening food for health-conscious folks to avoid is getting another revision today as scientists report that just a couple servings of spuds a day reduces blood pressure almost as much as oatmeal without causing weight gain. Scientists reported on the research, done on a group of overweight people with high blood pressure, at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the ...

Researchers from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Beaumont Hospital have conducted a study which has found striking brain similarities in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The research has also pinpointed for the first time that a process which controls how information is transmitted from neuron to neuron in the brain is altered in both conditions and may potentially contribute to the d ...

While deep brain stimulation has gained recognition by referring physicians as a treatment for Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders, just half of the patients they recommend are appropriate candidates to begin this relatively new therapy immediately, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York say. ...

Recurring headaches are common during the year following a traumatic brain injury (TBI), regardless of the severity of the TBI, and they tend to occur more often among females and those with a pre-TBI history of headache, according to an article in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free online at the link below. ...

A brain imaging scan may help identify people with no memory or thinking problems who have the early signs of Alzheimer’s disease in their brains, according to research published in the August 24, 2011, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. ...