A new multi-center study, including neurologists and neurosurgeons from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, reveals that Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) – a treatment for Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with medication-resistant muscle movement impairment or tremors – can improve those symptoms and reduce medications for patients implanted with the device. The study appears Onl ...

Adolescents diagnosed with schizophrenia and other psychoses appear to show greater decreases in gray matter volume and increases in cerebrospinal fluid in the frontal lobe compared to healthy adolescents without a diagnosis of psychosis, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The research was carried out by Celso Arango, M.D., Ph.D., ...

A hormone derived from visceral fat called adiponectin may play a role as a risk factor for development of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer disease (AD) in women, according to a study published Online First by the Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The study was completed by Thomas M. van Himbergen, Ph.D., from the Lipid Metabolism Laboratory, Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, ...

Women recently diagnosed with breast cancer have higher survival rates than those diagnosed in previous decades, according to the American Cancer Society. However, survivors continue to face health challenges after their treatments end. Previous research reports as many as 50 percent of breast cancer survivors are depressed. Now, University of Missouri researchers in the Sinclair School of Nursing say a med ...

People with diets high in several vitamins or in omega 3 fatty acids are less likely to have the brain shrinkage associated with Alzheimer’s disease than people whose diets are not high in those nutrients, according to a new study published in the December 28, 2011, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study author was Gene Bowman, ND, MPH, of Oregon Healt ...

New research suggests that, in people who do not currently have memory problems, those with smaller regions of the brain’s cortex may be more likely to develop symptoms consistent with very early Alzheimer’s disease. The study is published in the December 21, 2011, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. ...

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, reports that abnormal sequences of DNA known as rare copy number variants, or CNVs, appear to play a significant role in the risk for early onset bipolar disorder. The findings will be published in the December 22 issue of the journal Neuron. ...

Depression may have more far-reaching consequences than previously believed. Recent data suggests that individuals who suffer from a mood disorder could be twice as likely to have a heart attack compared to individuals who are not depressed. This process has been poorly understood — until now. A new study led by Concordia University has found that depressed individuals have a slower recovery time after exer ...

Most cases of autism are not caused by a single genetic mutation. However, several disorders with autism-like symptoms, including the rare Fragile X syndrome, can be traced to a specific mutation. Several years ago, MIT neuroscientist Mark Bear discovered that this mutation leads to overproduction of proteins found in brain synapses — the connections between neurons that allow them to communicate with each ...

Researchers at McMaster University have found that brief high intensity workouts, as little as six sessions over two weeks, rapidly lower blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetics, offering a potential fix for patients who struggle to meet exercise guidelines. The small proof-of-principle study, conducted on eight diabetics, appears in the latest edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology. Included in this r ...