Brigid Waldron-Perrine, Ph.D., a recent graduate from Wayne State University, and her mentor, Lisa J. Rapport, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Wayne State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, found that if traumatic brain injury (TBI) victims feel close to a higher power, it can help them rehabilitate. The study was recently published in Rehabilitation Psychology. ...

People with Asperger syndrome have problems with social interaction and attentiveness, and are also sensitive to noise and light. Several of these characteristics were evident to parents during their child’s first two years, reveals Petra Dewrang’s thesis in psychology at the University of Gothenburg. The thesis was defended on 17 June. Check the end of this report for a link to download the full-text thesi ...

New research provides the best evidence to date that the late-day anxiety and agitation sometimes seen in older institutionalized adults, especially those with dementia, has a biological basis in the brain. The findings could help explain “sundowning” - a syndrome in which older adults show high levels of anxiety, agitation, general activity, and delirium in late afternoon and evening, before they would nor ...

A major international study collating and analyzing worldwide data on diabetes since 1980 has found that the number of adults with the disease reached 347 million in 2008, more than double the number in 1980. The research, published today in The Lancet, reveals that the prevalence of diabetes has risen or at best remained unchanged in virtually every part of the world over the last three decades. ...

Lithium profoundly prevents the aggregation of toxic proteins and cell loss associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in a mouse model of the condition. Preclinical research is now underway at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging to determine correct dosages for a drug that continues to be the gold standard for the treatment of bipolar disorder. The Buck is currently working toward initiating a Phase IIa ...

Harnessing the new generation of rapid, highly accurate gene-sequencing techniques, a research team has identified the disease-causing mutation in a newly characterized rare genetic disease, by analyzing DNA from just a few individuals. The power and speed of the innovative bioinformatics tool marks a step toward personalized genomics —discovering causative mutations in individual patients. ...

We are one step closer to deciphering why some stressed people indulge in chocolate, mashed potatoes, ice cream, and other high-calorie, high-fat comfort foods. UT Southwestern Medical Center-led findings, in a mouse study, suggest that ghrelin – the so-called “hunger hormone” – is involved in triggering this reaction to high stress situations. The results will appear online today and in a future print edit ...

The drug Incivek, when given in combination with two other medications, can dramatically increase the chances of people chronically infected with untreated genotype 1 hepatitis C virus achieving a viral cure. That is the finding of a study published in the June 23rd issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. ...

In a novel imaging study of sleeping toddlers, scientists at the University of California, San Diego Autism Center of Excellence report that a diminished ability of a young brain’s hemispheres to “sync” with one another could be a powerful, new biological marker of autism, one that might enable an autism diagnosis at a very young age. The results were published in the June 23 issue of the journal Neuron. ...

A yet unidentified component of coffee interacts with the beverage’s caffeine, which could be a surprising reason why daily coffee intake protects against Alzheimer’s disease. A new Alzheimer’s disease mouse study by researchers at the University of South Florida found that this interaction boosts blood levels of a critical growth factor that seems to fight off the Alzheimer’s disease process. ...