All Posts
2008-08-30 15:07:07
by dermoneuromodulator in Neurotonics
Clinical Research
Deric Bownds Mindblog has a post, Do our noses sniff danger in the air? on a recently investigated cluster of cells in the tips of mammalian noses (including humans, it is posited) called the Grueneberg ganglion.
From Science, Aug 2008:
"Grueneberg Ganglion Cells Mediate Alarm Pheromone Detection in Mice
Julien Brechbühl, Magali Klaey, Marie-Christine Broillet*
Alarm pheromones (APs) are widely used throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. Species such as fish, insects, and mammals signal danger to conspecifics by releasing volatile alarm molecules. Thus far, neit...more
- Strotmann J. (2006) Signaling in the Chemosensory Systems. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 63(13), 1465-1475. DOI: 10.1007/s00018-006-6108-5
2008-08-29 18:06:55
by Orac in Respectful Insolence
Clinical Research
The single most necessary task for a physician practicing science- and evidence-based medicine is the evaluation of the biomedical literature to extract from it just what science and the evidence support as the best medical therapy for a given situation. It is rare for the literature to be so clear on a topic that different physicians won't come to at least somewhat different conclusions. Far more common is the situation where the studies are conflicting, although usually with a preponderance of studies tending to support one or two interventions more than others, or where there are few or...more
- Rossignol M. (2008) The interpretation of systematic reviews with meta-analyses: an objective or subjective process?. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 8(1), 19. DOI: 10.1186/1472-6947-8-19
- Billon P. L. (2001) The political ecology of war: natural resources and armed conflicts. Political Geography, 20(5), 561-584. DOI: 10.1016/S0962-6298(01)00015-4
2008-08-29 13:09:33
by brainblogger in Brain Blogger
Clinical Research
Sometimes we forget that doctors are just like everyday people. They have families, they are members of parent/teacher organizations (PTOs), they help their children with school projects and homework, and they, in many cases, are still repaying school loans. You name it, and yes, the doctor has probably experienced it. So too is the case ...more
- Fromme E. (2003) Care of the Dying Doctor: On the Other End of the Stethoscope. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 290(15), 2048-2055. DOI: 10.1001/jama.290.15.2048
2008-08-29 02:00:16
by Dr Shock in Dr Shock MD PhD
Clinical Research
Long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy is superior in the long term to short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy. Short-term produces benefits more quickly than long-term therapies. After 3 years of follow-up, however, the situation was reversed with a stronger treatment effect in the long-term psychodynamic treatment group both for patients with depressive and anxiety symptoms.
If a patient is capable ...more
- Renlund C. (2008) Randomized trial on the effectiveness of long-and short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy and solution-focused therapy on psychiatric symptoms during a 3-year follow-up. Psychological Medicine, 38(05), DOI: 10.1017/S003329170700164X
2008-08-28 18:08:38
by Orac in Respectful Insolence
Clinical Research
Believe it or not, there was one area of so-called "alternative" medicine that I used to be a lot less skeptical about than I am now. Homeopathy, I always realized to be a load of pseudoscientific magical thinking. Ditto reiki, therapeutic touch, and other forms of "energy healing." It didn't take an extensive review of the literature to figure that out, although I did ultimately end up doing fairly extensive literature reviews anyway. Then, the more I looked into the hodge-podge of "healing" modalities whose basis is not science but rather prescientific and often mystical thought, the less...more
2008-08-28 02:00:14
by Dr Shock in Dr Shock MD PhD
Clinical Research
I guess not. Although African American males were the least intense users of computers and the Internet, length of time using computers and the Internet was a positive predictor of academic performance. So he probably didn’t waist his time with videogames because the amount of time spent playing videogames was a negative predictor.
For your information ...more
- EYE A. V. (2008) Race, Gender, and Information Technology Use: The New Digital Divide. , 11(4), 437-442. DOI:
2008-08-27 20:05:19
by PalMD in denialism blog
Clinical Research
The Infectious Disease Promotion Movement (let by such intellectual luminaries as Jenny McCarthy) may be worried about "toxins" in vaccines, but the real problem may hiding in plain sight.
Today's issue of JAMA has an interesting study of Ayurvedic (traditional Indian) medicines. It turns out that many of them contain a significant amount of toxic heavy metals.
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post......
more
- al e. (2008) Lead, Mercury, and Arsenic in US- and Indian-Manufactured Ayurvedic Medicines Sold via the Internet. Journal of the American Medical Association, 300(8), 915-923.
2008-08-25 19:07:05
by brainblogger in Brain Blogger
Clinical Research
A recent issue of the journal Neurology published two separate case-controlled studies that showed a decreased risk for Parkinson’s disease associated with both cholesterol-lowering medication and blood pressure-lowering medication.
A common class of cholesterol-lowering medications, HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (also collectively called “statins”), includes the well-known and often-prescribed atorvastatin (Lipitor), simvastatin (Zocor), lovastatin (Altocor, Mevacor), and pravastatin ...more
2008-08-25 09:09:51
by David Gorski in Science-Based Medicine
Clinical Research
When the marketing division designs clinical trials, scientific medicine loses....more
- Krumholz H. M. (2008) The ADVANTAGE Seeding Trial: A Review of Internal Documents. Annals of Internal Medicine, 149(4), 251-258.
2008-08-25 01:00:12
by Dr Shock in Dr Shock MD PhD
Clinical Research
Dr Shock is not very impressed with these new antipsychotics. Most research is done with comparison to high dose haloperidol, not very honest. Anyway the most dreaded side-effect of these new antipsychotics is weight gain. And I mean really weight gain, not just a few kilo’s. Clozapine and olanzapine produce the most weight gain followed ...more
- McGorry P. D. (2008) Non-pharmacological management of antipsychotic-induced weight gain: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. , 193(2), 101-107. DOI: 10.1192/bjp.bp.107.042853