May 7, 2008, 6:56 PM CT

Mental Fitness and Multi-Lingualism

Children who speak a second or third language may have an unexpected advantage during the later part of life, a new Tel Aviv University study has observed. Knowing and speaking a number of languages may protect the brain against the effects of aging.

Dr. Gitit Kave, a clinical neuro-psychology expert from the Herczeg Institute on Aging at Tel Aviv University, together with her colleagues Nitza Eyal, Aviva Shorek, and Jiska Cohen-Manfield, discovered recently that senior citizens who speak more languages test for better cognitive functioning. The results of her study were reported in the journal Psychology and Aging.

However, Kave says that one should approach these findings with caution. "There is no sure-fire recipe for avoiding the pitfalls of mental aging. But using a second or third language may help prolong the good years," she advises.

Exercising the Brain

A person who speaks more languages is likely to be more clear-minded at an older age, she says, in effect "exercising" his or her brain more than those who are monolingual. Languages may create new links in the brain, contributing to this strengthening effect.

The research was based on a survey taken in 1989 on people between the ages of 75 and 95. Each person was asked how a number of languages he or she knew, what his or her mother tongue was, and which language he or she spoke best. The scientists compared bilingual speakers to tri- and multilingual speakers......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

May 7, 2008, 6:44 PM CT

Caution on new anti-obesity drug in kids

Anti-obesity drugs that work by blocking brain molecules similar to those in marijuana could also interfere with neural development in young children, as per a new study from MITs Picower Institute for Learning and Memory.

Marijuana is known to be an appetite stimulant, and a new class of anti-obesity drugssuch as rimonabant (trade name Acomplia) developed by Sanofi-Aventis and awaiting approval for use in the United Stateswork by blocking brain receptors that bind to marijuana and other cannabinoids.

Marijuana, derived from the plant Cannabis sativa, contains special active compounds that are referred to collectively as cannabinoids. But other cannabinoids (endocannabinoids) are generated naturally inside the body.

The MIT study, which was done in mice, observed that blocking cannabinoid receptors could also suppress the adaptive rewiring of the brain necessary for neural development in children. The work is published in the May 8 issue of Neuron.

Our finding of a profound disruption of cortical plasticity in juvenile mice suggests caution is advised in the use of such compounds in children, wrote lead author Mark F. Bear, director of the Picower Institute and Picower Professor of Neuroscience.

The scientists investigated plasticitythe brains ability to change in response to experienceby temporarily depriving newborn mice of vision in one eye soon after birth. This well-known experiment induces a long-lasting loss of synapses that causes blindness in the covered eye, while synapses shift to the uncovered eye. How and where this synaptic shift occurs in the primary visual cortex has remained controversial......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

May 5, 2008, 9:05 PM CT

Flip flops, mulch and no coat

At a time when over half of US children (aged 3-6) are in child care centers, and growing concern over childhood obesity has led physicians to focus on whether children are getting enough physical activity, a new study of outdoor physical activity at child care centers, conducted by scientists at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center, has identified some surprising reasons why the kids may be staying inside. The study, will be presented May 5 at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Its things we never expected, from flip flops, mulch near the playground, children who come to child care without a coat on chilly days, to teachers talking or texting on cell phones while they were supposed to be supervising the children, as per Kristen Copeland, M.D., lead author of the study which was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. She noted that because there are so a number of benefits of physical activity for children from prevention of obesity, to better concentration and development of gross motor skills its important to know what barriers to physical activity may exist at child-care centers.

With so a number of American preschool-aged children in child care centers, and prior reports that the amount of physical activity children get varies widely across different centers, we wanted to explore what some of the barriers to physical activity at these centers might be, said Dr. Copeland, a doctor scientist and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of General and Community Pediatrics at Cincinnati Childrens. As per the most recent statistics 74% of US children aged 3-6 years are in some form of non-parental child care. 56% percent of 3-6 year old children spend time in centers, including child care centers and preschools. Her team began by exploring child-care center staff members perceptions of barriers to childrens physical activity. They conducted focus groups with 49 staff members from 34 child-care centers in the Cincinnati area (including Montessori, Head Start and centers in the inner city and suburban areas) as the first of several studies on this subject......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

May 5, 2008, 8:28 PM CT

Breastfeeding may improve children's intelligence scores

Long-term, exclusive breastfeeding appears to improve childrens cognitive development, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Prior studies have reported that children and adults who were breastfed as infants have higher scores on IQ tests and other measures of cognitive (thinking, learning and memory) development than those who were fed formula, as per background information in the article. However, the evidence has been based on findings based on observation, in which children whose mothers chose to breastfeed were compared with those whose mothers chose not to breastfeed. The results of these studies may be complicated by subtle differences in the way breastfeeding mothers interact with their infants, the authors note.

Michael S. Kramer, M.D., of McGill University and the Montreal Childrens Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, and his colleagues conducted a randomized trial of a breastfeeding promotion program involving patients at 31 maternity hospitals and affiliated clinics in Belarus. Between June 1996 and December 1997, clinics were randomly assigned either to adopt a program supporting and promoting breastfeeding or to continue their current practices and policies. A total of 7,108 infants and mothers who visited facilities promoting breastfeeding and 6,781 infants and mothers who visited control facilities received follow-up interviews and examinations between 2002 and 2005, when the children were an average of 6.5 years old......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

May 5, 2008, 6:10 PM CT

Preference for alcohol may lead to heavy drinking

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have shown a correlation between early drinking patterns and a tendency to be a heavy drinker in adulthood, in a study of adolescent rats.

Drinking patterns in adolescents may be set after only a few exposures to alcohol, said Nicole L. Schramm-Sapyta, research associate in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University School of Medicine. Rats that demonstrated a taste for alcohol after only three nights of drinking were very likely to be the biggest drinkers after longer-term exposure.

During the first three nights of the study, the rats were given only alcohol to consume. After that, for 10 days, they had a choice of water or alcohol. Their drinking was measured right after they had traveled through an elevated maze, a way to raise anxiety levels and measure stress-related hormone levels. They also were tested for drinking after researchers observed their preference for new objects and for exploring a new place.

We decided to examine stress and novelty seeking because these are two characteristics we see among people who develop problem drinking, said Schramm-Sapyta, first author of the study reported in the recent issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The study was funded by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse......... Posted by: Janet      Read more         Source

May 3, 2008, 7:51 PM CT

Uninsured kids in middle class

Nationwide, uninsured children in families earning between $38,000 and $77,000 a year are just as likely to go without any health care as uninsured children in poorer families. More than 40 percent of children in those income brackets who are uninsured all year see no physicians and have no prescriptions all year, as per new research from the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Theres an assumption that children in families with higher income levels dont need insurance, that they are uninsured but are somehow still receiving health care anyway, said Laura Shone, Dr.P.H., M.S.W., an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center and author of the study being presented today at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. This study shows that in reality, a large percentage of these children dont receive any care at all which pediatricians say is unacceptable, and parents know is unrealistic. Even healthy, older children need to see their physicians at least once over the course of a year.

Overall, almost 3 million uninsured children had no medical care and no prescription use for a full year, as per an analysis of nationally representative data from the 2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Of those, about 1.6 million children may qualify for public coverage but are not enrolled, and about 1 million more could be covered through expansions that were proposed yet vetoed at the national level in late 2007. The percentage of uninsured children who forego all health care for a full year is:........ Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

May 3, 2008, 7:45 PM CT

1 in 10 children using cough, cold medications

Scientists from Boston Universitys Slone Epidemiology Center have observed that approximately one in ten U.S. children uses one or more cough and cold medications during a given week. These findings will be presented today at the 2008 Pediatric Academic Societies & Asian Society for Pediatric Research Joint Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Pediatric cough and cold medications are widely marketed in the U.S. but surprisingly little is known about just how often they are used in children. This information is particularly important in light of recent revelations that cough and cold medications are responsible for serious adverse events and even deaths among children.

To define the frequency and patterns of use, the scientists analyzed data between 1999 and 2006 from the Slone Survey, a national telephone survey of medicine use in a representative sample of the U.S. population. The authors considered all oral medicines that are approved by the FDA to treat childrens coughs and colds.

The scientists observed that in a given week, at least one cough and cold medicine was used by 10.1 percent of U.S. children. In terms of active ingredients contained in these medications, exposure was highest to decongestants and antihistamines (6.3 percent each), followed by anti-cough ingredients (4.1 percent) and expectorants (1.5 percent)......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

April 28, 2008, 8:48 PM CT

Language skills develop at 6

Psychology experts at the University of Liverpool have discovered that children as young as six are as adept at recognising possible verbs and their past tenses as adults.

In a study conducted by the Universitys Child Language Study Centre, children aged between six and nine were given sentences containing made-up verbs such as the duck likes to spling and were asked to judge the acceptability of possible past tense forms. The study focused on the process the children used to come to their conclusions rather than whether their answers were right or wrong.

They observed that the childrens judgements followed a virtually identical pattern to those of linguistics students who took part in a similar study at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the US.

University of Liverpool psychology expert, Ben Ambridge, said: Prior studies have concentrated on getting children to produce past tense forms for made-up words. This study is unique in that the children were asked to judge the acceptability of different forms that we gave them.

One of the main questions raised when looking at childrens ability to pick up their native language is whether abstract symbolic rules or the use of memory and comparison affect how a child attributes past tenses to words......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

April 24, 2008, 5:08 AM CT

Every fifth adolescent smokes

As a number of as 20% of adolescents from 11 to 17 years of age smoke. This was the result of the nationwide German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS), performed by the Robert Koch Institute and presented by the sociologist Thomas Lampert in the current edition of Deutsches rzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2008; 105[15]: 265-71).

The analysis of tobacco consumption by children and adolescents covered almost 7,000 girls and boys aged 11 to 17. Data on the current smoking status and on exposure to passive smoking were collected for the years 2003 to 2006. Possible factors influencing the findings were examined, including the social status of the family, the type of school attended by the adolescents, and the smoking status of parents and friends.

Thomas Lampert's study shows that friends and the type of school have greater influence on smoking behavior than the parents do. The probability that an adolescent starts smoking is markedly greater when his or her friends smoke. The risk is hardly increased if the parents smoke. Conversely, students at general secondary schools (Hauptschule), intermediate schools (Realschule) or comprehensive schools (Gesamtschule) smoke much more frequently than do pupils at high school (Gymnasium)......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

April 13, 2008, 9:05 PM CT

Autism and muscle weakness

Some kids with autism may have a genetic defect that affects the muscles, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 1219, 2008.

The study looked at 37 children with autism spectrum disorders who were evaluated for mitochondrial disease,.

which causes muscle weakness and prevents a child from being able to participate in physical activities and.

sports. Mitochondrial disease occurs when genetic mutations affect the mitochondria, or the part of the cell that releases energy.

A total of 24 of the children, or 65 percent, had defects in the process by which cells produce and synthesize energy in the muscles, or oxidative phosphorylation defects in the skeletal muscles.

Most children with autism spectrum disorders do not have recognizable abnormalities when you look at.

genetic tests, imaging, and metabolic tests, said study author John Shoffner, MD, owner of Medical.

Neurogenetics, LLC in Atlanta, GA, and member of the American Academy of Neurology. But a subset of these children does have significant defects in this area. Identifying this defect is important for understanding how genes that produce autism spectrum disorders impact the function of the mitochondria......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

April 10, 2008, 9:01 PM CT

Language Development in Infants

Uncover how the brains of infants distinguish differences in sounds and it may become possible to correct language problems even before children start to speak, sparing them the difficulties that come from struggling with language.

New studies conducted by Professor of Neuroscience April Benasich and her Infancy Studies Laboratory at Rutgers University in Newark are revealing new and exciting clues about how infant brains begin to acquire language and paving the way for correcting language difficulties at a time when the brain is most able to change.

Benasich and her lab were the first to determine that how efficiently a baby processes differences between rapidly occurring sounds is the best predictor of future language problems. Using methods developed by Benasich and her lab, it can be determined as early as three to six months whether a baby will struggle with language development.

About 5 to 10 percent of all children beginning school are estimated to have language-learning impairments (LLI) leading to reading, speaking and comprehension problems, as per Benasich. In families with a history of LLI, 40 to 50 percent of children are likely to have a similar problem. A number of of these children go on to develop dyslexia.

Using several novel methods, including dense array EEG/ERP recordings, Benasich and her lab are able to analyze EEG, ERPs and the proportion of gamma power in infant brains. The dense sensor array allows the scientists to gently measure a full range of brain activity. Those measurements are obtained by placing a soft bonnet of sensors, resembling a hairnet with lots of little sponges, on a baby's head and then having the infant listen to different series of rapid tone sequences......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

April 1, 2008, 9:10 PM CT

The future of children's health

Can diseases such as Alzheimers, obesity and diabetes be prevented before birth? As per Jonathan D. Gitlin, M.D., the Helene B. Roberson Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Genetics at the Washington University School of Medicine, researching whether diseases that strike adults are already genetically encoded in individuals while still in the womb, may enable physicians to one day address and prevent diseases in infancy.

In a talk entitled Child Health Research in the 21st Century: Obstacles and Opportunities, Dr. Gitlin, who is also scientific director of the Childrens Discovery Institute, will address why, despite substantial investments in both the academic and private sectors, the health status of our nation remains dismal especially the health and wellness of our children.

Childrens health has been pushed aside, states Dr. Gitlin. The amount of money currently dedicated to research that could identify key factors leading to diseases both in childhood and later in their adult lives is very small in comparison to the funding for adult onset diseases such as heart disease or cancer. Dr. Gitlin says researchers need to redirect their thinking to find a way to identify and ultimately offset diseases in children that may affect them during the later part of life, such as obesity, depression or even drug and alcohol addiction......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

March 18, 2008, 8:30 PM CT

Spring training for parents?

As cries of play ball ring out this spring, they undoubtedly will be followed by complaints of anxiety and stress from young athletes wanting to quit sports.

Parents and coaches can make youth sports a fun, learning experience or a nightmare, as per sport psychology experts at the University of Washington. But to achieve the former, sports officials and organizations must provide more training programs, particularly for parents, as per Frank Smoll and Ron Smith, who have been studying the youth sport experience and designing programs to improve it for a quarter of a century.

There is no problem in getting coaches to attend educational workshops. The challenge is convincing organizations to offer parent workshops and getting parents to come, said Smoll. A number of youth sport organizations are saying, Yes, we are interested in offering these programs, but thats it. They are not delivering them to parents.

There has been a drive in the last 20 years to teach coaches how to create a healthy psychological environment for young athletes. A culture has been created and there is an expectation that coaches will receive training. Unfortunately, too a number of moms and pops are all too willing to assume they dont have a role in youth sports. However, they should support what trained coaches are trying to do. Parents and coaches working together are a powerful combination, he said......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

March 7, 2008, 5:29 AM CT

Breakthrough in birth-defect research

Researchers have discovered how to prevent certain craniofacial disorders in what could ultimately lead to at-risk babies being treated in the womb.

University of Manchester researchers, working with colleagues at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas, have successfully treated mice with Treacher Collins syndrome a rare genetic disorder characterised by underdeveloped facial bones, absent or deformed ears and occasionally cleft palate.

The team had previously observed that the condition, which affects one in 10,000 individuals, was caused by a mutation in a single gene called TCOF1. They later discovered that this mutation causes cells, known as neural crest cells, to die prematurely in the early stages of pregnancy resulting in the facial anomalies.

Now, writing in the journal Nature Medicine, the scientists have shown that preventing the neural crest cells from dying allowed mice with the Treacher Collins gene to develop normally. The principle, say the authors, could also be applied to other single-gene birth defects.

This is the first time that a congenital defect has been successfully treated and provides genuine hope within a realistic timeframe of one day preventing these conditions in humans, said Professor Mike Dixon in Manchesters Faculty of Life Sciences......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

March 4, 2008, 4:17 PM CT

Sticky blood protein yields clues to autism

A number of children with autism have elevated blood levels of serotonin a chemical with strong links to mood and anxiety. But what relevance this hyperserotonemia has for autism has remained a mystery.

New research by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers provides a physical basis for this phenomenon, which may have profound implications for the origin of some autism-associated deficits.

In an advance online publication in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Ana Carneiro, Ph.D., and his colleagues report that a well-known protein found in blood platelets, integrin beta3, physically associates with and regulates the serotonin transporter (SERT), a protein that controls serotonin availability.

Autism, a prevalent childhood disorder, involves deficits in language, social communication and prominent rigid-compulsive traits. Serotonin has long been suspected to play a role in autism since elevated blood serotonin and genetic variations in the SERT have been associated with autism.

Alterations in brain serotonin have also been linked to anxiety, depression and alcoholism; antidepressants that block SERT (known as SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) block SERTs ability to sweep synapses clean of serotonin.

Working in the lab of Randy Blakely, Ph.D., Carneiro was searching for proteins that interact with SERT that might contribute to disorders where serotonin signaling is altered......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

March 3, 2008, 8:41 PM CT

Restricting Kids' Video Time Reduces Obesity

Entrenched sedentary behavior such as watching television and playing computer video games has been the bane for years of parents of overweight children and physicians trying to help those children lose pounds.

There has been little scientifically based research on the effect of limiting those activities, however.

University at Buffalo scientists now have shown in a randomized trial that by using a device that automatically restricted video-viewing time, parents reduced their children's video time by an average of 17.5 hours a week and lowered their body-mass index (BMI) significantly by the end of the 2-year study.

In contrast, children in the control group, whose video time was monitored, but not restricted, reduced their viewing time by only 5 hours per week.

Results of the study appear in the current issue (March 2008) of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.

"Our controlled experiment provided a test of whether reducing access to television and computer time led to a reduction in BMI," said Leonard Epstein, UB Distinguished Professor in the departments of Pediatrics, Health Behavior and Social and Preventive Medicine and first author on the study.

"Results showed that watching television and playing computer games can lead to obesity by reducing the amount of time that children are physically active, or by increasing the amount of food they consume as they as engaged in these sedentary behaviors"......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

March 2, 2008, 9:05 PM CT

How to Say "No" to Alcohol Advertising

Teens who can recognize and resist the persuasive tactics used in alcohol ads are less likely to succumb to alcohol advertising and peer pressure to drink.

The results of a three-year study of inner-city middle school students by Weill Cornell Medical College scientists appears online in the journal Addictive Behaviors (April print edition). Prior research has shown the correlation between advertising and adolescent alcohol, use as well as the influence of peers in promoting adolescent alcohol use.

"There are a number of pressures on teens to drink. One very powerful influence is advertising - from television to billboards, it's everywhere. Our study found their ability to be critically aware of advertising as well as their ability to resist peer pressure are both key skills for avoiding alcohol," says Dr. Jennifer A. Epstein, lead author and assistant professor of public health in the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Results were taken from surveys of over 2,000 predominantly African-American adolescents from 13 inner-city junior high schools in New York City over three years. The study observed that seventh graders better able to be critically aware of advertising - something the study terms "media resistance skills" - were significantly less likely to drink alcohol as ninth graders......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

March 2, 2008, 8:45 PM CT

Mouse model for speed drug hunt

Frustrated by the slow pace of new drug development for a condition that causes pediatric brain tumors, a neurologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis decided to try to fine-tune the animal models used to test new drugs.

Instead of studying one mouse model of the disease causing the brain tumors, the laboratory of David Gutmann, M.D., Ph.D., the Donald O. Schnuck Family Professor of Neurology, reviewed three. They "auditioned" the three models to see which was the best match for neurofibromatosis 1, a genetic condition that increases the risk of brain tumors and afflicts more than 100,000 people in the United States.

Animal models have long been used to explore the basic physiology underlying disease and to tentatively try out new remedies, but Gutmann believes that creating a tighter match between the animal models and the human disorder will allow more extensive and more accurate preclinical testing of potential therapies.

"If you think of how we move drugs from testing in the laboratory to testing in humans, this is an exciting step that's likely to speed the translation from bench to bedside," says Gutmann, the senior author of a report in the March 1 Cancer Research. "With more extensive preclinical testing in the mice, we can make sure a new drug is reaching its target protein in tumor cells, we can learn whether the drug is killing tumor cells or shutting off their growth, and we can get some indication of whether the drug is likely to have an adverse effect on the developing brain."........ Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

February 26, 2008, 10:30 PM CT

Depressed Teens Respond Well To Combination Therapy

More than half of teenagers with the most debilitating forms of depression that do not respond to therapy with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) show improvement after switching to a different medicine combined with cognitive behavioral treatment, scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center and their colleagues in a multicenter study have found.

Dr. Graham Emslie, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at UT Southwestern and chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Children's Medical Center Dallas, was a principal investigator in the study appearing in the Feb. 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"If an adolescent hasn't responded to an initial therapy, go ahead and switch therapys," said Dr. Emslie. "Our results should encourage clinicians to not let an adolescent stay on the same medicine and still suffer." The 334 study participants suffered from depression on average for about two years. The teenagers involved exhibited moderate to severe major depressive disorder, a number of with suicidal ideation. Historically, these types of patients have the worst therapy outcomes.

The scientists observed that nearly 55 percent of teenagers who failed to respond to a class of antidepressant medications known as SSRIs, responded when they switched to a different antidepressant and participated in cognitive behavioral treatment, which examines thinking patterns to modify behavior......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

February 24, 2008, 10:06 PM CT

Children Who Do Not Get Enough Sleep

Lack of adequate sleep can lead to increased injuries among preschool children, new research shows. This study published in Public Health Nursing shows that the average number of injuries during the preschool years is two times higher for children who don't get enough sleep each day as described by their mothers.

Each year approximately 20-25 percent of all children in the United States sustain injuries that require medical attention. Childhood injury is one of the 10 Leading Health Indicators being tracked over the next 10 years by the U.S. Public Health Service.

Christina Koulouglioti, Ph.D., R.N., and his colleagues, Dr R.Cole & Dr H.Kitzman, of the University of Rochester School of Nursing collected data from nearly 300 mothers and their preschool children over the course of 2 ½ years. Mothers reported on their child's sleep, and data on injuries were collected through self-report and medical records. The study was funded by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

The study found a direct negative relationship between children's sleep and injuries. Children who get an adequate amount of sleep sustain fewer injuries. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that children three to six years of age get 11 hours or more of sleep a day......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

February 14, 2008, 10:09 PM CT

Physicians Pinpoint Cause Of Children's Seizures

It was no way for an 11-year-old to live. For a month the boy had endured daily episodes of uncontrollable jerking and foaming at the mouth, and his physicians at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital were concerned that the boy had epilepsy. Before starting the boy on a lifetime of anti-seizure medications, though, they turned to an unconventional diagnostic tool: hypnosis.

"Children are highly suggestible and they have great imaginations," said Packard Children's child psychiatry expert Richard Shaw, MD. "We've observed that if we suggest that they are going to have one of their events while they are in a hypnotic trance, they will commonly have one".

But wait. Aren't physicians supposed to try to STOP seizures rather than searching for new ways to cause them? In a word, yes. But in order to treat seizures effectively, doctors must learn which parts of the brain are causing the trouble. A number of children who seem to be having epileptic seizures are actually having an involuntary physical reaction to psychological stress in their lives. These events require a vastly different therapy than do true epileptic seizures.

The only way to pinpoint the true cause is to monitor the child's brain activity during an event. Connecting a panel of electrodes to a child's scalp is relatively easy and painless. Conducting a "seizure watch" of indefinite length is another matter......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

February 12, 2008, 9:20 PM CT

Gene research to explain autistic savants

Mice lacking a certain brain protein learn some tasks better but also forget faster, as per new research from MIT that may explain the phenomenon of autistic savants in humans. The work could also result in future therapys for autism and other brain development disorders.

Scientists at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT report in the Feb. 13 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience that mice genetically engineered to lack a key protein used for building synapses--the junctions through which brain cells communicate--actually learned a spatial memory task faster and better than normal mice. But when tested weeks later, they couldn't remember what they had learned as well as normal mice, and they had trouble remembering contexts that should have provoked fear.

"These opposite effects on different types of learning are reminiscent of the mixed features of autistic patients, who may be disabled in some cognitive areas but show enhanced abilities in others," said Albert Y. Hung, a postdoctoral associate at the Picower Institute, staff neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-author of the study. "The superior learning ability of these mutant mice in a specific realm is reminiscent of human autistic savants."

Autism is one of a group of developmental disabilities known as autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), in which a person's ability to communicate and interact with others is impaired. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that one in 150 American children have an ASD. Occasionally, an autistic person has an outstanding skill, such as an incredible rote memory or musical ability. Such individuals--like the character Dustin Hoffman played in the film "Rain Man"--may be referred to as autistic savants......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

February 6, 2008, 9:15 PM CT

Adolescent Reaction to Iraq War

University of Cincinnati scientists are reporting what they call a significant pattern among Iraqi adolescents and their reaction to the war in Iraq - the higher the perceived threat of the war, the higher the teens reported their self-esteem. The findings - from a 2004 survey of 1,000 Iraqi adolescents in 10 neighborhoods in Baghdad - are published in the current issue of the Journal of Adolescence.

Steve Carlton-Ford, a University of Cincinnati associate professor and co-author of the study, says the findings give a rare look at the impact of war on adolescents, explaining that, in general, sociologists and psychology experts are examining how war affects small children. Carlton-Ford adds that in the cases of young children, conflict-related events typically lower a child's psychological well-being. The survey of Iraqi teens was conducted in 2004 by co-author Morton Ender of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, who supervised field surveys with the U.S. Army in the neighborhoods surrounding Baghdad. The study is also authored by UC doctoral student Ahoo Tabatabai.

The authors observed that despite obvious threat to the adolescents' sense of security, the youth were coping fairly well in 2004, with self-esteem levels comparable to that of Palestinian youth. "In the presence of conflict-related trauma one generally observes lower levels of psychological well-being (e.g., PTSD, grief reactions), and sometimes lower self-esteem," write the authors. "Our results, however, are consistent with a body of theory and research that predicts self-esteem striving and higher self-esteem among the individuals who face indirect threats to central components of their social identities (rather than directly facing traumatic war-related events). In other words, in a situation where we observe a broad social context involving the presence of foreign forces ( a clear violation of Muslim principles) combined with general violence throughout Baghdad and Iraq, we also observe a heightened sense of self, at least to the extent that one's self is tied to one's nation"......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

January 31, 2008, 10:59 PM CT

Survival rates of premature infants

Survival rates for the most premature babies at a top London hospital have more than doubled over a 20 year period, as per research reported in the latest edition of the journal Acta Paediatrica.

The study, led by scientists at University College London (UCL) and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), suggests significant improvements in survival rates can be achieved when maternity and neonatal units have consistent staffing, resources and therapy policies.

The research shows that the overall rates of survival for infants born alive between 22 and 25 weeks of gestation and admitted to the neonatal unit at UCLH increased from 32 per cent to 71 per cent between 1981 and 2000. This includes babies born in other hospitals and transferred to UCH for intensive care.

The scientists also looked at the survival of infants born at the hospital between 1991 and 2000, including those born at 22-25 weeks gestation who died before they reached intensive care. The survival rate for this group at the end of the study period was 69 per cent -- in comparison to 71 per cent for the group that included only babies admitted to the neonatal unit. This suggests that the results were not solely a consequence of selecting infants with a higher chance of survival......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

January 31, 2008, 9:55 PM CT

Parenting program does not prevent toddler behavior problems

A study of the first universal parenting programme, designed to prevent early child behaviour problems, shows that it has little impact on toddler behaviour.

The study, conducted at the Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH) in Melbourne, Australia, is published on bmj.com today.

Behaviour problems affect up to 20 per cent of children and have major personal, societal and economic ramifications. Left untreated, up to half of behaviour problems in preschool children develop into later mental health problems.

Prevention targeted to high-risk families can be effective, but has limited reach and may stigmatise. Universal programmes offered to all families could address these concerns, but their effectiveness is uncertain.

Scientists from the CCCH and the Parenting Research Centre, with input from maternal and child health nurses, designed a programme suitable for all parents to be delivered by trained health professionals in primary care. The programme aimed to prevent child behaviour problems, such as defiance and aggression, and improve parenting and maternal mental health.

Over 700 mothers of 8 month-old infants took part in the study and were randomised to either the programme (three sessions at age 8-15 months) or usual care from their local Maternal and Child Health centre. Mothers were surveyed throughout the study and their mental health was assessed when their children reached 18 and 24 months......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

January 22, 2008, 11:08 PM CT

Questions About Diagnosis, Medical Treatment Of ADHD

A new UCLA study shows that only about half of children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, exhibit the cognitive defects usually linked to the condition.

The study also observed that in populations where medicine is rarely prescribed to treat ADHD, the prevalence and symptoms of the disorder are roughly equivalent to populations in which medicine is widely used.

The results of the first large, longitudinal study of adolescents and ADHD, conducted among the population of northern Finland, appeared in several papers in a special section of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry published in December and are currently online.

ADHD is a common, chronic behavioral disorder characterized by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity that is thought to affect some 5 to 10 percent of school-age children worldwide.

In adolescence, ADHD is generally linked to cognitive deficits, especially with working memory and inhibition, which have been associated with overall intelligence and academic achievement, as per UCLA psychiatry professor Susan Smalley, who headed the research. Interestingly, the study showed that these deficits are only present in about half of adolescents diagnosed with ADHD......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

January 21, 2008, 8:29 PM CT

Saline nasal wash helps improve children's cold symptoms

A saline nasal wash solution made from processed seawater appears to improve nasal symptoms and may help prevent the recurrence of respiratory infections when used by children with the common cold, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of Otolaryngology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Infections of the upper respiratory tract and sinus infections are common among children, as per background information in the article. Nasal irrigation with isotonic [balanced] saline solutions seems effective in such health conditions and is often used in a variety of indications as an adjunctive therapy, the authors write as background information in the article. Eventhough saline nasal wash is currently mentioned in several guidelines, scientific evidence of its efficacy is rather poor.

Ivo lapak, M.D., of Teaching Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic, and his colleagues randomly assigned 401 children age 6 to 10 with cold or flu to two therapy groups, one receiving standard medicine and the other also receiving a nasal wash with a modified processed seawater solution. Patients were observed for a total of 12 weeks, from January to April 2006, during which health status, symptoms and medicine use were assessed at four visits over the course of the trial, the authors write. Acute illness was reviewed during the first two visits (up to three weeks), prevention during the following two visits (up to 12 weeks). The third visit, scheduled for week eight after study entry, could be conducted over the telephone......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

January 8, 2008, 8:56 PM CT

Device prevents potential errors

A device designed to eliminate mistakes made while mixing compounds at a hospital pharmacy was 100 percent accurate in identifying the proper formulations of seven intravenous drugs.

Five potentially serious medicine errors were averted over an 18-month period in a test at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in the University of Michigan Health System by using the technology, said Jim Stevenson, associate dean of Clinical Sciences at the U-M College of Pharmacy. Stevenson also directs Pharmacy Services at the U-M Health System.

Stevenson said the hospital is the first in the world to use this device to test patient drugs compounded in the pharmacy. The U-M Health System already has a number of safeguards, such as bar coding, in place to avert mistakes.

"Errors in compounding these types of medications are rare. However, when they occur they can have a significant negative impact on patients and staff," Stevenson said. "We know from having this technology in place we've deterred five errors that might have happened. I really believe having technology like this needs to be the standard around the country".

The table-top device manufactured by ValiMed, a division of Tuscon, Ariz.,-based CDEX Inc., uses a technique called enhanced photoemission spectroscopy to determine if the compounds are correct. Light is shot into the drug compound, which excites molecules, and the energy emitted by the excited molecules is measured by a spectrometer. Each drug compound tested has its own so-called light fingerprint, which is in comparison to the fingerprint of the control compound. If they match, the drug is considered correct......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

January 7, 2008, 10:56 PM CT

Infants with Birthmarks Received Less Oxygen

A hemangioma is a non-malignant tumor of cells that line blood vessels, appearing during the first few weeks of life as a large birthmark or lesion. A study published in Pediatric Dermatology reveals that a disturbance of oxygen depletion was found in placentas of babies who developed infantile hemangioma (IH).

Scientists evaluated placental samples from 26 pregnancies with babies who weighed less than 3.5 pounds, 13 consisting of newborns who developed IH after birth and 13 healthy preterm infants who did not have IH.

Only one of the infants without IH showed an abnormal placenta. The higher ratio of placental anomalies in babies with IH suggests that reduced oxygen to the placenta contributed to fetal stress, and that stress led to infantile hemangioma development.

"Our results suggest that disturbed placental circulation is a factor underlying the development of hemangiomas in very low weight newborns and indicates that placental examination is essential for clarifying the physiologic changes leading to IH in babies with normal birth weight," the authors conclude......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source