From Serendip

MENTAL HEALTH Materials provided here are neither intended nor suitable for individuals needing practical assistance with specific mental health problems of their own or of friends/family/colleagues. For such situations, people should contact local mental health agencies, doctors, or other health care professionals. Some access points are provided here.

Center for Science in Society

• Looking for Spinoza: the first chapter of the new book by ANTONIO DAMASIO, From the New York Times, February 23, 2002

• Even Neurons Have Favorite Numbers, NIH Newsrelease, September 6, 2002
  Scientists have discovered individual brain cells that represent the concept of numbers. What's more, the neurons, in the front part of the brain responsible for reasoning, even pick favorite quantities, report researchers funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

• Vital Signs: Hijacking the Brain Circuits With a Nickel Slot Machine, February 20, 2002
  Neuroscientists have uncovered a common thread in compulsive gambling, attendance at sporting events, vulnerability to telephone scams and exuberant investing in the stock market.

• Violent Brains, April, 1999
  Many factors lead a person to commit a violent act. Researchers are now finding out how biology may enter into the equation.

• Insulin, the Brain and Memory, May, 1999
  Now evidence suggests that insulin does pack punches in the brain. Studies indicate that one of the hormone's brain roles involves memory.

• Brain Briefings
  A series of two-page newsletters explaining how basic neuroscience discoveries lead to clinical applications.

• Forget More of What You Thought About Memory, December 7, 2001
  Surprising new results out today suggest that new neurons can destroy memories, which may keep the brain from overloading. It's not quite time for a paradigm shift, says one observer - but almost.

• Suspect Protein Doesn't Shut Brain Development "Window", December 3, 2001
  An NIMH-supported research team has disproved a widely held theory about how critical periods in brain development are regulated, narrowing the search for the mechanisms underlying neural plasticity.

• Unlocking the Brain's Potential
  Scientists think they have identified the part of the brain, which if switched off, can stimulate artistic genius, a BBC documentary shows.

• Microarray Studies Confirm Memory-Stress Response Link
  From the Society for 2001 Neuroscience annual meeting. Investigator: Huda Akil. Why do individuals have different emotional responses to the same situation? University of Michigan researchers report that cortical molecules of the stress system play a critical role in shaping individual differences in emotional reactivity.

• Sense of self: More Than a Gut Feeling
  From the Society for Neuroscience 2001 annual meeting. Investigator: Arthur Craig Modern scans of the living human brain reveal a unique region that registers the inner state of the body. The insula, tucked inside the cortical covering of the brain, generates the uniquely human sense of self.

• You're right, Shakespeare: Music and Sweet Poetry Agree
  From the 2001 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. Investigators: Robert Zatorre and Gregory Hickok. New brain studies reported today have begun to unmask the connections between speech and music, between listening and performing.

• New Terrain: Mapping the Human Brain
  August, 2001. The International Consortium for Brain Mapping (ICBM) believes the human brain map will reveal information on the brain that will help identify brain mechanisms involved in memory and learning, and maybe into the more powerful workings of the mind.

• Brain Research and Reading
  A summary of a lecture by Drs. Bennett and Sally Shaywitz, nationally known researchers on reading processes and learning disabilities.

• New Imaging Method Could Catch Early Alzheimer's
  November, 2001
  A method is discussed that is one of many promising new techniques aimed at early detection of Alzheimers Disease pathology.

• Memories Bound: The Neuroscience of Dreams
  November 2001. Three recent papers enhance our understanding of the role of dreams in the neural basis of memory consolidation.

• Beyond Polygraphs: Brain Images Tell the Truth, November 11, 2001
  To get at the root of lying behavior, Daniel Langleben's team at the University of Pennsylvania used a brain-imaging technique called event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to find out what regions of the brain became metabolically active when a person lies.

• In Art of Language, the Brain Matters
  Researchers discover new techniques to observe brain activity as children read. Understanding how the mind works could reshape classroom instruction.

• Drug Therapy Slows Rate Of Brain Shrinkage In MS
  The brains of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) atrophy, or shrink, much earlier in the course of this disease, than neurologists previously thought, demonstrating for the first time that the rate of brain shrinkage can be significantly reduced with drug treatment.

• Brain Scan Patterns Identify Objects Being Viewed
  Using functional brain scans, NIMH scientists can tell what kind of object a person is looking at -- face, house, shoe, chair -- by the pattern of activity.

• Beauty, It Turns Out, Lights the Brain
  November 13, 2001. Given the opportunity, many men will gladly spend time gazing at beautiful women's faces. Though the news may not come as much of a shock, the researchers who report the finding in a new study say it may still lend some insight into how the brain works.

• Memories Are Made of This
  From BioMedNetNews, November 2001, this research article by German neuroscientists is a "landmark" in understanding how memories are formed in the human brain.

• Thinking and Feeling
  A review by Antonio R. Damasio of The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life.

• Consciousness
  A summary of the four components of consciousness identified by Antonio Damasio.

• Sexual Behavior
  A paper on the physiology of the human sexuality and how the brain organizes the sexual behavior.

• Brain Wiring
  This site discusses how the personal style of brain wiring affects an individual's life and learning. Includes information on the brain and attention, anxiety, depression, learning and the senses.

• Conference Examines Brain-Behavior Connection
  A summary of the discussions held at the De Lange Conference around the theme Neurobiology of Perception and Communication: From Synapse to Society.

• Depression and Stress Hormones, October, 2001
  Increasing evidence now indicates that another player in the brain, corticotropin-releasing factor, should share the spolight. Studies have shown that abnormally high activity of this stress hormone is present in many cases of depression.

• Tourette's Syndrome and Dopamine, April, 1998
  Once dismissed as a behavior flaw, Tourette's syndrome is now known to be an inherited neurological disease.

• Binge Drinking Hinders Brain-Cell Growth, November 24, 2001
  Researchers found that binge drinking not only damages the brain, but interferes with the growth of new brain cells, as well.

• Bloodless Brain "Biopsy" Gives Accurate View of Brain Chemistry
  New research shows that new technology, called magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) can provide information about the brain chemistry of psychiatric patients.

• The Fundamentals of Mental Health and Mental Illness
  From the Report of the Surgeon General, a section of this page presents information ont he connection between neuroscience and mental health.

• Dual Diagnosis: Developmental Disability Complicated by Mental Illness
  Advances in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness have led to recommendations for intervention with dually diagnosed individuals (mental retardation and mental illness). Training combined with intervention for a neurochemical dysfunction at the synaptic level is suggested.

• Mental Illness in America
  NIMH's efforts to support and conduct research that seeks to understand, treat, and prevent mental illnesses. The Brain and Behavior Project that addressess the role of neuroscience and mental illness.

• Mental Illness in America
  This page, from The National Institute of Mental Health Agenda, presents general information on recent research findings regarding the brain and behavior.

• Technology May Show Nervous System Basis of Mental Illness
  Using sophisticated MRI technology, researchers compared data from a control group of 'healthy' individuals with individuals with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder to gain a better understanding of brain malfunctions. Such information could be key to understanding the root of pathology in these individuals.

• Brookhaven Lab and SUNY Stony Brook Researchers Link a "High" from Drugs to Brain Biochemistry
  Researchers have determined that dopamine, a chemical associated with pleasure and reward, surges in certain areas of the brain when subjects experience a "high" from an injected dose of Ritalin, a drug commonly prescribed to treat hyperactive children.

• OCD Medication: Adults
  This article discusses the effect of medication, specifically antidepressants, on obsessive-compulsive disorder and the way they effect brain chemistry.

• Mental Illness is No Myth
  This article makes a case that mental illnesses are all, at root, disorders of thought or emotion, stemming from physical problems - the biological equivalent of faulty wiring - in the brain.

• What is Mental Illness?
  The American Psychiatric Association explains mental illness as an illness that affects or is manifested in a person's brain. It may impact on the way a person thinks, behaves, and interacts with other people.

Schizophrenia

• Vitamin D Link to Schizophrenia Hardens, February 2002
  The theory that low prenatal vitamin D is a risk factor for schizophrenia is put the test by an Australian group, with compelling results.

• The Prefrontal Cortex and Schizophrenia, 1995
  Scientists have now identified structural abnormalities in the region of the brain called the prefrontal cortex that may contribute to the loss of brain function seen in schizophrenia.

• Schizophrenia: Volume Matters
  From Nature Science Update, 2001, this article disucsses how brain imaging is leading researchers to see the origin of a major psychiatric illness - schizophrenia.

• Schizophrenia-Related Gene Site Reported
  Evidence suggests that several genes on different chromosomes interact with environmental factors to cause schizophrenia.

• Brain Imaging Reveals Less Medication Just As Effective In Treating Schizophrenia
  Using advanced brain imaging techniques, researchers have discovered how to treat schizophrenia with lower doses of medication and fewer side effects.

• Teens With Schizophrenia Lose Gray Matter in Back-to-Front Wave
  November 2001. Brains of teens with early onset schizophrenia are ravaged by a back-to-front wave of gray matter loss that parallels the progression from hallucinations and delusions to thinking and emotional deficits, NIMH supported scientists have discovered.

• Biology of Schizophrenia
  Information on the brain structure, brain functions and genetic studies in schizophrenia.

• Schizophrenia: Understanding It, Treating It, Living with It
  From NIMH, this page presents the results of one of the projects of the Decade of the Brain. This page inlcudes summaries from a conference on neuroscience and schizophrenia.

Autism

• Autism and Biology, January, 1999
  New findings on the genetic and anatomical roots of autism are helping researchers piece together how the disorder evolves, which could lead to new treatments.

• Unraveling Autism
  A fact page from NIMH presenting information on autism, current research discussing the relationship between the brain and autism and treatment.

• The Neurobiology of Infantile Autism
  This article presents a discussion of quite convincing evidence that genetically regulated disturbances in brain development underlie some, perhaps most, of the cases of infantile autism.

• Viewpoint On The Brain Disorder In Autism
  Abnormalities within the brainstem and cerebellum have been observed in brains from individuals with autism, similar to a pattern of damage known as Wernicke's encephalopathy. Auditory system is prominently affected in Wernicke's encephalopathy. Indications that auditory dysfunction underlies the language disorder of children with autism are discussed.

• Brain Damage in Autism: Not What Scientists Once Thought
  From the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 12-00, a Johns Hopkins Children's Center study has failed to link the typical autistic child's fixation on spinning objects and constant whirling around to long-suspected damage to the brain's control center for movement, balance and equilibrium.

• Researchers Examine Links Between the Brain and Behavior in Autism
  This study investigates what is it that prevents a human being from developing normal social relationships with other humans by studing early behaviors thought to be precursors for later social skills and relating them to activity in the brains of children with autism.

• Brain Gene Implicated in Autism
  Scientists funded by NIMH have linked a gene that may influence human brain development with autism susceptibility.

• Autism and Biology
  From Brian Briefings, 1999 thsi article discusses new findings on the genetic and anatomical roots of autism are helping researchers piece together how the disorder evolves, which could lead to new treatments.

• Autism Tissue Program
  A discussion of theissues ivolved in obtaining brain tissue for autism research.

Anxiety

• Fear and the Amygdala, March, 1998
  An increasing amount of evidence is showing that the emotion of fear is decipherable. New discoveries could explain the mystery behind many mental disorders and prompt the development of new treatments.

• Pictures of the Mind: fMRI and Mood Disorders, December 22, 2001
  Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors may help patients suffering from such distinct illnesses as major depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

• The Emotional Brain
  From NIMH, this article presents information on the brain circuitry underlying the fear response. These findings have important implications for treating people who suffer from anxiety disorders.

• Is our Tendency to Experience Fear and Anxiety Genetic?
  William R. Clark, professor emeritus in the department of molecular, cell and developmental biology at U.C.L.A. and author of a number of popular books, offers his answer to this question.

• Fear and the Amygdala
  The identification of a specific brain system that processes fear is leading to new discoveries could explain the mystery behind many mental disorders and prompt the development of new treatments.

• Mother's Anxiety Affects Baby's Brain
  Anxiety during pregnancy can double a mother's risk of having a hyperactive child, research suggests.

• Math Anxiety
  Math anxiety can be understood as the brain's response to threat which interferes with learning by downshifting.

• Social Anxiety, Chemical Imbalances in the Brain, and Brain Neural Pathways and Associations
  A simplified explanation of the brain mechanisms involved in the functioning of brains in people with social anxiety.

• Exercise Fuels the Brain's Stress Buffers
  Exercise may improve mental health by helping the brain cope better with stress, according to research into the effect of exercise on neurochemicals involved in the body's stress response.

• Pacemakers -- for Anxiety
  A new treatment, called vagus nerve stimulation, includes a device that is permanently implanted in your body that controls anxiety by stimulating a nerve in your neck that leads to your brain.

• Mice Show How to Calm Anxiety
  Scientists have found a genetic switch that helps calm anxiety in "stressed out" mice.

• The Influence of Anxiety
  Modern genetics has dramatically broadened our understanding of stress and its impact on the body. This author explains how the science of stress shows why we are not slaves to our DNA.

Alzheimer's and Parkinson's

• Brain Chemical may be Key to Parkinson's, Drug Addiction, Schizophrenia, May 2001
  A substance produced by the brain to help cells grow also helps a key chemical messenger do its job, a finding that could shed new light on Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia and drug addiction, researchers say.

• Imaging Alzheimer’s Disease In Vivo: Not So ‘Implaque-able’ Anymore, February 14, 2002
  Modern imaging techniques have yielded tantalizing possibilities for determining whether an individual suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) or some other form of dementia.

• Death Protein Promise for Alzheimer's, February 2002
  Researchers in Canada have designed a molecule that could promote the survival of neurons in the absence of life-supporting neurotrophins without the unacceptable side-effects associated with some clinical trials of NGF.

• Alpha-Synuclein and Parkinson's Disease, August, 2001
  Recent studies indicate that negative influences can turn the protein, alpha-synuclein, into a major contributor of the movement-impairing disorder, Parkinson's disease.

• Alzheimer's Disease and Plaques, February, 2000
  Now new research efforts that are finding ways to reduce the burden of amyloid plaques in the brain may clarify the role plaques and, more importantly, may lead to ways to prevent or treat Alzheimer's disease.

• Parkinson's and Dopamine, January 1997
  The discovery that the lack of the chemical, dopamine, is associated with the debilitating ailment, Parkinson's disease, encouraged researchers to investigate ways to increase levels of the molecules.

• Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease: Overlapping or Synergistic Pathologies?, December 8, 2001
  For the first time, new animal models that express multiple transgenes provide the tools to dissect the pathogenic pathways and to differentiate between additive and synergistic effects.

Substance Abuse

• Imaging Studies Expand Understanding of How Methamphetamine Affects the Human Brain, December 2001
  methamphetamine acts on some of the same brain mechanisms as cocaine and alcohol.

• Anxious Rats Shed 'Sobering' Light on Alcoholism, February 2000
  The acquisition and the maintenance of alcoholism turn out to be governed by two different mechanisms.

• Marijuana's Effects: More Than Munchies, January 29, 2002
  Experts are intrigued by the discovery of molecules that naturally occur in the body, known as endogenous cannabinoids, or endocannabinoids, which are remarkably similar to the active ingredient in marijuana.

• Addiction's Path, July, 1997
  Researchers now are identifying common links to several drug addictions, centering around a brain circuit that naturally rewards us for performing activities that keep us alive.

• The Brain's Stash, September, 1996
  Scientists identified a substance in the brain that may have some similarities to marijuana.

• The Opiate Receptor, July 1994
  The discovery of proteins called opiate receptors in the brain showed how morphine and heroin affect the body and established an important new method for studying drugs.

GENDER and GENDER DIFFERENCES Page

• Gender and Brain Imaging
  A discussion of gender differences and mental health functioning and new technology that assists in exploring this area.

• Men Are Half-Brained Listeners, November 2000
  This study reports that men listen with only one side of their brain, while women use both.

• Women's Brains More Densely Packed in 'Executive' Portion of Brain, November 2001
  Women's brains are more densely packed than men's in the "executive" portion of the brain, the area responsible for reason, judgment, memory and some emotion.

• MRIs Reveal Differences in Brains of Women and Men
  Recent brain imaging studies at Johns Hopkins Medical Center are beginning to shed light on what causes diffferneces in thinking styles in men and women. This research may also add information to the ongoing nature vs. nurture debate over gender differences in thinking.

• Gender and the Brain, September 1998
  Now research is confirming that the brains of men and women are subtly different. The findings could lead to sex-specific alterations in treatments for diseases such as depression.

• Brain Place.com
  Links to articles dealing with the relationship between the brain and mental health disorders.

• Male Brain Ages Faster Than Female Brain
  Research results indicate that he male brain ages faster than the female brain. This may have implications for potential functional differences that might result.

• Male-Female Differences
  Differences between the brain and functioning in males and females.

• Differences in Brain Laterality Between Males and Females Produce Different Patterns of Perceptual Interference
  This study tests the hypothesis that hemispheric activation will affect brain areas controlling attention and will draw attention towards the contralateral hemifield.

• Gender Gaps on the Brain
  This article discusses differences in brain size, brain weight, material composition and intelligence between melaes and females.

• Female Hormone Found to Play Key Role in Male Birds' Ability to Sing
  Scientists discover why male zebra finches develop the correct brain pathway. Male brains produce enough of the female hormone estrogen at exactly the right time.

• A Sex Difference in the Human Brain and its Relation to Transsexuality
  This study shows that a female brain structure in genetically male transsexuals and supports the hypothesis that gender identity develops as a result of an interaction between the developing brain and sex hormones.

• A Tale of Two Brains: Gender Power for Competitive Advantage
  Human behavior is less a question of left versus right hemisphere functioning, and more a question of the wiring that causes the two sides of the brain to complement and combinein different ways.

• Are There Differences between the Brains of Males and Females?
  This article presents a summary of scientific results indicating that there are many subtle differences in the way the brains from men and women process language, information, emotion, cognition, etc.

• Study Finds Brain Reacts To Sex-Specific Chemicals
  Certain chemicals similar to the male and female sex hormones trigger distinctive brain activity when sniffed by the opposite gender, providing the strongest evidence yet for the existence of human "pheromones,".

• Dyslexia and Language Brain Areas, April, 1999
  Now researchers not only know that dyslexia is born of biology, but they also are getting closer to confirming the key brain areas that are affected. New insights will help pinpoint therapies and improve treatment.

• Putting Language Genes in Perspective, January 21, 2002
  A point mutation has recently been found in a gene from affected members of a family with an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance for specific speech and language impairment. This will help to identify target genes that play a role in development of the neural circuitry involved in language.

• Rare Brain Mapping Procedure Provides Unique Picture Of Two Areas Concerned With Language Processing And Production
  Science Daily, 1998. A unique opportunity to map and test the human brain has yielded new insights into two areas involved in producing and processing of language.

• Some Thoughts about the Brain/Mind/Language Interface
  An historical survey of the approaches to the neural basis of language and the modularity question is summarized. The view of supported that human language ability is autonomous and independent of other cognitive abilities with which it interacts in use.

• Study Finds Genetic Link Between Intelligence and Size of Some Regions of the Brain
  November 5, 2001. Researchers report that size of certain regions of human brain is under tight genetic control and that the larger these regions are the more intelligent the person.

• Researchers Say Gene Is Linked to Language
  October, 2001. A team of geneticists and linguists say they have found a gene that underlies speech and language, the first to be linked to this uniquely human faculty.

• Language and the Brain
  Ongoing research is making progress in understanding language, its neural basis, and how to successfully intervene in the course of language disorders.

• Language and Brain
  This aritcle discusses how language is one of the most complex of all human cognitive abilities.

• Brain Circuitry Involved In Language Reveals Differences In Man, Non-Human Primates
  A defining difference between man and non-human primates has been found in the circuitry of brain cells involved in language, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia.

• Brain Research: Implications for Second Language Learning
  By understanding how the brain learns naturally, language teachers may be better able to enhance their effectiveness in the classroom.

• Words in the Brain's Language
  Discusses data that provide evidence for processing differences between words and matched meaningless pseudowords, and between word classes such as concrete content and abstract function words, and words evoking visual or motor associations.

• Dyslexia and Language Brain Areas
  Now researchers not only know that dyslexia is born of biology, but they also are getting closer to confirming the key brain areas that are affected.

• The Brain and Language Laboratory
  The Brain and Language Laboratory is in the Georgetown Institute for Cognitive and Computational Sciences (GICCS). We investigate the brain bases of language and memory.

• Brain Plasticity, Language Processing and Reading
  The brain never stops changing and adjusting. This flexibility can help maintain language processing and that special brain exercises can tap into the brain's adaptive capacities and help people overcome certain language and reading problems.

• Pinker and the Brain
  Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker plumbs the evolutionary origins of language and behavior while keeping his detractors at bay.

• Brain, Language and the Origin of Human Mental Functions
  To understand the biological and neurophysiological processes that give rise to human mental phenomena are considered behavioral relational phenomena. The authors claim these phenomena arise with the participation of the brain as it generates the behavioral relational dynamics that constitutes language.

• Language and the Brain: Neurocognitive Linguistics
  This page presents information on neurocognitve linguistic, topics in neurocognitve linguistics, and methods and evidence used in exploration.

• Non-Threatening Environment
  Brain-based researchers show us that there are certain elements that increase the chance of learning and this is exemplified through a very simplified explanation and application to the classroom.

• Brin Compatible Learning
  A site devoted to brain research-based learning theory. It advocates for use of brain compatible learning in the classroom. Information provided on various areas related to this topic.

• Education and Neuroscience: Bridging the Gap
  The need for new treaching strategies means that educators are increasingly influenced by neuroscientific data. Teachers, parents and policymakers need tools to evaluate new research and its potential relationship to education.

• Brain Research and Education: Neuroscience Research Has Impact for Education Policy
  A policy brief from the Educaiton Commission of the States, 1998, reports on how findings indicate the need to change widely held notions about how children learn and to revise education policy and practices to best enhance children's intellectual capacity for learning.

• Brain Science, Brain Fiction
  From Educational Leadership, 1998, John T. Bruer claims that when it comes to applying neuroscientific research to classroom practice, educators must look before they leap.

• Is the Fuss About Brain Research Justified?
  In Education Week on the Web, David A. Sousa, an educational consultant and author, discusses the fact that, despite the incredible promise of research in neuroscience, many educators still question its significance.

• How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School
  An on-line book from the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education dealing with the brain and learning.

• How Does Uderstanding Brain-Based Learning Support the Need for Authentic Learning?
  The hypothesis is that brain-based research does support concepts that are important to authentic learning. Brain-based research should be integrated into the construction of an authentic learning environment.

• Cognitive psychology: A Meeting of the Mind and Education
  From Monitor on Psychology, March 2000, this article by John Bruer, cognitive psychology is the critical bridge between brain science and education.

• Brain-Based Learning: An Attempt to Break the Classroom Blues
  An explanation of the twelve key principles of brain-based learning and a discussion of whether and how to integrate into the classroom.

• Teaching with the Brain in Mind
  A former teacher and current member of the International Society of Neuroscience, Eric Jensen explains and advocates for the brain-compatible learning approach.

• A Celebration of Neurons: An Educator's Guide to the Human Brain
  Robert Sylwester, Professor of Education at the University of Oregon, discusses that an increased understanding of the brain should lead to widespread discussions of the important issues that will arise out of these advances, and to the development of appropriate and effective educational applications of this knowledge.

• Brain Topics: A Handbook for Teachers and Parents
  This on-line book was written especially for teachers and parents of children and youth. It is based on the research of many neuroscientists and includes information on the brain, how the brain is related to various behaviors, and brain research.

• Brain-Based Learning
  An explanation of this learning theory that is based on the structure and function of the brain.

• Brain-Based Learning: The New Learning Model?
  A student paper that examines brain-based learning theory, its possible impacts on education and the design of the learning environment, and the relationship of brain-based learning to other learning theories.

• Education Policymakers Embrace Brain Findings
  April 1998. Debate over the use of brain research in educational planning.

• In Search of Brain-Based Education
  The author presents his view that brain-based education literature is not the way to present the science of learning.

• The Myth of the First Three Years
  The first chapter of the book by John T. Bruer on a new understanding of early brain development and lifelong learning and the controversy that surrounds it.

• Brain Imaging Reveals Less Medication Just As Effective In Treating Schizophrenia
  Using advanced brain imaging techniques, researchers at the University of Toronto and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have discovered how to treat schizophrenia with lower doses of medication and fewer side effects.

• Potential Medication Can Reduce Effects of Smoked Marijuana in Humans
  Scientists at NIDA's Intramural Research Program in Baltimore, MD, have confirmed for the first time in humans that chemically blocking the body's cannabinoid receptors can significantly reduce the effects of smoked marijuana. The study appears in the April 14th issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

• OCD Medication: Adults
  Information about psychoactive medications used in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). A combination of behavior therapy with medication is suggested.

• OCD Medication and Children: What Parents Should Know
  Information for parents regarding the use of medication with children who have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

• The Method of the Medicine
  Why do some people respond better to anti-depressants than others? In a clinical study published in the October 15 issue of Biological Psychiatry, a team of neurologists report that they have uncovered part of the answer to this question.

• Alcohol-Treatment Medication May Help Reduce Cocaine Abuse Among Heroin Treatment Patients
  A NIDA-supported study has found evidence that combining disulfiram, a medication long used to treat alcohol addiction, with buprenorphine, a new opiate-addiction treatment medication awaiting approval by the FDA, can reduce cocaine abuse among the more than 50 percent of heroin-addicted individuals who also abuse cocaine.

• Medication Impacts Brain Size
  Subjects were studied, half of whom were healthy and half of whom were children with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) who had never been treated for it. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the doctors discovered that the thalamus, a part of the brain that relays motor and sensory impulses, was larger in children with OCD.

• Significant Changes in Medications for Schizophrenia Discovered
  Researchers have discovered that it is possible to have a medication that effectively treats schizophrenia while only lasting intermittently in the brain, thus reducing the prominent side effects traditionally associated with the antipsychotic drugs used to treat this severe illness.

• How Sweet It Isn't
  Scientists from Japan are reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that leptin, a protein which has been shown to decrease food intake and increase energy expenditure, also dampens the sugary sensations that draw so many of us back to the dessert tray.

• Stimulant Medication and AD/HD
  The use of stimulants with individuals who have ADHD, including definition of a stimulant, side effects, and recent research.

• Scientists Show How the Placebo Effect Works
  Scientists have found the first hard evidence that the placebo effect is not all in the mind. It does produce measurable effects in the body that can help to treat disease.

• Mind/Brain/Behavior The Pleasing Placebo
  Scientists of the body-and of the mind-struggle to explain the beneficial results of the "placebo effect".

• Placebo Mimics Drug Effects on Parkinson's Brains
  A Canadian study show that a placebo stimulates the brain in the same way as drug treatment in Parkinson's disease. Both increase the release of the brain chemical dopamine, fuelling recent controversy over whether the placebo effect exists at all.

• Healing is Believing: The Placebo Effect
  This paper, written by a student at Bryn Mawr College, discusses the use of drug treatment and it's relationship to the placebo effect.

• Consciousness and the Placebo Effect
  This paper, written by a student at Bryn Mawr College, raises the question of the placebo's ability to cure numerous symptoms. The author hypothesizes that the level of consciousness or alertness of the I-function, within the individual, may be the deciding factor in whether the placebo effect occurs.

• Placebo Effect: The Power of the Sugar Pill
  This article discusses the placebo effect, types of placebos, causes of the placebo effect, conditioned reflexes, and the placebo effect as a conditioning.

• The Placebo Effect: How Emotions Heal
  The thoughts of a patient's mind and those of the physician's intention for the patient's well being have a profound effect on the therapeutic outcome.

• The Placebo Effect: Real or Imagined?
  This paper presents recent research findings that debate the validity of the placebo effect.

• Mind, Medicine and the Placebo Effect
  Conventional medicine believes that mind and consciousness arise from the physical body. The author suggests that turning the conventional model upside down provides a far more satisfying framework for understanding our mind-body as a hierarchically structured energy system.

• The Placebo Effect
  Our belief system gives us more healing power than we realize. If we think we're being treated, our body will shift into defense mode even without medication.

• The Placebo Effect
  This article discusses theories on the placebo effect, including the physchological theory and the process-of-treatment theory, origin of the idea of placebo effectiveness in modern times, and ethical dilemmas.

• Brain and Mind
  This site presents information related to how the brain and the mind are but different attributes of the same thing. Ideas and links are listed that demonstrate this concept, such as information connected to neuroscience and philosophy.

• When Babies Evaluate Parents' Actions
  A new study suggests that babies make critical judgments about the value of their parents' advice.

• Man, Beast, and Zombie: What Science Can and Cannot Tell Us About Human Nature
  A book review of Kenan Malik's book that discusses what data scientists have produced about human origins, human behavior, the human mind, and what is being said through particular interpretations of this data. He examines the scientific arguments, their philosophical background, and how they were influenced bypast cultural and intellectual changes.

• The Mind
  This paper presents varying viewpoints on the mind and the role it plays in functioning. Links provided to various terms and concepts used throughout the essay.

• Network on Mind / Body Interactions
  A transdisciplinary research network committed to discovering the biological mechanisms by which the social world and mental processes affect physical health.

• The Mind-Body Link
  A discussion of how the immune system, the nervous and endocrine systems work together in the human body to create an internal defense system.

• The Mind-BODY Connection: Granny Was Right, After All
  This article in The Rochester Review discusses how mental state influences your susceptibility to disease, as explained by neurobiologist David Felten, University Medical Center department.

• The Mind Body Medical Institue
  This institute conducts research and clinical practice of mind/body medicine. Web page information includes mind/body basics, wellness, medical programs, women's, school and workplace health, and research information.

• Mind / Body Connection
  A page on how the mind affects the body, with articles providing examples of this connection. Information provided on psychology, family relationships, and therapy.

• Mind/Body Medicine: Implications for Social Work
  This paper provides information on mind/body medicine, mind/body therapies, and the implications for social workers.

• Science of Mind-Body Interactions: An Exploration of Integrative Mechanisms
  Proceedings from a conference that can be downloaded. The conference presented the latest advances and emerging questions about mind-body connections, discussed groundbreaking interdisciplinary research, and sounded out opportunities to put new discoveries to practical use.

• Brain and Mind
  This site presents information related to how the brain and the mind are but different attributes of the same thing. Ideas and links are listed that demonstrate this concept, such as information connected to neuroscience and philosophy.

• Online Papers On Consciousness
  A directory of 1075 online papers on consciousness and related topics. Most papers are by academic philosophers or scientists. Papers are divided into philosophy of consciousness, other philosophy of mind, and science of consciousness.

• Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind
  A resource for information on the philosophy of the mind.

• On the Brain
  A neuroscience newsletter, a Harvard undergraduate publication, inspired by Mind, Brain, Behavior Interfaculty Initiative. Current issues must be downloaded using Acrobat Reader.

• Neuroanatomy and Neuropathology on the Internet
  A guide for medical students, residents, and other health professionals todiscover and navigate Internet resources in the areas of neuroanatomy and neuropathology. Includes theInternet Handbook of Neurology which contains articles dealing with a variety of neurological disorders.

• Neuroscience-Net
  A major new electronic scientific journal. The articles you see here will contain some of the most exciting neuroscience research data in existence, and they will be published in a very timely fashion.

• Online Papers On Consciousness
  A directory of 1075 online papers on consciousness and related topics. Most papers are by academic philosophers or scientists. Papers are divided into philosophy of consciousness, other philosophy of mind, and science of consciousness.

• Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind
  A resource for information on the philosophy of the mind.

Back to Mental Health Project.

These resource lists are being maintained by Debbie Plotnick, working with Paul Grobstein, Department of Biology, and James Martin, School of Social Work and Social Research, at Bryn Mawr College. Suggestions for additions to the list are welcome, as are more general thoughts about how to most effectively make available information, and promote conversation, about issues of mental health. Contact dplotnic@brynmawr.edu - pgrobste@brynmawr.edu - jmartin@brynmawr.edu.


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