Prevent Schizophrenia Relapse With Regular Maintenance
Dr Peter Yellowlees discusses 1-year symptom trajectories in patients with stable schizophrenia maintained on antipsychotics versus placebo. (Source: Medscape Psychiatry Podcast)
Source: Medscape Psychiatry Podcast - December 19, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Medscape Source Type: podcasts
Seth Grant's latest Research (BS 137)
Seth Grant has made a career by combining his skills in molecular biology, medicine and neuroscience. Brain Science listeners may remember him best for his explorations of the evolution of the synapse (BSP 51) and in BSP 101 he told us about how small genetic changes related to synapse proteins can influence learning, but this month he shares a new paper, which describes what he calls the "genetic lifespan calendar.” The key idea is that the genes in both the mouse and human brain appear to follow a predictable schedule. Grant’s team also found that they could predict the age of a brain by looking at its transcrip...
Source: the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell - September 25, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Ginger Campbell, MD Tags: Brain Evolution Brain Plasticity Brain Research Interviews Neuroscience Podcast Show Notes Synapses Source Type: podcasts
Research Summaries: Childhood IQ and risk of bipolar disorder in adulthood: prospective birth cohort study
This study focused on association of childhood IQ (which is an imperfect measure of true intelligence) with propensity for bipolar disorder in young adulthood. This study did not look at creativity and did not look at actual occurrence of bipolar disorder, thus all the results should not be extrapolated wildly.
Childhood IQ at age 8 was measured using WISC-III and separate verbal and performance IQ as well as Full IQ scores were used in analysis. Propensity towards bipolar was measured using HCL-32 (hypo-mania checklist) which consist of 32 yes/no answers to statements like ‘I am more easily distracted’ when in...
Source: The Mouse Trap - July 14, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: sandygautam Tags: bipolar intelligence Research Summaries Bipolar disorder IQ Source Type: podcasts
Psychotherapy, East and West
Reading philosophical texts can be daunting- sometimes the terminology and words are dense and sometimes you have to re-read multiple times to understand what the writer means. But reading original sources can be highly enriching too.
Buddhist monk in Phu Soidao Nationalpark, Phu Soidao Nationalpark Waterfall, Thailand, Uttaradit Province Location: Phu Soidao Nationalpark Thailand. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So when I came across an opportunity to read and review ‘Psychotherapy east and west,’ by Alan Watts, I proceeded ahead with some mixed enthusiasm- I like his quote ‘What if money was no object’ ...
Source: The Mouse Trap - March 1, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: sandygautam Tags: therapy Alan Watts Buddhism Hinduism psychotherapy zen Source Type: podcasts
Clozapine vs the Rest for Treatment-Refractory Schizophrenia
Dr Peter Yellowlees talks about clozapine vs first- and second-generation antipsychotics in treatment-refractory schizophrenia. (Source: Medscape Psychiatry Podcast)
Source: Medscape Psychiatry Podcast - February 24, 2017 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Medscape Source Type: podcasts
The Four Neural Sub-Types of Depression
Regular readers of The Mouse Trap will be familiar with my obsession with knowing how nature is carved at its joints or in other words what are the natural categories or basic kinds.
Anhedonia (The Graduate album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This translates into thinking a lot about what are the fundamental drives, basic emotions and personalty traits and what taxonomic system of mental illness is most reflective of underlying fundamental nosological differences.
While synthesizing the work of others, has great value, and one derives many valuable theoretical insights based on such musings; there is nothing better than findi...
Source: The Mouse Trap - February 23, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: sandygautam Tags: depression anergia anhedonia anxiety Depression (mood) Major depressive disorder mania Source Type: podcasts
The books that shaped my 2016
‘Love of learning’ in VIA and ‘Learner’ in Gallup, is one of my top strengths, and it typically manifests as either participating in a lot of MOOC‘s or reading a lot of books. I’m trying to move more towards learning by doing, and moving more towards applied concerns, but I guess some reflection on the books I read in 2016 and which left a mark on me are in order.
I read a total of 16 books completely in 2016 as per goodreads, and I had set a challenge of reading at least 25 books in the year, so I did fall short of target.
Not all books I read made a lasting impact and here are the ones...
Source: The Mouse Trap - December 20, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: sandygautam Tags: Book review books coaching Positive psychology Source Type: podcasts
Memory and Reasoning: Insight from Apes
I have been reading the excellent book ‘The mind of an ape‘ by David and Ann Premack and also enrolled in a MOOC tiled ‘Origins of the human mind’ offered by Dr. Matsuzawa, so apes have been on top of my mind recently.
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Prof Matsuzawa describes an experimental procedure where numerals from 1 to 9 are very briefly displayed on the screen and then masked and the chimpanzee is required to touch the numerals, displayed randomly on the screen briefly, and now invisible as are masked, in ascending order. The chimpanzee is able to perform the task at 80% accuracy, a feat at whi...
Source: The Mouse Trap - December 6, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: sandygautam Tags: compartative psychology causal reasoning Chimpanzee memory Source Type: podcasts
The ethics of placebo
In a clinical trial, we usually think of risk in terms of the new active compound - will it have unwanted effects. However, two analyses in The BMJ are concerned about the risk associated with the control arm.
Robin Emsley is a professor of psychiatry at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, he and colleagues have written about the risk associated with forgoing treatment in patients with schizophrenia.
Read the full analysis: http://www.bmj.com/content/354/bmj.i4728
Jonathan Mendel, lecturer in human geography at the University of Dundee, and Ben Goldacre, senior clinical research fellow at the University of Oxford, ...
Source: The BMJ Podcast - September 16, 2016 Category: General Medicine Authors: BMJ Group Source Type: podcasts
A Decade of Blogging: the Top 10 posts on The Mouse Trap
19 may 2006 was the day I blogged for the first time; the platform was blogspot and I was unsure of what direction my blog will take and whether I will be able to make a difference and convey my thoughts and learning to a broader audience.
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A decade later, with more than a million page views, I am decently satisfied with having found a niche for myself and for creating some positive impact.
But one lament I have is that I have slowed down considerably. In the first 3 and half years, while the blog was hosted on blogspot, I wrote about 360 blog posts; in Oct 2009, I had moved to self hosted blog, ...
Source: The Mouse Trap - May 22, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: sandygautam Tags: Blog 10 Years anniversary Source Type: podcasts
Psychiatric Meds in Schizophrenia: Effects on Mortality
Dr Peter Yellowlees reviews an observational study from Sweden evaluating the effect of commonly used psychiatric medications on mortality in patients with schizophrenia. (Source: Medscape Psychiatry Podcast)
Source: Medscape Psychiatry Podcast - May 2, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Medscape Source Type: podcasts
Phenotypic Manifestation of Genetic Risk for Schizophrenia (JAMA Psychiatry)
Interview with Stanley Zammit, MRCPsych, PhD, author of Phenotypic Manifestation of Genetic Risk for Schizophrenia During Adolescence in the General Population (Source: JAMA Specialty Journals Author Interviews)
Source: JAMA Specialty Journals Author Interviews - January 27, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: The JAMA Network Source Type: podcasts
JAMA Psychiatry : Phenotypic Manifestation of Genetic Risk for Schizophrenia
Interview with Stanley Zammit, MRCPsych, PhD, author of Phenotypic Manifestation of Genetic Risk for Schizophrenia During Adolescence in the General Population (Source: JAMA Specialty Journals Author Interviews)
Source: JAMA Specialty Journals Author Interviews - January 27, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: The JAMA Network Source Type: podcasts
