Thursday, January 14, 2021
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Medications that can cause depression
Friday, March 27, 2020
COVID-19: Coping with GRIEF in midst of coronavirus pandemic
Sadness revolves around feelings of loss and typically occurs in "waves" intermixed with positive memories of the deceased.
Thoughts of dying involve wish to join the deceased but active suicidality uncommon
For most, the natural mourning process lasts 6-12 months
Saturday, February 1, 2020
Correct order of Stage of Death
Monday, October 2, 2017
Corpus Callosum - Let's connect
Jas here
I am back :)
Let's talk about the largest connective pathway in the brain, the Corpus Callosum that is made up of more than 200 million nerve fibres, connecting our left brain to the right.
Monday, July 17, 2017
Brain to gut: Lets talk
The brain and gut chat and share neurohumoral and immunologic messages with each other most of the times. That is why our emotions affect our stomach and intestines and vice versa. This healthy communication is disturbed when we are stressed out, anxious, or depressed.
Stress (more of psychological type) influences the type of bacteria inhabiting the gut, making a loss of our bowel flora diversification and increasing the concentration of harmful pathogens in the gut, thus leading to certain inflammatory and infectious processes.
Chronic flare - ups of inflammatory bowel disease result in deviation of the mood towards negative side by upto 60 percent by a process of rewiring the neuronal circuitary, called neuroplasticity. This inturn worsens the condition of gut on long-term basis.
Recent studies suggest that talk therapy - particularly cognitive behavioral therapy, and anti- depressants may be supportive in such cases to reduce the flaring up of inflammatory bowel syndrome.
In case of irritable bowel syndrome, that is a functional disorder ( without any actual organic cause ), the CBT and use of anti- depressants improve the symptoms in upto 60 percent patients. But which patients are likely to benefit still needs further research. Till then, we know that a referral for talk therapy in the patients of IBS is a must.
Thats all
- Jaskunwar Singh
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
mPFC activation in depression: The Associations
I had talked about how people with neuroticism also have an advantage of being creative in a previous post.
Lets now know the basis of this in brief -
Monday, June 19, 2017
Baclofen for treatment of alcohol dependence
Hello!
Recent evidence suggest that the gamma-aminobutyric acid-B receptor agonist baclofen is a promising agent for the treatment of alcoholism.
Yep!
Baclofen produces an effortless decrease or suppression of alcohol craving. It decreases alcohol consumption including in those with poor motivation. The drug causes few side effects and does not add to the intoxication effect of alcohol.
It benefits patients with alcohol dependence (even those who are still in precontemplation stage of motivation!)
Research has shown that baclofen reduces withdrawal symptoms of alcohol and is safe in those with liver impairment.
Although further studies that compare long-term alcohol-related outcome of baclofen with established drugs such as naltrexone and disulfiram are needed.
Interesting, isn't it?
-IkaN
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Research update: Statins may increase risk of Parkinsons' disease
A new research by neuroscientists has updated our knowledge about the association between high cholesterol levels in people and prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases such as the Parkinson's.
Mind - wandering : How your body reacts to it?
First lets have a word about mind - wandering.. "Mind- wandering (or task-unrelated thoughts) is an experience of thoughts which are totally unrelated to the task you are doing right now, especially when it demands attention. It involves activities such as reading, driving, attending lectures, etc."
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Autism and ADHD : The clinical intersection
Autism and Attention - Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may co - occur in upto 80% of children and they share about 50 - 75% of their genetic factors and pathologic features, thus resulting in some clinical intersection.
Saturday, May 13, 2017
Research update : Genetic locus of Anorexia nervosa revealed
A Research landmark study led by UN school of medicine has found the first genetic locus for the perplexing illness, anorexia nervosa. Previously it was known that this eating disorder runs in families with genetic and environmental factors both playing their role and there is ten - fold risk in first -degree relatives, but no particular association with a genetic locus was provided.
Thought to be associated with psychiatric disorders like neuroticism and schizophrenia, it has also been positively correlated with underlying metabolic abnormalities including body - mass index (BMI) and insulin - glucose metabolism. Genome - wide association studies ( GWAS ) have revealed a significant locus for anorexia nervosa on chromosome 12, in a region previously shown to be associated with type -1 diabetes mellitus and autoimmune disorders. This means that this eating disorder shares common roots with metabolic and psychiatric traits !!
These results may help in reconceptualizing the underlying aetiology and pathogenesis of such a lethal disorder and also coming up with new treatment interventions to cure the disease.
Thats all
- Jaskunwar Singh
Friday, May 12, 2017
Fact of the day : Testosterone administration impairs 'cognitive reflection' in men
You must have tried solving brain teasers at some point of time.. right? Ok so how many of you tried to solve it right at that instant ( sensing your gut reaction ), but guessed it wrong? If so, you might be having loads of testosterone in your veins!
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Fact of the day : Worrywarts have high verbal intelligence
Here is another fact of the day post for you all ;p
Recent innumerous studies and research by scientists have confirmed the link between the 'worry mode' and high verbal IQ. People who are worrywarts may be better at addressing, analyzing and solving problems in situations by using language - based reasoning.
Obsessive worrying, rumination, and overthinking about situations and events is associated with more sharpening of your critical thinking skills and mental preparation for future scenarios.
Thats all
- Jaskunwar Singh
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Phencyclidine intoxication mnemonic
Friday, April 21, 2017
Adult ADHD : A Clinical Overview
Attention - Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ( ADHD ) is a mental health disorder that usually occurs in childhood and continues into adulthood. The symptoms in adults may not be as clear as in children. In India, there are more than 10 million cases of adult ADHD per year.
In adults, the symptoms of hyperactivity may decrease, but the characteristic features of decreased attention span, mood swings, impulsive behavior, difficulty in communication and language skills, restlessness may still continue to appear.
Now lets talk about the signs. The WHO has lately released a set of six questions to test the adults for signs of ADHD - Adult Self - Report Scale Screener (ASRS) is a self - screening questionnaire that you can use to determine if you might have ADHD. The answers to these questions predict the people suffering from this disorder and is a simple way of screening :
1. How often do you have difficulty in concentrating on what the other person is saying to you, directly as well as indirectly ?
2. How often do you leave your seat when you are in a group or meetings in which you are expected to remain seated?
3. How often do you have difficulty in unwinding and relaxing when you have time to yourself ?
4. When you are in a conversation, how often do you find yourself finishing sentences of the people you are talking to before they can finish them themselves?
5. How often do you put things off until the last minute?
6. How often do you depend on others to keep your life in order and attend to details?
- The answers to these set of questions can be 'never', 'rarely', 'sometimes', 'often', or 'very often'.
- If the answer to four of the six questions is 'sometimes', 'often' or 'very often' , the person may be considered to have ADHD!
Note that this is a simple way of screening the people for signs of ADHD, and not the diagnostic criteria.
Thats all
- Jaskunwar Singh
Saturday, April 15, 2017
Fact of the day: Nightmares are a warning for serious mental problems
Not one or two, but frequent nightmares are major caveats for underlying serious mental problems. Rapid Eye Movement sleep disorder is a rare disorder that causes the person to act violently during dreamy state. This may be a warning sign for major neurologic disorders like Parkinson's and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's !!
Night owls are more likely to have frequent sleep and mood disturbances than the early sleepers. Evidences suggest people suffering from nightmares and related sleep disorders are more likely to have suicidal tendencies than those not, in addition to other contributing factors.
- Jaskunwar Singh
Thursday, March 30, 2017
Fact of the day : Neuroticism and creative thinking
While the medial prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain that shows high levels of activity in the neurotics, innovation of new ideas is also something the frontal areas of our ( mainly right ) brain function for.
There is often a preponderance to generation of self - generated thoughts and a perception of threat appraisal when there is no such actual external stimulus. The neurotics tend to 'create' situations of threat in their mind and respond accordingly, but they also come up with creative ideas to find solutions to such 'internal' problems by overthinking and overactivating their thought - provoking areas of brain. They also have oversensitive amygdalae, that is concerned with panic attacks, excess fear and anxiety.
Thats all
- Jaskunwar Singh
Did you know? Sir Isaac Newton suffered from bouts of depression and once had a mental breakdown. Inspite of that he made use of his creative mind and formulated laws of gravity, and fathomed several mathematical theories.
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Fact of the day: Regulate brain activity with your type of music
Which genre or type of music do you like the most? Well, it surely has to do a lot with the functioning of our brain. Some of you may like slow music while others like to rock n roll on the floor while listening to their favourite beats. I am more of the latter type too, depending on the mood. ;p