Mouse Study Finds Flu May Hike Risk of Parkinson’s

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Although the cause of most cases of Parkinson’s is unknown, a new study on mice discovers a certain strain of influenza predisposed mice to developing symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease.

The research may confirm the belief among many researchers that environmental or other outside factors play a role in developing Parkinson’s.

“This study has provided more evidence to support the idea that environmental factors, including influenza, may be involved in Parkinson’s disease,” said Richard J. Smeyne, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience in the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University.

The research is reported in in the journal npj Parkinson’s Disease.

“Here we demonstrate that even mice who fully recover from the H1N1 influenza virus responsible for the previous pandemic (also called ‘swine flu’) are later more susceptible to chemical toxins known to trigger Parkinson’s in the lab.”

Previously, Smeyne and collaborator Dr. Stacey Schultz-Cherry of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., showed that a deadly H5N1 strain of influenza (so-called “bird flu”) that has a high mortality rate (60 percent of those infected died from the disease) was able to infect nerve cells, travel to the brain and cause inflammation that, the researchers showed, would later result in Parkinson’s-like symptoms in mice.

Inflammation in the brain that does not resolve appropriately, such as after traumatic injury to head, has also been linked to Parkinson’s.

Building on that work, the current research looked at a less lethal strain, the H1N1 “swine flu,” that does not infect neurons, but still causes inflammation in the brain via inflammatory chemicals or cytokines released by immune cells involved in fighting the infection.

Using a model of Parkinson’s disease in which the toxin MPTP induces Parkinson’s-like symptoms in humans and mice, Smeyne showed that mice infected with H1N1, even long after the initial infection, had more severe Parkinson’s symptoms than those who had not been infected with the flu.

Importantly, when mice were vaccinated against the H1N1, or were given antiviral medications such as Tamiflu at the time of flu infection, the increased sensitivity to MPTP was eliminated.

“The H1N1 virus that we studied belongs to the family of Type A influenzas, which we are exposed to on a yearly basis,” Smeyne said.

“Although the work presented here has yet to be replicated in humans, we believe it provides good reason to investigate this relationship further in light of the simple and potentially powerful impact that seasonal flu vaccination could have on long-term brain health.”

Source: Thomas Jefferson University/EurekAlert

Parents’ Outlook on Life Can Impact Kids’ Behavior Issues

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A parent’s outlook on life can have a significant influence on the child’s behavior, according to a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

The findings show that parents with an “external” view of life — the belief  that personal efforts and actions have little to do with what actually happens to people in life — tend to have children with more social, eating and sleeping problems. But if just one parent has a more “internal” view of life — the belief that people have more control over what happens to them — then the child’s behavior improves.

The study used data collected on more than 10,000 preschool children and their parents who had participated in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) in the U.K., also known as the Children of the 90s’ study.

Co-author Professor Jean Golding and her team from the University of Bristol sent questionnaires to thousands of pregnant women to obtain information about their personalities and attitudes. They followed up by asking these women about their prenatal preparation and the behavior of the child between 6 and 57 months old.

“We find that the greater the degree of externality  rather than internality of parents before children are born, the greater the likelihood that children will have greater difficulties in behaving, sleeping and eating during their first five years of life,” said Dr. Stephen Nowicki, professor of psychology at Emory University.

“This can be explained by the behavior of internally controlled parents, which are characterized by what is called the Big 5; that is their (1) persistence, (2) feeling of responsibility, (3) pursuit of information, (4) ability to tolerate a longer delay of gratification, and (5) resistance to being coerced.”

In contrast, women with a more external view were less likely to attend parenting classes, less likely to breastfeed and less likely to ensure their child was fully immunized by 6 months of age.

The researchers also examined the personality and attitude of the father, to see if this had any influence.

“Being able to assess the impact of internality and externality of each partner helps to identify the relative impact and contribution of mothers’ and fathers’ prenatal locus of control to their child’s future adjustment,” said Nowicki.

“It is apparent from our findings that it doesn’t matter which parent is internal, if one of them, father or mother, is internal then it increases the positive effect on children’s social, eating and/or sleeping behavior.”

The researchers hope the findings will guide programs to reduce externality and increase internality in parents, enabling them to interact more positively with their children and reduce problems in behavior, eating and sleeping.

 

Source: Frontiers

Podcast: Anxiety Lies Constantly – How to Stop Listening

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In this episode of the Psych Central Show, hosts Gabe Howard and Vincent M. Wales welcome Jodi Aman, popular psychotherapist, anxiety expert, blogger, radio host, and author of You 1, Anxiety 0: Winning Your Life Back From Fear and Panic. Jodi explains how she cured herself of anxiety and shares great tips on how you can get control over your own anxiety and panic attacks. She also explains anxiety and panic in ways you might never have heard before, giving you a better understanding of what’s really going on.

 Listen as Our Hosts Speak with Anxiety Psychotherapist, Jodie Aman:

“Anxiety is telling us: ‘You’re a fool, you make bad decisions, you can’t do anything, it’s too hard.’ … It’s a bold-faced lie. Anxiety lies constantly.” ~ Jodi Aman

 

 

 

Find Jodi online:

• JodiAman.com
• Love Yourself Up TV
• Keep Calm in a Crazy World

About The Psych Central Show Podcast

The Psych Central Show is an interesting, in-depth weekly podcast that looks into all things mental health and psychology. Hosted by Gabe Howard and featuring Vincent M. Wales.

 

Gabe Howard is an award-winning writer and speaker who lives with bipolar and anxiety disorders. In addition to hosting The Psych Central Show, Gabe is an associate editor for PsychCentral.com. Gabe is a prolific writer and his work can be found all over the internet. He also runs an online Facebook community, The Positive Depression/Bipolar Happy Place, and invites you to join.  To work with Gabe, please visit his website, gabehoward.com.

 

 

Vincent M. Wales is a former suicide prevention counselor who lives with persistent depressive disorder. In addition to co-hosting The Psych Central Show, Vincent is the author of several award-winning novels and the creator of costumed hero Dynamistress. Visit his websites at http://ift.tt/2fH3c3L and www.dynamistress.com.

 

Previous episodes can be found at http://ift.tt/2rsYxI3.

 

 

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How Ken Brookes Lost 102 Pounds

Weight Loss Win is a weekly series I do for Yahoo Beauty. Here is an excerpt from this week’s inspiring story:

Ken Brookes Lost 102 Pounds: ‘I Never Want to Go Back to Being Unhealthy’

Ken Brookes is 62, 6 feet tall, and currently weighs 206 pounds. In 2014, after his doctor told him he had to change his diet or face significant health consequences, he was able to make critical changes for a healthier and happier life. Click here to read the story of his weight-loss journey.

May 31, 2017 at 11:01PM

Can you will yourself to be more creative? Yes, but only if you’re a novice, says study of jazz pianists

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By Alex Fradera

Surely creativity is about freedom. Dropping your inhibitions – maybe with the help of a few substances – and letting ideas writhe free from the unconscious unfiltered. What to make then of the research showing that creativity is associated with higher levels of executive functioning – the mind’s suite of control processes – which seem to help by inhibiting irrelevant information and combining the rest in novel ways? Does it mean you can use this mental control to make yourself perform more creatively? According to a new study in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts involving jazz pianists the answer may depend in part on your creative experience.

David Rosen and his team from Drexel University suspected that the need for conscious control may be more acute when creative people are still novices, referencing saxophonist Charlie Parker’s observation that “you’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.”

To test this, the researchers recruited 22 mostly male jazz pianists using their number of completed professional gigs – as few as three and as many as 400 – as a measure of their creative expertise.

After warming up at the keyboard, the musicians attempted to improvise a pre-recorded track “as you normally would in a jazz setting.” After the first take, they were given three more tries. Crucially, before one of these efforts they were told that from now on they should “improvise even more creatively than your past performance(s).”

Could the participants deliberately boost their creativity?

After the experiment, the musicians said they’d taken the instruction to heart: “I tried other things that I wouldn’t normally try”; “I felt totally freed. I felt like I’d been given license to go wherever my mind took me”; “I considered new elements of my performance while improvising with explicit instructions”.

And for performers with fewer gigs behind them, this seemed to help: independent judges rated their improvisations as more proficient, aesthetically appealing, and creative, as compared to equivalent takes with no instructions. But more experienced musicians saw smaller benefits, with the effect for the most experienced players tipping (non-significantly in statistical terms) in the other direction.

These findings add to past research showing that while mental control may be important for creativity, there is also a part to play for automatic, uncontrolled mental processes. For example, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and even brain damage to the frontal regions involved in executive function are both associated with heightened creativity. Mind-wandering and dreaming also seem to produce creative leaps. One explanation is that creativity is an interplay between automatic associative processes and deliberate effortful ones, or Type One and Type Two processes (as per Daniel Kahneman’s terminology). Freedom and control.

Seen in these terms, expert players may, over time, find their own balance of Type One and Two processes when improvising, such that conscious attention can’t easily lead to further improvements. In contrast, those with lower levels of mastery can find it productive to call on creative techniques intentionally or test out variants – “I wonder if I can try dropping different notes from an arpeggio run.” So for those of us not yet at the top of our creative game, making the conscious effort to focus on novel, creative outcomes might be the tactic to take us to new heights.

—All You Need to Do Is Ask? The Exhortation to Be Creative Improves Creative Performance More for Nonexpert Than Expert Jazz Musicians

Image via Giphy.com

Alex Fradera (@alexfradera) is Contributing Writer at BPS Research Digest

I Did Hypnosis with My Mom to Try and Cure Our Shared Anxiety - Broadly

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Broadly

I Did Hypnosis with My Mom to Try and Cure Our Shared Anxiety Broadly Often, the idea of hypnosis conjures visions of being lulled into a trance so deep that you end up clucking like a chicken onstage in front of an audience of bloated, red-faced retirees on a cruise ship. But the practice has become a trusted form of ...

Large gender gap in first-onset depression disproportionately affects adolescent girls

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Depression in adolescence is even more common than previous estimates indicated and girls experience more depression than boys, according to research from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, the RAND Corporation, and the Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

The research, published in Translational Psychiatry, shows that the proportion of adolescents who experience depression is higher than previous studies have reported; 36 percent for girls and 14 percent for boys. These depressive episodes are associated with poor outcomes - problems with school, relationships, suicide attempts - even with depression that started recently.

"Since we found that many more adolescents go through periods of depression than previously thought, it is important that we find ways to identify those individuals most likely to suffer the most severe consequences to make sure they are prioritized for treatment," said Joshua Breslau, Ph.D., Sc.D., researcher at the RAND Corporation and lead author of the study.

The researchers examined data from 2009 to 2014 collected annually from nationally representative samples of adolescents ages 12 to 17. They noted gender differences in the incidence of depression by age and compared recent first-onset and persistent depression with respect to impairment, suicide attempts, conduct problems and academic functioning.

Adolescent depression is characterized by extended periods of low mood or feeling unable to enjoy normally pleasurable activities. Other common symptoms include insomnia, irritability, weight gain or loss, and feelings of guilt or worthlessness. This national survey uses measures consistent with a diagnosis of depression.

"Our study reveals that depression is far too common and is associated with serious problems in school and at home for adolescents," said senior author Elizabeth Miller, M.D., director, Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Children's Hospital. "While we still have much work to do to understand why so many more girls experience depression than boys, adults who work with young people - especially clinicians, school teachers and counselors - should recognize adolescent depression and connect young people who display signs of depression to appropriate mental health services. Don't wait and expect things to get better without help."

The analysis also found that this gender difference starts earlier than previous studies indicated; at least by age 11, if not younger, suggesting that factors in childhood also may contribute to the gender difference.

"Clinicians and those who work with children and youth in schools and afterschool environments need to be aware of the seriousness of any signs of adolescent depression and connect young people to treatment early," added Dr. Miller.

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (R01MD010274) and by the Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Article: Sex differences in recent first-onset depression in an epidemiological sample of adolescents, J Breslau, S E Gilman, B D Stein, T Ruder, T Gmelin and E Miller, Translational Psychiatry, doi: 10.1038/tp.2017.105, published online 30 May 2017.