How do antidepressants trigger fear and anxiety?

More than 100 million people worldwide take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as Prozac and Zoloft, to treat depression, anxiety and related conditions, but these drugs have a common and mysterious side effect: they can worsen anxiety in the first few weeks of use, which leads many patients to stop treatment. Scientists at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine have mapped out a serotonin-driven anxiety circuit that may explain this side effect and lead to treatments to eliminate it.

“The hope is that we’ll be able to identify a drug that inhibits this circuit and that people could take for just the first few weeks of SSRI use to get over that hump,” said senior investigator Thomas L. Kash, PhD, the John Andrews Distinguished Professor of Alcohol Studies in the UNC School of Medicine’s department of pharmacology. “More generally, this finding gives us a deeper understanding of the brain networks that drive anxiety and fear behavior in mammals.”

The new study, published in Nature, counters the popular view of serotonin as a neurotransmitter that promotes only good feelings. SSRIs, which are taken by about one in 10 people in the United States and about one in four women in their 40s and 50s, are thought to improve mood by boosting serotonin activity in the brain. There are brain circuits through which serotonin does seem to improve mood, and some studies have linked depression to abnormally low levels of serotonin. But the short-lived promotion of anxiety in many patients on SSRIs – even suicidal thinking, particularly in younger people – has long hinted that serotonin can have negative effects on mood, depending on the precise brain circuit where it acts.

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http://www.psypost.org/2016/08/how-do-antidepressants-trigger-fear-and-anxiety-44581

Scientists have finally figured out how cancer spreads through the bloodstream

DAVID NIELD

In what could be a major step forward in our understanding of how cancer moves around the body, researchers have observed the spread of cancer cells from the initial tumour to the bloodstream.

The findings suggest that secondary growths called metastases 'punch' their way through the walls of small blood vessels by targeting a molecule known as Death Receptor 6 (no, really, that's what it's called). This then sets off a self-destruct process in the blood vessels, allowing the cancer to spread.

According to the team from Goethe University Frankfurt and the Max Planck Institute in Germany, disabling Death Receptor 6 (DR6) may effectively block the spread of cancerous cells - so long as there aren't alternative ways for the cancer to access the bloodstream.

"This mechanism could be a promising starting point for treatments to prevent the formation of metastases," said lead researcher Stefan Offermanns.

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http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-discover-how-cancer-spreads-through-the-bloodstream

Harvard researchers pinpoint enzyme that triggers cell demise in ALS

Scientists from Harvard Medical School (HMS) have identified a key instigator of nerve cell damage in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a progressive and incurable neurodegenerative disorder.

Researchers say the findings of their study, published Aug. 5 in the journal Science, may lead to new therapies to halt the progression of the uniformly fatal disease that affects more than 30,000 Americans. One such treatment is already under development for testing in humans after the current study showed it stopped nerve cell damage in mice with ALS.

The onset of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is marked by the gradual degradation and eventual death of neuronal axons, the slender projections on nerve cells that transmit signals from one cell to the next. The HMS study reveals that the aberrant behavior of an enzyme called RIPK1 damages neuronal axons by disrupting the production of myelin, the soft, gel-like substance that envelopes axons to insulate them from injury.

“Our study not only elucidates the mechanism of axonal injury and death but also identifies a possible protective strategy to counter it by inhibiting the activity of RIPK1,” said the study’s senior investigator, Junying Yuan, the Elizabeth D. Hay Professor of Cell Biology at HMS.

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http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/08/harvard-researchers-pinpoint-enzyme-that-triggers-cell-demise-in-als/

Veteran Kills Himself in Parking Lot of V.A. Hospital on Long Island

A 76-year-old veteran committed suicide on Sunday in the parking lot of the Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Long Island, where he had been a patient, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

Peter A. Kaisen, of Islip, was pronounced dead after he shot himself outside Building 92, the nursing home at the medical center.

The hospital is part of the Veterans Affairs medical system, the nation’s largest integrated health care organization, which has been under scrutiny since 2014, when the department confirmed that numerous patients had died awaiting treatment at a V.A. hospital in Phoenix. Officials there had tried to cover up long waiting times for 1,700 veterans seeking medical care. A study released by the Government Accountability Office in April indicated that the system had yet to fix its scheduling problems.

Why Mr. Kaisen decided to end his life was not immediately known, but two people connected to the hospital who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss his death said that he had been frustrated that he was unable to see an emergency-room physician for reasons related to his mental health. “He went to the E.R. and was denied service,” one of the people, who currently works at the hospital, said. “And then he went to his car and shot himself.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/nyregion/veteran-kills-himself-in-parking-lot-of-va-hospital-on-long-island.html?_r=1

Thursday TOON Roundup 3- The Rest

CONgress



Fox



Charter Schools



Syria





Climate




Zika



Health insurance

Thursday TOON Roundup 2 - The "free Market" at work!

Thursday Toon Roundup 1- Leave the terror to us!

Wednesday Toon Roundup 2- The Rest

GOP








Clinton


Media




Pharma


Fraud



Lochte




Labor



Police


Gitmo





War



Faith vs Science




Comix

Wednesday Toon Roundup 1- The unreality show

Ultra-Orthodox rabbis ban women from going to university

Exclusive: The decree seen by The Independent warns ‘We will be very strict about this. No girls attending our school are allowed to study and get a degree. It is dangerous. Girls who will not abide will be forced to leave our school’

Siobhan Fenton, Dina Rickman

The decree was issued from the sect’s base in New York and will apply to followers of the faith group around the world.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews follow a pre-enlightenment interpretation of traditional Judaism and discourage interaction with the modern or secular world. Men wear 19th century Eastern European dress including long black coats and black hats, while married women must dress modestly and cover their hair.

more
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ultra-orthodox-rabbis-ban-women-from-going-to-university-in-case-they-get-dangerous-secular-a7204171.html