Carol Furchner's Public Library

09 Dec 09

Oliver Sacks: What hallucination reveals about our minds | Video on TED.com

Discusses the visual hallucinations of Charles Bonnet syndrome and the neural mechanisms that underlie them. Some people think that these hallucinations are often misinterpreted as ghosts. They are NOT signs of psychopathology, although people who experience them often think they are going "crazy".

www.ted.com/...n_reveals_about_our_minds.html - Preview

bonnet hallucination vision neuroscience psychopathology psychology video_clip TED Sacks

08 Dec 09

Patients' perspectives on electroconvulsive therapy: systematic review -- Rose et al. 326 (7403): 1363 -- BMJ

www.bmj.com/...1363 - Preview

ECT therapy depression memory_failure psychopathology psychology

Medication Resistance Signals Risk for Post-ECT Relapse — Psychiatric News

Relapse rates following ECT are relatively high

pn.psychiatryonline.org/...16.1.full - Preview

ECT therapy depression relapse psychopathology psychology

However, patients who have failed at least one
adequate course of medication have a 1 in 3 chance of relapse within a week
after responding to ECT.
By the end of the six-month maintenance period, 53 percent of patients with
a history of medication resistance and 38 percent of patients without such a
history relapsed despite treatment. This difference, however, was not
statistically significant

Visible Embryo Home Page

Developmental stages of human embryo, from conception through birth. Lots of detail.

www.visembryo.com/index.html - Preview

development neuroscience neuroanatomy fetus embryo psychology

06 Dec 09

Electroconvulsive shock therapy for depression

Slightly longer version, with more views of patient, illustrating deep, suicidal depression

www.youtube.com/watch - Preview

ECT depression therapy psychopathology psychology

Michael Shermer on Skepticism, "Mind of the Market"

Editor of Skeptic magazine, author of "Why People Believe Weird Things"
Discusses "The Mind of the Market"

www.youtube.com/...AtGoogleTalks - Preview

shermer critical_thinking skepticism video_clip

05 Dec 09

Bipolar Disorder and Dopamine Dysfunction: An Indirect Approach Focusing on Tardive Movement Syndromes in a naturalistic setting

Dopamine dysfunction syndrome hypothesis of bipolar disorder - research paper

www.biomedcentral.com/...16 - Preview

bipolar_disorder dopamine dyskinesia dystonia psychopathology psychology

manic phase being associated with an increase in DA transmission
substantial reduction in DA transmission is hypothesized to characterize the depressive phase
27 more annotations...
- tardive movement syndromes formed the reference outcome for the analyses
- presence and severity of parkinsonism, akathisia, dystonia and TD that they judged to be associated with medications used to treat bipolar disorder
- only persistent dystonia and TD were used in the current analyses.
- Parkinsonism and akathisia were also compiled into a single variable, hereafter named EPS
- Psychotic and manic symptoms may be associated with high DA transmission in the mesolimbic pathway
- the CGI-BP severity of mania, CGI Hallucinations/delusions and CGI-BP depression were regarded as proxy measures for altered DA transmission within the mesolimbic DA trac
- . Presence of amenorrhea and sexual dysfunction were used as proxy measures for altered DA transmission in the tuberoinfundibular tract
- presence of EPS as a proxy measure for dysfunctional DA transmission in the nigrostriatal tract, was tested for association with incident TDD
- Use of AP was assessed at each visit
- four clusters of proxy measures for DA dysfunction
- confounders
- social economic status (SES
- compliance
- country
- gender
- age per decade
- duration of illness in years
- age of onset in years
- visit number
- that antipsychotic use and lithium in itself are associated with an increased risk for developing movement disorders and other adverse effects
- confounding effect of AP or lithium use or dose burden
- use of APs
- amisulpride, clozapine, haloperidol, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, ziprazidone, other AP or lithium
- dose of treatment used
- change in dose of treatment
- propensity score for an individual, defined as the conditional probability of (in this case) developing TDD given the individual's covariates, can be used to balance the covariates in observational studies, and thus reduce bia
- association between psychosis severity and TDD has not been reported before within a bipolar population

04 Dec 09

Maternal Flu Linked To Schizophrenia, Autism In Child

"Maternal immune activation alters fetal brain development through interleukin-6"

www.sciencedaily.com/...071016090135.htm - Preview

schizophrenia autism flu pregnancy psychopathology psychology

A Review of the Fetal Brain Cytokine Imbalance Hypothesis of Schizophrenia

schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/...959 - Preview

schizophrenia flu pregnancy psychopathology psychology

Possible Link Between Pregnancy, The Flu And Schizophrenia

www.medicalnewstoday.com/...153185.php - Preview

schizophrenia flu pregnancy psychopathology psychology

03 Dec 09

Teaching of Psychology: An OTRP Resource / FrontPage

Growing collection of instructor-contributed resources for teaching psychology.

teachpsych.pbworks.com - Preview

psychology pedagogy teaching resources wiki OTRP STP

Do things get crazy when the moon is full?

Clear, concise description of why data that appear to support this belief really don't (other explanations, bad use of statistics) and why it's hard for people to shake this belief (vivid cases, confirmation bias, illusory correlations also contribute). Also a good example of applying critical thinking to a widely-held belief.

www.straightdope.com/...et-crazy-when-the-moon-is-full - Preview

psychopathology moon myth psychology critical_thinking

01 Dec 09

‘Mystery Shoppers’ Check Out Conditions in a Psychiatric Ward - NYTimes.com

"Posing as patients, three undercover observers got themselves admitted as patients to a locked psychiatric ward to investigate conditions on the inside."

www.nytimes.com/...01dutch.html - Preview

psychopathology mental_institution undercover_patients psychology

Posing as patients, three undercover observers got themselves admitted as patients to a locked psychiatric ward to investigate conditions on the inside.

Memory Study Looks at Why We Repeat Ourselves - NYTimes.com

Why do we forget to whom we've told a story? Why do we repeat ourselves?

www.nytimes.com/...01mind.html - Preview

memory destination_memory psychology

Some Biologists Find an Urge in Human Nature to Help - NYTimes.com

Is a tendency towards altrusim and helping behavior innate?

www.nytimes.com/...01human.html - Preview

development altruism nature-nurture psychology

Are adolescents crazy or just different?

Interview with Laurence Stenberg, developmental psychologist

www.nytimes.com/...01conv.html - Preview

development adolescence neuroscience brain psychology

29 Nov 09

Brain Power - New Techniques in Brain Surgery Mix Hope With Risk - Series - NYTimes.com

New surgical techniques help some with intractable psychological disorders - and fail to help others. Side effects, such as loss of motivation and self-control, are appearing in some patients.

www.nytimes.com/...27brain.html - Preview

psychopathology treatment therapy neuroscience psychology