New experimental findings show a causal link between unconscious conflict and the conscious symptoms experienced by people with anxiety disorders, lending scientific weight to one of Sigmund Freud’s key theories. Howard Shevrin, emeritus professor of psychology in the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry, presented his research last week at the 101st Annual Meeting of […]
American itch boffins have been studying which parts of the body produce the most pleasure when scratched. Their analysis of itch relief at different body sites and related pleasurability has been published in the British Journal of Dermatology. World-renowned itch expert Gil Yosipovitch, who conducted the study, said he wanted to evaluate whether itch intensity […]
A California Institute of Technology (Caltech) led team of researchers has published the first proof that a targeted nanoparticle – injected directly into a patient’s bloodstream – can enter into cancer tumors, deliver double-stranded small interfering RNAs, and turn off an important cancer gene using a mechanism known as RNA interference (RNAi). The discovery of […]
New evidence suggests that popular selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant medications can substantially change patients’ personalities, and researchers speculate that it is these changes in personality – rather than the supposed alleviation of depressive symptoms – that are responsible for improvements in mood. The research, conducted by psychologists from the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern […]
Growing evidence shows that surgery on the small bowel may effectively cure Type 2 diabetes – an approach that may change the way the disease is treated. Published in Diabetes Care, a new study presents scientific evidence that gastrointestinal bypass operations involving rerouting the gastrointestinal tract (gastric bypass) can cause diabetes remission independently of any […]
Slapping an oxygen mask onto a patient’s face is de rigeur for television medicos, but new research suggests that inhaling straight oxygen can actually harm the brain. A worrying new brain-imaging study, carried out by UCLA researchers and published in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine, directly contradicts medical practice guidelines by recommending the […]
Gut-associated lymphoid tissue accounts for 70 percent of the body’s immune system and should be a priority target for HIV treatments, claim University of California (UC) researchers. The researchers found that HIV hidden in gut mucosa suppresses the immune system and continues to replicate, despite standard tests indicating otherwise. The study, published in the Journal […]
Research by Doctor Cynthia McRae of the University of Denver’s College of Education provides strong evidence for a significant mind-body connection among patients who participated in a Parkinson’s surgical trial. Forty persons from the United States and Canada participated to determine the effectiveness of transplantation of human embryonic dopamine neurons into the brains of persons […]
People who develop asthma as children may suffer from a different disease than those who develop it as adults. A study in the The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology adds to the evidence that asthma is not a single disease, but a group of syndromes with different origins and biological characteristics. The research team, […]
A rare genetic disorder may lead scientists to genes for social behavior, a Salk Institute study has found. The study takes aim at the genes that may lead to the marked extroverted behavior seen in children with Williams syndrome, demonstrating that “hyper-sociability” – especially the drive to greet and interact with strangers – follows a […]
