The treatment, known as environmental enrichment, led to significant gains in behaviors among autistic boys between the ages of 3 and 12. Parents used everyday items such as scents, spoons and sponges to perform the sessions, said researchers from the University of California – Irvine.

Study co-authors Drs. Cynthia Woo and Michael Leon randomly assigned 28 boys to one of two groups, balanced for age and autism severity.

For half a year, all subjects participated in standard autism therapies, but those in one group also had daily sensory enrichment exercises.

Parents of these children were given a kit containing household products to increase environmental stimulation, including essential-oil fragrances such as apple, lavender, lemon and vanilla. The boys smelled four of these scents a day and listened to classical music each evening.

In addition, the parents conducted twice-daily sessions of four to seven exercises with their children involving different combinations of sensory stimuli — touch, temperature, sight and movement among them. Each session took 15 to 30 minutes to complete.

After six months of therapy, 42 percent of the children in the enrichment group showed significant improvement in behaviors commonly affected by autism — such as relating to people, having typical emotional responses and listening — compared with 7 percent in the standard-care group.

They also scored higher in cognitive function, whereas average scores for the boys in the standard-care group decreased. Moreover, 69 percent of parents in the enrichment group reported improvement, compared with 31 percent of parents in the standard-care group.

“Because parents can give their child sensory enrichment using items typically available in their home, this therapy provides a low-cost option for enhancing their child’s progress,” said Woo, an assistant project scientist in neurobiology and behavior.

Exposing children to enriched sensory experiences builds upon previous research in other laboratories in which animals exposed to such environments had a great reduction in the behavioral and cognitive symptoms associated with a wide range of neurological disorders, including those resembling autism.

The researchers noted that most current therapies for autism must be started at a very young age to be successful, while the average age in this study was six years, six months.

“We believe that sensory enrichment can be an effective therapy for the treatment of autism, particularly among children past the toddler stage,” said Leon, a professor of neurobiology and behavior affiliated with UC Irvine’s Center for Autism Research and Treatment.

“At the same time, we need to know whether we can optimize the treatment, whether there are subgroups of children for whom it’s more effective, whether the therapy works for older or younger children, and whether it can be effective on its own.”

He and Woo are now conducting a second, larger randomized clinical trial that includes girls.

“We’ve observed case studies in which the sensory enrichment therapy was used without any other therapy, and those children were clearly responsive to it,” Leon added.

“We hope this new treatment will benefit children with autism, their parents and society as a whole.”

Study results have been published online in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience.

Source: University of California–Irvine

Autism word collage photo by shutterstock.

Workaholics tend to live in extremes, with great job satisfaction and creativity on the one hand and high levels of frustration and exhaustion on the other hand.

A new Florida State University study provides insight to managers on how to help these employees stay healthy and effective on the job.

For the research, Wayne Hochwarter, Ph.D., and research associate Daniel Herrera studied more than 400 employees in professional and administrative occupations.

They found about 60 percent of these workers identified themselves as workaholics who characteristically “feel guilty when taking time off.” These self-identified workaholics reported positive and negative career consequences.

For example, workaholics reported they gave more effort compared to other workers, but they also experienced more tension. They were more willing to help others, yet were more likely to view co-workers as feeling entitled.

“We found that there is an optimal level of workaholism for job effectiveness and positive health,” Hochwarter said.

“However, when in excessively low or high ranges, both the company and the employee are likely to suffer.”

Identified workaholics were divided into those who had access to resources, such as personnel, rest, equipment and social support at work, and those who did not.

“We discovered that workaholics really struggle when they feel that they are alone or swimming upstream without a paddle,” Hochwarter said.

Workaholics who said they had access to resources reported:

• 40 percent higher rate of job satisfaction;
• 33 percent lower rate of burnout;
• 30 percent higher rate of perceived job importance;
• 30 percent lower rate of exclusion from others;
• 25 percent higher rate of career fulfillment;
• 20 percent lower rate of work frustration.

“Given the volatility in today’s work environment, the ability to work hard, contribute long hours and demonstrate value is at a premium,” Herrera said. “Thus, workaholism will likely remain alive and well for years to come.”

But there are ways to guide the efforts of workaholics in positive directions, researchers said.

First, leaders should meet with workaholics to determine what physical and social resources they need and then help increase their accessibility to those resources in fair and reasonable ways, according to the researchers.

Managers often assume that workaholics simply want others to get out of their way. In reality, the goal of most workaholics is to contribute to the company, achieve personal success and see how their efforts affect the bottom line — objectives that are much more likely achieved with resources.

Second, managers need to have more realistic expectations, they said. Workaholics are often the company’s most productive employees — serving as the manager’s “go-to” worker when an important project surfaces or a deadline looms.

Because of their value, managers have a tendency to run workaholics into the ground, promising a future chance to recharge that often never happens.

“Having realistic expectations that take into account both the work, and the person doing the work, is essential,” Hochwarter said.

Source: Florida State University

The antisocial tendencies occurred regardless of whether they were exposed during pregnancy or if their parents have a history of being antisocial, said researchers from the University of Montreal.

“Secondhand smoke is in fact more dangerous that inhaled smoke, and 40 percent of children worldwide are exposed to it. Moreover, exposure to this smoke at early childhood is particularly dangerous, as the child’s brain is still developing,” said Linda Pagani.

“I looked at data that was collected about 2,055 kids from their birth until ten years of age, including parent reports about secondhand smoke exposure and from teachers and children themselves about classroom behavior.

“Those having been exposed to secondhand smoke, even temporarily, were much more likely to report themselves as being more aggressive by time they finished fourth grade.”

The study is found in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Given that it would be unethical to exposure children to secondhand smoke, Pagani relied on longitudinal data collected by Quebec health authorities from birth onward on an annual basis.

Because parents went about raising their children while participating in the study, the data provided a natural experiment of variations in the child population of household smoke exposure throughout early childhood.

Although no direct causal link can be determined, the statistical correlation suggests that secondhand smoke exposure does forecast deviant behavior in later childhood.

The very detailed information collated for the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development enabled her to do something no other researcher has done to date: distinguish the unique contribution of secondhand smoke exposure on children’s later deviant behavior.

“Previous studies looking at groups of children have generally asked mothers whether they smoked or not, and how much at each follow-up, rather than asking whether someone smoked in the home where young children live and play,” Pagani said.

“Furthermore, few studies have looked at antisocial behavior in the parents and even fewer have investigated the subsequent influence of prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke over the long term. None have taken into account the fact that disadvantaged families are less likely to participate in a long study like this one, which of course skews the statistics.”

The statistics are backed by other biological studies into the effects of smoke on the brain.

Secondhand smoke comprises 85 percent sidestream smoke emanated from a burning cigarette and 15 percent inhaled and then exhaled mainstream smoke.

Sidestream smoke is considered more toxic than mainstream smoke because it contains a higher concentration of many dispersed respirable pollutants over a longer exposure period.

“We know that the starvation of oxygen caused by smoke exposure in the developing central nervous system can cause low birth weight and slowed fetal brain growth,” Pagani said.

“Environmental sources of tobacco smoke represent the most passive and preventable cause of disease and disability. Researchers conclude that the study shows that the postnatal period is important for the prevention of impaired neurobehavioral development.”

Source: University of Montreal

As published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal), this effect can last 2 years or more, which has implications for strategies following schoolmate suicides.

“We found that exposure to suicide predicts suicidality,” writes senior author Ian Colman, Ph.D., Canada Research Chair in Mental Health Epidemiology and lead author Sonja Swanson, from Harvard School of Public Health, Boston.

“This was true for all age groups, although exposure to suicide increased the risk most dramatically in the youngest age group, when baseline suicidality was relatively low.”

The concept that exposure to suicide can create suicidal thoughts or actions is called “suicide contagion.”

Investigators reviewed data from Canada’s National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth comprising 22,064 children aged 12 to 17 years old from across the country.

They found that the suicide of a schoolmate magnifies the risk of suicidality for a young person, regardless of whether the young person personally knew the deceased.

This risk was particularly strong among 12 to 13 year olds, who were five times more likely to have suicidal thoughts (suicide ideation) after exposure to a schoolmate’s suicide than those who had had no exposure (15 percent v. 3 percent).

In this age group, 7.5 percent attempted suicide after a schoolmate’s suicide compared with 1.7 percent without exposure.

“Suicidality is of utmost public health concern, both as a predictor of suicide and because of its own burden on individuals and society,” write the authors.

The apparent “suicide contagion” effect was less pronounced in older children, although 14 to 15 year olds exposed to suicide were still almost three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts, and 16 to 17 year olds were twice as likely.

“Perhaps any exposure to a peer’s suicide is relevant, regardless of the proximity to the decedent,” they write.

“It may be best for postvention strategies to include all students rather than target close friends.”

By ages 16-17 years, 2 percent of teens — 1 in 4 — had a schoolmate die by suicide, and 20 percent personally knew someone who died by suicide.

“Given that such exposure is not rare, and appears to be strongly related to suicidality outcomes, further understanding of this association has the potential to help in the prevention of a substantial proportion of adolescent suicidal behaviors,” write the authors.

Researchers believe that broader, longer-lasting strategies are necessary to support friends and classmates.

“Our findings support school- or community-wide interventions over strategies targeting those who personally knew the decedent, suggests that allocating resources following an event may be especially important during earlier adolescence, and implies that schools and communities should be aware of an increased risk for at least 2 years following a suicide event,” the authors conclude.

In a related commentary, India Bohanna, Ph.D., of James Cook University in Queensland, Australia, said the study “provides convincing evidence that, among young people, exposure to suicide is a risk factor for future suicidal behavior.

“This is extremely important because it tells us that everyone who is exposed to suicide should be considered when post prevention strategies are developed.”

Bohanna said strategies to limit the risk of suicide contagion are critical.

“The idea that suicide is contagious has always been controversial for various reasons; however, this important study should put many, if not all, doubts to rest,” she said.

“A unified and concerted effort now needs to be directed toward developing evidence-based post-prevention strategies. We need to know what works in mitigating the risk of contagion and why.”

Source: Canadian Medical Association Journal

Investigators from the Child Study Center at New York University’s Langone Medical Center report the results of the 33-year follow-up study online in the journal Pediatrics.

“Few studies have focused on long-term outcomes for patients diagnosed with ADHD in childhood. In this study, we wanted to assess the health outcomes of children diagnosed with ADHD, focusing on obesity rates and body mass index,” said lead author Francisco Xavier Castellanos, M.D.

“Our results found that even when you control for other factors often associated with increased obesity rates such as socioeconomic status, men diagnosed with ADHD were at a significantly higher risk to suffer from high BMI and obesity as adults.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ADHD is one of the most common neurobehavioral disorders, often diagnosed in childhood and lasting into adulthood.

People with ADHD typically have trouble paying attention, controlling impulsive behaviors and tend to be overly active. ADHD has an estimated worldwide prevalence of five percent, with men more likely to be diagnosed than women.

The longitudinal prospective study included 207 white men diagnosed with ADHD at an average age of 8 and a comparison group of 178 men not diagnosed with childhood ADHD. Participants were matched for race, age, residence and social class.

The average age at follow up was 41 years old. The study was designed to compare body mass index (BMI) and obesity rates in grown men with and without childhood ADHD.

Results showed that, on average, men with childhood ADHD had significantly higher BMI (30.1 vs. 27.6) and obesity rates (41.1 percent vs. 21.6 percent) than men without childhood ADHD.

“The results of the study are concerning but not surprising to those who treat patients with ADHD. Lack of impulse control and poor planning skills are symptoms often associated with the condition and can lead to poor food choices and irregular eating habits,” noted Castellanos.

“This study emphasizes that children diagnosed with ADHD need to be monitored for long-term risk of obesity and taught healthy eating habits as they become teenagers and adults.”

Source: NYU Langone Medical Center

Yet a new University of Michigan poll shows only one in 100 parents of teens 13 to 17 years old believes that their teen has used a study drug.

Study drugs often include stimulant medications prescribed for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Common drugs abused for this purpose include Adderall, Concerta, Ritalin, and Vyvanse.

Researchers discovered that among parents of teens who have not been prescribed a stimulant medication for ADHD, only 1 percent believes their teen has used a study drug to help study or improve grades.

The finding stems from the latest University of Michigan Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.

However, recent national data from the Monitoring the Future survey indicates that 10 percent of high school sophomores and 12 percent of high school seniors say they have used an amphetamine or other stimulant medication not prescribed by their doctor.

Experts say that students without ADHD will take someone else’s medication, to try to stay awake and alert and try to improve their scores on exams or assignments.

However, taking study drugs has not been proven to improve students’ grades, and it can be very dangerous to their health, says Matthew M. Davis, M.D., M.A.P.P., director of the Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.

“Taking these medications when they are not prescribed for you can lead to acute exhaustion, abnormal heart rhythms and even confusion and psychosis if the teens get addicted and go into withdrawal,” said Davis.

“What we found in this poll is a clear mismatch between what parents believe and what their kids are reporting. But even though parents may not be recognizing these behaviors in their own kids, this poll also showed that one-half of the parents say they are very concerned about this abuse in their communities,” he said.

White parents were most likely to say they are “very concerned” (54 percent), compared with black (38 percent) and Hispanic/Latino (37 percent) parents.

Despite this concern, only 27 percent of parents polled said they have talked to their teens about using study drugs. Black parents were more likely to have discussed this issue with their teens (41 percent), compared with white (27 percent) or Hispanic (17 percent) parents.

“If we are going to make a dent in this problem, and truly reduce the abuse of these drugs, we need parents, educators, health care professionals and all who interact with teens to be more proactive about discussing the issue,” Davis said.

More than three-quarters of parents polled said they support school policies aimed at stopping abuse of study drugs in middle schools and high schools. Overall, 76 percent of parents said they believe schools should be required to discuss the dangers of ADHD medication abuse.

Moreover, 79 percent of parents support a policy to require students with a prescription for ADHD medications to keep their pills in a secure location such as the school nurse’s office.

This requirement could prohibit students from carrying such drugs which could potentially be shared with, or sold to, other students.

“We know teens may be sharing drugs or spreading the word that these medications can give their grades a boost,” Davis said.

“But the bottom line is that these prescription medications are drugs, and teens who use them without a prescription are taking a serious risk with their health.”

Sourc: University of Michigan

Teenager holding pills in his hand photo by shutterstock.

This is the main conclusion of a new University of Gothenburg study recently published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The study included almost 700 former Swedish wrestlers, weightlifters, powerlifters and throwers who competed at the elite level sometime between 1960 and 1979.

Twenty per cent of them admitted using steroids during their active careers. The purpose of the study was to look for links between AAS use and mental problems.

“We found a clear link. AAS users were more likely to have been treated for depression, concentration problems and aggressive behavior,” said researcher and psychologist Dr. Claudia Fahlke.

Investigators also found that AAS users were more likely to have abused other illicit drugs and alcohol.

Still, it remains unclear whether the steroid use actually caused the mental health problems or the mental health problems rather caused the steroid use.

‘What we were able to show, though, is that psychiatric symptoms and use of steroids and other drugs tend to reinforce each other in a vicious cycle,” Fahlke said.

“This suggests that the anti-doping efforts remain very important, both in and outside of sports.”

Source: University of Gothenburg

Hand holding a syringe photo by shutterstock.

In the study, Michigan State University psychologist Dr. Zach Hambrick discovered a copious amount of practice is not enough to explain why people differ in level of skill in two widely studied activities: chess and music.

Hambrick believes the findings confirm that it takes more than hard work to become an expert. That is, natural talent and other factors likely play a role in mastering a complicated activity.

The article has been published in the research journal Intelligence.

“Practice is indeed important to reach an elite level of performance, but this paper makes an overwhelming case that it isn’t enough,” said Hambrick, associate professor of psychology.

The debate over why and how people become experts has gone on for more than a century. Many theorists argue that thousands of hours of focused, deliberate practice is sufficient to achieve elite status, but emerging evidence points to innate talent as a contributing factor.

“Some people do reach an elite level of performance without copious practice, while other people fail to do so despite copious practice,” finds Hamrick.

Hambrick and colleagues analyzed 14 studies of chess players and musicians, looking specifically at how practice was related to differences in performance.

Practice, they found, accounted for only about one-third of the differences in skill in both music and chess.

The remaining two-thirds may be a result of intelligence or innate ability, and the age at which people start the particular activity, Hambrick said.

A previous study also suggested that working memory capacity — which is closely related to general intelligence — may sometimes be the deciding factor between being good and great.

While the conclusion that practice may not make perfect runs counter to the popular view that just about anyone can achieve greatness if they work hard enough, Hambrick said there is a “silver lining” to the research.

“If people are given an accurate assessment of their abilities and the likelihood of achieving certain goals given those abilities,” he said, “they may gravitate toward domains in which they have a realistic chance of becoming an expert through deliberate practice.”

Source: Michigan State University

Child taking music lessons photo by shutterstock.

Prior imaging studies of people with PTSD have shown that these brain regions can over- or underreact in response to stressful tasks, such as recalling a traumatic event or reacting to a photo of a threatening face.

Researchers now believe chronic trauma can inflict lasting damage to brain regions associated with fear and anxiety.

In the new study, researchers at New York University School of Medicine explored for the first time what happens in the brains of combat veterans with PTSD in the absence of external triggers.

Investigators say the findings, published in Neuroscience Letters, show that the effects of trauma persist in certain brain regions even when combat veterans are not engaged in cognitive or emotional tasks, and face no immediate external threats.

Experts believe this knowledge is a critical step toward better diagnostics and treatments for PTSD as it shows which areas of the brain provoke traumatic symptoms.

PTSD can plague victims with disturbing memories, flashbacks, nightmares and emotional instability. Among the 1.7 million men and women who have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an estimated 20 percent have PTSD. Research shows that suicide risk is higher in veterans with PTSD.

Tragically, more soldiers committed suicide in 2012 than the number of soldiers who were killed in combat in Afghanistan that year.

“It is critical to have an objective test to confirm PTSD diagnosis as self-reports can be unreliable,” said co-author Charles Marmar, M.D.

The study, led by Xiaodan Yan, a research fellow at NYU School of Medicine, examined “spontaneous” or “resting” brain activity in 104 veterans of combat from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars using functional MRI, which measures blood-oxygen levels in the brain.

The researchers found that spontaneous brain activity in the amygdala, a key structure in the brain’s “fear circuitry” that processes fearful and anxious emotions, was significantly higher in the 52 combat veterans with PTSD than in the 52 combat veterans without PTSD.

The PTSD group also showed elevated brain activity in the anterior insula, a brain region that regulates sensitivity to pain and negative emotions.

Moreover, the PTSD group had lower activity in the precuneus, a structure tucked between the brain’s two hemispheres that helps integrate information from the past and future, especially when the mind is wandering or disengaged from active thought.

Decreased activity in the precuneus correlates with more severe “re-experiencing” symptoms—that is, when victims re-experience trauma over and over again through flashbacks, nightmares and frightening thoughts.

Source: NYU Langone Medical Center / New York University School of Medicine

Abstract of a person’s brain photo by shutterstock.

Experts say the study is the first to look at the effects of smoking and age on neurocognition in people seeking treatment for alcohol dependency.

Researchers say the findings are important because treatment for alcohol use disorders is more effective if a person actively understands and adopts the interventions. Multiple factors may impede cognition during early abstinence including chronic cigarette smoking and increasing age.

In the study, researchers discovered alcohol dependent (AD) individuals who currently smoke show more problems with memory, ability to think quickly and efficiently, and problem-solving skills than those who don’t smoke, effects which seem to become exacerbated with age.

Study results will be published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

“Several factors — nutrition, exercise, comorbid medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, psychiatric conditions such as depressive disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder, and genetic predispositions — may also influence cognitive functioning during early abstinence,” explained Timothy C. Durazzo, Ph.D., corresponding author for the study.

“We focused on the effects of chronic cigarette smoking and increasing age on cognition because previous research suggested that each has independent, adverse affects on multiple aspects of cognition and brain biology in people with and without alcohol use disorders.

“This previous research also indicated that the adverse effects of smoking on the brain accumulate over time. Therefore, we predicted that AD, active chronic smokers would show the greatest decline in cognitive abilities with increasing age.”

The interactive effects of smoking and other drug use on cognitive functioning among those with alcohol dependence are largely unknown.

“This is problematic because many heavy drinkers also smoke. Furthermore, in treatment programs for alcoholism, the issue of smoking may be largely ignored,” said Alecia Dager, Ph.D., associate research scientist in the department of psychiatry at Yale University.

Experts believe the current study provides important insights for treatment programs.

First, individuals with AD who also smoke may have more difficulty remembering, integrating and implementing treatment strategies. Second, there are clear benefits for thinking skills as a result of quitting both substances.

Durazzo and his colleagues compared the neurocognitive functioning of four groups of participants, all between the ages of 26 and 71 years of age: never-smoking healthy individuals as controls (n=39); and one-month abstinent, treatment-seeking AD individuals, who were never-smokers (n = 30), former-smokers (n = 21) and active-smokers (n = 68).

Researchers assessed cognitive efficiency, executive functions, fine motor skills, general intelligence, learning and memory, processing speed, visuospatial functions, and working memory.

“We found that, at one month of abstinence, actively smoking AD [individuals] had greater-than-normal age effects on measures of learning, memory, processing speed, reasoning and problem-solving, and fine motor skills,” said Durazzo.

“AD never-smokers and former-smokers showed equivalent changes on all measures with increasing age as the never-smoking controls. These results indicate the combination of alcohol dependence and active chronic smoking was related to an abnormal decline in multiple cognitive functions with increasing age.”

“These results indicate the combined effects of these drugs are especially harmful and become even more apparent in older age,” said Dager.

“In general, people show cognitive decline in older age. However, it seems that years of combined alcohol and cigarette use exacerbate this process, contributing to an even greater decline in thinking skills in later years.”

Source: Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research

Abstract of the human brain photo by shutterstock.

As reported in the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal), researchers discovered people with job stress and an unhealthy lifestyle are at higher risk of coronary artery disease than people who have job stress but lead healthy lifestyles.

Researchers studied the effect of a healthy lifestyle on reducing the effects of stress on coronary artery disease by reviewing seven cohort studies from a European initiative that included more than 100,000 people.

Subjects were disease-free during the 15-year study period (1985-2000), ranged in age from 17 to 70 (mean 44.3) years, and resided in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Sweden and Finland. More than half (52 percent) were women.

Of the total participants, nearly 16,000 individuals (16 percent) reported job stress, which was determined from specific job-related questions in the studies.

The investigators defined three lifestyle categories based on smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity/inactivity and obesity (body mass index).

A “healthy lifestyle” had no lifestyle risk factors, “moderately unhealthy lifestyle” had one risk factor and “unhealthy lifestyle” included 2 to 4 lifestyle risk factors.

A total of 1,086 participants had incident events of coronary artery disease events during the followup period.

The 10-year incidence of coronary artery disease was 18.4 per 1000 people for people with job strain and 14.7 for those without job strain.

People with an unhealthy lifestyle had a significantly higher 10-year incidence rate (30.6 per 1000) compared to those with a healthy lifestyle (12.0 per 1000). The incidence rate was 31.2 per 1000 for participants with job strain and an unhealthy lifestyle but only 14.7 for those with job strain and a healthy lifestyle.

“The risk of coronary artery disease was highest among participants who reported job strain and an unhealthy lifestyle; those with job strain and a healthy lifestyle had about half the rate of this disease,” said researcher Mika Kivimäki, Ph.D.

“These observational data suggest that a healthy lifestyle could substantially reduce the risk of coronary artery disease risk among people with job strain.”

Evidence from randomized controlled trials has shown that lifestyle changes such as weight loss and stopping smoking can reduce the risk of disease.

“In addition to stress counseling, clinicians might consider paying closer attention to lifestyle risk factors in patients who report job strain,” the authors conclude.

Source: Canadian Medical Association Journal

Stethoscope shaped as a person photo by shutterstock.

While technology is often blamed for increasing levels of physical inactivity and obesity, researchers are learning that innovative use of technology can allow students to burn calories while having fun.

Unfortunately, levels of physical inactivity and obesity are very high in children, with fewer than 50 percent of primary school-aged boys and fewer than 28 percent of girls meeting the minimum levels of physical activity required to maintain health.

In the study, scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers from The University of Western Australia, and Swansea University evaluated 15 children, 9-11 years of age.

Participants performed 15 minutes each of high intensity exergaming (Kinect Sports – 200m Hurdles), low intensity exergaming (Kinect Sports – Ten Pin Bowling), and a graded exercise test (treadmill).

The researchers measured energy expenditure and an individual’s vascular response to each activity using flow-mediated dilation (FMD) — a validated measure of vascular function and health in children.

They found that high intensity exergaming elicited an energy expenditure equivalent to moderate intensity exercise; low intensity exergaming resulted in an energy expenditure equivalent to low intensity exercise.

While the low intensity exergaming did not have an impact on vascular health, high intensity exergaming did significantly decrease FMD, suggesting that the latter may improve vascular health in children.

High intensity exergaming also increased heart rate and the amount of energy burned. Participants reported similar enjoyment levels with both intensities of exergaming, which indicates that children may be equally likely to continue playing the high intensity games.

According to lead investigator Louise Naylor,Ph.D., “Higher intensity exergaming may be a good form of activity for children to use to gain long-term and sustained health benefits.”

These findings also support the growing notion that high-intensity activity is beneficial for children’s health, and high-intensity exergaming should be considered a means of encouraging children to become more active.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this technological solution is that exergaming is just fun — and thus encourages participation and long-term behavioral change.

Source: Elsevier

Girl playing Wii game photo by shutterstock.

Researchers from the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah also found that the risk for suicidal behaviors and thoughts increased not only in the short term, but during the soldier’s entire life.

“Up to now, no one has been able to say if multiple TBIs, which are common among combat veterans, are associated with higher suicide risk or not,” said the study’s lead author, Craig J. Bryan, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah and associate director of the National Center for Veterans Studies.

“This study suggests they are, and it provides valuable information for professionals treating wounded combat servicemen and women to help manage the risk of suicide.”

During a six-month period in 2009, 161 patients who received a suspected brain injury while on duty in Iraq were referred to an outpatient TBI clinic at a combat support hospital.

The researchers found that one in five (21.7 percent) who had sustained more than one TBI reported suicidal ideation, described as thoughts about or preoccupation with suicide.

For those who had received one TBI, 6.9 percent reported having suicidal thoughts. Zero percent of those with no TBIs reported suicidal thoughts.

In evaluating the lifetime risk, researchers asked patients if they had ever experienced suicidal thoughts and behaviors up to the point they were assessed.

The increases were similar for suicidal thoughts during the previous year rather than at any time, according to the researchers. They found that 12 percent of those with multiple TBIs had entertained suicidal ideas during the past year, compared with 3.4 percent with one TBI, and 0 percent for no TBIs.

The researchers explained that they used suicidal ideation as the indicator of suicide risk because too few patients reported a history of making a suicide plan or had made a suicide attempt for statistically valid conclusions to be made.

Researchers also found that multiple TBIs were associated with a significant increase in other psychological symptoms, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, only the increase in depression severity predicted an increased suicide risk, they noted.

“That head injury and resulting psychological effects increase the risk of suicide is not new,” Bryan said. “But knowing that repetitive TBIs may make patients even more vulnerable provides new insight for attending to military personnel over the long-term, particularly when they are experiencing added emotional distress in their lives.”

Because researchers were in Iraq, they were able to compile “a unique data set on active military personnel and head injury,” Bryan said. “We collected data on a large number of service members within two days of impact.”

He noted that researchers assessed only patients with mild or no TBI at the combat hospital. Those with moderate to severe TBI were immediately evacuated from Iraq.

The patients remaining in the study were divided into three groups based the total number of TBIs during their entire lives — zero, one, and two or more. The most recent TBI was typically within the days immediately preceding their evaluation and inclusion in the study.

Each soldier was also surveyed about their symptoms of depression, PTSD and concussions, and their suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

TBI is considered a “signature injury” of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, according to the researchers. They note it is of particular concern because of the frequency of concussive injuries from explosions and other combat-related incidents. Estimated prevalence of TBI for those deployed in these two countries ranges from 8 percent to 20 percent, according to a 2008 study.

Additionally, past studies have found that suicide is the second-leading cause of death among U.S. military personnel, with the rate rising steadily since the conflicts began in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Prevalence of PTSD, depression and substance abuse have risen as well, especially among those in combat, and each has been shown to increase risk for suicidal behaviors, researchers noted.

“Being aware of the number of a patient’s head injuries and the interrelation with depression and other psychological symptoms may help us better understand, and thus moderate, the risk of suicide over time,” Bryan said. “Ultimately, we would like to know why people do not kill themselves. Despite facing similar issues and circumstances, some people recover. Understanding that is the real goal.”

The study was published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Source: University of Utah

Soldier holding his head photo by shutterstock.

According to researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, the antidepressant benefits of ketamine, normally used as an anesthetic, were seen within 24 hours. Traditional antidepressants can take days or even weeks to demonstrate a reduction in depression, researchers noted.

Led by psychiatrists Drs. Dan Iosifescu, of Mount Sinai, Sanjay Mathew of Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine; and James Murrough, at Mount Sinai, the research team evaluated 72 people with treatment-resistant depression, which means their depression failed to respond to two or more medications.

These patients were administered a single intravenous infusion of ketamine for 40 minutes or an active placebo of midazolam, another type of anesthetic without antidepressant properties.

Patients were interviewed after 24 hours and again after seven days.

According to the researchers, after 24 hours, the response rate was 63.8 percent in the ketamine group compared to 28 percent in the placebo group.

The response to ketamine, however, did not last for most, with only 45.7 percent reporting benefits seven days after treatment. Only 18 percent of people in the placebo group reported such benefit after a week.

“Using midazolam as an active placebo allowed us to independently assess the antidepressant benefit of ketamine, excluding any anesthetic effects,” said Murrough, who is first author on the new study. “Ketamine continues to show significant promise as a new treatment option for patients with severe and refractory forms of depression.”

Major depression is caused by a breakdown in communication between nerve cells in the brain, a process involving chemicals called neurotransmitters, the researchers explained. Traditional antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), influence the activity of the neurotransmitters serotonin and noreprenephrine to reduce depression, though the exact mechanism is not known.

But these medications can take a long time to make a difference — and up to 60 percent of people do not respond to treatment, according to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services.

Ketamine works differently than traditional antidepressants in that it influences the activity of the glutamine neurotransmitter to help restore the dysfunctional communication between nerve cells in the depressed brain, the researchers said. It also works much more quickly than traditional antidepressants.

Further studies are needed to investigate the longer term safety and efficacy of ketamine in depression, according to Murrough.

He recently published a preliminary report in the journal Biological Psychiatry on the safety and efficacy of ketamine given three times weekly for two weeks in patients with treatment-resistant depression.

Because ketamine is a short-acting drug, it must be injected multiple times a week in order for a person to continue to receive its antidepressant effects. Longitudinal studies on its long-term use over the course of months or even years have not yet been done, so its long-term effects on a person’s health remain unknown.

“We found that ketamine was safe and well-tolerated and that patients who demonstrated a rapid antidepressant effect after starting ketamine were able to maintain the response throughout the course of the study,” he said. “Larger placebo-controlled studies will be required to more fully determine the safety and efficacy profile of ketamine in depression.”

“Major depression is one of the most prevalent and costly illnesses in the world, and yet currently available treatments fall far short of alleviating this burden,” said Dr. Dennis Charney, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Charney was among the researchers who discovered the potential of ketamine for treating depression.

“There is an urgent need for new, fast-acting therapies, and ketamine shows important potential in filling that void,” he said.

Source: The Mount Sinai Hospital/Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Model of Ketamin photo by shutterstock.

Lead researcher Dr. Jerome Sarris, from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne, said that GAD is a complex condition that significantly affects people’s day-to-day lives. Current medications have a modest clinical effect and new effective options are needed.

“Based on previous work, we have recognized that plant-based medicines may be a viable treatment for patients with chronic anxiety,” Sarris said.

“In this study we’ve been able to show that kava offers a potential natural alternative for the treatment of chronic clinical anxiety. Unlike some other options it has less risk of dependency and less potential for side effects.”

The roots of the kava plant have long been used to make a drink that has sedative and anesthetic effects. It is consumed throughout the Pacific Ocean cultures of Polynesia, including Hawaii, Vanuatu, Melanesia and some parts of Micronesia.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, also found that genetic differences in neurobiological mechanisms called GABA transporters may affect response to kava.

“If this finding is replicated, it may pave the way for simple genetic tests to determine which people may be likely to have a beneficial anxiety-reducing effect from taking kava,” Sarris said.

The eight-week study involved 75 patients who had been clinically diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.  The participants were given either kava or placebo, and anxiety levels were regularly assessed.

Those in the kava group were given tablets twice per day consisting of water-soluble extracted kava (peeled rootstock) for a total dose of 120mg of kavalactones for the first three-week controlled phase. In cases of non-response, this was increased to a double-dose twice per day for the second three-week controlled phase.

Participants in the placebo group took matching dummy tablets in the same manner.

At the end of the study, the kava group showed a significant reduction in anxiety compared to the placebo group.  For those diagnosed with moderate to severe GAD, kava had an even greater effect in reducing anxiety.

In the end, 26 percent of the kava group were in remission from their symptoms compared to six percent of the placebo group.

Kava was also well-tolerated. The findings showed no significant difference among the two groups for liver function, which had previously been a concern for kava’s medicinal use.

Furthermore, there were no significant adverse reactions that could be attributed to kava and no difference in withdrawal or addiction between the groups.

Another novel finding of the study, recently published in Phytotherapy Research, was that kava increased women’s sex drive compared to those in the placebo group.  This is thought to be a result of the reduction in anxiety, rather than an aphrodisiac effect.

Source: Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology

Kava plant photo by shutterstock.