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Diagnosis & Disease Information

Hypnosis in Medicine
Neurology

Bringing Hypnosis out of the Mystical and into the Practical: Is It Real?

Publish Date

On February 9, 1978, 12-year-old Kimberly Leach realized that she had left her purse in one of her classes at Lake City Junior High School in Lake City, Florida and returned to the classroom to retrieve it after a school assembly. That was the last time she was seen, until her body was found 2 months later near the Suwannee River approximately 35 miles west of the school. The only witness to Kimberly’s abduction was Clarence Anderson, who said he saw a young girl in front of the school being led to a white van by a man he thought was her father. However, he was unable to provide a detailed description of either the man or the girl he observed. At the request of Assistant State Attorney Bob Dekle, Anderson subsequently underwent 2 hypnosis sessions, after which he was successfully able to describe in detail their clothing and identify the murderer as the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy.

Proof of Heaven
Vital Signs

Proof of Heaven: A Skeptic’s Trip to the Hereafter

Publish Date

Proof of Heaven, the story of neurosurgeon Eben Alexander’s self-professed trip to the afterlife and a New York Times best-seller about the joy of being dead and coming back, addresses a basic human question: What happens after we die? This perennial question continues to provoke philosophical, religious, and existential interest. In modern times, the issue of “heaven” has garnered much attention with the analysis of near-death experiences (NDEs) and other incidents shared by people who claim to have been there, including those who say they were reacquainted with lost loved ones along the way. It’s a powerful and sensitive subject that many of us want to know more about, but not everyone is engaging in the conversation fairly.

Gaming Is Now an Extreme Sport
Neurology

Gaming Is Now an Extreme Sport

Publish Date

Starting in the 1970’s, cult classics such as Pac-Man, Asteroids, and Pong helped pave the way for video games to become an increasingly popular form of entertainment. Encompassing a myriad of genres, video games provide many unique experiences, but who would have thought that they would legitimately become a competitive sport? Human beings by nature are competitive, yet we are also able to cooperate to accomplish some amazing feats.

Electronic Nerve-Stimulating Headband Approved by FDA to Prevent Migraines
Tech Talk

Electronic Nerve-Stimulating Headband Approved by FDA to Prevent Migraines

Publish Date

The revolutionary product comes in the form of a battery-powered headband fitted with an electrode that sends an electrical signal through the skin to the trigeminal nerve, which plays a role in many migraines. By stimulating the nerve, the device was shown to help prevent migraines in a clinical test of 67 people who previously had at least 2 migraine attacks per month. The participants wore the device for 20 minutes a day for 3 months and recorded that they took significantly less migraine medication than those who received a placebo device. A satisfaction survey of more than 2000 people in Belgium and France also showed that 53% of patients said they were happy with the headband and that they would buy one for continued use.

Researchers Find Evidence That Brain Changes Can Result From Participation
Medicine

Researchers Find Evidence Brain Changes Can Result From Participation in One Year of Contact

Publish Date

The impact of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), TBI, concussion and other head injuries associated with contact sports is a critical area of research within the field of neurosurgery. Today during the 82nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), researchers led by Alexander K. Powers, MD, presented the results of a study to determine the cumulative effects of head impacts as they relate to changes in the brain absent of concussion.

UCSF Launches Groundbreaking Online Registry to Drive Brain Disease Research
Medicine

UCSF Launches Groundbreaking Online Registry to Drive Brain Disease Research

Publish Date

A new online project led by researchers at UC San Francisco promises to dramatically cut the time and cost of conducting clinical trials for brain diseases, while also helping scientists analyze and track the brain functions of thousands of volunteers over time.

With easy online registration, the Brain Health Registry is designed to create a ready pool of research subjects for studies on neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and many other brain ailments. About one third of the cost of running a clinical trial comes from having to recruit patients, and many trials fail or are delayed because of it.

ER Doctors Commonly Miss More Strokes Among Women, Minorities and Younger Patients
Medicine

ER Doctors Commonly Miss More Strokes Among Women, Minorities and Younger Patients

Publish Date

Analyzing federal health care data, a team of researchers led by a Johns Hopkins specialist concluded that doctors overlook or discount the early signs of potentially disabling strokes in tens of thousands of American each year, a large number of them visitors to emergency rooms complaining of dizziness or headaches.

The findings from the medical records review, reported online April 3 in the journal Diagnosis, show that women, minorities and people under the age of 45 who have these symptoms of stroke were significantly more likely to be misdiagnosed in the week prior to sustaining a debilitating stroke. Younger people in the study were nearly seven times more likely to be given an incorrect diagnosis and sent home without treatment despite such symptoms.

A New Approach to Huntington's Disease
Medicine

A New Approach to Huntington’s Disease?

Publish Date

Tweaking a specific cell type’s ability to absorb potassium in the brain improved walking and prolonged survival in a mouse model of Huntington’s disease, reports a UCLA study published March 30 in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience. The discovery could point to new drug targets for treating the devastating disease, which strikes one in every 20,000 Americans.

Huntington’s disease is passed from parent to child through a mutation in the huntingtin gene. By killing brain cells called neurons, the progressive disorder gradually deprives patients of their ability to walk, speak, swallow, breathe and think clearly. No cure exists, and patients with aggressive cases can die in as little as 10 years.

Not All Medulloblastomas Are Alike
Medicine

“Not All Medulloblastomas Alike”; Variations in Treatment Approaches Urged

Publish Date

Medulloblastoma, a rapidly growing brain tumor, can be categorized as four genetically and clinically distinct subtypes. Traditionally, increased extent of resection (EOR) has been linked to an improved prognosis in some medulloblastomas. A global team of more than 40 researchers at 20 institutions studied more than 500 medulloblastomas to determine the clinical importance of EOR and metastatic stage.

Migraine Attacks Increase Following Stress
Medicine

Migraine Attacks Increase Following Stress “Let-Down”

Publish Date

Migraine sufferers who experienced reduced stress from one day to the next are at significantly increased risk of migraine onset on the subsequent day, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the Montefiore Headache Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University. Stress has long been believed to be a common headache trigger. In this study, researchers found that relaxation following heightened stress was an even more significant trigger for migraine attacks. Findings may aid in recommending preventive treatments and behavioral interventions. The study was published online today in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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