Tom Stafford's Blog, page 164

Broken hearted

[image error]The Wall Street Journal has an article on a curious medical condition called 'broken heart syndrome' where grief or strong emotion seems mimic a heart attack.

The piece starts with a case description of a lady who had just experience the death of her husband from a heart attack and her reaction which seemed to also be a heart attack:

When doctors performed an X-ray angiogram expecting to find and treat a blood clot that had caused Mrs. Lee's symptoms, they were surprised: There wasn't any...

The draft of the new 'psychiatric bible' is published

[image error]The draft version of the American Psychiatric Association's DSM 5, the psychiatric 'bible' that defines the revised criteria for diagnosing mental illness, has finally been published.

It's a masterpiece of compromise - intended to be largely backwardly compatible, so most psychiatrists could just get on diagnosing the few major mental illnesses that all clinicians recognise in the same way they always did, with some extra features if you're an advanced user.

One of the most striking extra...

On a literary trip

[image error]The Guardian books blog has a fantastic short piece on fictional mind-bending drugs from literature, stretching from the nightmare-inducing hallucinogens of William Burroughs to Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster from Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy.

The most famous invented drug is probably soma in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. It was an integral part of the story because it was an integral part of the authorities' control mechanism – they were literally keeping the people doped up and happy...

A varied diet

[image error]A 1964 article from the Archives of Surgery discusses how to treat psychotic patients who may have ingested inedible objects.

It reports on one remarkable case where the following list of objects was found in one patient's stomach. They also helpfully provided a photo of all the objects laid out on a table.

Nickels (173), Pennies (161), Quarters (3), Dimes (26), Military buttons (22), Insignia clasps (5), Nails (50), Staples (5), Screws (16), Metal bolt (1), Metal nuts (4), Overall buckles...

Brain skulls on the front, splatters on the back

[image error]You wait ages for a neuroscience-themed dress to appear (and believe me, I have) and then two come along at once.

After my discovery of neuro streetwear for the female fashonista last week, comes a brain themed tutu dress for the riotgrrl neuroscientist.

The description is actually quite poetic:

Brain skulls on the front, splatters on front and back. Distressed style: Imagery has unique cracks, splatters, smears, asymmetry, fading. Adjustable halter straps tie behind your neck for customizable...

One Hundred Years of Memory Loss

[image error]Neurology journal Brain has a fantastic article on the close parallels between the effects of semantic dementia, a degenerative brain disease that causes the loss of memory for the meaning of words and objects, and the novel A Hundred years of Solitude where a magical disease affects villagers' memory for 'the name and notion of things'.

The novel is by the Nobel-prize winning Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez and is famous for founding the magical realism style of fiction where...

Nine Legendary Hypochondriacs

[image error]ABC Radio National's Late Night Live has a fascinating discussion with the author of a new book on nine famous hypochondriacs: James Boswell, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale, Alice James, Daniel Paul Schreber, Marcel Proust, Glenn Gould and Andy Warhol.

I'm not sure Daniel Paul Schreber is necessarily the best example of someone with hypochondria is he is famous for writing a personal account of being genuinely mentally ill and floridly psychotic. However, I've not read ...

Bonuses generate more heat than light

[image error]The engaging behavioural economist Dan Ariely has just become a columnist for Wired UK and in his first article he describes how the promise of performance-related pay often backfires leading people to do more but perform worse.

To see the effect of bonuses on performance, Nina Mazar (assistant professor of marketing, Toronto University), Uri Gneezy (professor of economics and strategy, University of California, San Diego), George Loewenstein (professor of economics, Carnegie Mellon...

2010-02-05 Spike activity

Quick links from the past week in mind and brain news:

[image error]

Sex addiction is a feminist victory, according to an article in Slate, apparently because it allows man shaming. Malevolence-based medicine rears its ugly head.

The BPS Research Digest covers research finding CBT-based self-help books might do more harm than good for people who worry a lot.

The public are asked for their opinion on the recent news that The Lancet retracts the Wakefield autism paper, by The Onion.

Neurophilosophy has an...

Eureka brain special and more fighting

[image error]The Times has just released its monthly science magazine, Eureka, with a special issue on the brain and all the articles freely available online.

There doesn't seem to be a way to link to a whole issue, but inside you'll find an excellent piece on the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to temporarily switch off bits of the working brain, a profile of neurosurgeon Huma Sethi, an article on commercial brain-computer interfaces, a remarkable piece on how old injuries can 'return' to a...