All posts in May 2023

Similarly, it is important to check the blood levels of seizure medications when changes in metabolism are expected or in the context of suspected toxicity, but a routine practice of blood-level monitoring is a waste of time and resources.Second, better evidence is needed to guide the initiation, choice, and discontinuation of seizure medications. For example, while…

Exploration has special value early-on in a learning process; thus, it seems prudent in the context of psychedelic therapy that it be given consideration now, rather than further down the development path, when sub-optimal parameters begin to undergo regulatory ‘lock-in’. Rectifying this matter now may help mitigate risks associated with a too hasty scale-up of…

In neurotypical adults, the CEN is negatively correlated – i.e., anticorrelated – with the default mode network , an RSN associated with internal mentation and self-referential processing, whose key nodes include the medial prefrontal cortex. The decoupling of these RSNs has been found to be adaptive: Greater MPFC-DLPFC anticorrelations are associated with superior cognitive control…

The data were acquired during the day over a 6-min period, using two vertical and two horizontal Ag-AgCl electrodes placed around the left eye. The sampling rate was 100 Hz. The vertical EOG signal , used for eye blink assessment, was obtained from a bipolar montage using the electrodes placed above and below the eye. The…

Many DELLA mutants are constitutive repressors of the GA response and they have been made famous by the socalled “Green Revolution” which included wheat and rice plants that were dwarfed by their inability to respond to GA. Both D8 and D9 maize mutants do not respond to application of GA3 that causes an increase in…

Monoecy is more expensive than perfection because a plant with unisexual flowers will have to produce two sets of flowers where a single perfect flower would suffice, thus Bertin argues, it is only when flowers are relatively cheap that monoecy can be permitted. Bertin’s theory does not explain why monoecy might be desirable, instead it…

This review is organized into sections based on drug approval status, namely approved medications, repurposed medications, and novel agents. Within each medication section, we examine the basic mechanism of action, evaluate preclinical research testing the efficacy of the medication in mitigating alcohol-related behaviors in animal models, and review clinical findings from human laboratory studies and randomized controlled trials where available.…

Substance use disorders affect more than 20 million individuals in the United States annually, increasing risk for psychiatric disorders, chronic diseases, and disruptions to social, family, and work lives . SUD prevalence peaks during young adulthood , with co-occurrence of multiple SUDs also common during this time period, which increases clinical severity and complicates treatment . Previous…

Psychiatric illnesses that begin during adolescence and disrupt successful transition into adulthood represent one such category of mental disorders for which primary prevention is key, but therapeutic targets meeting the goal of prevention are lacking. This study seeks to provide rationale for and test the hypothesis that immune system dysregulation may serve as a biological…

We did not ask about prescribed medications and could not report on the role of polypharmacy. We conducted the study in the San Francisco Bay Area, where 67% of people experiencing homelessness live unsheltered, compared to 5% in both New York and Boston.Studies in cities with lower proportions of unsheltered homelessness may report lower rates…