Posted by Bfly on January 11, 2004, at 7:29:11
Hello.
Is it possible that those who, when drinking, get tired right away have enough Seritonin and those that get euphoric have don't get enough Dopamine? "Just a thought".I was wondering if anyone had some ideas about the following articles:
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Gene found for obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Last Updated: 2003-10-23 10:36:19 -0400 (Reuters Health)WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and Japanese researchers said on Thursday they had found a genetic mutation that causes obsessive-compulsive disorder and other mental illnesses, and said some patients had a second mutation that made their conditions worse.
The rare finding could make it easier to discover good treatments for the disorder, one of the top 10 leading causes of disability worldwide.
Dr. Norio Ozaki of Fujita Health University School of Medicine in Toyoake, Japan and colleagues at several U.S. institutions -- including the University of Pittsburgh and Yale University -- worked on the study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
The gene is called the human serotonin transporter gene, hSERT, and helps control how the body uses serotonin, a message-carrying chemical or neurotransmitter linked with mood.
Some anxiety drugs and antidepressants target serotonin, but the researchers said patients with the mutations are not helped by these drugs.
"In all of molecular medicine, there are few known instances where two variants within one gene have been found to alter the expression and regulation of the gene in a way that appears associated with symptoms of a disorder," said Dr. Dennis Murphy of the National Institute of Mental Health, who worked on the study.
The researchers analyzed DNA from 170 people, including 30 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), 30 with eating disorders such as anorexia and 30 with seasonal affective disorder -- which can cause depression and other symptoms in dark winter months.
They also looked at the DNA of 80 healthy people.
A specific mutation in the hSERT gene was seen in two patients with OCD and their families, but not in other patients.
With such a rare mutation showing up, the researchers believe it is likely to be found in other families with OCD and related disorders.
They interviewed relatives of the patients and found 6 of the 7 people with the mutation had an obsessive-compulsive disorder; some also had anorexia, Asperger's syndrome -- which is a form of autism -- social phobia, or were abusers of alcohol.
A second mutation was found in hSERT in two patients, giving them a "double dose." The patients and their siblings had especially difficult to treat versions of OCD, the researchers said.
-------------------------------------------------The biology of deception: emotion and morphine.
Med Hypotheses 1995 Jan; 44: 49-52
Stefano GB Fricchione GL
Affiliation
Neuroscience Research Institute, State University of New York at Old Westbury 11568, USA.Abstract
The biology of deception suggests that denial-like processes are at the core of the cognitive coping. In this regard, with cognitive ability, one associates or assumes that this process occurs by way of a 'rational' mind. Such a detailed cognitive process as being rational would also lead, counter intuitively, to inactivity and or major delays in conclusion reaching. Thus, our perceived rationality may also be a deceptive behavioral response. Of equal noteworthyness, man is also 'emotional'. We surmise that emotion represents the pre-cognitive short-cut to overcome this potential for excessive rationality. In this light, we may explain certain psychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive behavior as emotional extremes dealing with cognitive habits used to bind anxiety operating most probably at the pre-cognitive level. Given recent discoveries in neuroimmunology and an understanding of naturally occurring morphine as both an immune and neurological down-regulatory substance we hypothesize that abnormalities associated with emotional extremes may be due, in part, to morphinergic imbalances.
poster:Bfly
thread:299318
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040109/msgs/299318.html