Statins: Wonder drugs for the masses?

So you think you're healthy? You are in your 40s, feel right as rain, normal blood pressure, normal cholesterol, pretty good diet, occasional exercise. How would you react if your doctor suggested you take a powerful drug every day for the rest of your life?
The drug, known as a statin, will lower your cholesterol even further and reduce your risk of a heart attack or stroke. According to one recent estimate, most men and many women over 40 could benefit from the drugs. If you are worried about side effects, your doctor will reassure you that a meta-analysis that pooled data from 14 trials involving more than 90,000 people shows the treatment is very safe.

By James Kingsland, in New Scientist.com

I'm a PsychoTheRapist: Borderline is my mission.

People with Borderline Disorder (BLD) often have highly unstable patterns of social relationships. While they can develop intense but stormy attachments, their attitudes towards family, friends, and loved ones may suddenly shift from idealization (great admiration and love) to devaluation (intense anger and dislike). Thus, they may form an immediate attachment and idealize the other person, but when a slight separation or conflict occurs, they switch unexpectedly to the other extreme and angrily accuse the other person of not caring for them at all. Even with family members, individuals with BLD are highly sensitive to rejection, reacting with anger and distress to such mild separations as a vacation, a business trip, or a sudden change in plans. These fears of abandonment seem to be related to difficulties feeling emotionally connected to important persons when they are physically absent, leaving the individual with BLD feeling lost and perhaps worthless. Suicide threats and attempts may occur along with anger at perceived abandonment and disappointments. People with BLD exhibit other impulsive behaviors, such as excessive spending, binge eating and risky sex.

While a person with depression or bipolar disorder typically endures the same mood for weeks, a person with BLD may experience intense bouts of anger, depression, and anxiety that may last only hours, or at most a day. These may be associated with episodes of impulsive aggression, self-injury, and drug or alcohol abuse. Distortions in cognition and sense of self can lead to frequent changes in long-term goals, career plans, jobs, friendships, gender identity, and values. Sometimes people with BLD view themselves as fundamentally bad, or unworthy. They may feel unfairly misunderstood or mistreated, bored, empty, and have little idea who they are. Such symptoms are most acute when people with BLD feel isolated and lacking in social support, and may result in frantic efforts to avoid being alone.

Neuroscience research is revealing brain mechanisms underlying the impulsivity, mood instability, aggression, anger, and negative emotion seen in BLD. Serotonin, norepinephrine and acetylcholine are among the chemical messengers in the circuits that play a role in the regulation of emotions, including sadness, anger, anxiety, and irritability. Drugs that enhance brain serotonin function may improve emotional symptoms in BLD. However, the cause of BLD is unknown; both environmental and genetic factors are thought to play a role in predisposing patients to BPD symptoms and traits.

Misery fills my heart and everything hurts.

Now i got you in my grasp do not fear my checkered past
have you now begun to see this diabolic side of me
in your mind I'm always there I guess
you thought I really cared now it's time to say goodbye
you bit the hook, believed the lie
i'm not going to try to hurt you I'll be honest kind and true
i'll take you out and treat you right like a decent man would do.

Gonna modify my behavior to make you think I'm your savior
now that I'm inside your head
i'm gonna use you, probably abuse you
should have listened to what your mom said..

Have you seen her?

Habitualmente vêm-se os poetas, ocupados, nas suas fraquezas, em pintar o amor. Fértil ideia que povoa as obras dramáticas. E porque cada um tem a sua paixão, raro é o encontro dos génios. Todos amam quem lhes falta.. mas quando o amor se dedica a um único ser, é grande a sua intensidade. A nostalgia do amor, a nostalgia dos poetas, a ilusão que se derrete. O sentir, o olhar, o nada. O amor, a doença. Os enamorados que se traem. Vazio.

'Spectrum of empathy' found in the brain

Ever wondered how some people can “put themselves into another person's shoes” and some people cannot? Our ability to empathise with others seems to depend on the action of "mirror neurons" in the brain. Mirror neurons, known to exist in humans and in macaque monkeys, activate when an action is observed, and also when it is performed. “Each time you crunch a potato chip you hear yourself crunching the chip, and now when you hear someone else crunching it activates your own action neurons.” The phenomenon has been exploited by advertisers for years – think of the Coca-cola commercials comprising of just the noise of a bottle of Coke being opened, the fizz of the drink and the sound of the drinking.

“How empathetic we are seems to be related to how strongly our mirror neuron system is activated”, “It’s exciting because we can start to look at the diversity of experiences of other people. Some people see others through themselves, and some are more objective about it.”

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched ... but are felt in the heart.

Current Biology Journal (vol 16, p 1824)

Snooze your way to high test scores

If you are trying to commit something to memory, take a nap. Even a short daytime snooze could help you learn. A good night's sleep is known to improve people's ability to learn actions such as mirror writing. REM sleep, when most dreaming occurs, is thought to be particularly important. It now seems sleep is "an important mechanism for memory formation".

From issue 2570 of New Scientist magazine, 23 September 2006.

Teenager and addicted to the net?

Youngsters getting afflicted by a whole new gamut of psychological diseases, thanks to the advancement of technology. Various studies have shown that those who indulge in excessive Internet use lack self discipline, have problems in getting along with their family and friends, or are trying to avoid facing frustrations in life. "This addiction, known as Internet Syndrome, can be defined as impulse control disorder".