Exposure to childhood maltreatment increases the risk for most psychiatric disorders as well as many negative consequences of these conditions. This new study, by Dr. Gustavo Turecki and colleagues at McGill University, Canada, provides important insight into one of the most extreme outcomes, suicide.

"In this study, we expanded our previous work on the epigenetic regulation of the glucocorticoid receptor gene by investigating the impact of severe early-life adversity on DNA methylation," explained Dr. Turecki. The glucocorticoid receptor is important because it is a brain target for the stress hormone cortisol.

The researchers studied brain tissue from people who had committed suicide, some of whom had a history of childhood maltreatment, and compared that tissue to people who had died from other causes. They found that particular variants of the glucocorticoid receptor were less likely to be present in the limbic system, or emotion circuit, of the brain in people who had committed suicide and were maltreated as children compared to the other two groups..

When a person injures their knee, it becomes inflamed. When a person has a cold, their throat becomes inflamed. This type of inflammation is the body's natural and protective response to injury.

Interestingly, there is growing evidence that a similar process happens when a person experiences psychological trauma. Unfortunately, this type of inflammation can be destructive.

Previous studies have linked depression and inflammation, particularly in individuals who have experienced early childhood adversity, but overall, findings have been inconsistent. Researchers Gregory Miller and Steve Cole designed a longitudinal study in an effort to resolve these discrepancies, and their findings are now published in a study in Biological Psychiatry.

They recruited a large group of female adolescents who were healthy, but at high risk for experiencing depression. The volunteers were then followed for 2 ½ years, undergoing interviews and giving blood samples to measure their levels of C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, two types of inflammatory markers. Their exposure to childhood adversity was also assessed.

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adolescents have experienced an anger attack that involved threatening violence, destroying property or engaging in violence toward others at some point in their lives. These severe attacks of uncontrollable anger are much more common among adolescents than previously recognized, a new study led by researchers from Harvard Medical School finds.

The study, based on the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement, a national face-to-face household survey of 10,148 U.S. adolescents, found that nearly two-thirds of adolescents in the U.S. have a history of anger attacks. It also found that one in 12 young people -- close to six million adolescents -- meet criteria for a diagnosis of Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED), a syndrome characterized by persistent uncontrollable anger attacks not accounted for by other mental disorders.

The results were published July 2 in Archives of General Psychiatry.

Pharmaceutical giant pleads guilty to three criminal charges over mis-selling of drugs and withholding of data

GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanour criminal charges and pay $3bn to settle what government officials describe as the largest case of healthcare fraud in US history.

The agreement, which still needs court approval, would resolve allegations that the British drug maker broke US laws in the marketing and development of pharmaceuticals. The terms of the settlement were announced in November.

GSK targeted the antidepressant Paxil at patients under age 18 when it was approved only for adults, and promoted the drug Wellbutrin for uses it was not approved for, including weight loss and treatment of sexual dysfunction, according to a US justice department investigation.

The company went to extreme lengths to promote the drugs, such as distributing a misleading medical journal article and providing doctors with meals and spa treatments that amounted to illegal kickbacks, prosecutors said.

Fructose, which literally means "fruit sugar,"* sounds so sweet and innocent. And indeed, when incorporated into the diet in moderate amounts in the form of fruit - always organic and raw, when possible - it's about as pure and wholesome as as a nutrient can get.

Not so for industrially processed fructose in isolate form, which may be as addictive as alcohol,[i] and perhaps even morphine [ii] [iii]and which according to USDA research published in 2008 into major trends in U.S. food consumption patterns, 1970-2005, we now consume at the rate of at least 50 lbs a year -- the 800 ounce gorilla in the room.[iv]

Our dietary exposure to fructose, of course, is primarily through either sugar (sucrose), which is a disaccharide comprised of 50% fructose and 50% glucose by weight, or through high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is mostly a 55% fructose and 45% glucose blend of monosaccharides, but goes as high as 90% fructose and 10% glucose in HFCS-90 form. Pasteurized fruit juices are another concentrated source of fructose, but increasingly, even pasteurized fruit juice is being adulterated with additional sugar or HFCS for reasons that have mostly to do with protecting the manufacturer's bottom line.

Because high-fructose corn syrup contains free-form monosaccharides of fructose and glucose, it cannot be considered biologically equivalent to sucrose, which has a glycosidic bond that links the fructose and glucose together, and which slows its break down in the body. The attempt by the HFCS industry to re-label their product as "corn sugar," which was recently denied by the FDA,[v] belies their anxiety about the differences, and also reveals growing awareness among the public of isolated fructose's inherently toxic properties.

The reality is that fructose can cause far more damage than glucose, and we must look beyond caloric equivalences to understand this. While in times of need (e.g. starvation), fructose is as effective as glucose in replenishing glycogen stores, in "hypercaloric" states of excess consumption, it can lead to a process of glycation.

Future genetic therapy could be as simple as applying a topical lotion, with nanoscale compounds soaking through your epidermis to tweak your DNA. This new class of nucleic acid structures could guard against some types of skin cancer, according to researchers at Northwestern University.

Despite its tendency to dry out or burn in the summer sun, human skin is an incredibly tough barrier, preventing all kinds of invaders from entering the body. While a skin cream can be a useful way to target certain skin-related disorders, it can only go so deep. This new breakthrough from Amy S. Paller and Chad Mirkin at Northwestern combines chemistry and dermatology to break on through.

It uses agglomerations of nucleic acids, each about 1,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. When dispersed in a topical lotion, the nucleic acid clumps can breach all the skin's layers. Once they're inside the cells, they can selectively turn off disease-causing genes. The acid agglomerates can distinguish between healthy and mutant genes, like those that can cause cancer.

Women infected with the cat parasite Toxoplasma gondii are more likely to attempt suicide than non-infected women, new research finds. The reason for this connection, however, remains mysterious.

T. gondii is a protozoa that prefers to infect cats, but can make its home in any warm-blooded animal. Humans can pick up the parasite from contact with cat feces, or by eating undercooked meat or unwashed vegetables. Once ingested, T. gondii can make a home for itself inside the brain and muscle tissues, protected inside cysts that are resistant to attacks by the host's immune system.

Some studies have linked infection by this parasite with a variety of mental health and brain problems, including schizophrenia, neurosis and brain cancer. But scientists aren't clear on whether the parasite contributes to these problems or is a mere side effect. Someone with schizophrenia, for example, might struggle to keep up good hygiene, meaning the mental disorder could increase the risk for infection.

The new study linking suicide and T. gondii has the same limitation. Researchers can't say for sure whether the parasite somehow drives people to suicide. But in women with infections, they found, the risk of an attempt is 1.5 times greater than in women without.

"We can't say with certainty that T. gondii caused the women to try to kill themselves, but we did find a predictive association between the infection and suicide attempts later in life that warrants additional studies," lead researcher Teodor Postolache, a psychiatrist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said in a statement. "We plan to continue our research into this possible connection."

Many people equate eating sugar with the development of type 2 diabetes, and in an attempt to be healthier choose sugar-free diet products instead.

Imagine the irony if those diet products actually contained substances that cause an increase in fasting blood glucose levels and contribute to the onset of diabetes. Now stop imagining, because this isn't just a fantasy ... it's the disturbing result of a newly published study.

Two Toxic Food Additives Common in Diet Foods May Cause Diabetes

A new study using mice as models showed that two additives often put in everyday foods to enhance flavor and reduce calories can actually cause an increase in fasting blood glucose levels, and contribute to the onset of diabetes. The toxins in this startling new study are aspartame and monosodium glutamate (MSG), and the evidence is stacked against them both.

The research showed that aspartame alone can cause an increase in fasting blood glucose levels and reduced insulin sensitivity. But when the two additives get together, they become partners in crime and cause an elevation in both weight and fasting glucose levels.

This is the first study ever to show the hyperglycemic effects of chronic exposure to a combination of these common food additives. Indeed, the consumer must exercise caution, as many mass-market foods contain both aspartame and hidden MSG - the perfect combination for diabetes development.

Via The Washington Post's Sarah Kliff comes this incredible chart from the New England Journal of Medicine comparing the reasons we die now to the way Americans went to their graves a century ago:

The chart ranks the top ten causes of death for each year. In addition to the remarkable decline in mortality overall, it's also noticeable how heart disease and cancer have surged to become two of America's top killers. In 1900, cancer and heart disease accounted for 18 percent of all deaths. Today, that figure's jumped to 63 percent. In addition to being responsible for a greater share of deaths overall, the absolute number of people being killed by these chronic conditions has also grown, from 201 people out of every 100,000 in 1900 to nearly 380 per 100,000 today.

A fascinating interactive version of this chart may be found here

Imagine a world where if your heart or kidneys failed, you wouldn't have to endure an agonizing, possibly futile wait for a donor whose organ your body might reject. Instead, a doctor would simply take cells from your own body and use them to "grow" you a new organ. One of the main obstacles to such tissue engineering has been producing the network of tiny blood vessels that keep newly growing natural tissue alive. But now a new technique, based on material used by the candy industry, may have brought a solution closer.

The technology of cell culture has advanced drastically in the past few decades to the point where it's now possible to culture skin in a laboratory and transplant it onto a patient. Engineered bladders are now in clinical trials, for example. But both skin and bladders are thin membranes which, if transplanted into the body, can be supplied with blood from pre-existing vessels.

Growing a replacement version of a thick chunk of tissue like a heart or a kidney requires engineering a network of connected channels into the tissue to act as blood vessels. Without them, the cells on the inside would be starved of oxygen and nutrients and would quickly die.

Various research groups have tried to solve this problem. One avenue has involved casting molds of blood vessels, and then culturing tissue around them. The molds must then be dissolved so that the organ can function properly. Getting rid of the molds is hard to do, however, without killing the living tissue. If the mold were made of rubber, for example, a researcher would have to use a toxic solvent to dissolve it.

The new study solves that problem by turning to a material used by the food industry. As they report online today in Nature Materials, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues have developed a water-soluble carbohydrate glass based on a decoration used on cakes and lollipops. The material can be cast into a variety of shapes, is completely nontoxic, and, when it has done its job, will dissolve naturally in the moist environment of the cells, leaving behind spaces that can carry blood to cells.