all McLean Hospital stories

NIH awards Harvard Medical School $117.5 million, five-year grant for patient-centered research

404132862 — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:42:32 -0400

The National Institutes of Health today announced that Harvard Medical School (HMS) will receive $117.5 million over the next five years for the establishment of a Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) that will transform patient-oriented, laboratory-to-bedside research at HMS and its affiliated hospitals.

Reprogrammed adult skin cells treat Parkinson's disease in animal model

404132862 — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:01:23 -0400

Researchers at the Whitehead Institute and Harvard Stem Cell Institute(HSCI) have reported successfully reducing symptoms in a Parkinson's disease rat model by using dopamine producing neurons derived from reprogrammed adult skin cells(iPS).

The work was reported in a study published in the online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Too much water can be life-threatening for marathoners

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:43:55 -0400

Runners who consume too much water or sports drinks during a marathon can develop a life-threatening condition called exercise-associated hyponatremia (EAH). Beyond drinking, however, researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital report in the May 2007 issue of the American Journal of Medicine that this complication during endurance exercise is also the result of a hormonal stress response, which decreases urine formation and prevents the excretion of excess water.

New combination of treatments is effective for alcohol dependence

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:27:10 -0400

McLean Hospital researchers, along with colleagues from 11 other study sites nationwide, report that the medication naltrexone and up to 20 sessions of alcohol counseling delivered by a behavioral specialist are equally effective treatments for alcohol dependence when delivered with structured medical management in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Results from the National Institutes of Health-supported Combining Medications and Behavioral Interventions for Alcoholism (COMBINE) study show that patients who received naltrexone, specialized alcohol counseling, or both demonstrated the best drinking outcomes after 16 weeks of outpatient treatment. All patients also received Medical Management, an intervention that consisted of nine brief, structured outpatient sessions provided by a health care professional. Contrary to expectations, the researchers found no effect on drinking of the medication acamprosate and no additive benefit from adding acamprosate to naltrexone.

"This was the largest clinical trial looking at the effectiveness of pharmacologic and behavioral treatments for alcohol dependence ever conducted and the results are promising," said Roger Weiss, clinical director of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Program for McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate. Weiss was also the principal investigator of COMBINE for the McLean study site.

Binge eating disorder may have genetic ties, McLean Hospital study finds

50443248 — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:58:56 -0400

Researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital have reported that binge eating disorder runs in families, raising the possibility that this condition may have a genetic basis.

Binge eating disorder may have genetic ties

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:25:14 -0400

Researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital have reported that binge eating disorder runs in families, raising the possibility that this condition may have a genetic basis.

In the study, published in the March 6, 2006 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, the researchers found that family members of obese individuals with binge eating disorder were twice as likely to suffer from the condition as were family members of obese individuals who did not have a history of binge eating.

Brain protein may play role in innate and learned fear

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:42:30 -0400

In a paper published in the November 2005 issue of Cell, researchers reported that the protein stathmin is essential for the fear response - both the expression of innate fear and the formation of memory for learned fear.

Previous studies had shown that the amygdala, a brain structure important for emotional responses, is the place where fear memory is formed.

"This is the first time it has been shown that the protein called stathmin - the product of the stathmin gene - is linked to fear conditioning pathways," said Vadim Bolshakov, PhD, director of the Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory at McLean Hospital. The study is the collaborative effort of Bolshakov's lab at McLean and those of Eric Kandel at Columbia University and Gleb Shumyatsky of Rutgers. Kandel is the winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

The researchers for some time have been studying how changes in the brain may affect learning and memory. In earlier animal studies, Bolshakov and Kandel were able to measure changes in the brain and correlate them with changes in behavior associated with learning.

This study, using mice, demonstrated that those that were genetically modified so they would not produce stathmin showed deficits in neural transmission and exhibited decreased memory in fear conditioning and the failure to recognize danger in innately aversive environments. Learned fear develops after conditioning and lasts for life.

"The evidence that stathmin is important in the regulation of fear suggests that stathmin knockout mice can be used as a model of anxiety states or mental disorders with innate and learned fear components," the paper said.

In the future, these animal models may be used to develop new anti-anxiety drugs, Bolshakov added.

Rituals enhance health

50443248 — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 10:32:06 -0400

American Indians who use the hallucinogen peyote regularly in connection with religious ceremonies show no evidence of brain damage or psychological problems, report researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital.

In fact, members of the Navajo tribe who regularly use peyote actually scored significantly better on several measures of overall mental health than did subjects from the same tribe who were not members of the religious group and did not use the hallucinogen, according to a paper published in the Nov. 4 issue of Biological Psychiatry.

Study: No psychological or cognitive deficits from peyote

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:22:45 -0400

Researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital report that Native Americans who use the hallucinogen peyote regularly in connection with religious ceremonies show no evidence of brain damage or psychological problems.

"We found no evidence that these Native Americans had residual neurocognitive problems. Despite lifelong participation in the peyote church, they performed just as well on mental tests as those who had never used peyote,'' said the study's first author John Halpern, MD, of McLean Hospital's Biological Psychiatry Laboratory. The study was funded, in part, by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Beyond that, the peyote users scored better on several measures of the Rand Mental Health Inventory (RMHI), a test used to diagnose psychological problems and determine overall mental health, he said. Among the RMHI scales are measures of anxiety, depression, loss of behavioral or emotional control, and psychological distress. Halpern emphasized that the better scores among peyote users were not necessarily attributable to the use of peyote itself, but more likely due to the social and psychological benefits of being members of the Native American Church community.

Fetal-cell transplants reverse Parkinson's in two patients

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:20:49 -0400

The two patients were part of a small exploratory study in Halifax. In the study, the cells were bathed in the trophic factor GDNF before being implanted into the striatum, the target of dopamine-producing cells. One patient also had cells implanted into the substantia nigra, the origin of the dopamine neurons involved in Parkinson's.

The study provides a picture of both the clinical improvements in the patients and the physiological outcomes of the experiment. The two patients both experienced progressive improvement in symptoms over a three- to four-year period after their transplantation. The patients also showed positive PET scans for dopamine activity in the regions where grafts had been placed. In their postmortem analysis, Isacson's team found dopamine-producing neurons along the graft sites, representing about a 10- to 30-percent survival rate in the putamen and slightly lower survival rate in the substantia nigra.

This is the first reported evidence that cells can survive and form connections in the substantia nigra, which Isacson believes may be an important target for future transplant therapies. The postmortem findings also closely correlate to clinical improvements.

Isacson's team believes it can continue to improve cell-based therapies for Parkinson's disease by better characterizing and controlling specific populations of cells.

Kudzu cuts alcohol consumption

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:18:27 -0400

Scott Lukas, professor of psychiatry at McLean, a psychiatric hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School, says these results inspired his team to test on humans. The study was conducted on 14 men and women, average age 24 years, in a "laboratory" apartment where each person was allowed to drink as many as six beers. After determining how much each person drinks normally, half were given a capsule of kudzu or an inactive pill, or placebo.

"Those who took kudzu drank significantly less than those on placebo," says Lukas. "[The kudzu group] downed an average of one or two beers while the placebo group finished three or four. Alcohol consumption was almost cut in half."

Those on kudzu also drank more slowly. "They needed more gulps to finish each beer," Lukas continues. "That tells us they are responding to cues from their brains telling them they don't need to drink so much."

Kudzu also causes few side effects. "We gave our subjects a low dose for one week," Lukas explains. "Then we gave them blood and urine tests and physical exams. No changes were found. If we raised the dose and gave it for a longer period, alcohol consumption might be decreased even more."

Although no one knows exactly why kudzu increases sobriety, researchers theorize that the herb speeds alcohol's effect on the head.

Rx for depression: 'Mangia, mangia!'

50443248 — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:55:35 -0400

McLean Hospital researchers have added yet another item to the cornucopia of evidence that "we are what we eat," confirming that elements in our diet can affect not just our physical health, but our mental health as well.
Research led by Associate Professor of Psychiatry William A. Carlezon Jr. confirmed the antidepressant-like effects of omega-3 fatty acids, found in cold-water fish like sardines, tuna, and Atlantic salmon, and some plant sources such as canola oil and walnuts.

Carlezon and colleagues also found that uridine, a compound found in sugar beets and molasses, has similar effects. When both compounds were used together, they were found to be effective in lower doses. The research was reported in a recent issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Food ingredients may be as effective as antidepressants

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:18:55 -0400

Researchers report that omega-3 fatty acids and uridine, two substances in foods such as fish, walnuts, molasses, and sugar beets, prevented depression in rats as effectively as antidepressant drugs.

"Giving rats a combination of uridine and omega-3 fatty acids produced immediate effects that were indistinguishable from those caused by giving the rats standard antidepressant medications," explains lead author of the study William Carlezon, PhD, director of McLean's Behavioral Genetics Laboratory.

Researchers examined how omega-3 fatty acids and uridine affected rats exposed to stress and found that rats given injections of or fed diets containing the nutrients showed less despair than untreated rats.

While uridine worked immediately, the effects of omega-3 fatty acids took longer to develop, and shorter treatments of omega -3 fatty acids alone did not relieve depression in the rats. Benefits emerged more quickly when the rats were given the nutrients together.

"Omega-3 fatty acids may make the mitochondrial membranes more flexible and uridine may provide raw material to make chemical reactions occur more readily," adds co-author Perry Renshaw, MD, PhD, director of McLean's Brain Imaging Center.

"This work provides more evidence that our behavior can have a tremendous influence on how we feel and act," says Carlezon.

Researchers find a gene for fear

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:23:18 -0400

A team of researchers from Harvard, Columbia, and Rutgers universities has found the seat of fear. It's located in a pea-sized area deep in the brain of all mammals, from gerbils, to lions, to humans. And it's involved in both inborn fear and the dread we acquire from dealing with people and things that hurt us. The scientists already knew that fear forms in the amygdala (a- mig-da-la), an almond-shaped mass of gray matter. But a closer look revealed the presence of a gene that produces a protein known as "stathmin," a stimulant of fear and anxiety. The scientists' investigations were done with mice because they involved genetic engineering and surgical slicing of the brain.

"This is the first time it has been shown that the protein stathmin is linked to brain circuits that register both inborn alarm and acquired memories of fear," says Vadim Bolshakov of Harvard Medical School and Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital. "Because it is so essential for survival, memory for fear is easily established, very resistant to extinction, and normally lasts for a lifetime."

The finding provides a deeper understanding of how learning and memory take place. It also could lead to new treatments for a variety of mental disorders including generalized anxiety, panic, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the post- traumatic stress disorder that is being brought back from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Besides Bolshakov and his colleagues at McLean Hospital, the research team involved Eric Kandel and colleagues at Columbia University, and Gleb Shumyatsky and colleagues at Rutgers. Kandel won the 2000 Nobel Prize in medicine. They reported their results in the November 2005 issue of the journal Cell.

MRI scan shows promise in treating bipolar disorder

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:34:29 -0400

A study published in the Jan. 1, 2004 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry had a surprising start. As Michael Rohan, imaging physicist in McLean Hospital's Brain Imaging Center, explains, "We were using MRI to investigate the effectiveness of certain medications in bipolar patients and noticed that many came out of the MRI feeling much better than when they went in. We decided to investigate further." Researchers theorized that one type of magnetic pulse they were using was having the positive effect. "This was purely accidental. We just happened to use this set of magnetic gradients, which we think somehow matches the natural firing rhythm of brain cells." Technically this kind of scan is called EP-MRSI, or Echo-Planar Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging. After realizing they may be observing a real effect, researchers expanded the study to include sham EP-MRSI scans with bipolar subjects, normal EP-MRSI scans in healthy subjects, in addition to EP-MRSI scans in bipolar subjects. The results showed 23 out of 30 bipolar subjects who received the actual EP-MRSI tests reported mood improvement, indicating a 77 percent response rate. In addition, subjects who were not on medication showed even greater response (100 percent) compared to the response rate of those on medication (63 percent).