Alan Alda announced July 31, 2018 that he’s been living with Parkinson’s Disease. An expert on the disease explains new drugs and treatments.
The experimental technique of ‘deep brain stimulation’ has improved the lives of patients with treatment-resistant depression, despite the ‘failure’ of a large clinical trial.
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For some patients, drilling a hole in the skull and inserting an electrode into the ‘sadness centre’ of the brain offers relief from debilitating and otherwise treatment-resistant depression.
Exhaustion and burnout among physicians are growing problems.
wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock.com
The opening session of a meeting of neurologists focused on a problem plaguing doctors: burnout. Doctors are growing increasingly stressed, and it’s affecting patients, too.
Autism has become a default consideration for any child who struggles socially, behaviourally, or with sensory stimuli.
from shutterstock.com
There are several problems with the recently released guidelines for diagnosing autism. But the fundamental issue is that we’re striving for diagnosis first, and help later.
Patients need to be at the centre of consultations about their treatment.
from shutterstock.com
Men diagnosed with prostate cancer should be given all their options for treatment before they make a decision. In Australia today, this isn’t the rule, but the exception.
Campers at Twitch and Shout, a camp for teenagers with Tourette, in Winder, Georgia, say goodbye in this 2014 file photo.
David Goldman/AP
There’s more to Tourette syndrome than swearing and shouting. Over the last several years, many life-altering treatments of this tic disorder have become available to patients and their families.
Epilepsy is a chronic disorder of the brain characterised by recurrent seizures.
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Epilepsy affects around 70 million people globally, 80% live in developing countries. A shortage of specialists, equipment and drugs complicates effective treatment and management.
Yossi Rathner, Swinburne University of Technology and Mark Schier, Swinburne University of Technology
It’s a long, hot summer’s day and you’re looking forward to an ice cream. But within seconds of your first bite, you feel a headache coming on: a brain freeze. What’s going on?
A paper was published and much discussed online recently, which demonstrates all the problems that I - and other critics - have with the way research is done and interpreted in the world of chiropractic…
Angelica Kauffmann, Self-portrait Hesitating between the Arts of Music and Painting, 1791.
Wikimedia Commons
Finding the art in science and investigating the science of art used to be common practise. At the turn of the 19th century the boundaries between academic disciplines hardened, but now new fields like neuroaesthetics are breaking down barriers.
People who believe their problems have biogenetic causes tend to opt for biomedical treatments.
Tim Caynes/Flickr
Biological and genetic explanations of mental illness can weaken people’s sense of control and optimism, and create a bias against effective psychological interventions.
He’ll be manipulating your brain before too long.
amira_a/flickr
Graeme Jackson, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Saying someone has epilepsy is a little like saying they’re ill. Its cause can vary from a brain tumour to an inherited genetic condition, the consequence of injury or a disorder affecting the brain.
Oliver Sacks died of cancer this past week.
Joshua Wanyama/flickr
Sacks was able to communicate the fascinating workings of the brain in ways that evoked understanding and compassion.
We’re more likely to recall memories and information we’ve used frequently rather than those obtained at a particular age.
Kristo-Gothard Hunor/Shutterstock
People with dementia judge the passage of time differently, and can access remote memories from many decades ago while being unable to remember events of the past few hours.
Your bones are cleverer, and more complex, than you might think.
Michael Dorausch
The idea that we can achieve happiness by maximising pleasure and minimising pain is both intuitive and popular. The truth is, however, very different.