Hallucination News and Research

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A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid, substantial, and located in external objective space.

Siblings of schizophrenia patients display subtle shape abnormalities in brain

Subtle malformations in the brains of patients with schizophrenia also tend to occur in their healthy siblings, according to investigators at the Silvio Conte Center for the Neuroscience of Mental Disorders at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Shape abnormalities were found in the brain's thalamus.

20 Feb 2008

Insights into the physics of brain activity

The same rules of physics that govern molecules as they condense from gas to liquid, or freeze from liquid to solid, also apply to the activity patterns of neurons in the human brain.

17 Feb 2008

Changes in narcoleptics' skin, core body temperatures affect their vigilance and sleepiness

In healthy people, both sleepiness and vigilance show a relationship with core body temperature and skin temperature.

5 Feb 2008

U.S. mental health survey of people with schizophrenia and providers

Mental Health America has released results of the first national online survey to examine overall healthcare in mental health settings from the perspective of both people with schizophrenia and psychiatrists.

31 Jan 2008

Gene therapy for pain

Researchers in the Department of Medicine and Department of Neurosciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered that chronic pain can be successfully treated with novel targeted gene therapy.

23 Jan 2008

Popular sleeping pill Stilnox in danger of being classed with morphine, narcotics and amphetamines

A popular sleeping pill that has reportedly triggered bizarre side-effects in some people, could be placed by Australian drug regulators into the same class as morphine, narcotics and amphetamines.

22 Jan 2008

The dopamine transporter gene influences alcohol withdrawal seizures

The physiological component of alcoholism is defined by tolerance and/or withdrawal: the more severe the dependency on alcohol, the more severe the clinical complications, such as greater intensity and/or complications of alcohol withdrawal.

4 Jan 2008

Brain malfunction explains dehydration in elderly

As Australia faces another hot, dry summer, scientists from Melbourne's Howard Florey Institute have warned that elderly people are at risk of becoming dehydrated because their brains underestimate how much water they need to drink to rehydrate.

17 Dec 2007

Honey a cheaper and more effective treatment for children's coughs than cough medicine

Experts in the United States say when it comes to children's coughs, natural honey offers a cheaper and more effective alternative to expensive over-the-counter cough medicines.

5 Dec 2007

New genetic markers found that increase a person's risk for schizophrenia

Scientists at the Zucker Hillside Hospital campus of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have identified nine genetic markers that can increase a person's risk for schizophrenia.

4 Dec 2007

Practice parameters discuss treatment for narcolepsy, other hypersomnias of central origin

Practice parameters published in the December 1 issue of the journal SLEEP serve as both an update of previous practice parameters for the therapy of narcolepsy and as the first practice parameters to address treatment of other hypersomnias of central origin, including idiopathic hypersomnia, recurrent hypersomnia and hypersomnia due to medical condition.

3 Dec 2007

Strange behaviours linked to popular sleeping pill Zolpidem

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in Australia has updated warnings on a popular sleeping drug.

29 Nov 2007

FDA accepts Schering-Plough's new drug application for Asenapine

Schering-Plough Corporation has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently accepted the filing for review of the New Drug Application (NDA) for asenapine, a fast-dissolving, sublingual tablet.

26 Nov 2007

Brits gear up for pandemic while FDA warns about flu jabs side-effects

The British government says it plans to double its stockpile of antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu to cope with the possibility of a flu pandemic.

26 Nov 2007

New discoveries about nitric oxide can provide drugs for schizophrenia

Problems with memory and social function in patients with schizophrenia may result from an imbalance in the brain’s nitric oxide system.

21 Nov 2007

University of Illinois at Chicago receives $2.2 million grant to develop drugs to suppress cocaine cravings

The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy has received a $2.2 million federal grant to develop therapeutics to suppress the cravings of cocaine addicts.

19 Nov 2007