Nervous System News and Research

Latest Nervous System News and Research

Chronic methamphetamine abuse linked to cardiovascular disease

The study is being published the week of June 25 in an advanced online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

26 Jun 2007

Greater understanding of fibromyalgia as a true medical condition

Fibromyalgia, a chronic, widespread pain in muscles and soft tissues accompanied by fatigue, is a fairly common condition that does not manifest any structural damage in an organ.

26 Jun 2007

Current status of neuroblastoma treatment and trends for the near future

Childhood cancers are fortunately rare, but among them, neuroblastoma is a special case, accounting for 7 percent of all childhood cancers, but 15 percent of childhood cancer deaths.

23 Jun 2007

Link between levels of urate in the blood and risk of Parkinson's disease

In a new, large-scale, prospective study exploring the link between levels of urate in the blood and risk of Parkinson's disease, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) have found that high levels of urate are strongly associated with a reduced risk of the disease.

23 Jun 2007

Scientists identify gene responsible for one type of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder

Scientists have identified the gene responsible for one type of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder, a common inherited neurological disease, thanks to the chance appearance of a strain of impaired 'pale tremor' mice in a University of Michigan research laboratory.

23 Jun 2007

DNA repair by Brca2 prevents medulloblastoma

St. Jude investigators have gained some of the first major insights into how certain genes known to prevent cancer also guide the nervous system's normal development before birth and during infancy by repairing DNA damage.

23 Jun 2007

Discomfort and disability caused by shingles can be avoided

The painful, burning twinge and irritate skin that can be an early warning sign of shingles is often overlooked or misdiagnosed at the time when antiviral medications can be effected at shortening the outbreak.

23 Jun 2007

Costs of disorders of the brain in Europe

In 2004 there were about 46 million cases of neurological diseases such as epilepsy, migraines, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and stroke among the 466 million inhabitants of the EU (excluding the two new members Romania and Bulgaria, but including the non-members Iceland, Norway and Switzerland).

20 Jun 2007

Turn-ons and turn-offs for neurons

Our brain consists of billions of nerve cells enabling to learn, remember and reason.

20 Jun 2007

50 million Europeans suffer from neurological diseases

About 50 million people in the EU suffer from neurological diseases such as epilepsy, migraines, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, strokes and dementia.

18 Jun 2007

Summertime is tick time and Lyme disease is on the rise

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States says cases of the tick borne illness Lyme disease are on the rise across the country.

18 Jun 2007

Focus on motor neurone disease

Motor neurone disease (MND), also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a degenerative disease of unknown cause which causes patients to lose basic motor functions and has a devastating effect on them and their families.

17 Jun 2007

Lyme disease on the increase in U.S.

Reported cases of Lyme disease have more than doubled since 1991, when Lyme became a nationally notifiable disease, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

17 Jun 2007

Breakdown of myelin may be the cause of Huntington's disease

Last month, Dr. George Bartzokis, director of the UCLA Memory Disorders and Alzheimer's Disease Clinic, suggested in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia that the breakdown of a type of myelin that develops late in life promotes the buildup of toxic amyloid plaques long associated with Alzheimer's disease.

16 Jun 2007

Structure of protein altered in autism revealed

As a result of mapping the structure of the protein complex implicated in autism spectrum disorders, a research team led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences has discovered how particular genetic mutations affect this complex and contribute to the developmental abnormalities found in children with autism.

15 Jun 2007

Myelin and Huntington's disease

14 Jun 2007

Delinquency in children now linked to biology

How do sweet children turn into delinquents seemingly right before our eyes?

14 Jun 2007

Anticonvulsant medication gabapentin effective for fibromyalgia pain

New research supported by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) shows that the anticonvulsant medication gabapentin, which is used for certain types of seizures, can be an effective treatment for the pain and other symptoms associated with the common, often hard-to-treat chronic pain disorder, fibromyalgia.

14 Jun 2007

Pesticides elevate risk of brain tumours

Agricultural workers exposed to high levels of pesticides and people who use them on houseplants appear to have a greater risk of developing brain tumours, suggests a study published online ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

8 Jun 2007