Alyssa's Science Blog

Onetime Party Drug Hailed as Miracle for Treating Severe Depression

Ketamine, popularly known as the psychedelic club drug Special K, has been around since the early 1960s. It is a staple anesthetic in emergency rooms, regularly used for children when they come in with broken bones and dislocated shoulders. It’s an important tool in burn centers and veterinary medicine, as well as a notorious date-rape drug, known for its power to quickly numb and render someone immobile.

Since 2006, dozens of studies have reported that it can also reverse the kind of severe depression that traditional antidepressants often don’t touch. The momentum behind the drug has now reached the American Psychiatric Association, which, according to members of a ketamine task force, seems headed toward a tacit endorsement of the drug for treatment-resistant depression.

Experts are calling it the most significant advance in mental health in more than half a century. They point to studies showing ketamine not only produces a rapid and robust antidepressant effect; it also puts a quick end to suicidal thinking.

(full article)

By Sara Solovitch (via Washington Post)

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

From Above

Photograph by Craig Goodwin, National Geographic Your Shot

"After three days and 20 miles of hiking the beaches of Olympic National Park, I ended up on Second Beach in La Push, Washington," begins Your Shot community member Craig Goodwin, who snapped this photo of a meteor streaking across the night sky. He was looking to create images of "compositions revealed by the receding waters ... focusing on star reflections and sections of flat beach," but as it turned out, his photo opportunity came from above. "After a large wave receded, I rushed in to set up my tripod at this location ... While I watched for encroaching waves, a bright fireball ripped through the sky and into the frame. I think I might have danced a little when that happened."

WHO statement on the first meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee on Zika virus and observed increase in neurological disorders and neonatal malformations 1 February 2016

I convened an Emergency Committee, under the International Health Regulations, to gather advice on the severity of the health threat associated with the continuing spread of Zika virus disease in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Committee met today by teleconference.

In assessing the level of threat, the 18 experts and advisers looked in particular at the strong association, in time and place, between infection with the Zika virus and a rise in detected cases of congenital malformations and neurological complications.

The experts agreed that a causal relationship between Zika infection during pregnancy and microcephaly is strongly suspected, though not yet scientifically proven. All agreed on the urgent need to coordinate international efforts to investigate and understand this relationship better.

The experts also considered patterns of recent spread and the broad geographical distribution of mosquito species that can transmit the virus.

The lack of vaccines and rapid and reliable diagnostic tests, and the absence of population immunity in newly affected countries were cited as further causes for concern.

After a review of the evidence, the Committee advised that the recent cluster of microcephaly cases and other neurological disorders reported in Brazil, following a similar cluster in French Polynesia in 2014, constitutes an “extraordinary event” and a public health threat to other parts of the world.

In their view, a coordinated international response is needed to minimize the threat in affected countries and reduce the risk of further international spread.

Members of the Committee agreed that the situation meets the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

I have accepted this advice.

I am now declaring that the recent cluster of microcephaly cases and other neurological disorders reported in Brazil, following a similar cluster in French Polynesia in 2014, constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

A coordinated international response is needed to improve surveillance, the detection of infections, congenital malformations, and neurological complications, to intensify the control of mosquito populations, and to expedite the development of diagnostic tests and vaccines to protect people at risk, especially during pregnancy.

The Committee found no public health justification for restrictions on travel or trade to prevent the spread of Zika virus.

At present, the most important protective measures are the control of mosquito populations and the prevention of mosquito bites in at-risk individuals, especially pregnant women.

FEBRUARY 1, 2016

Sacred Swim

Photograph by Raja Subramaniyan, National Geographic Your Shot

A quiet morning at Dashashwamedh Ghat, the main ghat in Varanasi, India, on the banks of the Ganges River, afforded Your Shot member Raja Subramaniyan an image that could project the feel of the moment: a lone visitor "taking the holy bath." The ghats, especially this one, are often full of pilgrims and tourists alike, but of this photo the photographer writes, "I loved the atmosphere of the Dashashwamedh Ghat on that day—beautiful sunrise with warm light, the mist effect, the arrangement of boats."

Subramaniyan’s shot was recently featured in the Daily Dozen.

Recommended Reading: Nathan Wolfe - The Viral Storm

In The Viral Storm, award-winning biologist Nathan Wolfe tells the story of how viruses and human beings have evolved side by side through history; how deadly viruses like HIV, swine flu, and bird flu almost wiped us out in the past; and why modern life has made our species vulnerable to the threat of a global pandemic. Wolfe's research missions to the jungles of Africa and the rain forests of Borneo have earned him the nickname "the Indiana Jones of virus hunters," and here Wolfe takes readers along on his groundbreaking and often dangerous research trips—to reveal the surprising origins of the most deadly diseases and to explain the role that viruses have played in human evolution. In a world where each new outbreak seems worse than the one before, Wolfe points the way forward, as new technologies are brought to bear in the most remote areas of the world to neutralize these viruses and even harness their power for the good of humanity. His provocative vision of the future will change the way we think about viruses, and perhaps remove a potential threat to humanity's survival.

CDC Releases Chipotle E. coli Outbreak Investigation Results

WHO Posts Q&A Video in Regard to Zika Virus

The Brains of Patients with Schizophrenia Vary Depending on the Type of Schizophrenia

An international team, made up of researchers from the University of Granada, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of South Florida, has linked the symptoms of schizophrenia with the anatomical characteristics of the brain, by employing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

By analyzing the brain’s anatomy, the scientists have demonstrated the existence of distinctive subgroups among patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, who suffer from different symptoms.

The tests conducted on the schizophrenic subjects revealed that they had various abnormalities in certain parts of their corpus callosum, a bundle of neural fibers that connects the right and left cerebral hemispheres and is considered essential for effective interhemispheric communication.

(full article)