Google Flu Shot Finder.

 The Los Angeles Times (11/13, Hennigan) reports Google “has launched a flu shot finder, www.google.com/flushot, that provides users with the locations of clinics that provide seasonal and H1N1 vaccines.”  Google “collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the Department of Health and Human Services.”  The locater “eventually will be linked on www.flu.gov and the American Lung Assn. website.”

Rats Weaned Off High-Calorie Diet Show Signs of Anxiety.

HealthDay (http://tinyurl.com/high-calorie-diet-crash 11/12, Dotinga) reported that, according to a study published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine found that “rats weaned off a high-calorie diet showed the same effects on the brain as withdrawing from drugs and alcohol.” After giving “rats a regular diet for five days and then” switching “them to a chocolate-flavored food that was high in sugar,” investigators found that the animals “didn’t want to switch back to the ordinary chow after…dining on the equivalent of rat junk food.” And, “when deprived of the sugary food, they showed signs of anxiety, and their brains acted as if they were withdrawing from alcohol or drugs.”

Gene Associated With Bipolar Disorder in Children.

The UK’s Telegraph (http://tinyurl.com/child-bipolar-gene 11/12, Devlin) reported that, according to a study of nearly 300 children published in the journal BMC Psychiatry, researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered that “four different variants in” the RORB gene, which “disrupts the body’s natural internal clock,” were “strongly linked to” bipolar disorder. Study leader Alexander Niculescu, from Indiana University School of Medicine, in Indianapolis, said, “Our findings suggest that clock genes in general and RORB in particular may be important candidates for further investigation in the search for the molecular basis of bipolar disorder.”

Mindfulness Training Can Result in Pain Reduction

WebMD (http://tinyurl.com/mindfulness-and-pain 11/11, Warner) reported that, according to a study published in the Journal of Pain, “as little as an hour of mindfulness training is enough to reduce pain.” In “a group of 22 college students [who] received three, 20-minute mindfulness training sessions over the course of three days,” researchers found that “mindfulness meditation training reduced the pain ratings of both ‘high’ and ‘low’ levels of pain more than math distraction and relaxation techniques,” and that “the meditation training seemed to have reduced general pain sensitivity even after the experiments were over.”

Placebo Effect Accounts for One-Third of Benefits from Treatment.

In a series on the “use and potential risks” of alternative medicine, the AP (http://tinyurl.com/placebo-effect 11/11, Marchione) reports, “The placebo effect looms large in alternative medicine, which has many therapies and herbal remedies based on beliefs versus science.” According to Dr. Robert Ader, a psychologist at the University of Rochester, “placebos can have real and beneficial effects.” In fact, “the placebo effect accounts for about a third of the benefits of any treatment — even carefully tested medicines, scientists say.” But, “scientists do not always know” how the placebo effect works, and “there are many possible ways.” Brain images have revealed that “beliefs…can cause biological changes and affect levels of chemical messengers and stress hormones that signal pain or pleasure.” People’s “emotions, too, can trigger physical changes.” Meanwhile, “some placebo effects are due to conditioning, or ascribing benefits to something you did that may in fact have played no role in your improvement.”

NSAIDs May Have Protective Effects Against Alzheimer’s.

HealthDay (http://tinyurl.com/NSAIDS-and-Alzheimers 11/10, Preidt) reported that a study in mice found that “taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) from a young age might prevent early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.” During the study, appearing in the Nov. 9 edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, “researchers looking for triggers of neuronal [cell cycle events (CCEs)] found evidence that suggests that neuroinflammation plays a role in the development of Alzheimer’s in mice.” While “treatment with the NSAIDs ibuprofen or naproxen blocked the development of CCEs,” it “did not affect existing CCEs” in older mice.

Army Only Has 400 Psychiatrists.

Following a New York Times(http://tinyurl.com/army-psychiatrists) story, the CBS Evening News (11/9, story 3, 2:00, Couric) reported that Army psychiatry Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan “was about to be deployed to Afghanistan to help counsel soldiers,” and “nine of the Ft. Hood victims were also therapists — part of a unit that the military fears is already stretched entirely too thin.” CBS correspondent Don Teague explained, “Eight years of war has taken its toll across the military. Some 300,000 service members, nearly one out of five returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder,” while to date, “the Army has just over 400 psychiatrists to treat nearly 550,000 active duty soldiers.”

Image Rehearsal Therapy (IRT) May Help Some Patients With Nightmares.

USA Today(11/9, http://tinyurl.com/Image-Rehearsal-Therapy, Painter) reports that a treatment “called imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT)” is “a form of cognitive behavioral therapy” focusing “on changing harmful thought patterns” that is used to help patients with nightmares. During treatment, “patients meet with a therapist a few times,” learning that “while nightmares may be triggered by trauma and might even be useful at first, nightmares that persist for months are like bad habits and can be unlearned.” Eventually, patients learn to “rewrite the script for” a particular “nightmare any way” they wish, then are “asked to practice that rewritten script repeatedly,” thereby “fully engaging” their “waking imagination” to help nightmares to go away.

Experts Seek to Understand “Contagious Suicide”

Following a CBS Evening News story, theLos Angeles Times (11/9,  http://tinyurl.com/contagious-suicide, Adams) reports that researchers are seeking “to understand how suicide spreads within communities.” The “term ’suicide contagion’” is used by experts “to describe the spread of suicidal thoughts among a group of people that results in such copycat acts.” Experts say that “in suicide clusters,” people “already in crisis” are “moved to act by exposure to a peer committing suicide.” Currently, “the CDC provides guidlines ( http://tinyurl.com/youth-suicide-prevention) for schools or other communities about how to respond to one or more suicides, including identifying high-risk individuals and providing counseling,” as well as “reducing any predisposing risks in the school environment, such as bullying or social isolation.”

FDA approves generic version of lamotrigine.

Dow Jones Newswire ( 11/6  http://tinyurl.com/generic-lamictal) reports, “Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. said Friday it has received the final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for selling a generic version of the epilepsy” medication lamotrigine [Lamictal]. The FDA approval “is for 5-milligram and 25-mg tablets.” GlaxoSmithKline manufactures the brand name version of the medication.