"Democrats are seeking to overhaul an 1873 federal law that bans abortion-related materials from being sent through the mail, worried that a future Trump administration could invoke the Comstock Act to crack down on abortion access or effectively ban the procedure altogether."
Will Justice Roberts lift a finger to defend the Court’s legitimacy? How can you revere a democratic institution while taking no steps to protect it against corruption and ideological capture?
@xankarn
CAN I POINT OUT that this #RightWing extremist ideological shift in the Court is a perfect example of that happens when #Conservatives have an unchecked majority?
When #Democrats (briefly) had a "SuperMajority" (for 23 working days) in 2009, what did they do with it? They made sure everyone had access to affordable #healthcare.
What do Conservatives do? They abolish #Roe, repeal The #VotingRightsAct, codify discrimination against #gay & #trans individuals, and ban #books. 🤬
A recent study has unveiled new insights into the neural mechanisms underlying treatment-resistant depression. By recording stereotactic electroencephalography signals (sEEG) from patients’ brains, the team identified specific abnormalities in how depressed individual process emotional information. This study, published in Nature Mental Health, provides a promising step towards understanding and potentially treating this challenging condition.
Depression is a common but serious mental health disorder characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and a lack of interest or pleasure in daily activities. It affects millions of people worldwide and can significantly impair one’s ability to function at work, school, and in personal relationships.
While many individuals with depression respond well to standard treatments, such as medication and psychotherapy, a significant subset of patients do not experience sufficient relief from these approaches. This condition is known as treatment-resistant depression. It is defined as the failure to respond to at least two different antidepressant treatments administered at adequate doses and durations.
The new study conducted by the researchers at Baylor College of Medicine aimed to explore the neural basis of an emotion-processing bias observed in individuals with depression. This bias leads to a stronger response to negative information compared to positive information, which exacerbates depressive symptoms. Understanding the neural mechanisms behind this bias is crucial for developing targeted interventions that can better address the unique challenges of treatment-resistant depression.
“There has been a big question in the field about whether there was a physiological abnormality we could measure related to depression, as people had historically thought of it as a disorder of the ‘mind’ rather than one of the ‘brain’ and its cells. In this study, we were able to capture very sensitive data from awake, behaving human subjects that demonstrate a physiological basis for treatment-resistant depression,” said study authors Kelly Bijanki, an associate professor, and Xiaoxu Fan, a postdoctoral fellow.
For the study, sEEG electrodes were implanted in specific regions of the participants’ brains, particularly the amygdala and prefrontal cortex (PFC). These regions were chosen due to their known roles in emotion processing and regulation. The electrodes provided high spatial and temporal resolution recordings of brain activity, allowing the researchers to observe detailed neural responses to emotional stimuli.
The study included 12 epilepsy patients and 5 patients diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression. The epilepsy patients served as a control group since they were already undergoing stereotactic electroencephalography (sEEG) monitoring for seizure localization. The treatment-resistant depression patients had not responded to at least four different antidepressant treatments and were recruited as part of an early feasibility trial.
Participants were asked to rate the emotional intensity of human face photographs displaying various expressions, ranging from very sad to very happy. This task was designed to evoke and measure their neural responses to both positive and negative emotional stimuli. The emotional intensity ratings were recorded using a computer interface, ensuring precise synchronization with the brain activity data captured by the sEEG electrodes.
The researchers found that individuals with treatment-resistant depression exhibited a heightened and prolonged response in the amygdala when viewing sad faces compared to the control group. This increased activity began around 300 milliseconds after the sad faces were presented, indicating an overactive bottom-up processing system.
The treatment-resistant depression group also showed a reduced amygdala response to happy faces at a later stage (around 600 milliseconds). This finding suggests a diminished ability to process positive emotional stimuli, which may play a role in the persistent low mood characteristic of depression.
The researchers observed increased alpha-band power in the prefrontal cortex of the treatment-resistant depression patients during the late stage of processing happy faces. Alpha-band power is thought to reflect inhibitory processes in the brain.
Additionally, there was enhanced alpha-band synchrony between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, indicating stronger top-down regulation of the amygdala by the prefrontal cortex in these patients. This suggests that the prefrontal cortex may excessively inhibit the amygdala, contributing to the reduced emotional response to positive stimuli.
“sEEG can provide data with high temporal resolution and reliable anatomical precision of signal sources,” Bijanki and Fan told PsyPost. “With the help of sEEG, our results clearly revealed that different neural mechanisms are responsible for the biased negative and positive emotion processing in TRD patients.
The study also explored the effects of deep brain stimulation on neural responses in treatment-resistant depression patients. After deep brain stimulation was administered to the subcallosal cingulate and ventral capsule/ventral striatum regions, the neural responses to emotional stimuli in the patients showed significant changes.
The amygdala response to both sad and happy faces increased, and the alpha-band power in the prefrontal cortex decreased during happy-face processing. Furthermore, the alpha-band synchrony between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala during happy-face processing was reduced, bringing the neural activity patterns closer to those observed in the control group.
“Treatment-resistant depression has a signature in the firing pattern of neurons in the brain, especially during an emotional task,” Bijanki and Fan explained. “We see the brain being perhaps overly sensitive to negative emotional information in depression patients, and we see evidence of increased top-down inhibition from a moderating brain region that may explain the abnormality. Further, we see after therapeutic brain stimulation, this pattern is normalized. We hope with further study this signal may help clarify the mechanism of depression and suggest new potential treatments.”
The small sample size limits the ability to generalize the findings. Additionally, using epilepsy patients as controls, who may have varying levels of depressive symptoms themselves, might affect the comparison. Future research should aim to include larger and more diverse samples to validate these findings.
The researchers also plan to explore how these neural markers can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of depression treatments. “We hope to use the biased emotional processing signature as a biomarker to evaluate the effects of depression treatments and as an indicator of the severity of depression symptoms in future patients,” the researchers said.
The study, “Brain mechanisms underlying the emotion processing bias in treatment-resistant depression,” was authored by Xiaoxu Fan, Madaline Mocchi, Bailey Pascuzzi, Jiayang Xiao, Brian A. Metzger, Raissa K. Mathura, Carl Hacker, Joshua A. Adkinson, Eleonora Bartoli, Salma Elhassa, Andrew J. Watrous, Yue Zhang, Anusha Allawala, Victoria Pirtle, Sanjay J. Mathew, Wayne Goodman, Nader Pouratian, and Kelly R. Bijanki.
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Heat wave starting + overheating triggers seizures. Out of main meds + it price spiked. UPDATE: Progressing. 120 to go!
Just off of meds, I have breathing & swallowing problems. Scared of facing the heatwave w/o my medication. Overheating is bad enough on meds, let alone without. This is both humiliating & terrifying. Pls help.
This is US #healthcare y'all. Insurance can just choose not to cover a med. Pharmacies and distributors can raise prices without notice. On top of dropping 50 or 100 for each and every single test and visit. It's killing me. [And in this case, pushing up against literally, given the choking risk.]
Rather post about anything else, but need 160 for seizure meds. PLEASE help me refill my empty medication. 🙏 💕💸
w/o this, breathing & swallowing problems + seizures. Any repost or small tip helps! Choice of #TabletopGaming rewards available. Custom work too; just ask!
Need ~110 for seizure med + 50 prescription CBD. Help out & grab choice of game reward! Open for custom work; ask!
w/o this, breathing & swallowing problems + seizures. CBD is prescription & controls symptoms, but the main pharmacy med is the priority first. Any repost or small tip helps!
Out of pocket med jumped >200. Yay US healthcare! 😫 120 short. Grab a a choice of game reward! Custom work available; just ask!
Got taken to an infusion to hold me over. But it's just a temporary measure to control the worst. Need the refill to keep seizures + breathing & swallowing problems at bay. Please boost.
"A federal judge has ruled that Florida’s new restrictions on gender-affirming treatment for children are unconstitutional, and that Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican lawmakers who supported them were not acting in the interest of public health."
The decision on a lawsuit filed by parents of #transgender children & also adults was hailed by many in the #LGBTQ community as a significant victory.
One of the Floridians who sued, Lucien Hamel, said the decision was a relief.
“The state has no place interfering in people’s #private#medical decisions, & I’m relieved that I can once again get the #healthcare that I need here in #Florida,” Hamel said in a statement released by the lawyers who represented him & others in the case.
Experts have warned that medical debt is linked to numerous #health & financial harms, such as worse #MentalHealth or delays in obtaining additional #MedicalCare.
#MedicalDebt “can lead to other kinds of financial vulnerability,” Cynthia Cox, VP at KFF, a nonpartisan #healthcare research org that has analyzed #medical#debt, wrote…. “It’s a difficult cycle for people to pull themselves out of, especially at a time when they may be sick & less able to work.”
"Biden's 15.6m jobs are 8 times as many jobs as were created in the 16 years of the last 3 Republican Presidencies, combined. Since 1989 and the end of the Cold War, the US has seen 51 million new jobs created. 49 million of those 51 million jobs - 96% - have been created under Democratic Presidents. Just 2 million jobs - 4% - have been created under Republicans."
"Today the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued five new reports showing that thanks in part to the administration's outreach efforts about the Affordable Care Act, the rate of Black Americans without health insurance dropped from 20.9% in 2010 to 10.8% in 2022. The same rate among Latinos dropped from 32.7% to 18%."
"For Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, the rate of uninsured dropped from 16.6% to 6.2%. And for American Indians and Alaska Natives, the rate dropped from 32.4% to 19.9%. More than 45 million people in total are enrolled in coverage under the Affordable Care Act."
The data is unlikely to affect the #FederalReserve’s decision next week on #InterestRates, when most economists expect policymakers to leave rates unchanged at their currently high level. #Fed ofcls have noted they are most focused on progress in suppressing inflation#.
"Childbirth is deadlier in the United States than in any other high-income nation...More than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in the United States are preventable, but factors including a shortage of maternity care providers, limited access to after-birth home visits and lack of guaranteed paid parental leave have increased the risk of maternal mortality, especially for Black people..."
The vote on the #RightToContraceptionAct was 51-39, falling short of the 60 votes needed to defeat a #filibuster & move forward. Republicans said the bill is unnecessary as the use of #BirthControl is protected under #SCOTUS precedent as if [#SupremeCourt precedent means anything anymore].
The legislation would establish nationwide #rights for individuals to “obtain #contraceptives & to voluntarily engage in #contraception” & protect #healthcare providers who offer it. It defines contraceptives as “any drug, device, or biological product intended for use in the prevention of pregnancy” & prohibits #federal or #state governments from enforcing #laws or standards that impede that right. It empowers the #DOJ & affected private entities to sue to enforce the new protections.
Please 🙏💕💸 need ~100 today to meet my needs. US #healthcare is just brutal & copays add up so fast. Need the doctors today to keep me semi-functional with my TBIs, #trauma, #seizures, etc.
Need 105 more to cover copays, because American healthcare. Help a weirdo, pick a reward! Open to custom work. Just ask!
These specialist visits keep me function with the TBIs, epilepsy, and trauma. And they're expensive. Every doctor, scan, med, is 50-100+ a pop. It adds up too fast. Help me out, please.
Transcarent also obtained 98point6’s doctor group and employer customers as well as what Tullman called a “golden asset” not yet publicly disclosed: 1 million patient-doctor chat conversations over five years.
Treatment [AI] and Novus Health also intend to explore mutually beneficial opportunities through the partnership, this will include Health Risk Assessment and Medical Second Opinion.
…insurance companies are also expected to leverage AI for risk assessment, where they could offer more customized policies and pricing structures based on accurate individual risk profiles.
"Starting Saturday, the cost of inhalers will fall for many Americans, as new out-of-pocket price caps go into effect for the asthma medications from AstraZeneca and Boehringer Ingelheim.
Following years of public outcry about the high cost of inhalers, the two drugmakers — along with a third, GlaxoSmithKline — have committed to capping the out-of-pocket cost at $35 a month. GSK’s cap is expected to take effect by Jan. 1."
"I have sat through countless GP appointments where I have had to explain the basics of Post Exertional Malaise [PEM], the cardinal symptom of ME, before going on to discuss treatment."
I've had similar doctor visits.
It's frightening that so many doctors know so little about ME/CFS.
@rbreich
Just imagine how much #HealthCare and #AffordableHousing that could have provided for so many people who need it. Instead, Robber Barons are hoarding their wealth and force-feeding us propaganda with what little they are willing to part with.