Hey there...I know.
Here's a great song: Left Hand Free
The first new post over at Psychology Today is about the big, recently released study shedding some real insight as to how schizophrenia is inherited and what might cause the diseases. It's a game-changer (the findings, not the blog post, though the post was picked as a Psych Today "Essential Read" and "Top Post" for the week).
New Insights Into the Genetics of Schizophrenia
The second new post is about a paper I pulled a while back but never got around to writing up:
Is Gluten Causing Your Depression?
The short answer is...it's possible, but it's probably not causing your irritable bowel symptoms. That's pretty much the FODMAPs if you respond well to a gluten-free diet.
I'm spending a lot of my free time working on a couple of science fiction manuscripts in a far future after most of the population has been wiped out by gluten (kidding! They are wiped out by something else, but I'll have to publish the book for you to find out, probably).
In the mean time, there's a lot of action about gearing up for next year's conferences. I kept a relatively low profile this year, but I've put in a proposal for the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in Toronto, I'm considering PaleoFx in Austin 2015...and I've also been invited to AHS New Zealand, and can't wait to go.
Dear Emily,
ReplyDeleteI am your habitual reader. Thanks for sharing so much valuable information.
Do you think his vegan diet could have played a role in Robin Williams depresion?
Thanks! As far as I know he had just been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which may have contributed to his suicidality on top of some other longstanding mental health problems. Pure vegan diets I really don't think are great for the brain (and there are some other famous vegans who ended up with Parkinson's, but so do plenty of non-vegans). I do think vegetarian diets with some dairy/fish or eggs can be quite healthy...but there are way too many factors to put the blame on one thing.
DeleteHi, Emily. I don't have a great understanding of the word 'pathology', but I infer it to mean the underlying physical problems that cause symptoms. Is it possible that what we call 'mental disease' is really just physical disease of the brain that we don't understand very well!?
ReplyDeleteAll psychology must be represented in physiology. However, sometimes "mental illness" refers to certain personality styles or issues that come from a history of trauma, others seem to be very highly inherited, almost entirely genetic. I agree the separation of "mental" and "physical" illness is a false dichotomy. The brain is the most complex organ in the body (except maybe the gut/microbiota?).
DeleteScience fiction manuscripts????? I CANNOT wait! :)
ReplyDelete