A Measure of a Mind

The Washington Post reports that meditation can charge the mind according to neuroscientist Richard Davidson, of the W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior. Using EEGs and functional magnetic resonance imagining (fMRI) on to measure brain activity in meditating monks, Davidson found intense gamma wave activity, connected to higher mental activity and heightened awareness. This is consistent with Davison's earlier work that identified the left prefrontal cortex as a brain region associated with happiness and positive thoughts and emotions. He concludes from his research that meditation not only changes the short-term workings of the brain, but could also produce permanent changes. - Linda Glenn

The Agony and the Ecstasy

Rick Weiss of the Washington Post reports today that the FDA has approved a proposal to test the illegal street drug "Ecstasy" for treatment of severe anxiety in terminally ill patients. Ecstasy, also known as MDMA or 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, is currently being tested for its ability to reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychiatrists refer to the drug as an "empathogen" helping to put people in touch with their emotions. Researchers at Harvard, who obtained permission from ethics review boards at Harvard and Lahey Clinic, to submit this proposal, believe that this drug could contribute significantly to the range of palliative care strategies available to patients who must face the emotional challenge of the end of their lives.[Link] - Linda Glenn.

Dying to Get Rid of a Headache

In the latest spate of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories linked to heart problems, the Washington Post reports that Aleve, which has been available over the counter for more than a decade, may increase people's risk of having a heart attack or stroke by as much as fifty percent. [link]

Meanwhile, last week, various news organizations and the National Cancer Institute reported that Celebrex could help prevent and even fight breast cancer. But, in the last few days, Celebrex has been implicated in increasing heart disease risks.Read more here and here. Obviously, more research needs to be conducted to balance the possible benefits against the possible risks.

More Debate on Memory Erasing Drugs

Washington Post discusses the use of Propranolol on stress, with the aim of eliminating the trauma of difficult memories. Although there are a number of clear candidates for such therapy, such as victims of domestic and political violence, the luddites and neocons are grumpy: "'All of us can think of traumatic events in our lives that were horrible at the time but made us who we are. I’m not sure we’d want to wipe those memories out,' said Rebecca Dresser, a medical ethicist at Washington University in St. Louis who serves on the President’s Council on Bioethics, which condemned the research last year. 'We don’t have an omniscient view of what’s best for the world.'" Suffer, spake the sage.

RU-486 Suspension

Is it coming?

Washington Post: Erasing Your Memory

Rob Stein asks what the problems would be with erasing traumatic memories. Magnus and Dresser are quoted.

Harvard Team Seeks to Clone Embryos

The Washington Post is reporting this morning - mistakenly as best one can determine - that Harvard is attempting to create the first cloned human embryos for medical research in the U.S. The piece mentions that UCSF tried and failed to harvest stem cells from embryos. But as early as 1996 a team at the University of Massachusetts was working on identifying cells for harvesting from cow-human embryos, whose nucleii were human, embryos which were created using somatic cell nuclear transfer. Previous reports of cloned human embryos from both China and Korea have also resulted, albeit much later and in one case in Chinese, in publications ... Weiss reports that another such attempt at ACT failed, but that misses the point: Harvard hasn't done it either, so the only news here is that someone ELSE is trying. The question of whether it can migrate into "the private sector" has already been answered! Rick Weiss reports that the group at Harvard is waiting on approval from Harvard's ethics "boards" by which he means IRBs, but as Rick knows very well the IRB doesn't review "ethics" in the sense in which he is describing "ethics boards." It's an important piece spun to be more important - and it illustrates the problem with creating accurate reporting about the most complex political issue to hit science in a long time.

Did the FDA Work Against Revealing Vioxx Findings?

Washington Post quotes an FDA official, David Graham, who indicates that in fact he was told to "water down" the report on the hazards of Vioxx.

UPDATED: ES Cells Save Embryos

onwisconsin.com and Washington Post are running pieces on Memorial Sloan-Kettering's work aimed at saving mouse embryos who were destined to die, using mouse embryonic stem cells. Robert Schatz of Scripps in La Jolla describes the procedure as "the birth of a new science." The knockout mice had extraordinary cardiac defects, and the stem cells did not change the DNA that had caused those defects. "Instead, [the stem cells] influenced the young mice's ability to express certain genes." Benezra: "stem cells act like nurses, restoring 'sick' [embryonic] cells to health." The human implications are already in trials using adult stem cells. This is huge news, and it will be interesting to see how quickly it makes its way into the mainstream media. The ethical issues are going to be no fun at all for those who oppose hES research. AND UPDATE: Here's the first piece on the ethics of the matter: Medical News of Today.

Washington Post: DNA Damage from Smoking

Yet another story framed in terms of how behaviors can cause damage to the genetic makeup of cells was released by the AP, although only the WPost picked this one up.

Pay My Malpractice Insurance and Call Me in the Morning

Sandra Boodman, in a Washington Post story sent to us by the Northwest Herald, interviews two physicians who require extra fees of insure patients. One asks $10 each - again that's from the patient - to cover his $10,000 malpractice bill. Another writes of his $125 fee (to cover his $30,000 bill) that "he felt compelled to act ... after his income dipped below the national average for his specialty, about $140,000."

LeRoy Walters on John Fletcher

The Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal article by LeRoy Walters on the life and death of John Fletcher is out in the September 2004 issue. The most widely read obituary was of course the Washington Post essay by Adam Bernstein.