Online lectures available to HS Biomedical and Life Sciences Collection

This month, thirteen online lectures have been added to The Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection. Seven of the newly released talks are part of a new series covering "Bone in Health and Disease" edited by Prof. Juliet Compston.

National University of Ireland - Galway has full access to all the lectures, here is the direct link to the new talks: www.hstalks.com/r/tblsc/recent

For faculty involved in teaching, all the lectures can easily be assigned for viewing by students and uploaded to virtual learning environments such as Moodle or Blackboard. 

Over 1,800 lectures by leading world experts.
National University of Ireland - Galway has full access to all the lectures.
Access link: www.hstalks.com/access/  

On campus, you should be automatically authenticated. 

The Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection
New Series: Bone in Health and Disease
 Osteoporosis: calcium and vitamin D Prof. Bo Abrahamsen, Glostrup Hospital, DK  The osteocyte Prof. Lynda F. Bonewald, University of Missouri, USA
Combination and sequential therapy for the treatment of Osteoporosis
Prof. Felicia Cosman, Columbia University, USA 
Osteoporosis in men
Prof. Peter R. Ebeling, Monash University, Australia
 Pathways regulating bone resorption
Prof. Tim Arnett, University College London, UK
 Osteoporosis: how long to treat?
Dr. Robert A. Adler, Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center, USA
 Epidemiology of Osteoporosis
Prof. Cyrus Cooper, University of Southampton, UK
 
 
New Talks Added to the following Existing Series:
 Updated Series:  Viruses and Viral Diseases
 Influenza Virus Pandemics: Past and Future
Prof. Peter Palese, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, USA
 Updated Series:  Molecular Genetics of Human Disease
 Ciliopathies and oligogenic phenomena
Prof. Nicholas Katsanis, Duke University, USA
 Changing lives: stratified medicine in monogenic diabetes
Prof. Andrew Hattersley, University of Exeter, UK
 Traffic problems: inherited disease and intracellular trafficking defect
Dr. Paul Gissen, University College London, UK
 
Updated Series:  Parkinson's Disease
Autonomic Dysfunction in Parkinson's Disease
Prof. Ronald Pfeiffer, University of Tennessee, USA
 Updated Series:  Topical Talks
 Pharmacometrics in psychiatry
Dr. Elizabeth de Lange, Leiden University, NL
 Pharmacometrics in pain management
Dr. Yaning Wang, US Food and Drug Administration; Dr. Jiang Liu, US Food and Drug Administration; Dr. Hao Zhu, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, USA; Dr. Ping Ji, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, USA
  
Updated Series:  Synapses, Neurotransmitters and Receptor Channels
 AMPA-receptors and fast synaptic transmission in the brain
Prof. Stuart Cull-Candy, University College London, UK

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Mental health law review proposes end to forced use of ECT

A major review of mental health legislation is to recommend an end to the practice of administering controversial electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to patients who are unwilling to give consent to the treatment.

A Government expert group tasked with reviewing the Mental Health Act (2001) recently completed its report which is likely to be published shortly by Minister of State Kathleen Lynch.

It is understood to contain a number of proposals to strengthen patients’ rights, extend the remit of watchdog bodies and place a greater emphasis on children’s services.

The current legislation is regarded by many campaigners as outdated given the growing emphasis on community-based services and demands for greater autonomy by patient group.

Section59(b) of the Mental Health Act states that forced electroconvulsive therapy may be administered where a patient is “unable or unwilling” to give consent once it has been approved by two consultant psychiatrists.

The steering group is expected to support the deletion of the word “unwilling”.

Children also feature prominently in the report’s proposals, say sources, and advocate that the needs of young people should be explicitly recognised in a standalone part of any revised legislation.

It is likely to propose a set of guiding principles which reflect the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

View more information here

World-renowned Galway neuroscientist returns to NUI Galway with formula for happiness

There is a formula for happiness after all. 

The equation has been described by Professor Ray Dolan, Professor of Neuropsychiatry and Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London. Professor Dolan presented some of his latest research findings on Tuesday, 23 September, at NUI Galway in a lecture jointly hosted by the University’s School of Psychology, the Discipline of Psychiatry, and the Galway Neuroscience Centre.

In a talk entitled ‘Value Encoding in the Human Brain’, Professor Dolan explained how he and his team of researchers believe that happiness is governed primarily by expectation and surprise, work which they have published recently in the prestigious international journal The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Professor Dolan and his team used a combination of behavioral neuroscience, computational modeling and neuroimaging approaches to study emotional reactivity in the form of momentary happiness in response to reward.

He also presented results from other work that may help to explain why some people have a propensity to gamble and take risks, while others avoid risk. He explained how the chemical transmitter dopamine in the brain is likely to play a key role in determining whether and how someone will gamble. Furthermore, dopamine’s actions in the brain also appear to play a critical role in learning. Professor Dolan demonstrated how a decline in dopamine levels with ageing can result in impaired learning. In turn, drugs that elevate levels of dopamine in the brain can act as cognitive enhancers.

Professor Dolan, who is a native of Monivea in Galway and a graduate of NUI Galway (known then as University College Galway), is a clinician scientist with a primary interest in the neurobiology of emotion and how emotion impacts on cognition, including decision making.  He has published over 500 peer reviewed papers in scientific journals and is consistently ranked among the top five most cited neuroscientists in the world in the field of neuroscience and behaviour.

View full Press Release here

Risks for psychosis could be identified through tell-tale signs in IQ, memory or social intelligence tests

Professor Gary Donohoe

The study’s findings, led by NUI Galway Professor Gary Donohoe, have been published in the leading international peer-reviewed journal JAMA Psychiatry

A new study has revealed that genetic variants associated with risk for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders are also associated with performance on measures of IQ, memory and social cognition. The discovery was made by NUI Galway Professor of Psychology Gary Donohue, in association with colleagues from Trinity College, Dublin and has just been published in leading journal, JAMA psychiatry.

Professor Gary Donohoe said: “These findings support the view that the genetics of schizophrenia and cognition overlap. The findings also raise the possibility that the risk of developing schizophrenia may be identified by changes in cognitive ability; tell-tale signs found in IQ, memory or social intelligence tests. These cognitive deficits often appear before the emergence of clinical symptoms and go on to predict individual levels of disability. Understanding how genetic variants contribute to this aspect of disability, both individually and interaction, is an important step towards understanding the underlying biology and developing better and more personalized treatments.”

Schizophrenia or bipolar disorder affects about one in 50 Irish adults. Treatments are available, but the successful treatment rates vary. It is as yet unknown what causes or triggers schizophrenia. Disability in these disorders is significantly affected by difficulties with a wide range of neuropsychological problems, including general cognitive ability, memory function, and cognitive abilities relevant to engaging and dealing with others.

View article here

View full Press Release here

New Self Harm service for Galway

Across Ireland there are on average 12,000 self harm presentations to Emergency Departments (ED) annually, with approximately 500 presenting to the ED in Galway University Hospital (National Suicide Research Foundation, 2012).   Galway Roscommon Mental Health Services has introduced a new Self Harm Service to provide a new and specific service to people who self harm.

Alan Costello is the first HSE Self Harm Nurse to be appointed in the HSE West area and is based in the Emergency Department at Galway University Hospital.  Alan takes direct referrals from the Emergency Department and from the Psychiatric Liaison Team (in GUH). 

 Alan says, “My primary role is to engage with the person following a self harm episode, carrying out a detailed mental health assessment and risk assessment. This involves an in-depth biopsychosocial assessment, identifying the causes of the crisis, the context of the self harm, the current level of risk and the primary stressors and triggers.  I develop a management and safety plan and may see the person for structured sessions to begin educative and therapeutic work around reduction and management of self harm behaviours.  If it becomes clear that the person has a more serious mental health concern, I can arrange for a hospital admission for assessment and treatment or arrange an outpatient appointment for the person to see a psychiatrist.”
View more on HSE website here

The physical effects of mental illness

Everybody with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia or manic depressive illness, should have an annual health screen with an emphasis on risk factors for heart disease, according to Prof Jogin Thakore, associate professor of psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin.

While advice on smoking cessation, diet and exercise has led to dramatic falls in the rates of death due to heart disease in the general population, Prof Thakore points out the rates of death due to heart disease in those with mental illness has remained the same over the past 20 years.

Prof Thakore is speaking about the physical effects of mental illness at the RCSIMiniMed open lecture series tomorrow evening, at the RCSI, St Stephen’s Green. Free registration at rcsi.ie

View news article here

Clinical Case Studies - Psychiatry, now accessible through 'E' Format

Online Access to Psychiatry Case Studies is available

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