Elective breast augmentation surgery in the United States is performed on 384.000 women per year. It is the most frequent high school graduation gift for girls in the US. How do you picture 32.000 elective breast augmentations a month? Watch this video. He translates the enormous numbers and statistics in a visual language. A language that can be felt so that they matter. Artist Chris Jordan shows us an arresting view of what Western culture looks like. His supersized images picture some almost unimaginable statistics -- like the astonishing number of paper cups we use every single day Related post on this .....read more »

The title of this post is the suggestion of The Last Psychiatrist after reading an editorial in the American Journal of Psychiatry by Jerald Block. In his editorial he explains why he believes Internet Addiction should be considered a psychiatric disorder.Now I don't feel so lonely anymore. Read his comment on this editorial here. You can read the opinion of dr Shock here.Related posts on this blog about Internet addictionRelated posts: Internet Addiction Internet Addiction in DSM V? DSM-5 troubles ..read more »

A Cochrane systematic review investigated the efficacy of omega-3 fatty acids for bipolar disorder. Only one trial out of 5 provided data that could be analysed, investigating ethyl-EPA(=eicosapentaenoic acid) as an adjunctive treatment in a mixed outpatient population. Some positive benefits were found for depressive symptoms but not for mania, and no adverse events were reported. There is currently insufficient evidence on which to base any clear recommendations concerning omega-3 fatty acids for bipolar disorder. However, given the general health benefits and safety of omega-3, the preliminary evidence from this review provides a strong case for well-powered, high-quality trials in .....read more »

How are we able to plan activities for pleasure. How is it that we can work the whole month in oreder to be payed and do nice things. How can we postpone direct gratification from our actions. Nature news has an interesting post on new insights into this matter based on animal research. Animals, they suggest, have a reward system that focuses on specific outcomes — what an action would achieve — which in turn plugs into a more general system that lets us know what feels good.How do emotion and cognition interact?The orbitofrontal cortex, which lies at the front .....read more »

The British Medical Journal urges you to submit your case reports. Accepted cases will initially be published on our beta site casereports.bmj.com but then copy edited and published on the live as soon as it is ready (scheduled for September 2008). This site will have sophisticated searching, browsing and alerting functionality.Recently I wrote a post about the Cases Journal from BioMed Central(PubMed) So this first cases journal now has some competition. Cases Journal is a peer-reviewed, open access journal publishing case reports from any area of healthcare that are understandable, ethical, authentic and include all information essential to its interpretation. .....read more »

Despite calls for a ban on the use of ECT without anesthesia, doctors in Baghdad say they often have little choice.For months the therapy has been administered without anesthesia because the hospital's anesthesiologists all fled the city. The World Health Organization has called for a ban on all ECT therapy without anesthesia.ABC News has a slide show about A Day in a Baghdad Psych HospitalRelated posts: The universal anesthesia machine ..read more »

This week's Grand Rounds are hosted by Dr David Khorram, an eye doc in Saipan. Where the heck is Saipan? See aboveHis selection of the best of medical blogging from around the world. Take a look here.Related posts: Grand Rounds: Being Thankful The New Grand Rounds is up at Sharpbrains Grand Rounds Vol. 5 No. 52 up at Suture for a Living ..read more »

Problematic Internet Use (PIU) of male students is higher than that of female students. On the Problematic Internet Usage Scale (PIUS) male students scores are higher compared to female students on all subscales such as negative consequences of Internet (NCI; 17 items), social benefit/social comfort (SB/SC; 10 items), except on excessive use(EU; 6 items). The students with psychological symptoms demonstrate more PIU.The students using the Internet from mostly their homes may feel more also have higher PIU scoresThose students that use the Internet mostly at night also score higher on the PIU.Using the Internet for social interactions is a risk .....read more »

While on vacation I didn't suffer from blog withdrawal. Had to post about some grand rounds that were so kind to allow one of my posts to be included. This resulted in a reprimand by Dr Confabula. She writes an excellent blog in Dutch, more focused on medical students. If you can read Dutch have a look. She has a wiki in which she categorizes here posts by subject. This gave me the idea of summarizing some of my own posts on a subject and write chapters about these subjects in a wiki.I can make them available for download as .....read more »

A large population-based study found an association of depression status and severity with decreased Vitamin D (serum 25(OH)D) levels and increased serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels in older individuals.Levels of 25(OH)D were 14%lower in 169 persons with minor depression and 14% lower in 26 persons with major depressive disorder compared with levels in 1087 control individualsVitamin D is produced by your skin in response to exposure to ultraviolet radiation from natural sunlight.It is nearly impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from your diet. Sunlight exposure is the only reliable way to generate vitamin D in your own body.It .....read more »