Researchers discover brain inflammation in people with OCD

A new brain imaging study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) shows for the first time that brain inflammation is significantly elevated - more than 30 per cent higher - in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) than in people without the condition. Published today in JAMA Psychiatry, the study provides compelling evidence for a new potential direction for treating this anxiety disorder, which can be debilitating for people who experience it.

"Our research showed a strong relationship between brain inflammation and OCD, particularly in the parts of the brain known to function differently in OCD," says Dr. Jeffrey Meyer, senior author of the study and Head of the Neuroimaging Program in Mood & Anxiety in CAMH's Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute. "This finding represents one of the biggest breakthroughs in understanding the biology of OCD, and may lead to the development of new treatments."

Inflammation or swelling is the body's response to infection or injury, and helps the body to heal. But, in some cases, this immune-system response can also be harmful, says Dr. Meyer, who holds a Canada Research Chair in the Neurochemistry of Major Depression. Dampening the harmful effects of inflammation and promoting its curative effects, through new medications or other innovative approaches, could prove to be a new way to treat OCD. In an earlier study, Dr. Meyer discovered that brain inflammation is elevated in people with depression, an illness that can go hand in hand with OCD in some people.

A novel direction for developing treatments is important, since current medications don't work for nearly one in three people with OCD. About one to two per cent of adolescents and adults have OCD, an anxiety disorder in which people have intrusive or worrisome thoughts that recur and can be hard to ignore.

The study included 20 people with OCD and a comparison group of 20 people without the disorder. Doctoral student Sophia Attwells was first author of the study. The researchers used a type of brain imaging called positron emission tomography (PET) that was adapted with special technology at CAMH to see inflammation in the brain. A chemical dye measured the activity of immune cells called microglia, which are active in inflammation, in six brain areas that play a role in OCD. In people with OCD, inflammation was 32 per cent higher on average in these regions. Inflammation was greater in some people with OCD as compared to others, which could reflect variability in the biology of the illness.

Additional investigations are under way to find low-cost blood markers and symptom measures that could identify which individuals with OCD have the greatest level of inflammation and could benefit the most from treatment targeting inflammation. Another notable finding from the current study - a connection between resisting compulsions and brain inflammation - provides one indicator. At least nine out of 10 people with OCD carry out compulsions, the actions or rituals that people do to try to reduce their obsessions. In the study, people who experienced the greatest stress or anxiety when they tried to avoid acting out their compulsions also had the highest levels of inflammation in one brain area. This stress response could also help pinpoint who may best benefit from this type of treatment.

The discovery opens different options for developing treatments. "Medications developed to target brain inflammation in other disorders could be useful in treating OCD," says Dr. Meyer. "Work needs to be done to uncover the specific factors that contribute to brain inflammation, but finding a way to reduce inflammation's harmful effects and increase its helpful effects could enable us to develop a new treatment much more quickly."

Source: 
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-06-brain-inflammation-people-ocd.html#jCp

How scientists are trying to unlock the mysteries of hypnosis

Nevertheless, Patterson and research partner Jensen have made considerable strides by examining the neural underpinnings of a hypnotic trance. To study hypnosis, Jensen uses electroencephalography, or EEG, which measures electricity in the brain. Our individual neurons are constantly generating electrical pulses as they transmit information from the body to the brain and around the brain itself. Occasionally, large groups of neurons will coordinate these pulses into a sort of rhythmic pattern. Picture the brain as a giant football stadium, and the pulses are like the fans doing a wave. Using sensors attached to the skull, scientists can listen for broad electrical rhythms — called oscillations — caused by wide swaths of neurons working in concert.

Keep in mind, though, that the brain isn’t a single stadium, but rather 1.2 million interlocking stadiums at once. So the EEG may pick up many different interlocking elements, and to make matters more complicated, because the sensors are on the outside of your head, only the outer parts of the brain can be measured. That makes the stadium even harder to hear. “The Rolling Stones are in town, but you don’t have a ticket,” Patterson says. “So you are standing outside the stadium. It’s very loose. You don’t know what, exactly, you’re hearing, but you can tell if they are singing a ballad or a rock song.”

Amazingly, even with all these barriers, when scientists listen to multiple places in the brain, a neurological picture of hypnosis begins to emerge. During meditation, the “stadium chant” that many parts of your brain participate is measurably slower than in daily life; during hypnosis, the chant becomes even slower — about the only way to get the brain rhythms slower than those during hypnosis would be to fall into a coma.

In the human brain, alpha waves — electric waves that pulse 8 to 12 hertz, or 8 to 12 times per second — prevail when we are relaxed or closing our eyes. Theta — 4 to 8 hertz — commonly arise when we are drowsy or lost in thought, and delta waves — 0 to 4 hertz — happen when we are asleep or in a coma. Jensen’s work suggests that theta and alpha waves may be key to pain relief. When going about our daily activities, the brain generally uses the much faster beta and gamma waves (up to 100 pulses per second). This is especially true when we’re in pain, which usually goes hand in hand with anxiety and stress. Thus, if hypnosis can trigger slower brain waves, those waves may replace the faster patterns and thus replace the perception of pain.

The implications for helping the millions of people in chronic pain might be enormous. This idea led Jensen to a fascinating study. He looked at the brains of 20 patients before and after they experienced some relief from pain through both hypnosis and meditation. He found that people who naturally had high levels of theta waves — in other words, people with naturally relaxed, slower electrical activity — experienced a great deal of pain relief from hypnosis. Meanwhile, people with busy, overactive minds benefited the most from meditation, which slowed their buzzing brains down to a crawl.

“Meditation takes care of a problem that you have. Hypnosis builds on a skill,” Jensen says animatedly. “It’s capitalization or compensation. Are you capitalizing on a strength or are you compensating for a weakness? It looks like meditation is compensating for a weakness, and hypnosis capitalizes on a strength.” Imagine pain management as a skill, like running or weight lifting. According to Jensen, hypnosis is a little like taking an already strong sprinter to the gym and pushing her to a whole new level.

If Patterson and Jensen are right, their research could back up much of what scientists have suspected for many years: Hypnosis may be an exotic brain state that directly accesses expectation and perception — a little bit like turning off all the software in your computer and accessing its basic coding (although that is a huge simplification). And while a placebo says, “Take this amazing thing and it will make you feel better” and giving you a promise for the future, a hypnotic suggestion says, “Floating along this stream, you suddenly feel better,” which is a promise for right now. Which one is better? Which one taps into your expectation more effectively and permanently? That is a question that will take much more time and experimentation to unravel.

Source:

http://ideas.ted.com/how-scientists-are-trying-to-unlock-the-mysteries-of-hypnosis/

都会佳人Citta Bella | Life Magazines 生活杂志 - 2017年4月刊Bella Soul 之《别让压力影响你》

在现今社会，我们时常被压力压得喘不了气。除了静坐，心理咨询或临床催眠疗法等服务都是解压的好方法。然而鲜少人会主动寻找心理科专业人士解压，这泰半和大众对心理专科的误解有关。其实根据不同的问题，也会有不同的选择供你去决定；这一次就让大家了解什么是脑电波反馈训练法。

疑问（一）我目前在半工半读着，时常因为课业和工作问题，导致压力颇大。真的读得很累，成绩业绩也大受影响。

建议：基本上，除了可以咨询非使用药物的心理从业员如临床催眠师、临床心理师或者心理辅导员疏解压力；你也可以考虑脑波反馈疗法训练，这是一种直接性的训练大脑的脑科学科技。当我们的大脑进入压力状态时，脑电波很容易进入Hibeta快频脑电波状态。当你意识层面进入这类脑电波频率时，你特别容易感到疲累与焦虑。这就好比说你在高速公路疯狂加油奔驰一样；长期让你的大脑呈现在Hibeta快频脑电波状态，你将会非常快速的消耗头脑里的能量波，这可能引致你的抗压力与专注力变差，严重会引起害怕焦虑等相关问题。

疑问（二）如果我的脑电波真的长期运用Hibeta快频脑电波来运作，这真的只有负面的作用吗？车子跑得快不是好事吗？大脑转得快怎么会是件坏事呢？

建议：大脑运用Hibeta快频脑电波来运作并不完全是坏事，然而前提是你有能力把这快频波给减速下来。通常脑电波反馈疗法训练可以将过激的脑电波给“减速”并把能让身心平稳的Alpha电波给训练上来。然而过多的Alpha波处于左脑前额叶也会产生情绪低落等负面效果，所以治疗师的临床判断也起着举足轻重的角色。一旦一个人学会了如何控制自己的脑电波，他的抗压力也会因此得到改善。通过改善脑电波，一个人的专注力也得以提升，可以借此改善专注力与学习能力。科学研究显示，脑波反馈疗法对专注力缺失问题有非常显著的帮助呢！

疑问（三）我听说左右脑的强度差异也会影响一个人的抗压能力，这是真的吗？右脑活跃的人比较有创意力？这是真的吗？

建议：近期的科学研究发现，创意力佳的人并不只是依靠右脑来工作。实际上，创意力好的人也会充分运用左脑和右脑的功能。科学家也发现，右脑前额叶较活跃的人，也比较容易有害怕焦虑与没有安全感等问题缠身，所以当一个人大脑长期处于不安害怕的焦虑状态里，这确确实实会引起情绪上的相关问题。当你的情绪不平稳，自然而然的也会影响自己的抗压力；这其实和大脑里的化学反应也有着直接的关系。

疑问（四）请问脑电波反馈训练真的那么神奇？或要如何知道我也适合做脑电波训练呢？

建议：脑电波反馈训练法不属于传统的心理咨询等服务，它更像是一种大脑运动技术。就好比说你去瘦身或健身前，你需要去测量体重计。你的体重计并不会评断你是否超重，而是由你的个人教练去给你意见该如何进行训练。同样的道理，脑电波反馈训练教练EEG biofeedback practitioner会为你进行脑波检测服务。你的脑波反馈教练会根据你的状况量身订造适合你的训练模式。科学研究发现，通常经过20次的训练，脑电波才会有显著的改善。这就如运动一般的道理，脑波训练也当然是做越多越有效。当你在选择你的脑电波反馈教练时，记得查询他的专业背景（如可有心理学或医学相关背景）与临床经验，一个临床经验越丰富的教练将会更有效地助你达到绝佳训练效果，脑电波训练绝对是安全、无痛以及无副作用的。

source:

http://www.cittabella.my/post/2017/May/Soul/BiofeedbackPratitioner