The Genetic Conspiracy

An in-depth examination of the possible selection pressures to account for psychopathology.

The very latest research shows that ketamine, an anaesthetic with hallucinogenic properties, can reduce the symptoms of depression quickly and effectively, and that MDMA (popularly known as ecstasy) can be beneficial to sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder when used in combination with behavioural therapy.

By contrast, new research into the effects of the classical hallucinogens has progressed at a much slower pace, probably because these drugs are categorised as Class A in the UK (Schedule I in the US), and researchers who wish to obtain them therefore face numerous regulatory barriers.

Nevertheless, it now seems quite clear that psychedelic drugs have enormous potential for treating a wide variety of psychiatric conditions. Much still remains to be discovered about exactly how they affect the brain, however.

Amazing what can happen when people quit freaking out.

What is even more troubling is that the United States Government actually did a secret follow up-study on the Virginia findings, in the mid ’90’s. When it only served to confirm the results of the 1974 research, and showed that THC (one of the main active ingredient in cannabis – and the one the government loves to hate), when administered to mice, protected them against malignancy, true to form, our government attempted to bury the results. Fortunately, a draft copy of the study was leaked to the journal, AIDS Treatment News, and the media covered the story. An excellent article by Paul Armentano, Deputy Director of NORML, covers this part of our shameful history.

Imagine if policy were determined by objective scientific findings instead of politics.

Yes I know Dr. Mercola runs the hottest alternative health site on the web. But it’s become obvious from some of the links he posts that he’s a tea bagger deficit-hawk type, with a comments section infested with Ron Paul devotees and other right wing libertarian degenerates. You know, the Ron Paul who (with his son) goes around trashing the Civil Rights Act. Yuck. I know it’s ad hominem to judge someone as a whole based on some of their thinking, so I won’t go there. But I am seriously starting to wonder if being a right wing tea bagging libertarian will someday become a recognized category of mental illness. So, goodbye Dr. Mercola. I want to start reading other health sites now. It’s not me: it’s you.

From a commercial site of, by, and for indoor air quality tweakers:

Indoor Air Quality and Terrorism, featuring a 3-part “Indoor Air Quality Fallout From WTC Collapse” (a few years old but illustrates the enormity of the problem).

Michelangelo, guerilla anatomist:

It is reported that Michelangelo concealed an image of the brain in the first of these last 4 panels, namely, the Creation of Adam. Here we present evidence that he concealed another neuronanatomic structure in the final panel of this series, the Separation of Light From Darkness, specifically a ventral view of the brainstem.

No:

…here’s a bullet-point summary of my findings:

• If anything, President Barack Obama appears to be warmly in favor of genetic engineering, although there is some wiggle room with his campaign statements.
• President Obama’s picks for Ag Secretary, campaign advisers, and other cabinet positions further suggest that he is positively disposed to GE crops. Given his emphasis on plant-based biofuels, he may also see it as a means to achieve his domestic renewable fuel goals.
• Obama did not make a written campaign statement promising to require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods.
• Obama did not respond to mailings from The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods, nor did his presidential campaign contact them.
• Obama’s declared agenda, now housed at the White House website, indicates that these labels are not on his agenda.
• The claim that he will “fast track” GE food labeling appears to be an invention or the result of miscommunication.
• President Obama only once expressed a desire for GE food labeling, but has not made a campaign promise or pledge that he will “require mandatory labeling” for GE food.

There is no evidence that Barack Obama ever made a statement strong enough to be considered as a campaign promise to label GE foods.

Don’t get me wrong - I love me some Obama. He knows what science is and everything. So that’s great and I can work with that. But this unwelcome news about the US trying to squash GMO labeling worldwide is the kind of stuff that’s worth fighting about.

Contact the White House here. (Phoning is always more effective than email; scroll down for phone number.)

Your Senators are found here and your Congressional Representative is here.

And in case you aren’t sure why GMOs are bad, our epic smackdown of hapless pro-GMO science writer Michael Le Page is here.

Robert Whitaker on the causes of mental illness.

Levine: So mental illness disability rates have doubled since 1987 and increased six-fold since 1955. And at the same time, psychiatric drug use greatly increased in the 1950s and 1960s, then skyrocketed after 1988 when Prozac hit the market, so now antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs alone gross more than $25 billion annually in the U.S. But as you know, correlation isn’t causation. What makes you feel that the increase in psychiatric drug use is a big part of the reason for the increase in mental illness?

Whitaker: The rise in the disability rate due to mental illness is simply the starting point for the book. The disability numbers don’t prove anything, but, given that this astonishing increase has occurred in lockstep with our society’s increased use of psychiatric medications, the numbers do raise an obvious question. Could our drug-based paradigm of care, for some unforeseen reason, be fueling the increase in disability rates? And in order to investigate that question, you need to look at two things. First, do psychiatric medications alter the long-term course of mental disorders for the better, or for the worse? Do they increase the likelihood that a person will be able to function well over the long-term, or do they increase the likelihood that a person will end up on disability? Second, is it possible that a person with a mild disorder may have a bad reaction to an initial drug, and that puts the person onto a path that can lead to long-term disability. For instance, a person with a mild bout of depression may have a manic reaction to an antidepressant, and then is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and put on a cocktail of medications. Does that happen with any frequency? Could that be an iatrogenic [physician-caused illness] pathway that is helping to fuel the increase in the disability rates?

So that’s the starting point for the book. What I then did was look at what the scientific literature — a literature that now extends over 50 years — has to say about those questions. And the literature is remarkably consistent in the story it tells. Although psychiatric medications may be effective over the short term, they increase the likelihood that a person will become chronically ill over the long term. I was startled to see this picture emerge over and over again as I traced the long-term outcomes literature for schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, and bipolar illness. In addition, the scientific literature shows that many patients treated for a milder problem will worsen in response to a drug– say have a manic episode after taking an antidepressant — and that can lead to a new and more severe diagnosis like bipolar disorder. That is a well-documented iatrogenic pathway that is helping to fuel the increase in the disability numbers.

Now there may be various cultural factors contributing to the increase in the number of disabled mentally ill in our society. But the outcomes literature — and this really is a tragic story — clearly shows that our drug-based paradigm of care is a primary cause.

Use this to calculate the number of chickens you’d need to bring to the doctor in the GOP’s new Chickens for Checkups barter economy health care plan.

…Here’s Atrios the economist on the barter economy and why we don’t have one:

All joking aside, there’s a reason we no longer have a barter economy. It’s tremendously inefficient. Transactions require a “mutual coincidence of wants,” meaning I have to have something you actually want to have in exchange for my heart surgery. Many goods are highly indivisible - can’t trade half a live chicken - making precise pricing difficult.

I have most certainly reported on the therapeutic uses of Psilocybin, more specifically the study from Johns Hopkins University, here at GS. But to see it get positive treatment from such a mainstream news organization, well, awesome.

Despite early positive results, researchers are cognizant of overcoming the negative stereotype often conferred upon the psychedelic movement’s previous incarnation. To that end, the drugs are administered using strict safety protocols. Researchers are also hopeful that with other new age trends like yoga and meditation becoming mainstream, acceptance of psychedelic medical treatment isn’t far behind.

Well, perhaps more rational open-minded discourse from mainstream news orgs will help with that.

I see that the New York Times also has an article on this, much more in depth.

the therapeutically active components in marijuana - the cannabinoids - appear to be remarkably non-toxic to healthy cells and organs. This notable lack of toxicity is arguably because cannabinoids mimic compounds our bodies naturally produce - so-called endocannabinoids - that are pivotal for maintaining proper health and homeostasis.

In fact, in recent years scientists have discovered that the production of endocannabinoids (and their interaction with the cannabinoid receptors located throughout the body) play a key role in the regulation of proper appetite, anxiety control, blood pressure, bone mass, reproduction, and motor coordination, among other biological functions.

Just how important is this system in maintaining our health? Here’s a clue: In studies of mice genetically bred to lack a proper endocannabinoid system the most common result is premature death.

Armed with these findings, a handful of scientists have speculated that the root cause of certain disease conditions - including migraine, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and other functional conditions alleviated by clinical cannabis - may be an underlying endocannabinoid deficiency.

Now THAT’S scientific heresy! Whoo!

Gosh, did I flush out some crazy people with my cheeky thank you note to Obama over at this local hipster blog?

The gaps in neuroscience’s understanding of the psychopath are filling in:

“There has been a long tra­di­tion of re­search on psy­chop­a­thy that has fo­cused on the lack of sen­si­ti­vity to pun­ish­ment and a lack of fear, but those traits are not par­tic­u­larly good pre­dic­tors of vi­o­lence or crim­i­nal be­hav­ior,” said Van­der­bilt psy­chol­o­gist Da­vid Zald, co-au­thor of the stu­dy. “Our da­ta is sug­gest­ing that some­thing might be hap­pen­ing on the oth­er side of things. These in­di­vid­u­als ap­pear to have such a strong draw to re­ward—to the car­rot—that it over­whelms the sense of risk or con­cern about the stick.”

But get THIS. For the study, they found people with high levels of psychopathic traits - and gave SPEED TO THEM:

The re­search­ers gave the vol­un­teers a dose of am­phet­a­mine, or speed, and then scanned their brains us­ing PET to view dopamine re­lease in re­sponse to the stim­u­lant.…“Our hy­poth­e­sis was that psy­cho­pathic traits are al­so linked to dys­func­tion in dopamine re­ward cir­cuit­ry,” Buck­holtz said. “Con­sis­tent with what we thought, we found peo­ple with high lev­els of psy­cho­pathic traits had al­most four times the amount of dopamine re­leased in re­sponse to am­phet­a­mine.”

…“It may be that be­cause of these ex­ag­ger­at­ed dopamine re­sponses, once they fo­cus on the chance to get a re­ward, psy­chopaths are un­able to al­ter their at­ten­tion un­til they get what they’re af­ter,” Buck­holtz said.

 Namely, speed.

File under “thanks for the confirmation but everybody already knew this“:

The first U.S. clinical trials in more than two decades on the medical benefits of marijuana confirm pot is effective in reducing muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis and pain caused by certain neurological injuries or illnesses, according to a report issued Wednesday.

Good legislation now?

From the always exceptional folks at Counterpunch comes this photographic essay on the human cost of Chernobyl.

Migraine headaches in women linked to the neurological disorder multiple sclerosis:

“We can’t say if migraines slightly increase a person’s chances of developing MS, or if they are one of the early symptoms of MS,” he says. “What we can say is that individual migraine patients have little cause for panic or concern because more than 99% of them will never develop MS.”

Judiciously put.

Political interference with science, UK style: In which the sacking of Professor Nutt causes a kerfuffle, but the proposed remedy itself is a bit of a bother:

Prof Nutt had criticised a government decision to reclassify cannabis, saying it was less harmful than alcohol and nicotine and claiming it had been upgraded to Class B for political reasons.

As a result of his sacking, several other advisers resigned and over 20 scientists called for ministers to sign up to a code of conduct to prevent political interference in the system of scientific advice.

In response, Science minister Lord Drayson published a set of principles in December - one of which stated that scientists and ministers should “work together to reach a shared position”.

But… the last time scientists and ministers worked together to reach a shared position (they) wrongly assured the public (BSE) infected beef was safe to eat.

I say, old chap.

India rejects genetically modified crop. I especially like this paragraph about it from Beyond Pesticides:

Advocates of genetically engineered crops have argued that they are the only way to meet the world’s growing demand for food, and that they reduce the need for pesticides, while increasing yields. Studies have shown these claims to be false. The widespread adoption of GE crops in the United States has actually increased pesticide use but failed to increase yield. Recent studies have also linked GMO consumption to organ failure.

Those are the facts. God forbid the press - and the scientific press - should be so objective.

Curse you big government!!!

Federal regulators will require manufacturers of high-grade medical imaging machines to include safety controls that prevent patients from receiving excessive radiation doses.

Fascists!

Great.

Despite ractopamine’s dangers and the falsified approval documents, the FDA approved ractopamine the following year for cattle–and last year for turkeys.

It’s about fucking time. $30 million to study potential health effects beats a poke in the eye:

…the drug agency asked an independent panel of scientific advisers to review its draft report, and the panel gave it a scathing review. It accused the F.D.A. of ignoring important evidence and giving consumers a false sense of security about the chemical. The drug agency promised to reconsider BPA, and the announcement on Friday fulfilled that pledge.

Amazing the effect an independent scientific panel can have. Now if they could only start listening to independent scientists about genetically modified food…

Let’s see. We love the Center for Science in the Public Interest (or CSPI) for their Integrity in Science Database, where you can cross-reference scientists and universities with their corporate cash. It’s one of the best resources on the web for Gonzo Scientists concerned about corporate bias in science and that’s why we link to it in our sidebar under “Critical Thinking”.

But CSPI ain’t perfect. For instance they are still bashing coconut oil for being heart-stopping “artery-clogging” saturated fat, even while a consensus appears to be building that coconut oil has been the vicitm of a US industry-led smear campaign, and is actually crazy healthy.

CSPI also sucks when it comes to genetic engineering of food - while not embracing GE food full-heartedly, they provide an awful lot of cover for this out-of-control industry, in their zeal to be “balanced”. For instance, in their Biotechnology FAQ page, they spout this excrement about the safety of GE food:

GE food companies and others have conducted a number of tests to determine food safety and that testing has not uncovered any evidence of harm. Those tests have included short-term high-dose animal feeding studies of the GE protein, determining whether and how quickly the GE protein is broken down in the stomach (which prevents exposure to the rest of the body), and testing the levels of a number of naturally occurring plant components to make sure they have not been changed in the GE crop. While some of the tests have not always used the best available methods, together the results indicate that current GE crops are safe.

That is demonstrably total crap, and if that’s their idea of the public interest, they can keep it - not a word in there about the health hazards continually popping up in independent research. Why would the Center for Science in the Public Interest throw these independent researchers an anchor? There’s also this entirely outdated, sanitized version of the GE contamination of Mexican landrace corn:

Further tests are being conducted to determine whether the original results about the presence of GE genes in Mexican corn are correct.

The results have been in for a while now: they found ‘em! supporting the original study! - but not a peep from CSPI, who act like the GE controversy somehow can’t be decided one way or the other. Choose a side already - the truly scientific side is against GE.

Verdict: good watchdogs, but could be great, if they can stop being overly influenced by industry.

But since we already know - without research - that GMOs are harmless, this new research showing health risks is de facto poorly designed! Right, New Scientist magazine? God those guys are scientific!!

In addition to having to overcome the sickening biotech-boosterism of much of the science world and the scientific press (cough cough New Scientist cough cough),  it is also an uphill battle for researchers to obtain sufficient data to do science - observe, from the research:

In order to scientifically address this issue, it is necessary to have access to toxicological tests, preferably on mammals, performed over the longest time-scales involving detailed blood and organ system analyses. Furthermore, these tests should, if possible, be in accordance with OECD guidelines. Unfortunately, this has been a challenge since usually these are regulatory tests performed confidentially by industry prior to commercialization of their GM crops, pesticides, drugs or chemicals. As a result, it is more instructive to investigate the available data that allows comparisons of several GMOs consumptions on health effects. … The raw data have been obtained by European governments and made publically available for scrutiny and counter-evaluation. … The raw biochemical data, necessary to allow a statistical re-evaluation, should be made publically available according to European Union Directive CE/2001/18 but unfortunately this is not always the case in practice. On this occasion, the data we required for this analysis were obtained either through court actions (lost by Monsanto) to obtain the MON 863 feeding study material (June 2005), or by courtesy of governments or Greenpeace lawyers.

Oh and about those health risks?

These are the longest in vivo tests performed with mammals consuming these GMOs. … in the three GM maize varieties that formed the basis of this investigation, new side effects linked to the consumption of these cereals were revealed, which were sex- and often dose-dependent. Effects were mostly concentrated in kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition, some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also frequently noted. As there normally exists sex differences in liver and kidney metabolism, the highly statistically significant disturbances in the function of these organs, seen between male and female rats, cannot be dismissed as biologically insignificant as has been proposed by others [4]. We therefore conclude that our data strongly suggests that these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity. This can be due to the new pesticides (herbicide or insecticide) present specifically in each type of GM maize, although unintended metabolic effects due to the mutagenic properties of the GM transformation process cannot be excluded [42].

But New Scientist said there was no rational basis for distinguishing GM from non-GM!!

(hat tip to Organic Consumers Association)

Superpollster and numbers whiz Nate Silver with a handy chart of data to soothe the chicken littles out there:

For any “progressive” who is concerned about the inequality of wealth, income and opportunity in America, this bill would be an absolutely monumental achievement.

…I myself am a progressive and a Kossack, and this is comforting to me - Obama too is saying it’s all good. Not all good as in all good, but all good as in pretty darn good for now. Fingers crossed…

I cannot contain my joy that Al Franken is in the US Senate.

Marijuana chemical helps stimulate new cell growth in brain

Hey! What do ya know? Another Cannabis myth, dare I say proved, false with actual scientific testing. No wonder the DEA is so resistant actually letting us study this plant.

Geez, these adverse findings are racking up. Can pro-GMO scientists bat them all away in time to save Monsanto?? Priorities…

via the Organic Consumers Association:

-Transgenic material from GM corn found in soil organisms

Next stop: your genome. Just remember, we have to destabilize the environment to save it!
Also:

-Bayer admits “best practices” to control its GMO contamination are total shit

Paraphrasing there. Best bit:

$2 million US dollar verdict against Bayer confirms company’s liability for an uncontrollable technology

….This verdict confirms that the responsibility for the consequences of GE (genetic engineering) contamination rests with the company that releases GE crops.

Sweet Georgia sunshine!!

Transgenic Frankenrabbit biofactories rabbit herd waiting for regulator approval to be hooked to little milking machines to help produce a lifesaving drug for those with angioedema.

National Geographic: “Drug soon for sale?”

Gonzo Science: All respect to the vicitms of angioedema, welcome to day one of Transgenic Rabbit Escape Watch.