British medical bulletin
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British medical bulletin · Jan 2008
ReviewEpigenetics: what is it and why is it important to mental disease?
The chemical marking of the DNA and surrounding histone proteins represent some of the means by which gene expression is controlled. Many of these epigenetic modifications are pre-programmed and are an important part of the control of development. ⋯ The significance of epigenetics for mental disease is becoming increasingly clear. It is important that the techniques developed to analyse the epigenome are now applied to the study of the molecular basis of mental disease to assess the contribution of gene-environment interactions to brain function.
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British medical bulletin · Jan 2008
ReviewSocial cognition in schizophrenia: a review of face processing.
People with schizophrenia have difficulties in interpreting social information. Much social information is gathered from faces, and face processing represents a well-characterized model to study the basis of social deficits in schizophrenia. ⋯ Research is required to understand more about both the basis of social deficits in schizophrenia and their potential remediation.
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The time around a patient's death is often filled with sadness, but good medical and nursing care can provide comfort to patients and their carers at this critical time. For many, a 'pain-free' death is a priority although there are other aspects to providing good care at the end of life. Honest, open discussion with patients and carers about their wishes is an essential prerequisite to individualized care. ⋯ Research into care of the dying will continue to be challenging. Priorities include; whether the use of tools such as the LCP improve the care patients receive, and the development of routine outcome measures including validated reports from patients and proxies.
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The prevalence of type 2 diabetes and dementia are set to rise inexorably over the next 30-40 years. There are now substantial data to suggest that type 2 diabetes is associated with an increased risk of dementia. ⋯ Large-scale, prospective epidemiological studies are now required to accurately delineate the pathogenesis of cognitive impairment in people with type 2 diabetes. These are underway and randomized trials of diabetes-specific interventions are also starting to include cognitive function as an outcome measure.
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British medical bulletin · Jan 2008
ReviewGenetics of inflammatory bowel disease: clues to pathogenesis.
It has long been recognized from epidemiological data that inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), have a strong genetic predisposition, interacting with unknown environmental drivers to render susceptible individuals at risk for relapsing intestinal inflammation. Substantial progress has been made in the last 2 years in characterizing the susceptibility genes involved. ⋯ This review explores genetic clues to the pathogenesis of IBD derived from the growing list of confirmed IBD susceptibility genes, and briefly elaborates some of the important themes and overlaps that are becoming evident both within IBD and also with other complex diseases.