Interesting Links for 20-06-2024

[andrewducker]

1. Alzheimer's disease continues to elude a breakthrough treatment. What are we missing?

(tags:alzheimers disease research )

2. Labour Party tried to gag Black lawyer who wrote party's own racism report

(tags:Labour racism OhForFucksSake )

3. Boil the Frog - find a path between any two bands

(tags:music )

4. Using MRI to identify clinically distinct biotypes in depression and anxiety

(tags:depression anxiety psychology neuroscience mri )

5. Framework launched to transform water safety in Edinburgh schools

(tags:swimming scotland children )

6. Do you work in Wildfire Control and Prevention? Then you need the Thermonator Flamethrower Robot Dog!

(tags:robots dogs fire )

7. Tory director of campaigning takes 'leave of absence' as election betting scandal grows.

(tags:Conservatives corruption gambling elections incompetence )

Comments

[dewline]

1. I would love to have a useful answer to that titular question.

4. ...what???

[andrewducker]

I'm confused by your confusion. Would you like to make your thoughts a teeny bit more concrete?

[armiphlage]

I think for 4, they mean if they use an MRI on a large group of people with depression and anxiety, the brain scans don't all look the same. However, the brain scans don't look random, either - they fall into six basic patterns. This means that depression might have different causes and treatments.

Instead of diagnosing you with "depression", you could get an MRI scan that could diagnose you as "Depression type B3". Instead of having to try lots of different therapies and medications that might (or might not) help, you could start off on treatment known to be best for that specific type of depression.

[dewline]

So this is a way of improving precision in treatment, then?

[armiphlage]

It looks like it. Like if you had an infection, a test to tell if it was bacteria, a parasite, or a fungus would let you jump right to antifungals instead of having to try other treatments first.

[andrewducker]

Eventually. Understanding first, treatment will probably take a while.

[alithea]

The researchers are hoping so, eventually, but having read it with experience of dealing with mental health services in the UK a) everyone diagnosed with a relevant health condition is never going to get an MRI, they need to get their subtypes predictable by cheaper methods and B) what they've done at the moment is predict who won't be helped by current therapies.

[calimac]

3) I'm not exactly sure what this is trying to accomplish. I'd thought from the link text that it was a "6 degrees of Kevin Bacon" setup, but apparently it's just trying to find reminiscent songs, but having tried a couple paths between bands that I like which go almost entirely through artists I'd never heard of, even after listening I'm not sure I understand the aesthetics here.

[channelpenguin]

yeah, exactly my thoughts and experience

[alithea]

That MRI and depression study is *fascinating*. I was reading through it trying to work out if they'd clocked that at least one of their biotypes covers those of us branded with Generalized Anxiety Disorder when we're actually undiagnosed autistics, and therefore do not respond to ADs or CBT as expected. I *think* they might be getting there with the comment about one biotype being linked to "behavioural defects", which I think they are linking to being slow to recognise the emotion that facial expressions are supposed to be conveying... But of course that doesn't apply to all of us who didn't get diagnosed correctly precisely because we've been indoctrinated from a very young age how to read faces and behave appropriately in social situations.

I shall reread it properly on my laptop at some point. Thanks for the link!

[andrewducker]

Oh yes.

I know people who have been diagnosed with all sorts of things rather than autism.

[alithea]

I confess I'm *assuming* that's what the patronising arsehole psychiatrist wrote in my medical notes while telling me to take diazepam and go on the waiting list for CBT... Apparently Tayside NHS Board "don't diagnose adult autism".

The only upside to the story is that said arsehole psychiatrist got struck off a few months later for bullying inpatients.

[andrewducker]

That's really fucking stupid.

I'm glad they're gone.

[alithea]

Ooh, it wasn't *quite* as bad as I may have implied - this was back in 2018 before *I* knew I was autistic. The not diagnosing adult autism is what I've discovered more recently. But it would have been helpful if someone had picked it up back then when I was trying to get treatment for my mental health, as I opposed to me discovering for myself during a session on a return to work scheme, where I had no access to any sort of support for it.

[andrewducker]

Good Lord! How did you find out there?

(IF you're okay talking about it)

[alithea]

We had a session run by a neurodiverse woman all about adapting to work environments and self care for the terminally anxious with sensory issues... I put two and two together about how all my issues with the new building in Dundee had been sensory overload and then a diagnosed friend I spoke to about it very kindly pointed me at a proper questionnaire written by researchers (at Oxford? University) and I started doing that and discovered all my "quirky" stories about my school career are actually classic autism symptoms, and came out with a "yes, it's definitely worth you contacting a professional to look into a diagnosis" result at the end. Which is how I found out GPs can't refer you for an autism diagnosis in Tayside. I am currently considering self referring back to mental health to see if it *is* possible to get an NHS diagnosis if you go direct to the mental health team... But funnily enough, I'm not especially keen to engage with them since it's exactly the same team as I had to deal with in Dundee, minus arsehole psychiatrist, obviously.

[andrewducker]

You have all of my sympathy.

And I hope that, if you decide to go for a formal diagnosis, that they are more supportive than they were then.

[alithea]

This is what I meant when I wrote "this course is great, but A Lot" - I've been intending to write the above comment as a post for about 18 months and never quite getting up the spoons.

[andrewducker]

Well, now you have a starting point. I'm sure you can edit into a post pretty easily :-)

#1

[lsanderson]

Curse you, U of M!

Dooes what it says on the Tin...

[hairyears]

6)

"Flamethrower-wielding robot dog

What could possibly go wrong?

Let's put the word 'Eventual' to work...

[hairyears]

I worry that the headlines and viral video, from its eventual use against humans, will boost sales enough to cover the legal costs many times over.

Re: Dooes what it says on the Tin...

[andrewducker]

Let me count the ways...