NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., May 31 (UPI) -- Romantic love affects people's brains much the same as hunger, thirst and cravings for drugs, U.S. researchers say.
"When you're in the throes of this romantic love it's overwhelming, you're out of control, you're irrational," researcher Helen Fisher of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., told the New York Times.
"When rejected, some people contemplate stalking, homicide, suicide. This drive for romantic love can be stronger than the will to live," Fisher said.
She and other researchers, reporting in The Journal of Neurophysiology, used functional magnetic resonance imaging to generate 2,500 brain scans of 17 recently in-love college students.
They measured neural responses to pictures of each student's love interest and an acquaintance. People in love had greater activity in the brain area that makes or receives dopamine, which increases when people desire or wish for a reward.
Separate parts of the brain control sexual arousal and long-term commitment, researchers said.
Brain response to abstract thought studied
SAN DIEGO, May 31 (UPI) -- A University of California-San Diego study has found an injury to a region of the brain prevented some stroke patients from understanding abstract thoughts.
The inability included understanding proverbs and metaphorical statements, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The study, presented at the American Psychological Society meeting in Los Angeles, described four stroke patients who injured a discrete region on the left side of the brain.
Their general intelligence remained largely intact, the report said. However, the patients were mostly unable to understand or explain the broad meanings of 20 proverbs and metaphorical statements such as, "The grass is always greener on the other side."
Finding a region of the brain with a role in the uniquely human attribute of metaphorical thinking helps scientists understand better how the brain works, the Journal reported.
Private firms may run GP service
LONDON, May 31 (UPI) -- The British government reportedly has secretly offered private firms about $2 billion to take over general practice medical services.
It is part of a government drive to encourage such firms into primary healthcare now run by the National Health Service.
The move coincides with another expected policy change allowing companies that invest in building local health centers to also provide healthcare for the community, the Times of London reported.
These plans have been criticized as further evidence of the government's desire to "privatize the NHS by stealth," the report said.
Health professionals fear such policy changes may cause primary care, which is the foundation of the NHS, to be exploited by private investors.
"We are increasing old-style NHS capacity and while we are also increasing private sector capacity, the important thing to remember is it is still all free at the point of need for all patients," a health department spokesman said.
Most Americans have trauma center access
PHILADELPHIA, May 31 (UPI) -- Eighty-four percent of U.S. residents live within one hour of a hospital trauma center, University of Pennsylvania researchers reported Monday.
Researchers found 70 percent of Americans live within 45 minutes of a trauma center and the 46.7 million people who are more than one hour away from such a hospital generally reside in rural areas.
"Quickly getting to a trauma center will very likely save your life if you are seriously injured, and we need to get more people basic access to these important hospitals," author Charles Branas wrote in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.
The researchers said the best way to increase access to trauma care was by using medical helicopters, which provided transportation help to 81.4 million Americans who otherwise would not have reached a trauma center within an hour.
They wrote additional helicopter bases would be a practical way to extend trauma-center access.
Complicated grief requires special care
PITTSBURGH, May 31 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers have developed a specialized treatment for complicated grief, which affects up to 20 percent of people who lose a loved one.
A University of Pittsburgh study, published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, reported more than a million people a year develop a chronic, debilitating condition that goes beyond normal grief-related symptoms but still is different from clinical depression.
Interpersonal psychotherapy treatment -- focusing on bereavement-related depression -- works well for regular grief patients but the researchers refined the method to a two-pronged approach for complicated grief patients, focusing on both the loss and on rebuilding their own lives.
The study found after three years of assessment, 51 percent of complicated grief patients showed significant improvement using the new treatment approach, compared to 28 percent who improved using the standard interpersonal psychotherapy treatment.
Love affects the brain like thirst, hunger
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., May 31 (UPI) -- Romantic love affects people's brains much the same as hunger, thirst and cravings for drugs, U.S. researchers say.
"When you're in the throes of this romantic love it's overwhelming, you're out of control, you're irrational," researcher Helen Fisher of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., told the New York Times.
"When rejected, some people contemplate stalking, homicide, suicide. This drive for romantic love can be stronger than the will to live," Fisher said.
She and other researchers, reporting in The Journal of Neurophysiology, used functional magnetic resonance imaging to generate 2,500 brain scans of 17 recently in-love college students.
They measured neural responses to pictures of each student's love interest and an acquaintance. People in love had greater activity in the brain area that makes or receives dopamine, which increases when people desire or wish for a reward.
Separate parts of the brain control sexual arousal and long-term commitment, researchers said.
