Psychiatry News and Research

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Psychiatry is the treatment, study and prevention of mental disorders.

People with depression have increased connections among most brain areas

Most of us know what it means when it's said that someone is depressed. But commonly, true clinical depression brings with it a number of other symptoms. These can include anxiety, poor attention and concentration, memory issues, and sleep disturbances.

27 Feb 2012

Medication plus parent training effective in treating children with ASD

Children with autism spectrum disorders who also have serious behavioral problems responded better to medication combined with training for their parents than to treatment with medication alone, Yale researchers and their colleagues report in the February issue of Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

27 Feb 2012

Translational research in addiction conference to take place in Texas

Young people starting out in addiction research will get a turbo-boost to their careers March 3-4 at an annual conference that puts them face to face with internationally recognized addiction researchers and clinicians.

27 Feb 2012

Project GREAT earns ACP's 2012 Award for Creativity in Psychiatric Education

An approach to treatment that focuses on recovery from mental illness, not the treatment of it, is gaining national acclaim for the Medical College of Georgia Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at Georgia Health Sciences University.

27 Feb 2012

Statins may reduce risk of depression in patients with heart disease

Patients with heart disease who took cholesterol-lowering statins were significantly less likely to develop depression than those who did not, in a study by Mary Whooley, MD, a physician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

27 Feb 2012

New drug for Huntington's disease might operate via previously unknown mechanisms of action

A study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that a new drug for Huntington's disease - pridopidine or dopamine stabiliser ACR16 - might operate via previously unknown mechanisms of action. Researchers have found that at very low concentrations, ACR16 binds to the sigma-1 receptor, a protein in the brain important to neuronal function and survival.

24 Feb 2012

New Huntington's drug might operate via previously unknown mechanisms of action

24 Feb 2012

Workshop increases pharmacy and medical students' empathy

One year ago, a landmark study led by Mohammadreza Hojat, Ph.D., research professor, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Thomas Jefferson University, quantified a relationship between physicians' empathy and their patients' positive clinical outcomes, suggesting that a physician's empathy is an important factor associated with clinical competence.

24 Feb 2012

Children of immigrant parents more likely to develop autism with intellectual disability

A major register study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet shows that children born to certain groups of immigrants in Sweden had an increased risk of developing autism with intellectual disability. The study includes all children in Stockholm County from 2001 to 2007, and brings the question of the heredity of autism to the fore.

23 Feb 2012

New phone number to University of Michigan memory loss and dementia services

Her diagnosis was scary: Alzheimer's Disease. So Myriam Torres was desperate for accurate information and help with coping with what the future might bring.

23 Feb 2012

Mount Sinai receives Le Foundation gift for psychiatric neuroimaging study

The Department of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine has received a $250,000 gift from The Iris & Junming Le Foundation to advance neuroimaging research conducted by young scientists in the early stages of their careers.

23 Feb 2012

Patterns of brain development are distinct in infants with ASD

Patterns of brain development in the first two years of life are distinct in children who are later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), according to researchers in a network funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study results show differences in brain structure at 6 months of age, the earliest such structural changes have been recorded in ASDs.

23 Feb 2012

Causal link between TBI and increased susceptibility to PTSD

Mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are cardinal injuries associated with combat stress, and TBI increases the risk of PTSD development. The reasons for this correlation have been unknown, in part because physical traumas often occur in highly emotional situations.

22 Feb 2012

Statins can reduce risk of depression

Researchers at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the University of California San Francisco have studied the link between medication taken for cardiovascular disease and the development of depression. In their studies, scientists have determined that a particular class of medication, i.e. statins, can reduce the risk of developing depression.

22 Feb 2012

ALS Association, AAN to honor KCL neurologist with Essey Award

The American Academy of Neurology and the ALS Association are awarding the 2012 Sheila Essey Award: An Award for ALS Research to Christopher Shaw, MBChB, MD, FRACP, with the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London. Shaw will receive the award during the Academy's 64th Annual Meeting, April 21-28, 2012, in New Orleans.

22 Feb 2012

Short telomeres may increase risk of chronic diseases

The ability to anticipate future events allows us to plan and exert control over our lives, but it may also contribute to stress-related increased risk for the diseases of aging, according to a study by UCSF researchers.

22 Feb 2012

Telomeres - the indicators of aging - are highly susceptible to stress and depression

Stress has numerous detrimental effects on the human body. Many of these effects are acutely felt by the sufferer, but many more go 'unseen', one of which is shortening of telomere length.

22 Feb 2012

Gender nonconformity in childhood leads to increased risk of abuse: Study

According to researchers from Harvard School of Public Health and Children's Hospital Boston, children who do not conform to their gender-expected behaviors and interests are at a higher risk of being abused and facing subsequent traumas. Their work is published in the journal Pediatrics.

21 Feb 2012

Autism may be evident in an infant’s brain much earlier than thought: Study

Researchers have found that autism shows tell tale signs in babies as young as 6 months old — half a year or more before parents typically begin to notice symptoms of the condition. The results shed light on the fundamental differences in the brains of autistic children and could help lead to earlier detection and treatment, says co-author Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer at Autism Speaks, which helped fund the study in today's American Journal of Psychiatry.

20 Feb 2012

Quit-smoking drug Chantix effective in cocaine and alcohol addiction

Varenicline is unique among anti-addiction medications in the way it affects the brain. Like nicotine, varenicline activates a specific receptor for a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine, but it does so less intensely than the active ingredient of cigarettes does. The net effect is that the drug seems to help by both cutting cravings and making the formerly desired drug less pleasant — without making non-drug pleasures less intense. Alcohol works on the same chemical receptors in the brain as nicotine, and it may enhance the pleasurable effects of smoking.

18 Feb 2012