Psychiatry News and Research

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

Bulimia linked to brain circuit abnormalities

Scientists in the U.S. are suggesting that women who suffer from bulimia nervosa may have an abnormality in the brain circuit.

6 Jan 2009

Aboriginals in remote areas will feel the brunt of climate change

Australian researchers have warned that the impact of climate change on human health will be particularly felt by Indigenous people living in remote areas of the country and they say resources are needed now to deal with the problem.

6 Jan 2009

Why stopping smoking is hard

Just seeing someone smoke can trigger smokers to abandon their nascent efforts to kick the habit, according to new research conducted at Duke University Medical Center.

5 Jan 2009

Frontostriatal brain circuits play role in bulimia nervosa in women

Women with bulimia nervosa appear to respond more impulsively during psychological testing than those without eating disorders, and brain scans show differences in areas responsible for regulating behavior, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry , one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

5 Jan 2009

Childhood trauma associated with increased risk for chronic fatigue syndrome

Childhood trauma is a potent risk factor for development of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), according to a study by researchers at Emory University School of Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

5 Jan 2009

Expectant brains help predict anxiety treatment success

A network of emotion-regulating brain regions implicated in the pathological worry that can grip patients with anxiety disorders may also be useful for predicting the benefits of treatment.

5 Jan 2009

Researchers link blood sugar to normal cognitive aging

Maintaining blood sugar levels, even in the absence of disease, may be an important strategy for preserving cognitive health, suggests a study published by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC).

1 Jan 2009

Scientists reverse brain birth defects using stem cell therapy

Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have succeeded in reversing brain birth defects in animal models, using stem cells to replace defective brain cells.

29 Dec 2008

Vulnerability to post-traumatic stress runs in families

Earthquakes have aftershocks - not just the geological kind but the mental kind as well. Just like veterans of war, earthquake survivors can experience post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.

22 Dec 2008

Alcohol consumption during pregnancy damages offspring's white matter - brain's connective network

One part of the prenatal brain that may be particularly sensitive to alcohol's effects is white matter, nerve fibers through which information is exchanged between different areas of the central nervous system.

22 Dec 2008

Researchers discover reason why men outperform women on spatial tasks

Men consistently outperform women on spatial tasks, including mental rotation, which is the ability to identify how a 3-D object would appear if rotated in space.

17 Dec 2008

Tricyclic antidepressants best for depression in Parkinson's

A new study shows that antidepressant drugs which only affect serotonin, often used as first choice treatments, may not be best for depression in people with Parkinson's disease.

17 Dec 2008

New system of scoring IQ tests taken by children with fragile X syndrome

Parents of children with intellectual disabilities have long been frustrated by intelligence quotient (IQ) testing that tells them little to nothing about the long-term learning potential of their children.

16 Dec 2008

Coping with a serious illness through the holidays

The holidays are generally considered to be a joyous time; however, for people coping with serious illnesses the holidays can bring unwanted stress.

16 Dec 2008

Why seniors forget negative events

It turns out there's a scientific reason why older people tend to see the past through rose-coloured glasses.

16 Dec 2008

Study to identify best rehabilitation therapies for patients with traumatic brain injuries

Rush University Medical Center and 10 other healthcare facilities in the U.S. and Canada have been awarded a $4.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to identify which rehabilitation therapies, or combination of therapies, can best help victims of traumatic brain injuries.

15 Dec 2008

Psychological distress a growing heart health problem

Anyone will tell you that stress is bad for the heart. Many people also know about the toxic effects of anxiety and depression.

15 Dec 2008

New system of scoring IQ tests benefits children with intellectual disabilities

Parents of children with intellectual disabilities have long been frustrated by IQ testing that tells them little to nothing about their children's long-term learning potential. That's because the tests are scored according to the mean performance of children without disabilities, so the raw scores of many intellectually disabled children are converted to the lowest normalized score: typically a zero.

15 Dec 2008

New form of cognitive behavioural therapy shows potential to treat majority of cases of eating disorders

Wellcome Trust researchers have developed a new form of psychotherapy that has been shown to have the potential to treat more than eight out of ten cases of eating disorders in adults, a study out today reports.

15 Dec 2008

Paliperidone palmitate shows positive results for treatment of schizophrenia

Paliperidone palmitate, an investigational long-acting therapy (LAT) demonstrated statistically significant symptom control compared with placebo according to the results of a 13-week study.

14 Dec 2008