Psychiatry News and Research

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

Omega-3 fatty acid supplements can reduce inflammation in overweight older adults

New research shows that omega-3 fatty acid supplements can lower inflammation in healthy, but overweight, middle-aged and older adults, suggesting that regular use of these supplements could help protect against and treat certain illnesses.

21 Jun 2012

Psychologic distress has broad vascular risk impact

Psychologic distress has as large an impact on people’s cerebrovascular disease risk as on their ischemic heart disease risk, say UK researchers.

20 Jun 2012

Childhood viral CNS infections increase psychosis risk

Viral infections of the central nervous system in childhood are associated with nearly a two-fold increased risk for non-affective psychosis and schizophrenia in adulthood, a review and meta-analysis of published studies shows.

20 Jun 2012

Insight linked to gray matter volume in FEP patients

Results from an Irish study show that poor insight is associated with increased gray matter volume in subcortical and frontotemporal brain regions among patients with first-episode psychosis, but not in those with chronic schizophrenia.

20 Jun 2012

UMMS researcher receives Janssen Award for microRNA discovery

Longtime collaborators Victor R. Ambros, PhD, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) and Gary B. Ruvkun, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, were awarded the 2012 Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research today by Johnson & Johnson for their co-discovery of microRNA, tiny molecules that are now understood to play a powerful role in gene expression and regulation.

20 Jun 2012

Program to correct problematic research practices

A $500,000 grant to Saint Louis University's Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics will fund the first ever remediation program to aid institutions when they discover researchers who have engaged in wrongdoing or unprofessional behavior. The Restoring Professionalism and Integrity in Research (RePAIR) program is expected to launch in November 2012.

19 Jun 2012

Link between unconscious conflicts and conscious anxiety disorder symptoms

An experiment that Sigmund Freud could never have imagined 100 years ago may help lend scientific support for one of his key theories, and help connect it with current neuroscience.

18 Jun 2012

Tobacco cessation must be included as part of standard clinical care for cancer patients

While tobacco use can significantly hamper cancer treatment, few cancer researchers are incorporating tobacco assessment into their clinical studies. That's the conclusion a group of investigators led by Graham Warren, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Medicine at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), drew from a recent survey of cancer clinical trials.

16 Jun 2012

Study reveals value of graphic warning labels on cigarette packaging

In a first of its kind study in the U.S., researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that the addition of graphic warning labels on cigarette packaging can improve smokers' recall of the warning and health risks associated with smoking. The new findings are published online-first in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

16 Jun 2012

Limited driving privileges for teens reduces incidence of drinking and driving

State laws that limit driving privileges for teens have reduced the incidence of drinking and driving among the nation's youngest licensees, according to a new study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

16 Jun 2012

CMS awards nearly $18 million to spread collaborative care model for managing depression

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has awarded almost $18 million to a local and national collaboration of partner organizations with the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI) as lead organization.

16 Jun 2012

Mania symptom profile changes with age

A review of published studies shows that there are significant age-group differences in the prominence of specific symptoms of mania among patients with bipolar disorder.

15 Jun 2012

Emotion perception impaired in patients at risk for psychosis

Patients at ultra-high risk for psychosis, as well as those with first-episode schizophrenia, show significant impairments in facial and vocal emotion recognition, researchers report.

15 Jun 2012

Inadequate information encoding linked to poor language ability

Study findings suggest that the impaired ability to retain and repeat unfamiliar phoneme sequences in children with specific language impairment reflects inadequate encoding of phonologic information, rather than problems retaining encoded information.

14 Jun 2012

Oxidative stress linked to NSS severity in schizophrenia

The severity of neurologic soft signs negatively correlates with antioxidant superoxide dismutase activity in patients with schizophrenia, research shows.

14 Jun 2012

Preterm birth increases psychiatric disorder risk

Individuals born preterm are at increased risk for a range of psychiatric disorders in young adulthood, researchers report.

14 Jun 2012

Reproductive stage progression linked to worsening bipolar disorder

Results from a US study of women with bipolar disorder suggests that the illness may worsen with progression toward the later stages of reproductive life.

13 Jun 2012

Hot weather increases death risk in psychosis patients

Hot weather is associated with increased mortality rates among patients with psychosis, dementia, or substance use disorder, UK research shows.

13 Jun 2012

Investigational Insomnia Medicine from Merck improved patients’ ability to fall and stay asleep according to new phase III Data

Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced new data from two pivotal Phase III efficacy trials for suvorexant, the investigational medicine Merck is developing for the treatment of insomnia. In the studies, suvorexant significantly reduced the time it took patients to fall asleep and increased the time that patients stayed asleep as early as the first night and at the three-month time point compared to placebo. The investigational medicine met statistical significance for all primary endpoints except for one measurement at Month 3 in one of the trials. These late-breaking data were presented here today at SLEEP 2012, the 26th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

13 Jun 2012

Unique UCLA program proves effective in treating teens with ASD

Teenagers with autism spectrum disorder are in a bind. The disorder is characterized by impairments in communication and social interaction, but it's a continuum, so some teens diagnosed with ASD are considered high functioning and healthy enough to be "mainstreamed" in school.

13 Jun 2012