Psychiatry News and Research

RSS

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

AGA guidelines recommend RFA for removal of precancerous cells in patients with Barrett's esophagus

New guidelines issued by the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) support the use of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) to remove precancerous cells in patients with Barrett's esophagus, a condition most commonly caused by chronic acid reflux, or GERD. Barrett's esophagus is the leading cause of esophageal cancer and affects an estimated two million Americans.

5 Apr 2011

Food addicts appear to have high neural activity in brain

Persons with an addictive-like eating behavior appear to have greater neural activity in certain regions of the brain similar to substance dependence, including elevated activation in reward circuitry in response to food cues, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the August print issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

5 Apr 2011

Promising results for new depression treatment

A new, non-invasive treatment for depression that delivers barely perceptible electric currents to the scalp has had promising results in a Sydney trial, and researchers are now looking for participants for a follow up study.

4 Apr 2011

NAA joins with organizations worldwide to raise awareness about autism

The National Autism Association joins with organizations worldwide in recognizing April as Autism Awareness month. With one in 110 children now diagnosed with autism, and autism mortality rates doubling that of the general population, NAA is once again calling upon legislators and government health agencies to declare autism a national health emergency.

4 Apr 2011

Researchers develop new way to stimulate neuron production in adult brain

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have developed a new way to stimulate neuron production in the adult mouse brain, demonstrating that neurons acquired in the brain's hippocampus during adulthood improve certain cognitive functions.

4 Apr 2011

Antidepressants may increase heart attack or stroke risk in men: Study

...

3 Apr 2011

IOM report: Researchers must engage LGBT population in health studies

Researchers need to proactively engage lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in health studies and collect data on these populations to identify and better understand health conditions that affect them, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

1 Apr 2011

Insight into traumatic brain injury

Researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have described for the first time how the brain's memory center repairs itself following severe trauma - a process that may explain why it is harder to bounce back after multiple head injuries.

1 Apr 2011

Scientists to develop new techniques for autism detection and treatment

To parents, learning that a child has been diagnosed with autism can be overwhelming. Children with the disorder can seem trapped in a world of their own, without friends or even a conception of friendship. Many prefer to play alone. Some lose the ability to speak more than a few words.

1 Apr 2011

How brain's memory center repairs itself after severe trauma

1 Apr 2011

Clontech launches new SMARTer Ultra Low RNA Kit

Clontech Laboratories, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takara Bio Inc., today announced the launch of its SMARTer Ultra Low RNA Kit for Illumina Sequencing, which was developed in collaboration with Illumina, Inc.

31 Mar 2011

Researchers suggest link between dopamine-related genes and person's risk of addiction

There is growing evidence that the risk factors for addiction change throughout the lifespan. The risk factors for developing addiction in adolescence are the most intensively studied because this life phase is associated with the highest addiction risk.

31 Mar 2011

Amyloid plaques in normal older individuals may be early signs of Alzheimer's

Researchers using two brain-imaging technologies have found that apparently normal older individuals with brain deposits of amyloid beta - the primary constituent of the plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients - also had changes in brain structure similar to those seen in Alzheimer's patients.

31 Mar 2011

ADI, Fondation Médéric Alzheimer honor Britain's psychiatry professor with international award

Dr. Sube Banerjee, one of the world's leading experts on Alzheimer's disease is the recipient of an international award for the best evidence-based psychosocial intervention for people with dementia and their caregivers.

30 Mar 2011

Stanford professor receives AFER Ludwig von Sallman Clinician-scientist Award

Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, has been named the first recipient of the Ludwig von Sallman Clinician-scientist Award, presented by the ARVO Foundation for Eye Research to a clinician-scientist under age 40.

30 Mar 2011

Breakups and rejection hurts physically: Study

The latest study has shown that social and romantic rejections and heartbreaks trigger activity in the brain that's similar to when people suffer physical pain.

29 Mar 2011

Researchers find patients with Alzheimer's have lower glucose utilization in brain

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that patients with Alzheimer's disease have lower glucose utilization in the brain than those with normal cognitive function, and that those decreased levels may be detectable approximately 20 years prior to the first symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

29 Mar 2011

Genetic link to attempted suicide discovered - Findings could lead to new avenues of treatment

Johns Hopkins scientists, reporting in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, have identified a small region on chromosome 2 that is associated with increased risk for attempted suicide. This small region contains four genes, including the ACP1 gene, and the researchers found more than normal levels of the ACP1 protein in the brains of people who had committed suicide. This protein is thought to influence the same biological pathway as lithium, a medication known to reduce the rate of suicidal behavior.

28 Mar 2011