Psychiatry News and Research

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

Mother's gene variation can influence alcohol-related disorders in fetus

Exposure to alcohol in the womb doesn't affect all fetuses equally. Why does one woman who drinks alcohol during pregnancy give birth to a child with physical, behavioral or learning problems -- known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder -- while another woman who also drinks has a child without these problems?

24 Mar 2011

Gut bacteria and state of immune system influence personality

Researchers at McMaster University discovered that the "cross-talk" between bacteria in our gut and our brain plays an important role in the development of psychiatric illness, intestinal diseases and probably other health problems as well including obesity.

24 Mar 2011

Report highlights common problems in Nordic mental health care reforms

In Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden reforms within psychiatry have transformed inpatient care to the point where it has increasingly been replaced by outpatient care.

23 Mar 2011

Toddlers who played with fewer toys show improvement in communication skills

Toddlers who played with a limited number of toys showed more improvement in their communication skills following parent-guided treatment than those receiving other community-based treatments.

23 Mar 2011

New study: Minority women may face risk of prenatal depression during pregnancy

A new study finds that African-American and Asian/Pacific Islander women have double the risk that others do of becoming depressed before giving birth, after adjusting for socioeconomic risk factors.

23 Mar 2011

Larger hippocampal volume linked with recovery of PTSD

The hippocampus, a brain region implicated in memory and interpreting environmental contexts, has been the focus of a controversy in posttraumatic stress disorder.

22 Mar 2011

UCSD selects Millennium Labs, Research Institute for NIAAA granted study

Millennium Laboratories, a leading provider of therapeutic drug monitoring, research and healthcare education, and the Millennium Research Institute, a national non-profit research center, announced today they have been selected by the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine to provide laboratory services, including research and analysis, for a new UC San Diego study funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health.

22 Mar 2011

PSN system can reduce psychiatric medication errors

Coupling an electronic prescription drug ordering system with a computerized method for reporting adverse events can dramatically reduce the number of medication errors in a hospital's psychiatric unit, suggests new Johns Hopkins research.

22 Mar 2011

Information technology could reduce psychiatric drug errors

21 Mar 2011

Prenatal alcohol exposure another risk for conduct disorder

Alcohol use during pregnancy is common and is associated with significant threats to the health and development of exposed offspring. Despite warnings from the Surgeon General to limit alcohol use if pregnant or contemplating pregnancy, a recent survey by the National Birth Defects Prevention Study(1) found that nearly one-third of women drank alcohol at some time during their pregnancy, with one-fourth of the women surveyed having drunk during the first trimester.

21 Mar 2011

Physical ill-health reduces life expectancy of people with severe mental illness

Physical ill-health is rife among the severely mentally ill in Britain, according to new research published today by the University of East Anglia (UEA).

21 Mar 2011

Researchers discover a type of 'cellular bilingualism' in brain

A team of researchers from the University of Montreal and McGill University have discovered a type of "cellular bilingualism" - a phenomenon that allows a single neuron to use two different methods of communication to exchange information.

18 Mar 2011

'Fetus To Fifth Grade' book provides updated research on pregnancy and childcare

Recent scientific studies have brought into sharp focus the importance of, and exactly what type of, mother/child interaction leads to an optimal outcome for the child.

17 Mar 2011

Special report takes critical look at debates about pediatric problematic moods, behaviors

Decisions about whether and how to diagnose children with emotional and behavioral disturbances, and whether and how to treat them, are sometimes not clear-cut. When decisions lie within a "zone of ambiguity," people who emphasize different value commitments can reach different but equally respectable conclusions.

17 Mar 2011

Hazelden, Columbia University to open collegiate addiction recovery residence in N.Y. City

Hazelden, one of the world's largest and most respected private, nonprofit alcohol and drug addiction treatment centers, announced today that it will open a first-of-its-kind collegiate recovery residence called Tribeca Twelve in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood.

17 Mar 2011

Naltrexone may be effective in women with specific genetic variation

Results from a new study suggest that one of the most prescribed medications for alcohol dependence may be more effective in some people. Preliminary results show that naltrexone, one of the only medications approved for treating people with alcohol abuse problems, may only be effective in women and those with a specific genetic variation.

17 Mar 2011

Tai chi helps manage depression in older adults

The numbers are, well, depressing: More than 2 million people age 65 and older suffer from depression, including 50 percent of those living in nursing homes. The suicide rate among white men over 85 is the highest in the country - six times the national rate.

17 Mar 2011

Older adults in public housing suffer fatigue and chronic related conditions

Location really does matter to older adults' health, according to a new study that found those living in public housing fare poorly and suffer more from fatigue and chronic, related conditions than those in other community dwellings.

16 Mar 2011

Classifying gambling subtypes does not predict treatment outcomes

Approximately two million adults in the United States meet criteria for pathological gambling, and another four to six million are considered problem gamblers, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. A study by researchers at Wayne State University reveals that gambling addiction treatment is not one-size-fits-all, but it is difficult to predict which style of treatment is best for the various forms of gambling addiction.

16 Mar 2011

Euthymics Bioscience initiates EB-1010 phase 2b/3a TRIADE clinical trial for major depressive disorder

Euthymics Bioscience, Inc. today announced the initiation of an advanced clinical study of its lead product candidate EB-1010 for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). The TRIADE (Triple Reuptake Inhibitor Anti-Depressant Effects) trial is a phase 2b/3a clinical trial designed to assess the safety and efficacy of EB-1010, a novel serotonin-preferring triple reuptake inhibitor.

14 Mar 2011