Psychiatry News and Research

RSS

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

Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior awarded $14.9M to establish IPCN facility

The Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA has been awarded $14.9 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to establish a center dedicated to interdisciplinary research on the role of genetic and environmental factors in neuropsychiatric and behavioral disorders.

7 Apr 2010

Stimulant medication normalizes brain function in children with ADHD: Study

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is one of the most common mental health disorders affecting children and adolescents. Children with ADHD are excessively restless, impulsive, and distractible and experience difficulties at home and in school. Problems inhibiting behavior are a common theme for ADHD symptoms.

7 Apr 2010

Psychiatry expert on mission to test new theory of evidence-based flying

"Academics on the medical conference circuit already have their own extensive travel experience, albeit anecdotal. What has been missing in flyer decision-making to date is robust research evidence.

3 Apr 2010

Substantial number of older Americans need others to make decisions about end of life care

More than one in four elderly Americans lacked the capacity to make their own medical care decisions at the end of life, according to a study of 3,746 people to be published April 1 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

2 Apr 2010

Tel Aviv University researcher finds link between cigarette smoking and IQ

"Only dopes use dope," goes the memorable warning about drugs. Now a Tel Aviv University researcher cautions that the same goes for cigarettes.

2 Apr 2010

MRI study reveals worry may offset negative effects of fear and depression

A new study of brain activity in depressed and anxious people indicates that some of the ill effects of depression are modified - for better or for worse - by anxiety

2 Apr 2010

Researchers identify link between genetic mutation and schizophrenia

In what may provide the most compelling evidence to date, researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have illuminated how a genetic variant may lead to schizophrenia by causing a disruption in communication between the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex regions of the brain, areas believed to be responsible for carrying out working memory.

2 Apr 2010

Binge eating: Helping to stop binging while saving money

A new study finds that a self-guided, 12-week program helps binge eaters stop binging for up to a year and the program can also save money for those who participate. Recurrent binge eating is the most common eating disorder in the country, affecting more than three percent of the population, or nine million people, yet few treatment options are available.

1 Apr 2010

Crack, cocaine usage increases risk of HIV in adolescents

Teens with a history of crack or cocaine use are significantly more likely to engage in unprotected sex than youth who have never used these drugs, putting themselves at increased risk for HIV, according to a study in the April issue of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse.

1 Apr 2010

HHMI awards 2010 Gilliam Fellowship to UT Southwestern student

Mariam El-Ashmawy, a student enrolled in UT Southwestern Medical Center's prestigious Medical Scientist Training Program, has been awarded a 2010 Gilliam Fellowship for Advanced Study from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

31 Mar 2010

New clues may help explain why some people are more susceptible to stress than others

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found new clues that might help explain why some people are more susceptible to stress than others.

31 Mar 2010

PMDD often misdiagnosed as major depression or other mood disorder

As science slowly, but continually, unravels the causes of disorders, it increasingly teases apart biological threads that, when spooled together, begin to take on the warp and weft of separate disorders.

31 Mar 2010

Study indicates estrogenic drug could help treat schizophrenia

An estrogenic drug that influences neurotransmitter and neuronal systems in the brain is showing promise as an effective therapy for women who suffer from schizophrenia.

31 Mar 2010

Mood altering effects of Phenytoin

Phenytoin is a well known antiepileptic agent widely used throughout the world. Recent clinical studies in patients with bipolar disorder have suggested that, as for other anticonvulsant drugs commonly used in the treatment of bipolar patients including valproate and carbamazepine, phenytoin may have mood-stabilizing effects in addition to its well-known anticonvulsant properties.

30 Mar 2010

Lake Alice Hospital – Have the Ghosts of the past finally gone?

New Zealand’s Lake Alice hospital near Bulls in Rangitikei, which used to be self sufficient rural psychiatric set up housing the criminally insane since 1950 has been shut down since October 1999 and since then the hospital has been shrouded in controversies and plans for rebuilding and setting up new units.

30 Mar 2010

Diagnostic test for alcohol consumption: Measuring protein changes in blood

Measuring a set of protein changes in the blood linked to alcohol use may potentially lead to a more accurate diagnostic test than those currently available, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.

29 Mar 2010

UCSF approach may one day be used to create new periods of plasticity in human brain

UCSF scientists report that they were able to prompt a new period of "plasticity," or capacity for change, in the neural circuitry of the visual cortex of juvenile mice. The approach, they say, might some day be used to create new periods of plasticity in the human brain that would allow for the repair of neural circuits following injury or disease.

27 Mar 2010

Depressed Latinos who stigmatize mental illness less likely to take medication: Study

A new, small study of low-income, depressed Latinos finds that those who stigmatize mental illness are less likely than others are to take medication, keep scheduled appointments and control their condition.

27 Mar 2010

Anxiety may rise again, says Rutgers University dean

Poet W.H Auden dubbed the post-World War II nuclear era the "age of anxiety" and indeed, at the time, anxiety disorders were the most commonly diagnosed mental illnesses. Yet, by the 1990s, American psychiatry was "Listening to Prozac" and instead of obsessing about angst, it focused its attention on depression.

26 Mar 2010

Working of master regulator protein phosphatase 1

Protein phosphorylation is a process by which proteins are flipped from one activation state to another. It is a crucial function for most living beings, since phosphorylation controls nearly every cellular process, including metabolism, gene transcription, cell-cycle progression, cytoskeletal rearrangement and cell movement.

26 Mar 2010