Psychiatry News and Research

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

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

Researchers find inherited genetic variation in nicotine addiction

A new study from the Abramson Cancer Center and Department of Psychiatry in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine shows that smokers who carry a particular version of a gene for an enzyme that regulates dopamine in the brain may suffer from concentration problems and other cognitive deficits when abstaining from nicotine - a problem that puts them at risk for relapse during attempts to quit smoking.

10 Dec 2008

Cholinesterase inhibitors safe and effective therapy for behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia

Cholinesterase inhibitors, used to treat cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, are also a safe and effective alternative therapy for the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, according to a study that appears in the December 2008 edition of Clinical Interventions in Aging.

10 Dec 2008

Best obesity treatment

Severely obese patients who have lost significant amounts of weight by changing their diet and exercise habits may be as successful in keeping the weight off long-term as those individuals who lost weight after bariatric surgery, according to a new study published online by the International Journal of Obesity.

8 Dec 2008

Hemichannels - new target to treat epileptic seizures following brain trauma or stroke

New therapies for some forms of epilepsy may soon be possible, thanks to a discovery made by a team of University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute neuroscience researchers.

8 Dec 2008

Hormone Oxytocin calms arguing couples

A dose of the hormone Oxytocin reduces the stress hormone Cortisol in arguing couples. In addition, Oxytocin strengthens positive behaviour, as researchers at the University of Zurich have discovered. The study by the psychologist Beate Ditzen has appeared in the specialist magazine "Biological Psychiatry".

8 Dec 2008

Alzheimer's patients with sleep apnea benefit from CPAP treatment - improves cognitive abilities

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment seems to improve cognitive functioning in patients with Alzheimer's disease who also suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, according to the results of a randomized clinical trial conducted at the University of California, San Diego.

3 Dec 2008

Stress-related disorders affect brain's processing of memory

Researchers using functional MRI (fMRI) have determined that the circuitry in the area of the brain responsible for suppressing memory is dysfunctional in patients suffering from stress-related psychiatric disorders.

3 Dec 2008