Psychiatry News and Research

RSS

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

Smoking may interfere with alcoholics neurocognitive recovery from abstinence

Alcoholics frequently smoke. Anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of individuals in North America who seek alcoholism treatment are also chronic smokers.

26 Jun 2007

Personal comments by physicians distract from patient needs

In well-intentioned efforts to establish relationships, some physicians tell patients about their own family members, health problems, travel experiences and political beliefs.

26 Jun 2007

Abuse of prescription drugs

Increasingly, drug abusers are getting their next fix from their medicine cabinets, instead of from drug dealers.

26 Jun 2007

Alternative to blood test to detect drugs in the body

The presence of narcotic substances in a person’s body can usually be detected by a blood or urine test.

23 Jun 2007

Alternative to blood test to detect drugs in the body

The presence of narcotic substances in a person's body can usually be detected by a blood or urine test.

23 Jun 2007

New therapeutic vaccines help kick drug habits

A pair of new vaccines designed to combat cocaine and methamphetamine dependencies not only relieve addiction but also minimize withdrawal symptoms, according to study results presented by Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) researchers at the Annual Meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence in Quebec City, Canada.

23 Jun 2007

Coffee protects against involuntary eye spasm

People who drink coffee are less likely to develop an involuntary eye spasm called primary late onset blepharospasm, which makes them blink uncontrollably and can leave them effectively ‘blind', according to a study published online ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry .

20 Jun 2007

How accurate are recovered memories?

A decade or so ago, a spate of high profile legal cases arose in which people were accused, and often convicted, on the basis of recovered memories.

17 Jun 2007

Simple test predicts a person's risk for developing dementia within six years with 87 percent accuracy

The test, developed in the study by the researchers, is a 14-point index combining medical history, cognitive testing, and physical examination. It requires no special equipment and can be given in a clinical setting such as a doctor's office or at a patient's bedside.

16 Jun 2007

Injected neural stem cells reduce Parkinson's symptoms in primates

Primates with severe Parkinson's disease were able to walk, move, and eat better, and had diminished tremors after being injected with human neural stem cells, a research team from Yale, Harvard, the University of Colorado, and the Burnham Institute report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

14 Jun 2007

Endocannabinoids appear to play important role in regulating inflammation

Endocannabinoids seem to play an important role in regulating inflammation processes. Scientists from the University of Bonn have discovered this in experiments on mice.

8 Jun 2007

Novel pathways and markers for diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder

Looking into the brain is yielding vital clues to understanding, diagnosing and treating bipolar disorder, according to findings being presented at the Seventh International Conference on Bipolar Disorder.

8 Jun 2007

Ecstasy damages parts of the brain

Ecstasy, the illicit drug loved by party people and dance club patrons, may harm parts of the brain involved with verbal memory, according to new research.

5 Jun 2007

Low doses of Ecstasy associated with decreased verbal memory function

Even low doses of Ecstasy may be associated with a decline in language-related memory, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

5 Jun 2007

Genetic variations may help explain why some men with depression develop suicidal thoughts

Although most patients with depression respond favorably to antidepressant medications, a very small subgroup may experience worse symptoms after beginning treatment, according to background information in the article.

5 Jun 2007

Blocking stress protein decreases Alzheimer's peptide

Scientists revealed in November 2006 that stress increases production in mice of a brain peptide critical to Alzheimer's disease.

5 Jun 2007

Link between khat use and mental illness

Researchers investigating the evidence for a potential causal link between khat use and mental illness - in the first ever systematic review of the topic - have called for improved research on the stimulant plant, and its possible association with psychiatric disorders.

5 Jun 2007

Nursing homes associated with accelerated decline in Alzheimer's disease

People with Alzheimer's disease experience an acceleration in the rate of cognitive decline after being placed in a nursing home according to a new study by Rush University Medical Center.

3 Jun 2007

Adding medication improves recovery for elderly with depression

Adding a medication to a standard treatment regimen for major depressive disorder in the elderly improves chances of recovery in those who do not adequately respond to the first-course therapy or who relapse from it, finds a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association.

3 Jun 2007

Overt and subtle racial discrimination and mental health

Subtle racism - which can include social slights and ambiguous remarks that are hard to pin down - is more dangerous to mental health than overt discrimination, according to a study of 180 Korean immigrants living in Canada.

1 Jun 2007