Depression News and Research

Latest Depression News and Research

State highlights: Los Angeles' new mental health program; N.C. considers Medicaid expansion; N.Y. nurses push for more staff

The $756,000 initiative marks one of the county's most significant attempts to find a better way to treat people who have mental illness and wind up in the criminal justice system by offering them transitional housing, medical treatment and job-hunting help. Officials say the pilot program will start in Van Nuys and initially help 50 people at a time, but it is expected to spread throughout the county and could accommodate up to 1,000 people at once (Gerber, 9/17).

19 Sep 2014

Longer looks: Lithium in the water; controlling cancer; recovering from brain injury

There are many kinds of cancer, but treatments have typically combatted them in one way only: by attempting to destroy the cancerous cells. Surgery aims to remove the entire growth from the body; chemotherapy drugs are toxic to the cancer cells; radiation generates toxic molecules that break up the cancer cells' DNA and proteins, causing their demise.

19 Sep 2014

Researchers identify control mechanism for mood disorders

Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a control mechanism for an area of the brain that processes sensory and emotive information that humans experience as "disappointment."

19 Sep 2014

Activation of MMP-9 enzyme leads to behavioral problems connected to chronic stress

Why is it that when people are too stressed they are often grouchy, grumpy, nasty, distracted or forgetful? Researchers from the Brain Mind Institute at EPFL have just highlighted a fundamental synaptic mechanism that explains the relationship between chronic stress and the loss of social skills and cognitive impairment. When triggered by stress, an enzyme attacks a synaptic regulatory molecule in the brain. This was revealed by a work published in Nature Communications.

19 Sep 2014

Stress coping strategies may protect against bipolar disorder recurrence

Researchers have found a link between low levels of resilience to stress in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder and impulsive behaviour, which may make them vulnerable to depressive episodes.

18 Sep 2014

Scientists develop first blood test to diagnose major adult depression

The first blood test to diagnose major depression in adults has been developed by Northwestern Medicine- scientists, a breakthrough approach that provides the first objective, scientific diagnosis for depression.

18 Sep 2014

Benefits and risks of hatha yoga for people with bipolar disorder

Right now no one can say whether yoga provides clinical benefits to people with bipolar disorder, but in a new article in the Journal of Psychiatric Practice, researchers report survey responses they gathered from scores of people with the condition who practice yoga. What the collective testimony suggests is that yoga can be a substantial help, but it sometimes carries risks, too.

18 Sep 2014

Sacral neuromodulation augments efficacy of antimuscarinics in OAB

The addition of sacral neuromodulation to antimuscarinic pharmacotherapy offers significant benefits over antimuscarinics alone in the treatment of women with idiopathic overactive bladder, study findings show.

17 Sep 2014

Childhood psychiatric disorders linked to schizophrenia risk

Having a childhood psychiatric disorder increases people’s likelihood of being later diagnosed with schizophrenia, research shows.

17 Sep 2014

Cyclothymic temperament linked to suicidality

The presence of a cyclothymic temperament in inpatients with bipolar disorder may indicate a high likelihood of hopelessness and suicidality, report researchers.

17 Sep 2014

Adding common epilepsy drug to morphine can result in better pain control, say IU researchers

Adding a common epilepsy drug to a morphine regimen can result in better pain control with fewer side effects. Moreover, the combination can reduce the dosage of the opioid needed to be effective, according to a team of pain researchers at Indiana University.

17 Sep 2014

Socioeconomic inequalities influence overall outcomes for children with asthma

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 6 percent of children younger than five have been diagnosed with asthma, the fastest-growing and most common chronic illness affecting children in the United States.

17 Sep 2014

Neuroscientists discover key gene linked to origins of speech

Neuroscientists have found that a gene mutation that arose more than half a million years ago may be key to humans' unique ability to produce and understand speech.

16 Sep 2014

Scientists measure responses to rewards during nicotine withdrawal across species

Cigarette smoking is a leading cause of preventable death worldwide and is associated with approximately 440,000 deaths in the United States each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population continues to smoke cigarettes.

15 Sep 2014

Research roundup: Prevention services for seniors; drug shortages

This policy brief reports the findings of a systematic review conducted by the Community Health Innovations in Prevention for Seniors (CHIPS) project. ... Clinical preventive services such as colorectal cancer screening and pneumococcal immunization can help reduce rates of premature death and disability. Yet, many older adults are not receiving the full set of clinical preventive services that have been proven effective and are considered "high value" in terms of their costs per life saved. Rates are particularly low among racial and ethnic minority older adults compared to national goals.

15 Sep 2014

Researchers report that dendritic cells can affect psoriasis

Different types of dendritic cells in human skin have assorted functions in the early and more advanced stages of psoriasis report researchers in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.

15 Sep 2014

Breathing-based meditation practice can be effective treatment for PTSD

One of the greatest casualties of war is its lasting effect on the minds of soldiers. This presents a daunting public health problem: More than 20 percent of veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a 2012 report by RAND Corp.

12 Sep 2014

New class of compounds protect brain cells from traumatic brain injury

A new class of compounds has now been shown to protect brain cells from the type of damage caused by blast-mediated traumatic brain injury (TBI).

12 Sep 2014

FDA approves Contrave extended-release tablets for chronic weight management

Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc. and Orexigen® Therapeutics, Inc. jointly announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Contrave® extended-release tablets as an adjunct to a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity for chronic weight management in adults with an initial body mass index of 30 kg/m2 or greater (obese), or 27 kg/m2 or greater (overweight) in the presence of at least one weight-related comorbid condition.

11 Sep 2014

Teen cannabis users 60% less likely to complete school or get a degree

Individuals who are daily users of cannabis before age 17 are over 60% less likely to complete high school or obtain a degree compared to those who have never used the drug, new research published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal shows.

11 Sep 2014