Depression News and Research

Latest Depression News and Research

Blood test to diagnose depression in adolescents

Researchers have developed a blood test that can diagnose depression in teens, a step they hope will lead to a better way to identify the disorder in young people. At present diagnosing depression depends entirely on a patient's willingness to report symptoms. For teens, the diagnosis is particularly challenging, given the natural emotional ups and downs of adolescence.

18 Apr 2012

EAPs fail to identify individuals who abuse their intimate partner

A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy and RTI International finds employee assistance programs (EAPs), a standard benefit offered to employees at most large companies, are failing to identify individuals who abuse or have the potential to abuse their intimate partner, despite well-known risk factors for intimate partner violence perpetration.

18 Apr 2012

Tai Chi designed for wheelchair users

An innovative 13-postures Tai Chi designed for wheelchair users is described in the current issue of Technology and Innovation- Proceedings of the National Academy of Inventors.

18 Apr 2012

Study supports tolerability of low-dose aripiprazole as an antidepressant therapy-augmenting agent

In the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics there is a negative study on the use of aripiprazole in depression.

18 Apr 2012

Role of inability to express emotions in cancer

A review published in the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics raises the issue of the role of the inability to express emotions in cancer. Several interesting hypotheses emerge such as a possible link between alexithymia and the immune system, between alexithymia and quality of life, or between alexithymia, anxiety and depression.

18 Apr 2012

Idera commences IMO-3100 Phase 2 clinical trial for psoriasis

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the treatment of the first patient in a Phase 2 clinical trial of IMO-3100, the Company's lead Toll-like receptor (TLR) inhibitor for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, in patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.

18 Apr 2012

Study tests effectiveness of personally tailored exercise programmes on young people with depression

A unique study to test the effectiveness of personally tailored exercise programmes on young people with depression has been launched by researchers at The University of Nottingham.

18 Apr 2012

Caring for wife with breast cancer can affect men's health

Caring for a wife with breast cancer can have a measurable negative effect on men's health, even years after the cancer diagnosis and completion of treatment, according to recent research.

17 Apr 2012

Northwestern's Stone Institute launches new program to combat mental illnesses at first signs

Early symptoms of major mental illness can be subtle personality changes. Therefore, initial warning signs can often be missed, or even ignored due to conventional wisdom that suggests it's better to wait for true behavioral deterioration and prolonged patterns of abnormality before diagnosing and treating a mental illness. But experts warn that waiting until someone is so ill that the psychological sickness is unmistakable can be detrimental and can lead to long-term health concerns.

17 Apr 2012

Air pollution can contribute to obesity in children

Overall, 17% of children in the United States are obese, and in inner-city neighborhoods, the prevalence is as high as 25%. While poor diets and physical inactivity are the main culprits, there is new evidence that air pollution can play a role.

17 Apr 2012

Vanda acquires license from Lilly to develop and commercialize NK-1R antagonist

Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of products for central nervous system disorders, announced today that it has acquired an exclusive world-wide license from Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) to develop and commercialize a small molecule neurokinin 1 receptor (NK-1R) antagonist for all human indications.

17 Apr 2012

Maternal depression may affect infants’ sleep

Sleep problems are common in young children and can lead to difficulties in families. Several factors likely contribute to these problems, and mothers' depression has consistently been identified as one. Now a new study has found that moms with higher levels of symptoms of depression might act in ways that disturb their infants' sleep.

17 Apr 2012

Simple two-question test more effective in identifying anxiety disorders in children

A University of British Columbia researcher has developed a simple two-question test to screen kindergarten-aged children for future anxiety disorders - the most commonly reported mental health concern among children.

17 Apr 2012

Depressed mothers more likely to wake up their infants at night

Depressed mothers are more likely to needlessly wake up their infants at night than mothers who are not depressed, according to Penn State researchers.

17 Apr 2012

Regenstrief, IU develop Child Health Improvement through Computer Automation System

Researchers from Indiana University and the Regenstrief Institute have developed an automated system to help enable pediatricians to focus on the specific health needs of each patient in the short time allotted for preventive care.

17 Apr 2012

'Mental health checkups' as part of health care in schools

"The early detection of children who are showing psychiatric symptoms or are at the risk of a mental disorder is crucial, but introducing "mental health checkups" as part of health care in schools is not altogether simple," says David Gyllenberg, MD, whose doctoral dissertation "Childhood Predictors of Later Psychotropic Medication Use and Psychiatric Hospital Treatment - Findings from the Finnish Nationwide 1981 Birth Cohort Study" was publically examined at the University of Helsinki on 13 April 2012.

16 Apr 2012

SMART Heart improves cardiovascular surgical outcomes

Two years ago, 57-year-old Allus Brown underwent a simultaneous heart-kidney transplant and spent months in and out of the hospital after battling dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition that enlarges and weakens the heart. Now fully recovered, Brown is still in and out of Northwestern Memorial Hospital's Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute each week. Only nowadays when he visits, he's laughing it up, playing board games, and sharing accounts of his own struggles with heart disease as part of the Bluhm Institute's new and innovative program, SMART Heart, stress management and recreational therapy for heart patients.

16 Apr 2012

Intelligence may have co-evolved with worry in humans

Worrying may have evolved along with intelligence as a beneficial trait, according to a recent study by scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and other institutions.

16 Apr 2012

Physical activity reduces depression, enhances QOL during treatment for breast cancer

Women undergoing treatment for breast cancer might fight off distressing side effects and improve psychological well-being by staying off the couch. According to the University of Miami (UM) study, women who are physically active during treatment have less depression and an enhanced quality of life and report less debilitating fatigue.

16 Apr 2012

New genes may explain individual differences in brain size and intelligence

In the world's largest brain study to date, a team of more than 200 scientists from 100 institutions worldwide collaborated to map the human genes that boost or sabotage the brain's resistance to a variety of mental illnesses and Alzheimer's disease.

16 Apr 2012