Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Researchers identify DNA methylation in patients with schizophrenia

In a new study, researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have identified epigenetic changes - known as DNA methylation - in the blood of patients with schizophrenia.

28 Mar 2012

Placentophagia may offer benefits to human mothers

A paper by neuroscientists at the University at Buffalo and Buffalo State College suggests that ingestion of components of afterbirth or placenta -- placentophagia -- may offer benefits to human mothers and perhaps to non-mothers and males.

28 Mar 2012

Dementia research gets a boost in the UK

The UK has seen a rise in the number of dementia sufferers by 50,000 in the past year, new figures have revealed. There are now more than 800,000 victims in Britain, with three out of four becoming anxious or depressed and six out of 10 feeling lonely, according to a new survey.

27 Mar 2012

Teva, IVAX receive FDA approval for generic Lexapro to treat depression and GAD

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the first generic Lexapro (escitalopram tablets) to treat both depression and generalized anxiety disorder in adults.

27 Mar 2012

Simple placebo pill can track footprints of prior antidepressant use

Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) often undergo multiple courses of antidepressant treatment during their lives. This is because the disorder can recur despite treatment and because finding the right medication for a specific individual can take time.

27 Mar 2012

Hospital happenings: Arizona nurse shortage complication, other news

Many hospitals in downtrodden areas of New York City and across the state are faltering, raising concerns that a wave of closings will deprive poor people of badly needed care. A three-month investigation by The New York Times into Wyckoff, based on dozens of interviews and an examination of internal documents, offers a sobering portrait of how one such hospital has been undermined by the very people entrusted to run it.

27 Mar 2012

State roundup: Wash. state exchange bill now law

Gov. Chris Gregoire on Friday signed into law a bill setting rules for insurers preparing for the state's online-insurance exchange. ... The state exchanges for individual and small-group plans are set to go live on Jan. 1, 2014. ... State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said that his office is committed to getting the exchange in place on schedule. "If we slowed down to be anxious, we'd be in trouble," Kreidler said. "It's the health law, and we're proceeding as quickly and as prudently as we can."

27 Mar 2012

Almost half of women on parole or probation experience mental illness

A new report released at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Advisory Committee for Women's Services meeting shows that women aged 18 to 49 on probation or parole are nearly twice as likely to experience mental illness as other women.

27 Mar 2012

Protein precursors destined for spiny extensions of neurons travel single file

Protein precursors destined for the spiny extensions of neurons travel single file, according to a study by Sanjay Tyagi, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

27 Mar 2012

Defects in schizophrenia-risk genes and environmental stress lead to abnormal brain development

Working with genetically engineered mice and the genomes of thousands of people with schizophrenia, researchers at Johns Hopkins say they now better understand how both nature and nurture can affect one's risks for schizophrenia and abnormal brain development in general.

27 Mar 2012

DBS allows surgeons to control tremors with brain 'pacemaker'

For nearly 30 years, Tom Rogers' left hand would shake when he tried to use it, making even simple tasks such as drinking a glass of water, writing a check, or making a sandwich challenging. The tremor eventually became so disruptive that he lost use of his dominant hand. Rogers sought care and learned that his tremor was a symptom of Parkinson's disease, yet felt he was suffering from something different.

27 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: Law on generic drugs is 'outrageous denial' of patients' rights; Could Romney be the best spokesman against federal law?

Dozens of suits against drug companies have been dismissed in federal and state courts because of a decision by the Supreme Court last year that makes it virtually impossible to sue generic manufacturers for failing to provide adequate warning of a prescription drug's dangers. This outrageous denial of a patient's right to recover fair damages makes it imperative that Congress or the Food and Drug Administration fashion a remedy.

27 Mar 2012

Medica Foundation awards $2.5 million in grants to 104 recipients

The Medica Foundation in 2011 awarded $2.5 million in grants to 104 recipients across five funding priority areas. The awards include $1 million in longitudinal grants to five Minnesota organizations. Those grant amounts range from $100,000 to $300,000 each and are designed to provide funding to the recipients over a three-year period.

26 Mar 2012

Theracurmin shows positive impact on human diastolic functions

The research group led by Dr. Koji Hasegawa, Director of the Translational Research Division at the National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center and Dr. Tatsuya Morimoto, Professor at the Molecular Medicine School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Shizuoka, announced today based on the recent human clinical trials, that Theracurmin has continuously shown positive impact on human diastolic functions.

26 Mar 2012

Minimally invasive endovascular treatment for CCSVI is safe in patients with MS

Researchers who investigated the connection between chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (a reported condition characterized as a blockage in the veins that drain blood from the brain and spinal cord and returns it to the heart) and multiple sclerosis indicate that a minimally invasive endovascular treatment for CCSVI, is safe and may produce "significant," short-term improvement in physical- and mental health-related quality of life in individuals with MS.

26 Mar 2012

Social rejection, internalized shame may contribute to depression in lung cancer patients

Studying the role of social stigma in depression for lung cancer patients, researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., have found that depression can be heightened by a lung cancer patient's sense of social rejection, internalized shame and social isolation. These factors may contribute to depression at rates higher than experienced by patients with other kinds of cancer.

26 Mar 2012

New IVIG trial can reduce OCD symptoms in children with PANDAS

Criteria for a broadened syndrome of acute onset obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have been proposed by a National Institutes of Health scientist and her colleagues. The syndrome, Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS), includes children and teens that suddenly develop on-again/off-again OCD symptoms or abnormal eating behaviors, along with other psychiatric symptoms - without any known cause.

26 Mar 2012

International Alzheimer's experts unite for global effort

The world’s leading Alzheimer’s disease researchers and clinicians will gather in Melbourne this week to agree on standardisation and validation of important diagnostic and prognostic parameters used in Alzheimer’s research centres around the globe.

25 Mar 2012

Obesity in later life linked to decreased mental faculties

The study found said out of 250 test subjects involving people over 59 years old, people between 60 and 70 who had the highest BMIs also had the lowest cognitive function. There was also a connection between visceral fat -- otherwise known as the belly fat around the torso - and poor mental abilities. The study, which was published in the British journal Age and Aging, measured the subjects fat-related measures including BMI, waist circumference and the amount of visceral - which could be close to organs - and subcutaneous -under the skin - fat using a abdominal CT scan. Cognitive ability was determined by a test called a Mini-Mental State Examination.

25 Mar 2012

Alcohol linked to 25% increase in liver disease deaths

The first report from the fledgling National End of Life Care Intelligence Network warns that the victims of liver disease are getting younger, with deaths increasing among people in their forties. Deaths rose from 9,231 in 2001 to 11,575 in 2009; some 60% of these were men, and 90% of them were under 70. Deaths are more common in England's northern regions marked by high unemployment and low educational achievement.

25 Mar 2012