Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

First Edition: June 2, 2011

Today's health policy headlines cover a gamut of develoments, including reports about the latest Medicare dust up in the ongoing budget negotiations and about oral arguments in the latest round of appellate court action related to health law legal challenges.

2 Jun 2011

Transcendental Meditation reduces symptoms of PTSD in veterans just within 8 weeks

Veterans of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars showed a 50 percent reduction in their symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after just eight weeks of practicing the stress-reducing Transcendental Meditation technique, according to a pilot study published in the June 2011 issue of Military Medicine.

2 Jun 2011

Researchers explore relationship between emotions and poor prognosis in heart disease

Intense distress and fear of dying, which many people experience when suffering the symptoms of a heart attack, are not only fairly common emotional responses but are also linked to biological changes that occur during the event, according to new research published online today in the European Heart Journal.

2 Jun 2011

Eight major health systems join HVHC to demonstrate improved care at lower costs

In December, Mayo Clinic, Denver Health, Intermountain Healthcare, Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Cleveland Clinic, and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice announced the formation of the High Value Healthcare Collaborative to improve health care, lower costs, and move best practices out to the national provider community. Today, they announced that eight major health systems will join the Collaborative.

2 Jun 2011

IMS Model to guide providers and patients toward adherence

Physicians can help their patients follow prescribed treatments and achieve healthier results - particularly in chronic disease management - by using a three-pronged strategy developed by a team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside, Texas State University-San Marcos, and La Sierra University in Riverside, Calif.

2 Jun 2011

Fatigue and poor health may have major impact on patients with functional dysphonia

Fatigue and poor health, anxiety and depression may have a major impact on patients with functional dysphonia (FD), leading to time off work, reduced activity, and social withdrawal, all of which could further perpetuate and/or cause anxiety, low mood, fatigue and reduced voice use, according to new research published in the June 2011 issue of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery.

2 Jun 2011

Children of divorce more likely to struggle with anxiety, loneliness and low self-esteem

Children whose parents get divorced generally don't experience detrimental setbacks in the pre-divorce period, but often fall behind their peers-and don't catch up-when it comes to math and interpersonal social skills after their parents begin the divorce process, according to a new study.

2 Jun 2011

Gay young men in serious relationships more likely to have unprotected sex

Gay young men in serious relationships are six times more likely to have unprotected sex than those who hook up with casual partners, according to new Northwestern Medicine research.

2 Jun 2011

State roundup: Colo. Gov. Vetoes cost sharing bill for children's health plan

Gov. John Hickenlooper issued his first veto Tuesday, nixing a measure that would have required certain parents whose children are enrolled in a state health care plan to pay higher premiums.

2 Jun 2011

Men with migraine suffer from PTSD than women

A recently published paper highlights that while the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is more common in those with migraine than those without migraine irrespective of sex, the risk is greater in male migraineurs than female migraineurs. Study details are now available in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Headache Society.

1 Jun 2011

Non-invasive trigeminal nerve stimulation shows promise for drug-resistant epilepsy

Medications are the mainstay of treatment for epilepsy, but for a considerable number of patients — estimated to be as many as 1 million in the U.S. — drugs don't work. These patients suffer from a type of epilepsy known as refractory or drug-resistant epilepsy, in which drugs can't control their seizures.

1 Jun 2011

National survey finds gender and race affect self-reported health

A survey of nearly 4,000 Americans finds that obese women reported significantly worse health than obese men. Blacks who were overweight also reported better health than blacks in the normal or obese weight categories.

1 Jun 2011

Researchers discover new drug target that may effectively prevent onset of Huntington's disease

McMaster University researchers have discovered a new drug target that may be effective at preventing the onset of Huntington's disease, working much the same way heart medications slow the progression of heart disease and reduce heart attacks.

1 Jun 2011

Health IT roundup: Feds monitor privacy breaches and propose changes to HIPPA records sharing

Federal health officials call it the Wall of Shame. It's a government Web page that lists nearly 300 hospitals, doctors and insurance companies that have reported significant breaches of medical privacy in the last couple of years. Such lapses, frightening to consumers, could impede the Obama administration's effort to shift the nation to electronic health care records.

31 May 2011

Annual meeting of Society for Prevention Research to be held in Washington, DC

The mass shooting in Tucson that left six people dead and many more injured, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, brought significant attention to availability, accessibility and quality of treatment services for serious mental, emotional and behavioral disorders and substance abuse.

31 May 2011

States struggle to rein in medical costs

About half of all states are cutting public health care, an area that is already stretched thin by previous cuts in 31 states and a spike in Medicaid enrollment induced by high unemployment. Services for mental health, abused children, the elderly and the underinsured are the primary targets (Hube, 5/27).

27 May 2011

Roundup: Calif., Iowa hope to streamline mental health care delivery; Wis. battle with public employee unions continues

Over and over yesterday, in two separate Health and Human Services budget subcommittee hearings, officials insisted that eliminating the California Department of Mental Health was not a diminishment of services, but rather a reorganization.

27 May 2011

Report: Only 2% of nation's substance abuse treatment facilities offer counseling services in Asian languages

A new report shows that only 2-percent (291) of the nation's 13,513 substance abuse treatment facilities provide counseling services in various Asian languages. The report also showed that the proportion of facilities offering these services varied by geographic region.

27 May 2011

Patients with body dysmorphic disorder have less brain activity in visual processing

People suffering from body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD - a severe mental illness characterized by debilitating misperceptions that one appears disfigured and ugly - process visual information abnormally, even when looking at inanimate objects, according to a new UCLA study.

27 May 2011

New genomics research on abnormal brain development

Local researchers are finally on the road to developing targeted treatments for serious, life-long disabilities such as autism and schizophrenia, thanks to new genomics research focusing on abnormal brain development.

27 May 2011

Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

First Edition: June 2, 2011

Transcendental Meditation reduces symptoms of PTSD in veterans just within 8 weeks

Researchers explore relationship between emotions and poor prognosis in heart disease

Eight major health systems join HVHC to demonstrate improved care at lower costs

IMS Model to guide providers and patients toward adherence

Fatigue and poor health may have major impact on patients with functional dysphonia

Children of divorce more likely to struggle with anxiety, loneliness and low self-esteem

Gay young men in serious relationships more likely to have unprotected sex

State roundup: Colo. Gov. Vetoes cost sharing bill for children's health plan

Men with migraine suffer from PTSD than women

Non-invasive trigeminal nerve stimulation shows promise for drug-resistant epilepsy

National survey finds gender and race affect self-reported health

Researchers discover new drug target that may effectively prevent onset of Huntington's disease

Health IT roundup: Feds monitor privacy breaches and propose changes to HIPPA records sharing

Annual meeting of Society for Prevention Research to be held in Washington, DC

States struggle to rein in medical costs

Roundup: Calif., Iowa hope to streamline mental health care delivery; Wis. battle with public employee unions continues

Report: Only 2% of nation's substance abuse treatment facilities offer counseling services in Asian languages

Patients with body dysmorphic disorder have less brain activity in visual processing

New genomics research on abnormal brain development

How does norepinephrine influence anxiety-related behaviours?

Transforming Lab Workflows with Cell Culture Automation

Building Bridges to Scalable Allogeneic Cell Therapy

Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

How does norepinephrine influence anxiety-related behaviours?

Transforming Lab Workflows with Cell Culture Automation

Building Bridges to Scalable Allogeneic Cell Therapy

Newsletters you may be interested in