Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Longer looks: Doctors advocating less care; addiction as a 'disease'

These physicians are not anti-medicine. They are not trying to save money on their copayments or deductibles. And they are not trying to rein in the nation's soaring health-care costs, which at $2.7 trillion account for fully one sixth of every dollar spent in the U.S. They are applying to their personal lives a message they have become increasingly vocal about in their roles as biomedical researchers and doctors: more health care often means worse health.

19 Aug 2011

Conference to discuss latest research on gender disparities in cardiovascular disease

Heart disease has sometimes been considered a men's health issue, but the statistics prove otherwise. In the US alone, more than 42 million women live with the problem. Heart disease is responsible for more than one-third of deaths among American women each year, making it the number one killer of females older than 20.

19 Aug 2011

Seven UC scientists receive 2011 NARSAD Grants for brain and behavior research

The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation has awarded $1.5 million in NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grants to fund highly esteemed scientists for research on brain and behavior disorders.

19 Aug 2011

VA launches Paralympic Program website to support recovery of disabled Veterans

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has launched its Paralympic Program website as part of VA's ongoing commitment to support the rehabilitation and recovery of disabled Veterans through participation in adaptive sports.

19 Aug 2011

Viewpoints: 'Judicial restraint' and health law; mental health parity; perspectives from JAMA and NEJM

A Supreme Court decision to throw out health-care reform on Commerce Clause grounds could open up hundreds of other federal laws to legal challenge -- starting with the Civil Rights Act. It's hard to believe that this court really wants to relitigate the second half of the 20th century, but we'll have an answer soon enough.

19 Aug 2011

Medical research funding boost in UK

Health researchers in Cambridge have been awarded £114.5m to develop and translate new scientific discoveries into medicines and treatments. The funds come as a part of a five-year £800m investment by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

18 Aug 2011

Cortex second quarter net loss decreases to $356,000

Cortex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. reported a net loss of approximately $356,000, or $0.00 per share, for the quarter ended June 30, 2011, compared with a net loss of approximately $2,454,000, or $0.04 per share, for the corresponding prior year period, with the difference reflecting revenues in the current year period from the Company's option agreement with Servier, France's largest privately held pharmaceutical company.

18 Aug 2011

Online brain training reduces depression, improves cognitive functions

CogniFit brain fitness program can improve cognitive functions of everyday living in individuals with depression.

18 Aug 2011

Maternal stress may disrupt masculinization of developing mouse brain

Sons of male mice exposed to prenatal stress are more sensitive to stress as adults, according to a study in the August 17 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. These findings suggest experiences in the womb can lead to individual differences in stress response that may be passed across generations.

18 Aug 2011

Researchers to unravel how brain makes everyday prognostications

Every day we make thousands of tiny predictions - when the bus will arrive, who is knocking on the door, whether the dropped glass will break. Now, in one of the first studies of its kind, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are beginning to unravel the process by which the brain makes these everyday prognostications.

18 Aug 2011

Lighter smokers with two high-risk gene variations more likely to develop lung cancer

Smokers with variations in two specific genes have a greater risk of smoking more cigarettes, becoming more dependent on nicotine and developing lung cancer, a new study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) shows.

18 Aug 2011

Vanderbilt's Handle with Care initiative aims to reduce violence in emergency department

With violence toward health care workers from patients and visitors on the rise inside emergency departments, personnel with Vanderbilt's Adult Emergency Department are learning a new set of skills to keep them - and those they care for - safe. A training program called Handle with Care is the latest initiative in Vanderbilt's ongoing effort to reduce violence in the emergency department and protect staff, patients and guests.

17 Aug 2011

State roundup: Health insurance ruling reverberates; Fla. to accept some health law funds; California's aging issues

The state has returned millions in health reform dollars for child and elder care programs, among other things. But on Monday, HHS awarded the Sunshine State $1.26 million in ACA money to bolster efforts to report and combat infectious diseases.

17 Aug 2011

Geisinger researchers develop new PTSD prediction tool

A new post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prediction tool, developed by Geisinger Health System researchers, is simple to administer and appears to outperform other screening methods, according to new findings published electronically in the August issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry.

16 Aug 2011

AHRQ's new Spanish-language guide on heart medications

A free, illustrated easy-to-read pamphlet that compares drugs for preventing heart attacks, heart failure or strokes in people with stable coronary heart disease is one of six new Spanish-language publications from HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that help patients compare treatments for common illnesses.

16 Aug 2011

Anti-health law measure secures place on Ohio ballot; mental health improvements hit snags in Milwaukee

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled on Friday that a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would block implementation of President Barack Obama's signature health care overhaul law can appear on the ballot this fall. The ruling came on the same day that a federal appeals court in Atlanta struck down the requirement in the law that Americans either carry health insurance or face penalties.

16 Aug 2011

MRI scans show children of depressed mothers have enlarged amygdala

Researchers think that brains are sensitive to the quality of child care, according to a study that was directed by Dr. Sonia Lupien and her colleagues from the University of Montreal published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

16 Aug 2011

Mice with enzyme deficiency are unable to properly assess threat

Do you run when you should stay? Are you afraid of all the wrong things? An enzyme deficiency might be to blame, reveals new research in mice by scientists at the University of Southern California.

12 Aug 2011

Mount Sinai WTC program's to discuss health care of first responders affected by 9/11

The Mount Sinai Medical Center has taken the lead in developing the largest treatment and monitoring program for emergency responders, recovery workers, residents, and area workers who were affected by the terrorist attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001.

12 Aug 2011

Study finds decrease in inpatient hospitalizations for the elderly with psychiatric diagnosis

Short-stay inpatient hospitalizations for children and adolescents with a psychiatric diagnosis increased significantly over a 12-year period (1996 to 2007) and decreased for the elderly, according to a report in the early online edition in Archives of General Psychiatry by Joseph C. Blader, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University School of Medicine.

12 Aug 2011