Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Nation's leading health care systems collaborate to improve quality while reducing costs

Six of the nation's leading health care systems today announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration to improve health care quality while reducing costs.

16 Dec 2010

MDMA produces friendliness, playfulness, and loving feelings in laboratory setting

MDMA or 'ecstasy' increases feelings of empathy and social connection. These 'empathogenic' effects suggest that MDMA might be useful to enhance the psychotherapy of people who struggle to feel connected to others, as may occur in association with autism, schizophrenia, or antisocial personality disorder.

15 Dec 2010

Researchers introduce new class of drugs for HCV patients

To improve the care for individuals infected with the hepatitis C virus, a major health problem and a leading cause of chronic liver disease around the world, nearly 200 international hepatitis experts have taken an important step in escalating the introduction of a new class of targeted therapies for HCV – direct-acting antivirals.

15 Dec 2010

New HHS Strategy on Multiple Chronic Conditions

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today issued its new Strategic Framework on Multiple Chronic Conditions - an innovative private-public sector collaboration to coordinate responses to a growing challenge.

15 Dec 2010

Anxious and depressed patients more likely to report worse results after hip replacement

Patients who suffer from anxiety and depression are more likely to report worse results after a hip replacement. A year-long wait for the operation also entails significant costs to both society and the individual, reveals a new thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

15 Dec 2010

DBS targets same class of neuronal cells that respond to physical exercise and drug Prozac

Shooting steady pulses of electricity through slender electrodes into a brain area that controls complex behaviors has proven to be effective against several therapeutically stubborn neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Now, a new study has found that this technique, called deep brain stimulation (DBS), targets the same class of neuronal cells that are known to respond to physical exercise and drugs such as Prozac.

15 Dec 2010

Neuropeptide S protein boosts memory

UC Irvine researchers have identified a novel mechanism in the brain that boosts memory.

15 Dec 2010

Study explores meaning of respect in medical student education

Along with integrity and compassion, respect for patients, colleagues and other team members is an essential attribute of medical professionalism. A new study examines how medical students learn respectful or disrespectful professional behavior.

14 Dec 2010

Beta-catenin protein plays a key role in development of stem cells in acute leukaemia

Researchers at King's College London have discovered that leukaemic stem cells can be reversed to a pre-leukaemic stage by suppressing a protein called beta-catenin found in the blood.

14 Dec 2010

Quality of care for ADHD children poor under Medicaid, says new report

Whatever its final incarnation, the recently enacted landmark Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will expand Medicaid eligibility and is expected by 2013 to provide coverage, including mental health care, to an estimated 4.1 million children currently uninsured.

13 Dec 2010

Depression in mothers during pregnancy associated with higher levels of stress hormones in children

The cocktail of hormones cascading through depressed mothers' bodies may play an important role in the development of their unborn children's brains.

13 Dec 2010

Depression drug appears effective in reducing pain associated with breast cancer treatment

A drug commonly used to treat depression and anxiety disorder was effective at reducing joint and muscle pain associated with a breast cancer treatment, according to a study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

12 Dec 2010

Medication for depression ended before recommended time

Swedish women's use of antidepressants is twice as high as that of Swedish men. However, among both female and male new users, one fifth fills only one prescription. "This can be an indication of choices being made to end treatment before the recommended time," says researcher Karolina Andersson Sundell at the Nordic School of Public Health.

10 Dec 2010

OpEds: Palin on the Ryan Roadmap, Seniors and primary care docs, Arizona transplant controversy

[The president's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform's report] implicitly endorses the use of 'death panel'-like rationing by way of the new Independent Payments Advisory Board—making bureaucrats, not medical professionals, the ultimate arbiters of what types of treatment will (and especially will not) be reimbursed under Medicare.

10 Dec 2010

Sound masking therapy is of uncertain benefit when used alone to treat tinnitus

Tinnitus — what many think of as "ringing in the ears" — is the perception of sound without any real acoustic stimulation. Sound masking therapy, a common component of tinnitus treatment, is of uncertain benefit when used on its own, a new evidence review finds.

10 Dec 2010

Social activities most promising in prevention of depression among older adults

Interventions focused on social activities significantly decrease depressive symptoms among older adults. This is the results from a recent study.

10 Dec 2010

Access problems for psychiatric patients to Medicaid medication leads to increased hospital, emergency care

Too often, mental health patients have problems accessing or paying for their prescription drugs under Medicaid. The results — longer hospital stays and more emergency room visits — are hard on patients and costly for the entire health care system, a new study finds.

10 Dec 2010

First genetic test on developing risk of Alzheimer's disease and heart attacks

Alzheimer and heart attacks have been found to share common genetic basis. The research leads the way to the first genetic test on developing the risk of the diseases even at a young age. According to Federico Licastro, an immunologist at the University of Bologna who coordinated the study published in the scientific journal, Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, a test is now ready. "They are already selling it in America", he says, citing the case of a private firm in New Mexico (USA) that collaborated on the study. "But the tests could easily be also conducted wherever, using a simple blood test".

10 Dec 2010

Depression treatment may help obese women to lose weight

The new study, which appears in the November/December issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry, cites past surveys that show having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more — classified as obese — increases a person's risk of depression by 50 percent to 150 percent.

10 Dec 2010

Nuss Procedure safe and effective for chest deformity

Since 1987, when a surgeon at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters developed a minimally-invasive surgery to correct sunken chest, the procedure has been adopted world-wide as a standard of care and continually refined to increase its effectiveness and safety, according to a paper published in the December issue of the Annals of Surgery.

10 Dec 2010

Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Nation's leading health care systems collaborate to improve quality while reducing costs

MDMA produces friendliness, playfulness, and loving feelings in laboratory setting

Researchers introduce new class of drugs for HCV patients

New HHS Strategy on Multiple Chronic Conditions

Anxious and depressed patients more likely to report worse results after hip replacement

DBS targets same class of neuronal cells that respond to physical exercise and drug Prozac

Neuropeptide S protein boosts memory

Study explores meaning of respect in medical student education

Beta-catenin protein plays a key role in development of stem cells in acute leukaemia

Quality of care for ADHD children poor under Medicaid, says new report

Depression in mothers during pregnancy associated with higher levels of stress hormones in children

Depression drug appears effective in reducing pain associated with breast cancer treatment

Medication for depression ended before recommended time

OpEds: Palin on the Ryan Roadmap, Seniors and primary care docs, Arizona transplant controversy

Sound masking therapy is of uncertain benefit when used alone to treat tinnitus

Social activities most promising in prevention of depression among older adults

Access problems for psychiatric patients to Medicaid medication leads to increased hospital, emergency care

First genetic test on developing risk of Alzheimer's disease and heart attacks

Depression treatment may help obese women to lose weight

Nuss Procedure safe and effective for chest deformity

The Proteoform Puzzle: Unlocking the Next Frontier

Synthetic Biology and the Pursuit of Living Diagnostics

Modular, Scalable, Intelligent: How n6 Is Rethinking NGS Library Prep

Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

The Proteoform Puzzle: Unlocking the Next Frontier

Synthetic Biology and the Pursuit of Living Diagnostics

Modular, Scalable, Intelligent: How n6 Is Rethinking NGS Library Prep

Newsletters you may be interested in