Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Investment report on Somaxon Pharmaceuticals from MicroStockProfit.com

MicroStockProfit.com announces an investment report featuring Somaxon Pharmaceuticals Inc. The report includes financial, comparative and investment analyses, and industry information you need to know to make an educated investment decision.

29 Apr 2010

22% of Canadians have contemplated or attempted suicide

On the eve of Children's Mental Health Week (May 2 to 8), Kinark Child and Family Services, a not-for-profit child and youth mental health organization in Ontario that provides expert help to children, youth and their families, released the results of a nation-wide poll that found that one in five Canadians has contemplated or attempted suicide. The online survey was conducted between April 12 and 14, 2010 with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults. The results are accurate to within +/- 3.1 percent at the 95% confidence level.

29 Apr 2010

Panel finds insufficient evidence to support preventive measures for cognitive decline, Alzheimer's disease

Many preventive measures for cognitive decline and for preventing Alzheimer's disease-mental stimulation, exercise, and a variety of dietary supplements-have been studied over the years. However, an independent panel convened this week by the National Institutes of Health determined that the value of these strategies for delaying the onset and/or reducing the severity of decline or disease hasn't been demonstrated in rigorous studies.

29 Apr 2010

Injection drug use contributes to transmission of syphilis

A binational team of researchers led by University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that active syphilis infections are significantly greater in female sex workers who inject drugs and share needles than those who don't. The findings suggest that injection drug use may play as big a role as risky sexual behavior in the transmission of syphilis. It may also exacerbate the spread of both HIV and syphilis, as syphilis is frequently a co-factor for HIV infection.

29 Apr 2010

Astrazeneca settles drug marketing lawsuit, plea deal rejected for possibly defective heart device maker

The New York Times: AstraZeneca has settled a case and agreed to pay $520 million after federal investigations into its marketing practices for a schizophrenia drug, Seroquel. The announcement came Tuesday from Attorney General Eric Holder. Government officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, said the company paid illegal kickbacks to doctors to promote drugs for unapproved uses by children, the elderly, veterans and prisoners, which is illegal under federal law.

29 Apr 2010

Researchers examine how diagnosis of Fibromyalgia can affect marriages

Fibromyalgia is a condition that causes chronic, widespread pain throughout the body. In a new study, University of Missouri researchers are examining how the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia can affect marriages. Initial findings reveal that diagnosed spouses have considerably higher levels of depressive symptoms and pain and report more marital instability and anger than their spouses.

29 Apr 2010

New study links psychopathy to frontal lobe dysfunction

Psychopaths are known to be characterized by callousness, diminished capacity for remorse, and lack of empathy. However, the exact cause of these personality traits is an area of scientific debate. The results of a new study, reported in the May 2010 issue of Elsevier's Cortex, show striking similarities between the mental impairments observed in psychopaths and those seen in patients with frontal lobe damage.

28 Apr 2010

Health Net provides option to keep adult dependents on their parents' policies

Health Net, Inc. is providing the option of continuing coverage for adult dependents up to age 26 who are currently enrolled on their parents' health care policies.

28 Apr 2010

AstraZeneca to pay $520 million in largest pharmaceutical civil settlement

AstraZeneca will pay the federal government $520 million in civil fines to settle charges of off-label marketing of the powerful antipsychotic drug Seroquel. The settlement is the largest pharmaceutical civil settlement and among the top five civil and criminal drug company settlements in U.S. history.

28 Apr 2010

Freedland Russo announces $520M settlement over Seroquel marketing practice lawsuit against AstraZeneca

Freedland Russo is pleased that Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney General, announced the $520 million dollar settlement of a lawsuit filed against AstraZeneca. The settlement announced today in Philadelphia indicates marketing practices for Seroquel included promotion of the drug by physicians participating in clinical studies and drug sales representatives encouraging doctors to prescribe for the unapproved uses.

28 Apr 2010

Laughter increases production of antibodies and activates body's protective cells

Laughter is a highly complex process. Joyous or mirthful laughter is considered a positive stress (eustress) that involves complicated brain activities leading to a positive effect on health. Norman Cousins first suggested the idea that humor and the associated laughter can benefit a person's health in the 1970s. His ground-breaking work, as a layperson diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, documented his use of laughter in treating himself—with medical approval and oversight—into remission.

27 Apr 2010

Slitrk5 gene linked to development of OCD-like behaviors

Researchers at the Ansary Stem Cell Institute and the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College discovered that mice missing a single gene developed repetitive obsessive-compulsive-like behaviors. The genetically altered mice, which behaved much like people with a certain type of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), could help scientists design new therapies for this debilitating condition.

27 Apr 2010

Health care costs of abused women change from year to year after abuse ends: Study

Victims of domestic violence endure significantly higher health costs than other women for three years after the abuse ends, a new study finds.

27 Apr 2010

RENCI project to build easy-to-use tool to help doctors determine best treatment options for patients

Gersing is the mastermind behind MindLinc, a tool for managing, evaluating and improving behavioral health treatment used at Duke and in medical clinics across the U.S. MindLinc includes anonymous emergency medical record data accumulated from psychiatric patients over 20 years. As with any large data set, quickly analyzing data and translating the analysis into better patient care poses many challenges.

27 Apr 2010

New discovery links Slitrk5 gene to development of OCD-like behaviors

27 Apr 2010

Researchers suggest association between mood and chocolate

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that women and men eat more chocolate as depressive symptoms increase, suggesting an association between mood and chocolate.

27 Apr 2010

Military trauma transition units breed culture of drug abuse, depression

The New York Times reports on a Warrior Transition Battalion unit in Colorado used by the military to transition injured veterans back into the military or their home lives. "Created in the wake of the scandal in 2007 over serious shortcomings at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Warrior Transition Units were intended to be sheltering way stations where injured soldiers could recuperate and return to duty or gently process out of the Army.

27 Apr 2010

A first step in the long road to health reform

Australia provides good health care to the majority of its citizens most of the time and compares well with like countries. The capacity for illness to destroy families financially, seen in the US and in many less economically advanced countries where governments make small or no contributions to the cost of health care, is much diminished by Medicare, public hospitals and subsidised pharmaceuticals.

27 Apr 2010

Chocolate and depression?

The ‘chocoholics’ of the world may also be the most depressed people around. A recent study found that those who were suffering from depression ate an average of 8.4 servings of chocolate a month, compared to just 5.4 servings eaten by those who were not depressed. And the people who suffered from major depression ate 11.8 servings per month.

27 Apr 2010

Popular antidepressants may have beneficial side effects for cardiovascular health: Study

A class of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors may provide a boost to cardiovascular health by affecting the way platelets, small cells in the blood involved in clotting, clump together, say researchers at the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill.

26 Apr 2010