Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Interaction between gene variants may alter brain function in schizophrenia

A collaborative study led by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is giving what may be the first look at how interactions between genes underlie a key symptom of schizophrenia, impaired working memory.

8 Nov 2008

First study on war-related mental health disorders among Iraqis ten years after the Gulf War

A team of researchers from Wayne State University, in collaboration with Basrah Medical College in Basrah, Iraq, released a study published in The New Iraqi Journal of Medicine today on war-related mental health disorders among Iraqis ten years after the Gulf War.

8 Nov 2008

Behavioral therapy helps overcome depression in kidney disease patients on dialysis

Depression is common among individuals on dialysis for kidney disease, but behavioral therapy can significantly improve their quality of life, according to a paper being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 41st Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

8 Nov 2008

Treatments for seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

Bright white light therapy has been used to treat seasonal affective disorder (SAD) for more than 20 years.

7 Nov 2008

Domestic violence - a growing problem for veterans

"The increasing number of veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) raises the risk of domestic violence and its consequences on families and children in communities across the United States," says Monica Matthieu, Ph.D., an expert on veteran mental health and an assistant professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis.

7 Nov 2008

Discovery of new target in brain for treating schizophrenia

Research from the University of Pittsburgh could expand the options for controlling schizophrenia by identifying a brain region that responds to more than one type of antipsychotic drug.

6 Nov 2008

More hospitals discharging patients to nursing homes for rehabilitation

The rate of patients discharged from hospitals but who still needed home health care increased 53 percent (from 2 million to 4 million) between 1997 and 2006, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

6 Nov 2008

10 symptoms that should never be ignored

Not every ache and pain merits a quick trip to the doctor -- but some do.

6 Nov 2008

Response rates to antidepressants differ among English and Spanish speaking Hispanics

In the first-ever study of its kind, a team led by researchers at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed) report in November's Psychiatric Services journal that Spanish-speaking Hispanics took longer to respond to medication for depression and were less likely to go into remission than English-speaking Hispanics.

5 Nov 2008

Research looks at differential rates of psychoses by ethnicity

Researchers examining the occurrence of psychoses among migrant groups have shown a raised incidence for all black and ethnic minority subgroups compared with white British counterparts, and reveal that the risk of psychoses for first and second generations varies by ethnicity.

5 Nov 2008

Better educated women more likely to divorce

According to new research from the Australian National University (ANU), marriages where the woman is better educated than the man are more likely to end in divorce.

5 Nov 2008

Study looks at chronic medication use in children ages 5 to 19

America's tweens and teens more than doubled their use of type 2 diabetes medications between 2002 and 2005, with girls between 10 and 14 years of age showing a 166 percent increase.

4 Nov 2008

Substance abuse and other psychiatric disorders are common among French prisoners

Substance abuse disorders (SUDs) and other psychiatric disorders are common among prison populations.

4 Nov 2008

Genetic mutation linked to seasonal affective disorder

With the days shortening toward winter, many people will begin to experience the winter blahs.

4 Nov 2008

Rates of psychosis higher among minority groups in Britain

Both first- and second-generation immigrants to the United Kingdom appear to have a higher risk of psychoses than white British individuals, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of General Psychiatry , one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

4 Nov 2008

MRI reveals relationship between depression and pain

The brains of individuals with major depressive disorder appear to react more strongly when anticipating pain and also display altered functioning of the neural network that modifies pain sensitivity, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of General Psychiatry , one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

4 Nov 2008

Symptoms of fibromyalgia related to dysfunction in parts of brain where pain is processed

Using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), researchers in France were able to detect functional abnormalities in certain regions in the brains of patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia, reinforcing the idea that symptoms of the disorder are related to a dysfunction in those parts of the brain where pain is processed.

4 Nov 2008