Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Drug helps children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who take 36- or 54-mg doses of once-daily CONCERTA® (methylphenidate HCl) CII are more likely to achieve significantly greater symptom response and symptom reduction than children with ADHD who take CONCERTA 18 mg once daily or near-equivalent doses of methylphenidate three-times-a-day, a study shows.

3 Jun 2004

Contradictory views on the use of Prozac to treat children with depression

A new US Government study suggests that anti-depressants such as Eli Lilly and Co's Prozac are the best way to treat children with depression.

3 Jun 2004

Adrenaline packs a powerful punch in the use of antidepressants

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that norepinephrine (adrenaline) plays an important role in animals in determining behavioral effects in some of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants, regardless of which biochemical pathway the drug uses to alleviate symptoms of depression.

3 Jun 2004

Antipsychotic compound bifeprunox worth USD 1 billion per year to Solvay and Wyeth

Solvay has re-evaluated the commercial potential of bifeprunox, a Solvay compound in clinical development for the treatment of schizophrenia . Bifeprunox additionally has the potential to be developed in other disorders, i.e. bipolar disorder.

3 Jun 2004

Compulsive hoarding study could improve diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders

A PET imaging study conducted at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute indicates the neurobiology of America's estimated 1 million compulsive hoarders differs significantly from people with other obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. The findings indicate that different medications could improve treatment success.

2 Jun 2004

Chromium picolinate supplementation reduced carbohydrate cravings and atypical depression

Results of a new double-blind, placebo-controlled human clinical trial found that daily supplementation with chromium picolinate significantly reduced some key symptoms of atypical depression.

2 Jun 2004

Treating post-traumatic stress disorder

Trinity Western University researchers are conducting comparative studies for three treatments of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that, in the last 10 years, have helped reduce and eliminate PTSD symptoms in female victims of sexual assault.

2 Jun 2004

Bullying is widespread within the UK's National Health Service

A survey has found that 47% of psychiatric trainees had been bullied in the previous year. Foreign doctors were significantly less likely to take action when bullied than local doctors.

2 Jun 2004

Schizophrenics who fail to take their medicines are over one-and-a-half times as likely to be rehospitalised

Patients with schizophrenia who fail to take their medicines as prescribed are over one-and-a-half times as likely to be rehospitalised and use in-patient services as patients who stick to their medication regimen. Non-adherence predicted an excess annual cost per patient of £5000 for total service use.

2 Jun 2004

'somatoform', or 'psychosomatic', disorders are among the most common psychiatric disorders found in general practice

A study from the Netherlands has shown that ‘somatoform’, or ‘psychosomatic’, disorders are among the most common psychiatric disorders found in general practice. At least one out of six patients seen by a general practitioner has a somatoform disorder.

2 Jun 2004

Mixed attitudes among staff towards smoking in large psychiatric hospital

A new survey has found that smoking habit and type of profession influenced staff responses to a questionnaire about smoking at work in a large psychiatric hospital.

2 Jun 2004

Perfectionism bad for your health

York University psychology professor Gordon Flett says that perfectionists are prone to health problems because they are under constant stress.

2 Jun 2004

Reiner Center for Behavioral and Psychosomatic Medicine

Columbia University Medical Center has received a $5 million gift from Edward S. Reiner to establish the Reiner Center for Behavioral and Psychosomatic Medicine, the only center of its kind in New York City.

2 Jun 2004

Health surveys find mental disorders highly prevalent and often untreated

Reallocation of treatment resources could substantially decrease the problem of unmet need for treatment of mental disorders among serious cases in developed and developing countries.

1 Jun 2004

Gene linked to alcoholism

Alcoholism tends to run in families, suggesting that addiction, at least in part, has an underlying genetic cause. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered a gene linked to alcohol dependency.

1 Jun 2004

Louise Redknapp and Ronan Keating on cancer and how it affected them

Singer Louise Redknapp talks exclusively to the NHS about her fears that a fertility-threatening disease could threaten her plans for a family in a consumer-style magazine published today. Louise was diagnosed with endometriosis, a disease in which small pieces of the womb lining grow outside the womb, causing chronic pain and, in many cases, depression and fertility problems.

1 Jun 2004

WHO launches this year's campaign for World No Tobacco Day

The World Health Organization (WHO) launches this year's campaign for World No Tobacco Day with the slogan: Tobacco and Poverty: a vicious circle, stressing the enormous economic costs of tobacco use and cultivation to families, communities and countries.

1 Jun 2004