Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Overcoming denial of medical conditions

Denial is a common response to a stressful situation. It can be an important coping and defense mechanism. But it also can delay the appropriate response to circumstances that require action and change.

5 Apr 2007

Stanford technique directly controls brain cell activity with light

Every thought, feeling and action originates from the electrical signals emitted by diverse brain cells enmeshed in a tangle of circuits.

5 Apr 2007

UT Metroplex institutions to collaborate on biomedical research

Researchers from the three University of Texas campuses in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area are combining their expertise in biomedical science, engineering and physical sciences on projects aimed at solving real-world medical problems.

5 Apr 2007

New understanding of the motivations that underlie acts of altruism

Beyond the lineage of primates, according to scientific gospel, social behavior is dictated primarily by competition for resources such as food, territory and reproduction.

4 Apr 2007

Children with autism are less likely to receive the type of primary medical care that we hope for all children

Children with autism do not receive the same quality of primary care as children with other special health care needs, according to research from the University of Minnesota Medical School.

4 Apr 2007

Men and women who wait to have babies later in life may increase their children's risk for autism

The study investigated 132,844 children born at Kaiser Permanente hospitals in its Northern California region over a five-year period (1995-1999) and identified 593 children who had been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

4 Apr 2007

Effectiveness of psychosocial treatments for bipolar disorder

This is a follow up study to one released last Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine on the effects of antidepressants in the treatment of bipolar disorder. Both studies, called STEP-BD, were funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

4 Apr 2007

Intensive psychotherapy most effective for treating bipolar depression

Patients taking medications to treat bipolar disorder are more likely to get well faster and stay well if they receive intensive psychotherapy, according to results from the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD), funded by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

4 Apr 2007

Computer model behaves like humans on visual categorization task

Computers can usually out-compute the human brain, but there are some tasks, such as visual object recognition, that the brain performs easily yet are very challenging for computers.

4 Apr 2007

Less children and teens taking antidepressants

The number of children and teenagers prescribed antidepressant medications appears to have decreased following public warnings about suicidal behavior potentially associated with the drugs, according to a report published in the April issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

4 Apr 2007

Ropinirole reduces "off" time in Parkinson's

Parkinson disease patients taking the drug, ropinirole 24-hour prolonged release significantly reduced their daily "off" time in which Parkinson's symptoms like tremor, slowness, stiffness, and walking difficulty return as drugs wear off, according to a study published in the April 3, 2007, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

4 Apr 2007

Call for improved screening for dating violence

Even though dating violence is common amongst teens, less than a quarter of U.S. child and adolescent psychiatrists report consistently screening for it, a new study finds.

4 Apr 2007

Significant gaps in knowledge about mental disorders in the Asia-Pacific region

While ANZ mental health researchers have an outstanding record of collaboration and publishing internationally, most of this activity relates to rich countries in North America and Europe. "

4 Apr 2007

Common questions about irritable bowel syndrome

Will adding fiber to my diet bring relief? Are dairy products really off limits? Is there a way to actually diagnose what I have, or is it all in my head?

4 Apr 2007

Intensive therapy helps in battle against bipolar disorder

New results from the largest federally funded bipolar study ever conducted show that patients who receive psychotherapy in addition to medication get better faster from bipolar disorder's debilitating depression and stay better longer, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher involved in the study.

4 Apr 2007

Child maltreatment declines in the U.S.

Several forms of child maltreatment decreased from 2004 to 2005, adding to more than a decade's worth of declines, according to University of New Hampshire researchers who analyzed the latest data released Monday from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

3 Apr 2007

Substantial need for mental health services in the general population

First large-scale assessment of the general population shows nearly 30 percent need mental health care and about one-third of them get it.

3 Apr 2007

Delivering race equality in UK health service - some way to go!

Mental health services in England and Wales have been accused of being institutionally racist.

3 Apr 2007

What makes a simple biological clock tick?

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Vanderbilt University has analyzed the simplest known biological clock and figured out what makes it tick.

3 Apr 2007

Chronic reading problems and depression appear to be related, especially among low-income children

A new study done by researchers at the University of Delaware and West Chester University of Pennsylvania found that low-income children who take part in reading assistance programs in fifth grade are more depressed, anxious, and withdrawn than their peers, especially when they have chronic reading problems.

3 Apr 2007