Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Cocaine use increases the risk of coronary aneurysms

Researchers in Minnesota say that cocaine users may be putting themselves at risk of coronary aneurysms, a ballooning of the walls of coronary arteries, which is potentially fatal.

9 May 2005

Girl juvenile offenders exhibit more problems, risks than boys

Girls in the juvenile justice system exhibit more risks than do boys for problem behaviors that may lead them to serious trouble, according to new research. Girls had more problems than boys in areas such as family and peer relations, physical health, mental health, traumatic events, and accountability issues.

9 May 2005

Clues about how alcoholic behavior is “switched” on

As part of an ongoing effort to understand the biochemical basis of alcohol abuse, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have published two studies on how modulating receptors for dopamine - a chemical “signaler” in the brain’s reward circuits - affects drinking behavior in mice and rats.

9 May 2005

"Anxiety Gene" linked to depression, makes the body out of tune

U.S. scientists in viewing the human body as a well-tuned orchestra, say that think they may have found a discordant note in the form of a gene which appears to increase the likelihood of some people developing anxiety and depression.

9 May 2005

American women focus on their own health more

According to "Women Talk," the first annual national women's health survey from the National Women's Health Resource Center (NWHRC), being healthy to women means both physical and emotional wellness and having a healthy family and suggests that women place a greater priority on the health of their family than their own personal health.

8 May 2005

Men with HIV combat stigma, stress with Mom's love

Despite fears of shame and stigma, most HIV-positive men choose to confide their health status to their mothers, according to a new University of Florida study. When deciding whether to tell, the men’s need for their mothers’ emotional and socioeconomic support outweighed those fears, researchers found.

8 May 2005

Health care resources distributed unevenly in Kansas

At least a third of the state of Kansas resembles an inner city when it comes to local availability of doctors, hospitals, medical personnel and nursing homes. Basically, there's not a lot of medical help to be had in either south Chicago, for example, or Sharon Springs, Kan.

8 May 2005

Suspect gene may increase susceptibility to anxiety and depression

People with the depression-linked gene variant showed less gray matter and weaker connections in the mood-regulating circuit. How well the circuit was connected accounted for nearly 30 percent of their anxious temperament

8 May 2005

Does clinical depression bring about chronic pain? Or does pain lead to depression?

Does clinical depression bring about chronic pain? Or does pain lead to depression? Because these two conditions frequently co-exist--30 to 54 percent of patients with major depressive disorder also suffer persistent physical pain--there has been much speculation about whether one causes the other or whether a common underlying factor provokes both. Results of studies into the precise nature of this relationship, however, have been inconsistent.

5 May 2005

National survey reveals critical barriers to improving women's health

For American women, being healthy is far more than getting a good checkup or being disease-free. According to "Women Talk," the first annual national women's health survey from the National Women's Health Resource Center (NWHRC), being healthy means both physical and emotional wellness and having a healthy family.

4 May 2005

Psychological treatment most effective treatment for pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder

Psychological treatment that teaches children to face their fears is the most effective treatment for pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), according to a new Mayo Clinic analysis of previously published research.

4 May 2005

MRI study shows hormone leptin alters brains, may ease cravings of people with obesity gene

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study finds that the protein hormone leptin promotes development of gray matter in the part of the brain that regulates cravings and the ability to monitor personal behavior.

4 May 2005

45% of US drug arrests are for marijuana, is this a waste of resources?

A great deal of time and money as well as man-power is spent on chasing after people using, possessing and trafficking in drugs. Since 1990, there have been 6.2 million arrests for marijuana possession and 1 million for marijuana trafficking.

3 May 2005

Antidepressant medication or psychotherapy may be effective in treating chronically depressed patients when the other is not

Switching from an antidepressant medication to psychotherapy or vice versa may improve symptoms in chronically depressed patients who prove unresponsive to their initial treatment, according to an article in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

2 May 2005

Response of New York City public school children to 9/11

Six months after the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, a high proportion of New York City school children had one or more probable anxiety/depressive disorders, according to an article in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

2 May 2005

Cell phone base stations change brain currents and cause unwellness

The radiation of a cell phone base station at a distance of 80 metres causes significant changes of the electrical currents in the brains of testees (measured by electroencefalogram, EEG). All the testees said they felt unwell during the radiation, some of them seriously.

2 May 2005

9/11 rescue workers screening program to continue

A program to screen the health of rescue workers who were involved in the wreckage of the World Trade Center, will soon start accepting new patients again, in the hopes of reaching thousands of people who could not be accommodated previously.

1 May 2005

Tumors of the pituitary gland are more common than thought

A recent study found that tumors of the pituitary gland are more common than many health care professionals realize, with national prevalence rates averaging 16.7 percent. To neurosurgeon Dr. Gail Rosseau, this isn't surprising.

1 May 2005

Prenatal exposure to cocaine effects problem-solving later in life

Children exposed to cocaine before birth show subtle but discernible differences in their ability to plan and problem-solve once they reach school age, University of Florida researchers report.

1 May 2005

Antibiotic minocycline might help alleviate HIV's negative effects on the brain and central nervous system

By studying animals, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that the antibiotic minocycline might help alleviate HIV's negative effects on the brain and central nervous system, problems that can develop even though antiretroviral therapy controls the virus elsewhere in the body.

1 May 2005