Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

A guide to following the health debate in the 2020 elections

Health has been a top issue in the presidential campaign during the past year: Not only do the Democratic candidates disagree with President Donald Trump, but they also disagree among themselves.

30 Jan 2020

US life expectancy increases for the first time in 4 years

New data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that life expectancy in the United States increased in 2018.

30 Jan 2020

New clinical guidelines call for psychosocial support for complex ADHD in children, adolescents

New clinical guidelines call strongly for providing psychosocial supports for children and adolescents with complex attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Developed by the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (SDBP), the guideline provides a framework for diagnosing and treating complex ADHD in these age groups.

30 Jan 2020

Researchers examine abnormal neuron activity in Rett syndrome

The brain undergoes dramatic change during the first years of life. Its circuits readily rewire as an infant and then child encounters new sights and sounds, taking in the world and learning to understand it. As the child matures and key developmental periods pass, the brain becomes less malleable--but certain experiences create opportunities for parts of the adult brain to rewire and learn again.

29 Jan 2020

Highly active adults engage in a greater variety of activities to meet exercise guidelines

Highly active adults engage in a greater variety of physical activities than do less active adults, finds a new study led by researchers at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing.

29 Jan 2020

Study looks at suicidal thoughts in American soldiers serving in Afghanistan

Almost 12% of the American soldiers posted in Afghanistan have had suicidal thoughts at least once in their lives. More to the point, 3% thought of suicide at least once over the past year, and almost 2% over the last month, according to the questionnaires filled in by a sample of soldiers midway through their stay in that country, in 2012. The rate of suicide is much higher among soldiers in combat compare to those who were never deployed.

29 Jan 2020

Study shows link between poverty and suicide in children, teens

Suicide in children under age 20 has been increasing in the U.S., with rates almost doubling over the last decade.

29 Jan 2020

Past trauma exposure, depression associated with suicide ideation in deployed soldiers

Lifetime history of exposure to a traumatic event and self-reported lifetime and current depression are predictive of recent suicide ideation in deployed soldiers, according to a new JAMA Network Open study published January 29, 2020.

29 Jan 2020

Mount Sinai cardiologists share tips to prevent and lower risk of cardiac events

Heart disease is the leading cause of death among both men and women in the United States, but according to the American Heart Association, it is preventable 80 percent of the time.

29 Jan 2020

Living longer AND living healthy

American Heart Association (AHA) President Robert A. Harrington says that the life expectancy has gone up in recent years. Still, he points out, improved life expectancy doesn’t translate to improved health in all cases. According to him, “Not all those years are healthy ones as the effects of chronic illnesses are increasingly impacting the quality of life of people at a much younger age than in the past.”

29 Jan 2020

A single dose of magic mushroom compound reduces anxiety and depression among cancer patients

Magic mushrooms are wild or cultivated mushrooms containing psilocybin, which is a naturally occurring hallucinogenic and psychoactive compound. A single dose of psilocybin provides long-term relief of anxiety and depression in cancer patients, a new study found.

29 Jan 2020

Study helps better understand the development of adolescent brain

New brain networks come 'online' during adolescence, allowing teenagers to develop more complex adult social skills, but potentially putting them at increased risk of mental illness, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

29 Jan 2020

New goals to help all people live healthier for more years of life

Data reported in the just published American Heart Association's Heart & Stroke Statistics - 2020 Update, show heart disease and stroke deaths continue to decline, but that trend has slowed significantly in recent years.

29 Jan 2020

Key predictors for combination of alcohol use disorder and depression uncovered

For people with psychiatric disorders, comorbidity — or the presence of two or more disorders in a single patient — is quite common. One of the most common comorbidities is alcohol use disorder and major depressive disorder.

28 Jan 2020

Concordia study investigates the link between cognition and hearing or vision loss

There is a long-established and widely recognized link between declines in sensory acuity -- particularly hearing and vision -- and cognition. Data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, involving tens of thousands of participants across the country aged 45 to 85, backs this up.

28 Jan 2020

NIU professor gets $372,500 to study link between brain health and exercise

Angela Grippo's New Year's resolution is exercise, exercise, exercise, but the Northern Illinois University psychology professor won't be breaking a sweat or hitting the gym.

28 Jan 2020

Study offers significant promise for treating an aspect of schizophrenia

Research by a University of Georgia psychologist shows that targeting one particular symptom of schizophrenia has a positive effect on other symptoms, offering significant promise for treating an aspect of schizophrenia that currently has no pharmaceutical options.

28 Jan 2020