Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Researchers unravel molecular code that shapes complex networks in the brain

The brain is an enormously complex organ. Understanding how billions of brain cells succeed in making precise connections is a major challenge for neuroscientists.

6 Jul 2018

Podcast: KHN’s ‘What the Health?’ Whither work requirements?

A federal District Court judge in Washington, D.C., has — for now — blocked Kentucky's proposal to add a work requirement for much of its adult Medicaid population.

6 Jul 2018

Texas clinics busting traditional silos of mental and physical health care

Kerstin Taylor fought alcohol and substance abuse problems for two decades. She periodically sought help through addiction and psychiatric treatments to stay sober, but she continued to relapse.

5 Jul 2018

New study links obstructive sleep apnea with changes to brain structure typical of dementia

Obstructive sleep apnoea is associated with changes to the structure of the brain that are also seen in the early stages of dementia, according to a study published in the European Respiratory Journal.

5 Jul 2018

Study explains why men are more at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders

A new study has shed light on the reason why males are more at risk than females for neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and ADHD.

4 Jul 2018

Study finds large degree of loneliness in public senior housing communities

Older adults living in public senior housing communities experience a large degree of loneliness, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

4 Jul 2018

Sun avoidance may be almost as hazardous to health as cigarette smoking

Available on Amazon, Embrace the Sun, by authors Marc B. Sorenson, Ed.D.and William B. Grant, Ph.D.,claim that sun avoidance may be nearly as hazardous to your health as cigarette smoking!

3 Jul 2018

Study discovers hidden brain state dynamics that regulate performance and decision-making

Brain activity is driven by encounters with external stimuli and situations, simultaneously occurring with internal mental processes.

3 Jul 2018

Scientists develop new understanding of how psychiatric diseases manifest and can be treated

Research scientists from The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in Hempstead, NY, in conjunction with their colleagues at Rockefeller University in New York City, have developed a new understanding of how certain psychiatric diseases - those that involve uncontrollable reactions to stimuli such as the high and low experiences attributed to bi-polar disorder, the impulsivity of an individual suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and even suicidality - manifest and potentially can be treated. These findings were published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

3 Jul 2018

Study: Mice that lack certain brain receptor get attracted to situations associated with discomfort

The brains of both humans and other animals have circuits that connect powerful impressions from the senses to positive or negative feelings - a function that is necessary for survival.

3 Jul 2018

Unique childhood-obesity prevention program focuses on teaching parenting skills

Researchers in Arizona State University's Department of Psychology received a five-year grant for just under $2.5 million from the USDA to implement an intervention program that targets childhood obesity in a novel way: by teaching parenting skills.

3 Jul 2018

Immigrant families placed in detention centers face health care challenges

The White House's plan to indefinitely detain immigrant families together threatens the care of young children, experts worry, by placing them with an agency with little experience in handling such complex needs.

2 Jul 2018

Mindfulness-based approach could improve treatment for people with tinnitus

New UK research has found that a new mindfulness-based approach to tinnitus could transform the treatment of the condition.

2 Jul 2018

Psychedelics and their role in treatment of mental health disorders

Psychedelics such as LSD, magic mushrooms, mescaline etc. have garnered renewed interest in the scientific world because of the possible role they could play in mental health problems. Ketamine remains the only hallucinogen at present that is used clinically as an anesthetic agent. The others are all classified under banned drugs.

2 Jul 2018

Screening mothers for PPD in emergency setting

It's a scenario that Children's emergency medicine specialist Lenore Jarvis, M.D., M.Ed., has seen countless times: A mother brings her infant to the emergency department in the middle of the night with a chief complaint of the baby being fussy. Nothing she does can stop the incessant crying, she tells the triage nurse.

30 Jun 2018