Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

New study hopes to shed light on mechanism behind epileptic and non-epileptic seizures

Seizures are a common result of traumatic brain injury, especially in military veterans. A new study funded by the DOD, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, and conducted in Providence RI and Birmingham AL hopes to shed new light on the mechanism behind seizures associated with post-traumatic epilepsy and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures.

25 Oct 2017

Women have higher mortality risk than men in the first year after heart attack

Heart attacks pose a greater threat to women than to men. A team at the Technical University of Munich has determined that in the first year after a heart attack women are subject to a significantly higher mortality risk than men with similar case histories.

25 Oct 2017

Duke Health researchers find anxiety disorders among some problematic marijuana users

About a quarter of adults whose marijuana use is problematic in early adulthood have anxiety disorders in childhood and late adolescence, according to new data from Duke Health researchers.

25 Oct 2017

The painful side of positive health care marketing

Lori Wallace sits on a couch with her 11-year-old son and his new pet snake. It burrows under his armpit, as if afraid. Wallace is sure it’s not.

25 Oct 2017

Long-term risk of premature death in men and women strongly associated with depression, study reveals

A Stirling County study, published in Canadian Medical Association Journal, suggests that depression remains strongly associated with a higher risk of early death in both men and women.

25 Oct 2017

New survey finds huge decline in substance abuse, delinquency among teens

More than a decade of data indicates teens have become far less likely to abuse alcohol, nicotine and illicit drugs, and they also are less likely to engage in delinquent behaviors, such as fighting and stealing, according to results of a national survey analyzed by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

25 Oct 2017

Researchers mine blood-based epigenetic data to gain insights into autism biology

Using data from blood and brain tissue, a team led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that they could gain insights into mechanisms that might help explain autism by analyzing the interplay between genes and chemical tags that control whether genes are used to make a protein, called epigenetic marks.

25 Oct 2017

Case report of a 21 year old woman sweating blood

She had a rare condition called hematohidrosis where she was sweating blood and her tears too contained blood. The dermatologists published the report of her rare case while protecting her identity, this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

24 Oct 2017

NIH launches major effort to discover, catalog the brain's ‘parts list’

The National Institutes of Health has launched a major effort to discover and catalog the brain's "parts list." The NIH's Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® Initiative Cell Census Network aims to provide researchers with a comprehensive reference of the diverse cell types in human, monkey, and mouse brain.

24 Oct 2017

Depression among nurses may increase likelihood of medical errors

Depression is common among nurses and is linked to a higher likelihood they'll make medical errors, new research suggests.

24 Oct 2017

Study explores role of genes in depression vulnerability

In the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics a study explored the role of genes in depression vulnerability. The financial crisis that has afflicted Greece since 2008 has adversely affected the physical and mental health of the population, with reports pointing to a rise in the prevalence of depression from 3.3% prior to the crisis to 12.3% in 2013.

24 Oct 2017

Increasing the dosage of antidepressants does not carry benefits, analysis reveals

In the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics a new analysis discloses that increasing the dosage of antidepressant drugs does not carry benefits. As many patients with unipolar depression do not respond sufficiently to initial antidepressant monotherapy, a dose increase of the current administered antidepressant (dose escalation, high-dose treatment) is frequently carried out as next treatment measure.

24 Oct 2017

New analysis reveals insights into long-term effects of antidepressant drugs

In the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics a new analysis discloses insights into the long term effects of antidepressant drugs. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is more often chronic or recurrent in clinical than in community samples.

24 Oct 2017

Trial compares long-term effects of psychotherapy and antidepressants on depression symptoms

In the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics there are data about the long term-effects of a form of psychotherapy in depression compared to medication.

24 Oct 2017

Mysterious DNA modification appears more in the brain under stress

With advances in genomics, scientists are discovering additional components of the DNA alphabet in animals. Do these unusual chemical modifications of DNA have a special meaning, or are they just signs that cellular machines are making mistakes?

24 Oct 2017

Yoga can be beneficial to people with lung cancer and their caregivers

In a feasibility trial of people with advanced lung cancer receiving radiation therapy, and their caregivers, yoga was beneficial to both parties. These findings will be presented at the upcoming 2017 Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium in San Diego, California.

24 Oct 2017

Researchers use new equation to map self-esteem in the human brain

A team of UCL researchers has devised a mathematical equation that can explain how our self-esteem is shaped by what other people think of us, in a new study published in the scientific journal eLife.

24 Oct 2017

Bariatric surgical patients may be vulnerable to opioid dependence

Nearly 9 percent of bariatric surgical patients--or about one in 12--who did not take opioid pain medications until their weight-loss operation, or the month before it, report that they are still using prescription opioids one year postoperatively, according to new research findings.

24 Oct 2017

People with depressive symptoms before disaster may experience increase in inflammation

People who exhibit even a few depressive symptoms before a major life stressor, such as a disaster, may experience an increase in inflammation -- a major risk factor for heart disease and other negative health conditions -- after the event, according to new research from Rice University.

23 Oct 2017

Physical and emotional benefits of exercise

You have probably heard that exercise is good for your health, but did you know that it can actually help to heal your body? Understanding the value of exercise is more important than ever since our nation is in the midst of an "inactivity epidemic."

23 Oct 2017