Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

New imaging study shows how exercise affects the brain

People who exercise have better mental fitness, and a new imaging study from UC Davis Health System shows why. Intense exercise increases levels of two common neurotransmitters -- glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA -- that are responsible for chemical messaging within the brain.

27 Feb 2016

Homeless adults have more geriatric conditions than those living in homes

Homeless people in their fifties have more geriatric conditions than those living in homes who are decades older, according to researchers at UC San Francisco who are following 350 people who are homeless and aged 50 and over, in Oakland.

26 Feb 2016

Overweight or obese adults may have poorer episodic memory

Overweight young adults may have poorer episodic memory - the ability to recall past events - than their peers, suggests new research from the University of Cambridge, adding to increasing evidence of a link between memory and overeating.

26 Feb 2016

New ways to monitor physical activity at workplace

The science of physical activity at work remains understudied despite widespread acceptance that it plays an important role in health. Now, researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have published a comprehensive review of ways to monitor physical activity and tools for occupational exposure scientists.

26 Feb 2016

New review suggests solutions that can help ease chronic pain in women

Women often suffer silently when in pain, whether it's caused by pregnancy discomfort or creaky knees. Yet there are a variety of solutions that can help relieve women of chronic pain, from exercise to identifying triggers, suggests a new review of research related to women and pain by the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

26 Feb 2016

Scientists develop new optical technique to observe neurotransmitter activity of individual synapses

Columbia University scientists have developed a new optical technique to study how information is transmitted in the brains of mice. Using this method, they found that only a small portion of synapses -- the connections between cells that control brain activity--may be active at any given time.

26 Feb 2016

Antidepressant paroxetine suppresses inflammation in people with HIV-related cognitive impairment

In a small, placebo-controlled clinical trial, Johns Hopkins physicians report that the antidepressant paroxetine modestly improves decision-making and reaction time, and suppresses inflammation in people with HIV-associated cognitive impairment. The researchers say they believe this is the first time that a SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) has been shown to improve key measures of cognition in people with HIV in a controlled study.

26 Feb 2016

Immune-suppressing drug can improve cognitive ability of patients with schizophrenia

A recent study of a handful of patients supports mounting evidence that targeted suppression of inflammation packaged with standard therapy can improve the cognitive ability of patients with schizophrenia, physician-scientists report.

25 Feb 2016

Exercise protects people from depression after heart attack

Researchers know that exercise increases a person's chances of surviving a heart attack. Now it turns out that exercise habits also affect how the body handles a heart attack's aftermaths.

25 Feb 2016

Researchers explore effects of attention bias modification in adolescents with MDD

A study to be published in the March 2016 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reports that adolescents with major depression who performed a computer-based task designed to shift attention from sad to neutral to positive word associations showed reductions in negative attention biases and clinician-rated depressive symptoms.

25 Feb 2016

Study: Magnesium therapy can alleviate muscular symptoms in patients with Motor Neurone Disease

Around 5,000 Motor Neurone Disease (MND) sufferers across the UK could find relief to their muscular symptoms thanks to transdermal (through the skin) magnesium therapy, say health pioneers BetterYou.

From BetterYou Ltd 25 Feb 2016

Researchers describe three kinds of behavioural problems in children with FASD

Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are affected by a range of problems, including anxiety, depression, aggression, delinquency and diminished learning capacity a new review of evidence reveals.

24 Feb 2016

Does simulated based training bring better value healthcare? An interview with Prof Sir Muir Gray, Former Chief Knowledge Officer of the NHS

We have to think of the world that we are leaving, the world we are moving into. The last fifty years in healthcare, have seen the advent of hip replacement, cardiac bypass, systematic reviews. But at the end of fifty years, every country is facing five problems.

24 Feb 2016

New definitions and clinical criteria for sepsis, septic shock

Clifford S. Deutschman, MS, MD, vice chair of research in the Department of Pediatrics at Cohen Children's Medical Center and an investigator at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research , presented new definitions and clinical criteria for sepsis and septic shock at the Society of Critical Care Medicine's 45th Critical Care Congress in Orlando, FL.

24 Feb 2016

People with higher scores for mindfulness have healthy glucose levels

Dispositional, or "everyday" mindfulness is the inherent trait of being aware of one's present thoughts and feelings. In a new study of 399 people that measured health indicators including dispositional mindfulness and blood glucose, researchers found that those with higher scores for mindfulness were significantly more likely than people with low scores to have healthy glucose levels.

24 Feb 2016

ARV drug atazanavir may have significant effects on infant development

The antiretroviral (ARV) drug atazanavir—sometimes included in treatments to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission during pregnancy—may have small but significant effects on infant development, reports a study in the journal AIDS, official journal of the International AIDS Society.

23 Feb 2016

New study shows importance of therapeutic support to help victims of childhood sexual abuse

While the sexual abuse of children is currently an issue at the forefront of public life, concern has focused on the protection of children and the identification of perpetrators.

23 Feb 2016

UCSF study finds specific molecular-genetic mechanism that links sleep and seasonal depression

A newly discovered human gene mutation appears to contribute both to unusual sleep patterns and to heightened rates of seasonal depression, according to new research from UC San Francisco.

23 Feb 2016

People diagnosed with depression find difficult to stop smoking

People diagnosed with depression are about twice as likely to smoke as the general population. A survey of 6811 participants from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the USA, published today in the scientific journal Addiction, found that although depressed smokers tried to quit smoking more often than other smokers, they were more likely to return to smoking within a month.

22 Feb 2016

Researchers examine impact of losing multiple senses on older adults

It's a well-known fact that aging can lead to losing one's senses: vision, smell, hearing, touch, and taste. In previous studies, researchers have learned about the consequences of experiencing a decline in a single sense. For example, losing senses of smell, vision, and hearing have all been linked to cognitive decline, poor mental health, and increased mortality.

22 Feb 2016