Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Pregnant women have higher rate of undiagnosed depression

Major depression affects as many as 16% of reproductive-aged women in the U.S. Yet pregnant women have a higher rate of undiagnosed depression than nonpregnant women, according to a study published in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

21 Aug 2012

PD risk factors for potential clinical screening identified

A meta-analysis has identified 19 risk factors that significantly impact a person’s risk for Parkinson’s disease and could be of potential value for clinical screening, say the authors.

20 Aug 2012

Working out during pregnancy wards off muscle pain

Not enough healthy pregnant women are doing the recommended amount of physical exercise, suggest study findings.

20 Aug 2012

War does not trigger symptoms of PTSD in military personnel

A large-scale survey of the mental condition of military personnel before, during and after their posting to Afghanistan has proved thought-provoking. In total, 746 Danish soldiers took part in the survey. The soldiers completed a questionnaire five times in all - before their posting, during their time in Afghanistan and three times after their return to Denmark.

18 Aug 2012

Pulvinar regulates communication between clusters of brain cells

A mysterious region deep in the human brain could be where we sort through the onslaught of stimuli from the outside world and focus on the information most important to our behavior and survival, Princeton University researchers have found.

18 Aug 2012

Bariatric surgery improves overall quality of life for people with obesity

New research shows that people who have bariatric surgery to treat obesity report an overall improvement in quality of life issues after surgery, from their relationships to their medical conditions. Arizona State University researchers will present their findings at the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.

18 Aug 2012

Prenatal antipsychotic exposure linked to reduced neuromotor performance

Infants with prenatal exposure to antipsychotics show significant reductions in neuromotor performance compared with other children, US researchers report.

17 Aug 2012

Shorter DUP linked to better long-term schizophrenia outcomes

A shorter duration of untreated psychosis is associated with improved long-term outcomes in patients with schizophrenia, researchers report.

17 Aug 2012

Adolescent hypomania does not predict bipolar disorder

Results from a Swedish study show that only a small proportion of depressed adolescents with hypomania spectrum episodes will develop bipolar disorder in adulthood.

17 Aug 2012

How the entertainment industry relates to mental illness

The shift in television characterizations might be a result of pressure from groups such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which sends out monthly newsletter alerts praising or panning entertainment portrayals of mental illness. Or maybe it's the fact that more than one-fourth of Americans, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder every year. No doubt, a lot of Hollywood insiders can relate. The more accurate portrayals might even be because creative folks are getting tired of the same old stories.

17 Aug 2012

Roundup: States limit Medicaid mental health prescriptions; Mass. to vote on assisted suicide; Insurer earnings drop in Mass.

Medicaid is the largest funder of mental health services in the United States. In 2008, in all 50 states, Medicaid spent a total of $4.5 billion on behavioral health drugs, about a fifth of the $22.5 billion spent by the program on all pharmaceuticals combined. Roughly a third of the participants in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program experience a mental health episode annually, according to a 2010 report by the Mental Health Services Administration.

17 Aug 2012

Researchers identify molecular and protein signatures that predict HCV virus-induced liver injury

Researchers have discovered molecular and protein signatures that predict rapid onset of liver damage in hepatitis C patients following a liver transplant. The markers appeared soon after transplant and well before clinical evidence of liver damage.

17 Aug 2012

Study reveals why human brain is large and more complex than that of other animals

Researchers have found what they believe is the key to understanding why the human brain is larger and more complex than that of other animals.

17 Aug 2012

T. gondii can cause inflammation in the brain

A parasite thought to be harmless and found in many people may actually be causing subtle changes in the brain, leading to suicide attempts.

17 Aug 2012

Specific episode triggers in young adults with BD identified

Falling in love has the highest specificity for triggering manic/hypomanic episodes in young adults with bipolar disorder, while stressful life events has the highest specificity for triggering depressive episodes, researchers report.

16 Aug 2012

Happiness undiminished in FES patients

Results from a Canadian study suggest that patients who have experienced a first episode of schizophrenia are just as happy as mentally healthy individuals, despite significant functional impairment.

16 Aug 2012

Targets to improve palliative patients’ wellbeing identified

Pain, depression, drowsiness, fatigue, and appetite loss are the symptoms that most affect the wellbeing of cancer patients being treated palliatively, report Canadian researchers.

16 Aug 2012

First Edition: August 16, 2012

In this Kaiser Health News video, Insuring Your Health columnist Michelle Andrews answers a reader question about what you can do when insurance only covers a portion of an ambulance bill.

16 Aug 2012

U.S. FDA warns of post-surgery codeine deaths in children

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a Drug Safety Communication concerning three children who died and one child who experienced a non-fatal but life-threatening case of respiratory depression after taking the pain reliever codeine following surgery to remove tonsils (tonsillectomy) and/or adenoids (adenoidectomy).

16 Aug 2012

Study tracks effects of heavy PAE on growth and body composition throughout childhood

Although studies of alcohol's effects on fetal growth have consistently demonstrated deficits that persist through infancy, the data on long-term postnatal growth from human studies have been inconsistent. A new study of the effects of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) on growth and body composition throughout childhood has found growth restrictions that persist through to nine years of age, as well as a delay in weight gain during infancy, both of which were exacerbated by iron deficiency.

16 Aug 2012