Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Post-discharge stroke coaching can help patients with their medications or recovery

When a stroke patient is discharged from the hospital, they often must cope with a new disability or lack of function, so changes in their medications or a new dosing prescription can be particularly confusing. This can lead the patient to overmedicate, take the wrong medication or skip medications entirely and can result in being readmitted to the hospital.

7 Aug 2012

Schizophrenia may be linked to immune function

New Australian research shows that the brains of people with schizophrenia may be under attack by the immune system, providing the strongest evidence to date of a link between immune function and schizophrenia.

7 Aug 2012

Viewpoints: Mass. at disadvantage in cutting health costs; McDonnell says Va. can point to better way

Massachusetts will be the first state to try to cap overall health care spending, both private and public, so that it will grow no faster than the state economy. The state was able to reach near-universal coverage because the vast majority of its population was already covered by some form of insurance. It also could subsidize coverage for the uninsured using a big pool of money that had been used for charity care. But when it comes to controlling health care costs, Massachusetts has no advantage, and in fact is starting behind most other states.

7 Aug 2012

Scientists discover biological marker that may help identify patients’ response to antidepressants

Scientists have discovered a biological marker that may help to identify which depressed patients will respond to an experimental, rapid-acting antidepressant. The brain signal, detectable by noninvasive imaging, also holds clues to the agent's underlying mechanism, which are vital for drug development, say National Institutes of Health researchers.

7 Aug 2012

Blood levels of IL-6 protein may also serve as red flag for relapse in schizophrenia patients

Blood levels of a protein that helps regulate inflammation may also serve as a red flag for relapse in some schizophrenia patients, researchers said.

7 Aug 2012

Creatine may fight major depression in women

Women battling stubborn major depression may have a surprising new ally in their fight—the muscle-building dietary supplement creatine.

7 Aug 2012

Exercise partially alleviates depression in heart failure patients

Structured exercise achieves modest reductions in depressive symptoms relative to usual care among patients with heart failure the results of a randomized-controlled trial show.

6 Aug 2012

Exercise improves mood in heart failure patients

Structured exercise achieves modest reductions in depressive symptoms relative to usual care among patients with heart failure, the results of a randomized-controlled trial show.

6 Aug 2012

Biden seeks to allay veterans' concerns about benefits

Speaking at the Disabled American Veterans' national convention, Vice President Joe Biden reminded the group that veterans benefits were exempted from the automatic budget cuts that will be imposed on military and domestic programs as of Jan. 2. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama signed into law a legislative package that provides improved health care, housing, education and memorial services.

6 Aug 2012

First generic versions of Singulair receive FDA approval for treatment of asthma, allergies

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the first generic versions of Singulair (montelukast sodium) for use in adults and children to control asthma symptoms and to help relieve symptoms of indoor and outdoor allergies.

6 Aug 2012

Viewpoints: Romney's 'repeal and replace' pledge; 'Socialized medicine' in the U.S.; Pros and cons of expanding Medicaid

Greg Sargent already took a crack at Mitt Romney's new "Plan for a Stronger Middle Class," but one thing that he didn't get to shouldn't be ignored: Romney is apparently still campaigning on a "repeal and replace" plan on health care reform.

3 Aug 2012

Generic drugs saved U.S. $1T over 10 years, industry study finds

Generic drug makers released a study Thursday that found generic pharmaceuticals have saved the U.S. -- through private prescriptions as well as Medicare and Medicaid -- more than $1 trillion over 10 years.

3 Aug 2012

Longer looks: Mississippi learns from Iran's health care system

Sabrina Seeling seemed too young to die. ... One night she stayed up all night translating a Latin text into English for a college paper. ... During the all-nighter, Ms. Seelig took Ephedra, a stimulant diet drug that had been banned by the Food and Drug Administration three years earlier, and had a few beers. ... When she felt sick, she called Poison Control for help, and spoke very clearly, a recording of the call shows.

3 Aug 2012

Goals of curtailing sales of tobacco to underage youth continue to be met

A new report on the Synar Amendment program - a federal and state partnership aimed at ending illegal tobacco sales to minors—shows that all the states and the District of Columbia have continued to meet their goals of curtailing sales of tobacco to underage youth (those under 18). The report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which sponsors the Synar program, shows that the average national retailer violation rate of tobacco sales is down to 8.5 percent, the lowest level in the history of the program.

3 Aug 2012

Depression in kidney cancer patients associated with survival and inflammatory gene regulation

Research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has found that symptoms of depression in patients with newly diagnosed metastatic kidney cancer are associated with survival and inflammatory gene regulation may explain this link.

3 Aug 2012

Mild mental health problems increase risk for death

Even mild psychologic distress increases the risk for death, the results of a large meta-analysis show, raising questions about the treatment of subclinical depression and anxiety.

3 Aug 2012

Child abuse has repercussions for menarche

Researchers have found an association between childhood abuse and age at menarche onset, they report in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

3 Aug 2012

Alcoholics are often going undiagnosed

Medical staff often do not spot alcohol problems in their patients unless they are already intoxicated, say UK researchers from the University of Leicester.

3 Aug 2012

Self-recognition deficits in schizophrenia confirmed

Patients with schizophrenia exhibit impairments in self-recognition, results from a systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies confirm.

3 Aug 2012

Viewpoints: Orszag on CAP cost-control proposals; High-tech and health costs

The Center for American Progress proposals thus wisely recognize that there is no single strategy to continue the recent progress in slowing the growth in health-care costs. In contrast, the Republican budget plan put forward by Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin seems based on a belief that all that's needed is to shift risks: from Medicare to beneficiaries through a premium-support program, and from the federal government to state governments by turning Medicaid into block grants.

3 Aug 2012