Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Specific personality traits linked to suicide risk in schizophrenia

Patients with schizophrenia who have a history of suicide attempts show a different pattern of temperament and character traits compared with their nonsuicidal counterparts, say Turkish researchers.

12 Jun 2012

Positive airway pressure reduces depressive symptoms in patients with OSA

Patients seen at the Cleveland Clinic Sleep Disorders Center who used positive airway pressure (PAP) to treat their obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) had improvements in their depressive symptoms, even if they followed the prescribed PAP regimen only partly, a new study reports.

12 Jun 2012

Mindfulness can help cancer patients with anxiety and depression

When being diagnosed with cancer, people will naturally worry about their future, their family and about dying. Actually, no less than 35-40% of cancer patients suffer from significant anxiety and depression symptoms. An interdisciplinary research project carried out between Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences and Aarhus University Hospital and the Danish Cancer Society now shows that mindfulness can help cancer those patients suffering from anxiety and depression.

12 Jun 2012

ABM treatments can address childhood anxiety

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, one in eight children suffers from an anxiety disorder. And because many anxious children turn into severely anxious adults, early intervention can have a major impact on a patient's life trajectory. The understandable reluctance to use psychiatric medications when it comes to children means child psychologists are always searching for viable therapeutic alternatives.

12 Jun 2012

Viewpoints: Hoping that 'Gang of Six' will cut fiscal deal; Sen. Alexander links health law and college tuition increases

The public has a famously low opinion of Congress, even though people tend to hold a less disparaging view of their own representatives. The last two years have been especially tough on the institution's reputation, a response to the body's relentless brinkmanship and paralyzing partisanship in the face of a slow economy. So it is with some trepidation that I throw out a little love for a handful of senators still seeking bipartisan agreement on a plan to bring the federal government back to fiscal responsibility.

11 Jun 2012

Adult fear of the dark may contribute to insomnia

A small study of Toronto college students is shedding light on a contributing factor of insomnia that might be hard to admit - an adult fear of the dark.

11 Jun 2012

Epo has performance-enhancing effect on brain, may help treat depression, schizophrenia

Sportsmen and women dope with the blood hormone Epo to enhance their performance. Researchers from the University of Zurich now discovered by animal testing that Epo has a performance-enhancing effect in the brain shortly after injection and not only after days by improving oxygen transport in blood. As Epo also increases motivation, it could be useful in treating depression.

11 Jun 2012

Advance's Summer College Institute to take place from August 5-12

Advance LA announced today its newest program, The Summer College Institute. This innovative program will take place August 5-12, 2012, on the campus of American Jewish University in Los Angeles.

11 Jun 2012

Short sleep periods increase risk of stroke in normal-weight adults

Habitually sleeping less than six hours a night significantly increases the risk of stroke symptoms among middle-age to older adults who are of normal weight and at low risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), according to a study of 5,666 people followed for up to three years.

11 Jun 2012

Poor long-term physical and mental health for many adolescent and young adult cancer survivors

A new analysis has found that many adolescent and young adult cancer survivors have unhealthy behaviors, chronic medical conditions, a poor quality of life, and significant barriers to health care access. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that greater efforts are needed to provide quality follow-up care to adolescent and young adult cancer survivors and to encourage them to live more healthily.

11 Jun 2012

Adolescent mental disorders have repercussions for addiction

Adolescents with mental health disorders are significantly more likely to become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers than those without mental disorders, experts say.

8 Jun 2012

Eye-viewing tests identify schizophrenic patients

Viewing tests that detect eye movement can accurately identify patients with schizophrenia, research shows.

8 Jun 2012

Mania develops in late adolescence

There is an increasing prevalence of bipolar disorder over adolescence, with late adolescence the peak period for the development of mania, research shows.

8 Jun 2012

Research roundup: Savings from electronic health records?

Does Health Information Exchange Reduce Unnecessary Neuroimaging and Improve Quality of Headache Care in the Emergency Department?

8 Jun 2012

Special section of JNMD focuses on the impending release of revised DSM-5

The June issue of The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease (JNMD) features a special section focused on the impending release of the revised Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), an update to psychiatric diagnosis standards.

8 Jun 2012

Implementing the health law: HHS has missed nearly half of its deadlines

The Hill reports that, according to an analysis by the American Action Forum, the Department of Health and Human Services has missed many implementation deadlines in the last two years. Meanwhile, Politico Pro examines issues related to the health law's Medicaid expansion and exchange subsidies.

8 Jun 2012

New study into pain associated with diabetes

Researchers in Sheffield have been awarded over £310,000 to carry out a study that could help revolutionise the way clinicians treat the pain experienced by thousands of people with diabetes.

8 Jun 2012

Low pre-morbid IQ not associated with psychosis risk

The strong correlations currently observed between low IQ and risk for psychosis are most likely linked to the influence that psychosis onset has on cognitive functioning rather than a shared genetic background, suggest study findings.

7 Jun 2012

Pathophysiologic differences evident between schizophrenia, bipolar

Review findings reveal differences in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, relating specifically to the medial temporal lobe and associated limbic regions.

7 Jun 2012

Young adults, adolescents with mental health disorders more likely to become long-term opioid users

Long-term use and abuse of opioid painkillers, such as OxyContin and Vicodin, has markedly increased in the United States in the last two decades. Of note, prescription opioids constitute 86.9 percent of prescription drug misuse among high school students. And last week in a two-day U.S. Food and Drug Administration public meeting, officials questioned the use of long-term opioids for chronic pain due to a lack of evidence for the effectiveness and concerns about the potential risk for addiction.

7 Jun 2012