Feature Channels: Mental Health

• share
• favorite_border

Technology offers new options to those with prosthetics

• share
• favorite_border

A new study, presented this week at the Association of Academic Physiatrists Annual Meeting in Sacramento, Calif., shows college students take significantly more time to recover from a concussion than the general national average of seven to 14 days.

• share
• favorite_border

After experiencing bad headaches and double vision, Kris Johnson was diagnosed with a pituitary adenoma, a tumor in a very delicate location at the base of the brain. Surgeons removed the tumor through the nostrils, without damaging surrounding tissues or even touching the brain.

• share
• favorite_border

A rare look at brain surgery with the patient alert and awake at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven.

• share
• favorite_border

Doctor visits can be a challenge for patients with autism, their families and health care providers. Kristin Sohl, associate professor of child health at the University of Missouri, offers several steps providers and families can take to make medical visits more successful. She says that all of them require good communication between the provider and parent before, during and after medical visits.

• share
• favorite_border

Clinical neuropsychologist Kristen Dams-O’Connor, PhD, has been named Director of The Brain Injury Research Center (BIRC) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS)

• share
• favorite_border

Sleep—one of the most basic, yet most mystifying processes of the human body—has confounded physicians, scientists and evolutionary biologists for centuries.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have found that the microorganisms residing in the intestines (microbiota) play a role in the development of high blood pressure in rats. The study is published in Physiological Genomics. It was chosen as an APS select article for February.

• share
• favorite_border

Studying mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins have fortified evidence that a key purpose of sleep is to recalibrate the brain cells responsible for learning and memory so the animals can "solidify" lessons learned and use them when they awaken -- in the case of nocturnal mice, the next evening.

• share
• favorite_border

A groundbreaking report out of Harvard University explores who is responsible for the health of NFL players, why, and what ca be done to promote player health. The authors of the report are available for interviews.

• share
• favorite_border

Early predictors of anxiety and depression may be evident in the brain even at birth, suggests a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

• share
• favorite_border

The Super Bowl is one of the most watched events on the planet. When the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons face off in Super Bowl LI on Sunday, Feb. 5, in Houston, Texas, millions will be watching and rooting for their favorite teams or players. For fans, their pregame ritual may center around Super Bowl commercials, nacho recipes and who will sing the National Anthem, but what’s going on in these elite athletes’ heads before the big game? Florida State University professors Graig Chow and Gershon Tenenbaum are experts on sport psychology and how professionals can help players prepare to compete in the biggest game of their careers.

• share
• favorite_border

Soccer players who head the ball a lot are three times more likely to have concussion symptoms than players who don’t head the ball often, according to a new study published in the February 1, 2017, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

Frequent soccer ball heading is a common and under recognized cause of concussion symptoms, according to a study of amateur players led by Albert Einstein College of Medicine researchers. The findings run counter to earlier soccer studies suggesting concussion injuries mainly result from inadvertent head impacts, such as collisions with other players or a goalpost. The study was published online today in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

As the number of grandparents caring for grandchildren full-time continues to swell, so do the stress-induced health risks associated with such a demanding responsibility. Now, a four-year, $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will allow researchers at Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing to refine and test a new approach to help grandmothers manage the stresses of the this new role—and hopefully reduce the emotional and physical fallout that often results.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers report they have discovered how two problem proteins known to cause Parkinson's disease are chemically linked, suggesting that someday, both could be neutralized by a single drug designed to target the link. A report on their discovery appears in the Jan. 24 issue of Cell Reports.

• share
• favorite_border

Adults on the autism spectrum see their interests as possible fields of study and career paths, as well as ways to mitigate anxiety, finds a study by NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers with Beaumont Health System found that patients’ self-reported pain and anxiety scores improved immediately after a clinical massage, while other patients who listened to a guided-imagery recording found the intervention to be very helpful, reporting improvements in pain, anxiety and insomnia.

• share
• favorite_border

The University of Washington-based Forefront will host a Feb. 16 memorial for state residents who died by suicide and join firearms dealers, veterans’ organizations, pharmacists, health care providers and suicide attempt and loss survivors to advocate for two legislative bills as part of Suicide Prevention Education Day in Olympia, WA.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Nationwide, the mortality rate from deaths caused by drugs, alcohol and suicide rose 52 percent from 2000 to 2014, according to new research from the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. Most of the increase was driven by a surge in prescription opioid and heroin overdoses.

• share
• favorite_border

Adolescents who are violent toward their romantic partners are also more likely to think about or attempt suicide, carry a weapon, threaten others with a weapon and use drugs or alcohol than peers in non-violent relationships, according to new research from the University of Georgia.

• share
• favorite_border

The study was commissioned by the West Midlands Mental Health Commission, a task force set up by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), to assess the current costs of mental ill health and current service provision across the region. It was led by the Health Services Management Centre at the University of Birmingham in partnership with the Centre for Mental Health.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is giving researchers a first look at the early stages of brain development in patients with Fragile X syndrome, a disorder that causes mild to severe intellectual disability and is the most common genetic cause of autism spectrum disorder.

• share
• favorite_border

An international consortium of academic research institutions have been awarded a $21 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop better ways to prevent epilepsy in patients who have suffered traumatic brain injuries.

• share
• favorite_border

The ancient impulse to procreate is necessary for survival and must be hardwired into our brains. Now scientists from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have discovered an important clue about the neurons involved in that wiring.

• share
• favorite_border

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop after a traumatic event or events. Although it is most often associated with military personnel exposed to the trauma of combat, it can also disproportionately affect vulnerable American Indian and Alaskan-Native (AI/AN) populations. Because alcohol use disorders (AUDs) also have a disproportionate impact on AI/ANs, this study compared both lifetime PTSD and past-year AUD among AI/ANs and non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs).

• share
• favorite_border

UNC School of Medicine researchers crystalized the structure of LSD attached to a human serotonin receptor of a brain cell, and they may have discovered why an “acid trip” lasts so long.

• share
• favorite_border

Reliable assessment of comatose patients in intensive care units is critical to the patients’ care. Providers must recognize clinical status changes quickly to undertake proper interventions. But does the provider need to be in the same room as the patient, or can robotic telemedicine be used successfully to complete the assessment? According to a research study conducted at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Arizona, published in Telemedicine and e-Health, the answer is yes.

• share
• favorite_border

The shape of your brain can influence personality traits, according to a new study published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

• share
• favorite_border

An important step in planning tumor surgery includes assessing the tumor stiffness to aid in surgical planning. Because tumors within the skull cannot be examined non-invasively, researchers used Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE) to assess pituitary tumor stiffness. MRE reliably identified tumors that were soft enough for removal with a minimally-invasive suction technique versus harder tumors requiring more invasive surgery.

• share
• favorite_border

Anxiety associated with hot flashes, sleep disruption, and muscle and joint complaints

• share
• favorite_border

Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other “synucleinopathies” are known to be linked to the misfolding of alpha-synuclein protein in neurons. Less clear is how this misfolding relates to the growing number of genes implicated in PD through analysis of human genetics. Researchers affiliated with Whitehead Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) explain how they used a suite of novel biological and computational methods to shed light on the question.

• share
• favorite_border

Sian Beilock, the Stella M. Rowley Professor of Psychology, has been awarded the 2017 Troland Research Award for her pioneering work on anxiety and performance in high-stress situations. The National Academy of Sciences gives the award annually to two investigators no older than 40 to recognize their unusual achievements and to further research in the field of experimental psychology. The honor is accompanied by a $75,000 prize.

• share
• favorite_border

For many families, normal activities, such as going to a large family gathering or an amusement park, can be difficult to navigate with a child with autism, as the child may be act out due to being overwhelmed by extra noises and stimulation. To help families deal with such situations, specialists at the University of Missouri Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders have been successfully integrating applied behavior analysis (ABA), the science of understanding why people behave in various ways and how understanding those motivations can shape behavior.

• share
• favorite_border

Alcohol use can be found in suicide deaths and unintentional deaths due to injuries such as those from motor vehicle collisions (MVCs). The authors of this study argue that it is important to distinguish between the roles that alcohol may play in the two different types of deaths. Consequently, they compared postmortem toxicology results for alcohol and other drugs, alone and in combination, in suicide and MVC deaths.

• share
• favorite_border

The UNC School of Medicine has awarded the 17th Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize to David Anderson, PhD, the Seymour Benzer Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology for “his discovery of neural circuit mechanisms controlling emotional behaviors.”

• share
• favorite_border

UAB and VICIS have each made major strides in developing next generation football helmets in response to the growing concussion crisis, and they have partnered to combine expertise and intellectual property to bring more effective helmets to the market.

• share
• favorite_border

A functional MRI brain scan may help predict which patients will respond positively to antidepressant therapy, according to a new study published in the journal Brain.

• share
• favorite_border

A volume decrease in specific parts of the brain’s hippocampus – long identified as a hub of mood and memory processing – was linked to bipolar disorder in a study led by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The research was published today in Molecular Psychiatry, part of the Nature Publishing Group.

• share
• favorite_border

Offering your spouse what you believe to be positive support could have negative physiological effects on them, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have found a way to inhibit the growth of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer with low survival rates, by targeting a protein that drives growth of brain tumors, according to research from the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute and Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Mindfulness meditation is an increasingly popular treatment for anxiety, but testing its effectiveness in a convincing way has been difficult. Now a rigorously designed, NIH-sponsored clinical trial has found objective physiological evidence that mindfulness meditation combats anxiety.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A clinical trial to examine the effect of nilotinib on clinical outcomes and biomarkers in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease has opened at Georgetown University Medical Center.

• share
• favorite_border

A University of Cincinnati study reported that patients who sustained a concussion, followed by symptoms of visual dysfunction, experienced delayed central and peripheral vision reaction times.

• share
• favorite_border

Xinglong Wang’s team published a study in the January 2017 issue of Molecular Therapy that is seen as confirming the relevance of this neurotoxic pathway, according to an accompanying editorial by Eloise Hudry, PhD, of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Unit at Harvard Medical School. This paper also confirms TDP-43 inhibition as a viable therapeutic option for the treatment of neurologic disorders, including Alzheimer disease.