Feature Channels: Mental Health

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Dr. Jennifer Caudle offers tips to beat holiday stress and a reminder of the only two things you absolutely need to remember to do this season.

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Churches and other faith-based communities are an untapped resource that health-care providers should consider when suggesting treatment options for African-American and Latina mothers who have histories of postpartum depression (PPD), according to a new University at Buffalo-led study.

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Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found a new biomarker for glioma, a common type of brain cancer, that can help doctors determine how aggressive a cancer is and that could eventually help determine the best course of treatment.

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When children are falsely successful at games and other challenges, it can lead them to ignore important information in and about the world around them, according to a new study by an Amherst College professor.

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Jagdish Singh, chair and professor of pharmaceutical sciences at North Dakota State University, is receiving a $1.89 million grant award for his research to develop a nanotechnology-based system that effectively delivers Nerve Growth Factor across the blood brain barrier to treat Alzheimer's disease.

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Naomi Michele Simon, MD, MSc, a world renowned expert in complicated grief and anxiety disorders, is joining the faculty of NYU Langone's Department of Psychiatry to spearhead a new initiative into these illnesses.

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The smartphones that nearly all Americans carry could transform how people manage their health, especially for those with complex health needs. But a new study suggests app makers are falling short when it comes to actually serving those who could get the most benefit from mobile health apps.

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A new study shows that around the clock monitoring of blood pressure during daily activity revealed masked, or undetected, high blood pressure in a significant number of otherwise healthy adults who had normal readings in the clinic.

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Studies explore moral convictions associated with same sex marriage, gun control

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Fear of confronting the tensions and conflicts brought on by existential concerns—the “big questions” of life—is linked with poorer mental health, including higher levels of depression, anxiety and difficulty regulating emotions, according to a new Case Western Reserve University study.

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Combination drug treatments have become successful at long-term control of HIV infection, but the goal of totally wiping out the virus and curing patients has so far been stymied by HIV's ability to hide out in cells and become dormant for long periods of time.

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Increased stigma and discrimination can affect circadian HPA-axis functioning; the majority of previous studies have been conducted among white heterosexuals, with very little research examining HPA-axis functioning between different minorities. Individuals who identify as both sexual and racial minorities may experience increased stigma and discrimination that can affect this HPA-axis functioning. NYU researchers examined differences in diurnal cortisol rhythm between young, self-identified, white gay men and black gay men.

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How do you remember what happened today in the weeks and months that follow? Researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have answered a piece of that question in a recent study.

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Columbia University researchers reported that people with schizophrenia who have difficulty hearing subtle changes in pitch may be helped with auditory training exercises and a drug that targets NMDA receptors in the brain.

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Older adults with cataracts are more likely to have symptoms of depression, reports a study in the December issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

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A new Northwestern study abroad program will allow students to study the psychological impact of war in post-Soviet countries Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

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A new study from Nathan Rose, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame, examined a fundamental problem your brain has to solve, which is keeping information “in mind,” or active, so your brain can act accordingly.

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A University of Wisconsin-Madison lab is challenging the idea that working memory remembers things through sustained brain activity. They caught brains tucking less-important information away somewhere beyond the reach of the tools that typically monitor brain activity.

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Eli Lilly’s Phase III drug trial attempting to slow the advancement of Alzheimer’s disease disappointed many when it recently was announced that the study did not meet its primary endpoints.

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The American Psychological Association and the APA Practice Organization applauded passage by the House of Representatives of the 21st Century Cures Act, a bill that will lead to much-needed mental health reform.

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Johns Hopkins investigators report that their analysis of a national database representing more than 1 billion emergency department visits shows that over a recent eight-year period, nothing much has changed in the rates of unsuccessful suicide attempts, or in the age, gender, seasonal timing or means used by those who tried to take their lives in the United States.

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When combined with psychological counseling, a single dose of a mind-altering compound contained in psychedelic mushrooms significantly lessens mental anguish in distressed cancer patients for months at a time, according to results of a clinical trial led by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center.

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This study shows that when patients with PD experience a drop in blood pressure upon standing up – a condition known as orthostatic hypotension (OH) – they exhibit significant cognitive deficits. These deficits reverse when the individual lies down and their blood pressure returns to normal. As a result, these findings are important as clinical providers might miss an important target for intervention when not considering OH as a contributor to cognitive impairment.

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Matthew Colonnese, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacology and physiology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, published a paper in the Journal of Neuroscience establishing a mouse model for human fetal electrographic development.

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Prescribed rest—both physical and mental—is the standard treatment for concussion. But a growing body of evidence suggests that a more active, targeted approach might provide better outcomes for some patients, reports a special article in the December issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS). The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

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Results from a new study show that online group therapy can be just as effective as face-to-face treatment, although the pace of recovery may be slower.

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For the first time, researchers have found higher levels of Gram-negative bacteria antigens in brain samples from late-onset Alzheimer’s disease patients. Compared to controls, patients with Alzheimer's had much higher levels of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and E coli K99 pili protein. In addition, The UC Davis team also found LPS molecules congregated with amyloid plaques, which have been linked to Alzheimer’s pathology and progression. The research was published today in the print edition of the journal Neurology.

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In a study published this month in the journal Child Development, UW-Madison researcher Hilary Miller shows preschool age kids often skip location words and lean on other relevant information to describe important spatial details.

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Researchers at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre’s (KNC) Canadian Concussion Centre (CCC) have identified symptom trends that may not only help predict how soon patients suffering from post-concussion syndrome (PCS) will recover, but also provide insight on how to treat those who experience persistent concussion symptoms.

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One out of every six American women has experienced a sexual assault or an attempted sexual assault or rape in her lifetime, according to the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While more than half of female survivors of rape report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), previous research has found that not all survivors respond to traditional treatments for PTSD, causing their symptoms to resurface over time. Abigail Rolbiecki, Ph.D., a researcher at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, says that photovoice interventions, where participants express their thoughts and feelings through photos, combined with traditional PTSD treatments, could result in a more complete recovery for survivors of sexual assault.

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A University of Georgia research team has shown for the first time that participation in a prevention program known as the Strong African American Families Program, which enhances supportive parenting and strengthens family relationships, removes the effects of poverty on brain development.

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Sleep deprivation affects children's brains differently than adults', according to a new study

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Walking is a milestone in development for toddlers, but it’s actually only one part of the complex cognitive task known as gait that includes everything from a person’s stride length to the accompanying swing of each arm. A Mayo Clinic study recently published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that problems associated with gait can predict a significant decline in memory and thinking.

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Learning by taking practice tests, a strategy known as retrieval practice, can protect memory against the negative effects of stress, report scientists from Tufts University in a new study published in Science on Nov. 25.

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Mental disorders and physical diseases frequently go hand in hand. For the first time, psychologists at the University of Basel and Ruhr University Bochum have identified temporal patterns in young people: arthritis and diseases of the digestive system are more common after depression, while anxiety disorders tend to be followed by skin diseases.

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A study led jointly by research student Elham Taha from the laboratory of Prof. Kobi Rosenblum at the University of Haifa, and Christopher Heise from the laboratory of Professor Carlo Sala at the University of Milan, in cooperation with other European researchers. In a surprising finding, the study showed that a genetic change in the protein eEF2K creates resistance to epileptic attacks, thereby creating the possibility of a new treatment for the disease

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Deaths by suicide among the White Mountain Apache in Arizona dropped by nearly 40 percent between 2006 and 2012 compared to the previous six-year period, new research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the tribe reports.

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Although both group and individual therapy can ease post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in active-duty military service members, individual therapy relieved PTSD symptoms better and quicker, according to a study led by a Duke University School of Medicine researcher. The randomized clinical trial is the largest to date to examine an evidence-based treatment for active-duty military service members, with 268 participants from the U.S. Army’s Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. Findings will be published Nov. 23 in JAMA Psychiatry.

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A multi-institutional group of researchers, led by investigators at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the University of Michigan, have identified a simple and inexpensive tool for assessing the prognosis of pediatric brain tumors called ependymomas.

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Violence against children in South Africa cost the nation R238.58 billion (equivalent to $16.85 billion in U.S. dollars) in 2015, Save the Children South Africa revealed at a press conference today (Nov. 23).

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Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) has announced that Huaxi Xu, Ph.D., has been named the Jeanne and Gary Herberger Leadership Chair in Neuroscience at the institute.

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A team of biomedical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have identified a cause of fluid swelling of the brain, or cellular edema, that occurs during a concussion.

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A breathing-based meditation practice known as Sudarshan Kriya yoga helped alleviate severe depression in people who did not fully respond to antidepressant treatments, reports a new study published today in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Genetic variations that increase schizophrenia risk are rare, making it difficult to study their role. To overcome this, the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, an international team led by Jonathan Sebat, PhD, at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, analyzed the genomes of more than 41,000 people in the largest study of its kind to date. Their study, published November 21 in Nature Genetics, reveals regions of the genome where mutations increase schizophrenia risk.

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A woman had a cold virus injected into her brain tumor in an effort to eradicate it, making her the first person in the United States to participate in a clinical trial using this method, which incorporates immunotherapy, and was performed by doctors at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

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New technologies are giving researchers unprecedented opportunities to explore how the brain processes, utilizes, stores and retrieves information. But without a coherent strategy to analyze, manage and understand the data generated by these new tools, advancements in the field will be limited. Berkeley Lab researchers and their collaborators offer a plan to overcome these big data challenges.

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Studying how gut bacteria affect behavior in zebrafish could lead to a better understanding of how probiotics may affect the central nervous system in humans.