Feature Channels: Mental Health

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Suma Chand, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry at Saint Louis University, uses exposure therapy to help patients with phobias that have begun to overtake their lives.

• share
• favorite_border

Health care systems and providers need to understand the unique realities of military culture in order to work effectively with veterans and military families, according to the findings of a study by a University at Buffalo research team.

• share
• favorite_border

Groundbreaking work is the result of analytical ingenuity, fortuitous collaborations, and catalytic philanthropic funding.

• share
• favorite_border

”Exposure to the protracted, multiple maximal adversities of the Holocaust increase the risk of developing schizophrenia,” says Prof. Stephen Levine of the University of Haifa, who undertook the study

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers measured the intelligence of 700 family members who had at least one relative carrying the same genetic mutation on chromosome 16, which is known to predispose to autistic spectrum disorders. Even in study participants whose IQ was considered to be normal, the researchers found a substantial 25 points IQ drop induced by 16p11.2 gene deletions.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Even subtle differences in how you refer to people with mental illness can affect levels of tolerance, a new study has found.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and New York State Psychiatric Institute have found that while cigarette smoking rates have declined among younger people in the United States, those who do smoke are more likely to have a psychiatric or substance use disorder compared with those who began smoking in earlier decades.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study published in the online journal, Public Library of Science One (PLOS One), led by Richard Deth, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology at Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) College of Pharmacy, found that Vitamin B12 levels in the brain are significantly decreased in the elderly and are much lower in individuals with autism or schizophrenia, as compared to their peers at similar ages.

• share
• favorite_border

Depression in both expectant mothers and fathers increases the risk of premature birth, finds a study published in BJOG: an International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG).

• share
• favorite_border

Taking more time to make decisions after a mistake arises from a mixture of adaptive neural mechanisms that improve the accuracy and maladaptive mechanisms that reduce it, neuroscientists at New York University have found. Their study also potentially offer insights into afflictions that impair judgments, such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

• share
• favorite_border

Results from a newly published study indicate that individuals with eating disorders are at increased risk of death compared to the general population. Investigators found that individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) had a five times higher mortality rate than their same age peers

• share
• favorite_border

The scars of childhood abuse and neglect affect adults’ brains for decades to come – including their ability to process and act on information both quickly and accurately, new research suggests.

• share
• favorite_border

Regions of the brain that normally work together to process emotion become decoupled in people who experience multiple episodes of depression, neuroscientists report. The findings may help identify which patients will benefit from longterm antidepressant treatment to prevent the recurrence of depressive episodes.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Georgia State University in Atlanta found that African-Americans living with mental illness were more likely to suffer repeated violence against them than are mentally ill white people, in the first study of its kind to look at revictimization of persons with serious mental illness by race.

• share
• favorite_border

Analyzing brain scans of 105 children ages 7 to 12, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have found that key structures in the brain are connected differently in poor children than in kids raised in more affluent settings. In particular, the brain's hippocampus -- a structure key to learning, memory and regulation of stress -- and the amygdala -- which is linked to stress and emotion -- connect to other areas of the brain differently in poor children than in those whose families had higher incomes.

• share
• favorite_border

Individuals who participated in high challenge activities like quilting and photography showed enhanced brain activity, according to a new Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience report.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

American College of Sports Medicine, Society of Behavioral Medicine co-author policy brief.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

One in ten patients is at risk of having new post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to their ICU experience up to a year post-discharge. This was the finding from a multicenter, prospective cohort research study of veterans and civilians. The research was published online ahead of print in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

History supports Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s recent tweet saying that men have a hard time asking for help for their depression.

• share
• favorite_border

Chickens that chicken out in unfamiliar surroundings may shed light on anxiety in humans, according to research published in the January issue of the journal GENETICS, a publication of the Genetics Society of America.

• share
• favorite_border

Using paroxetine--a medication prescribed to treat conditions including depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder--during the first trimester of pregnancy may increase newborns' risk of congenital malformations and cardiac malformations. That's the conclusion of a recent analysis published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

• share
• favorite_border

Mothers, put down your smartphones when caring for your babies! That’s the message from University of California, Irvine researchers, who have found that fragmented and chaotic maternal care can disrupt proper brain development, which can lead to emotional disorders later in life.

• share
• favorite_border

An important factor in white men’s psychological brittleness and vulnerability to suicide once they reach late life may be dominant scripts of masculinity, aging and suicide, a Colorado State University psychology researcher says.

• share
• favorite_border

Naturally occurring changes in brain wiring can help patients at high genetic risk of developing bipolar disorder avert the onset of the illness, according to a new study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published online today in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

New findings by French researchers show that the brain devotes more processing resources to social situations that signal threat than those that are benign.

• share
• favorite_border

A Kansas State University marriage and family therapist offers advice on coping with holiday stress and depression.

• share
• favorite_border

Adolescents with moderate emotional health problems do not smoke, but they may vape, USC study finds.

• share
• favorite_border

A network of interacting brain regions known as the default mode network (DMN) was found to have stronger connections in adults and children with a high risk of depression compared to those with a low risk. These findings suggest that increased DMN connectivity is a potential precursor, or biomarker, indicating a risk of developing major depressive disorder (MDD).

• share
• favorite_border

The brains of children who suffer clinical depression as preschoolers develop abnormally, compared with the brains of preschoolers unaffected by the disorder, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Their gray matter is lower in volume and thinner in the cortex, a part of the brain important in the processing of emotions.

• share
• favorite_border

Family breakdown and the insecure financial situation that may result is more likely to cause worry, anxiety and depressive symptoms in adolescents who are separated from their father, says Professor Jennifer O’Loughlin of the University of Montreal.

• share
• favorite_border

A childhood family breakup can have long-term negative consequences for the children. Recent University of Illinois research looks at overall health, depression, and smoking as a health-related behavior and finds that, for girls, all three are worse.

• share
• favorite_border

Using antidepressants during pregnancy greatly increases the risk of autism, Professor Anick Bérard of the University of Montreal and its affiliated CHU Sainte-Justine children’s hospital revealed today

• share
• favorite_border

Major depressive disorder affects more than 32 million Americans, and their first stop for treatment is often their primary care provider. A recent evidence review of several alternatives to medication found that using cognitive behavioral therapy as the first treatment for depression can be equally effective as using a second generation antidepressant.

• share
• favorite_border

Despite the large number of posts on visual social media platforms that suggest—and fuel—depressing or suicidal thoughts, there aren’t many for users to read and share that would help them cope with their mental state more proactively, a University of Georgia study finds.

• share
• favorite_border

Three biomarker-based categories, called biotypes, outperformed traditional diagnoses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychosis, in sorting psychosis cases into distinct subgroups on the basis of brain biology, report researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. A hallmark of severe mental illness, psychosis is marked by hallucinations and delusions, or false, irrational beliefs.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers led by faculty at the University of Georgia have identified a number of biological markers that make it possible to classify mental disorders with greater precision. Their findings, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, may lead to improved diagnostics and treatments for those suffering from mental illness.

• share
• favorite_border

Affective, anxiety and behavioral disorders in adolescents are early risk factors for eventual development of chronic pain, according to research reported in The Journal of Pain, the peer-review publication of the American Pain Society.

• share
• favorite_border

More than one in four doctors in the early stages of their careers has signs of depression, a comprehensive new study finds. And the grueling years of training for a medical career may deserve some of the blame.

• share
• favorite_border

Without increasing community-based psychiatric services, a large number of additional state psychiatric hospital beds would be needed to make a substantial impact on the average wait time of admission for people in crisis in North Carolina, according to a study co-authored by a researcher at RTI Health Solutions, a business unit of RTI International.

• share
• favorite_border

In a groundbreaking study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center, a comprehensive set of empirical biomarkers has been established to aid in diagnosis and treatment of psychosis.

• share
• favorite_border

People who are diagnosed with mental health conditions did not see improvements in coordination and quality of care as hoped but did not experience large cuts in access as some had feared under an early alternative payment model designed to encourage coordinated health care, according to a team led by researchers from Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

• share
• favorite_border

Having a pet offers companionship, comfort and emotional security to millions; many love and cherish them like family members. This can in turn have positive effects on mental health.

• share
• favorite_border

New research finds that mental health courts are effective at reducing repeat offending, and limiting related jail time, for people with mental health problems – especially those who also have substance use problems.