Suma Chand, Ph.D., associate professor in the department of psychiatry at Saint Louis University, uses cognitive exercises that help build the gratitude ‘muscle’.
As the nation reels from another mass shooting on a college campus, analysis of the 2007 attack at Virginia Tech University highlights the need for "comprehensive and coordinated mental health services on college campuses, according to a paper in the November/December issue of Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.
An innovative high school health program helped students maintain healthier weights and even alleviated severe depression for a full year after the program ended.
Although adults with serious psychiatric disorders are at high risk for diabetes, a large study led by UC San Francisco reveals that low-income patients on Medicaid are rarely screened for it.
Psychogenic fever is a stress-related, psychosomatic condition that manifests itself in a high body temperature. It is caused by exposure to emotional events or to chronic stress.
In real-world settings, patients with schizophrenia whose symptoms do not respond to standard antipsychotic medications have better outcomes if they are switched to clozapine instead of another standard antipsychotic.
In the long term, cognitive behavior therapy is more effective at treating seasonal affective disorder that light therapy, considered the gold standard, a study to be published in the American Journal of Psychiatry found. Two winters after the initial treatment, 46 percent of research subjects given light therapy reported a recurrence of depression compared with 27 percent of those who were administered CBT. Depressive symptoms were also more severe for those who received light therapy.
According to a surprising new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, a decades-long decline in the death rate of middle-aged white Americans (age 45 to 54) has reversed in recent years. The causes are not the big killers such as heart disease and diabetes but an epidemic of suicides and substance abuse. The study was done by Nobel-winning researchers Angus Deaton and Anne Case of Princeton University.
A study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers suggests that awakening several times throughout the night is more detrimental to people’s positive moods than getting the same shortened amount of sleep without interruption.
Nonsuicidal self-injury is not officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) as a mental disorder, which means insurance may not cover treatment - despite estimates that anywhere from 10 to 40 percent of adolescents suffer from it.
“The mental health system is failing patients who have a clear problem for which they need help,” says Edward Selby, an assistant professor of psychology in Rutgers’ School of Arts and Sciences in New Brunswick, whose research lays out a case for recognizing the condition.
People who have had an episode of major depression are at high risk for having another episode. Now, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that the risk of recurrence is significantly lower for people with complete, rather than partial depressive symptom resolution.
Mental health screenings – for anxiety, for example – is routinely recommended by various pediatric societies. Now, a study from Mount Sinai questions the wisdom of such guidelines. Findings from a large-scale screening effort in a pediatric food allergy clinic, made by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and led by Eyal Shemesh, MD, were first published online in The Journal of Pediatrics.
The effect of altered thyroid function on cardiac disease, depression and how dietary restrictions impact the thyroid are all topics featured in oral presentations delivered at the 15th International Thyroid Congress, hosted by the American Thyroid Association, October 18-23, 2015, in Orlando, Florida.
A study, published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry, is the first to find that immune cells are more active in the brains of people at risk of schizophrenia* as well as those already diagnosed with the disease.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is releasing “Ending Conversion Therapy: Supporting and Affirming LGBTQ Youth,” a comprehensive report that provides an in-depth review of research and clinical expertise related to conversion therapy. This important new resource makes it clear that conversion therapy is not an appropriate therapeutic approach based on the evidence, and explores alternative ways to discuss sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression with young people.
The American Psychological Association expressed support for a report released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration calling for an end to the practice of “conversion therapy” for children and youth.
A new emergency department study from the University of Michigan Injury Center looks deeper at risk and protective factors among teenagers who report dating violence and alcohol use.
Having a high stress job may be linked to a higher risk of stroke, according to an analysis of several studies. The meta-analysis is published in the October 14, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Using advanced brain imaging, researchers have matched certain behavioral symptoms of schizophrenia to features of the brain’s anatomy. The findings, from a research team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis could be a step toward improving diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia.
Incarcerated youth who have suffered head injuries, traumatic experiences and mental illness diagnoses are more likely to abuse multiple inhalants, according to researchers at Georgia State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
A new study finds that children with congenital heart disease and ADHD can take stimulant medications without fear of significant cardiovascular side effects.
A multicenter study of young patients with bipolar disorder provides what may be the most scientifically rigorous demonstration to date that lithium — a drug used successfully for decades to treat adults with the condition — can also be safe and effective for children suffering from it.
A new analysis led by researchers at the UNC School of Medicine identified “illogical thoughts” as most predictive of schizophrenia risk. Surprisingly, perceptual disturbances – the forerunners of hallucinations – are not predictive.
How happy you are may have something to do with who you know—and where you come from. Lijun Song, assistant professor of sociology, set out to discover whether knowing high-status people helped or harmed mental health, using depressive symptoms as a proxy. Her findings appear in the July 2015 issue of Social Science and Medicine.
In a study to be published on Oct.1 by the journal Pediatric Emergency Care, investigators at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles piloted a brief mental health screening tool to be used with patients accessing the emergency department for medical complaints who might be at risk for mental health problems.
New analysis shows that the scientific literature paints an overly rosy picture of the efficacy of psychotherapy for depression comparable to the bias previously found in reports of treatments with antidepressant drugs.
The Latino culture, more than others, places a high value on the family unit; yet, little research has examined the dynamics of Latino family relationships and how those dynamics affect children’s development. Now, a University of Missouri researcher found sibling relationship quality in adolescence affects Mexican-origin adolescents’ and young adults’ later depressive symptoms and their involvement in risky behaviors, including those with sexual risk.
When it comes to treating depression, how well a person responds to a fake medicine may determine how well they’ll respond to a real one, a new study shows. Those who can muster their brain’s own chemical forces against depression have a head start in overcoming symptoms with help from medication.
The first patient with depression has been treated with focused ultrasound. This procedure marks the beginning of a pilot clinical trial to determine the feasibility and safety of MR-guided focused ultrasound to non-invasively destroy a small volume of tissue deep in the brain – the anterior limb of the internal capsule – a well-established target for treating severe depression. In this initial patient, the target was successfully ablated without complications.
Choosing the right antidepressant can be a daunting task. With so many choices and such unpredictability in their individual effects, patients with depression often spend months or years casting about for the right medication, while clinicians are often uneasy or unwilling to offer options other than their preferred prescriptions.
More than half of older adults with clinical depression don’t get better when treated with an antidepressant. But results from a multicenter clinical trial that included Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that adding a second drug — an antipsychotic medication — to the treatment regimen helps many of those patients.
Suicide rates gradually have been increasing for years despite improved treatments for depression. Doctors want those at risk of harming themselves to know there is hope — including a new treatment that may relieve suicidal wishes in people with depression.
Individuals who blame karma for their poor health have more pain and worse physical and mental health, according to a new study from University of Missouri researchers. Targeted interventions to counteract negative spiritual beliefs could help some individuals decrease pain and improve their overall health, the researchers said.
Women react differently to negative images compared to men, which may be explained by subtle differences in brain function. This neurobiological explanation for women’s apparent greater sensitivity has been demonstrated by researchers.
Researchers led by Bradley S. Peterson, MD, director of the Institute for the Developing Mind at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, have shown that lower levels of conflict-related brain activity are associated with a higher risk for later psychosis. The study, in conjunction with colleagues at Columbia University, is available via PubMed in advance of publication by the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.
Margaret Pabst Battin, distinguished professor of philosophy and medical ethics at the University of Utah has spent almost 40 years researching, collecting and organizing historical sources on suicide, examining every side of these issues. Her new book, “The Ethics of Suicide: Historical Sources,” published by the Oxford University Press with an accompanying digital archive hosted by the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library, provides a diverse range of thinking about suicide throughout history, representing a full range of cultures and traditions.
As high schools across the country continue to reduce physical education, recess, and athletic programs, a new study shows that regular exercise significantly reduces both suicidal thoughts and attempts among students who are bullied.
"This study has let us characterize the parameters of decline in people who will eventually develop Alzheimer's, which means we can better identify both benign symptoms and those that warrant particular attention." - Sylvie Belleville
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University had previously found that mothers of children dependent on life-supporting medical technology are at risk for depression. In a new study, the researchers discovered factors that significantly contribute to the condition.
The study found that healthy sisters of women suffering from eating disorders suffered from higher levels of depressive symptoms stemming from the strained relationship between the two. “During treatment maximum attention should be given to the relationship between the two sisters, strengthening it and transforming it from a negative, competitive interaction to one of support,” said Prof. Yael Letzer from the University of Haifa who led the research together with Prof. Ruth Katz and Keren Berger
A University of Adelaide led study has found that a psychiatric drug claimed to be a safe and effective treatment for depression in adolescents is actually ineffective and associated with serious side effects.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States – greater even than traffic crashes, but Ian Rockett, professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health at West Virginia University says the problem is bigger and in the latest issue of JAMA Psychiatry proposes a way to address it.
Scientists at Duke University have released a highly detailed model of connections in the mouse brain that could provide generations of neuroscientists new insights into brain circuits and origins of mental illness, such as depression and schizophrenia. The findings are published in the journal Cerebral Cortex.