Feature Channels: Mental Health

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Gambling addiction activates the same brain pathways as drug and alcohol cravings, suggests new research.

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Health care blogger Laura Offutt MD writes about Teen Health Week and what health care professionals can do to promote the week that starts January 9.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that although many smokers with serious mental illnesses would like to quit smoking, many psychiatrists and caseworkers aren't aware of their patients' wishes and, consequently, haven't prescribed medications or referred them to services to help them stop smoking.

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A wide range of pre-existing psychiatric and behavioral conditions and the use of psychoactive drugs could be important risk factors leading to long-term use of opioid pain medications, reports a study in PAIN®, the official publication of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

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Welders can develop Parkinson’s disease-like symptoms that may get worse the longer and more they are exposed to the chemical element manganese from welding fumes, according to a study published in the December 28, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Welders exposed to airborne manganese at estimated levels well under federal safety standards develop neurological problems, according to a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Current safety standards may not adequately protect welders from the dangers of the job.

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Rebecca A. Baum, MD, will become the new chief of the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital effective January 1, 2017.

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New research from RTI International, North Carolina State University, Arizona State University and Duke University Medical Center finds a host of factors that are associated with subsequent risk of adults with mental illness becoming victims or perpetrators of violence. The work highlights the importance of interventions to treat mental-health problems in order to reduce community violence and instances of mental-health crises.

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Understanding how the nervous system of the roundworm C elegans works will give insights into how our vastly more complex brains function and is the subject of a paper in Nature Methods.

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The 2017 Neuro Film Festival, presented by the American Academy of Neurology, is now accepting video submissions. The Neuro Film Festival, now in its eighth year, is an online video contest that encourages people to share their story about how brain disease has impacted their life or that of a loved one, how their advocacy efforts have influenced change or simply why they are fascinated by the wonders of the brain.

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People who perceive more discrimination in daily life have higher rates of sleep problems, based on both subjective and objective measures, reports a study in Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, the official journal of the American Psychosomatic Society. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

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The secret to reliably diagnosing concussions lies in the brain’s ability to process sound, according to a new study by researchers from Northwestern University’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory. Widely considered a crisis in professional sports and youth athletic programs, sports-related concussions have had devastating neurological, physical, social and emotional consequences for millions of athletes.

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In experiments on mice with a form of aggressive brain cancer, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that localized chemotherapy delivered directly to the brain rather than given systemically may be the best way to keep the immune system intact and strong when immunotherapy is also part of the treatment.

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New research finds a host of factors that are associated with subsequent risk of adults with mental illness becoming victims or perpetrators of violence. The work highlights the importance of interventions to treat mental-health problems in order to reduce community violence.

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Positive results of an investigational medication study for primary progressive multiple sclerosis were published online in today’s New England Journal of Medicine in a paper led by senior author Jerry Wolinsky, M.D., of McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

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The first academic study to estimate the cumulative lifetime risk of a child maltreatment investigation, completed by researchers at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, reveals that 37 percent of U.S. children prior to their 18th birthday are the subject of an investigated child neglect and abuse report — and 53 percent of black children.

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Do big-brained creatures steal energy for them from other organs or eat more to supply this expensive tissue? New work in large-brained fish suggests skimping elsewhere is not enough to meet the energy demands of an extreme brain.

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Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have detailed the structure of a molecule that has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. Knowing the shape of the molecule — and how that shape may be disrupted by certain genetic mutations — can help in understanding how Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases develop and how to prevent and treat them.

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The American Psychological Association and its affiliated APA Practice Organization have called on congressional leaders not to repeal the Affordable Care Act without simultaneously replacing it with legislation to ensure that all Americans have insurance coverage with access to comprehensive mental health care at parity with physical health services.

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UCLA researchers initiate brain repair following white matter stroke in animals, identifying a possible therapeutic target to combat this common cause of dementia

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Tests that measure the sense of smell may soon become common in neurologists’ offices. Scientists have been finding increasing evidence that the sense of smell declines sharply in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, and now a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania published today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease confirms that administering a simple “sniff test” can enhance the accuracy of diagnosing this dreaded disease

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Ron Davis, chair of the Department of Neuroscience on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has been awarded a $5 million Outstanding Investigator Grant, one of the first of its kind, by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine a five-year, $6 million grant to fund the Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC). The grant will also support a new research program focused on 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11.2DS), an incurable genetic disorder associated with delayed intellectual development and psychiatric conditions, and some forms of congenital heart disease as well as other medical problems.

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A new study from BIDMC reveals the mystery of delusional misidentification syndromes (DMS), a group of rare disorders that causes patients to become convinced that a loved one has been replaced by an imposter. The investigators mapped brain injuries in 17 patients with DMS to determine origins of these disorders. Injuries were linked to areas in the brain associated with familiarity perception and belief evaluation, providing a neuro-anatomical mechanism underlying misidentification syndromes.

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An international team led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has selected a third investigational drug to be tested in a worldwide clinical trial – already underway – aimed at finding treatments to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

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Undocumented migrants are an especially vulnerable group with regard to their health status, living conditions, and barriers to access to health care and social welfare. In a study that explored 90 undocumented migrants’ mental health care needs, the level of psychological distress was extremely high.

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A rare and potent type of immune cell has been discovered around the brain, suggesting the cells may play a critical role in battling Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis and other diseases. By harnessing the cells' power, doctors may be able to develop new treatments for disease, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injuries – even migraines.

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The holidays are a time for family, fun and happiness. They are usually spent with the ones we love reflecting on the past year and feeling grateful. However, even with all the joy, the holidays can cause quite a large amount of stress. Whether it be trying to forgive someone for a mishap, trying not to let your worries impact your sleep, dealing with the dark and gloomy days, or merely learning the joys of giving, our experts are here with tips on how to make this holiday season a little brighter.

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Investigators in veterinary and human medicine have uncovered long-term changes in the brains of adult female rats exposed to social stresses early in life, with the biggest impact on regions of the brain linked to social behavior, stress, emotion and depression. The findings will enable researchers to begin testing preventative measures and treatments for depression and anxiety.

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Health and wellness tips about preventing blood shortages, cardiorespiratory fitness check-up, and avoid holiday heart syndrome.

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Mental health awareness and French vanilla ice cream are two passions of senior television-radio major Michayla Savitt, creator and host of “The Scoop on Mental Health,” a podcast where Savitt and guests discuss mental health issues over ice cream.

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A team of doctors and psychologists examined the effects of structured talk therapy and medication on patients with social anxiety disorders. In doing so they set a new world record in effectively treating social anxiety disorder.

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Scientists have enlisted the exotic properties of graphene to function like the film of an incredibly sensitive camera system in visually mapping tiny electric fields. They hope to enlist the new method to image electrical signaling networks in our hearts and brains.

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An expert at Rutgers University’s Care2Caregivers helpline shares tips on how families can celebrate the holidays with loved ones suffering from an illness that affects memory

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• Risks of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are higher in older kidney transplant recipients than in older adults in the general population. • Among kidney transplant recipients, those who developed dementia or Alzheimer’s disease had higher rates of organ loss and patient death than those who did not develop these conditions.

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A West Virginia University researcher is investigating links between child abuse and mortality risk in women. Co-author on a recent study linking self-reported child abuse to death in women, assistant professor of psychology Nicholas Turiano is investigating why childhood misfortune, such as child abuse, could cause deaths in women sooner than men.

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Bad bosses generally come in two forms. There are the dysfunctional ones, like Michael Scott from the TV series The Office; then there are the dark ones, like Gordon Gekko from the film Wall Street. Researchers including Seth M. Spain from Binghamton University, State University of New York are building a framework to better understand the behaviors of bad bosses and to reduce workplace stress.

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Adults and teenagers with depression don't respond to rewards in a normal manner. Although depression has been diagnosed in children as young as 3, it hasn't been clear whether their responses to rewards also may be blunted. So Washington University researchers studied kids ages 4 to 7 and found that, like adults, when the children were depressed, their brains were less likely to respond to rewards. The researchers say insensitivity to rewards may serve as a "red flag" for depression in young children.

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People who have protein in their urine, which is a sign of kidney problems, may also be more likely to later develop problems with thinking and memory skills or even dementia, according to a meta-analysis published in the December 14, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Terence M. Keane, PhD, professor of psychiatry and assistant dean for Research at Boston University, has been elected 2017 president of the American Psychological Foundation (APF). Keane will take office on Jan. 1, 2017.

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Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have discovered a molecular cause of hydrocephalus, a common, potentially life-threatening birth defect in which the head is enlarged due to excess fluid surrounding the brain. Because the same molecule is also implicated in Down’s syndrome, the finding, published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, may explain the ten-fold increased risk of hydrocephalus in infants born with Down’s.

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Genes known to be essential to life—the ones humans need to survive and thrive in the womb—also play a critical role in the development of autism spectrum disorder, suggests a new study

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Sunita Sah, assistant professor of management and organizations at Cornell University, and her colleagues have a novel strategy to save your professional reputation: Reframe your distress as passion for the project.

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Commenting on a Financial Times feature on drug trials of the "plaque" theory of Alzheimer's---all of which have failed so far---Chris Norwood, in a lead letter, underscores that targeted diabetes prevention is really the major documented path to Alzheimer's prevention

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The nation’s largest statewide effort to track concussions among youth athletes is under way in Texas with the launch of a registry designed to assess the prevalence of brain injuries in high school sports.

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In a bid to improve mental health screening of Latino children from immigrant families, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine report they have identified a culturally sensitive set of tools that are freely available to pediatricians, take less than 10 minutes to use, are in easy-to-read Spanish, and assess a wide range of emotional and behavioral problems.

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For many of the 2.8 million survivors in the United States, the price of survival includes severe physical and psychosocial symptoms – including joint pain, fatigue, weight gain and insomnia – that may go untreated and persist for many years after treatment. Long-term survivors report an average three symptoms for which they desire more help than they are receiving, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Results of the study will be presented on Friday at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (poster P5-13-12).

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The newly passed 21st Century Cures Act  awaiting President Obama’s signature will provide necessary funding to help those with mental illnesses, but a mental health expert at Washington University in St. Louis says it should focus more on mental health outcomes of those suffering right now.“Over 40 million Americans suffer from a mental health condition at any given time,” said Ryan Lindsay, associate professor of practice and chair of the mental health concentration at the Brown School.

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Cedars-Sinai neurosurgeons have begun using a high-definition imaging device to see inside the brain during surgery, allowing them to map safer pathways to reach and remove tumors. The device, called Brightmatter Guide, works like a GPS, providing real-time, brightly colored 3-D images.