Psychiatry News and Research

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Psychiatry is the treatment, study and prevention of mental disorders.

Study: High estrogen levels may influence alcohol use disorder

A new study from researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago shows that high estrogen levels may make alcohol more rewarding to female mice.

2 Jun 2020

High prenatal choline levels may mitigate negative effects of COVID-19 on newborns

Pregnant women who take extra choline supplements may mitigate the negative impact that viral respiratory infections, including COVID-19, can have on their babies, according to a new study from researchers in the Departments of Psychiatry and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

1 Jun 2020

Study shows mental toll of being a frontline healthcare worker during COVID-19

They worked in hospitals hundreds of miles from the epicenter of COVID-19. Their city of 24 million people locked down hard enough, and did enough testing, that it only had a few hundred cases of the disease.

1 Jun 2020

Out-of-sync gamma waves in the brain may underlie learning issues in psychiatric disorders

A new UC San Francisco study has pinpointed a specific pattern of brain waves that underlies the ability to let go of old, irrelevant learned associations to make way for new updates.

1 Jun 2020

Social isolation can lead to depression in children long after current lockdown

Children and adolescents are likely to experience high rates of depression and anxiety long after current lockdown and social isolation ends and clinical services need to be prepared for a future spike in demand, according to the authors of a new rapid review into the long-term mental health effects of lockdown.

1 Jun 2020

Anesthetic drug Ketamine uses serotonin receptors to relieve depression

Ketamine is a drug used to induce general anesthesia. It has also been found to act rapidly to relieve depression that has failed to respond to two other rounds of medication. A new study published in the journal Translational Psychiatry in May 2020 reports the mechanism of action of the drug, which was hitherto unknown. This could help find new ways to treat this debilitating and sometimes fatal condition.

31 May 2020

Researchers show how ketamine fights difficult-to-treat depression

The anaesthetic drug ketamine has been shown, in low doses, to have a rapid effect on difficult-to-treat depression.

31 May 2020

Using functional MRI to demonstrate neural suppression in autism

According to the National Autism Association, people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may experience sensory hypersensitivity.

29 May 2020

Study finds gender differences in autism severity changes during early childhood

During early childhood, girls with autism tend to show greater reduction and less rise in their autism symptom severity than boys with autism, a UC Davis MIND Institute study has found.

28 May 2020

For seniors, COVID-19 sets off a pandemic of despair

As states relax coronavirus restrictions, older adults are advised, in most cases, to keep sheltering in place. But for some, the burden of isolation and uncertainty is becoming hard to bear.

28 May 2020

Risk of anxiety disorder, associated problems increases drastically in users of high-potency cannabis

Users of high-potency cannabis are four times more likely to report associated problems, and twice as likely to report anxiety disorder, than users of lower-potency strains, according to new research from the University of Bristol.

27 May 2020

Study may help deal with stress-induced fear and anxiety

Yale researchers have found a neural home of the feeling of stress people experience, an insight that may help people deal with the debilitating sense of fear and anxiety that stress can evoke, Yale researchers report May 27 in the journal Nature Communications.

27 May 2020

Study: High level of anxiety is linked to depression

Led by King's College London in collaboration with the University of Zimbabwe and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and published in The Lancet's EClinicalMedicine journal, the research examined a group of people with depression in Zimbabwe and found that people are nearly three times more likely to suffer this illness long-term if they also have a high level of anxiety.

27 May 2020