Psychiatry News and Research

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

Effective dose of cannabidiol for safe pain relief without the typical 'high'

In the wake of cannabis legalization, a team of scientists at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center and McGill University have delivered encouraging news for chronic pain sufferers by pinpointing the effective dose of marijuana plant extract cannabidiol for safe pain relief without the typical "high" or euphoria produced by the THC.

25 Oct 2018

Stress-induced mental disturbances are directly linked to abnormal glucose metabolism

Chronic stress is a well-known risk factor for the development of psychiatric illnesses including depression disorders. The brain requires a great deal of glucose, and stress is known to alter glucose metabolism.

24 Oct 2018

Dyslexia gene linked to concussion susceptibility in athletes

A gene associated with dyslexia, a learning disorder, may make some athletes less susceptible to concussions, reports a new study from Penn State University and Northwestern Medicine.

24 Oct 2018

'Brain training' app could help OCD patients to manage symptoms

A 'brain training' app developed at the University of Cambridge could help people who suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder manage their symptoms, which may typically include excessive handwashing and contamination fears.

23 Oct 2018

Researchers find improvement in liver transplant survival rate among older recipients

An increasing number of older adults are diagnosed with end-stage liver disease. End-stage liver disease is a life-threatening condition in which the liver stops working normally.

23 Oct 2018

Multi-national database can help researchers address questions about bipolar disorder throughout adult lifespan

Not much is known about how bipolar disorder (BD) affects people throughout their lives. Do women and men differ in the severity of their symptoms?

23 Oct 2018

Study: 12% of frequent marijuana smokers experience cannabis withdrawal syndrome

As the number of Americans who regularly use cannabis has climbed, so too has the number of those experiencing cannabis withdrawal symptoms.

23 Oct 2018

Study shows correlation between spatial memory and the sense of smell

People who have better spatial memory are also better at identifying odors, according to a study published this week in Nature Communications.

20 Oct 2018

ApoE4 gene linked with chronic inflammation increases risk for Alzheimer's disease

While it is widely shown that possessing the ApoE4 gene is the major genetic risk factor of Alzheimer's disease, not all ApoE4 carriers develop AD.

20 Oct 2018

Many primary care doctors are still prescribing sedative drugs for older adults

Despite years of warnings that older adults shouldn't take sedative drugs that put them at risk of injury and death, a new study reveals how many primary care doctors are still prescribing them, how often, and exactly where.

19 Oct 2018

Physical activity lowers cardiovascular mortality risk in frail older adults

Frailty is a health condition that increases risks of poor health, falls, disability, and death in older adults. Signs of frailty include weakness, weight loss, slow walking speed, exhaustion, and low levels of activity.

19 Oct 2018

New research seeks to address sex disparities in women's health

Traditionally many health-related research projects focused only on males, assuming that females' bodies would respond the same way to a given intervention or drug.

17 Oct 2018

Misuse of prescription opioids or benzodiazepines associated with suicidal thoughts

Misuse of prescription opioids or benzodiazepines (such as Xanax) was associated with suicidal ideation in a study of US older adults.

17 Oct 2018

Study to explore bioethics of brain organoids

Research scientists around the world are now able to investigate the structural, cellular, and developmental intricacies of the human brain using bioengineered stem cell-based models called organoids.

16 Oct 2018

Study uses novel approach to investigate genetic origins of mental illnesses

A study in Biological Psychiatry has established a new analytical method for investigating the complex genetic origins of mental illnesses using brain cells that are grown in a dish from human embryonic stem cells.

16 Oct 2018

As U.S. suicides rates rise, Hispanics show relative immunity

The young man held the medication in his hand — and considered using it to end his life. But then he "put it down and said, ‘No. I need help,'" before heading to a Laredo, Texas, emergency room, said Kimberly Gallegos, who at the time earlier this year was a mobile crisis worker for a local mental health center.

15 Oct 2018

Researchers explore whether open heart surgery affects cognitive abilities

Most people who need open heart surgery to repair damaged heart valves are aged 65 or older. The American Heart Association estimates that nearly 8 million people have had heart surgeries.

12 Oct 2018

Study: Alterations in genes encoding proteins contribute to ADHD development

A team from I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University together with foreign colleagues analyzed the genomes of several families that have members with ADHD.

12 Oct 2018

Findings offer new insight into early changes that occur during AD pathology

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, involving memory loss and a reduction in cognitive abilities.

12 Oct 2018

Many breast cancer patients share and discuss their experiences on Twitter, study finds

Twitter is a place where many cancer patients go to share and discuss their experiences of the disease. This is the main finding of a recent exploratory study (1), to be presented at the ESMO 2018 Congress in Munich, which analyzed the contents of over 6,000 tweets and retweets about breast cancer.

12 Oct 2018