Psychiatry News and Research

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

UC San Francisco researchers use brain scans to predict reading difficulties in young children

UC San Francisco researchers have used brain scans to predict how young children learn to read, giving clinicians a possible tool to spot children with dyslexia and other reading difficulties before they experience reading challenges.

16 Sep 2014

New research shows schizophrenia comprises 8 genetically distinct disorders

New research shows that schizophrenia isn't a single disease but a group of eight genetically distinct disorders, each with its own set of symptoms. The finding could be a first step toward improved diagnosis and treatment for the debilitating psychiatric illness.

16 Sep 2014

Scientists measure responses to rewards during nicotine withdrawal across species

Cigarette smoking is a leading cause of preventable death worldwide and is associated with approximately 440,000 deaths in the United States each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population continues to smoke cigarettes.

15 Sep 2014

New study measures neurodevelopment in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is generally considered to be a disorder of brain development and it shares many risk factors, both genetic and environmental, with other neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and intellectual disability.

15 Sep 2014

New class of compounds protect brain cells from traumatic brain injury

A new class of compounds has now been shown to protect brain cells from the type of damage caused by blast-mediated traumatic brain injury (TBI).

12 Sep 2014

Teen cannabis users 60% less likely to complete school or get a degree

Individuals who are daily users of cannabis before age 17 are over 60% less likely to complete high school or obtain a degree compared to those who have never used the drug, new research published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal shows.

11 Sep 2014

Lower rates of suicide linked with more daily sunshine

Lower rates of suicide are associated with more daily sunshine in the prior 14 to 60 days. Light interacts with brain serotonin systems and possibly influences serotonin-related behaviors. Those behaviors, such as mood and impulsiveness, can play a role in suicide.

11 Sep 2014

New way to preserve flexibility and resilience of the brain

As Alzheimer's disease progresses, it kills brain cells mainly in the hippocampus and cortex, leading to impairments in "neuroplasticity," the mechanism that affects learning, memory, and thinking.

10 Sep 2014

Sex hormone that helps protect females from stroke may also reduce risk of autism, say scientists

The same sex hormone that helps protect females from stroke may also reduce their risk of autism, scientists say.

10 Sep 2014

Stages of symptoms in schizophrenia: an interview with Dr. Mark Opler, ProPhase

I think there's a perception that schizophrenia is principally a disorder that involves hallucinations such as hearing voices, seeing things and believing things that aren't real. These are indeed part of the phenomenon, but the condition is much broader than that.

9 Sep 2014

Treatment at earliest age reduces symptoms of autism spectrum disorder

Treatment at the earliest age when symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear - sometimes in infants as young as 6 months old - significantly reduces symptoms so that, by age 3, most who received the therapy had neither ASD nor developmental delay, a UC Davis MIND Institute research study has found.

9 Sep 2014

Study ties eating in response to food cues to habit-forming region in obese adults

People who are obese may be more susceptible to environmental food cues than their lean counterparts due to differences in brain chemistry that make eating more habitual and less rewarding, according to a National Institutes of Health study published in Molecular Psychiatry.

9 Sep 2014

OCD diagnosis raises risk of subsequent schizophrenia

Patients who are diagnosed with obsessive–compulsive disorder are at increased risk of developing schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders, a longitudinal study reports.

5 Sep 2014

Brain imaging could assist bipolar depression diagnosis

Researchers have identified structural brain differences that could help to distinguish patients with unipolar and bipolar depression.

5 Sep 2014

Stimulation therapy and behavioral management training for parents reduce kids’ violent behaviors

Prescribing both a stimulant and an antipsychotic drug to children with physical aggression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), along with teaching parents to use behavior management techniques, reduces aggressive and serious behavioral problems in children, according to a study conducted by researchers in the Department of Psychiatry at Stony Brook University School of Medicine.

4 Sep 2014

E-cigarettes may function as "gateway drug" to marijuana and cocaine

Like conventional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes (or e-cigarettes) may function as a "gateway drug"—a drug that lowers the threshold for addiction to other substances, such as marijuana and cocaine—according to the 120th Shattuck lecture, presented to the Massachusetts Medical Society by Columbia researchers Denise and Eric Kandel and published today in the online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

4 Sep 2014

Electroconvulsive therapy combats treatment-resistant schizophrenia

The use of electroconvulsive therapy improves the chances of a treatment response in patients with continued schizophrenia symptoms despite use of antipsychotic medication, a randomised trial shows.

3 Sep 2014

Kids, adolescents are at increased risk of developing diabetes if exposed to antipsychotics

A study published in the September 2014 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that children and adolescents diagnosed with a psychiatric diagnosis had an increased risk of developing diabetes if they were exposed to antipsychotics.

2 Sep 2014

Finding could lead researchers to better understand development of psychiatric disorders

Some people take stress in stride; others are done in by it. New research at Rockefeller University has identified the molecular mechanisms of this so-called stress gap in mice with very similar genetic backgrounds - a finding that could lead researchers to better understand the development of psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression.

2 Sep 2014

Researchers see benefit from behavioral weight loss program designed to curb food addiction

It may be possible to train the brain to prefer healthy low-calorie foods over unhealthy higher-calorie foods, according to new research by scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University and at Massachusetts General Hospital.

2 Sep 2014

Psychiatry News and Research

Further Reading

UC San Francisco researchers use brain scans to predict reading difficulties in young children

New research shows schizophrenia comprises 8 genetically distinct disorders

Scientists measure responses to rewards during nicotine withdrawal across species

New study measures neurodevelopment in schizophrenia

New class of compounds protect brain cells from traumatic brain injury

Teen cannabis users 60% less likely to complete school or get a degree

Lower rates of suicide linked with more daily sunshine

New way to preserve flexibility and resilience of the brain

Sex hormone that helps protect females from stroke may also reduce risk of autism, say scientists

Stages of symptoms in schizophrenia: an interview with Dr. Mark Opler, ProPhase

Treatment at earliest age reduces symptoms of autism spectrum disorder

Study ties eating in response to food cues to habit-forming region in obese adults

OCD diagnosis raises risk of subsequent schizophrenia

Brain imaging could assist bipolar depression diagnosis

Stimulation therapy and behavioral management training for parents reduce kids’ violent behaviors

E-cigarettes may function as "gateway drug" to marijuana and cocaine

Electroconvulsive therapy combats treatment-resistant schizophrenia

Kids, adolescents are at increased risk of developing diabetes if exposed to antipsychotics

Finding could lead researchers to better understand development of psychiatric disorders

Researchers see benefit from behavioral weight loss program designed to curb food addiction

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Automating research - solutions and best practices

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