Psychiatry News and Research

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

NIH funding helps develop chronic-pain network to accelerate research, treatments

What do migraine, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis have in common? All involve chronic pain.

17 Oct 2013

King's College researchers identify new biomarker that detects sepsis in blood

Researchers at King's College London have identified a biomarker - a biological 'fingerprint' - for sepsis in the blood, and showed it could be possible to diagnose the condition within two hours by screening for this biomarker at a patient's bedside.

17 Oct 2013

Seven promising scientists named 2013 NYSCF - Robertson Investigators

The New York Stem Cell Foundation today named seven of the most promising scientists as its 2013 NYSCF - Robertson Investigators.

16 Oct 2013

Mindfulness-based intervention leads to drop in blood pressure

Blood pressure is effectively lowered by mindfulness-based stress reduction for patients with borderline high blood pressure or "prehypertension." This finding is reported in the October issue of Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, the official journal of the American Psychosomatic Society.

16 Oct 2013

New discovery may lead to effective treatments for chronic itching

Anyone who has suffered through sleepless nights due to uncontrollable itching knows that not all itching is the same. New research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis explains why.

16 Oct 2013

Ghrelin hormone released during chronic stress may predispose people to PTSD

About a dozen years ago, scientists discovered that a hormone called ghrelin enhances appetite. Dubbed the "hunger hormone," ghrelin was quickly targeted by drug companies seeking treatments for obesity - none of which have yet panned out.

16 Oct 2013

Cerebral cortical development may influence recovery from childhood ADHD

Some people grow out of their childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and some don't. In fact, around 50% of individuals diagnosed as children continue to suffer from ADHD as adults.

16 Oct 2013

Elsevier journals currently offers 3D visualization services to authors and readers

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, and Kitware, a worldwide leader in developing advanced visualization technologies, today announced that Elsevier journals offer the opportunity to upload 3D datasets when submitting a paper for publication. This way, once published, readers can interactively explore 3D datasets next to the online article on ScienceDirect.

15 Oct 2013

Cdk5 protein may play crucial role in deadly form of thyroid cancer

A specific protein once thought to exist only in the brain may play a crucial role in a deadly form of thyroid cancer, as well as other cancers, and provide a fresh target for researchers seeking ways to stop its progression, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report today in Cancer Cell.

15 Oct 2013

Kraepelin distinctions back in favor

Modern statistical methods support Kraepelin’s original distinction between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but not the more recent schizoaffective disorder category, say researchers.

11 Oct 2013

Natural painkiller system in the brain responds to social rejection

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," goes the playground rhyme that's supposed to help children endure taunts from classmates. But a new study suggests that there's more going on inside our brains when someone snubs us - and that the brain may have its own way of easing social pain.

11 Oct 2013

Social connection: A basic human need

Facebook and gossip might seem like a waste of time, but they actually serve a basic human need.

11 Oct 2013

Viewpoints: 'Death throes' of health law opponents; Ryan's plan on entitlements may offer way out of budget crisis

Politically, the biggest challenges facing the ACA are behind us. By my count, the law has already survived three near-death experiences: the Democrats' loss of a filibuster-proof Senate majority with the election of Scott Brown in Jan. 2010, the Supreme Court's June 2012 decision upholding (with one exception) the law's constitutionality, and President Obama's re-election last Nov. Much of what we see going on in Washington now is the death throes of the opposition, especially now that Americans are beginning to sign up for coverage (John McDonough, 10/9).

11 Oct 2013

Pregnant smoking may have mood consequences for offspring

A case–control study suggests that people have an increased risk for developing bipolar disorder if their mothers smoked during pregnancy.

10 Oct 2013

Antisocial path to violence in psychosis

People are at particular risk for violent behavior during a first episode of psychosis if they have displayed antisocial behavior since childhood, show findings from the UK National EDEN Study.

10 Oct 2013

Alkermes' ALKS 5461 drug gets FDA Fast Track status for major depressive disorder

Alkermes plc today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Fast Track status for ALKS 5461 for the adjunctive treatment of major depressive disorder in patients with an inadequate response to standard therapies.

10 Oct 2013

Bluhm Institute enrolls first patient in SALUS trial to evaluate movable, non-metallic heart valve

Northwestern's Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute has enrolled its first participant in SALUS, a clinical trial studying the effectiveness of a prosthetic aortic heart valve that can be placed without open-heart surgery.

10 Oct 2013

Transcendental Meditation technique has large effect on reducing trait anxiety, shows analysis

A new meta-analysis published today in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (2013;19(10):1-12)1 found the Transcendental Meditation- technique (TM) has a large effect on reducing trait anxiety for people with high anxiety.

10 Oct 2013

BUSM researchers identify promising biological predictor of PTSD diagnosis

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and several other institutions including the National Center for PSTD, VA Boston Healthcare System, Suffolk University, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, have determined that psychophysiologic reactivity to trauma-related, script-driven imagery procedures is a promising biological predictor of a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis.

10 Oct 2013

Self-management toolkit helps relatives of people with new-onset psychosis

Findings from a recent real-world clinical study indicate that relatives of people with recent-onset psychosis benefit from supported self-management interventions to help with outcomes such as distress and negative feelings around caregiving.

9 Oct 2013