Psychiatry News and Research

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

CIHR awards $757,722 to Concordia researcher for international study on healthy aging

Carsten Wrosch, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Concordia University and member of the Centre for Research in Human Development, was recently awarded a major grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), worth $757,722. Wrosch leads an interdisciplinary research team consisting of lifespan, personality, health, psychiatry and kinesiology researchers from across North America.

16 Feb 2013

FDA approves Novartis’ Zortress to prevent organ rejection after liver transplantation in adults

Novartis announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Zortress (everolimus) for the prophylaxis of organ rejection in adult patients receiving a liver transplant.

16 Feb 2013

Surprises found in postoperative pain rankings

Patients report “unexpectedly high” levels of pain after some relatively minor surgical procedures, including some laparoscopic procedures, say researchers.

15 Feb 2013

Potency of vitamin D pills ‘often at variance with labeling’

A survey of over-the-counter vitamin D tablets in the USA has revealed very wide variations in pill potency, with different tablets containing as little as 9% or as much as 146% of the stated dose.

15 Feb 2013

Study discovers new predictor for suicidal thinking

When people lose hope that they will ever get another good night's sleep, they become at high risk for suicide, researchers report.

15 Feb 2013

High diclofenac use questioned

Diclofenac remains one of the most widely recommended and regularly used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs globally, despite its known association with increased cardiovascular risk, warn researchers who argue it should be removed from Essential Medicines Lists.

14 Feb 2013

Schizophrenia dampens volition

Patients with schizophrenia and negative symptoms are less likely than mentally healthy people to increase their efforts for higher levels of reward, research shows.

14 Feb 2013

Manic episodes linked to memory recall deficit in bipolar disorder

Patients with bipolar disorder have impaired recall of episodic autobiographical memories when recounting events that occurred during mania, report Canadian researchers.

14 Feb 2013

Poor facial recognition hints at schizophrenia risk in children

Impaired facial emotion recognition may suggest an increased vulnerability to schizophrenia in children, and may therefore represent a target for early intervention, researchers report.

14 Feb 2013

Researchers ESTABLISH efficacy of tedizolid phosphate for skin infections

Results from the phase III ESTABLISH-1 study show that the new antibiotic tedizolid phosphate is noninferior to linezolid for the treatment of acute bacterial and skin structure infections.

14 Feb 2013

Rivaroxaban ruled out for extended thromboprophylaxis

The benefits of extended prophylactic anticoagulation with rivaroxaban in acutely ill hospital patients are outweighed by an increased bleeding risk, shows a study in The New England Journal of Medicine.

14 Feb 2013

Stress and mental illness: an interview with Professor Akira Sawa

As a psychiatrist I am interested in how stress may play a role in the pathology of adult mental disorders. You may know that most of the major mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, mood-disorder, substance abuse or even anxiety disorder, become prominent in early adulthood.

14 Feb 2013

Threat vigilance can protect soldiers against PTSD

The onset of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is unpredictable. Because it depends on the unforeseeable occurrence of traumatic events, it is difficult to identify preventative or causative factors. Scientists typically turn to patients who have already developed PTSD to study the disorder, but that means they can't draw comparisons to their psychological state prior to experiencing trauma.

14 Feb 2013

Computer-based cognitive/behavioral training program can benefit patients with fragile X

Researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute will examine whether children and youth with fragile X syndrome can improve their working memory, cognition and behavior by using an online computer-based cognitive training program, through a new $1 million grant from The John Merck Fund.

14 Feb 2013

Scopolamine may also be possible treatment for anxiety disorders

However, scopolamine is re-emerging as an antidepressant, with recent studies showing that scopolamine can rapidly improve mood in depressed patients. In addition, in a new study published in Biological Psychiatry this month by Dr. Moriel Zelikowsky and colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, it may also be a possible treatment for anxiety disorders.

13 Feb 2013

Menopausal brain changes support estrogen’s protective role in schizophrenia

Researchers have found morphological differences between pre- and postmenopausal women with schizophrenia that support a protective role for estrogen in the psychiatric disorder.

12 Feb 2013

Substance abuse and cigarette use more prevalent among adolescents with ADHD histories

A new study published online in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry revealed a significantly higher prevalence of substance abuse and cigarette use by adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) histories than in those without ADHD.

12 Feb 2013