Psychiatry News and Research

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

CXCR5 molecule effectively polices lung tuberculosis and prevents deadly infection

The presence of a certain molecule allows the immune system to effectively police tuberculosis (TB) of the lungs and prevent it from turning into an active and deadly infection, according to a new study led by researchers at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

3 Jan 2013

Psychiatric patients at risk of hospitalization due to protected records

Medical centers that elect to keep psychiatric files private and separate from the rest of a person's medical record may be doing their patients a disservice, a Johns Hopkins study concludes.

3 Jan 2013

Electroconvulsive therapy releases opiate-like substances

Researchers used electricity on certain regions in the brain of a patient with chronic, severe facial pain to release an opiate-like substance that's considered one of the body's most powerful painkillers.

3 Jan 2013

Prenatal brain development may be important influence on psychiatric risk later in life

Some brain changes that are found in adults with common gene variants linked to disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and autism can also be seen in the brain scans of newborns.

3 Jan 2013

Circulating endothelial cells hit the mark in primary central nervous system vasculitis

Circulating endothelial cells may be a promising, non-invasive means of diagnosing and monitoring primary central nervous system vasculitis, researchers report.

2 Jan 2013

Few hepatitis C patients receive complete treatment

Less than 10% of patients with hepatitis C receive the treatment they need to achieve a sustained virologic response, results from a systematic review show.

31 Dec 2012

Early problems in processing knowledge-based information linked to Alzheimer's disease

People who study or treat Alzheimer's disease and its earliest clinical stage, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), have focused attention on the obvious short-term memory problems. But a new study suggests that people on the road to Alzheimer's may actually have problems early on in processing semantic or knowledge-based information, which could have much broader implications for how patients function in their lives.

29 Dec 2012

Bipolar subtypes have differing personality traits

Results from a Korean study show how personality trait patterns differ between patients with bipolar I and II disorder.

28 Dec 2012

Experiencing domestic violence may lead to mental health disorders

Men and women with mental health disorders, across all diagnoses, are more likely to have experienced domestic violence than the general population, according to new research from King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, in collaboration with the University of Bristol. Previous studies into the link between domestic violence and mental health problems have mainly focused on depression, but this is the first study to look at a wide range of mental health problems in both male and female victims.

27 Dec 2012

Children diagnosed with food allergies experience bullying

Nearly a third of children diagnosed with food allergies who participated in a recent study are bullied, according to researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Almost eight percent of children in the U.S. are allergic to foods such as peanuts, tree-nuts, milk, eggs, and shellfish.

25 Dec 2012

Elevated C-reactive protein linked to psychological distress and depression

Elevated levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammatory disease, appear to be associated with increased risk of psychological distress and depression in the general population of adults in Denmark, according to a report published Online First by Archives of General Psychiatry, a JAMA Network publication.

25 Dec 2012

Extended steroid treatment fails to reduce pediatric nephrotic relapse

Study findings indicate that extending initial prednisolone treatment durations in patients with pediatric nephrotic syndrome from 3 to 6 months without increasing the overall dose does not reduce the number of relapses.

22 Dec 2012

High-dose rifampicin combination could improve meningitis survival

A treatment regimen including high-dose rifampicin administered intravenously in addition to standard or high-dose moxifloxacin has an acceptable safety profile and could improve survival for patients with tuberculous meningitis, indicate phase II trial results.

22 Dec 2012

Bipolar subtypes have differing personality traits

Results from a Korean study show how personality trait patterns differ between patients with bipolar I and II disorder.

22 Dec 2012

Autism genome not shy about tinkering with important genes

An international team, led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, has discovered that "random" mutations in the genome are not quite so random after all. Their study, to be published in the journal Cell on December 21, shows that the DNA sequence in some regions of the human genome is quite volatile and can mutate ten times more frequently than the rest of the genome. Genes that are linked to autism and a variety of other disorders have a particularly strong tendency to mutate.

21 Dec 2012

Study examines role of race and ethnicity in stem cell donation

New research examining the role of race and ethnicity in an individual's decision to become a donor for hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) identifies several factors associated with varied participation rates in national donor registries across racial/ethnic groups. Results of this first-of-its-kind study are published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

21 Dec 2012

Cancer-related mortality increased in psychiatric patients

The incidence of cancer is lower in psychiatric patients than the general population, but associated mortality rates are higher, researchers report.

20 Dec 2012

Cannabis use linked to poorer cognition in dependent schizophrenia patients

Cumulative cannabis use is negatively associated with cognition in men with schizophrenia who are currently dependent on the drug, report researchers.

20 Dec 2012

Cancer-related mortality increased in psychiatric patients

The incidence of cancer is lower in psychiatric patients than the general population, but associated mortality rates are higher, researchers report.

19 Dec 2012

Probiotic supplements can benefit body during and after antibiotic use

Recent data suggests that the average American is bombarded with up to 5,000 varying media messages on a daily basis, which can make it tricky to discern fact from fiction. When it comes to your health, there should be absolutely no doubt that the products you select are effectively working to produce the desired results. This is especially true when it comes to the use of probiotics with antibiotics, because some forms are less effective when combined with antibiotics.

19 Dec 2012