Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Prevention system brings down rate of binge drinking among eighth-grade students

Rates of binge drinking were 37 percent lower among eighth-grade students in communities in seven states that used a prevention system designed to reduce drug use and delinquent behavior compared to teenagers in communities that did not use the system.

8 Sep 2009

Labour market trends may have impact on the mental health of young people

Mental health in young people worsens in line with trends in the labour market. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Public Health studied data from 1985 to 2002 and found that, across ten European countries, as the proportion of young people not in work increased, so did the proportion of 15-year-olds who reported mental health symptoms such as feeling low, difficulty sleeping or headaches.

8 Sep 2009

Early schizophrenia symptoms include unusually high CA1 subfield activity

In the first functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of its kind, neurologists and psychiatrists at Columbia University have identified an area of the brain involved in the earliest stages of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.

7 Sep 2009

$2.4M approved for LHIN's Urgent Priorities and Aging at Home initiatives

At its meeting on August 26 2009, the South West LHIN Board approved a total of $2.4M for 2009/10 in one-time and base funding as part of its Urgent Priorities and Aging at Home initiatives. These initiatives and projects support the priorities identified in the LHIN's Integrated Health Service Plan (IHSP) and will help to address health care pressures within the South West LHIN.

5 Sep 2009

President Obama reforming America's health care system to guarantee quality and affordable health care: RWDSU

For RWDSU members and their families Labor Day 2009 comes at both the worst of times and the best of times.

5 Sep 2009

Granville borrows working capital from H&H Total Care Services

Granville Pacific Capital Corporation ("Granville") (TSX Venture: GE) announces that the Company has entered into an arrangement to borrow up to $500,000 from H&H Total Care Services, a company controlled by a director and shareholder (Hendrik Van Ryk Sr) of the Company

5 Sep 2009

New role discovered for sphingosine-1-phosphate

Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine researchers have discovered a new role for the bioactive lipid messenger, sphingosine-1-phosphate, or S1P, that is abundant in our blood - a finding that could lead to a new generation of drugs to fight cancer and inflammatory disease.

5 Sep 2009

Health Net's ECHO kit to help military families maximize the health care benefits

Health Net Federal Services, LLC, the government operations division of Health Net, Inc. (NYSE:HNT), today announced its newly developed Extended Care Health Option (ECHO) kit for service members and their families in the TRICARE North Region, designed to provide user-friendly, educational information to enhance understanding of the ECHO program.

5 Sep 2009

Alcohol is harmful for unborn babies

Learning disabilities, mental health issues and behavior problems are just some of the issues that afflict babies exposed to alcohol in the womb, yet some doctors still tell their patients it is safe to have a drink now and then while pregnant.

5 Sep 2009

Yoga reduces back pain and fights depression

People with chronic low-back problems who do yoga also do better at overcoming pain and depression than people treated conventionally for back pain, a West Virginia University study funded by the National Institutes of Health shows.

5 Sep 2009

State round-up: News from California, Colorado and Massachusetts

The Los Angeles Times: The California State Senate Wednesday approved a $196-million plan to tax insurance companies and capture federal dollars to keep about 700,000 children from being dropped from a governmental insurance program for the working poor. "The state Senate passed a measure to create a new tax on insurance companies and bring in federal money to rescue the decade-old Healthy Families program, which had been cut deeply in recent months as lawmakers scrambled to balance the state budget" (Bailey and Mcgreevy, 9/3).

4 Sep 2009

Postpartum depression affects mother-infant relationship

The joys of motherhood for many women can also lead other new moms to experience postpartum depression and even worse - ideas for committing suicide.

4 Sep 2009

Brown University neuroscience professor awarded EUREKA grant

Brown University neuroscience professor Gilad Barnea will receive a nearly $1.3 million, four-year federal grant toward development of a method to selectively monitor the activation of each of the five receptors for the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain.

4 Sep 2009

Survey reveals health plan costs to increase in 2010

According to The Segal Company’s just-completed survey of projected 2010 health plan costs, medical plan cost trends will continue to be more than four times greater than the annual increase in average hourly earnings and in sharp contrast to changes in the consumer price index for urban consumers, which have been relatively flat or negative in the past 12 months.

4 Sep 2009

Expedited access for members of Blue Shield affected by Southern California fires

Blue Shield of California announced today that it will be ensuring expedited access to needed prescriptions and mental health services for Blue Shield members impacted by the fires in Southern California.

4 Sep 2009

Medtronic's COPE-HCV clinical study commences

Medtronic, Inc., today reported the initiation and first enrollments of patients in COPE-HCV (COntinuous Interferon Delivery via the Medtronic Paradigm Pump Infusion System Clinical Evaluation for Chronic HCV), the company’s first-ever clinical study using an external pump infusion system to treat patients with the hepatitis C virus (HCV).

3 Sep 2009

Pfizer pleads guilty of defrauding Medicare, Medicaid and other government-funded health care programs

Pfizer, Inc. announced today it has agreed to plead guilty to criminal conduct and to pay more than $2 billion in criminal and civil fines, penalties and damages to settle allegations made in multiple whistleblower lawsuits that the pharmaceutical giant defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and other government-funded health care programs in connection with its market practices for four of its drugs. The settlement is the largest qui tam settlement in U.S. history.

3 Sep 2009

Neuronetics raises funds to expand sales team for NeuroStar TMS Therapy

New Leaf Venture Partners (NLV Partners) announced today it has led a $30 million Series D financing round in Neuronetics, Inc., maker of NeuroStar TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) Therapy® for the treatment of depression.

3 Sep 2009

Brookhaven Retreat to raise awareness on substance abuse

An estimated 22 million Americans suffered from substance dependence or abuse, according to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in 2002. September is National Recovery Month and Brookhaven Retreat, a multidisciplinary treatment facility that helps women overcome emotional trauma and addiction challenges, is working to raise awareness about one of the nation’s biggest health crises: substance abuse and how recovery is essential to regain the balance a person once had over their life.

3 Sep 2009

Brain profiling tool to detect at-risk combat soldiers

According to a recent Washington Post study, approximately 20% of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are psychologically damaged. Among them are a substantial number with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the high rate of suicide among PTSD sufferers has become unacceptable to Army commanders and the soldiers' families.

3 Sep 2009