Mental Health News and Research

Latest Mental Health News and Research

Interpersonal and social rhythm therapy is helpful to many people with bipolar disorder

A treatment program that stresses maintaining a regular schedule of daily activities and stability in personal relationships is an effective therapy for bipolar disorder, report University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers in September's Archives of General Psychiatry.

12 Sep 2005

Recommendation that parents limit television viewing of Katrina disaster for children under 12 years of age

The devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina have been felt across the country during the past weeks. Thousands of children are survivors of Katrina, while millions of others around the country have observed horrific sights via media coverage.

10 Sep 2005

Australians consider medical research more important than tax cuts and border protection

Australians consider medical research to be a more important priority for funding and resources than tax cuts and border protection, a new poll has found.

10 Sep 2005

Depression may hasten the progression of heart disease

In a study of 32 people with heart failure, the 14 patients who felt the most depressed had nearly twice the levels of this protein in their blood.

7 Sep 2005

A quirky or socially awkward approach to life might be the key to becoming a great artist, composer or inventor

New research in individuals with schizotypal personalities - people characterized by odd behavior and language but who are not psychotic or schizophrenic - offers the first neurological evidence that these individuals are more creative than normal or fully schizophrenic people, and rely more heavily on the right sides of their brains than the general population to access their creativity.

7 Sep 2005

United States is expected to face a shortage of millions of workers within the coming decade

The newly established Boston College Center on Aging & Work has received a $3-million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to study how the American workplace will evolve to accommodate its aging workforce.

7 Sep 2005

Strong social gradient in the metabolic syndrome

It is well documented that individuals with higher social status have lower risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). This is generally not explained by differences in lifestyle factors such as smoking and lack of exercise.

6 Sep 2005

Depression improved during telephone therapy in multiple sclerosis patients

Patients with multiple sclerosis showed significant improvement in their depression during 16 weeks of telephone-administered psychotherapy treatment, according to an article in the September issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

5 Sep 2005

Chernobyl: The True Scale of the Accident

A total of up to four thousand people could eventually die of radiation exposure from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) accident nearly 20 years ago, an international team of more than 100 scientists has concluded.

5 Sep 2005

India could be the source of Mad Cow disease

According to British scientists, Mad Cow disease may have originated from animal feed contaminated with human remains washed ashore after being floated down river in Indian funerals.

5 Sep 2005

Health leaders to tour evacuee sites in hurricane region

According to reports Secretary Mike Leavitt is taking a team of health care, public health and social service leaders to Louisiana and the Gulf Region as part of ongoing efforts to extend care and services to where evacuees of Hurricane Katrina are located.

4 Sep 2005

Deadly health crisis imminent in New Orleans

In New Orleans, as a result of hurricane Katrina, health specialists are predicting a vast and potentially deadly crisis for residents.

1 Sep 2005

People with serious mental illness have higher rates of type 2 diabetes

...yet their knowledge of diabetes was generally poor and significantly lower than people without mental illness, according to a new study.

1 Sep 2005

Therapeutic uses of psychedelic drugs are resurfacing

It was the drug of choice on university campuses, the drug that spawned psychedelic culture as well as countless jail sentences and fines, but LSD actually has respectable roots--roots that a McMaster University researcher is uncovering.

31 Aug 2005

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy for treatment-resistant depression proves effective for some patients

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy, a treatment recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment-resistant depression, produced a positive response in more than 25 percent of patients in a national, yearlong study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center psychiatrists

31 Aug 2005

Young people self-diagnose mental illness

Creating websites and placing posters in schools are just some of the ways self-help support groups (SHSGs) could reach young people with a mental illness, according to a study just completed at the University of Western Sydney.

30 Aug 2005

Unique Internet test to test genetic disposition to depression

The team, based at the Neuroscience and Psychiatry Unit (NPU), in the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, has set up a website (www.newmood.co.uk) where would-be volunteers can see how prone they may be to depression by identifying the emotions on people's faces and taking a gambling test.

From The University of Manchester 30 Aug 2005

Inexpensive method to assess the stability and quality of sleep

Using information hidden in the beat-to-beat changes of the heart's electrical signals, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have developed an inexpensive method to assess the stability and quality of sleep, which could be used to help understand the mechanisms of sleep control and diagnose sleep disorders, as well as to test the efficacy of sleep aids and other medications.

29 Aug 2005

Inhibitory systems essential for controlling the pattern of activity in the cortex

Inhibitory systems are essential for controlling the pattern of activity in the cortex, which has important implications for the mechanisms of cortical operation, according to a Yale School of Medicine study in Neuron.

28 Aug 2005