January, 2010
Comparing Psychological Distress among Those With Kids and Without Mental Illness
Mental illness can have a profound effect on parenting. When parents are struggling with psychological distress, their children suffer the secondary behaviors. Parents can be hostile, insensitive and use harsh methods of discipline. Additionally, 23 to 50 percent of adults with psychiatric disorders also have substance use problems.
The children of the parents who suffer from psychiatric disorders have a higher risk for psychiatric disturbance and problems in academic and social spheres. Many mental health agencies do not evaluate basic information on their patients’ parenting status.
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Tiny Nerve Structure Stimulation Tested for Treating Depression
As depression can wreak havoc for an individual as well as close family and friends, it is important to understand the affect it can have and the best way to treat associated symptoms. Now, one team of neurosurgeons may have discovered a way to use brain surgery to treat severe depression.
Science Daily recently posted a release examining the work of this team and Heidelberg University Hospital that included psychiatrists at the Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim. This team treated a patient suffering from severe depression by stimulating the habenula, a tiny nerve structure in the brain.
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Process Identified for Diagnosing PTSD
The first step toward treating those with post-traumatic stress disorder is successfully identifying the problem. According to a post in the Science Daily, researchers at the University of Minnesota VA Medical Center have identified a biological marker in the brains of those who exhibit PTSD.
The study findings are published January 20 in the Journal of Neural Engineering. Apostolos Georgopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., and Brian Engdahl., Ph.D. – both members of the Brain Sciences Center at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center and University of Minnesota – led the study.
Teens Who Drink with their Parents Drink More Outside of Home
Parents who try to teach responsible drinking by letting their teenagers have alcohol at home may be well intentioned, but they may also be wrong, according to a new study in the latest issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. n a study of 428 Dutch families, researchers found that the more teenagers were allowed to drink at home, the more they drank outside of home as well.
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Fly Studies Could Help with Understanding of ADHD and Autism
A team of scientists at Freie Universität in Berlin, Germany, and the Queensland Brain Institute in Brisbane, Australia, has found a way to measure the attention span of a fly. The findings could lead to further advances in the understanding of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism in humans.
Science Daily reports that Associate Professor Bruno van Swinderen at the Queensland Brain Institute and Dr. Björn Brembs at Freie Universität combined genetic techniques with brain recordings and behavioral testing. They found different mutations that either increase or decrease a fly’s attention span.
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Stimulating the Brain’s Pleasure Center to Treat Depression
Even with the best of available treatments, over a third of patients with depression may not achieve a satisfactory antidepressant response. Deep brain stimulation (DBS), a form of targeted electrical stimulation in the brain via implanted electrodes, is now undergoing careful testing to determine whether it could play a role in the treatment of patients who have not sufficiently improved during more traditional forms of treatment.
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Ambidextrous Children More Likely to Have Mental Health Problems
Children who are mixed-handed, or ambidextrous, are more likely to have mental health, language and scholastic problems in childhood than right- or left-handed children, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics. The researchers behind the study, from Imperial College London and other European institutions, suggest that their findings may help teachers and health professionals to identify children who are particularly at risk of developing certain problems.
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New Treatment Looks at Role of Serotonin in Antidepressants
Although antidepressants continue to be prescribed for those dealing with depression, they are believed to relieve symptoms in only 50 percent of patients. Now, a new study recently summarized in Science Daily suggests that the excess of one type of serotonin receptor in the center of the brain may be the cause.
The study, conducted by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, is the first to find a causal link between receptor number and antidepressant treatment. It is expected this study could lead to more personalized treatment for depression.
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Study Examines Power of Labels When Encouraging Addiction Treatment
A new approach to treatment may involve changing the associated lingo. According to Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers, the attitudes of health care professionals toward those with alcoholism or drug addicts could be altered with changing words.
A post in the Science Daily examines the findings of these researchers who surveyed health professionals. This survey included questions about a hypothetical patient that varied depending on whether the patient was described as a “substance abuser” or as “having a substance use disorder.”
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Study Tracks Common Mental Health Disorders Among American Youth
Only about half of American children and teenagers who have certain mental disorders receive professional services, according to a nationally representative survey funded in part by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The survey also provides a comprehensive look at the prevalence of common mental disorders. The results are part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a collaboration between NIMH and the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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