Behavioral Health News
Recognizing Signs of Mental Illness in Your Child
When something just doesn’t seem right with your child, your first reaction is most likely to check to see if there’s something physically wrong. But once you’ve ruled out, or taken care of, any obvious physical reason for your child behaving markedly different, you may wonder if there’s a psychological cause. While there’s usually another explanation for why your child is acting odd, sometimes there may be something more to it. If you suspect mental illness, it’s important to recognize the signs that may indicate a problem.
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Studies Examine Gene Impact in Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia continues to be a puzzling disease and one that doctors cannot always effectively treat and scientists still don’t fully understand. A recent Science Daily release examined a report of two new studies in which researchers led by Johns Hopkins say they have identified the mechanisms rooted in anatomical brain abnormalities that could explain the onset of schizophrenia.
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Ritalin Enhances Speed of Learning by Boosting Dopamine Levels
Doctors treat millions of children with Ritalin every year to improve their ability to focus on tasks, but scientists now report that Ritalin also directly enhances the speed of learning. In animal research, scientists showed for the first time that Ritalin boosts both of these cognitive abilities by increasing the activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine deep inside the brain.
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Meaningful Conversations Linked to Happiness
A new study examining how conversation connects to happiness found that substantial, meaningful conversations (as opposed to small talk) may make people happier. The researchers, led by Matthias Mehl at the University of Arizona, looked at the different types of conversation that happy and unhappy people participate in. The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, involved 79 undergraduates.
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Stress May Lead to Grinding Teeth at Night
People who are stressed by daily problems or trouble at work seem to be more likely to grind their teeth at night, a new study has found. Researchers writing in BioMed Central’s open access journal Head & Face Medicine studied the causes of “sleep bruxism,” or gnashing teeth during the night, finding that it was especially common in those who try to cope with stress by escaping from difficult situations.
Alterations in Brain’s Reward System Related to ADHD
Until now, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was related to alterations in the brain affecting attention and cognitive processes. Researchers at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital have now discovered anomalies in the brain’s reward system related to the neural circuits of motivation and gratification.
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Stress and Depression Trigger Obesity in Girls
Researchers have found that depression raises stress hormone levels in adolescent boys and girls but may lead to obesity only in girls. Early treatment of depression could help reduce stress and control obesity, which is a major health issue.
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Fruit Fly Tongue Could Answer Questions about Obesity in Humans
The tiny tongue of a fruit fly could provide big answers to questions about human eating habits, possibly even leading to new ways to treat obesity, according to a study from a team of Texas A&M University researchers.
Paul Hardin, who holds the rank of Distinguished Professor of Biology, along with colleagues Abhishek Chatterjee, Shintaro Tanoue, and Jerry Houl, examined the taste organs on Drosophila’s proboscis (tongue), which triggers the minute fruit fly’s desire to eat or not to eat. They found that several factors, especially the creature’s internal daily clock, determine feeding behaviors—and these same taste sensitivities very likely apply to humans. Their work is published in the new issue of the journal Current Biology.
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Tiger Woods Sheds Light on Sex Addiction
Tiger Woods’ admission that he is undergoing therapy after having adulterous affairs has focused attention on the issue of sex addiction, a condition some experts say is becoming much more common.
Reuters reports that sex addiction is a controversial concept not currently recognized as an official diagnosis in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is considered the definitive word on psychological disorders.
Happy Emotions Protect Against Heart Failure
People who are usually happy, enthusiastic and content are less likely to develop heart disease than those who tend not to be happy, according to a major new study published February 17. The authors believe that the study, published in the Europe’s leading cardiology journal, The European Heart Journal, is the first to show such an independent relationship between positive emotions and coronary heart disease.
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