Research
Depressed People More Likely to Feel Gray, Not Blue
People with anxiety and depression are most likely to use a shade of gray to represent their mental state. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Medical Research Methodology describe the development of a color chart, The Manchester Color Wheel, which can be used to study people’s preferred pigment in relation to their state of mind.
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New Compound Could Become Important Antidepressant
Chemists at Oregon State University have discovered and synthesized a new compound that in laboratory and animal tests appears to be similar to, but may have advantages over, one of the most important antidepressant medications in the world. A patent has been applied for on the compound, and findings on it published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Continued animal studies and human clinical trials will be necessary before the compound could be approved for human medical use, researchers say.
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Excessive Internet Use Linked to Depression
People who spend a great deal of time browsing the Internet are more likely to show depressive symptoms, according to the first large-scale study of its kind in the West by University of Leeds psychologists. The researchers found striking evidence that some users have developed a compulsive Internet habit, whereby they replace real-life social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites. The results suggest that this type of addictive surfing can have a serious impact on mental health.
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Those with Schizophrenia More Likely to Encounter Criminal Justice System
A new study shows that people being treated for schizophrenia are more likely than the general population to have encounters with the criminal justice system in the US. The study, published in the open access journal BMC Psychiatry, has shown that schizophrenia patients’ involvement with the criminal justice system is primarily driven by their being victims of crime and that the average annual per-patient cost of involvement with the criminal justice system was $1,429.
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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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Study Finds Disconnect Between Brain Regions in ADHD
New research shows that two brain areas fail to connect when children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) attempt a task that measures attention. Researchers at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain and M.I.N.D. Institute made this discovery by analyzing the brain activity in children with ADHD, and their paper appears in the current online issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.
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Childhood Abuse Linked to Migraine and Other Pain Disorders
Researchers from the American Headache Society’s Women’s Issues Section Research Consortium found that incidence of childhood maltreatment, especially emotional abuse and neglect, are prevalent in migraine patients. The study also found that migraineurs reporting childhood emotional or physical abuse and/or neglect had a significantly higher number of comorbid pain conditions compared with those without a history of maltreatment. Full findings of the study appear in the January issue of Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain,published on behalf of the American Headache Society by Wiley-Blackwell.
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Obesity Found to Be as Deadly as Smoking
New research finds that obesity has become an equal, if not greater, contributor to the burden of disease and shortening of healthy life in comparison to smoking.
Science Daily reports that in an article published in the February 2010 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers from Columbia University and The City College of New York calculate that the Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) lost due to obesity is now equal to, if not greater than, those lost due to smoking (both modifiable risk factors).
High Blood Lead Linked to Major Depression and Anxiety
Young adults with higher blood lead levels appear more likely to have major depression and panic disorders, even if they their exposure to lead levels are generally considered safe, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
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Certain Antidepressants Change Personality
A new study suggests that antidepressants like Paxil do more than just make people feel less sad and stressed. Such drugs may alter two key personality traits linked to depression—neuroticism and extraversion—independently of their effect on depression symptoms.
“Medication can definitely change people’s personalities, and change them quite substantially,” says the lead author of the study, Tony Z. Tang, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The findings show that “those changes are very important,” he says.
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