March 2010 - Mental Health Update

Naltrexone and dual diagnosis

Naltrexone is often used to treat drug addicts and alcoholics. People with schizophrenia often have problems with drug use as well and Ileana Berman from Harvard Medical School led a small-scale study of 37 people to see whether naltrexone could help...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 6:50 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Substance Abuse, Schizophrenia, Naltrexone, Dual Diagnosis

SSRIs and cataracts

A study of more than 200,000 people in Quebec by researchers at the University of British Columbia has found that there is a statistical - though not necessarily a cause and effect - relationship between the use of SSRI (serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 6:35 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: SSRIs - side effects, Cataracts

7/7 survivors fail to get treatment

On July the 7th, 2005 Islamic militants killed 52 people and injured 700 in a series of bomb attacks in London. Researchers from University College London have been tracing people caught up in the attacks. They found that while a third of them were suffering...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 6:10 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: PTSD

My Mood Monitor checklist helps doctors with diagnosis

A simple one-page questionnaire could be an effective way of screening for mental-health problems in primary care. The My Mood Monitor checklist is made up of 27 questions and is designed to screen for depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety and post-traumatic...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 5:57 AM by Mental Health Update

Educational DVDs for toddlers - are they a waste of money?

Toddlers who watch educational DVDs do not improve their vocabularies. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, studied 96 children between 12 and 24 months who were tested on measures of vocabulary and general development. Half of the...

Published Mon, Mar 08 2010 8:30 AM by Mental Health Update

Scopolamine might lift depression quicker

Conventional antidepressant treatment usually takes between three and four weeks to become effective so finding quicker-working drugs is of great interest both to clinicians and drug companies. The horse-anaesthetic and recreational drug ketamine has...

Published Mon, Mar 08 2010 7:27 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression - medication, Scopolamine

Why deeper is better as far as conversation goes

Deeper could be better as far as conversations go, according to research from the University of Arizona. They got volunteers to wear a recording device which picked up their conversations over four days. The researchers analysed the participants'...

Published Mon, Mar 08 2010 7:07 AM by Mental Health Update

Rochester mentoring scheme boosts behaviour

Mentoring has been used in a number of schools to improve results and discipline. The Rochester (New York not Kent) Resilience Project pairs children with a mentor and gets them to learn and practice behavioural and cognitive skills designed to strengthen...

Published Mon, Mar 08 2010 6:20 AM by Mental Health Update

Deep-brain stimulation gets thumbs up for severe cases

Deep-brain stimulation involves implanting electrodes into patients' brains. The electrodes are connected to an impulse generator - usually implanted below the collarbone - and deliver continuous, high-frequency, short electrical impulses aimed at...

Published Thu, Mar 04 2010 8:53 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Tourette's Syndrome, Deep-Brain Stimulation

Early cannabis use and psychosis

The link between cannabis use and psychosis is a controversial topic and research into it has often generated more heat than light. The latest study comes from the University of Queensland and involved more than 3,800 21-year-olds. It found that those...

Published Thu, Mar 04 2010 8:36 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Cannabis, Psychosis

More evidence supports a healthy mind in a healthy body

A healthy mind in a healthy body is a wise old saying and one that is increasingly being backed up by research. The latest piece of evidence to support it comes from a study of 725 children by researchers from West Virginia University. They assessed the...

Published Thu, Mar 04 2010 3:59 AM by Mental Health Update

GABA and depression

Most mental-health medications aim to increase the levels of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine in the brain, however, scientists are now looking more closely into the effects of another neurotransmitter - GABA. GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid...

Published Wed, Mar 03 2010 8:13 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, GABA

Long-term psychoanalysis for young adults - does it work?

Psychotherapy can help with a wide range of different mental-health problems. There is good evidence to support this but little research has been done into whether psychoanalytic psychotherapy is effective in treating young adults. A team of Swedish researchers...

Published Wed, Mar 03 2010 6:57 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Psychoanalysis

Obsessive thoughts in adolescence - why it's not just people with OCD

In both children and adults obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterised by the presence of recurrent obsessions or compulsions that are time consuming (over an hour a day) or cause mental distress or impairment. Common obsessions include fear...

Published Wed, Mar 03 2010 6:25 AM by Mental Health Update

Eating disorders and PTSD

People with eating disorders often suffer with anxiety as well. 75% of people with an eating disorder have experienced at least one anxiety disorder during their lifetime with obsessive-compulsive disorder and social phobia being the most common. However...

Published Tue, Mar 02 2010 8:40 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: PTSD, Eating Disorders