Monday, August 08, 2005

Data Behind Antidepressant Advisory Don't Give Clear-Cut Answers  Psychiatric News story - "The FDA's most recent public health advisory regarding antidepressants appears to have been based on seemingly contradictory studies published earlier this year. The FDA's June 30 public health advisory concerning antidepressants was prompted, the advisory said, by 'several recent scientific publications' that suggested 'the possibility of an increased risk for suicidal behavior in adults who are being treated with antidepressant medications.' FDA spokesperson Christine Parker told Psychiatric News that the advisory was prompted by 'two papers of particular interest.' Both appeared in the February 19 BMJ..." See also abstracts of the BMJ studies.  
  

 Sunday, August 07, 2005

New hope for schizophrenia sufferers Research Australia press release at EurekAlert - "Key research from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) could lead to the first early diagnostic tool for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. 'At the moment we don't have any biological tests for these conditions,' said one of the authors, UNSW Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Philip Ward, who is based at Liverpool Hospital's Schizophrenia Research Unit. 'Our research could eventually lead to a simple, cost-effective and safe way to distinguish patients with schizophrenia from those suffering bipolar disorder. This is important because a patient can get treatment sooner and hopefully have a better outcome.' "  
  

Faulty Biological Clocks May Influence Addiction Science Daily story - "A gene that regulates the body's circadian rhythms, including sleep and wakefulness, body temperature, hormone levels, blood pressure and heart activity, may also play a central role in drug addiction, according to a recent study published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Although expressed primarily in the brain's circadian command center, biological clock genes have also been found in areas of the brain involved in reward and addiction. A team led by researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and including Northwestern University's Joseph S. Takahashi, Walter and Mary Elizabeth Glass Professor in the Life Sciences and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, used mice lacking the Clock gene to examine the possible involvement of the biological clock system in the rewarding properties of cocaine..."  
  

 Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Terrorism, Mental Health, and September 11  44-page report in PDF format from the Century Foundation that "examines how post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) extended far beyond the New York population directly exposed to the September 11 attacks. Television coverage brought the disaster to a much larger audience and caused full-blown and sub-syndromal cases of PTSD throughout the nation. The report recommends increasing training for PTSD diagnosis and treatment so that primary care physicians are able to refer or assist patients suffering from the disorder. "  
  

Mentally ill more likely victim than perp Science Daily story - "A Northwestern University study indicates severely mentally ill people are more likely victims rather than perpetrators of violence. Researchers at the university's Feinberg School of Medicine say more than one-fourth of individuals with severe mental illness were victims of violent crime during 2004 -- a rate nearly 12 times that of the general population. Depending on the type of violent crime, prevalence was six to 23 times greater among people with severe mental illness than among the general population, said lead author Linda Teplin, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Feinberg..."  
  

Cognitive Therapy Reduces Repeat Suicide Attempts by 50 Percent  National Institute of Mental Health press release - "Recent suicide attempters treated with cognitive therapy were 50 percent less likely to try to kill themselves again within 18 months than those who did not receive the therapy, report researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A targeted form of cognitive therapy designed to prevent suicide proved better at lifting depression and feelings of hopelessness than the usual care available in the community, according to Gregory Brown, Ph.D., Aaron Beck, M.D., University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues, who published their findings in the August 3, 2005 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). "  
  

 Monday, August 01, 2005

Strategies for a participant-centred approach to research Item in CMHA/Ontario's Mental Health Notes - "Conducting a participant-centred research study with people with severe and persistent mental illness who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless requires fundamental changes in research design and methods, according to an article in the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation. The paper appears in a special issue of the journal focusing on the Community Mental Health Evaluation Initiative (CMHEI), which evaluated the effectiveness of various community mental health programs. This paper is based on research on the intensive case management (ICM) program of the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ottawa Branch, conducted jointly by CMHA and the Centre for Research on Community Services at the University of Ottawa. "  
  

Magnetic Stimulation of the Brain for Depression Health News Digest story reprinted at PsycPORT - "Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is well established for treating depression and other psychiatric disorders. Though effective, ECT produces short-term confusion and occasionally some memory loss, and patients require general anesthesia and muscle relaxants. Now a growing body of research suggests that new techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) may offer less disruptive ways to use electromagnetic energy against depression, schizophrenia, and other psychiatric disorders, reports the August issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter."  
  

 Sunday, July 31, 2005

Historical Roots of Schizophrenia A Medscape CME - "Ethnographic studies have demonstrated that schizophrenia is present in all existing cultures, from the pre-literate to the most highly advanced. Psychotic symptomatology and schizophrenic-like syndromes were clearly present in ancient civilizations. Recorded descriptions of the disorder appeared before 2000 BC in the ancient Egyptian Book of Hearts, which is part of the Ebers papyrus. Psychological symptoms were thought to emanate from the heart and uterus, and were associated with blood vessels, purulent or fecal matter, poisons, or demons. Hindu descriptions date back to approximately 1400 BC and can be found in the Atharva Veda, one of the 4 Vedas, which are primary texts of Hinduism..." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

 Thursday, July 28, 2005

Self-help no help in preventing PTSD Psychiatry Matters story - "Self-help information for patients attending accident and emergency departments following acute traumatic injury does not prevent the later onset of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), UK researchers have discovered. People who undergo traumatic injury often suffer adverse psychological consequences, including PTSD and other psychological symptoms, as well as socioeconomic problems. Early and time-limited interventions have, so far, failed to show significant benefits among patients. However, such secondary prevention methods remain an attractive option, says Graham Turpin, from the University of Sheffield, and colleagues..."  
  

Psychiatric disorder prevalence and comorbidity high in primary care Psychiatry Matters story - "Up to half of all patients visiting their primary care physician with a new illness complaint have a current psychiatric diagnosis, study findings show. The results, published in the journal Psychological Medicine, also reveal that a third of such patients have more than one type of psychiatric condition. To better understand the prevalence and co-occurrence of mental health disorders among patients within the primary care setting, Tomas Toft and colleagues, from Aarhus University Hospital in Demark, screened for mental and somatic symptoms, illness worry, and alcohol dependency in 1785 patients aged between 18 and 65 years who were waiting to be seen by a primary care physician for new complaints."  
  

CBT shows treatment promise for positive schizophrenic symptoms Psychiatry Matters story - "Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) appears to be an effective adjunctive treatment for the positive symptoms associated with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, Swiss investigators report. Despite the proven effectiveness of antipsychotic drug treatments, a substantial proportion of people still experience treatment-resistant positive symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, and feelings of being controlled by outside forces, note Gregoire Zimmermann and colleagues from the University of Lausanne. To investigate whether CBT as an adjunctive treatment could help to alleviate such symptoms, the team analyzed the results of 14 studies, involving 1484 patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or delusional disorder, and at least one positive symptom, published between 1990 and 2004. The chosen studies all included at least one CBT group compared with a control group."  
  

Eating Disorders and Body Image Distress in Women at Midlife A new CME unit at Medscape - "When eating disorders or body image conflicts are mentioned, the face we imagine is one of youth. It may be a preteen, an adolescent, or a young adult woman, but seldom do we visualize the face of an aging woman. Yet, contemporary western culture consistently values women's bodies and appearance above other attributes, and sexualized images of female bodies saturate mass media, shaping the prevailing ideal. Of course, women of all ages who live in this culture are affected. Adult women are on display; they are often criticized for transgressing that ever-shifting fine line between being too sexy or not sexy enough, and they often are completely dismissed when they no longer look young. It goes without saying that older female faces are not particularly popular images in film, fashion, advertising, print media, or television, unless the reference is breast cancer, menopause, or some other medical condition that predominantly affects older women. .." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Research shows that 5% of children in the US suffer from emotional and behavioral disorders Health News story - "According to a report by the National Institute of Mental Health, 2.7 million children, or 5%, are reported by their parents to suffer from definite or severe emotional or behavioral difficulties. A special feature in the report, America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2005, shows that difficulties may persist throughout a child's development and lead to lifelong disability, including more serious illness, more difficult to treat illness, and co-occurring mental illnesses." The full report is available in PDF format (along with previous years' reports) and in web-based version by sections.  
  

 Tuesday, July 26, 2005

New FDA-Approved Device Offers Hope to Depressed Patients Medical News Today story - "The Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center medical team involved in the research and development of an innovative therapy for depression - vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) - is starting a new clinic for patients who have treatment-resistant depression. The vagal nerve stimulator was approved Friday by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment-resistant depression following clinical trials around the United States, including Saint Louis University."  
  

Quetiapine Seen Safe, Well Tolerated for Bipolar Depression Reuters Health story at Medscape - "Monotherapy with the atypical antipsychotic quetiapine is safe and effective for bipolar depression, according to a report in the July issue the American Journal of Psychiatry. ... 'In an unexpected post hoc analysis, quetiapine was found to be twice as effective as placebo in reducing suicidal thinking, and this improvement was evident as early as the first time point, the end of the first week, and at each and every time point thereafter,' Dr. Calabrese told Reuters Health. 'To my knowledge this is the first time any drug has been shown to have an ability to reduce suicidal thinking in a short-term study of bipolar depression.' " [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

Neuroscientists identify how trauma triggers long-lasting memories in the brain  University of California - Irvine press release at EurekAlert - "A research team led by UC Irvine neuroscientists has identified how the brain processes and stores emotional experiences as long-term memories. The research, performed on rats, could help neuroscientists better understand why emotionally arousing events are remembered over longer periods than emotionally neutral events, and may ultimately find application in treatments for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder. The study shows that emotionally arousing events activate the brain's amygdala, the almond-shaped portion of the brain involved in emotional learning and memory, which then increases a protein called 'Arc' in the neurons in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in processing and enabling the storage of lasting memories. The researchers believe that Arc helps store these memories by strengthening the synapses, the connections between neurons. The study will appear in today's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "