Psychotropics Contribute to Suicides Among Military Children
The Marine Corps Times writes of a dramatic increase in prescriptions of psychiatric medication for children of active-duty military personnell during their parents' deployment...
Attachment & Psychosis: Implications for Therapeutic Alliance
In what they say is the first study to investigate relationships between emotion regulation, attachment and the therapeutic alliance, researchers in Northwest England recruited 49...
Loneliness and Mental Illness
Based on interviews with 7,461 adults randomly selected from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey in England, researchers found that interventions addressing maladaptive social cognition...
Disconnect Between Antipsychotic Prescribing and Metabolic Screening
Despite American Diabetes Association and APA recommendations of glucose and lipid testing for all patients started on antipsychotics, there is a disconnect between prescribing...
Army to Study Use of Off-Label Meds for PTSD
The Army will launch a major research initiative next year on the effectiveness of commonly prescribed medication for PTSD. Speaking at the APA meeting...
Depression Linked to Dementia in Later Life
A retrospective study of 13,535 long-term Kaiser Permanente members found that depressive symptoms in mid-life (1964-1973 for this cohort) were associated with a 20%...
Antipsychotic Drugs and Relapse
Researchers from Germany, Greece and the U.S. reviewed the literature on relapse at 7 to 12 months following initiation of antipsychotic treatment. They conclude...
Weak Field Trials Scuttle DSM-5 Diagnoses
"Mixed anxiety-depressive disorder," "attenuated psychosis syndrome," "obsessive-compulsive personality disorder," "antisocial personality disorder," and "nonsuicidal self-injury" were among diagnoses that met with disappointing results in...
Benzos Quadruple the Risk of Suicide in Schizophrenia
Finnish researchers found that among 2,588 patients hospitalized for the first time with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, benzodiazepine use predicted almost 4x the rate...
DSM-5 Retreats from Some Controversial Diagnoses
The APA DSM-5 Development website announced today that "Psychosis Risk" and "Mixed Anxiety Depression" will not be included in the DSM-5 (apart from recommendations...
High-Fat Diet and Obesity Contribute to Depression, Brain Changes
"Chronic consumption of high-fat food and obesity induce plasticity-related changes in reward circuitry that are associated with a depressive-like phenotype," says a study appearing...
AARP Joins Antipsychotic Lawsuit Against CA Nursing Home
The AARP has joined an "unprecedented class-action lawsuit" against a California nursing home accused of using antipsychotics without informed consent from residents or family...
Diagnosis and Treatment Have Changed: Depression and Anxiety Have Not
Researchers investigating the state of mental health in Canadians from 1994 to 2008 found no change over time, but "the frequency of diagnosis and...
Pharmacology Gets More Cooperation Than Psychosocial Advice
In a study of conformance to evidence-based treatment recommendations at mental health clinics among people diagnosed with schizophrenia, Canadian researchers found that conformance to...
Antidepressants and the Eyes
Antidepressants can affect neurotransmitters involved in regulation of the iris, say researchers in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology. In a study of acute angle-closure...
People With Schizophrenia Diagnoses Actually Do Listen
Contrary to the hypothesis that delusional beliefs in schizophrenia are a persistent general deficit, patients using a well-documented advice-taking task revise their beliefs, taking...
Skin-to-Skin Contact Benefits Mothers with Post-Partum Depression
In a study of 90 new mothers in Nova Scotia, five hours per day of skin-to-skin contact (SSC) reduced mothers' depression scores in their...
Exercise Benefits Psychosis
56 patients in an acute care setting for psychosis in Western Australia reported that a formal exercise program helped to manage their psychiatric symptoms,...
Antidepressant Use Associated With Menstruation Disorders
In a study of 793 women taking antidepressants and 639 not taking them, researchers in Turkey found that menstruation disorders were significantly associated with...
Obstetric Complication, Cannabis Use: Strongest Predictors of Early Psychosis
According to data drawn from 608 patients of an early intervention program in Dublin, presented at the 3rd Biennial Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS)...
Nursing Homes Shift Tactics on Dementia
As part of a series on the inappropriate use of antipsychotics in nursing homes, the Boston Globe explores alternative approaches, such as llama therapy,...
Take a ride on the Mood Elevator
These are not happy times for the embattled drug maker AstraZeneca. The patent for Seroquel has expired; the company’s profits have plummeted; and its...
Review of the Evidence: Childhood Adversity High in Schizophrenia and Other Disorders
Researchers from Australia and the UK found that people with a schizophrenia diagnosis almost four times more likely than controls to have a history of...
Long-Term Benzos Worsen Anxiety
Long-term use of benzodiazepines for anxiety remains a widespread, despite guidelines that recommend against it, according to a roundtable discussion at the annual conference of...
Intact Facial Affect Processing in Schizophrenia
In two separate studies (one replicating the other) of 102 people with schizophrenia diagnoses researchers from McGill, UCLA, CSU, UNC, Columbia and the VA...