Research News

Summaries of research findings that tell of a scientific need to "rethink psychiatry."

Women on SSRIs Less Likely To Breastfeed

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In a prospective cohort study of 466 pregnant women over 10 years, researchers at the California Teratogen Information Service found that women exposed to...

Activity-Based Therapies Reduce Antipsychotic Use

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Researchers from the University of North Carolina found that activity-based therapy and care reduced the use of antipsychotics in a study of 107 people...

Overprescribing of Benzodiazepines

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Norwegian researchers found that 14.6% (27,861) of patients who were prescribed benzodiazepines used two simultaneously, despite the fact that all benzodiazepines have essentially the...

Environmental Factors Drive Mania

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Harvard researchers investigated 6,214 cases of major depression for factors that would predict transition to bipolar disorder.  Clinical characteristics such as age of onset...

Brain Volume Recovers With Remission, Not With Medication

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In a prospective study of 28 outpatients with major depression, Canadian researchers investigated whether brain volume changes stabilized with antidepressant treatment and/or reversed with...

WHO Says Newer Antipsychotics Most Costly, Least Effective Strategy

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In an analysis of neuropsychiatric conditions in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia, the World Health Organization found that inpatient treatment of schizophrenia with...

Peer-Led Education Improves Recovery and Hopefulness

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In a study of 428 outpatients in Tennessee, researchers from the University of Chicago and the NIMH found that BRIDGES, an 8-week peer-run education...

ADHD Overtreated in Relatively Younger Children

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An 11-year study of 937,943 children in British Columbia found that boys who were relatively younger than their classmates were 41% more likely to...

SSRIs Cause Delayed Head Growth and Premature Birth

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In a study of 7,696 pregnant women, researchers in the Netherlands and the U.S. found that SSRIs caused slower head growth and premature birth....

Rise of Antipsychotics in Children

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins explore the use of antipsychotics in children, finding a dramatic rise in off-label prescribing with little oversight or research into...

Risk of Death in the Elderly Trebled With Antipsychotics

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In a nine-year study of all 2,224 residents of Leppävirta, Finland who were 65 years old or older, researchers found that the 332 residents...

Psychotropics Accelerate Cognitive and Functional Decline

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins, The Mayo Clinic, Harvard Medical School, Duke and others found in a study of 230 Alzheimer's patients tracked over four...

Early Environment Influences Schizophrenia Independent of Genetic Risk

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Canadian researchers found that childhood adversity and other environmental factors such as family instability and cannabis use was associated with the development of schizophrenia,...

Oxytocin Improves Emotion Recognition in Schizophrenia

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Oxytocin, a natural hormone with a role in social behaviors, has been shown to improve social behaviors in people with autistic spectrum disorders and...

Antidepressant Use Associated with Brain Atrophy and Lesions in Elderly

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In a study of 630 elderly Manhattanites without dementia, researchers from the Netherlands found that antidepressant use was associated with significantly more brain atrophy,...

Antidepressant Use and Cognitive Impairment After Menopause

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A study of 6,998 postmenopausal women followed over 7.5 years found that antidepressant use correlated with a 70% increased risk of cognitive impairment. The...

EEG Shows That Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Improves Brain Function in Bipolar Disorder

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In a study of 12 patients with bipolar disorder and 9 controls, researchers found that after an 8-week training in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy...

Childhood Adversity Changes Stress-Related Gene Expression

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Researchers in Rhode Island and New Hampshire examined 99 healthy adults for changes related to stress hormones, and asked about their childhood attachment experiences....

1 in 4 Adults With a Mental Illness Has Been A Victim of Violence...

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In a meta-analysis funded by the World Health Organization and published in The Lancet, studies of 21,500 disabled individuals from Australia, Canada, New Zealand,...

Cumulative Risk of Impairment and Death From Anticholinergic Medication

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The New York Times reports that a two-year longitudinal study of over 13,000 men and women over 65 found that anticholinergic medications, which include many...

Deficits in Psychosis Linked To Childhood Trauma Via Brain Changes

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In a study of 83 patients and 63 controls, researchers in Norway and the U.K. investigated  deficits in attention, concentration, language and verbal intelligence...

The Depression Diagnosis Under Scrutiny

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Researchers in Denmark find that the diagnosis of depression in the DSM-IV contains at least 1,497 possible combinations of symptoms, with the potential for...

Paranoid Symptoms Arise From Social Phobia/Trauma

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In a 10-year longitudinal study of 3021 participants, researchers in The Netherlands, U.K., Germany and Switzerland find that paranoid symptoms are associated with social...

Schizophrenia, Trauma and The Immune System

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To test the hypothesis that a heightened immune system response associated with schizophrenia is also associated with childhood trauma, researchers in Ireland looked at...

Antipsychotics for Dementia: Not Justified and Risky

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In a study of antipsychotics used to treat 75,445 patients in nursing homes in the United States, researchers from Harvard Medical School, Columbia and...