Cognitive Boost found from Exercising with Music
Do you exercise while listening to music? A new study has found that working out to music may give you a cognitive boost. Listening to music while exercising helped cardiac rehabilitation patients in this study increase scores on a verbal fluency test.

The Science Daily article summarizing the study quotes Charles Emery, the study's lead author as stating: "This is the first study to look at the combined effects of music and short-term exercise on mental performance."

Read More: A Little Music With Exercise Boosts Brain Power
07:41 AM  #

Brain Scans may predict Schizophrenia in Advance
New research published in the journal Brain suggests that brain scans may someday be able to screen for schizophrenia before it develops.

The researchers reported that scanning found "subtle abnormalities" in the brains of patients thought to be at risk of schizophrenia. The current study is part of a long-term research project involving the testing of more than 100 people whose relatives have schizophrenia.

Dr Stephen Lawrie, one of the study's authors, is quotes as saying “We have identified changes in the brain that can predict schizophrenia up to five years in advance. These are changes that would happen before anyone would make a clinical diagnosis."

Read more: Brain test research finds key to mental illness - [Sunday Herald]
06:34 AM  #

Lack of Parental Support May Mean Poor Health Later in Life
A new study of 2,905 adults found that people who reported inadequate parental support while growing up are likely to have poorer health as adults.

People who reported that they had abundant parental support during childhood were more likely to have relatively good health throughout adulthood. The findings are reported on in the March issue of Psychology and Aging.

Read More: Parental Support During Childhood is Associated with Increased Adult Depression and Chronic Health Problems
07:19 AM  #

Effective Therapy for Hypochondriacs
A new study of almost 200 patients diagnosed with hypochondria found that cognitive behavioral psychotherapy helped many of them. Patients with this disorder are convinced that they suffer from a number of physical illnesses when they really do not.

In this study 102 patients with hypochondria were assigned to receive cognitive behavioral psychotherapy and 85 to get routine medical care. Around 1/4 of the patients in psychotherapy dropped out, but among those who completed the 6 therapy sessions, 57 percent showed improvement in symptoms and quality of life after one year. This is compared with only 32 percent of the patients in the comparison group who reported such improvement.

Here is an AP summary

Here is a summary from JAMA
06:23 AM  #

FDA Addresses Antidepressant Suicide Issue
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has finally responded to concerns that some antidepressants may increase suicidal behavior. The regulatory agency is advising clinicians, patients, families and caregivers of adults and children that they should "closely monitor all patients being placed on therapy with these drugs for worsening depression and suicidal thinking, which can occur during the early period of treatment."

The agency is also advising that these patients also be observed for other behaviors associated with these drugs, including "anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, impulsivity, akathisia (severe restlessness), hypomania, and mania, and that physicians be particularly vigilant in patients who may have bipolar disorder". Read the FDA's own summary here.
06:29 AM  #

Consumer Group Sues to Ban Serzone
A consumer advocacy group sued the United States government last week, asking it to remove the antidepressant Serzone from the market. Serzone can cause liver failure and it is linked to some 20 deaths.

The consumer group Public Citizen wants the drug banned because it is impossible to predict which patients are at risk for liver failure. The FDA maintains that liver failure is a rare risk; and that this risk is adequately managed by warning patients. In 2002, the FDA added a "black box" warning to Serzone’s label.

Read more details in this AP article on MSNBC.com
06:57 AM  #

Major Depression and Manic-Depression - Any difference?
Michael G. Rayel, M.D. reports that countless numbers of patients and their family members have asked him about the difference between manic ­depression (bipolar disorder) and major depression. He details some of the differences in this article.
07:26 AM  #

States Ponder Mental Health Cuts
U.S. states continue to look for ways to cut budgets in lean times. Mental health care is not immune to such cuts. State-funded mental health treatment occurs less frequently in state hospitals than in the past, and much of it is actuallly taking prisons.

For information from different states:

Florida: Don't cut funding for mental-health treatment

North Carolina: Mental health care reform is spiraling out of control

Mississippi: Proposed Solution for Mental Health Hospitals is Expensive
06:38 AM  #

Vitamin D in Young Boys May Help Prevent Schizophrenia in Men
An Australian study has found that vitamin D consumption by boys in the first year of life may help prevent schizophrenia in men. No similar pattern was found for women.

The research was conducted at the Queensland Centre for Schizophrenia Research. Vitamin D is already known to play an important role in bone metabolim, and ongoing research across the world is looking into other benefits.

Read more:
Vitamin D in boys to avoid schizophrenia in men
06:39 AM  #

Racial Bias Kicks in Quickly
New research, shows that subconscious, implicit bias can emerge causing even well-meaning whites to look at identical facial expressions of African Americans and European Americans and see greater hostility in the African American faces. Read a detailed description of this research.
07:22 AM  #

Teen Sexual Abstinence Pledges Don't Work
Adolescent sexual abstinence pledges are popular in some circles in the United States. A Columbia University study suggests that such pledges are rarely translated into behavior. 88% of the teens who had pledged abstinence actually had sex before they were married.

The researchers studied a nationally representative sample of approximately 15,000 youths ages 12 to 18. Teens who took such pledges were less likely to use condoms when they did have sex. The authors speculate that these teens had paid less attention to sex education.

Read more in this Reuters article
06:28 AM  #

Combining Atypical Antipsychotics may work Better for Some
A new literature review suggests that combining two antipsychotic medications may help people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who don't respond to single medications.

The review suggests that these combinations of atypical antipsychotic medications are well tolerated and may be effective in "treatment refractory schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder."

Read more in this review:

News - Combinations of Atypical Antipsychotics Appear Effective in Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder
07:21 AM  #

Generalized Anxiety Disorder - The Basics
In Generalized Anxiety Disorder a person has a specific fear that has become generalized to cover many different areas (family, work, school), and the person finds it difficult to control or manage the worry. It's not quite that simple, though. Read More...
07:17 AM  #

Some Ways to Prevent Youth Violence
A new University of Washington study has found several factors that appear to prevent aggressive 15 year olds from becoming violent 18 year olds. The adolescents who attended religious services, felt attached to their schools or were exposed to good family management were much less likely to have engaged in violent behavior by the time they turned 18.

For more information:
Family Discipline, Religious Attendance Cut Levels of Violence Among Aggressive Children
06:18 AM  #

Getting Help for Less
Mental health care can be expensive. It's easy to pay over $100 for an hour of psychotherapy. Resources are also available for those who can't afford such prices.

You can also look for state-funded resources here.


07:14 AM  #

Mental Health Treatment Advocacy
The Treatment Advocacy Center is a U.S. nonprofit agency "working to eliminate barriers to timely treatment of severe mental illness." They have a number of excellent resources addressing these tricky issues.

Here are some links to their resources:

Treatment Advocacy Center Homepage

Mental Health Treatment Legal Resources

Hospital Closures - Hospitals are closing while we open new prisons.

Medical Resources
06:00 AM  #