Mental Health Research

05 Oct Blood Tests May Hold Clues to Pace of Alzheimer’s Disease Progression

Posted at 14:00h in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Baylor College of Medicine Houston, Mayo Clinic, Mental Health Research

Release Date: 10/03/2011 Johns Hopkins-led research suggests levels of certain fats in blood might predict rate of cognitive decline. A team of scientists, led by Johns Hopkins researchers, say they may have found a way to predict how quickly patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) will lose cognitive function by looking at ratios...

21 Sep Study finds genetic ‘overlap’ between schizophrenia, bipolar disorder

Posted at 20:05h in Bipolar Disorder, Genetic Research, Mental Health Research, Nature, Schizophrenia

Knowledge about the biological origin of diseases like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric conditions is critical to improving diagnosis and treatment. In an effort to push the field forward, three UCLA researchers, along with scientists from more than 20 countries, have been taking part in one of the largest collaborative...

08 Sep Aerobic exercise may reduce the risk of dementia

Posted at 10:56h in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Exercise - Fitness, Mayo Clinic

ROCHESTER, Minn. - Any exercise that gets the heart pumping may reduce the risk of dementia and slow the condition's progression once it starts, reported a Mayo Clinic study published this month in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Researchers examined the role of aerobic exercise in preserving cognitive abilities and concluded that...

05 Sep Researchers report distinct features of Autistic brain in novel analysis of MRI scans

Posted at 17:21h in Autism, Stanford

STANFORD, Calif. - Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital have used a novel method for analyzing brain-scan data to distinguish children with autism from typically developing children. Their discovery reveals that the gray matter in a network of brain regions known to affect...

07 Aug Sporadic Mutations cause more than half the cases of Schizophrenia

Posted at 20:21h in Mental Health Research, Nature, Schizophrenia

Columbia University Medical Center researchers have shown that new, or "de novo," protein-altering mutations—genetic errors that are present in patients but not in their parents—play a role in more than 50 percent of "sporadic" —i.e., not hereditary—cases of schizophrenia. The findings will be published online on August 7, 2011, in...

03 Aug Study examines relapses after hospitalization for depression

Posted at 20:11h in Depression, Mental Health Research

For Immediate Release – August 3, 2011 – (Toronto) – Twenty-five percent of people who were hospitalized for depression were readmitted or visited an emergency room again for depression within 30 days of discharge, according to a new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The results...

03 Aug The power of positive thoughts and emotions to treat depression

Posted at 20:09h in Depression, Mental Health Research

New Rochelle, NY, August 3, 2011—Positive activity interventions (PAIs) offer a safe, low-cost, and self-administered approach to managing depression and may offer hope to individuals with depressive disorders who do not respond or have access to adequate medical therapy, according to a comprehensive review article in The Journal of Alternative...

01 Aug New brain imaging research reveals why autistic individuals confuse pronouns

Posted at 20:26h in Autism

PITTSBURGH—Autism is a mysterious developmental disease because it often leaves complex abilities intact while impairing seemingly elementary ones. For example, it is well documented that autistic children often have difficulty correctly using pronouns, sometimes referring to themselves as "you" instead of "I." A new brain imaging study published in the journal...

01 Aug Research Supports Upcoming Alzheimer’s Disease Guidelines

Posted at 20:11h in Alzheimer's - Dementia

Reston, Va.–Two new studies published in the August issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) provide insight intothe potential of positron emission tomography (PET) to differentiate between types of dementia and to identify pharmaceuticals to slow the progress of dementia. With proposed National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the...

22 Jul Atherosclerosis linked to Dementia

Posted at 19:32h in Alzheimer's - Dementia

American Stroke Association Scientific Statement Statement Highlights: • High blood pressure is related to the development of age-related vascular cognitive impairment. • Maintaining a healthy heart may also maintain a healthy functioning brain, according to the statement. • Screening elderly patients for heart and stroke risk factors may also identify those at risk of...