Feature Channels: Mental Health

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Marilyn Cotter recently needed a stress test following a bout of chest tightness. Unable to withstand exercise because of foot problems, Cotter, a 68-year-old grandmother from Delhi Township, wasn’t a candidate for a normal stress test that uses a treadmill. Instead, her physicians at University of Cincinnati Medical Center used a space-age option: an anti-gravity treadmill.

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The leading lay advocate for smell-training, will visit the Monell Center from the U.K. on August 9-11, 2016. During her visit she will present the first U.S. educational smell-training sessions for individuals with impaired smell and the physicians who treat them.

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/PRNewswire/ -- Araclon Biotech, in which Grifols is the majority shareholder, has presented the results of the phase I clinical trial for its active immunotherapy against Alzheimer's disease (ABvac40) at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC 2016), held in Toronto (Canada) from July 24 to 28, and organized by the American Alzheimer's Association.

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Brief, directed smartphone exercises can help quickly improve our mood. This is the latest finding from psychologists at the University of Basel and their international colleagues, reported in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

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A new study, which followed 180 pre-term infants from birth to age seven, found that babies who were fed more breast milk within the first 28 days of life had had larger volumes of certain regions of the brain at term equivalent and had better IQs, academic achievement, working memory, and motor function.

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For the first time, UNC School of Medicine scientists report using transcranial alternating current stimulation, or tACS, to target a specific kind of brain activity during sleep and strengthen memory in healthy people.

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The study, conducted by Media & Communication professor Eric Rasmussen, shows those who regularly watch the daytime show intend to seek help for mental health issues.

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New research provides some of the first evidence that medications taken by millions of American children to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) offer long-term benefits.

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Adolescence is both a time of rapid neurobiological changes and of the initiation of drinking – alcohol is the most commonly used substance among students in grades eight to 12. Binge-drinking effects are particularly concerning, although it is unclear whether and how much it affects neurocognitive performance. This study looked at two questions: first, whether moderate, binge, or extreme-binge drinking in adolescence had an impact on later performance in tests of verbal learning and memory (VLM); and second, whether the amount of alcohol consumed is associated with specific changes in learning and memory during six years of adolescence.

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MINNEAPOLIS – A new consensus statement provides recommendations for transitioning adolescents and young adults with neurologic disorders to adult care. The statement is endorsed by the American Academy of Neurology and created by the Child Neurology Foundation. The research is published in the July 27, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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For more than a century, neuroscientists have known that nerve cells talk to one another across the small gaps between them, a process known as synaptic transmission. But the details of how this crucial aspect of brain function occurs have remained elusive. Now, new research has for the first time elucidated details about the architecture that Allows Brain Cells to Communicate. The paper was published today in the journal Nature.

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Resveratrol, given to Alzheimer’s patients, appears to restore the integrity of the blood-brain barrier, reducing the ability of harmful immune molecules secreted by immune cells to infiltrate from the body into brain tissues, say researchers. The reduction in neuronal inflammation slowed the cognitive decline of patients, compared to a matching group of placebo-treated patients with the disorder.

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The research findings, published in Annals of Neurology, suggest a correspondence between a patient’s ability to generate an EEG marker of attention to tactile stimulation, and their ability to produce the critical clinical marker of awareness by following verbal commands.

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New research sheds light on what’s going on inside our heads as we decide whether to take a risk or play it safe. Scientists located a region of the brain involved in decisions made under conditions of uncertainty, and identified some of the cells involved in the decision-making process. The work could lead to treatments for psychological and psychiatric disorders that involve misjudging risk, such as problem gambling and anxiety disorders.

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If there are crumbs on your desk from countless lunches spent responding to emails and attending to other job-related responsibilities, it may be time to clean up and take a step back.

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The first case of Alzheimer’s disease diagnosed in an HIV-positive individual will be presented in a poster session at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2016 in Toronto July 27. The finding in a 71-year-old man triggers a realization about HIV survivors now reaching the age when Alzheimer’s risk begins to escalate.

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In a study of 48 adults with a diagnosis of Early Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment, almost half reported positive changes in life outlook and quality of life, countering the assumption that this diagnosis would have a uniformly negative impact.

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esearchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control studied the prevalence of suicide among people with epilepsy compared to the population overall and estimated that the annual suicide mortality rate among those with epilepsy was 22 percent higher than in the general population. Results are online in the journal Epilepsy and Behavior.

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High-ranking people don't always turn out to be selfish jerks. It all depends on whether they feel worthy of their prominent social position, new research indicates.

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• A metabolite that is normally excreted in urine was linked with impaired cognitive function in patients with kidney failure. • The metabolite has been previously linked to cognitive impairment in other patient populations.

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The Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN) at Georgia State University has received a five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to investigate the neurochemical mechanisms underlying social stress in males and females.

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The phrase “make yourself at home” seems innocuous but there is a significant psychological element to it that few may consider. The concept implies that a conscious effort must be employed in the endeavor. For some it’s as easy as good people in a good location. But according to a recent study, the most common method of “making oneself at home” is by identifying with the objects that are kept in the home — and that kind of attachment can have significant consequences if left unchecked.

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Screening for suicide risk among publicly insured urban children who are experiencing psychological distress is vitally important, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

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A detailed new map by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis lays out the landscape of the human cerebral cortex. The map will accelerate progress in the study of brain diseases, as well as help to elucidate what makes us unique as a species.

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In research using patient medical records, investigators from Johns Hopkins and Sheppard Pratt Health System report that people with serious mental disorders who were hospitalized for mania were more likely to be on antibiotics to treat active infections than a group of people without a mental disorder.

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People who selectively recalled positive information over neutral and negative information performed worse on memory tests conducted by University of California, Irvine neurobiologists, who said the results suggest that this discriminating remembrance may be a marker for early stages of memory loss in the elderly.

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– In recent years, measures have been introduced to reduce the rate of "antipsychotic polypharmacy"—taking more than one antipsychotic drug—among patients with schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses. But at least 12 percent of patients are still prescribed multiple antipsychotics after an inpatient stay at a state psychiatric hospital, according to an analysis of nationwide data in the July Journal of Psychiatric Practice®, published by Wolters Kluwer.

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Scientists from King's College London have used a new genetic scoring technique to predict academic achievement from DNA alone. This is the strongest prediction from DNA of a behavioural measure to date.

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Research from the Childhood Cancer Survivors Study has identified distinct profiles of psychological symptoms in adolescent cancer survivors; a finding that is expected to advance mental health screening and treatment.

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Alcohol abuse exacts a major toll on health and health costs in the United States and is the 3rd leading preventable cause of death. Researchers at the University of Louisville have received a nearly $8 million grant from the NIH that designates them as an NIAAA Alcohol Research Center.

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Taking a break from the news and limiting how much news children watch are among the recommendations for coping with stress and anxiety related to the recent police and civilian shootings, as well as terrorism attacks, according to resources posted on the American Psychological Association’s website.

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A new study hopes to develop a faster, more precise and more efficient real-time method for fMRI measurements in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

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Could immune system problems contribute to an inability to have normal social interactions? The answer appears to be yes, and that finding could have great implications for neurological conditions such as autism-spectrum disorders and schizophrenia.

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The loss of private health insurance from an employer can lead to poorer mental and physical health as older adults transition to early retirement, according to a study by Georgia State University.

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Meditation has long been promoted as a way to feel more at peace. But research from a Texas Tech University faculty member shows it can significantly improve attention, working memory, creativity, immune function, emotional regulation, self-control, cognitive and school performance and healthy habits while reducing stress.

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Researchers at the Allen Institute for Brain Science have published an in-depth analysis of a comprehensive molecular atlas of brain development in the non-human primate. This analysis uncovers features of the genetic code underlying brain development in our close evolutionary relative, while revealing distinct features of human brain development by comparison. The study is based on the NIH Blueprint Non-Human Primate (NHP) Atlas, a publicly available resource created by the Allen Institute and colleagues at the University of California, Davis and the California National Primate Research Center. This resource enables researchers to understand the underpinnings of both healthy brain development and many neuropsychiatric diseases. Analysis of the atlas is featured this week in the journal Nature.

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Working memory can be thought of as short-term memory, temporarily holding ideas and recent events in the mind for quick recall. Working memory often declines with age; it may also be susceptible to interactions between age and alcohol use. Frontal theta power (FTP) and posterior alpha power (PAP) are electrophysiological measures of brain activity associated with cognitive effort and maintenance of visual information. This study looks at alcohol effects on FTP and PAP during a working memory task in younger and older social drinkers.

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Researchers elucidate the function of sparse population of inhibitory neurons in memory encoding

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A researcher at Arizona State University has discovered how to control multiple robotic drones using the human brain.

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Noa Ofen, Ph.D., a Wayne State University researcher in lifespan cognitive neuroscience, received a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health to study the development of memory networks in children. Researchers will investigate brain activity predictive of memory formation in children who undergo surgery as part of clinical management of medically uncontrolled epilepsy.

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Understanding the networks of connections between brain regions and how they are changed by a stroke is crucial to understanding how stroke patients heal, according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) with a loss of consciousness (LOC) may be associated with later development of Parkinson’s disease but not Alzheimer’s disease or incident dementia.

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GW’s Online Master’s Program Will Increase Number of Special Education Teachers Focused on Brain Injury and Autism Education

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Reston, VA, Julio 8, 2016 – Una mejora potencial de los problemas de salud mental que van desde los trastornos de la conducta alimentaria al suicidio se ha convertido más esperanzadora y con mayores posibilidades de lo que era hace sólo unos días. La Cámara de Representantes de los Estados Unidos ha aprobado la Ley histórica de Ayudando Familias en Crisis de Salud Mental de 2015 (HR 2646) – un proyecto de ley que significa un paso hacia adelante en el movimiento de la salud mental.

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Reston, VA, July 8, 2016 – Potential improvement in mental health issues ranging from eating disorders to suicide has become more hopeful and more possible than it was just days ago. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the historic Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2015 (HR 2646) – a bill that signifies forward movement in mental health.

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Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have shown for the first time that ensembles of genes within the striatum could be deeply involved in bipolar disorder.