Feature Channels: Psychology and Psychiatry

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Study: Older men adhere closely to an idealized masculinity script that is incompatible with the realities of later life

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The degree to which other people divert your attention may depend on your social class, according to new findings published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

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New research led by UC San Francisco scientists has revealed that mutations in a gene linked with brain development may dispose people to multiple forms of psychiatric disease by changing the way brain cells communicate.

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New study finds touch typists have a definite edge in speed over nonstandard typists but self-taught typists do nearly as well as long as they can see the keyboard.

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A UCLA psychiatrist weighs in on steps we can take to keep our calm – and our friends and family – in this highly charged political climate.

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Think of the word "genius," and a few images undoubtedly come to mind – perhaps a picture of Albert Einstein, of a scientist in a lab shouting “Eureka!” or of present-day theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.

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Steven Jay Lynn, distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Psychological Clinic at Binghamton University, and Scott O. Lilienfeld of Emory University examined 78 authors or co-authors that may be surprising to the psychology world. Their new paper focuses on these unconventional authors who contributed to esteemed books of psychology research that audiences might find surprising.

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Children who have been in the U.S. foster care system are at a significantly higher risk of mental and physical health problems – ranging from learning disabilities, developmental delays and depression to behavioral issues, asthma and obesity – than children who haven’t been in foster care, according to a University of California, Irvine sociologist.

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Mental health researchers have made a promising breakthrough in the early detection of the risk of psychosis, with the eventual hope that patients could be given appropriate treatments earlier to prevent psychotic episodes from occurring.

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Low socio-economic status and fear of abandonment early in life can lead to poor health in adulthood, regardless of adult socio-economic status, according to a new study from psychologists at Rice University.

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Worsening depression symptoms are associated with shorter survival for lung cancer patients, particularly those in the early stages of disease, according to a new U.S. study.

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Psychology researchers at West Virginia University have discovered evidence of a genetic basis for fearing dental treatment.

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Giving mice a gene mutation linked to eating disorders in people causes feeding and behavior abnormalities similar to symptoms often seen in patients with eating disorders. Only female mice are affected by the gene mutation, and some of the abnormalities in the female mice depend on whether they are housed alone or together with other mice.

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Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a very common condition diagnosed mainly in children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 6.4 million children between four and 17 years of age have been diagnosed with ADHD as of 2011.

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Results of new study led by Linda Pagani, professor at the University of Montreal’s School of Psychoeducation, show that young children who watch too much television are at risk of victimization and social isolation and adopting violent and antisocial behaviour toward other students at age 13.

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While male and female mice have similar responses to physical stress, research from the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary, Canada, suggests females, not males, feel stressed when alone.

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Growing up in a warm family environment in childhood is associated with feeling more secure in romantic relationships in one's 80s, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The findings show that men who grew up in caring homes were more adept at managing stressful emotions when assessed as middle-aged adults, which helps to explain why they had more secure marriages late in life.

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A new study suggests many patients at risk for suicide would voluntarily place their name on a Do Not Sell list, prohibiting gun shops from immediately selling them a firearm.

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PTSD experts agree that the condition has its roots in very real, physical processes within the brain – and not some sort of psychological “weakness”. But no clear consensus has emerged about what exactly has gone “wrong” in the brain. A new theory that integrates decades of research focuses on a key function called context processing.

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Seattle Children’s Intensive Outpatient OCD Treatment Program is only one of six intensive programs in the country. Since the program opened in July 2016, it has seen tremendous success in treating patients like Eva Tomassini who was diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) when she was 4 years old.

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National Coming Out Day is Oct. 11 and psychologists are available to discuss the latest psychological issues facing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population, including the mental health effects of coming out, the impact of legalized same-sex marriage on LGBT people, how psychology can help reduce stigma and discrimination and how psychological, behavioral and cultural factors contribute to LGBT health.

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A new study from a Cornell University sociologist shows that while parents enjoy the time they spend with their children, parenting carries more strain for mothers.

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A new therapeutic target for the treatment of compulsive binge eating has been identified by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM).

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Researchers in the Centre for the History of Medicine at the University of Warwick are investigating the impact of solitary confinement in prisons on mental health over the last 150 years, drawing on archival evidence, including the Howard League Archives held at Warwick University’s Modern Records Centre, and the memoirs of real prisoners.

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With violent images and breaking news of shootings and killings constantly on television, how do parents navigate these images to protect their children from negative effects. That all depends on the child's age and mental state, says a Harris Health System psychiatrist.

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A team led by two researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago has been chosen one of two finalists in a contest to use Apple’s ResearchKit, an open-source platform for creating apps, to develop a means to study mood disorders. As finalists, they will receive $100,000 to develop their app using Apple’s beta-testing platform, Test Flight.

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With discussion in the presidential campaign of servicemembers and military veterans who experience post-traumatic stress disorder, psychologists are available to talk about the research behind the latest understanding and treatment of PTSD.

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A new study found patients with anxiety, phobias and fears showed greater improvement from therapy that was scheduled in the morning, when levels of cortisol -- a naturally occurring hormone -- tested higher.

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Northwestern University scientists have discovered a new pathway in the brain that can be manipulated to alleviate depression. The pathway offers a promising new target for developing a drug that could be effective in individuals for whom other antidepressants have failed.

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Researchers have found clues to the causes of age-related hearing loss. The ability to track and understand speech in both quiet and noisy environments deteriorates due in part to speech processing declines in both the midbrain and cortex in older adults.

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Enzyme involved in brain inflammation appears to be key.

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A new study by a team of Johns Hopkins researchers found that most survivors of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) decline physically in the five years after hospital discharge, and those at higher levels of risk of decline are older and had greater medical problems prior to hospitalization for ARDS.

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UCLA experts are available for interviews about opioid-related topics

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A scientific blueprint to end tobacco cravings may be on the way after researchers crystallized a protein that holds answers to how nicotine addiction occurs in the brain.

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Over two thirds (68 per cent) of the public would like more rest, according to the world’s largest ever survey on the topic.

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The case-control method, where researchers compare patients with a particular disease to healthy control participants, has increased understanding of disease-related effects at a group level. However, psychiatric pathology complicates assumptions of the method – that the illness can be defined and that patients cleanly fit the definition. Although psychiatry has characterized different diagnoses, patients within a diagnosis vary widely and symptoms often overlap diagnostic labels.

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Over two thirds (68 per cent) of the public would like more rest, according to the world’s largest ever survey on the topic.

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Can having a few drinks help people with clinical depression feel better? Yes. At least in terms of biochemistry.

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A woman’s perception that she is experiencing a high number of nighttime hot flashes can trigger mild symptoms of depression during menopause, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

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In an analysis of existing studies that used MRI images to study the brain’s white matter, researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago describe common brain abnormalities found in multiple emotional disorders. Their findings are published in the journal NeuroImage: Clinical.

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As many as half of people are blind to motion in some part of their field of vision, but the deficit doesn’t have anything to do with the eyes. In a new study, University of Wisconsin–Madison psychology Professor Bas Rokers and collaborators in the Netherlands have shown that motion blindness is a failure of the brain to properly interpret sensory information — a type of deficit called agnosia.

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Meditation can help tame your emotions even if you’re not a mindful person, suggests a new study from Michigan State University.

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While the association between alcohol and homicide may seem obvious, there has been no recent study of alcohol involvement in homicide victimization in U.S. states. This study drills down into the subject, looking at how often alcohol was involved in homicide victimization, and what socio-demographic and other factors may be predictors.

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Psycho-social factors can impact how a woman deals with -- and recovers from -- breast cancer.

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UCLA Health experts are available to discuss a wide variety of topics of interest for the month of October.

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PHILADELPHIA — More and more girls are expected to have to confront breast cancer fears as modern genomics technology makes it easier to detect strong risk factors such as inherited BRCA1/2 mutations. But a new study shows that adolescent girls in families with a history of breast cancer or a high-risk BRCA1/2 mutation do not experience negative psychological effects, on average, and even seem to have higher self-esteem than their peers.

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The University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital will provide screening and mental health care for hundreds of children and families that have been affected by violence in many of Chicago’s South and West side neighborhoods.

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Having a happy spouse may be related to better health, at least among middle-aged and older adults, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.

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Stimulating the brain via electricity or other means may help ease symptoms of various neurological and psychiatric disorders, with the method already used to treat conditions from epilepsy to depression. But what really happens when doctors zap the brain?