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Find breaking news and mental health & disorder news on depression, therapy & therapists, suicide, bipolar disorder, anxiety, case studies and drugs. Mental health news. New articles, strategy documents, guidance articles and letters published by the Ment
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Depression treatment - Manic depression

What to do if you suspect Alzheimer’s
An appointment is missed. A bill goes unpaid. A television remote winds up in the freezer. Are these harmless senior moments or worrisome warning signs that a parent may be in the early stages of Alzheimer?s disease? Surveys consistently show that Alzheimer?s is the second most feared disease in America, after cancer. Among those 55 and older, Alzheimer?s sometimes comes out on top. After a prolonged period of ever-increasing cognitive devastation, the disease is invariably fatal. So it may seem there?s nothing to lose by putting off a diagnosis as long as possible.
Is Alzheimer?s Caused by Contagious Proteins?
There?s been a lot of excitement over a paper that suggests a surprising way Alzheimer?s may progress in the brain. Based on work on a unique mouse model, researchers suggest that at least one of the abnormalities that drives the disease may spread from nerve cell to nerve cell like a virus. That?s a stunning proposal, since there are only rare examples that proteins in the brain can ?spread? in this way, aside from actual infectious agents like viruses or bacteria. So it?s worth taking a closer look at exactly what the researchers mean by ?spread.? For most of us, the concept conjures up something that is physically transmitted or passed on from one thing - in this case a cell - to another. Indeed, in their paper, published in PLoS One, the scientists describe a novel mouse strain that was genetically engineered to carry the human version of the gene for tau, which is one of two major proteins that builds up in the brains of Alzheimer?s patients. Not only did the mice express tau in the same regions of the brain as humans do, but, the scientists say, they saw tau appear in cells that weren?t engineered to contain the gene. Plus, these cells were connected to the cells that were.
Magnetic Therapy for Depression Becoming More Popular
A new magnetic therapy that treats major depression ?is rapidly gaining momentum,? said Dr. Murali Rao of Loyola University Medical Center, one of the first Chicago-area centers to offer the treatment. Nearly 300 centers in the United States now offer the treatment, called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The treatment sends short pulses of magnetic fields to the brain. At Loyola, about two-thirds of Rao?s TMS patients so far report that their depression has significantly lessened or gone away completely. Before receiving TMS, Nan Miller had failed nine antidepressants and suffered increasingly severe cycles of depression over seven years. There were times when she couldn’t get out of bed or eat. ?I just wanted to die,? she said. She had even tried electroconvulsive therapy (formerly known as electroshock), but did not want to consider that option anymore.
Blood test accurately distinguishes depressed patients from healthy controls
The initial assessment of a blood test to help diagnose major depressive disorder indicates it may become a useful clinical tool. In a paper published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, a team including Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers reports that a test analyzing levels of nine biomarkers accurately distinguished patients diagnosed with depression from control participants without significant false-positive results. ?Traditionally, diagnosis of major depression and other mental disorders has been made based on patients? reported symptoms, but the accuracy of that process varies a great deal, often depending on the experience and resources of the clinician conducting the assessment,? says George Papakostas, MD, of the MGH Department of Psychiatry, lead and corresponding author of the report. ?Adding an objective biological test could improve diagnostic accuracy and may also help us track individual patients? response to treatment.? The study authors note that previous efforts to develop tests based on a single blood or urinary biomarker did not produce results of sufficient sensitivity, the ability to detect the tested-for condition, or specificity, the ability to rule out that condition. ?The biology of depression suggests that a highly complex series of interactions exists between the brain and biomarkers in the peripheral circulation,? says study co-author John Bilello, PhD, chief scientific officer of Ridge Diagnostics, which sponsored the current study. ?Given the complexity and variability of these types of disorders and the associated biomarkers in an individual, it is easy to understand why approaches measuring a single factor would not have sufficient clinical utility.?
UNC to Open Comprehensive Angelman Syndrome Clinic
February 3, 2012 marks the grand opening of the UNC Comprehensive Angelman Syndrome Clinic at the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD). Funded in part by the Angelman Syndrome Foundation, this new clinic brings together multiple subspecialists into one setting to address the complex medical and psycho-educational needs of individuals with Angelman syndrome and their families. Depending on the specific concerns, patients and their families have access to a clinical geneticist, neurologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, speech language pathologist, physical/occupational therapist, genetic counselor, social worker, and nutritionist. ?This is one of the few clinics in the nation dedicated to Angelman Syndrome, but is unique in including all of the above disciplines, making it a ?one-stop-shop? for these complex cases,? said CIDD director, Joseph Piven, MD, Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Psychiatry at UNC. ?The CIDD is committed to doing research and linking research with clinical practice to bring the best care to our patients.”
Early intervention may curb dangerous college drinking
The first few weeks of college are a critical time in shaping students? drinking habits. Now Penn State researchers have a tailored approach that may help prevent students from becoming heavy drinkers. ?Research shows there is a spike in alcohol-related consequences that occur in the first few weeks of the semester, especially with college freshmen,? said Michael J. Cleveland, research associate at the Prevention Research Center and the Methodology Center. ?If you can buffer that and get beyond that point and safely navigate through that passage, you reduce the risk of later problems occurring.? The researchers tested two different methods of intervention on incoming freshmen - parent-based intervention and peer-based intervention. Cleveland and his colleagues found that students who were non-drinkers before starting college, and who received the parent-based intervention, were unlikely to escalate to heavy drinking when surveyed again during the fall semester of their first year. Students who were heavy drinkers during the summer before college were more likely to transition out of that group if they received either parent-based intervention or peer-based intervention. However, if a heavy-drinker received both interventions, there was no enhanced effect. 
Marijuana Push in Colorado Likens It to Alcohol
Proponents of marijuana have argued for years that the drug is safer than alcohol, both to individuals and society. But a ballot proposal to legalize possession of marijuana in small amounts in Colorado, likely to be on the November ballot, is putting the two intoxicants back into the same sentence, urging voters to ?regulate marijuana like alcohol,? as the ballot proposition?s title puts it. Given alcohol?s long and checkered history - the tens of thousands of deaths each year, the social ravages of alcoholism - backers of the pro-marijuana measure concede there is a risk of looking as if they have cozied up too much, or are comparable, to old demon rum. ?Why add another vice, right?? said Mason Tvert, a co-director of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which has led the ballot drive. ?But we?re not adding a vice; we?re providing an alternative.?
Walk away from depression
Exercise and depression research has demonstrated that exercise helps depression quickly. One exercise and depression study showed that the improvement in mood begins just ten minutes after you start exercising. Mood was found to continue to get better for up to twenty minutes. Another exercise and depression study found depression had improved after participants had walked on a treadmill for thirty minutes a day for only ten days.  Antidepressant medication usually takes at least two to three weeks to begin improving mood. More lasting change in mood was found to have occured after study participants exercised for just two to three weeks.
In the brain, an earlier sign of autism
In their first year of life, babies who will go on to develop autism already show different brain responses when someone looks at or away from them. Although the researchers are careful to say that the study, reported online on January 26 in the Cell Press journal Current Biology, is only a first step toward earlier diagnosis, the findings do suggest that direct brain measures might help to predict the future development of autism symptoms in infants as young as six months. “Our findings demonstrate for the first time that direct measures of brain functioning during the first year of life associate with a later diagnosis of autism?well before the emergence of behavioral symptoms,? said Mark Johnson of Birkbeck College, University of London. The behaviors characteristic of autism emerge over the first few years of life, and firm diagnoses are now made in children only after the age of two. As a result, the vast majority of research on autism has necessarily concentrated on children two and older, who have already been diagnosed. ?We still know very little about the earliest appearing symptoms and warning signs,? Johnson said.
Evolved, mutated gene module linked to Joubert syndrome
A team led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine reports that newly discovered mutations in an evolved assembly of genes cause Joubert syndrome, a form of syndromic autism. The findings are published in the January 26 online issue of Science Express. Joubert syndrome is a rare, recessive brain condition characterized by malformation or underdevelopment of the cerebellum and brainstem. The disease is due specifically to alterations in cellular primary cilia ? antenna-like structures found on most cells. The consequence is a range of distinct physical and cognitive disabilities, including poor muscle control, and mental retardation. Up to 40 percent of Joubert syndrome patients meet clinical criteria for autism, as well as other neurocognitive disorders, so it is considered a syndromic form of autism. The cause or causes of Joubert syndrome are not well-understood. Researchers looked at mutations in the TMEM216 gene, which had previously been linked to the syndrome. However, only half of the expected Joubert syndrome patients exhibit TMEM216 gene mutations; the other half did not. Using genomic sequencing, the research team, led by Joseph G. Gleeson, MD, professor of neurosciences and pediatrics at UC San Diego, broadened their inquiry and discovered a second culprit: mutations in a neighboring gene called TMEM138.
Adolescents with Autism Spend Free Time Using Solitary, Screen-Based Media
Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) tend to be fascinated by screen-based technology. A new study by a University of Missouri researcher found that adolescents with autism spend the majority of their free time using non-social media, including television and video-games. ?Even though parents and clinicians have often observed that children with ASD tend to be preoccupied with screen-based media, ours is the first large-scale study to explore this issue,? said Micah Mazurek, assistant professor in the School of Health Professions and the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. ?We found that 64 percent of adolescents with ASD spent most of their free time watching TV and playing video and computer games. These rates were much higher than among those with other types of disabilities. On the other hand, adolescents with ASD were less likely to spend time using email and social media.? The majority of youths with ASD (64.2 percent) spend most of their free time using solitary, or non-social, screen-based media (television and video games) while only 13.2 percent spend time on socially interactive media (email, internet chatting).
Scientists report first step in strategy for cell replacement therapy in Park...
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) are a promising avenue for cell replacement therapy in neurologic diseases. For example, mouse and human iPSCs have been used to generate dopaminergic (DA) neurons that improve symptoms in rat Parkinson?s disease models. Reporting in the current issue of the Journal of Parkinson?s Disease, a group of scientists from Japan evaluated the growth, differentiation, and function of human-derived iPSC-derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs) in a primate model, elucidating their therapeutic potential. ?We developed a series of methods to induce human iPSCs to become NPCs, using a feeder-free culture method, and grafted NPCs at different stages of differentiation into the brain of a monkey PD model,? explains lead investigator Jun Takahashi, MD, PhD, of Kyoto University. ?We developed a method to evaluate the growth and DA activity of the grafts using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), immunocytochemistry, and behavioral analyses, all of which will be useful in preclinical research.? Investigators grafted human iPSCs into the brains of laboratory mice and a monkey treated with MPTP, a neurotoxin that causes Parkinson?s symptoms. They found that iPSCs incubated in feeder-free culture generated functional midbrain DA neurons. ?In previous studies, midbrain DA neurons were induced from human iPSCs, but the method required coculture with stromal mouse feeder cells or Matrigel,? noted Dr. Takahashi. ?Our feeder-free method would be more suitable for clinical use.?
Dry-cleaning chemical can increase risk of bipolar disorder: study
A new study has found early exposure to a chemical commonly used in dry-cleaning can increase the risk of developing bipolar disorder and post traumatic stress syndrome. The study, published in the open access journal Environmental Health, examined the impact of the solvent - known as tetrachloroethylene or PCE - which leached into the water supply from vinyl-lined water pipes used in the Cape Cod area. PCE and vinyl resin were used to attach liners to the water pipes. The pipes were dried for 48 hours before being shipped for use. It was thought that the PCE would evaporate before the pipes were installed. But that didn?t appear to be the case.
One in five Americans mentally ill in past year: study
One in five adults in the United States, or nearly 50 million people, suffered mental illnesses in the past year with women and young adults suffering disproportionately, a government report released on Thursday found. The survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found women were more likely than men (23 percent to 16.8 percent) to have experienced a mental illness, while the rate of mental illness among people aged 18 to 25 was twice that of those aged 50 and older. The administration defined mental illness among adults as diagnosable mental, behavioral or emotional disorders, excluding developmental disorders and substance use.
Despite the risks, mephedrone users in the UK are ready to try the next legal...
Since mephedrone was made illegal in the UK in 2010, the street price of the drug has risen while the quality has degraded, which in turn may have reduced use of the drug. New research published online today reveals that young people who continued to use mephedrone after it became illegal would switch to a new legal high if it were pure and rated highly by their friends or on the Internet. They would be less deterred by a lack of scientific research on the new drug. Mephedrone is a synthetic stimulant - a ?designer drug? - that became widely used in the UK from 2008 to 2010. Its rise in popularity may have been caused by its legality and ready availability (typically sold online as ?plant food?), and also to the reduced purity of street cocaine and ecstasy during the same period. In 2010, because of its similarity to amphetamines and frenzied media reporting of the harmful effects of the drug, mephedrone was made illegal in the UK and scheduled as a Class B drug. The drug is still available through street dealers and online. Research published online today in the journal Addiction shows that after taking mephedrone, users showed impaired working memory as well as the typical stimulant drug effects of euphoria, self confidence and buzzing.

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