Psychiatry / Psychology
New Model for Autism Suggests Women Carry the Disorder and Explains Age as a Risk Factor
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A new model for understanding how autism is acquired has been developed by a team of researchers led by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Autism is a developmental disorder, characterized by language impairments, social deficits, and repetitive behaviors. The researchers analyzed data on autism incidence and found a previously unrecognized pattern. The pattern can be explained by assuming that spontaneous germ-line mutation is a significant cause of the disorder. Parents, especially women, who acquire the mutation – but do not exhibit severe symptoms of the disorder – have a 50% chance of passing the mutation on to their children. Sons often show the most severe symptoms.
Spontaneous mutations are changes in a chromosome that alter genes. Germ-line mutations are newly acquired in a germ cell of a parent, and sometimes are transmitted to offspring at conception.
Sleep pattern linked with teen’s behavior
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New study findings suggest that a preference for nighttime over daytime activities may be associated with antisocial behavior in adolescences, even in children as young as 8 years old.
Those who prefer later bedtimes appear to exhibit more antisocial behavior than those who like to wake early and participate in daytime recreational activities, researchers report.
China Limits Teenage Internet Gaming
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The Chinese government has launched a campaign to limit the number of hours teenagers spend online playing games.
Under new rules that took effect Monday, Chinese Internet gaming companies must install a program that requires users to enter their ID card numbers. After three hours, players under 18 are prompted to stop and “do suitable physical exercise.” If they continue, the software slashes by half any points earned in the game. All points are wiped out if players stay on more than five hours.
Therapy for depression cuts suicide attempts
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Treating people with depression—by means of either medications or psychotherapy—leads to a drop in suicide attempts, according to a new report.
The findings relate to the controversy about treating young people with antidepressant drugs, and the suspicion that doing so may be linked to increased suicide rates.
Your Spouse Can Pass on Good Health Habits
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Being a good role model can truly help a spouse to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
When one spouse quits smoking or drinking, gets a cholesterol screening or rolls up a sleeve for a flu shot, the other spouse is more likely to follow suit, according to a new study published in the journal Health Services Research.
Prenatal secondhand smoke tied to mental problems
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Pregnant women exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely than their unexposed counterparts to have children with psychological problems such as conduct disorder, attention deficits, and behavior problems, a study suggests.
While such problems are known to be more common among children whose mothers smoked while pregnant, this study is the first to find that passive smoking poses a risk as well, Drs. Lisa M. Gatzke-Kopp and Theodore P. Beauchaine of the University of Washington in Seattle note in the journal Child Psychiatry and Human Development.
Epilepsy raises suicide risk, study finds
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People newly diagnosed with epilepsy have an especially high risk of suicide and doctors should keep an eye on them, Danish researchers reported on Monday.
Patients with epilepsy had a three times higher risk of suicide, the researchers found, but the risk fell the longer someone had lived with the condition.
Fewer kids on SSRI antidepressants
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Within 2 years after the October 2003 FDA public health advisory about the risk of suicide in children taking a type of antidepressant called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), significant reductions in rates of diagnosis and antidepressant treatment of childhood depression occurred, researchers report.
“Antidepressant use was expected to decline, consistent with effects on other drugs after warnings are issued,” Dr. Anne M. Libby of University of Colorado Health Science Center at Denver told Reuters Health.
High Stress Increases Pregnancy Risk
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High stress levels with low social support during pregnancy can place women at risk for premature labor and preeclampsia. A new study shows that mental health anguish can trigger inflammatory responses that can place both the mother and baby at risk.
Preeclampsia, symptoms of which include sudden increases in blood pressure, excessive weight gain and severe headaches, can affect the mother’s kidney, liver and brain function. If left untreated, preeclampsia can result in seizures or even coma during pregnancy. Uncontrolled preeclampsia can threaten the life of both the mother and the baby.
Does Anxiety Influence Pregnancy Outcomes?
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A review of research conducted over the course of nearly 40 years has lead scientists to comment that experiencing anxiety symptoms during pregnancy is not associated with an increased risk of having a longer labor or a low birth weight baby. According to the authors, previous research examining whether anxiety during pregnancy does cause harmful effects had shown mixed results.
Still, researchers believe additional research is needed as a number of important outcomes that have been theorized to be affected by anxiety, such as development of pre-eclampsia have not been studied. The review, by University of Texas Medical Branch scientists, will be presented at the 114th annual convention of the American Psychological Association (APA).
Depression may speed bone loss in older women
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Depressed older women appear to lose bone at a faster rate than their non-depressed counterparts, new research shows.
In the study, researchers determined depressive symptoms and took two hip bone mineral density (BMD) measurements an average of 4.4 years apart in 4,177 women aged 69 and older participating in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures.
Addiction experts say video games not an addiction
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Doctors backed away on Sunday from a controversial proposal to designate video game addiction as a mental disorder akin to alcoholism, saying psychiatrists should study the issue more.
Addiction experts also strongly opposed the idea at a debate at the American Medical Association’s annual meeting.
Antipsychotic drugs may impair or aid cognition
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Antipsychotic medications used to relieve distress in people with chronic schizophrenia have variable effects on mental functioning and cognitive capability, according to a report sponsored by the National Institute of Medical Health.
“Some patients improve and some get worse, so their doctors need to attend to how an antipsychotic is affecting cognition,” Dr. Richard S. E. Keefe from Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina told Reuters Health.
Pentagon says more funds needed for mental health
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The U.S. military’s mental health system fails to meet the needs of troops and is too short of funds and staff to help service members sent to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon said on Friday.
Repeated and extended deployments to those war zones over the past five years have driven the need for mental health services higher, but resources have not climbed in response, members of a Defense Department task force said.
US veterans have increased risk of suicide
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Male US military service veterans are more than twice as likely to commit suicide compared with their peers who never served in the armed forces, a new study shows.
And veterans with some type of disability were at particularly high risk of killing themselves, Dr. Mark S. Kaplan of Portland State University in Oregon and colleagues found.
