Psychiatry / Psychology
Parents susceptible to suicide after child’s death
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Parents of a sick child who dies at home are at increased risk of committing suicide, according to a report in the British Medical Journal. Access to the child’s potent pain medication after the death may provide an easy avenue for self-harm.
Dr. Dawn E. Davies, from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, describes two cases that illustrate the potential risks for parents.
The first case was an infant born with a tumor of the face who was treated at home with morphine to control pain and with a sedative for symptoms of respiratory distress. He died the day before his first birthday.
Study Finds Pathological Gambling Runs In Families
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Problem gambling runs in families according to a University of Iowa study published online Feb. 24 in the journal Psychiatry Research. The study also found an excess of alcoholism, drug disorders and antisocial personality disorder in families with pathological gamblers.
This is the first study of its kind to include detailed family interviews of relatives of persons with pathological gambling, said Donald W. Black, M.D., professor of psychiatry in the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.
“Something is being passed along in these families that increases the persons’ likelihood of engaging in impulsive and ultimately self-destructive behavior. In some persons, it manifests as substance abuse, in others as antisocial behavior, and in others gambling, and often the three are combined,” said Black, who has studied pathological gambling for the past eight years.
Small suicidal behavior risk linked to drug therapy
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During the early phase of antidepressant treatment of pediatric patients, there is a slight increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior, the results of several studies suggest.
However, the US Food and Drug Administration research team that conducted the study review does not discourage the use of antidepressant drugs for children. Instead, they advise “close monitoring of patients as a way of managing the risk of suicidality,” according to their report in the Archives of General Psychiatry for March.
Dr. Thomas Laughren and his colleagues in Rockville, Maryland, analyzed data from 24 studies ranging from 4 to 16 weeks in length that included 4,582 patients. The drugs tested were Prozac (fluoxetine), Zoloft (sertraline), Paxil (paroxetine), Luvox (fluvoxamine), Celexa (citalopram), Wellbutrin (bupropion), Effexor (venlafaxine), Serzone (nefazodone) and Remeron (mirtazapine).
Combat Duty in Iraq Linked With High Use of Mental Health Services
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About one-third of U.S. military personnel from the war in Iraq access mental health services after their return home, according to a study in the March 1 issue of JAMA.
The U.S. military has conducted population-level screening for mental health problems among all service members returning from deployment to Afghanistan, Iraq, and other locations. To date, no systematic analysis of this program has been conducted, and studies have not assessed the impact of these deployments on mental health care utilization after deployment, according to background information in the article. Such information is an important part of measuring the mental health burden of the current war and assuring that there are adequate resources to meet the mental health care needs of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Scientists can now predict memory of an event before it even happens
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Scientists can now predict memory of an event before it even happens. A team at UCL (University College London) can now tell how well memory will serve us before we have seen what we will remember.
Scans of brain activity, published online in the journal Nature Neuroscience, indicate that the brain can actually get into the ‘right frame of mind’ to store new information and that we perform at our best if the brain is active not only at the moment we get new information but also in the seconds before.
Anabolic Steroids Flip the Adolescent Brain’s Switch for Aggressive Behavior
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Anabolic steroids not only make teens more aggressive, but may keep them that way into young adulthood. The effect ultimately wears off but there may be other, lasting consequences for the developing brain. These findings, published in February’s Behavioral Neuroscience, also showed that aggression rose and fell in synch with neurotransmitter levels in the brain’s aggression control region. Behavioral Neuroscience is published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Neuroscientists are deeply concerned about rising adolescent abuse of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs), given the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s estimate that nearly half a million eighth- and 10th-grade students abuse AASs each year. Not only do steroids set kids up for heavier use of steroids and other drugs later in life, but long-term users can suffer from mood swings, hallucinations and paranoia; liver damage; high blood pressure; as well as increased risk of heart disease, stroke and some types of cancer. Withdrawal often brings depression, and recent research suggests that some AASs may even be habit-forming.
Treatments Based on Human Behaviour Could Reduce Drug Prescribing
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New psychological treatments - behavioural medicine - could significantly reduce the need for drug treatments for some conditions, cutting health system costs says an editorial in this week’s BMJ.
Behavioural medicine - using treatments borrowed from psychology such as cognitive behavioural therapy - has the potential to reduce pain, argue the authors. Treating a patient with a system of behavioural instructions before surgery, for instance, can lower the amount of anaesthetic required during the operation, and cut the time they need to stay in hospital.
New drug formulation may help drug addicts quit
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An injectable, sustained-release formulation of naltrexone is a safe and effective treatment for patients who are addicted to opioid drugs, such as heroin, new research suggests.
Naltrexone in oral form is very effective in preventing and reversing the effects of opioid drugs. However, it has not been particularly useful because patients often stop taking it, according to the report in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The development of a longer lasting naltrexone formulation has renewed interest in this drug.
Autism surrounded by misunderstanding-experts
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People with autism are more intelligent and able to function better than previously believed, but mistrust of doctors, biased tests and the Internet have bred myths about the condition, experts said on Sunday.
At a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, researchers presented reports showing that even autistics who do not speak can have above-average intelligence. They also offered additional studies disputing claims that vaccines can cause autism.
Amnesty says U.S. executes many mentally ill
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At least 10 percent of the first 1,000 people executed in the United States since 1977, were severely mentally ill, Amnesty International said in a report issued on Monday.
The London-based human rights organization, which opposes all forms of capital punishment, said the practice of putting to death people with serious mental illnesses offends international standards of decency.
Surprising autism finding
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New brain imaging research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicates that when people with autism look at a face, activity in the brain area that responds is similar to that of people without autism.
The finding is surprising, as it is widely known that autistic individuals tend to avoid looking directly at faces. The research also counters previous published reports that the face-processing area at the back of the brain is under-responsive in people with autism, and it suggests that specific behavioral interventions may help people with autism improve their ability to interact socially.
MRI Scans Find Larger Brains in Children With Autism
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MRI scans indicate that the brains of children with autism are larger than those of healthy children, suggesting an unusual pattern of brain growth that may have its onset in shortly before a child’s first birthday.
The increased brain volume was detected in the cerebral cortical volumes but not in cerebral volumes, according to Heather Cody Hazlett, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina here.
The brains of children with autism are about 5% larger than brains of non-autistic children, and the enlargement is due mainly to larger grey matter and white matter volumes in the cerebral cortex, Dr. Hazlett and colleagues reported in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
Creativity tied to sexual “success”
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Artists may indeed have a more active love life than most of us—and part of the reason may be their tendency toward a certain schizophrenia-linked personality trait, a study suggests.
In a survey of 425 British adults, researchers found that serious poets and visual artists generally had more sexual partners than those who were either not artistic or only dabbled in the arts.
Brain Enlargement May Be Characteristic of Autism
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Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has found evidence of brain enlargement in a relatively large sample of children with autism, compared with children who do not have the disorder, according to a study in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder defined by social deficits, abnormalities in communication, and stereotyped, repetitive behaviors. While the neuroanatomical basis of this condition is not yet known, numerous lines of evidence suggest that abnormalities in brain volume may be characteristic of autism, according to background information in the article.
Mental disorder signs seen in young children-study
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Preschool children can show early signs of mental disorders, which can be diagnosed and treated to prevent problems later in life, a leading psychologist said on Monday.
Children as young as 2 or 3 years old may suffer from depression, anxiety, disruptive behaviour or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
