Telephone Therapy Almost as Effective as Face-to-Face Therapy for Depression Mood DisordersBy Promises Behavioral HealthMay 11, 2010Treating clinical depression on the telephone is nearly as effective as face-to-face consultations, a new Brigham Young University study has found. The trial run included 30 people newly diagnosed with major depression. Instead of eight scheduled visits to the clinic, the participants covered the same material during a series of phone calls with the therapist.…
Why Later-Life Depression is Harder to Treat Mood DisordersBy Promises Behavioral HealthMay 10, 2010Scientists have found an important clue in the quest to understand why people who suffer from depression in later life are harder to treat and keep well in the long term. A study led by Toronto’s Baycrest has found that older adults with depression don’t respond normally to emotional stimuli, such as when they see…
Childhood Cancer Survivors More Likely to Develop PTSD News and ResearchBy Promises Behavioral HealthMay 7, 2010Young adult survivors of childhood cancers are four times more likely to develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) than their control group siblings, a Childhood Cancer Survivors Study has found. The study focused on 6,542 childhood cancer survivors over 18 who were diagnosed with cancer between 1970 and 1986 and 368 of their siblings as a…
Magnetic Stimulation May Be Successful as Depression Treatment Mood DisordersBy Promises Behavioral HealthMay 6, 2010Some depressed patients who don’t respond to or tolerate antidepressant medications may benefit from a non-invasive treatment that stimulates the brain with a pulsing electromagnet, a study suggests. This first industry-independent, multi-site, randomized, tightly controlled trial of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) found that it produced significant antidepressant effects in a subgroup of patients, with…
Trauma-Induced Changes to Genes May Lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder News and ResearchBy Promises Behavioral HealthMay 5, 2010A study by researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health suggests that traumatic experiences “biologically embed” themselves in select genes, altering their functions and leading to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Mood and Anxiety Disorders Affect Many Older Adults News and ResearchBy Promises Behavioral HealthMay 4, 2010Rates of mood and anxiety disorders appear to decline with age but the conditions remain common in older adults, especially women, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Discrimination Leads to Depression in Minority Children Mood DisordersBy Promises Behavioral HealthMay 3, 2010A new study found that minority children who are exposed to more racism and discrimination often experience more symptoms of depression. The study was presented May 2 at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Binge Eating to Be Added to Mental Disorders Manual Eating DisordersBy Promises Behavioral HealthApril 30, 2010In two hours or less, do you eat an amount of food that is significantly larger than most people would consume in the same time and under similar circumstances? Do you eat until uncomfortably full, and more rapidly than most people would, at least once a week, for a minimum of three months? Do you…
People with Depression Eat More Chocolate as Symptoms Increase Mood DisordersBy Promises Behavioral HealthApril 29, 2010Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that women and men eat more chocolate as depressive symptoms increase, suggesting an association between mood and chocolate. Results of this paper, co-authored by Beatrice Golomb, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at UCSD School of Medicine, appears in the April 26…
Study Finds that a Single Gene is Responsible for OCD-Like Behavior in Mice News and ResearchBy Promises Behavioral HealthApril 28, 2010Researchers at the Ansary Stem Cell Institute and the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College discovered that mice missing a single gene developed repetitive obsessive-compulsive-like behaviors. The genetically altered mice, which behaved much like people with a certain type of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), could help scientists design new therapies for this debilitating condition.…
