Publications on Mental Health Topics

More Talking with Parents May Protect Kids Against Later Alcohol Misuse, by Janice Wood, Psych Central, May 5 2018.

“A new study has found that children with greater communication with their parents in early adolescence have less harmful alcohol use and emotional eating in young adulthood...Greater parent-child communication in early adolescence predicted greater connectivity of the ASN at age 25, supporting the idea that high-quality parenting is important for long-term brain development, according to the study’s findings. Greater ASN connectivity was, in turn, associated with lower harmful alcohol use and emotional eating at age 25. ”

Communication Issues Among Kids With Autism May Lead to Self-Harm, by Rick Nauert PhD, Psych Central, May 2 2018.

“A new study discovers communication problems among children can lead to depression and increase the risk of self-harm and suicidal intent during adolescence...The review comes in response to new findings that teen suicidality is under-recognized among children with ASD. Until now, community-based studies on suicidal thoughts and behaviors among children with symptoms of ASD have been limited...'Our study suggests that children who have difficulties with social communication are at higher risk for suicidal ideation and behavior in late adolescence,' said Dr. Iryna Culpin, senior research associate in the Bristol Medical School (PHS). 'Depressive symptoms in early adolescence partially explain this association.' ”

Ecstasy therapy may help service veterans suffering PTSD, by Kate Kelland, Reuters, May 1 2018.

“Combining intensive psychotherapy with a pure form of the party drug ecstasy is safe and could aid recovery in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to the findings of a study in military veterans. Scientists who conducted the research - a small study involving just 26 people - said its results suggested that with close medical and psychological supervision, giving MDMA to PTSD patients 'could enhance the benefits of psychotherapy.' ”

Anxiety in middle age linked to dementia later, by Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, Apr 30 2018.

“People with moderate to severe anxiety in middle age may be more likely to develop dementia as they get older, a recent study suggests. Researchers examined data from four previously published studies that tracked a total of almost 30,000 people for at least a decade. In each of the smaller studies, there was a clear connection between anxiety in midlife and dementia later on, researchers report in BMJ Open. ”

Three-Minute Brain Stimulation Found Effective for Hard-to-Treat Depression, by Janice Wood, Psych Central , Apr 29 2018.

“A new study finds that a three-minute version of a brain stimulation treatment is just as effective as the standard 37-minute version for hard-to-treat depression. The treatment is called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), which uses magnetic field pulses to non-invasively stimulate a part of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is associated with mood regulation...'The main impact of this study is that the number of people who are able to be treated using theta burst stimulation compared to the standard form of rTMS can be increased by three to four fold,' said lead author Dr. Daniel Blumberger, co-director of the Temerty Centre for Therapeutic Brain Intervention at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. ”

Mom's depression tied to kids' emotional, intellectual development, by Cheryl Platzman Weinstock, Reuters, Apr 25 2018.

“A mother’s depression is linked with her children’s development from infancy through adolescence, according to a new study. Researchers studied 875 middle- or lower-class mothers in Chile and their healthy children over a 16-year period, evaluating participants roughly every four years....At age five, children with severely depressed mothers had an average verbal IQ score of 7.3 (on a scale of 1 to 19), compared to a higher score of 7.8 in children without depressed mothers...These children will have a smaller vocabulary and poorer comprehension skills, East said...The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends screening new mothers for depression during the months after childbirth. ”

Losing a spouse late in life linked to cognitive decline, by Carolyn Crist, Reuters, Apr 20 2018.

“Older adults who lose a spouse may be more vulnerable to cognitive decline in subsequent years and require extra support and monitoring, researchers say. In the study of nearly 7,000 middle aged and older men and women, cognitive functioning declined over time for everyone, but it degraded slightly more and slightly faster for those who had been widowed, regardless of whether they remarried. ”

A Drug to End Addiction? Scientists Are Working on It., by Clyde Haberman, New York Times, Apr 15 2018.

“Scrambling for ways to contain America’s out-of-control opioid crisis, some experts in the field are convinced that one bit of good advice is to just say no to the enduring “just say no” antidrug message. Addiction, they say, is not a question of free will or a correctable character flaw...Rather, it is an affliction of the brain that needs to be treated as one would any chronic illness...One possible approach, an experimental vaccine...intended principally for men and women already hooked on heroin or related opioids like Oxycodone and fentanyl — people who would be at risk of death should they detoxify and then relapse...would stop opioids by effectively blocking them from reaching the brain by way of the circulatory system. At the same time, it would not interfere with other treatments for addicts, like methadone and buprenorphine, or with a compound like naloxone that reverses overdoses. ”

Religious faith linked to suicidal behavior in LGBQ adults, by Anne Harding, Reuters, Apr 13 2018.

“Although religiosity is generally tied to reduced suicide risk, the opposite may be true for some young lesbian, gay and questioning adults, researchers say. Based on data from more than 21,000 U.S. college students, researchers found that greater religious feeling and engagement was tied to increased risk of suicidal thoughts and actions for participants who identified as LGBQ...Questioning youth had the highest rate of recent thoughts about suicide, at 16.4 percent, compared with 3.7 percent of heterosexuals, 6.5 percent of lesbian/gay individuals and 11.4 percent of bisexuals. ”

Irritability in childhood linked to teen suicide risk, by Cheryl Platzman Weinstock , Reuters, Apr 11 2018.

“Most children experience mood swings from time to time, but kids with chronic irritability and serious depression or anxiety are at increased risk for suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in adolescence, suggests a large Canadian study. Based on records for 1,430 children followed for up to 17 years, researchers found that those who were particularly irritable and depressed or anxious between ages 6 and 12 were twice as likely as peers to think about suicide or make a suicide attempt between ages 13 and 17. ”

Using transgender youths' chosen names may lower suicide risk, by Rachel Gurevich , Reuters, Apr 10 2018.

“When a transgender youth chooses a new name, it’s important for friends, relatives and acquaintances to use that chosen name, a new study suggests.  For those who selected a different name from the one given at birth, being called by the chosen name reduced depressive symptoms and overall suicidal risk, researchers found.  The reduction in mental health risks was strongest when the chosen name was used in multiple contexts, like at home, at school, at work, and among friends. ”

Traumatic Brain Injuries Are Tied to Dementia, by Nicholas Bakalar, New York Times, Apr 10 2018.

“In the largest study of its kind, researchers have found that traumatic brain injury is associated with an increased risk of dementia. The risk of dementia was highest among people who had suffered multiple T.B.I.s. But even a single mild T.B.I. was tied to an increased risk of dementia...they found that compared with people who had never had a T.B.I., those who had had any were at a 24 percent increased risk for dementia, and those who had had five or more had nearly triple the risk. ”

Antidepressants in pregnancy tied to changes in babies' brains, by Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, Apr 9 2018.

“Babies’ brains may develop differently when their mothers take antidepressants during pregnancy, a small U.S. study suggests. Researchers examined brain scans of 16 newborns whose mothers took medications known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for depression during pregnancy. They also studied 21 babies whose mothers had untreated depression during pregnancy, and 61 infants born to women without depression. Infants whose mothers took SSRIs had greater brain volume in regions of the brain that are critical for emotional processing, compared to babies whose mothers had untreated depression or were not experiencing depression, the study found. ”

Where marijuana is legal, opioid prescriptions fall, studies find, by Kate Sheridan, Stat News, Apr 2 2018.

“As more states legalize medical and recreational marijuana, doctors may be replacing opioid prescriptions with suggestions to visit a local marijuana dispensary...One of the two new studies found that people on Medicare filled 14 percent fewer prescriptions for opioids after medical marijuana laws were passed in their states. The second study found that Medicaid enrollees filled nearly 40 fewer opioid prescriptions per 1,000 people each year after their state passed any law making cannabis accessible — with greater drops seen in states that legalized both medical and recreational marijuana. ”

Impossible Perfection, by Daniel Summers, Slate, Mar 30 2018.

“Earlier this year, a survey conducted jointly by the Trevor Project, the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), and Reasons Eating Disorder Center reported a shockingly high rate of eating disorders among LGBTQ youth. Of the 1,034 respondents to the survey, all LGBTQ-identifying people between 13–24 years old, 54 percent had been diagnosed with an eating disorder, and an additional 21 percent suspected they may have one despite lacking a formal diagnosis. While these results aren’t perfectly representative, they call much-needed attention to a serious problem within our community.  ”