By focusing on the identification of common genetic variants, researchers have identified 57 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that predict - with a high…

Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London have shown that zebrafish could be used to study the underlying causes of psychiatric disorders.

The study, published online in the…

Some parents swear by fish oil as a treatment for the “tics” caused by Tourette’s disorder, but so far the research evidence is slim.

In a small study of…

Every month, I run across a newspaper or online article about how such-and-such mental disorder is an “epidemic.” I can rattle off the disorders that have been paired with this word so…

Look for a fundamental shift in how scientists hunt ways to ward off the devastation of Alzheimer’s disease - by testing possible therapies in people who don’t yet show many…

Although only a handful of people in the United States sleepwalk every year, a new study suggests close to one-third may do it at some point in their…

Women are more likely to suffer post-traumatic stress than men after leaving an intensive care unit (ICU), finds a new study published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Critical Care. However, psychological…

Last year, 45.9 million adult Americans had a mental illness, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Survey on Drug Use and…

Reports here provided what may be the last public update on DSM-5, the next edition of American psychiatry’s diagnostic guide, before it is formally released in May 2013.

Many changes have been…

Many psychiatrists believe a new edition of a manual designed to help diagnose mental illness should be shelved for at least a year for further revisions, despite some modifications which eliminated…

Two proposed psychiatric diagnoses failed to make the last round of cuts in the laborious process of revising the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - an exhaustive catalog…

Antidepressive drugs reduce the mortality rate of schizophrenic patients, while treatment with bensodiazepines greatly increases it, especially as regards suicide. Giving several antipsychotics simultaneously, however, seems to have no effect…

A Kansas State University graduate student is creating a schoolyard that can become a therapeutic landscape for children with autism.

Chelsey King, master’s student in landscape architecture, St. Peters, Mo.,…

Doctors should screen all of their female patients for signs of partner violence, whether face-to-face or through a waiting room questionnaire, a new report suggests.

The review of the current…

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has joined critics of the Obama administration’s campaign against medical marijuana suppliers in California, saying the government is endangering patients and undermining its own proclaimed policy…

Women suddenly thrust into “surgical menopause” by hysterectomy don’t have more severe mood symptoms than women going through gradual, natural menopause, a new study suggests.

Researchers who followed nearly 2,000…

In a study published in the May 2012 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, led by Mr. Sven Sandin, of the Karolinska Institutet,…

Not only adults become depressed. Children and teenagers also may have depression, as well. The good news is that depression is a treatable illness. Depression is defined as an illness when the feelings of…

Scientists have developed a blood test that may help diagnose major depression in teens and young adults.

The test is in very early stages. However, scientists hope it will someday…

A new study of mothers and children in California finds that kids born to obese women are more likely to be diagnosed with autism or related developmental delays than the…

Suicide rates for female teens and pre-teens in Canada rose over the past few decades even though the overall number of youths who took their own lives was dropping, according…

An analysis of a nationally representative sample of 710 adult respondents reveals that the public is less willing to pay to avoid mental illnesses compared to paying for…

Adding cognitive therapy to regular patient monitoring was no better at preventing the emergence of psychotic symptoms than monitoring alone, researchers found.

It does, however, appear to lessen the severity…

African-Americans and Hispanics with major depressive disorder are less likely to get antidepressants than Caucasian patients, and Medicare and Medicaid patients are less likely to get the…

Some antiepileptic drugs have been associated with an increased risk of suicide. A new study shows that the use of antiepileptic drugs by patients with bipolar disorder did not increase the risk…