http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (HealthDay)—The rate of non-medical use of prescription pain relievers in the past year among individuals aged 12 years and older is estimated at 4.6 percent nationally, with considerable variation between states, according to a study published online Jan. 8 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-non-medical-rx-pain-meds-percent.html Medications Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:00:01 EST news277044593 (Medical Xpress)—As the California Legislature prepares to consider bills relating to implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and expanding Medicaid, the state has the opportunity to significantly increase health insurance coverage at minimal cost to the state budget, according to a joint study by the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Labor Research and Education and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.    http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-minimal-state-medicaid-expansion-california.html Health Tue, 08 Jan 2013 07:12:19 EST news276851532 (Medical Xpress)—Implementation of the Mental Health Parity Act could save tens, possibly hundreds of billions of dollars and prevent needless suffering. The federal government has promised further guidance about how the law applies, but to date, there is confusion and no publicly available compliance data. Judith Bentkover, academic director of Brown's Executive Master of Health-Care Leadership Program, urges citizens and elected leaders to break the silence around mental-health services. Her essay originally appeared in the Providence Journal on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-mental-health-parity.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 24 Dec 2012 05:48:43 EST news275550511 (Medical Xpress)—More than half a million adults in California seriously thought about committing suicide during the previous year, according to a new study from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-million-california-adults-committing-suicide.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:50:01 EST news275211073 (HealthDay)— In the aftermath of the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 20 children in Newtown, Conn., last Friday, voices around the nation are asking, "How could this have happened?" http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-mental-health-kids.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:30:01 EST news275069436 The "prison-like" immigration detention facilities on Christmas Island are not appropriate for asylum seekers, and there has been a rise in the demand for mental health services at the facility, according to a damning report released today by the Human Rights Commission. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-christmas-island-detention-centre-spike.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 13 Dec 2012 08:26:57 EST news274609611 (HealthDay)—In 2011, nearly one in five adults in the United States reported any mental illness (AMI), and one in twenty suffered from serious mental illness (SMI), according to a Nov. 29 report published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-samhsa-prevalence-mental-illness-stable.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 05 Dec 2012 17:00:06 EST news273946573 (HealthDay)—U.S emergency rooms tended to more than 11,400 cases of drug-related health complications specifically linked to the use of synthetic marijuana in 2010, a new government report reveals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-samhsa-er-synthetic-marijuana.html Addiction Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:37:20 EST news273861434 (HealthDay)—Underage drinking in the United States remains a serious public health issue, a new federal government report shows. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-states.html Health Mon, 26 Nov 2012 18:00:01 EST news273172799 (HealthDay)—A significant decline in cigarette smoking took place among U.S. kids aged 12 to 17 between 2002 and 2010 in 41 states, according to a new federal government report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-teen-fallen.html Health Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:05:42 EST news272729136 Youth with mental illness are among the most vulnerable, but new research from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has found that less than half of Ontario youth aged 15 to 19 hospitalized with a psychiatric diagnosis received follow-up care with a primary care doctor or psychiatrist within a month after being discharged. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-youth-mental-illness-adequate-follow-up.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:45:41 EST news272551432 (Medical Xpress)—A new study by researchers at the Silver School of Social Work has found that among 60 young adults with a history of significant mental health difficulties, few used psychiatric services, medications, or other mental health services on a continuous basis as they transitioned to adulthood. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-discontinue-mental-health-transition-adulthood.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 03 Oct 2012 09:30:01 EST news268473923 (Medical Xpress)—Minority children are known to utilize treatments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD—the most common neurobehavioral disorder of childhood—less than their non-minority peers. The question is what causes this disparity in care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-minorities-underuse-adhd.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 03 Oct 2012 09:06:29 EST news268473975 Many public safety-net hospitals are likely to face increasing financial and competitive pressures stemming in part from the recent Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act, according to researchers at Penn State and the Harvard School of Public Health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-survival-safety-net-hospitals.html Health Thu, 20 Sep 2012 12:23:38 EST news267362609 (Medical Xpress)—An independent evaluation by Warwick Medical School warns that the health service lacks sufficient capacity to respond to perinatal depression, while highlighting a potential role for the voluntary sector, particularly in the antenatal period. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-volunteers-critical-women-antenatal-perinatal.html Health Mon, 17 Sep 2012 09:19:02 EST news267092334 Researchers, doctors and patients tend to agree that during the high-risk period after an attempted suicide, the treatment of choice is close contact, follow-up and personal interaction in order to prevent a tragic repeat. Now, however, new research shows that this strategy does not work. These surprising results from Mental Health Services in the Capital Region of Denmark and the University of Copenhagen have just been published in the British Medical Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-contact-young-people-suicide-effect.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 22 Aug 2012 13:19:43 EST news264860378 (HealthDay) -- An average of 12.0 percent of girls aged 12 to 17 years have experienced a major depressive episode (MDE) in the past year, with the rates tripling for girls between the ages of 12 and 15, according to a report published July 19 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-depression-triples-ages-girls.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 31 Jul 2012 11:50:01 EST news262952494 A cancer diagnosis for adolescents and young adults can be especially challenging, and new research shows the social, psychological and informational support these patients need might be going unmet. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-unmet-adolescents-young-adult-cancer.html Cancer Tue, 17 Jul 2012 13:02:43 EST news261748954 People who experience a serious physical health event are three times as likely to subsequently see a health care provider for mental health services and medication, according to a new study in Health Services Research. In addition, people who view a health event as severe have greater use of mental health services. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-physical-health-problems-mental-demand.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 09 Jul 2012 09:20:01 EST news261041570 (HealthDay) -- More teenagers start drinking and smoking cigarettes and marijuana in June and July than in any other months, U.S. health officials say. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-summer-peak-teens-drugs-alcohol.html Health Tue, 03 Jul 2012 10:44:20 EST news260531053 Disparities in the use of mental health services, including outpatient care and psychotropic drug prescriptions, persist for black and Latino children, reports a new study in Health Services Research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-mental-health-disparities-persist-black.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 22 Jun 2012 09:28:28 EST news259576102 (Medical Xpress) -- A new approach to preventing and treating anxiety and depression may be used to improve the emotional health of fly-in fly-out workers and people living in bushfire-prone areas. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-cognitive-bias-modification-approach-emotional.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 28 May 2012 06:40:15 EST news257406001 (HealthDay) -- Smoking rates among American teens and young adults fell between 2004 and 2010, but too many of them still light up, a new federal government report reveals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-young-americans-survey.html Health Thu, 17 May 2012 13:35:43 EST news256480538 (HealthDay) -- Too many American women still smoke during their pregnancies, a new report finds, and rates of such smoking vary widely depending on race. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-women-pregnancy.html Health Thu, 10 May 2012 18:20:01 EST news255885126 John W. Tsuang, M.D., principal investigator at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed), in conjunction with Steven J. Shoptaw, Ph.D., from the UCLA Department of Family Medicine, is spearheading a Phase I clinical safety trial that for the first time examines the effects of Ibudilast when administered with metamphetamine (MA), an addictive stimulant that is closely related to amphetamine. Ibudilast is a non-selective phosphodiesterase inhibitor known as a modulator of glial activation in the central nervous system; the role of these glial cells is to regulate the repair of neurons after an injury, such as the neurocognitive deficits caused by long-term MA addiction. The study is being funded by the National Institutes of Health National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-effects-ibudilast-metamphetamines.html Addiction Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:50:09 EST news254591077 (HealthDay) -- Adults with mental illness are more likely to have certain types of chronic physical health problems than those without mental illness, according to a U.S. government report released this week. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-mental-illness-tied-higher-physical.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:47:03 EST news253529194 A study of more than 18,000 children across England found that embedding mental health support in schools as part of the Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) programme led to greater improvements in self-reported behavioural problems among primary pupils. The benefits were even more pronounced where schools also provided pupils with self-help leaflets explaining how children could help themselves if they were feeling stressed or troubled. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-school-based-mental-health-results-positive.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:10:01 EST news252064143 Psychiatry is employing smartphone technology as an innovative tool in the assessment and treatment of schizophrenia and other serious mental illness. Prominent in this endeavor is Dror Ben-Zeev, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School and director of the Thresholds-Dartmouth Research Center in Chicago. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-smartphones-aid-people-schizophrenia.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:10:03 EST news251023910 Many adults suffer from mild to moderate depression and/or anxiety symptoms. This puts them at increased risk of developing a mental disorder. Proactive intervention by the mental health services is therefore crucial if we want to reduce this risk. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-negative-emotional-relief.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 23 Feb 2012 07:24:17 EST news249204236 Young adult blacks, especially those with higher levels of education, are significantly less likely to seek mental health services than their white counterparts, according to a study published by the American Psychological Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-blacks-higher-prior-treatment-mental.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:51:31 EST news249133866