http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Combat troops must minimize the humanness of their enemies in order to kill them. They can't be effective fighters if they're distracted by feelings of empathy for opponents. But indifference to the enemy, rather than loathing, may help prevent war crimes and provide troops with a better path back to healthy civilian lives, researchers at Case Western Reserve University propose. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-06-enable-war-crimes.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:55:55 EST news289752946 MRI may be an effective way to diagnose mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, according to experts from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In a landmark study using advanced techniques, the researchers were able to correctly distinguish bipolar patients from healthy individuals based on their brain scans alone. The data are published in the journal Psychological Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-06-neuroimaging-bipolar-disorder.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 05 Jun 2013 16:15:58 EST news289667752 In 2008 researchers from the University of Southern Denmark showed that the drug thioridazine, which has previously been used to treat schizophrenia, is also a powerful weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as staphylococci (Staphylococcus aureus). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-scizophrenia-medicine-antibiotics-resistant-bacteria.html Medical research Fri, 17 May 2013 17:06:57 EST news288029204 The presence of posttraumatic stress disorder is significantly associated with the development of type 2 diabetes. This is the finding of scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the University Hospital Gießen and Marburg who worked with data from the population-based KORA cohort study. A sustained activation of the hormonal stress axis due to chronic stress symptoms is most likely a major causing mechanism. The scientists have published their results in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-posttraumatic-stress-disorder-diabetes.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 16 May 2013 10:50:02 EST news287919593 (AP)—There's a new version of the world's most widely used psychiatric manual, and it's already getting lots of criticism. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-critics-psychiatric-manual.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 15 May 2013 16:30:18 EST news287854212 Although smoking prevalence has declined in the United Kingdom over recent decades, it has changed little among people with mental health disorders, remaining substantially higher than the national average. Yet a study published in the journal Addiction, presenting work carried out for a report released today by the Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Psychiatrists called 'Smoking and Mental Health', suggests that general practitioners (GPs) are missing opportunities to help smokers with mental health disorders to quit. Though smokers with mental health problems are more likely than other smokers to receive cessation support from their GP over the course of a year, this reflects the increased frequency of their consultations. Overall, the total proportion of smokers with poor mental health (indicated by a recorded diagnosis or a prescription for a psychoactive medication) who are prescribed a smoking cessation medication in any one year is low: approximately one in ten is prescribed a smoking cessation medication, and only half are advised to quit. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-opportunities-smokers-mental-illness.html Addiction Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:00:07 EST news283629426 Listening in on the electrical currents of teenagers' brains during sleep, scientists have begun to hear the sound of growing maturity. It happens most intensively between the ages of 12 and 16 1/2: After years of frenzied fluctuation, the brain's electrical output during the deepest phase of sleep - the delta, or slow-wave phase, when a child's brain is undergoing its most restorative rest - becomes practically steady. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-teens-brains-maturity.html Neuroscience Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:10:19 EST news283169382 People with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression can lose weight and keep it off through a modified lifestyle intervention program, a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded study reported online today in the New England Journal of Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-people-mental-illnesses-weight.html Overweight and Obesity Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:30:02 EST news283096256 (Medical Xpress)—A new study conducted by monitoring the brain waves of sleeping adolescents has found that remarkable changes occur in the brain as it prunes away neuronal connections and makes the major transition from childhood to adulthood. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-reveals-adolescent-brain-transition-mature.html Neuroscience Tue, 19 Mar 2013 09:51:26 EST news282905473 Designer drugs are multiplying at a worrying rate and increasingly sending users to hospital, a UN-affiliated report said Tuesday, calling for international efforts to stem the spread of these substances. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-drugs-health.html Addiction Tue, 05 Mar 2013 06:27:37 EST news281687251 Yoga has positive effects on mild depression and sleep complaints, even in the absence of drug treatments, and improves symptoms associated with schizophrenia and ADHD in patients on medication, according to a systematic review of the exercise on major clinical psychiatric disorders. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-frontiers-publishes-systematic-effects-yoga.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 25 Jan 2013 02:00:01 EST news278273098 Johns Hopkins researchers have identified a rare gene mutation in a single family with a high rate of schizophrenia, adding to evidence that abnormal genes play a role in the development of the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-evidence-mounts-role-mutated-genes.html Genetics Tue, 22 Jan 2013 04:00:01 EST news278012810 (Medical Xpress)—An international team of researchers has developed a new anti-cancer drug that holds promise as a therapy that fights cancer while causing fewer side effects than current medicines. The work done by the group – mainly in the US and Australia – and the results they've achieved are described in an article published by the team in Nature Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-pill-side-effects-leukemia.html Cancer Mon, 07 Jan 2013 07:40:01 EST news276763780 Mental illness is the largest contributor to disability, according to a report card on the world's health, The Global Burden of Disease 2010 (GBD 2010). The seven papers and two commentaries that make up the report will be published in The Lancet this week.  http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-mental-illness-largest-contributor-disability.html Health Fri, 14 Dec 2012 07:07:00 EST news274691207 Unemployment poses a significant burden on the public no matter what the cause. But for those who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric illness, chronic unemployment is often coupled with significant health care costs. A Rhode Island Hospital study compared unemployment rates among those with various psychiatric disorders, and found that borderline personality disorder is associated with as much unemployment as bipolar disorder. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-borderline-personality-bipolar-disorders-similar.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 11 Dec 2012 10:51:02 EST news274445289 Scientists have discovered a cognitive biomarker – a biological indicator of a disease – for young adolescents who are at high risk of developing depression and anxiety. Their findings were published today, 28 November, in the journal PLOS ONE. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-scientists-depression-anxiety-biomarker-youths.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:00:01 EST news273344209 Whether you are an apple tree or an antelope, survival depends on using your energy efficiently. In a difficult or dangerous situation, the key question is whether exerting effort—sending out roots in search of nutrients in a drought or running at top speed from a predator—will be worth the energy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-optogenetics-illuminates-pathways-brain.html Neuroscience Sun, 18 Nov 2012 13:00:18 EST news272462332 On July 20, a gunman in Aurora, Colorado, used an assault rifle to murder 12 people and wound 58 others. Although this was one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, all mass shootings account for a small percentage of gun violence that occurs in the U.S. every day. In the past 100 days since the Aurora shooting, an estimated 3,035 Americans have died as a result of gun violence. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-restricting-high-risk-individuals-guns.html Other Thu, 25 Oct 2012 08:31:15 EST news270372663 (Medical Xpress)—Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), a category that includes autism, Asperger Syndrome, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder, are characterized by difficulty with social interaction and communication, or repetitive behaviors. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Management says that one in 88 children in the US is somewhere on the Autism spectrum—an alarming ten-fold increase in the last four decades. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-schizophrenia-autism.html Autism spectrum disorders Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:30:37 EST news270214221 Online health records could be surprisingly useful for at-risk teenagers who cycle through the juvenile justice system. A new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center found that these young people have high rates of Internet use and an unexpectedly favorable attitude toward accessing their health records online. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-teens-benefit-online-access-health.html Pediatrics Mon, 22 Oct 2012 03:12:26 EST news270094338 (Medical Xpress)—A mixed background group of US researchers has found in studying chimpanzee brains, that development of myelin, the fatty sheath that covers the connections between nerve cells, occurs at a different rate than for humans, and as they write in their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the differences might account for the greater instance of mental disorders in people than in both chimpanzees and other primates, such as macaques. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-myelin-differences-chimps-humans.html Neuroscience Tue, 25 Sep 2012 07:21:16 EST news267776455 (Medical Xpress) -- Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered a "scaffolding" protein that holds together multiple elements in a complex system responsible for regulating pain, mental illnesses and other complex neurological problems. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-newly-scaffold-pain.html Neuroscience Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:45:22 EST news262604713 The traditional approach to psychiatric diagnosis is based on grouping patients on the basis of symptom clusters. This approach to diagnosis has a number of problems, as symptoms are not necessarily specific to a single diagnosis. Symptoms may vary among patients with a particular diagnosis, and there are no clear diagnostic biomarkers or tests for psychiatry as there are for other areas of medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-neural-circuit-dysfunctions-neuroeconomics.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 24 Jul 2012 10:45:51 EST news262345545 (Medical Xpress) -- Johns Hopkins researchers say they have discovered a cause-and-effect relationship between two well-established biological risk factors for schizophrenia previously believed to be independent of one another. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-link-biological-factors-schizophrenia.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 17 Jul 2012 06:36:30 EST news261725780 A study that examined maternal use of antipsychotic drugs during pregnancy suggests that these medications may be linked to an increased risk of gestational diabetes, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-antipsychotic-drugs-pregnancy-linked-gestational.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:00:12 EST news260457136 (Medical Xpress) -- Software programmed to recognise patterns of activity in the brain could help doctors diagnose mental illnesses more accurately in the future, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust. In a study published in the journal ‘Bipolar Disorders’, researchers at UCL (University College London) showed that patterns of brain responses to happy faces and to neutral faces are different in people with bipolar disorder or unipolar disorder (major depressive disorder) and healthy individuals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-patterns-brain-response-emotional-bipolar.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 19 Jun 2012 07:00:01 EST news259307428 (Medical Xpress) -- Two prominent University of Connecticut Health Center researchers are adding their voices to a chorus of other national experts who are questioning proposed changes regarding substance abuse guidelines in a manual used internationally in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-uconn-voice-addiction-guideline.html Addiction Mon, 11 Jun 2012 10:09:39 EST news258628169 The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), long the master reference work in psychiatry, is seriously flawed and needs radical change from its current "field guide" form, according to an essay by two Johns Hopkins psychiatrists published in the May 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-experts-psychiatry-diagnostic-manual-overhaul.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 16 May 2012 17:00:11 EST news256405395 Antipsychotic medications are increasingly prescribed in the US, but they can cause serious side effects including rapid weight gain, especially in children. In the first study of its kind, researchers at Zucker Hillside Hospital and the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research identified a gene that increases weight gain in those treated with commonly-used antipsychotic drugs. These findings were published in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-gene-severe-weight-gain-antipsychotic.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 07 May 2012 16:00:12 EST news255613763 When children behave badly, it's easy to blame their parents. Sometimes, however, such behavior may be due to a mental disorder. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-unruly-kids-mental-disorder.html Pediatrics Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:00:01 EST news254749094