The Mental Health Social Worker

For the first time, researchers show that preventive treatment with an antidepressant medication or talk therapy can significantly reduce the risk or delay the start of depression following an acute stroke, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health. These findings differ from past studies attempting to prevent poststroke depression. The study appears in the May 28, 2008, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. (more…)

HIV-positive people who have experienced childhood sexual abuse are less likely to engage in risky sexual behavior if they receive a group intervention designed to help them cope with their traumatic history, according to an NIMH-funded study published April 1, 2008, in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

Previous research has found that people living with HIV are more likely than the general population to have experienced sexual abuse during childhood. Those with a history of sexual abuse are also more likely to engage in unprotected sexual behavior that can contribute to the spread of HIV and AIDS. In addition, the psychological consequences of childhood sexual abuse, such as low self-esteem, avoidance, and self-destructiveness, are associated with risky sexual behavior. (more…)

Drug-related cues may sway adolescent preference more strongly

 

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Washington — New drug research suggests that teens may get addicted and relapse more easily than adults because developing brains are more powerfully motivated by drug-related cues. This conclusion has been reached by researchers who found that adolescent rats given cocaine – a powerfully addicting stimulant – were more likely than adults to prefer the place where they got it. That learned association endured: Even after experimenters extinguished the drug-linked preference, a small reinstating dose of cocaine appeared to rekindle that preference – but only in the adolescent rats. (more…)