The Mental Health Social Worker

The Mental Health
Social Worker

You are Browsing the March 2010 Archive:

Kids With Overprotective Parents Believed to Be More Susceptible To Psychiatric Disorders

Overprotective parents slow their children’s brain growth in an area linked to mental illness, a new study asserts. Kosuke Narita of Gunma University, Japan, scanned the brains of 50 people in their 20s and asked them to fill out a survey about their relationship with their parents during their first 16 years. After analyses, it [...]

ECG Screening for Heart Conditions in ADHD Children is Borderline Cost Effective

Obtaining an electrocardiogram (ECG) to screen for heart conditions in children prior to prescribing stimulant medication to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may save some lives but it is borderline cost-effective, according to an NIH study published online ahead of print March 8, 2010, in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Background Stimulant [...]

Study of Combined Depression-Alcoholism Treatment Shows Higher Abstinence Rate

ARLINGTON, Va. (March 15, 2010) – Combining the antidepressant sertraline with the alcohol dependence treatment naltrexone produced a 54 percent abstinence rate in patients with both major depression and alcohol dependence, whereas the rates were only 21 to 28 percent for patients taking a placebo, sertraline only, or naltrexone only. This study shows an important [...]

Parkinson’s Disease Makes it Harder to Figure Out How Other People Feel

Studies find facial and vocal expression more difficult to read; deep brain stimulation seems to make it worse WASHINGTON — Scientists are beginning to find out why people with Parkinson’s disease often feel socially awkward. Parkinson’s patients find it harder to recognize expressions of emotion in other people’s faces and voices, report two studies published [...]

Schizophrenic Parents’ Kids Prone to Mental Disorders

The offspring of parents with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are more likely to develop the same illness or another psychiatric condition than those with only one parent with a psychiatric condition, a new study finds. Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School examined a population-based cohort of 2.7 million individuals born in Denmark and [...]

Gene’s Impact on Forgetting a Fear-Based Memory Same in Humans and Mice

Both humans and mice carrying a variant of a gene that plays a role in memory were slow to learn to forget a fear-based memory. The parallels in gene effects observed in mice and humans in this work means that investigation using the mouse model can provide insights into effects in humans; results may inform [...]

Diabetes and Depression Associated with Higher Risk for Major Complications

People with type 2 diabetes and coexisting major depression are more likely to experience life-threatening diabetes-related complications, according to a recent NIMH-funded study published in the February 2010 issue of Diabetes Care. Background Research has shown that depression is commonly associated with diabetes. People who have both diabetes and depression tend to have more severe [...]