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Those are just some of the findings of a new national survey on issues surrounding mental-health literacy by Michigan State University scholars. "Our work is designed to help communities think about how to address behavioral health challenges as they emerge, whether that's drug abuse, anxiety or other issues, and the challenges such as suicide that can accompany them," said Mark Skidmore, an MSU professor and co-investigator on the project. The national survey examines mental health literacy on four major issues: anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse and prescription drug abuse. The work is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, within Agriculture Department. Skidmore said the web-based survey -- which involved nearly 4,600 total participants -- aims to give heal...

The evaluation, based mostly on present research that checked out greater than three.5 million individuals in additional than 90 international locations, confirmed that melancholy impacts way more females than males. Credit score: © gmstockstudio / Fotolia An evaluation simply printed on-line has damaged new floor by discovering gender variations in each signs and diagnoses of melancholy showing at age 12. The evaluation, based mostly on present research that checked out greater than three.5 million individuals in additional than 90 international locations, confirmed that melancholy impacts way more females than males. The examine, printed by the journal  Psychological Bulletin , ought to persuade doubters that melancholy largely, however not solely, impacts females, says co-author Janet Hyde, a professor of psychology and gender and girls's research on the College of Wisconsin-Madison. "We discovered that twice as many ladies as males had been...

Confocal immunofluorescence pictures exhibiting the tiled preparations of serotonergic neurons within the hippocampus of a traditional mouse (left), and the uneven spacing and clumping of serotonergic fibers in a mutant mouse missing Pcdhc2 (proper). Credit score: Tom Maniatis/Columbia's Zuckerman Institute Columbia scientists have recognized a gene that enables neurons that launch serotonin -- a neurotransmitter that regulates temper and feelings -- to evenly unfold their branches all through the mind. With out this gene, these neuronal branches develop into entangled, resulting in haphazard distribution of serotonin, and indicators of despair in mice. These observations make clear how exact neuronal wiring is important to total mind well being, whereas additionally revealing a promising new space of focus for finding out psychiatric issues related to serotonin imbalance -- comparable to despair, bipolar dysfunction, schizophrenia and autism. The findi...

Nearly one in three individuals (29.2%) globally experience a common mental disorder during their lifetime, such as depression, anxiety, and somatic symptom disorders. FI may be a key contributor to common mental disorders through several different mechanisms. First, by generating uncertainty over the ability to maintain food supplies or to acquire sufficient food in the future, FI can provoke a stress response that may contribute to anxiety and depression. Furthermore, acquiring foods in socially unacceptable ways can induce feelings of alienation, powerlessness, shame, and guilt that are associated with depression. FI may also magnify socioeconomic disparities within households and communities that could increase cultural sensitivities and influence overall mental well-being. Andrew D. Jones, PhD, of the Department of Nutritional Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, conducted this research using data from the 2014 Gallup World Poll (GWP)....

"We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in the field of psychiatry, to find specific clinical and biological signals that help clinicians and patients decide what is the best treatment," explained lead investigator Leanne Williams, PhD, VA Palo Alto Health Care System and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine. "This is the shift to incorporate precision medicine approaches to improve outcomes for patients. Our study adds new knowledge to this effort, and does so for two commonly associated chronic conditions, clinical depression and obesity, that need new treatment approaches. Our results have the potential for a significant impact on the majority of patients suffering from depression who are seen in primary care and community settlings." Researchers analyzed data from 659 adults (ages 18-65) with clinical depression who completed the International Study to Predict Optimized Treatment in Depression (iSPOT-D...

The study found that a moderate increase in depressive symptoms among people over 65 was associated with a 30 percent increase in experiencing a fall over the next two years, said Geoffrey Hoffman, research fellow and assistant professor at the U-M School of Nursing. This association appeared, in part, to reflect greater use of psychiatric medications, he said. The study didn't formally measure the impact of medication use on falls, but when psychiatric medication was included in the experimental model, the relationship between falls and depressive symptoms became nonsignificant, he said. "We've pinpointed that we think the relationship between depression and falls involves medication use with important implications for patient safety and fall risk reduction," Hoffman said. "Many interventions to prevent falls are expensive and time-intensive, but this is a simple and inexpensive matter of encouraging continued use of psychiatric medication while improving...

"Many studies look at moms who are depressed and how they impact children," Shafer said. "Very few looked at how depressed fathers influence their children. As dads become more involved in their children's lives, we thought this was an important question with significant implications for families." The research, published last month, found that a father's depression had a direct effect on both internalized and externalized behavioral problems in adolescents. Internalizing behaviors include high levels of withdrawal, anxiety and depressed mood. Externalizing behaviors are directed outward and are associated with heightened anger and aggression. In contrast, the study also showed that maternal depression impacts kids, but in more subtle ways, since most women internalize their depression. "Kids probably pick up on their dad's depression in ways they don't with mothers," Shafer said. "Men are more likely to show anger and frustratio...

The study, published May 3 in  Scientific Reports , also uncovered antidepressant effects for three other drugs typically used for other purposes -- Botox, the pain reliever diclofenac and the antibiotic minocycline. "Current FDA-approved treatments for depression fail for millions of people because they don't work or don't work fast enough," said senior author Ruben Abagyan, PhD, professor of pharmacy. "This study extends small-scale clinical evidence that ketamine can be used to alleviate depression, and provides needed solid statistical support for wider clinical applications and possibly larger scale clinical trials." Abagyan led the study with pharmacy students Isaac Cohen and Tigran Makunts, and Rabia Atayee, PharmD, associate professor of clinical pharmacy, all at Skaggs School of Pharmacy. The FAERS database contains more than 8 million patient records. The research team focused on patients in the database who received ketamine, narrowing the...

"Also, on days at-risk adolescents use technology more, they experience more conduct problems and higher ADHD symptoms compared to days they use technology less," said Madeleine J. George, a Duke Ph.D. candidate and the lead author of the study. However, the study also found that using technology was linked to some positive outcomes: On days when adolescents spent more time using digital technologies they were less likely to report symptoms of depression and anxiety. The research, published May 3 in a special issue of  Child Development , looks at associations between adolescents' mental health symptoms and how much time they spent each day texting, using social media and using the Internet. For the study, 151 young adolescents completed surveys on smartphones about their daily digital technology use. They were surveyed three times a day for a month and were assessed for mental health symptoms 18 months later. The youth participating were between 11 and 15 years o...

Researchers will present the abstract, "Understanding teen expression of sadness in primary care: A qualitative exploration" on Sunday, May 7, at the Moscone West Convention Center. For the study, they analyzed a sample of screening interviews with 369 teens ages 13 and 18 at risk for depression who participated in the Promoting Adolescent Health Study (PATH), a large, randomized control trial funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health . "Much of what a teen is feeling and experiencing is easy to attribute to the ups and downs of teen angst," said abstract co-author Daniela DeFrino, PhD, RN, an assistant professor of research in the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and College of Nursing. "But, sometimes, there is so much more under the surface that can lead to depression," she said. For the PATH study, adolescents who reported feeling down irritable or hopeless during the past two weeks in private, written responses to t...