News: Advocacy loses a pioneer: Gwill York Newman, 1932-2010
After her son was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Gwill Newman became a fierce advocate as well as donor for research about the brain. . .
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News: New psychiatric drugs in pipeline
PhRMA has released a report of more than 300 drugs in the pipeline for psychiatric medications. Many are in the initial stages. Some, such as Johnson and Johnson's . . .
Full Story | Topics: drug companies, eating disorders, pharmaceutical, research, Risperdal, schizophrenia | Comments (1)

Book Reviews: Mental Health Care in the College Community, Editors Jerald Kay and Victor Schwartz
College educators now recognize that promoting mental health for students plays a key role in achievement. A new book, says Anna Scheyett, fills a gap about planning and implementing essential services. Read her review of Mental Health Care in the College Community.
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News: Schizophrenia and aspirin
Research from the Netherlands suggests aspirin might not just be for headaches anymore. PsychCentral reviewed an article published in the June issue of Journal of Clinical Psychiatry with promising findings. . .
Full Story | Topics: medication, research, schizophrenia | Comments (0)

Book Reviews: Two books on practicalities of recovery research
Paula Goring and Jijian Voronka, researchers in Canada's At Home project, review two books about the practicalities of recovery research. Read their review
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News: NIH wants tighter disclosure rules
Proposals for transparency about outside income creating a conflict-of-interest for investigators under contract with the National Institute of Mental Health were released last week and lower the threshold from $10,000 to $5,000 for reporting outside income. . .
Full Story | Topics: reform, research | Comments (0)

News: Exercise and schizophrenia

News: NARSAD seminars launched for 2010

News: Fish oil protects against psychosis

Did You Know: Researchers discovered a gene associated with depression and bi-polar disorders.
Read Genes and Circuitry, Not Just Clinical Observation, to Guide Classification for Research about the overlap of depression and bipolar disorder on Chromosome 3, one of the many genes researchers believe will one day influence classification, diagnosis and treatment....
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News: Brain scans detect PTSD
A highly technical study with remarkably optimistic rates of accuracy for confirming a diagnosis of PTSD was explained in Scientific American. Magnetoencephelography (MEG),. . .
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Upcoming: Feb. 12: National Advisory Mental Health Council meeting
"The National Advisory Mental Health Council (NAMHC) advises the Secretary of Health and Human Services; the Director, National Institutes of Health; and the Director, National Institute of Mental Health, on all policies and activities relating to the conduct and support of mental health research, research training, and other programs of the Institute." These are open to the public. Forms to register for the upcoming meeting are available here. Friday, February 12, (8:30 am-12:30 pm) NIH Campus, Bldg. 31C, 6th Floor,...
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News: New depression studies raise questions

News: Architecture of genetic risk for schizophrenia

News: Review of psycho-social interventions for schizophrenia

News: Models beyond outpatient commitment

News: Violence with psychosis rare toward strangers
Worries about violence and mental illness have affected public attitudes and influenced treatment options around the world. Researchers in Canada, Finland, Australia and the Netherlands looked at "stranger homicide" as a way to answer the question about whether psychosis threatens strangers.
Full Story | Topics: psychosis, research, stigma, violence | Comments (0)

News: Adults remember childhood abuse accurately
With evidence about the association of trauma, physical, and emotional abuse with the etiology of psychotic disorders, British researchers investigated the validity of retrospective reporting. . .
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News: Vaccine for cocaine dependence promising

From Our Readers: First psychotic breaks -- conference topic
Peter Stastny,* MD, writes about an upcoming conference (Nov 23): "Alternative responses to first psychotic breaks: Rethinking psychiatric crisis." After several years, there is a renewed focus on treatment for first psychotic episodes. An emphasis on early intervention and prevention of psychosis, with the goal of shortening the "duration of untreated psychosis" has obscured the view on the actual services that are being offered to individuals in the midst of a first episode. Recently, the National Institute of Mental Health...
Full Story | Topics: consumers, psychiatry, psychosis, recovery, research | Comments (7)

Did You Know: Lithium's effect was discovered accidentally by an Australian doctor experimenting with guinea pigs.
Read more about the process by whiche Dr. John Cade learned that lithium had a calming effect in the laboratory. To test the properties of lithium, Cade used took it himself before giving it to 10 patients on an experimental basis....
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Did You Know: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most frequently taught evidence-based therapy during clinical training.
Read more about the lack of training clinicians in evidence-based therapies in "National Survey of Psychotherapy Training in Psychiatry, Psychology, and Social Work," by Myrna M. Weissman, et. al, in the Archives of General Psychiatry....
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News: Stimulus money prompts schizophrenia research

News: Underused drug may be the safest for schizophrenia

News: DSM-V controversy boiling
Revision of the APA's diagnostic bible, the DSM-V has been underway for nearly a decade. Complaints about the process. . .
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News: Schizophrenia's genetic puzzle

News: Cancer deaths high in schizophrenia
After suicide, cancer is the second leading cause of death for people with schizophrenia, noted French researchers. . .
Full Story | Topics: research, schizophrenia | Comments (0)

News: Depression-gene link complex

News: Schizophrenia under treated
People with schizophrenia suffer inconsistent services, deficient treatments, and a shortage of them. . .
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Did You Know: It takes 17 years for scientific knowledge to become incorporated into routine practice.
Download Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century (2001), from the Institute of Medicine....
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News: Cannabis and schizophrenia
Evidence indicates a relationship between marijuana use and later schizophrenia. Should this be a factor in debates about legalizing marijuana?(online surveys) Smoking marijuana (cannabis), an icon of the bandana-wearing flower-child generation, is a subject of ongoing medical debate and a ballot measure in many states. Is cannabis use harmless recreation, a medical necessity for end-of-life pain, or a disorder contributing to psychosis and associated with schizophrenia? Perhaps all three? It is the latter question that engaged a team of...
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Book Reviews: My Son's Name Was Fred, by Gwill Linderme York Newman

News: DSM-V changes under discussion
After years of study, and in preparation of a 2012 publicaton date, discussions are underway about conceptual changes in the next edition of the DSM-V. These include separating measures of functioning and disability from symptoms, which is consistent with World Health Organization classifications. Clinical Psychiatry News describes the process....
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News: Brain scans for PTSD
If the results of preliminary studies hold up, brain imaging could be used to diagnose PTSD the way a chest x-ray shows TB. That's the hope based on research conducted on 42 soldiers returning from Afghanistan or Iraq who showed two patterns distinctly different from subjects who were not suffering from PTSD. The research was presented last week in Italy at the meetings of the World Psychiatric Association....
Full Story | Topics: diagnosis, PTSD, research | Comments (1)

News: Stimulus package boosts mental health research
The National Institutes of Health will dedicate $200 million to aid research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH). Each agency has identified priorities in target areas for understanding cost-effective interventions and treatments, bioethical issues raised by technology and information systems, and genetic and stem-cell research. Interest has been intense for the grants with an April 27 due date, said an NIMH spokesperson. The complete list of additional eligible grant categories...
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News: Recovery in schizophrenia
For many years doctors said there was no recovery from schizophrenia and the best that could be hoped for was reducing symptoms. No more. The March issue of Schizophrenia Bulletin is devoted to "Functional Recovery in Schizophrenia." Four articles, written by authors from different academic centers, discuss the theme of "multiple elements of recovery" including how to measure functional recovery, how it differs from remission of clinical symptoms, and implications for early detection of psychosis. The Schizophrenia Bulleting is free...
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Consider This: Hidden costs of hidden research
. . .our health
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Consider This: Lobby lawmakers, Patrick Kennedy tells advocates
. . . ask for mental health reform
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News: Pregnancy and depression
Pregnant women with diabetes have a greater likelihood of developing depression before and after they give birth than do pregnant women without diabetes, say the authors of a study appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The study was based on Medicaid data for more than 11,000 women delivering babies in New Jersey in a two-year period. The authors speculated that the hormonal disorders accompanying diabetes may play a role in depression, but they did not establish...
Full Story | Topics: depression, Medicaid, research, women | Comments (0)

News: Abuse modifies genetic make-up
Research shows that child abuse produces genetic changes, especially toleration for stress which is implicated in numerous psychiatric diagnosis. Research conducted at McGill University, Montreal, examined brain tissue of 24 suicide victims: 12 had histories of abuse as children and 12 did not. The findings fit into ongoing research about the roles of trauma and stress....
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News: $350 million stimulus to NIMH
Of the $10.8 billion in the stimulus plan for the National Institutes of Health, about $350 million will go to National Institute of Mental Health to support basic and clinical research. A press release indicated this will "jump start many of the initiatives in the NIMH Strategic Plan." The monies must be used within two years....
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News: Premature death associated with bipolar disorder
Evidence of premature death for people diagnosed with bipolar disorder comes from a study published in Psychiatric Services (abstract available). This study adds to previous warnings discussing risk factors contributing to chronic illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes. The authors reviewed 17 published studies (between 1959 and 2007) involving more than 330,000 people....
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News: TV and depression
Of the many aspects of adolescent mental health, it appears watching television and depression go together. A study in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry describes a national, heterogeneous sample of students, grades 7 to 12, for whom depression increased with each additional hour of television viewing. Seven years after the study began, by 7.4 percent met criteria for depression. This is slightly higher than the 5 percent estimate for teen depression given by the American Academy of...
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News: Neuroscience shaping psychology research
David Glenn writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education(Dec. 2008) about the impact of federal funding in shaping behavioral research within neuroscience. He notes that researchers at major universities welcome the "cross-disciplinary coherence" while they also feel forced to tack on a biological component toeach research request. Is this a chapter in the debate about nature versus nurture or a new paradigm representing consensus around behavioral issues?...
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Did You Know: Thorazine was originally intended for use as an anti-histamine.
To read more about the accidental discovery of this, and other drugs used in psychiatry, see Neuron....
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News: Treatments lag for substance use
Research appearing in the January 2009 issue of Psychiatric Services indicates fewer parents in the child welfare system are offered treatment for substance use if they do not also have a mental illness. At the same time, writes Benedict Carey in the New York Times, it is estimated that "20 million Americans who could benefit from treatment do not get it." A lack of uniformity about models for rehab and recovery has contributed to a recognition that evidence does not...
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News: Differences in anti-psychotic drugs
Research supported by NIMH confirms second generation antipsychotic medications are not homogeneous. These findings add to a growing body of literature comparing drugs for efficacy, side-effects and costs. The current study from German researchers appears on-line in The Lancet....
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News: Recovery concepts for schizophrenia
Researchers from The Netherlands discuss concepts and measurement for recovery in "Clinical Recovery in First-Episode Psychosis." The research appears on-line in the free edition of Advance Access Schizophrenia Bulletin. Authors emphasize how different participants view the process, and differentiate between functional and symptomatic recovery....
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News: Measuring recovery from psychotic illness
As recovery is being realized by more and more, it's apparent than some people can manage a functional recovery despite lingering symptoms. And that remission of symptoms does not always improve function. In an attempt to create a scale to measure functional recovery, authors of an article in Schizophrenia Bulletin (Advance Access) encountered unanticipated issues for predicting real world situations....
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News: Reactions to Biederman, Goodwin, The Infinite Mind
Reactions to news about psychiatrists who failed to disclose their working relationships with drug companies appeared over the weekend. On the Media aired a segment discussing the relationship between producers of The Infinite Mind and Dr. Fred Goodwin. Producer Bill Lichtenstein replied to the show in an email. Lichtenstein spoke to The Injury Board which posted documents including a copy of Goodwin's contract. "Expert or Shill?" read the New York Times headline on Sunday's editorial page. In a very brief...
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News: In the journals. . .focus on youth
From the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine: In the 1960s an anti-war poster read, "War is not healthy for children or other living things." A study in the Nov. issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine confirmed this sentiment with a study of 169 families: "Children age 3 and older who had a deployed parent had significantly higher scores on measures of externalizing and overall behavior problems than children of the same age without a deployed parent."...
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News: Antipsychotic meds and heart disease
An NIMH study (n=1125) comparing antipsychotic medications and cardiac heart disease found the "risk for CHD differed significantly among the medications." Risk, marked by elevated cholesterol, was highest for those taking olanzapine (Zyprexa, Zydis) and quetiapine (Seroquel). A decreased risk was noted for those taking risperidone (Risperdal) and ziprasidone (Geodon). Cardiovascular disease is a contributing factor to the shorter life span of people diagnosed with schizophrenia....
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News: Effectiveness of therapies studied
A study published in the October issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) examined how long-term psychotherapy (defined as 50 or more sessions) compared to other treatments for complex mental disorders. The authors evaluated 48 years of research involving 1053 subjects from 23 studies. (Abstract available.)...
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News: Effectiveness of therapies studied
A study published in the October issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) examined how long-term psychotherapy (defined as 50 or more sessions) compared to other treatments for complex mental disorders. The authors evaluated 48 years of research involving 1053 subjects from 23 studies. (Abstract available.)...
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News: Psychiatrist explains brain research
In an interview with the New York Times, Dr. Nancy Andreasen discusses 30 years of research about the brain, including normal function, changes due to age, and mental illness and medication...
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News: New drugs more costly, more side effects, not better
The newer classification of drugs (Zyprexa, Risperdal, Geodone) commonly prescribed for schizophrenia, as well as bipolar disorders and behavioral management for children and teenagers have been found to be no more effective than the older drugs, according to an article published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Studies of adults have led to similar findings which could challenge the record profits of drug companies that have recently obtained additional applications for treating children. Bloomberg.com reports that generics are already denting...
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News: New drugs more costly, more side effects, not better
The newer classification of drugs (Zyprexa, Risperdal, Geodone) commonly prescribed for schizophrenia, as well as bipolar disorders and behavioral management for children and teenagers have been found to be no more effective than the older drugs, according to an article published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Studies of adults have led to similar findings which could challenge the record profits of drug companies that have recently obtained additional applications for treating children. Bloomberg.com reports that generics are already denting...
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News: Schizophrenia and childhood bedwetting
The part of the brain linked to bed wetting appears to be the same part associated with language fluency and processing information, language fluency and schizophrenia. Research scientists at the National Institute of Mental Health were helped with MRI brain scans to pinpoint the brain's gray matter where these are located (red section). Findings appear in the September issue of Brain....
Full Story | Topics: children, research, schizophrenia | Comments (0)

News: Schizophrenia, voices and recovery
Dr. Benjamin Gray, an English mental health professional, didn't truly appreciate what hearing voices meant until after his own hospitalization, one decade into his career. In the on-line Advance Access Schizophrenia Bulletin (subscription required) Gray describes how acceptance of the narrative behind voices plays a role in treating a person's core experiences rather than a diagnostic category....
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News: Drugs in pipeline
PhRMA, the pharmaceutical marketing and research trade association, announced a list of drugs in varying stages of development for treating psychiatric disorders. Although the announcement specifies 301 drugs, the number of new agents is actually less. Many of the drugs, including Zyprexa, Concerta, Zoloft, Seroquel, are already available but the clinical studies and applications are pending for new uses. The 32-page report is available from PhRMA....
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Book Reviews: "The Insanity Offense," E. Fuller Torrey
reviewed by Sue E. Estroff* By Any Means Necessary? By No Means Necessary E. Fuller Torrey's most recent book, The Insanity Offense, continues his literary style of provocative, catastrophic language when referring to violent incidents attributable to people with psychiatric disorders. This is not a work in the scholarly convention. It is one activist psychiatrist's impassioned and purposeful argument for a reversion of mental health law, policy, and treatment to the 1950's when involuntary confinement and forced treatment qua medication...
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News: BBC psychiatrist suspended for plagiarism
In a hearing before the Britain's General Medical Council, Dr. Raj Persaud admitted to plagiarizing four research papers for a 2003 book, and from other scholarly articles for publication in the British Journal of Medicine and The Independent. Persaud hosted shows on BBC radio and television....
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News: House holds on Medicare
By an overwhelming vote of 355 to 59 the House passed a bill (H.R. 6331) stopping cuts to Medicare's physician providers and ended the historic discrimination in co-payments for mental health services. Getting this measure through Congress by July 1 has been a priority of the Democrats and has had the broad support of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association. Sen. Harry Reid promised the Senate will act swiftly. A second House initiative relevant to mental health...
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News: No two alike: study on substance use and mental health
Communities differ in substance abuse and mental health problems, and a new report from SAMSHA details the use of addictive substances -- pain relievers, marijuana, cocaine -- based on responses from 200,000 people in 345 selected regions of all 50 states. Some of the findings: Nationally, 7.7 percent of the population aged 12 or older was classified with being dependent on or having abused alcohol in the past year in 2004-2006. Nationally, 7.6 percent of adults aged 18 or older...
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News: Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder-shared qualities
An article in Advance Access Schizophrenia Bulletin discusses neurobiology and genetic studies about overlapping etiologic determinants" in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. (Abstract available; full text requires subscription.)...
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News: Drug funding for psychiatrists questioned
Psychiatrists who failed to report receiving a combined $4.2 million from 15 drug companies since 2000 were the subject of a Senate inquiry according to information released by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) (top left). The three Harvard doctors -- Joseph Biederman (see left), Thomas Spencer, and Timothy Wilens -- mentioned by the senator have been aggressive proponents of medication management for ADHD and bipolar disorder in children and Biederman is a popular conference speaker for parents and educators. His 300...
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Consider This: Drug to stop smoking
Patients can be burned by side effects
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News: Schizophrenia: spontaneous mutations or heredity?
Research sponsored by NIMH indicates spontaneous genetic mutations can lead to vulnerabilities for schizophrenia. Previously attention weighed heavily on inherited genes. Patterns of spontaneous mutations were recently reported in cases of autism....
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News: Improving research designs
The May issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry includes editorials critical of standard research design for drug studies and those undertaken with insufficient attention to racial differences. “What is the meaning of the incremental cost of an active treatment compared with placebo when substantial costs attributed to the placebo exist only because of the research design?” asks one editorial, commenting on a drug study treating adolescents and depression. Another editorial laments that "'monocultural ethnocentrism" continues to pervade "good science"...
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News: Adolescent depression therapies
Research evaluating three treatment options for adolescents (n=439) with major depression disorder appeared in the April issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. Adolescents were selected from 13 centers between 1998 and 2004 and were evaluated three times for interventions including talk therapy, drug therapy and a combination....
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News: Impact of work programs
A six-country international study (n= 312) evaluated work programs and subsequent clinical and social functioning for people with schizophrenia and depression using a battery of standard evaluations. An abstract is available online in Advance Access Schizophrenia Bulletin....
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MIWatch webcasts: Jeffrey Swanson, panelist, AHCJ conference
Jeffrey Swanson, Ph.D., is a professor in psychiatry, Duke University School of Medicine. Here he speaks on a panel about violence and mental illness at the Association of Health Care Journalists, Washington, DC, March 28, 2007....
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News: Experts debate violence and mental illness
With events like Virginia Tech indelibly linked to someone suffering from a psychiatric disorder, the question of how much violence is caused by people with a mental illness continues to draw public concern. In February, the entire issue of Psychiatric Services was devoted to essays, research and debate. Editor Howard Goldman's thoughtful introduction to the issue notes: how do the horrible, extreme events predetermine policy and opinion when their incidence is small in proportion to the attention they receive? And...
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News: Journal asks full disclosure
An editorial in the April 2nd issue of the New England Journal of Medicine decries lack of transparency when special interest foundations support biomedical research and publications promoting their special interests....
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News: Many genes cause schziophrenia
Two teams of research scientists have each concluded that schizophrenia is caused by ”hundreds of genes” which have anomalies creating complex pathways. The research was reported online in Science. Schizophrenia occurs in one percent of the population....
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News: Detecting childhood bipolar
Reading facial emotions may provide clues to brain circuitry and pediatric bipolar disorder, according to a new study appearing in the American Journal of Psychiatry (abstract online)....
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News: Prenatal schizophrenia risk
Research from Denmark suggests that during pregnancy, first-trimester trauma as experienced in war, feminine, or stress, such as the death of a close relative, affect neurodevelopment. Based on a sample of mothers who gave birth to 1.38 million babies between 1973 and 1995, these factors led to an increased risk for schizophrenia. The report appeared in the February edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry....
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News: Equivalence of co-occurring therapies
The authors of an article in Advance Access Schizophrenia Bulletin (subscription required) found little evidence of the superiority of any single psychosocial intervention for reducing substance abuse in people with mental illness. About 50 percent of the people with severe mental illness also have a hazardous co-occurring addiction, according to the authors....
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News: Marijuana withdrawal
Cannabis withdrawal was observed in a pilot study of adolescents (n=21) voluntarily attending a substance abuse program. An article published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry reports that during the month of observation, the 13-19 year olds displayed clinical symptoms of withdrawal including twitching, irritability and cravings....
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News: Mid-life depression
Most people hit the lowest of the lows in their mid-40s, according to the findings of an American and British study. The pattern for lifelong depression follows a U-shape and, with a few exceptions, is fairly consistent for two million people in 80 countries. An exception appears to come from the United States, where women enter depression at about 40, and men, a bit later, at 50....
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News: Publication bias for antidepressants
The selection of articles reaching print might overstate the benefit of antidepressants, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The authors examined clinical studies of 12 antidepressants, involving 12,564 patients, registered with the FDA and concluded that most published studies showed positive results. But one-third of the clinical studies showing that the agent was no better than a placebo were not published. Selective reporting of clinical trials which emphasize only the benefits, “may have adverse...
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News: Many causes of depression
A review article about depression in the Jan. 3, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (subscription required) cautions against a premature acceptance of a single theory explaining its origins. Causes of acute depression may differ from chronic depression, influenced by genes, biology, cardiovascular disease, or childhood trauma....
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News: Wrong Rx
The New York Times reports about an article in Lancet noting that antipsychotic medication has been overused to treat aggression in people with intellectual disabilities....
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News: Genes, race, medication
An NIMH-funded study (appearing in January issue of Biological Psychiatry) reports variations on the same gene, RGS4, have highly predictive values for response to antipsychotic medication, and that they are associated with ethnic differences. Groups were categorized by those with African, European, or “other” backgrounds, and some medication worked well with one group and not at all with another. The sample (n=678) was exposed to five different medications....
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News: Childhood schizophrenia
January’s issue of the Schizophrenia Bulletin contains a (free) article about the treatment of early onset schizophrenia for children and adolescents, including use of second-generation antipsychotic medication, side effects, a synopsis of published studies, and research gaps. Other articles in this issue (subscription required) focus on brain development, cognitive deficits, and neuroimaging....
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News: Brain cells can grow lifelong
Neuroscientists reported on an experiment showing the growth of new cells in the hippocampus of monkeys treated with fluoxetine (Prozac), which the Boston Globe calls another contribution to an emerging theory about the importance of neurogenesis. The appreciation that neurons can grow in the adult brain appeared in the scientific literature about ten years ago. Now an interdisciplinary research team at Stony Brook University Medical Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has designed a technique to observe...
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Consider This: . . .from the APHA, Nov. 5-7
by Phyllis Vine
The American Public Health Association annual meeting in Washington, DC, has a number of events discussing a range of issues from Monday's session on empowering consumers in mental health treatments to disaster preparedness, school based reforms. Read summaries of selected sessions, including Dr. Ron Manderscheid's presentation about PTSD and returning vets.


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News: Promising drug enhances cognition
A review article in Schizophrenia Bulletin (subscription required) reports modifinal, a wake-promoting agent, has shown promising results for its ability "to improve cognition in schizophrenia" The impact on cognition was originally noted in healthy volunteers leading to further study in people where cognitive deficits lead to long term disabilities. According to the authors, it also has "a strikingly similar pattern of cognitive changes in a group of adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)."...
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News: Biology, vulnerability and stress
A biologically active process promoting resistance to stress in mice is reported in the online science journal Cell (subscription required). The research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and a press release noted, "[T]he researchers found differences in the rate of impulse-firing by cells that make the chemical messenger dopamine." Director Thomas R. Insel, MD, expressed enthusiasm for these findings, citing similar mechanisms in the human brain....
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News: Inspector General scores FDA
A report issued (9.28) by the Office of Inspector General concludes that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provides insufficient oversight for monitoring clinical trials of medicine and medical devices coming to market. The report states, "FDA’s guidance and regulations for clinical trials have fallen behind industry practices." Those practices now include multi-site trials (averaging 23 sites per trial), with roughly 20 to 25 percent of them outside the United States. In addition, the FDA was able to inspect less...
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News: Exercise equal to antidepressants
A Duke University study of major depressive disorder found that exercise was as effective as an antidepressant (Zoloft) in treating adults (N=202) after four-months. The September issue of the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine reports that patients who were randomly assigned to two groups using aerobic exercise (at home or in a supervised group setting) scored about the same as those taking antidepressants on the Hamilton Rating Depression Scale, a standard evaluation. Both did better than the placebo group. Depression is...
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News: Assessment of cardiac risks from ADHD meds
Researchers will begin looking at 500,000 clinical records to evaluate the cardiac risks of ADHD medications for children and adults. The federally supported project partners Vanderbilt University with government agencies and private health systems. About $1.3 billion was spent in 2004 on medicine for ADHD, which is estimated to affect about four percent of the population....
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News: Schizophrenia drug in pipeline
Enthusiasm greeted Eli Lilly's announcement that a drug to treat schizophrenia showed promising results - similar to Zyprexa but without the weight gain - in its initial stage of testing. This is considered the first major breakthrough in 50 years because it targets a different system of receptors which are triggered by an amino acid called glutamate, not the dopamine receptors. Work on glutamate receptors leading to this medicine emerged during the 1980s when scientists noted a street drug, PCP,...
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News: Obsessive Compulsive Mice
Mice lacking a gene that helps nerves communicate (SAPAP3) showed signs of obsessive compulsive disorder which responded to anti-anxiety drugs, says a new study. Approximately two percent of the world suffers from some form of OCD....
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Commentary: A Personal Journey Wearing Three Hats: family, doctor and research director
by Lisa Dixon, MD, MPH
Professor of Psychiatry, Dr. Lisa Dixon, is also a family member and a researcher. In "A personal journey wearing three hats" she writes about how her work has been informed by these roles while evaluating programs for families and consumers in the recovery process.

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News: Understanding Obsessive Compulsive Disorders
New technology permits looking deeper into the brain and Time Magazine (August 2) discusses what this means for understanding the genetic component to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder....
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News: Dopamine, ADHD and addiction
Two articles in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry address the importance of dopamine for ADHD. This comes shortly after a report about pregnant women who were exposed to nicotine during their second and third trimesters, months of brain development. The study (N=204) in the July issue of Child Psychiatry and Human Development showed their children had more symptoms of ADHD. In a July conversation with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National...
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News: Anti-psychotics cut addictive cravings
Results of a 14-week double-blind study reported in the American Journal of Addiction showed both olanzapine and resperidone cut cravings for marijuana and cocaine for people with schizophrenia....
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News: Targeting medication by genes
The August issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry reports some people have a genetic predisposition to respond to the antidepressant citalopram (Celexa). The NIMH research was based on DNA collected in the clinical trial Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D). "We're moving steadily closer to being able to personalize treatments based on patients' genetic variations." said NIMH Director Thomas R. Insel, MD....
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News: Engineering schizophrenia in mice
Researchers have been able to breed mice with one of the genes associated with schizophrenia. The study by Dr. Akira Sawa appears in the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences....
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News: Traumatized children use brain differently
A study using functional magnetic resonance imaging looked at the brains of 30 children, and concluded that blood flow and oxygenation differed for those with PTSD symptoms (n=16) compared to non-traumatized children (n=14). "Now we can see some real neurological reasons for the impulsivity, agitation, hyper-vigilance and avoidance behaviors that children with untreated PTSD often exhibit," said the study's author, Dr. Victor Carrion, Stanford School of Medicine....
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News: Faster acting antidepressant
Scientists at NIMH have identified molecular targets that may speed the absorption of antidepressant medication, according to a report published online in Biological Psychiatry....
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News: Wayne Fenton remembered
As the anniversary of the death of Dr. Wayne Fenton approaches (9.06.06), the Schizophrenia Bulletin dedicated an issue to updating his expansive agenda including functional indicators for recovery, persistent negative symptoms, and cognitive function in schizophrenia. There is a moving discussion of how his insatiable curiosity, and research on early patients at Chestnut Lodge, led him to challenge existing paradigms....
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News: Depression and brain circuitry
">Science Express reports that a research has pinpointed brain circuitry which seems to explain depression in rats. With fast high-resolution cameras, a team at the Stanford University School Medicine was able to observe in real-time how brain circuits respond to stimuli such as fluorescent dyes and antidepressants....
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News: DSM-V work ongoing
The Schizophrenia Bulletin is publishing a series of articles about the ongoing work for the newest revision of the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V). Two articles appear on-line in Advance Access Schizophrenia Bulletin (subscriptions required). One article, "Rethinking Psychosis," is based on a previous symposium assessing models and paradigms for diagnosis; another discusses the inclusion of cognitive impairment among the criteria for schizophrenia....
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News: The law and mental illness
Four articles on the law and mental illness appear in the latest issue of Psychiatric Sevices. There is also an editorial reminding readers that the rationale for mandated outpatient treatment was to provide therapeutic resources. Also of interest is an article about the World Health Organization’s project to collect baseline information on mental health systems as part of the larger goal of designing and monitoring policy and implementing programs....
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News: Back to basics: disorders of thought vs. of mood
Schizoprhenia Bulletin online, May 21, 2007 The Schizophrenia Bulletin revisited the conceptual dichotomy -- thought versus mood disorders --prevalent since Kraepelin in an article about mania. Focusing on overlapping symptoms, especially during acute phases, the author attempts “to clarify the relationship between schizophrenia and psychotic mood disorders.” An earlier issue of the Bulletin discussed the prodrome to mania “to examine the phenotypic proximity to the schizophrenia prodrome.”...
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News: Drug action for panic attacks
A study (N=30) comparing timing and benefits of the tablet versus timed-release Alprazolam, a drug used in panic attacks, showed similar first- hour benefits but differnt therapeutic benefits after that. Implications exist for prophylactic therapy, reports a study in Psychopharmacology Bulletin....
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News: Sessions on TMS for depression at American Psychiatric Association meetings
Sessions at the APA meetings in San Diego reported on a Stanford University study (N=301) comparing Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to placebo to treat moderate-to-severe depression. Findings indicate those undergoing TMS, who had not benefitted from antidepressant therapy, had a reduction in symptoms and an increase in functioning based on numerous reporting scales....
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News: Vest monitors symptoms
Science Daily, May 18, 2007 A computerized vest monitoring physical movements, along with heart rate and respiration, was developed to detect symptoms of mania by researchers at The University of California at San Diego School of Medicine....
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News: Cognition and schizophrenia
Schizophrenia Bulletin, online May 15, 2007 Authors of a study in the Schizophrenia Bulletin map models for cognitive deficits of schizophrenia and consider enhancements....
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News: Treatment for co-occurring drug dependence
"Most individuals with drug use disorders have never been treated," say the authors of a study in the Archives of General Psychiatry. They also note, "treatment disparities exist among those at high risk, despite substantial disability and co-morbidity."...
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News: Identifying high-risk for psychosis
Schizophrenia Bulletin abstract $$ A review of eight studies of early interventions and markers for predicting transition to psychosis....
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News: MRI pinpoints how cannabis promotes psychosis
San Diego Tribune, April 30, 2007 Researchers from London’s Institute of Psychiatry have used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to link cannabis to “reduced function in the inferior frontal cortex brain region.” The association between THC, a potent ingredient of cannabis, and psychosis has long been suspected, and this study pinpoints where it interferes with the part of the the brain controlling emotional and behavioral responses. Recent strains of cannabis, also called "marijuana, " “skunk” or “weed,” show greater concentrations of...
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News: JAMA reviews studies of pediatric antidepressants
According to an article in JAMA, a review of 27 pediatric trials (including major depression, OCD and other anxiety disorders) showed selected benefits of antidepressants appear to outweigh risks of suicide attempts. Variations occurred depending on age, severity, and study characteristics. This follow recent news that prescriptions for antidepressants declined after revisions in FDA labeling and media coverage of suicide attempts....
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News: USA Today salutes NARSAD
Paying tribute to important charities, USA Today singled out NARSAD for its powerful impact in promoting research about mental illnesses. Since its founding in 1987, NARSAD has awarded $215 million to 3,194 grants. Scroll down the story to get to readers' comments....
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News: Grant expands programs to prevent psychotic break in kids
Building on a project in Portland, Maine, showing community supports and training can forestall psychotic illness, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced it is awarding $12.4 million to expand this program to four cities: Salem, Oregon, Sacramento, California, and Ypsilanti, Michigan....
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News: Tracking cognitive function in schizophrenia
A study (N=93) from Switzerland appears in the Schizophrenia Bulletin (Advance Access edition) about cognitive function and alterations in two prodrome stages of schizophrenia. Results point to further research about early intervention to interrupt cognitive damage....
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News: Study confirms some drugs harmful to elderly
Off-label use of neuroleptics to calm Alzheimer’s patients with dementia leads to increased mortality, according to a five-year study from the UK....
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News: TMS for treating depression
Italian researchers show transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) reduces symptoms of depression lasting up to three months. The small study size (N=19) warrants additional research to determine comparisons with anti-depressants in a larger sample....
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News: Literature review of family and cognitive therapies for schizophrenia
A British psychologist reviews literature for Psychiatric Times, discussing psychological interventions working with individuals whose symptoms include delusions and paranoia, and their families....
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News: $100 million to Harvard and MIT for genetic research
The Maryland philanthropy, the Stanley Foundation, has given $100 million to the Broad Institute to unlock the genetics of serious mental illness. Research will examine the DNA of people diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Broad is located at Harvrd University and MIT....
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News: Genetic research showing results
The Medical Journal of Medical Genetics reports promising genetic research into panic disorder, substance abuse and addictive disorders from Iowa University. One report links panic disorder to white blood cells, prompting the work to develop of a commercially available diagnostic blood test....
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News: Histamine receptor mediates weight gain from anti-psychotic medicines
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has published a report from researchers at The Johns Hopkins University identifying the histamine receptor responsible for drug induced weight gain for people taking atypical antipsychotic medications. This is a step closer to stemming the metabolic syndrome leading to weight gain, diabetes and cardiovascular complications....
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News: Brain abnormalities in schizophrenia
Six articles in the American Journal of Psychiatry discuss abnormality in brain function in people with schizophrenia along with the clinical symptoms and cognitive consequences. Various imaging techniques were used to determine different levels of brain activity, such as: when asleep, filtering out and selecting responses, before and during speech, differentiating emotions, and frontal pathways....
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News: Court diversion saves money
The Rand Corporation released a study about the fiscal impact of mental health diversion courts in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Among the conclusions: “the leveling off of mental health treatment costs and the dramatic drop in jail costs yielded a large cost savings.”...
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News: Metabolism and genes important to drug mechanisms
The way anti-psychotic drugs work in individuals with mental illness involves a person’s metabolic and genetic profile. This article, exerpted in Medscape from Current Opinion in Psychiatry and aimed for clinicians, outlines some of those variations along with research possibilities....
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News: NIH discovers a new gene“master switch” for intelligence and schizophrenia
Scientists at the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) have discovered a single gene that plays a role in intelligence but also in schizophrenia. The gene, DARPP-32, controls the developing of circuits of information in the frontal cortex. This discovery links schizophrenia to intelligence in a way that’s not been understood before....
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