Behavioral Health News

New research on bullying
New research published by the American Psychological Association found that a lack of problem solving skills and bullying are related. July 26, 2010

Dealing with family favoritism
Whether mom viewed you as the golden child or the black sheep, researchers say favoritism in families can have long-term effects on mental health. July 19, 2010

Understanding emotions that fuel fights
Many couples fight about the same issues over and over - dirty socks on the floor, being late, who was supposed to let out the dogs. New research investigates the underlying emotions that fuel these fights. July 12, 2010

Balancing ?want? and ?need? and why brand-new gadgets are so appealing
What do our desires tell us about ourselves, and our lives? July 5, 2010

Keeping long-term relationships strong
You might call it the "thirty year itch" - couples deciding to call it quits after having been married for decades. Some experts say this is a growing trend. June 28, 2010

Preventing adolescent suicide
Several adolescent suicides in our region have brought much attention on this difficult topic recently. June 21, 2010

Blogging about death
Several very popular blogs have been written by people who were dying from cancer or other illnesses. June 14, 2010

Kids and lies
Many parents are very disappointed when their children lie to them, because they value honesty over many other characteristics. What to do when children don't tell the truth? June 7, 2010

Making marriages work
Many couples who feel their marriage is at risk seek out professional help from counselors. Does marriage therapy work? A new study from UCLA says it does! May 17, 2010

Mindfulness meditation and health
In Western countries, mindfulness meditation was long regarded as a fringe practice. But over the last decades, scientists have studied the effects of this practice on many medical and mental health issues - and are seeing measurable positive effects. May 10, 2010

Brain Center at Columbia Gave Patients Impure Drugs
Columbia University doctors studying brain disorders routinely injected mental patients with drugs containing potentially dangerous impurities, investigators found. July 17, 2010

F.D.A. Panel Votes Against Obesity Drug
Food and Drug Administration advisory panel votes 10 to 6 against approval of Qnexa, new weight-loss drug developed by Vivus; final decision by FDA on drug will be issued in October; ruling is consistent with FDA track record of exercising caution when approving obesity drugs, which have history of safety problems; Onexa is noted to have some serious potential side effects like depression or suicidal thinking, increased heart rate and possible birth defects; Vivus argues that being obese carrie... July 16, 2010

N.Y. Agrees to Vast Changes in 4 Youth Prisons
A settlement will usher in the most significant expansion in years of mental health services for youths in custody. July 15, 2010

Discovering a Soft Spot for Circuitry; Robot Machines as Companions
After years of effort to coax empathy from machines, robots and devices designed to soothe, support and keep us company are venturing out of the laboratory. July 5, 2010

N.F.L. Players? Brain Damage May Not Be Root of All Behavior
Chris Henry, the wide receiver who died in December at 26, was found to have brain damage, but that may not explain his years of troubled behavior. June 30, 2010

State Must Move Mentally Ill From Group Homes Soon
New York state must hurriedly begin the process of developing and executing a plan to create at least 1,500 units of so-called supportive housing a year for the next three years. June 25, 2010

Hallucinations in Hospital Pose Risk to Elderly
Hospitals say many patients, particularly older ones, are experiencing inexplicable disorienting episodes. June 21, 2010

Dysregulation Nation
Is our inability to control ourselves the defining feature of our time? June 20, 2010

Add Psyche of Gulf Workers to Spill?s Toll
Mindful of the psychological woe that followed Hurricane Katrina, social workers are monitoring the mental well-being of those whose lives have been most affected by the oil spill. June 17, 2010

Big Push of Pill to Marketplace Stirs Debate on Sexual Desire
German drug giant Boehringer Ingelheim's claim that its new drug can help restore depressed female sex drive has set off debate over what constitutes normal range of sexual desire among women; critics say company is trying to turn low libido into medical pathology; flibanserin was developed as antidepressant, but failed to lift depression; Boehringer says it learned serendipitously that pill, taken daily for weeks, could restore female libido; Food and Drug Administration staff report recommend... June 17, 2010

Study Links Secondhand Smoke and Mental Illness
Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke were 1.5 times as likely to suffer from symptoms of psychological distress as unexposed nonsmokers, research found. June 15, 2010

In Midlife, Boomers Are Happy ? and Suicidal
Recent studies reported that Americans in midlife are a remarkably contented lot, and that they also have the highest rate of suicide. Researchers (try to) explain. June 13, 2010

Name Change at Agency to Remove ?Retardation?
New legislation advances the cause of advocacy groups by having the word ?retardation? dropped from the name of the state?s caretaking agency for people with developmental disabilities. June 8, 2010

Occupational Hazard: Playing the Fool
When assuming a patient?s sincerity in requesting narcotic painkillers or anti-anxiety drugs, expect a certain rate of false positives. June 8, 2010

Make Kendra?s Law Permanent
A New York law up for renewal has not only been a model of success for treating the mentally ill, but it has also saved lives. June 1, 2010

Oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy may protect women against brain aneurysms, study finds
Results from a new study suggest that oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy may yield additional benefit of protecting against the formation and rupture of brain aneurysms in women. July 31, 2010

Male modesty not appreciated by female or male interviewers, study suggests
A researcher who explored the consequences for men (and women) when they acted modestly in job interviews found that "modest" males were less liked, a sign of social backlash. Modesty was viewed as a sign of weakness, a low-status character trait for males that could adversely affect their employability or earnings potential. Modesty in women, however, was not viewed negatively nor was it linked to status. July 31, 2010

Tools that assess bias in standardized tests are flawed, study finds
Overturning more than 40 years of accepted practice, new research proves that the tools used to check tests of "general mental ability" for bias are themselves flawed. This key finding challenges reliance on such exams to make objective decisions for employment or academic admissions even in the face of well-documented gaps between mean scores of white and minority populations. July 31, 2010

Brain potentials reveal spectator effect
The neurological responses caused by observing somebody else playing a game have been uncovered. Researchers found differing responses for neutral observers, compared to those who wished the player to fail and those who wanted to see the player succeed. July 30, 2010

Resting brain activity associated with spontaneous fibromyalgia pain
A recent study provides the first direct evidence of linkage between elevated intrinsic (resting-state) brain connectivity and spontaneous pain intensity in patients with fibromyalgia. This research shows an interaction of multiple brain networks, offering greater understanding of how pain arises. July 30, 2010

Psychologists develop two potent new predictors of suicide risk
Two powerful new tests developed by psychologists show great promise in predicting patients' risk of attempting suicide. The work may help clinicians overcome their reliance on self-reporting by at-risk individuals, information that often proves misleading when suicidal patients wish to hide their intentions. July 30, 2010

New pathway to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases
Researchers have uncovered new clues about the cause of brain cell death in neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases. July 30, 2010

Reality TV, cosmetic surgey linked, says researcher
Research suggests that teens fond of reality TV programs are more likely to join the millions who go under the knife each year. For bodies -- and minds -- still in development, these drastic decisions could have implications way after prom. July 30, 2010

Reading terrorists minds about imminent attack: Brain waves correlate to guilty knowledge in mock terrorism scenarios
Imagine technology that allows you to get inside the mind of a terrorist to know how, when and where the next attack will occur. That may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. Northwestern brain wave research suggests that if the lab test had been employed in the real world with the same type of outcome, law enforcement officials ultimately may be able to confirm details about an attack that emerges from terrorist chatter. July 30, 2010

'Path of mental illness' follows path of war, 20 years after conflict ends
Researchers assessed the geographical distribution of the long-term burden of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a region of Liberia and report that the prevalence of PTSD remains high nearly two decades after the principal conflict there and five years after war in Liberia ended entirely. Particularly interesting was the geographic distribution of PTSD. Investigators found that certain villages in the region had a much higher prevalence of PTSD than did others. July 30, 2010

New approach to Alzheimer?s therapy
Researchers have shown that the ADAM10 protein can inhibit the formation of beta-amyloid, which is responsible for Alzheimer's disease. ADAM10 acts like a pair of molecular scissors to cut the protein from which beta-amyloid is formed, effectively preventing the formation of beta-amyloid. This makes ADAM10 a key molecule in Alzheimer's therapy. July 30, 2010

To make one happy, make one busy
A new study found that people who have something to do, even something pointless, are happier than people who sit idly. July 29, 2010

Molecular mechanism triggering Parkinson's disease identified
Scientists have identified a molecular pathway responsible for the death of key nerve cells whose loss causes Parkinson's disease. This discovery not only may explain how a genetic mutation linked to Parkinson's causes the cells' death, but could also open the door to new therapeutic approaches for the malady. July 29, 2010

Good and bad in the hands of politicians
Politicians' gestures can reveal their thoughts, according to a new study. In laboratory tests, right- and left-handers associate positive ideas like honesty and intelligence with their dominant side of space and negative ideas with their non-dominant side. To find out whether people link 'good' with 'dominant' beyond the laboratory, researchers examined spontaneous gestures during positive and negative speech in the final debates of the most recent US presidential elections. July 29, 2010

No safe level: First study to show teenage binge drinkers harm abilities in later life
Researchers in the UK have demonstrated a link between teenage binge drinking and damage to prospective memory. July 29, 2010