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Hypochondriacs have higher risk of death, suicide – Swedish study
Researchers have linked hypochondria to an 84% higher risk for death, and a four-fold increased risk for suicide, with the findings of their population-based...
Experts advise monitoring of acne drug’s adverse psychiatric effects
The common skin condition of acne has been associated with considerable morbidity, particularly psychiatric and psychological, but one of the most efficacious treatments, isotretinoin,...
Childhood ADHD medicines not linked to higher substance use later – US study
Providing a smidgen of reassurance to parents and clinicians, researchers say children prescribed with stimulants for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) do not have...
Transgenders nearly eight times likelier to commit suicide – Denmark study
In a world first, researchers have found that transgender people in Denmark have a significantly higher risk of suicide than other groups, with the...
Contraceptive pills tied to depression – large Swedish study
Recent research, the largest of its kind, has found that women using combined contraceptive pills had more risk of developing depression than those who...
Ketamine better than ECT for depression – Harvard study
In what signals relief and hope for clinically depressed patients, a recent study suggests that ketamine could be a promising alternative to electroconvulsive therapy,...
Lack of sleep heightens infection risks – Norwegian study
People who sleep less than six hours a night are 27% more likely to have had an infection in the past three months, compared...
Why antidepressants cause emotional ‘blunting’ – UK-Danish study
Scientists have explained why common antidepressants cause half of most users to feel emotionally “blunted”, their recent collaborative study showing that the drugs affect...
Twice the risk of PPD if psychiatric disorder in family – Danish review
Danish researchers have found women suffering post-partum depression (PPD), with a family history of a psychiatric disorder, have almost twice the risk of developing...
Psychiatric disorder risk may increase after severe COVID and acute respiratory infections – Oxford study
A UK study had found that the more than 32,000 survivors of severe COVID-19 and more than 16,000 survivors of other severe respiratory infections...
Anti-depressants not linked to better quality of life, over time – Saudi study
A study by a team in Saudi Arabia has found that in the long run, using anti-depressants is not associated with a significantly better...
Exercising even 50% of recommended amount reduces depression risk – Cambridge study
Already known to help ease depression, regular exercise may also help prevent it, with people who exercised just half the recommended weekly amount lowering...
Prolonged Grief Disorder: One year of mourning is enough rules APA’s new diagnostic manual
The latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s definitive diagnostic manual, DSM-5, published this week, lists a controversial new condition: Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD),...
Ketamine for the treatment of mental health and substance use disorders – Meta-analysis
An Anglo-Canadian study found “strong evidence” that iketamine provides rapid and robust anti-depressant and anti-suicidal effects, but the effects were relatively short-lived. “However, repeated...
Psychiatric comorbidity doubles risk of premature mortality and suicide among those with chronic diseases
Among patients with chronic, non-communicable diseases, the risk of death is more than doubled if they also have a psychiatric comorbidity, according to a...
Continued increase in depressive symptoms over course of pandemic – representative US study
Almost a third (32.8%) of US adults experienced elevated depressive symptoms in 2021, compared to 27.8% at the start of the pandemic in 2020,...
Acceleration of biological ageing by stress can by modulated by developing psychological resilience
Measuring biological age by tracking DNA changes through an epigenetic clock, a Yale study stress does indeed make life’s clock tick faster, but people...
Largest study finds psychedelic ‘highly efficacious’ in serious depression — COMPASS 2b trial
The psychedelic drug psilocybin, the compound found in magic mushrooms, is highly efficacious as therapy for treatment resistant depression, found the largest yet randomised,...
Magnetic seizure therapy an option to electroconvulsive therapy in treatment-resistant depression
Magnetic seizure therapy (MST) may be a viable option to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in the treatment of depression, found a novel US study in...
SA warnings of possible post-pandemic mental health crisis echo global study
Medical scheme warnings in South Africa of a surging mental health problems in the wake of COVID-19 echo warnings in a study in The...
New research propels psychedelics into the mainstream
Psychiatry is on the brink of taking psychedelic drugs mainstream, writes The New York Times. Researchers and corporates stand poised to get involved, but...
Repeated ketamine infusions reduce PTSD symptom severity
Repeated intravenous (IV) ketamine infusions significantly reduce symptom severity in individuals with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the improvement is rapid and maintained...
Therapy plus medication better than medication alone in bipolar disorder
A review of 39 randomised clinical trials by scientists from University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences and their colleagues from other institutions...
Psychedelics in group therapy for 'demoralised' AIDS survivors
A first US study demonstrated the feasibility, relative safety, and potential efficacy of psilocybin-assisted group therapy for demoralisation in older, long-term AIDS survivors (OLTAS).
Psychedelic-assisted...
Targeted treatment for depression may benefit patients with psychosis
Patients with early onset psychosis may benefit from treatment for depression, including with anti-depressants alongside other medication, research shows. According to scientists at the...
Cognitive behaviour therapy as non-drug treatment to reduce inflammation
A review of more than 50 clinical trials has found that psychological and behavioural therapies may serve as effective non-drug treatments for reducing disease-causing...
Meta-analysis: Insufficient evidence for homeopathic remedies in psychiatric disorders
Available data on homeopathy in psychiatric disorders are insufficient to support their use in clinical practice, found an Italian systematic review of 212 randomised...
Religious attendance link to lower risk of 'deaths of despair' for health workers
People who attended religious services at least once a week were significantly less likely to die from "deaths of despair," including deaths related to...
New treatment relieves depression in 90% of participants in small study
A new form of magnetic brain stimulation rapidly relieved symptoms of severe depressioZn in 90% of participants in a small study conducted by researchers...
COVID-19 health workers face stress-based trauma and insomnia
More than a third of medical staff involved in the Covid19 outbreak in China suffered from insomnia, and these sleep-deprived health workers also were...
First genetic analysis of schizophrenia in SA's Xhosa
The first genetic analysis of schizophrenia in an ancestral African population, the South African Xhosa, has been published. An international group of scientists conducted...
Brain structure differences link to individuals with lifelong antisocial behaviour
Individuals who exhibit lifelong-persistent antisocial behaviour – for example, stealing, aggression and violence, bullying, lying, or repeated failure to take care of work or...
Risk factors for suicide over a lifetime — systematic review
A review of previous studies into suicide worldwide by Oxford University and the Karolinska Institutet identifies the effects of individual and environmental risk factors,...
Single dose of psilocybin gives long-term relief of psychiatric distress
Following up on their landmark 2016 study, researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine found that a one-time, single-dose treatment of psilocybin, a compound...
Long-term medication for schizophrenia is safe
A Karolinska Institutet data analysis suggests that long‐term antipsychotic use does not increase severe physical morbidity leading to hospitalisation, and is associated with substantially...
PTSD symptoms experienced by 1 in 6 women suffering miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy
One in six women who experience an early miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder nine months later, says a New...
In the long run, drugs and talk therapy hold same value for depression patients
Spending an hour in talk therapy with a trained counsellor costs much more, and takes more time, than swallowing an inexpensive antidepressant pill. But...
Anti-inflammatories effective and safe with major depression
Anti-inflammatory medicines were better than placebo and also enhanced the effects of standard antidepressant treatment, to safely curb the symptoms of major depression,...
Medical cannabis not proven in mental health — research review
Evidence is weak for whether medicinal cannabis treatments can relieve mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression and psychosis, and doctors should prescribe them with...
Shrines where the chained and padlocked mentally ill are 'cured'
The age-old practice of chaining the mentally ill to trees, to release them as "cured" after 40 days, persist in much of Afghanistan and...