Patients with major depression who fail to see improvement after taking an antidepressant often have their initial medication switched or combined with a second drug. Many clinicians weigh the possibility of adverse side effects when deciding between strategies. New research in the latest issue of General Hospital Psychiatry now suggests one strategy may not be any more likely to be harmful than the other. ...

With record levels of student stress reported in a recent UCLA survey, can a simple stress-reducing meditation technique be a viable solution? A new study published in the Journal of Instructional Psychology found the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique significantly decreased psychological distress in public school students. The study, conducted with at-risk minority secondary school students, showed ...

Researchers from Norway have uncovered an association between sleep problems and increased risk of fibromyalgia in women. The risk of fibromyalgia increased with severity of sleep problems, and the association was stronger among middle-aged and older women than among younger women. Results of the prospective study, based on ten years of data, appear in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal published by Wile ...

Daily exercise improves a teenager’s chances of a good night’s sleep, while excess computer time has the opposite effect, according to a national survey reported in the latest issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Earlier research has had similar findings, but this is the first large, nationally representative study to connect physical activity, sedentary behavior and sleep in high school st ...

Women with a history of high blood pressure before getting pregnant have a higher risk of depression than women who develop pregnancy-related hypertension, according to a new study. The study, which appears in General Health Psychiatry, looked at 2,398 women receiving prenatal care at an obstetrics clinic in Seattle, Washington, evaluating them for depressive symptoms and evidence of pre-existing hypertensi ...

A study of more than 400 children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has found a link between the children's routine play settings and the severity of their symptoms, researchers report. Those who regularly play in outdoor settings with lots of green (grass and trees, for example) have milder ADHD symptoms than those who play indoors or in built outdoor environments, the research ...

One-third of patients who have survived a life-threatening subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) have disabling symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), reports a study in the August issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. ...

When it comes to rearing children, just about any parent will say that what works with one kid might not work with another. Parents use all sorts of strategies to keep kids from being cranky, grumpy, fearful or moody, while encouraging them to be independent and well-adjusted. But which parenting styles work best with which kids? A study by University of Washington psychologists provides advice about tailor ...

A recent study gauging the impact of consuming more fish oil showed a marked reduction both in inflammation and, surprisingly, in anxiety among a cohort of healthy young people. The research, supported by the Ohio State University Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), was conducted by a team of scientists that has spent more than three decades investigating links between psychological stress ...

People with recurrent depression or those exposed to chronic stress exhibits shorter telomeres in white blood cells. This is shown by a research team at Umeå University in a coming issue of Biological Psychiatry. The telomere is the outermost part of the chromosome. With increasing age, telomeres shorten, and studies have shown that oxidative stress and inflammation accelerates this shortening. ...