Acute schizophrenia is a term used to describe episodes of relatively severe schizophrenia-related symptoms that have a strongly negative impact on a person’s ability to function. Doctors can combat the effects of these episodes with the help of a number of different antipsychotic medications. However, these medications only work in certain individuals and typically come …
Depressive realism is a term mental health professionals sometimes use to describe a tendency among depressed people to realistically judge their relationship to certain features of their surroundings. This tendency goes against the grain of much of a depressed person’s thought processes, which typically distort reality in significant ways. In a study published in August …
Depressed People Have a More Accurate Perception of Time Read More »
Depression is a common term that can refer to either one specific mental health condition—called major depression—or to a larger group of conditions known as depressive disorders. Current statistics indicate that women in the U.S. develop some form of depression much more often than men. However, according to the results of a new study published …
Speech sound disorder is the name of a condition listed for the first time in 2013 in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which doctors in the U.S. commonly use when diagnosing mental health problems in their patients. It replaces another condition, called phonological disorder, formerly listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. …
Anxiety is the common term for the presence of certain feelings—such as worry, dread or fear—that can put the brain and body into the unusually alert state known as the “fight-or-flight” response. While this state isn’t harmful in and of itself, its ongoing or recurring effects can lead to the onset of significant mental health …
Going off to college is a major life event for a teenager. For many it is the first time away from home for an extended period of time. In a way, going to college and living on campus is like a first step toward living without your parents and toward becoming an adult in the …
Anxiety, Depression Plague College Students, Survey Finds Read More »
Autism is a developmental disorder diagnosed in more than 1 percent of children in the U.S. The disorder is considered a spectrum, which means that affected children experience symptoms in varying degrees of severity. The general symptoms of autism include impaired social skills, difficulty with language and behavioral problems. Kids with high-functioning autism can get …
Autistic Kids Who Best Peers at Math Show Different Brain Organization Read More »
Oxytocin is the name of a natural substance, classified as a hormone, which forms in the brain and circulates throughout the bloodstream. During childbirth, doctors can use oxytocin injections to induce labor, quicken labor or decrease the risk for bleeding immediately following labor. Scientific evidence indicates that this hormone also plays a vital role in …
‘Love Hormone’ Oxytocin Can Also Breed Fear, Anxiety Read More »
Exposure therapy for those with obsessive-compulsive disorder combined with antidepressants is more effective in reducing symptoms than medication alone, according to a new study by New York’s Columbia University. Current guidelines favor augmentation of antidepressants with antipsychotics for those who suffer from OCD.
It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke—women have been on the receiving end of jokes and quips about menopause in all its hot-flashing, mood-roller-coastering, sleep-destroying glory for decades—and now antidepressants can be prescribed for some of these symptoms. I can hear women all over the United States uttering their most sarcastic “really?” and …