The University of Queensland has joined a consortium trialling a new support program for families caring for relatives with mental illness. The Manager of UQ's Research Centre for Youth Substance Abuse, Dr Angela White, said families in this situation often experienced significant levels of emotional and practical stress, trauma, anxiety, disruption and strain...

The Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and the Treasury today jointly issued new rules providing parity for consumers enrolled in group health plans who need treatment for mental health or substance use disorders...

When and where in the brain a gene turns on holds clues to its possible role in disease. For example, a recent study found that forms of a gene associated with schizophrenia are over-expressed in the fetal brain, adding to evidence implicating this critical developmental period.

In October 2009 the government of Italy announced that a wreck discovered off the southwestern tip of the country is the Catania , a passenger vessel sunk during World War I--and not the Cunski , a cargo ship loaded with radioactive waste, as alleged by district authorities from nearby Calabria. Few locals are reassured, says Michael Leonardi of the University of Calabria. He and others maintain that the putative Cunski is still out there and is just one of numerous ships full of poisonous garbage that a crime syndicate has scuttled in the Mediterranean Sea. Such a startling allegation, if true, would not only damage the tourism and fishing industries along this idyllic coast but also compromise the health of Mediterranean residents.

Processing and safely storing waste from the chemical, pharmaceutical and other industries can cost hundreds, even thousands, of dollars per ton--which makes illegal disposal highly profitable. According to the Italian environmental organization Legambiente, some waste shippers that have operational bases in southern Italy have been using the Mediterranean as a dump. While acknowledging that “no wreck has yet been found that contains toxic or radioactive waste,” physicist Massimo Scalia of the University of Rome, La Sapienza, who has chaired two parliamentary commissions on illegal waste disposal, argues that other vidence makes their existence “beyond reasonable doubt.”

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An interdisciplinary team coordinated by researchers from the University of Castilla La Mancha (UCLM) and the Canary Islands Health Service has evaluated the economic impact of mental illness in Spain, and estimated their social cost...

UroToday.com - PSA screening remains controversial. In addition to questions over decreased mortality, concerns exist over the psychological trauma from an elevated PSA level and the results of a prostate biopsy. The ultimate tragic endpoint would be a patient committing suicide over a new diagnosis of prostate cancer (CaP)...

An analysis on bmj.com today reports that psychologists and psychiatrists should not be expected to participate in torture. This is due to the fact that they do not have the expertise to assess individual pain or the long-term effects of interrogation. The investigation is the work of Derrick Silove and Susan Rees, from the University of New South Wales in Australia...

Three new regional research centres that will study violence and ways to prevent it will receive almost $6 million over five years from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, made the announcement at a national roundtable that brought together leading Canadian researchers on violence, gender and health research...

While re-entry and skill-building programs offered by the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) at its 11 prisons are heavily used and generally viewed favorably by inmates, many anticipate a difficult return to society due to their underlying health conditions and concerns about finances and support systems...

Boys face high rates of a variety of mental health issues, in addition to lagging behind girls in academic performance and college attendance, according to two new papers by University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Judith Kleinfeld...