Kennebec (Maine) Journal: "A growing number of uninsured Mainers with mental illness are falling through the cracks of the health care system because of state budget cuts and financial strains on nonprofits, according to state officials and private agencies...

Broadcaster Gay Byrne launched a new campaign to raise awareness of depression and the importance of mental health in later life. The campaign, by Lundbeck (Ireland) Ltd and supported by Age and Opportunity, is targeting older people who may be reluctant to talk to their doctors about their mental health. Many factors can trigger a period of depression...

Exposure to stress in the womb could be more harmful to males after birth than females, researchers have found...

A new national study not only has confirmed that children who have been exposed to disasters from earthquakes to fires are more prone to emotional problems, but many of those children may already have been experiencing maltreatment, domestic abuse or peer violence that could exacerbate those issues...

On July 30, 2010, the Office for Research on Disparities and Global Mental Health (ORDGMH) in the Office of the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) invited students, post-doctoral trainees, and early stage investigators, as well as researchers, educators, practitioners, and federal government staff to discuss research careers in global mental health. This gathering of trainees and researchers occurred in response to the rapidly growing interest in global mental health as a career option.

Treatment of severe depression with magnetic stimulation is moving beyond large mental health centers and into private practices nationwide, following more than two decades of research on the treatment. Yet even as concern about its efficacy fades, one potential side effect--seizures--continues to shadow the technology. [More]



Mental health - Health - Depression - Major depressive disorder - Disorders

Transhumanists!  Singularitarians! Listen up! You who harbor a fervent faith in science’s imminent transformation of our frail, fleshy selves. The conquest of all our physical and mental ailments, cancer, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, depression, senescence--death itself. You who exult over every “breakthrough” in nanotech, biotech, neuro-prostheses, artificial intelligence bearing you closer to eternal life.

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Artificial intelligence - Schizophrenia - Major depressive disorder - Cancer - Singularitarianism

One in seven patients experience more pain, physical and emotional problems a year after surgery than before their operation and a quarter have less vitality. Those are the key findings of a research study of more than 400 patients published online by the British Journal of Surgery...

Realistic stem cell therapies to replace diseased or damaged tissue may still be years away, but researchers have uncovered a promising new use for these undifferentiated cells: they can be programmed to become patient-specific laboratory models of inherited liver disease. These new tools could be useful for teasing out disease mechanisms and testing new drug therapies.

Scientists from the University of Cambridge's Institute for Medical Research obtained skin cells from 10 patients--seven who had various forms of inherited liver disease, and three healthy controls. They reprogrammed the skin cells, rejuvenating them into an embryolike state (using the four-gene approach described in 2007). The researchers then cultured these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) in a mixture of chemical factors that triggered their conversion into liver cells, which had the appearance and functional properties of native liver cells.

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Stem cell - Cambridge University - Liver - Medical Research - Disease

WPAT(Jackson, Miss.): "Finding quality health care continues to be a challenge in the New Orleans area. Five years ago, Hurricane Katrina flooded area hospitals, destroyed buildings and scattered patients. The health care industry has been slow to recover and in some cases, facilities still haven't opened. ... Right now, there is no hospital in New Orleans East...