People who get painful migraine headaches may be at a higher risk for developing clinical depression, suggests a new study from Canada.The research, published in the journal Headache, also hints that the relationship may go both ways, and people with clinical depression could have a higher risk of developing migraines, but that finding could have been due to chance, the researchers say.
More Evidence DBS Effective for Severe Depression
One of the first multicenter pilot studies to examine deep-brain stimulation DBS for severe depression confirms earlier evidence that this treatment is effective.In the open-label study, investigators targeted the subcallosal cingulate gyrus area of the brain in 21 patients with long-term treatment-resistant depression TRD. One year after receiving DBS implantation, a majority of the study participants showed a 40% reduction in symptoms of depression.
For Some, Psychiatric Troubles May Begin With the Thyroid – NYTimes.com
In patients with depression, anxiety and other psychiatric problems, doctors often find abnormal blood levels of thyroid hormone. Treating the problem, they have found, can lead to improvements in mood, memory and cognition.
Now researchers are exploring a somewhat controversial link between minor, or subclinical, thyroid problems and some patients’ psychiatric difficulties. After reviewing the literature on subclinical hypothyroidism and mood, Dr. Russell Joffe, a psychiatrist at the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, and colleagues recently concluded that treating the condition, which affects about 2 percent of Americans, could alleviate some patients’ psychiatric symptoms and might even prevent future cognitive decline.
via For Some, Psychiatric Troubles May Begin With the Thyroid – NYTimes.com.
Bipolar Kids May Focus on Different Facial Features
Children with bipolar disorder and a similar condition called severe mood dysregulation spend less time looking at the eyes when trying to identify facial features, compared to children without the psychiatric disorders, researchers say.
This new study finding may help explain why children with bipolar disorder and severe mood dysregulation have difficulty determining other people’s emotional expressions, said the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health investigators.
Bullying Moves From Online to Text-Messaging: Study
HealthDay News — Kids exposure to online attacks and deviant behavior appears to have leveled off, but as more kids socialize by cellphone, sexual and other bothersome text messages are on the rise, a new study finds.Young people use technology to converse and connect with one another and, as with face-to-face methods, “there are positives and negatives,” said lead study author Michele Ybarra, president and research director of Internet Solutions for Kids, a nonprofit research organization in San Clemente, Calif.The good news is “our data dont support that things are getting worse online in frequency or intensity” in terms of harassment, bullying and unwanted sexual experiences, she said.