Mental Health and Addiction - News
Varenicline - marketed by Pfizer as Chantix -- is a safe, well-tolerated and effective way for people with emphysema - also known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD - to stop smoking, according to study findings presented this week at the CHEST 2009 meeting in San Diego, California.
U.S. regulators warned 10 companies for violating a recently enacted ban on sales of flavored cigarettes, letters released on Friday showed. The Food and Drug Administration told Clove Cigarettes Shop, Durango Smoke Shop Inc and the others to immediately stop marketing the products or to bring them into compliance with the law.
Babies whose mothers used antidepressants during pregnancy visit the doctor more often and have higher risks of certain health problems than other children their age, a new study suggests.
Smokers who switch to a low-tar, light or mild brand of cigarette will not find it easier to quit and in fact may find it harder, researchers reported on Tuesday. They found that smokers who traded to light cigarettes were 50 percent less likely to kick the habit.
Women who smoke while pregnant risk having hyperactive preschoolers who can't pay attention, a large study from the UK hints. Although previous studies have demonstrated significant risks for school-aged boys, this is the first time an association has been shown between smoking during pregnancy and problems for girls and for boys as young as 3, the researchers point out.
Longer-term treatment of depression for adolescents is associated with persistent benefits, even after treatment ends, according to results of the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS). TADS is a randomized,...
Smokers who are ready to quit will have the most luck if they combine the nicotine patch with nicotine lozenges and some counseling or coaching, a new study shows. Among study participants who used this combination, 40 percent were still smoke-free at six months.
Survivors of childhood brain tumors often suffer lasting problems with memory and other "cognitive" functions, results of a study indicate. The study also found lower levels of education, employment and income in adult survivors of childhood brain tumors compared with their siblings and survivors of other types of cancer.
Sometimes, when living with a serious illness, the best hope for happiness may be simply to give up hope. That's according to a group of researchers who discovered a "dark side of hope" studying a group of adults who had new colostomies: their colons were removed and they had to have bowel movements in a pouch that lies outside their body.
Babies whose mothers used antidepressants during pregnancy visit the doctor more often and have higher risks of certain health problems than other children their age, a new study suggests. The study looked at the medical records of nearly 39,000 Norwegian children through the first year of life.
Could high blood pressure-related complications during pregnancy be tied to thinking skills in children years later? A study from Denmark hints at "a modest association" between such complications and poorer reasoning, intuition, and perception skills in young adult men, report Dr.
Churchgoers have been found to have lower rates of drinking and smoking than those who spend their Sundays elsewhere. Now a new study suggests that for adults, it may not be church attendance itself that explains much of the phenomenon.
Alcohol abuse and depression are common among British troops returning from conflict deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan but post traumatic stress is less of a problem than previously thought, researchers said on Friday. A study by British psychiatrists found that more than 27 percent of troops suffer post deployment mental health problems, but only around 5 percent have post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) -- a debilitating illness that can be caused by wartime trauma.
People who have a compulsive urge to collect and clutter their homes with junk can partly attribute their problem to genes, a new study confirms. In a twin study, researchers found that genetic predisposition explained a large amount of the risk for compulsive hoarding -- a mental health problem in which people have an overwhelming desire to accumulate items normally considered useless, like old newspapers or junk mail.
People who have both Alzheimer's disease and diabetes have slower rates of memory loss than people who just have Alzheimer's disease, French researchers said on Tuesday.
The Swiss government is looking to change the law on assisted suicide to make sure it is only used as a last resort by the terminally ill, and to limit so-called "death tourism", it said on Wednesday.
New research confirms what a lot of people are finding out first-hand these days: being unemployed while trying to find a job is depressing. And the longer unemployment lasts, the more depressing it is, Dr. Krysia N. Mossakowski of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, found.
In children and adolescents, treatment with "second-generation" antipsychotic drugs is associated with significant weight gain and increased cholesterol levels, researchers warn in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week.
Female veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are less likely to complain of painful physical conditions than their male counterparts are. The findings, from a study of more than 91,000 U.S. veterans, run counter to what is seen in the general population -- where women typically show higher rates of chronic pain conditions, including migraines, fibromyalgia and persistent abdominal pain.
A new study on job authority and health suggests that the top is not only lonely, but can also take a toll on physical and mental well-being. Using data from 1,800 U.S. workers, researchers found that the negative aspects of having a power position at work seemed to cancel out the positive aspects when it came to people's physical and psychological health.
Veterans who suffered physical injuries or developed post-traumatic stress disorder after combat in Iraq or Afghanistan may suffer recurrent headaches, a new study suggests. In surveys of 308 veterans, researchers found that those who had suffered combat injuries were at greater risk of developing migraine headaches.
People who are neurotic -- they tend to worry a lot and to have emotional ups and downs -- seem to be at increased risk of developing asthma, a new study hints. Those who suffer through a divorce or other relationship conflict are also at risk for asthma, according to the study.
When one identical twin develops the developmental disorder autism, the risk of the other developing it is high -- substantially higher than it is for fraternal twins, a new study confirms. The study, which gathered information from 277 twin pairs in which at least one had an autistic disorder, found that when one identical twin developed an autistic disorder, the other one also did 88 percent of the time.
People who keep doing some work in their field after they retire may enjoy better physical and mental health than those who stop working completely, a new study suggests. The findings, say researchers, suggest that prospective retirees should consider moving into so-called "bridge employment" as a transition to full retirement.
Despite some highly publicized incidents in recent years, people with schizophrenia rarely commit random homicide, research shows. Pooling data from seven studies in four countries, researchers found that the odds of a person with schizophrenia killing a stranger were 1 in 14 million people per year.
Hooked on cocaine or cigarettes? The U.S. government wants drug companies to make a vaccine for that. Convinced of the need for new and better treatments for addiction, the government is focusing its efforts on vaccine development as a new way to treat and possibly prevent addiction to a range of addictive substances.
Research presented Tuesday at the 20th World Diabetes Congress in Montreal provides further evidence that healthy behaviors reduce mortality in people with and without diabetes. "Few previous studies have measured the effectiveness of healthy behaviors in delaying mortality among adults with diagnosed diabetes," lead researcher Dr.
People who live in green environs may be less likely than those surrounded by concrete to suffer a range of health problems, particularly depression and anxiety, according to a new study. Researchers found that among more than 300,000 Dutch adults and children, those living near more "green spaces" tended to have lower rates of 15 different health conditions.
Researchers have long seen signs of autism in children born prematurely, and some studies have suggested that such signs can develop into full-blown autism in childhood. A study out Monday suggests that complications during pregnancy and early life may be responsible for this early risk.
Children with autism have mercury levels similar to those of other kids, suggesting the mysterious disorder is caused by a range of factors rather than "a single smoking gun," researchers said on Monday. The researchers at the University of California, Davis, initially found that children aged 2 to 5 with autism had mercury levels lower than other children because the autistic kids ate less fish, the biggest source of mercury that shows up in the blood.
