Mental Health Association of Nebraska

Antipsychotic drugs tied to diabetes risk in kids - Yahoo! News

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – The antipsychotic drugs that are increasingly being used to treat bipolar disorder, autism and other mental disorders in children may come with an increased risk of diabetes, a new study suggests.

Previous research has linked the so-called second-generation antipsychotics to an increased risk of diabetes in adults. And there's been some evidence that the drugs can cause weight gain in children.

The new findings, published in the journal Pediatrics, add to concerns that the medications may ultimately lead to diabetes in some kids.

via old.news.yahoo.com

Dad's depression may rub off on kids

Doctors and researchers have known for years that children are more likely to develop mental-health problems if their mother has struggled with depression. But what if it's the father who's depressed?

According to a new study -- one of the first to examine mental-health patterns in a nationally representative sample of dads and kids -- a child's odds of developing emotional or behavioral problems increase by as much as 70% if the father shows signs of depression. That's smaller than the increased risk associated with depressed moms, but it's still cause for concern, researchers say.

via www.cnn.com

Is it mind over meds in depression treatment? - Health - Mental health - msnbc.com

Clinical trials in all areas of medicine turn up some degree of "placebo effect" -- the phenomenon of people who are given a sham treatment, instead of the real thing, getting better anyway. Placebo responses are particularly common in certain disorders, depression being one.

In the new study, researchers re-analyzed findings from a 2002 clinical trial that compared the antidepressant sertraline (Zoloft), the herbal depression treatment St. John's wort and a placebo.

The original study, which included 340 people with moderate depression, had found that neither treatment was any more effective than the placebo when taken for up to six months.

But the current study looked at the data in a different way: It asked whether patients who thought they were getting the real treatment were more likely to improve than those who thought they were on the placebo.

All of the trial patients had been "blinded" as to whether they were receiving the antidepressant, the herb or the placebo. But at the eight-week mark of the study, they were asked to guess which treatment they were taking.

And it turns out that people who thought they were using the antidepressant or St. John's wort were more likely to improve than those who thought they'd been assigned to the placebo group.

via www.msnbc.msn.com