PsychBriefs: April 28-May 4, 2007

Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. This week: April 28-May 4, 2007.

Mentally Ill Die 25 Years Earlier
People treated for serious mental illness in public systems now die at an average age of 51, 25 years younger than the national average of 76. This difference has grown by ten to 15 years since the 1990s say experts who suggest the widening gap is due to greater difficulties accessing public health care and obesity caused by both a lack of physical activity and weight gain triggered by a popularly prescribed anti-psychotic.
[ARTICLE]

Delayed Social Response In Autism Siblings
Research from the University of California at San Diego shows that siblings of children with autism often lag in "social referencing," or checking the emotional reactions of others and aligning one's own feelings in response. These findings make a strong case both for a strong genetic component to the disorder and for the spectrum theory of autism disorders.
[ARTICLE]

More Evidence That Advertising Leads To Adolescent Alcohol Use
Children exposed to high levels of alcohol marketing before junior high are 50 percent more likely to drink by 7th grade.
[ABSTRACT] [ARTICLE]

Reducing Tau Protein May Prevent Alzheimer's Symptoms
Studies on rats show that reducing levels of the protein tau can prevent seizures and neurological deficits related to Alzheimer's disease. Researchers believe doing so reduces levels of amyloid-beta protein (AB) thought to accumulate as plaque in the brain, causing Alzheimer's. Related research suggests humans may be able to replicate these results using Omega fatty acids found in fish oils.
[ABSTRACT] [ARTICLE]

Mothers Who Take Epilepsy Drugs May Have Children With Lower IQs
Research presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 59th Annual Meeting shows that children of women who took the epilepsy drug valproate score lower on IQ tests and were twice as likely to qualify as mentally retarded than children of mothers who took other epilepsy drugs. Researchers say these findings are consistent with past research showing the drug to increase the risk of fetal death and birth defects.
[ARTICLE]

Migraines May Signal PTSD, Depression In Veterans
A study of 3,621 recently returned United States Army soldiers shows that soldiers who suffer from migraine headaches are twice as likely to be experiencing depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or anxiety.
[ARTICLE]

Abnormal Face Processing In Autistic Children
How children process faces and pictures of them may be key in identifying autism spectrum disorders (ASD), suggests research from Yale Medical School. They found that while toddlers with autism are often averse to making eye contact or studying faces in real life, they have an easier time looking at pictures of faces, perhaps because they are not distracted by other objects in the environment. Using an eye-tracking system, researchers found these children also spent more time looking at the outer features of faces, such as hair and neck, while their peers focused on face and eyes. They also tended to focus on specific features rather than scanning areas of the face. These findings help to explain why children with ASD often have problems encoding facial identities.
[ARTICLE]

Where Antidepressants Fail, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy May Succeed
When a first attempt at antidepressant therapy fails to treat depression, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is as effective as switching to another medication, although remission may require more time.
[ABSTRACT] [ARTICLE]