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The study, involving hundreds of people, found benefits for mental health of being able to see birds, shrubs and trees around the home, whether people lived in urban or more leafy suburban neighbourhoods. The study, which surveyed mental health in over 270 people from different ages, incomes and ethnicities, also found that those who spent less time out of doors than usual in the previous week were more likely to report they were anxious or depressed. After conducting extensive surveys of the number of birds in the morning and afternoon in Milton Keynes, Bedford and Luton, the study found that lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress were associated with the number of birds people could see in the afternoon. The academics studied afternoon bird numbers -- which tend to be lower than birds generally seen in the morning -- because are more in keeping with the number of birds that people are likely to see in their neighbourhood on a daily basis. In the study, common types o...

Once therapy started, however, it became apparent that standard drugs -- effective in most cases -- were not working here. And so, doctors turned to a less preferred drug called Clozapine. Though effective in controlling the manic- depressive cycles, one of the many side effects of the drug were very apparent -- sedation -- extreme sleepiness and fatigue. This side effect can severely hamper a recovering patient's integration back into normal society. As of now, the mechanisms by which such side effects occur are poorly understood, and options for treating them are limited. But, a recent study, on the drug Clozapine from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore holds out new hope for such cases. The work by Radhika Joshi from Mitradas Panicker's group at NCBS has proven that the molecule 5-HT2A in the brain is partially responsible for the sedative effects of Clozapine. Furthermore, the team has also discovered that the drug-induced sedation can be aff...

In the study, published Feb. 28, 2017 in the  Journal of Clinical Psychiatry , Emil Coccaro, MD, and colleagues analyzed data from more than 9,200 subjects in the National Comorbidity Survey, a national survey of mental health in the United States. They found that as the severity of aggressive behavior increased, so did levels of daily and weekly substance use. The findings suggest that a history of frequent, aggressive behavior is a risk factor for later substance abuse, and effective treatment of aggression could delay or even prevent substance abuse in young people. IED affects as many as 16 million Americans, more than bipolar disorder and schizophrenia combined. It is often first diagnosed in adolescents, some of whom are as young as 11, years before substance abuse problems usually develop. IED runs in families and is thought to have a significant genetic component, although Coccaro said people tend to treat it as a social-behavioral issue instead of as a true neurobiolog...

The research team, led by Renee Goodwin, PhD, in the Department of Epidemiology, analyzed data from the National Household Survey on Drug Use, an annual cross-sectional study of approximately 497, 000 Americans, ages 12 and over. The prevalence of past 12-month depression was examined annually among current (past 12-month), former (not past 12-month), and lifetime non-smokers from 2005 to 2013. The researchers further analyzed the data by age, gender, and household income. "The prevalence of depression prevalence increased and remains higher among current smokers overall, but the rate of the increase among former and never smokers was even more prominent," noted Dr. Goodwin. Striking temporal changes emerged by age, gender and income. Specifically, depression increased significantly, from 16 percent to 22 percent, among current smokers aged 12 to17, and the prevalence was consistently more than twice as high as that of never smokers. The increase in depression also rose f...

The findings, which appear in the  Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine , provide preliminary support for the use of yoga-based interventions as an alternative or supplement to pharmacologic treatments for depression. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is common, recurrent, chronic  and disabling. Due in part to its prevalence, depression is globally responsible for more years lost to disability than any other disease. Up to 40 percent of individuals treated with antidepressant medications for MDD do not achieve full remission. This study used lyengar yoga that has an emphasis on detail, precision and alignment in the performance of posture and breath control. Individuals with MDD were randomized to the high dose group, three 90-minute classes a week along with home practice, or the low dose group, two 90-minute classes a week, plus home practice. Both groups had significant decreases in their dep ressive symptoms and no significant differences in compliance. A...

"Our findings suggest that thickening of the cerebral cortex is a compensatory, neuroplastic response that helps to reduce the severity of depressive symptoms," said Peterson, director of the Institute of the Developing Mind at CHLA and professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. "Patients off medication have a thickened cortex, and the thicker it is, the fewer the symptoms they have. Treatment with medication then reduces the severity of symptoms, which in turn reduces the need for biological compensation in the brain -- so that their cortex becomes thinner, reaching thickness values similar to those in healthy volunteers." The investigators acquired anatomical brain scans at baseline and again at the end of the 10-week study period for 41 patients with chronic depression, while 39 healthy volunteers were scanned once. This study was conducted with adult patients treated at Columbia University...