News by Subject Social & Behavior

A new investigation finds that while insurance coverage for depression has increased, treatment rates are lower than expected, indicating that non-financial barriers to patient care still remain.

Scientists used a compound found in a shrub native to Africa to reveal the three major shapes of the serotonin transporter, a protein in the brain linked to anxiety and depression. The discovery opens new avenues for developing medications to treat addiction.

Researchers analyzed national survey data on the use of health services and spending to examine trends in the outpatient treatment of depression in the US population from 1998 to 2015, a time when many policy changes have expanded insurance coverage for mental health conditions.

While sending or receiving nude electronic images may not always be associated with poorer mental health, being coerced to do so and receiving unwanted sexts was linked to a higher likelihood of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms, according to a new study published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.

Childhood trauma is known to increase the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder in adulthood, especially for women, but the biological reasons for this correlation remain largely unknown. In a new study from the University of Missouri, researchers have proposed a solution to this mystery in the form of a model that could help psychiatrists better understand the far-reaching impacts of early trauma on women, while also clarifying why not all women with traumatic childhoods develop PTSD.

Mount Sinai study may help explain some of the excess risks for inflammatory diseases in first born children.

This study looked at the privacy practices of popular apps for depression and smoking cessation. Researchers assessed the content of privacy policies and compared disclosures regarding data sharing with commercial third parties to actual behavior for 36 apps.

In a series of studies from Lawson Health Research Institute, Western University and ICES, researchers examined the impact of Canada's only early intervention program for youth with mood and anxiety disorders. Results suggest that treatment at the First Episode Mood and Anxiety Program (FEMAP) at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) leads to improvements in patients' symptoms and functioning, access to psychiatric care in the most appropriate settings and fewer visits to the emergency department (ED).