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A new study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry looked at the contribution of childhood lead exposure to psychopathology in the US population over the past 75 years. “We set out to determine the toll that leaded gasoline took on the US population’s mental health over the past century,” Dr. Aaron Reuben told us. “We knew it would be higher than anyone previously understood.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association looked at a longitudinal treatment effect analysis of antipsychotics on the behavior of residents in long-term care. “Our study was focused on the use of advanced statistical methods to evaluate the effects of antipsychotic use among nursing home residents who do not have existing conditions associated with psychosis,” study author, Dr. John Hirdes told us. Dr. Hirdes is a professor in the School of Public Health Sciences. “These drugs are often use ‘off label’ to manage behaviours in persons with dementia. We wanted to determine whether these drugs would be effective in managing behaviour problems in long-term care.” [More]

A new study published in Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine assessed the psychobiological demands of high-fidelity training in pre-hospital emergency medicine. “Individuals who provide emergency medical services mount physiological responses including activation of the nervous and endocrine systems,” study author Mark Wetherell told us. “These responses are highly adaptive and provide the energy resources to deal with the situation, however, frequent and sustained responding, with little opportunity for recovery, causes wear and tear on the body and this can lead to increased risk of stress-related illness.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology looked at the frequency of self-reported persistent post-treatment genital hypoesthesia among past antidepressant users in Canada and the US. “In my counselling practice, I specialize in working with people with Post Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD), which is a type of sexual dysfunction where sexual function does not return to normal upon discontinuation of commonly prescribed antidepressants such as SSRIs, Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors (SNRIs), and some tricyclic antidepressants,” study author Yassie Pirani told us.he [More]

A new study published in the American Journal of Medicine looked at increasing trends in alcohol related mortality in the United States. “We sought to explore whether there have been increases in U.S. alcohol related mortality,” study author Alexandra Matarazzo told us. “We were hoping to find out whether there were increases and, if so, whether they are occurring at younger ages.” [More]

A new study published in PubMed looked at how cocoa flavanols rescue stress-induced declines in endothelial function after a high-fat meal, but do not affect cerebral oxygenation during stress in young, healthy adults. “We know that when people are stressed, they tend to gravitate towards high-fat foods,” study author Dr. Catarina Rendeiro told us. “We have previously shown that fatty food can impair the body’s vascular recovery from stress. In this study, we wanted to see if adding a high-flavanol food to the fatty meal would alleviate the negative impact of stress in the body." [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Nature looked at structural and functional mechanisms of learning and memory. “NMDA receptors are essential for the fundamental processes,” study author Hiro Furukawa told us. “Recent clinical studies have revealed that in autoimmune encephalitis, antibodies targeting NMDA receptors disrupt normal neuronal function, resulting in psychotic symptoms.” [More]

A new study published in JAMA Open Network looked at the the comprehensiveness of state insurance laws and perceived access to pediatric mental health care. “Our study investigated the association of the comprehensiveness of state mental and behavioral health insurance laws with caregiver perception of access to mental and behavioral health care for children in the United States,” study author Ashley A. Foster told us. “We also assessed the association of comprehensiveness of state mental and behavioral health insurance laws with caregiver perception of adequacy of mental and behavioral health insurance coverage.” [More]

A new study published in the Psychological Bulletin looked at a meta-analytic review of the association between mental effort and negative affect. “In psychology, there is a decades-long controversy about the nature of mental effort,” study author Erik Bijleveld told us. “On the one hand, psychologists often assume that people avoid mental effort whenever they can.” Bijleveld cites an example of this when people make daily-life decisions such as what restaurant to go to, they are usually not going to process all relevant information that is available to them. [More]

A new study looked at smartphone survey data to help reveal the timecourse of changes in mood outcomes following vitamin C or kiwifruit intervention in adults with low vitamin C. “This study analyses secondary outcomes from our main trial (KiwiC for Vitality study) published in 2020," study author Tamlin Conner told us. "The secondary outcomes used smartphone surveys of people’s mood every second day throughout the eight-week intervention trial.” [More]