Cover Article
New Brain-Chemistry Differences Found in Depressed Women
A new brain study published in the November Archives of General Psychiatry finds major differences between women with serious depression and those who are healthy, in a brain-chemical system that is crucial to stress and emotions.

Selected Articles

• Children with Higher Intelligence Have Less Risk for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
• Sleeping May Occur In Only Part of the Brain

Cover Article
Maternal Depression Risk May Adversely Affect Newborns
Babies born to women who were at risk for depression were born at an earlier gestational age and had elevated stress hormone levels, according to a study reported at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Selected Articles

• Psychopathology Is Common Among Youth With Intellectual Disability
• Assessing DSM criteria for bipolar disorder in children and adolescents

Cover Article
Screening for Intimate Partner Violence—What's the Best Approach?
Women favor self-completed screening methods for intimate partner violence compared with direct questioning by clinicians, regardless of how the self-report approach is administered, according to Harriet L. MacMillan, MD, MSc, Professor of Psychiatry and Behaviorial Neurosciences and Pediatrics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and colleagues.

Selected Articles

• The Neuropsychological and Mental Health Fallout of Disasters
• Treating Depression Using Deep Brain Stimulation

Cover Article
Blue Light Special—Treating Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders
Treatment for patients with circadian rhythm disorders is being cast in a new light—blue. Researchers at the 20th Anniversary Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies believe that blue light therapy, though still in the experimental stage, could help patients with certain types of sleep and mood disorders, improve alertness during shift work, overcome jet lag, and even help resolve circadian disruptions in astronauts during spaceflight.

Selected Articles

• Real-World Treatment of Panic Disorders
• Migraine Patients with Coexisting Borderline Personality Disorder

Cover Article
Assessing Suicide Risk—Separating Attempts From Ideation
Several key risk factors distinguish persons who have attempted suicide from those with suicidal ideation only, according to Stephen B. Woolley, MPH, DSc, and colleagues. History of trauma or abuse, substance abuse, and living alone were much more prevalent in people who had attempted suicide as compared with ideators. There were no significant differences regarding age, gender, and other sociodemographic variables. Dr. Woolley reported his group's findings at the 159th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.

Selected Articles

• A Closer Look at Compliance Rates Among Bipolar Patients
• Resilience is Linked to Illness Severity in Anxiety Disorders

Cover Article
Three New Long-Term Treatments for Insomnia
The results of three new randomized, controlled studies suggest that three new anti-insomnia agents may be safe and effective for durations of treatment ranging from five weeks to six months. Results of the studies of ramelteon, eszopiclone, and indiplon were presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.

Selected Articles

• Autism May Be Identifiable in Children by as Early as Age 2
• Pathologic Gambling—An expensive complication of dopamine agonist therapy for Parkinson's disease

Cover Article
Functional Imaging Captures the Neurobiology of Dread
In what is the first brain imaging study of dread, new research has shown that people who experience substantial dread about an adverse experience can be biologically distinguished from those who can better tolerate the experience. The findings were published in the May 5 Science, and have implications for understanding how people make decisions, pain management, and substance abuse.

Selected Articles

• Fluoxetine's Cellular Target Identified
• Processing Facial Emotion

Cover Article
Exploring the Brain's Role in Creativity
Kenneth M. Heilman, MD, discussed neuronal connectivity as a key component of "creative innovation," in his lecture at the 17th Annual Meeting of the American Neuropsychiatric Association. Dr. Heilman examined the neuroanatomic basis of creativity, particularly the role of the tempoparietal cortex and frontal lobe-locus coeruleus system in harnessing the divergent thinking that is the hallmark of highly creative people.

Selected Articles

• rEEG—The New Image of Diagnostic Accuracy
• Recent Insights and Better Tools for Understanding and Diagnosing Narcolepsy

Cover Article
Gulf Coast Researchers Assess the Psychological Impact of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast last August, causing at least 1,300 deaths and billions of dollars in property damage, and there are concerns that the emotional and psychological toll could be enormous as well. In interviews with NeuroPsychiatry Reviews, some of the researchers involved with projects assessing the psychological impact shared details of the state of the Gulf region, as well as their firsthand observations and experiences in helping people cope in the aftermath of the disaster.

Selected Articles

• Diagnosis and Management of Chronic Insomnia
• Risk of Substance Abuse in Children of Alcoholics

Cover Article
Building a Treatment Management Program for Patients With Bipolar Disorder
The latest results from the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD) found that nearly half of patients who achieved initial recovery relapsed within two years, with most having depressive episodes. The finding, as well as several proposals for therapeutic options for treatment-resistant bipolar depression, were published in the February American Journal of Psychiatry.

Selected Articles

• Risks Associated With Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy
• Frontiers in Neuroscience—Artificial Intelligence in the Pentagon and Beyond

Cover Article
Alcohol-Deterrent Drugs Help Problem Drinkers Remain Abstinent
Alcohol deterrents—specifically, disulfiram and calcium carbimide—can help achieve an abstinence rate higher than 50% in chronic alcoholism, according to the results of a nine-year study. Hannelore Ehrenreich, MD, DVM, and colleagues reported their findings in the January Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Selected Articles

• Neuroimaging Tourette's Syndrome
• Probing the Link Between Marijuana Use and the Risk of Schizophrenia

Cover Article
New Approaches Help Heal Combat-Related PTSD
As troops return from deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan, the need for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment is expected to increase. The good news is that a more supportive environment and more informed and effective medical treatment than was the case for soldiers returning from Vietnam awaits them, said Matthew J. Friedman, MD, PhD, Executive Director of the VA National Center for PTSD. Dr. Friedman elucidated some of these new approaches to PTSD treatment—rooted strongly in a growing body of research on the neural and biochemical underpinnings of the disorder—in an exclusive interview with NeuroPsychiatry Reviews.

Selected Articles

• Emotional Impairment Linked to Poor Cognition in Pediatric Bipolar Disorder
• Swimming With Dolphins and Other Biophilic Health Remedies