Over the course of my life, I have been given no fewer than five different diagnoses for mental illnesses, under the diagnostic system laid out in psychiatry’s “bible,” the DSM.  But it was a sixth diagnosis— one that ironically will no longer appear in the edition being rolled out this ...

Just weeks before psychiatry’s new diagnostic “bible”—the DSM 5— is set to be released, the world’s major funder of mental health research has announced that it will not use the new diagnostic system to guide its scientific program, a change some observers have called “a cataclysm” and “potentially seismic.” Dr. Thomas ...

We don’t think of emotional states as passing from one person to another, but a new study suggests some depressive thoughts can go viral. Researchers studying a group of college students found that certain types of depressive thinking can spread from close-living roommates like a lingering flu. Although many people see ...

Two studies explore some of the developmental roots of depression in childhood and adolescence. In the first study, published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science, researchers focused on depressive rumination, or the relentless focus on what has gone wrong or will go wrong, coupled with an inability to see a solution ...

The effects of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can extend well beyond childhood, according to the latest research. In the largest study of its kind, researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital and Mayo Clinic found that close to a third of children with ADHD — 29.3% — still have the disorder as adults, along ...

The chemical, found in many plastic products, can interfere with normal brain development. In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report that bisphenol A (BPA) may suppress genes that are critical to early development of the central nervous system, which may predispose both animals and humans ...

Detecting the reading disorder as early as possible may help more children to overcome reading and learning problems. About one in 10 people suffer from dyslexia, the reading disability that does not impair thinking processes or  overall intelligence, but hampers the ability to process written language, often making it difficult to ...

Are you an alcoholic— or just a problem drinker? It may not matter, according to the latest version of the DSM, psychiatry’s diagnostic manual. And now, in a new study of the different levels of alcohol misuse, scientists say the changes made to the DSM-5 may not even represent a significant ...

It’s an anesthetic popular with veterinarians, but the latest studies show ketamine also shows promise as a potential antidepressant. Ketamine produces hallucinations, out-of-body feelings, disorientation and even amnesia that can last a few hours, which has made it not just a staple in veterinary clinics but occasionally in nightclubs as well, ...

When Paul Raeburn needed immediate help for his suicidal son, he had few good options.  The teen had threatened to sit on nearby railroad tracks until a train came. Even though Raeburn, a leading health and science writer, was in a position to know more about the best available mental ...