Harvard Mental Health Letter articles from October 2007

Harvard Mental Health Letter archives from October 2007

Disease-modifying drugs for Alzheimer's: hope or hype?
October 1, 2007... New Alzheimer's drugs are in clinical trials. Experts advise cautious optimism. In many ways, Alzheimer's disease is the biological equivalent of a slow-motion train wreck. Studies have revealed that the two hallmark brain lesions in...

Beating the blues by treating sleep apnea.
October 1, 2007... Obstructive sleep apnea and depression: Treating the sleep problem may boost mood. About one in five people with depression also suffers from a sleep-related breathing disorder, most often obstructive sleep apnea. What's more, a large...

The spiritual side of recovery.
October 1, 2007... Some tips for clinicians about how to support patients. In some ways, spirituality and religion have together become the "third rail" of the mental health field: Clinicians may think these topics are so highly charged that they keep their...

In Brief: Treatment rates for alcohol abuse and dependence remain low.
October 1, 2007... Effective treatments are available for alcohol abuse and dependence, but the number of people with these disorders who are actually undergoing treatment has remained stubbornly low, according to an analysis of federal data. Researchers at...

In brief: repeat autism screening recommended for at-risk children.
October 1, 2007... Younger siblings of children diagnosed with autism, who are at higher-than-normal risk for developing the disorder themselves, should be screened around the time of both their first and second birthdays. That is one implication of a new study...

In brief: researchers provide insight into the chemistry of fear.
October 1, 2007... In experiments involving mice, researchers at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and Howard Hughes Medical Institute report that they have identified a chemical pathway that may underlie the persistence of debilitating fear...

Questions & answers.(Internet addiction and mental disorder)
October 1, 2007... Q. Is "Internet addiction" a distinct mental disorder? A. For a decade, mental health clinicians and researchers have been arguing the merits of defining a new mental disorder, what some would call "Internet addiction." This tag refers to a...