Psych News Alert

The 13-item Mental Wellness Tool (mwTool-13) successfully identified a range of probable mental illness among patients in a psychiatric emergency department, according to a report in Psychiatric Services .

Taking lithium may lower the risk of aortic calcification and coronary artery calcification in people with bipolar disorder, according to a study in the Journal of Affective Disorders .

One specific gene variation increases a patient’s risk of a rare but life-threatening hypersensitivity reaction to the mood-stabilizing drug lamotrigine—but that information is not included on current commercially available pharmacogenomic panels, according to a study published today in JAMA Psychiatry .

Brief cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) may be superior to bright light therapy (BLT) for improving symptoms of insomnia in women with breast cancer who are being treated with chemotherapy, a study in JAMA Network Open has found.

A ketogenic diet may hold therapeutic promise for people with serious mental illness (SMI) such as such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder—but the existing data are very sparse, according to a meta-analysis published in Translational Psychiatry .

Exposure to alcohol-related content on social media is associated with increased alcohol consumption among young people, with adolescents particularly influenced by their peers’ content, according t o a study published i n Addiction .

Nearly half of patients enrolled in coordinated specialty care (CSC) for first-episode psychosis (FEP) were discharged from the program within three years, most often under ambiguous circumstances, according to a report in Psychiatric Services .

Clinicians will soon have more tools to help them identify potential Alzheimer’s disease in adults with cognitive impairment—in the past week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared two new blood-based biomarker tests, including one approved for adults as young as 40.

Young people who know someone with a recent suicide attempt have an elevated risk of a suicide attempt themselves, according to a study in JAMA Network Open .

When it comes to receiving psychotherapy—whether face-to-face or via text—individuals significantly prefer communication free of AI assistance, according to a study published in The American Journal of Psychotherapy .

For adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who also have children with ADHD, pairing a stimulant medication with a parenting intervention can lead to significant reductions in their child’s ADHD severity. The findings were published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry .

Individuals with accumulated community-acquired infections are at higher risk of mental illness over time, according to a report in Translational Psychiatry —and the risk rises with increasing numbers of infections for up to five years post-infection.

The prevalence of cannabis use disorder (CUD) among adults in the United States has risen significantly in both males and females across multiple age groups, while alcohol use disorder (AUD) has declined or remained stable, according to the results of a study issued today by JAMA Psychiatry .

Spending too much time on a smartphone can lead to slower vocabulary growth in children, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics— except that it was parental smartphone overuse that was linked with the language delays.

Among antipsychotics, aripiprazole may be the best option for minimizing risks of hyponatremia—low levels of sodium in the body—according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) can promote lasting reductions in anxiety symptoms among early adolescents, according to a study published today in JAMA Network Open.

Several categories of mental illness are linked to declining kidney function, according to a study in General Hospital Psychiatry .

Individuals with bipolar disorder who took lithium reported reduced suicidal ideation and fewer suicide attempts than bipolar patients not taking lithium, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry .

Nurses and psychiatric technicians at a private psychiatric hospital reported significantly higher rates of exposure to trauma—witnessed or experienced—than those in roles requiring lower direct patient care, according to a report in Psychiatric Services .

Researchers in London conducted and completed a clinical trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy at a public health care clinic. The study findings, published in Nature Medicine , demonstrate that administering psilocybin to patients with depression is feasible within real-world clinical settings.