The New York Times (5/8, Saker) “Well” blog reports that over the past three years, psychologist Linda Crane, of the College of Mount St. Joseph, along with “fellow Mount St. Joseph psychologist, Tracy McDonough, have built the Schizophrenia Oral History Project,” the first such project “to focus on schizophrenia, they say.” The two psychologists have “so far…recruited two dozen people to sit down with them and a voice recorder, asking their ‘narrators’ simply: What’s it like to be you?”

Related Links:

— “Stories as a Window Into Schizophrenia,” Anne Saker, New York Times, May 8, 2014.

The Wall Street Journal (5/8, A6, Wang, Subscription Publication) reports that according to a study published online May 8 in The Lancet, people with severe mental illnesses appear to be far less likely to commit violent crimes if they are on antipsychotics.

The Los Angeles Times (5/8, Healy) reports that “among the study’s 82,647 subjects–all of them prescribed an antipsychotic or mood-stabilizing drug at some point between 2006 and 2009–routinely taking an antipsychotic drug was linked to a 29% reduced probability of being convicted of a drug-related charge, a 22% decline in convictions for any crime, and a 26% reduction in the likelihood of arrest on suspicion of having committed a violent crime.”

Related Links:

— “Medications Cut Violence Among Mentally Ill in Study,” Shirley S. Wang, Wall Street Journal, May 7, 2014.

The Congressional Quarterly (5/7, Young, Subscription Publication) reports that on Tuesday, “Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urged an end to the stigma that often is attached to seeking treatment for psychiatric conditions.” Sebelius remarked, “We need to get to a place in this country where everyone feels comfortable accessing treatment without the fear of getting judged, to a place where anyone feels as comfortable saying that they are going for counseling as they are for a flu shot.” The piece notes that Sebelius “was among the speakers at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day.”

Related Links:

— Congressional Quarterly (requires login and subscription)

The New York Times (5/7, Reynolds) “Well” blog reports that according to a study published online April 2 in the journal Neurology, “the more physically active you are at age 25, the better your thinking tends to be when you reach middle age.” Researchers arrived at that conclusion after having analyzed data gathered “over several decades” for the “Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults” study, which started during the middle of the 1980s.

Related Links:

— “Early Fitness Can Improve the Middle-Age Brain,” Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times, May 7, 2014.

HealthDay (5/7, Dotinga) reports that according to research presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting, “children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [AD/HD] may be more likely to be part of families that are affected by poverty, divorce, neighborhood violence and substance abuse.” After analyzing “the answers of parents of 65,680 children aged 6-17 who responded to a 2011 survey,” researchers found that “about 12 percent of the kids had been diagnosed with AD/HD, and their parents reported higher rates of various problems than the parents of kids without AD/HD did.”

Related Links:

— “Kids With ADHD May Also Suffer Family Troubles,” Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, May 6, 2014.

Medscape (5/7, Anderson) reports that according to research presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, “private school students are much less likely to report suicidal plans, thoughts, and attempts compared with their public school counterparts.” The study revealed that “of the total sample of 8,407 private school children, 10.1% said they entertained thoughts of suicide; about half of those (5.2%) reported suicidal plans, and 2.8% reported suicide attempts.” The data on public school students came “from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.”

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— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Medscape (5/6, Brauser) reports that according to the findings of a review presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, “ingredients in sexual enhancement products advertised and sold online are associated with several serious psychoactive effects.” The review of 108 Internet “sites and other online resources showed that the most common of these products contained the active ingredients yohimbine, maca, ginkgo biloba, and/or horny goat weed,” all of which were tied “to the induction of anxiety, panic, mood changes, hallucinations, and/or addictive behaviors.”

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— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Medscape (5/6, Anderson) reports that a literature review presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting “points to the potentially devastating effects of Internet addiction, especially in adolescents.” According to the “review of 13 published articles…people with Internet addiction disorder (IAD), especially those addicted to Internet gaming, tend to have certain brain abnormalities.” Researchers found that “increased blood flow is actually seen in the areas of the brain involving reward and pleasure centers, and decreased blood flow is observed in areas involved in hearing and visual processing.”

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— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The Wall Street Journal (5/6, D4, Chen, Subscription Publication) reports that a digital game called SuperBetter, which will soon undergo a scientific study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, may help some people manage anxiety and depression. Other digital games and apps are being developed for the management of post-traumatic stress disorder. Nevertheless, such games are no substitute for psychotherapy, according to Carol Landau, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School.

Related Links:

— “Different Way to Treat Depression: Games,” Angela Chen, Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2014.

Medscape (5/5, Brooks) reports that according to research presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, “high school students who frequent the tanning salon may actually be depressed and at risk for suicidal thoughts and behavior.” The study “found that excessive indoor tanning, defined as tanning 40 times or more in 12 months, was associated with a greater than two-fold increased odds of depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts and a greater than four-fold likelihood of suicide attempt.” In arriving at the study’s conclusion, researchers analyzed data from the biennial Youth Risk Behavior Survey “to study the relationship between excessive indoor tanning with depression, defined as 2 weeks of sadness, and suicide ideation, plan, attempt, and treatment.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)