Minneapolis St. Paul Mental Health Blog

Posts by:

MaryAPRN.com/ Advanced Practice Psych LLC

Snip20160302_17.png

taking Antidepressants while pregnant not tied to intellectual disability in kids

Maternal Health Update | Pregnant women’s use of antidepressants does not increase their babies’ risk of intellectual disability,

In a new study, researchers analyzed data from a large sample of children and found those whose mothers took antidepressant medications while pregnant were no more likely to be diagnosed with intellectual disability than those who weren’t exposed to antidepressants in the womb.

“There has certainly been a lot of reports about associations between taking medication - particularly psychiatric medication - during pregnancy and various outcomes,” said Dr. Alexander Kolevzon, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

Kolevzon and colleagues write in JAMA Psychiatry that antidepressant use in pregnancy has been linked to shorter pregnancies and lower birth weights. Some studies have also tied the medications to an increased risk of autism.

Read More
General_Icons-32.png

Mental Health | Americans fascination with guns is killing too many of our young

This article is about safety. It is not our position to argue gun control, the issue of safety starts in the home.

American children died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds at a sharply higher rate in 2014 than seven years earlier, according to a recent study, which said that the safe storage of firearms could make a big difference in preventing youth suicides.

Read More
Snip20150317_6.png

Medical Marijuana | Low-dose THC can relieve stress; more does just the opposite

Cannabis smokers often report that they use the drug to relax or relieve stress, but few studies provide clinical evidence of these effects.

Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Chicago report that low levels tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana, does reduce stress,

but in a highly dose-dependent manner: very low doses lessened the jitters of a public-speaking task, while slightly higher doses ….enough to produce a mild “high”….actually increased anxiety.

Read More