Minneapolis St. Paul Mental Health Blog

Understanding ASD and Asperger syndrome | By the new guidelines, a child who has social, play, and communication delays, along with particular patterns of behavior (such as atypical, intense interests or repetitive behaviors), will be diagnosed as having an autism spectrum disorder.

Mental Health help | People with schizophrenia who use cannabis develop the disease three years earlier, on average, than non-cannabis users, according to new findings first published in Schizophrenia Research.

In a recent study that puts antidepressants up against CBT and their effectiveness, the results are promising.

According to the researchers at the U of Alabama, sleeping less than seven hours a night contributes to more secondary eating and drinking, thus increasing obesity risk.

Counseling is a good thing, education is always encouraged, have we gone too far?

A newly proposed bill by a Kentucky legislator requires men to get signed consent from their spouses and visit a doctor twice prior to receiving drugs for erectile dysfunction (ED). Also, married men would be required to make a sworn statement they will only use the prescription when having sexual relations with their current spouse.

Mental Health Studies | Psychiatric diagnoses are still based on criteria that focus on behavioral observation and symptom endorsement without corresponding biological validation.

This contrasts with other fields of medicine, where diagnosis and treatment are often based not only on a sound clinical examination, but also biological tests based on validated biomarkers.

Patients with major depressive disorder treated with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) escitalopram (brand name Lexapro) experienced significant drops in the levels of 2 neurotoxic compounds that can cause memory loss and dementia.

The holidays can be difficult for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), particularly because of new or different social situations.

One reason scientists believe ASD causes impairment in social interactions is due to an inability to effectively infer other's thoughts and feelings through "theory of mind," or ToM -- the ability to understand the mental states of others and oneself.

According to a study on patients with unipolar depression, the risk of mania / bipolar disorder increases with antidepressant treatment.

This was a retrospective cohort study using an anonymised electronic health record case register.

Almost 10% of Americans have had DSM-5 drug use disorder (DUD) at some point in their life, many of them also with potentially disabling comorbidities, according to a large national survey.

Complicating matters further, fewer than 25% have received treatment for DUD, according to data from the first nationally representative survey of individuals after Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) replaced DSM-IV in 2013.