There’s a rich history of research suggesting that glutamate may be involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, with an increasing amount of attention being brought to glutamate during the past decade or so.

Rachel Loewy, PhD, explores evidence-based psychosocial interventions for schizophrenia: CBT, multifamily group therapy, supported employment, and cognitive remediation.

Depression is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), but, surprisingly, it’s not known whether effectively treating depression can reduce the risk of a future cardiovascular event in depressed patients without preexisting CVD.

Psychiatric disorders account for billions of dollars of costs related to absenteeism, reduced productivity, and treatment each year. Most research in this area has focused on standard DSM diagnoses, but it may be more informative to look instead at psychiatric symptoms, such as insomnia and emotional distress, and their effect on the workplace.

People born to women between the ages of 12 and 19 or to men over the age of 45 are at the greatest risk for developing psychiatric disorders, according to the results of a Danish population-based study of close to three million people born between 1955 and 2006.

Recent research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that vitamin E slowed functional decline in Alzheimer’s disease better than memantine (Namenda) (Dysken MW et al, JAMA 2014;311(1):33-44).

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Of all the factors that contribute to mood, hormonal variations, such as those found in premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) can have a particularly strong effect. I’ve heard some people, for instance, describe PMS as a “powerful spell” that women are put under once every month.

Dr. Madeleine Becker explains the many considerations in in treating psychiatric illness in pregnant and lactating women.

Many people claim that meditation helps them reduce stress, anxiety, or depression, but little quality evidence exists to support those anecdotes. Add to that the difficulty in designing a controlled trial of meditation—eg, how can people be blinded to their treatment group?—and it’s hard to know how to counsel patients on the effectiveness of this strategy.