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Candida infections also more common among those with memory loss.

In a study prompted in part by suggestions from people with mental illness, Johns Hopkins researchers found that a history of Candida yeast infections was more common in a group of men with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder than in those without these disorders, and that women with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder who tested positive for Candida performed worse on a standard memory test than women with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder who had no evidence of past infection.

The researchers caution that their findings, described online on May 4 innpj Schizophrenia — a new publication from Nature Publishing Group — do not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between mental illness and yeast infections but may support a more detailed examination into the role of lifestyle, immune system weaknesses and gut-brain connections as contributing factors to the risk of psychiatric disorders and memory impairment.

“It’s far too early to single out Candida infection as a cause of mental illness or vice versa,” says Emily Severance, Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and member of the Stanley Division of Developmental Neurovirology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “However, most Candida infections can be treated in their early stages, and clinicians should make it a point to look out for these infections in their patients with mental illness.” She adds that Candida infections can also be prevented by decreased sugar intake and other dietary modifications, avoidance of unnecessary antibiotics, and improvement of hygiene.

Candida albicans is a yeastlike fungus naturally found in small amounts in human digestive tracts, but its overgrowth in warm, moist environments causes burning, itching symptoms, thrush (rashes in the throat or mouth) in infants and those with weakened immune systems, and genital yeast infections in men and women. In its more serious forms, it can enter the bloodstream. In most people, the body’s own healthy bacteria and functioning immune system prevent its overgrowth.

Severance says she and her team focused on a possible association between Candida susceptibility and mental illness in the wake of new evidence suggesting that schizophrenia may be related to problems with the immune system, and because some people with weakened immune systems are more susceptible to fungal infections.

Debilitating symptoms from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can worsen in patients who also experiencedepression, research suggests.

A new study, published in CHEST Journal, demonstrates a link between an exacerbation of COPD in patients and depression.

Patients who had pre-existing depression or developed depression after COPD diagnosis were more likely to experience heightened COPD symptoms, such as increased breathlessness, reduced exercise tolerance and hopelessness.

Patients with the obstructive lung condition and depression also performed worse than COPD patients without depression in exercise tests, showing a pronounced loss in performance in their daily activities.

The results have implications for healthcare practitioners who could potentially screen for mental health problems periodically in those patients with a history of difficulty coping at home, poor adherence to therapy or experience of a recent bereavement, in a bid to reduce COPD-related hospital readmission.

A specific substance formed from the breakdown of ketamine is responsible for the rapid and sustained antidepressanteffects of the drug, reports a paper published in Nature this week. A single administration of this metabolite in mice is shown to induce the antidepressant effects of ketamine without its associated side effects.

Current pharmacological treatments for severe depression can take weeks to alleviate symptoms, and some patients do not respond to these treatments at all. The drug ketamine has been studied as a promising alternative to existing antidepressants and has shown efficacy in clinical trials, but it has the potential to be abused and can cause feelings of detachment from the environment and self (dissociation), which limits its potential for widespread clinical use.

Todd Gould and colleagues found that a single administration of the ketamine metabolite (2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine (HNK) in mice had antidepressant effects that were similar to those induced by ketamine and that persisted for at least three days. The authors further showed that (2R,6R)-HNK did not have the side effects observed following ketamine administration and that, when given the option, mice self-administered ketamine, but not (2R,6R)-HNK. The study also reveals that ketamine's antidepressant properties are in fact due to the metabolite rather than ketamine itself and that its antidepressant effects are not dependent on the inhibition of a particular receptor in the brain that was previously thought to be involved.

Yesterday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a warning that the antipsychotic drug aripiprazole or Abilify is associated with compulsive and uncontrollable urges. Research suggests that the drug may cause urges to gamble, binge eat, shop, and have sex but that the urges often stop when the drug is withdrawn or the dose is reduced.

I have Borderline Personality Disorder. If you don’t know about it, congratulations. It’s hallmarked by unstable relationships, fear of abandonment perceived or real, unstable sense of self, self-harming behaviors, difficulty regulating emotions, and suicidal ideation or suicide attempts and well, suicide.

But really, it just feels like I don’t have skin.

Everything is the most.

My deepest, truest, most honest fear is that if I tell you who I am, you will leave me.

Here’s what it feels like to be left: dying.

That’s it really. It feels like I’m dying.

Okay fine, I’ll describe it.

I can’t get any air and I can’t move and I can’t feel anything and sometimes I weep in the shower and my body feels like it’s going in all directions and I don’t know if I can sit still and I want to talk to people but I don’t want to talk to people and I want to connect but I can’t and everything feels like I’m being stabbed right into a bundle of nerves and I can’t tolerate the pain for one single second more and I CAN’T GET AIR and nothing will fix it not words or movies or weather or music or sex or food or drugs or people or

Alcohol and drug problems, also called substance use disorders, are costly for our communities, our health system, and our criminal justice system. Locking people up for non-violent crimes related to drug and alcohol issues is overcrowding our jails and prisons and failing to reduce addiction. Smart investments in health and social services through a “diversion” program are a more cost-effective way to help people achieve healthier lives. 

Diversion programs create an alternative path for people who are at risk of arrest or incarceration. Instead of going to jail, people are diverted to a broad range of coordinated services, from housing supports to counseling to treatment for mental illness and substance use. In contrast to post-trial programs like drug courts, diverting people earlier helps them avoid criminal records that can cause lasting harm, such as inability to obtain jobs, housing, and stable family relationships

The phenomenon has long been known in psychology: traumatic experiences can induce behavioural disorders that are passed down from one generation to the next. It is only recently that scientists have begun to understand the physiological processes underlying hereditary trauma. "There are diseases such as bipolar disorder, that run in families but can't be traced back to a particular gene," explains Isabelle Mansuy, professor at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich. With her research group at the Brain Research Institute of the University of Zurich, she has been studying the molecular processes involved in non-genetic inheritance of behavioural symptoms induced by traumatic experiences in early life.

Mansuy and her team have succeeded in identifying a key component of these processes: short RNA molecules. These RNAs are synthetized from genetic information (DNA) by enzymes that read specific sections of the DNA (genes) and use them as template to produce corresponding RNAs. Other enzymes then trim these RNAs into mature forms. Cells naturally contain a large number of different short RNA molecules called microRNAs. They have regulatory functions, such as controlling how many copies of a particular protein are made.

The two brain areas – the extended amygdala and the ventral tegmental area – have been implicated in alcohol binge drinking in the past. However, this is the first time that the two areas have been identified as a functional circuit, connected by long projection neurons that produce a substance called corticotropin releasing factor, or CRF for short. The results provide the first direct evidence in mice that inhibiting a circuit between two brain regions protects against binge alcohol drinking.

“The puzzle is starting to come together, and is telling us more than we ever knew about before,” said Todd Thiele of UNC-Chapel Hill’s College of Arts and Sciences, whose work appears in the journal Biological Psychiatry. “We now know that two brain regions that modulate stress and reward are part of a functional circuit that controls binge drinking and adds to the idea that manipulating the CRF system is an avenue for treating it.”

Dr. John Bienenstock and Dr. Paul Forsythe–who work in The Brain-Body Institute at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, are investigating intestinal bacteria and their effect on the human brain and mood.

“This is extremely important work for U.S. warfighters because it suggests that gut microbes play a strong role in the body’s response to stressful situations, as well as in who might be susceptible to conditions like PTSD,” said Dr. Linda Chrisey, a program officer in ONR’s Warfighter Performance Department, which sponsors the research.

The trillions of microbes in the intestinal tract, collectively known as the gut microbiome, profoundly impact human biology; digesting food, regulating the immune system and even transmitting signals to the brain that alter mood and behavior. ONR is supporting research that’s anticipated to increase warfighters’ mental and physical resilience in situations involving dietary changes, sleep loss or disrupted circadian rhythms from shifting time zones or living in submarines.

 theory, the T.C.U. was designed to provide mentally ill inmates with a safe environment in which they would receive treatment that might allow them to return to the main compound. Krzykowski discovered, however, that many inmates were locked up in single-person cells. Solitary confinement was supposed to be reserved for prisoners who had committed serious disciplinary infractions. In forced isolation, inmates often deteriorated rapidly. As Krzykowski put it, “So many guys would be mobile and interactive when they first came to the T.C.U., and then a few months later they would be sleeping in their cells in their own waste.”

Not only did Krzykowski suspect that few inmates in the T.C.U. were getting better; she was certain that the guards were punishing her for the e-mail she had sent to Perez. But she was afraid to complain about her situation. She didn’t even tell her husband, Steven, fearing he would insist that she give notice. He was an unemployed computer-systems engineer, and they could not afford to forgo her modest paycheck.