Mental health news and mental health widget

People with intellectual disabilities face a variety of barriers when it comes to organizing their health care, and there's little research to direct health care providers in helping them, according to a new review of studies. "At a personal level, there are communication problems. They're not able to communicate their health issues as well as the general population. At a community level, sometimes there are access problems; a lot of people have physical problems also, so they can't get to the places that provide services," said Robert Balogh, the lead review author. read more

The Substance Abuse and Mental health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has released a new report which reviews existing public health literature on how people who receive mental health services can be affected when they disclose this fact to others. Entitled "Self-Disclosure and its Impact on People who Receive mental health services," the report which is also based on a series of interviews with individuals involved in this process examines the potential benefits and risks of this experience. read more

In a study using functional brain imaging, NIMH scientists found that when people with generalized social phobia were presented with a variety of verbal comments about themselves and others ("you are ugly," or "he's a genius," for example) they had heightened brain responses only to negative comments about themselves. Knowledge of the social cues that trigger anxiety and what parts of the brain are engaged when this happens can help scientists understand and better treat this anxiety disorder. Background read more

By age 2, children with autism show unusual patterns of eye contact compared with typically developing children. This symptom appears to be related to a child's level of impairment and may be a useful biomarker for diagnosing autism at an earlier age. Background From birth, humans typically show a preference for social interaction, favoring the sound of a human voice over silence and the sound of their mother's voice to that of an unknown woman. By three months, infants develop a preference for looking more at a person's eyes than other parts of the face. read more