Examining brain scans taken at various times of the year, scientists have discovered that serotonin transporter activities, which help regulate the neurotransmitter seratonin, vary according to the season. According to the article, released on September 1, 2008 in Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, this regular variance could potentially lead to explanations of seasonal affective disorder and it's mood swings.

A sudden and dramatic increase in pediatric suicides may reflect an emerging trend rather than a single-year anomaly. That's the conclusion of new suicide research, conducted at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital and published in the September 3rd issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), which looked at pediatric suicide trends over a 10-year period. Following a decade of steady decline, the suicide rate among U.S.

Half the residents of New Orleans were suffering from poor mental and physical health more than a year after their homes and community were devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, according to research published in the September issue of the UK-based Journal of Clinical Nursing. Researchers from Point Loma Nazarene university, San Diego, California, spoke to 222 local residents 15 months after they survived one of the worst natural disasters to hit the USA.

According to new research led by John Updegraff, a Kent State university professor, individuals who are able to quickly make sense of collective traumas such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks cope better in the long run.

A new study has found that mothers who delivered vaginally compared to caesarean section delivery (CSD) were significantly more responsive to the cry of their own baby, identified through MRI brain scans two to four weeks after delivery.

Adolescent girls in young offender institutions are particularly vulnerable to depression, a large-scale study led by Oxford university has shown. The researchers have found incidences of mental health problems in both boys and girls are many times greater in juvenile detention centres than in the general population. The high prevalence of mental disorders highlights the need for improved psychiatric care in juvenile justice and detention centres, say the researchers.

Findings from survey results released by livestrong.com reveal that the vast majority of young Americans (66%) report that their parents or other family members have the most influence over the choices they make regarding their overall health. Similarly, two-thirds (67%) of the respondents also indicated that their parents or other family members influence their food choices a great deal or a lot.

BioMedEcon Group, a leading provider of health economics and outcomes research, presented findings of a unique nine-year retrospective claims analysis that compared the per-patient, median healthcare costs of newly-diagnosed patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to matched patients with depression. The study, supported by Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc., was presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) 21st Congress on Sept. 1 in Barcelona, Spain.

September 04, 2008 A common vaccine given to children to protect them against measles, mumps and rubella is not linked to autism, a study published yesterday concludes.

September 04, 2008 Parents of about 15% of kids spoke to school staff or health care providers about their children's emotional and behavior problems in the past year, according to a survey released Wednesday, the first of its kind.