Science News

Survey Finds More Evidence That Mental Disorders Often Begin in Youth

Science Update • June 18, 2012

National survey data confirms the widely held belief that mental disorders often begin in youth.

Rate of Bipolar Symptoms Among Teens Approaches That of Adults

Science Update • June 18, 2012

National survey data finds that the rate of bipolar symptoms in teens is similar to that found in adults, indicating that bipolar disorder often begins in adolescence.

Most Children with ASD Diagnosed After Age 5, Use Multiple Services and Medications

Science Update • May 24, 2012

New data detail the experiences of young children with autism spectrum disorder, describing when they are first identified as having ASD, who is making those identifications, and the services and medications the children use to meet their developmental needs.

Awake Mental Replay of Past Experiences Critical for Learning

Press Release • May 03, 2012

Awake mental replay of past experiences is essential for making informed choices, suggests a study in rats. Without it, the animals’ memory-based decision-making faltered, say scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Agent Reduces Autism-like Behaviors in Mice

Press Release • April 25, 2012

Autism-like behaviors in mice have been reduced, using an experimental agent being tested in patients for a related disorder.

Spontaneous Gene Glitches Linked to Autism Risk with Older Dads

Press Release • April 04, 2012

A trio of new studies have found that sequence changes in parts of genes that code for proteins play a significant role in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).

Pattern Recognition Technology May Help Predict Future Mental Illness in Teens

Science Update • April 02, 2012

Computer programs that automatically spot patterns in data may help predict a person’s risk for future mental disorders.

Brain Wiring a No-Brainer?

Press Release • March 29, 2012

Researcher Van Wedeen MD and colleagues report new evidence of the brain’s elegant simplicity March 30, 2012 in the journal Science. New high resolution scans reveal an astonishingly simple 3D grid structure.

Friendly-to-a-Fault, Yet Tense: Personality Traits Traced in Brain

Press Release • March 19, 2012

NIH scientists have used three different types of brain imaging to pinpoint a circuit hub buried deep in the front center of the brain in people with Williams syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterized by overly gregarious yet anxious behavior.

Possible Causes of Sudden Onset OCD in Kids Broadened

Press Release • March 19, 2012

The syndrome, Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome (PANS), includes children and teens that suddenly develop on-again/off-again OCD symptoms or abnormal eating behaviors, along with other psychiatric symptoms – without any known cause. An immune-based treatment study is underway at NIH.