DATE: June 13, 2024 at 02:59PM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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Lykos Therapeutics has released a statement to provide additional insights on the outcome of the FDA Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee meeting on MDMA-assisted therapy. Learn more here: https://t.co/3ZH1M2N63X
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Articles can be found at https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/news
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TRIGGER WARNING: This robot may occasionally display disturbing content as it shows articles around the topic "military psychology news".
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Thu, 13 Jun 2024 15:29:35 +0000
TITLE:
Research Update: 13 June 2024
DESCRIPTION:
The weekly Research Update contains the latest news, journal articles, and useful links from around the web. Some of this week's topics include: ● U.S. Army mortality surveillance in active duty soldiers, 2014-2019.
● The State of Health and Health Care for LGBTQ+ Veterans: Differences Among Sexual and Gender Minority Veterans, by Identity and State Policy Climate, 2015–2021.
● The therapist role in parent-led cognitive behavioral therapy for children after trauma: treating trauma from a distance.
DATE: June 13, 2024 at 11:00AM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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The Youth Mental Health Corps, a first-of-its-kind initiative, will launch this fall in 4 states. The program will recruit young volunteers to help their peers who are struggling with mental health issues. https://t.co/EkBz8ULE7A
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Articles can be found at https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/news
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NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @[email protected]
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist
DATE: June 13, 2024 at 10:02AM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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"The answer to problems with benzodiazepines is not to ignorantly assume that these medicines are uniformly destructive to patients."
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NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @[email protected]
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DATE:
June 13, 2024 at 10:00AM
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TITLE:
Women prefer feminine male faces in times of material scarcity, study finds
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URL: https://www.psypost.org/women-prefer-feminine-male-faces-in-times-of-material-scarcity-study-finds/
<p>A recent study examined the effects of different types of scarcity—material, time, and psychological—on women’s preferences for masculinity in male faces, finding that when resources are scarce, women exhibit a greater preference for feminine male faces. This research was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049231175073"><em>Evolutionary Psychology</em></a>.</p>
<p>Research suggests women select for facial masculinity as it predicts health and genetic quality, a desirable trait in potential partners. However, men with more masculine faces are also perceived as less faithful and more inclined towards short-term relationships. There appears to be a trade-off between choosing a mate with good health and genetic benefits versus a mate who is more likely to invest in long-term parental care. Previous research has shown that women’s preferences can shift based on their environmental context, particularly in relation to resource availability.</p>
<p>In contexts where resources are scarce, women may prioritize traits that signal a man’s ability to provide material support. Conversely, in environments where resources are abundant, women might favor traits associated with genetic quality and health.</p>
<p>Lee and McGuire (2023) recruited 802 women (average age ~ 25 years) through social media. Participants were attracted to men, with 35.08% being single and 62.30% in committed relationships. They completed the Perceived Scarcity Scale, which measures three domains of scarcity: material, time, and psychological. Participants rated their agreement with various statements on a 7-point scale [e.g., “I have had my utilities (e.g., heat, water, etc.) turned off because I could not pay my bill”].</p>
<p>Participants also completed a Face Rating Task, where they were shown 42 male faces sequentially and prompted to rate their attractiveness on a 9-point scale. Two facial metrics were used: objective sexual dimorphism, calculated using geometric morphometric techniques, and perceived masculinity, based on ratings from a normative dataset. The researchers controlled for order effects by presenting the tasks in random order.</p>
<p>Lee and McGuire found that material scarcity was significantly associated with a decreased preference for facial sexual dimorphism; as material scarcity increased, women showed a greater preference for more feminine male faces. There was a significant interaction between objective sexual dimorphism and material scarcity, indicating that women experiencing higher material scarcity rated more feminine faces as more attractive.</p>
<p>This finding supports the hypothesis that in contexts where material resources are scarce, women may prioritize traits that indicate a man’s potential for resource provisioning. No significant effects were found for time scarcity or psychological scarcity on preferences for facial masculinity.</p>
<p>One limitation is the low levels of material scarcity in the sample, likely due to the requirement of internet access and the predominance of a Western population, which limits generalizability to non-Western populations or those experiencing higher scarcity. Further research is needed in more diverse populations and under varying levels of resource scarcity.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049231175073">Women’s Preferences for Masculinity in Male Faces Are Predicted by Material Scarcity, But Not Time or Psychological Scarcity</a>”, was authored by Anthony J. Lee and Nikita K. J. McGuire.</p>
<p>We know stress can take a toll on our mental health. Yet, it’s unclear why some people develop stress-related mental health disorders and others don’t. The risk for developing a stress-related mental health disorder such as <a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post-traumatic stress disorder</a> (PTSD) or <a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">major depressive disorder</a> (MDD) depends on a complex interplay between the genetic vulnerabilities we are born with and the impact of traumatic stress we experience over our lifetimes.</p>
<p>Given this complexity, it’s been difficult for researchers to pinpoint the underlying biological pathways in the body that ultimately produce changes associated with PTSD, major depression, or other mental health conditions. Now, a study reported in a special issue of <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adh3707" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Science</em></a> on decoding the brain uses a comprehensive approach to examine multiple biological processes across brain regions, cell types, and blood to elucidate this complexity. It’s an unprecedented effort to understand in a more holistic way the essential biological networks involved in PTSD and MDD.</p>
<p>While earlier studies looked at stress hormones, the immune system, and other molecular signatures of stress in blood samples, what had been largely missing from the picture of PTSD and MDD were links between those changes in the body and changes in the brain. To get a more complete picture, a multisite research team led by <a href="https://www.mcleanhospital.org/profile/nikolaos-daskalakis" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nikolaos P. Daskalakis</a> and <a href="https://www.mcleanhospital.org/profile/kerry-ressler" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kerry Ressler</a> of McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, developed a vast molecular dataset including DNA variants, RNA, proteins, and chemical modifications to DNA. This “multi-omic” dataset was generated by the NIH-supported PTSD Brainomics Project of the <a href="https://www.nimhgenetics.org/resources/psychencode" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PsychENCODE Consortium</a>, and included postmortem data from 231 individuals with PTSD and/or MDD, as well as from individuals who didn’t have known mental health conditions.</p>
<p>In the study, the researchers looked at three essential brain regions: the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), the hippocampal dentate gyrus, and the central nucleus of the amygdala. They conducted single-cell RNA sequencing analysis of 118 dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) samples to look at cell-type-specific patterns and evaluated protein changes in the blood of more than 50,000 UK Biobank samples to look for biomarkers of stress-related disorders. After identifying key brain-based genes whose expression was altered in PTSD and/or MDD, the researchers compared them to genes linked to increased risk for these conditions.</p>
<p>Among many findings, the study results show an important role for the mPFC in both stress-related conditions, which is interesting, as the mPFC is essential for integrating signals from other brain areas and is known to play a role in cognitive processes, emotional regulation, motivation, and sociability. The findings also highlight important roles for molecular pathways known to play a role in immune function, the regulation of neurons and neural connections, and stress hormones. The single-cell RNA sequencing in the dlPFC also uncovered dysregulated stress-related signals in neurons and other brain cell types.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the findings reveal shared changes in gene activity between PTSD and MDD, as well as notable differences in the patterns of methyl marks on the DNA, suggesting changes in the way genes are switched on or off, and at the level of cell-type-specific gene activity. The researchers also found that history of childhood trauma and suicide were drivers of molecular changes in both disorders.</p>
<p>The data point to a short list of proteins that may be important in regulating key genetic pathways underlying these disorders. They also reveal links to gene networks related to aging, inflammation, stress, and more. Similarities in disease signals in the brain and blood suggest that blood-based tests might one day offer an additional avenue for assessing these disorders. Interestingly, there was little overlap between PTSD and MDD risk genes and those involved in the underlying molecular-level changes in the brains of people with one or both conditions. This shows that there’s a need for more research into how genetic risk factors are related to molecular-level disease processes.</p>
<p>There’s clearly much more to discover in the years ahead. But these insights already point to important roles for known stress-related pathways in fundamental brain changes underlying PTSD and MDD, while also revealing more novel pathways as potentially promising new treatment targets. With further study, the researchers hope these findings can also begin to answer vexing questions, such as why some people develop PTSD or major depression after stressful events and others don’t.</p>
<p><strong>Reference:</strong></p>
<p>Daskalakis NP, <em>et al</em>. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38781393/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Systems biology dissection of PTSD and MDD across brain regions, cell types, and blood</a>. <em>Science</em>. DOI: 10.1126/science.adh3707 (2024).</p>
<p><em>This paper is part of a </em><a href="https://www.science.org/collections/psychencode2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>larger collection</em></a><em> of studies from the PsychENCODE Consortium looking at the underlying mechanisms of neuropsychiatric diseases.</em></p>
<p><em>NIH Support: National Institute of Mental Health</em></p>