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Loneliness and social isolation have been significant problems for the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic, but for cancer patients these issues were particularly acute, likely due to isolation and social distancing, according to a new UCSF study.
The study is among the first to assess mental health effects of the pandemic at a geographically diverse sample of emergency rooms.
Cells from individuals with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) were found to have higher than expected rates of methylation at specific sites on their DNA, when compared to cells from healthy individuals without MDD, according to a study by a multidisciplinary team of UCSF, in collaboration with others.
While researchers are still striving to understand why some patients experience these “long-haul” symptoms, two UCSF clinicians from complimentary specialties have teamed up to create an integrative medicine skills program that can give such patients better tools to cope with the debilitating symptoms.
A new study of autism risk genes by UCSF and UC Berkeley scientists implicates disruption in prenatal neurogenesis – a process in which specialized “progenitor” cells give rise to new brain cells – in the development of autism spectrum disorders.
Depression is among the most common psychiatric disorders, affecting as many as 264 million people worldwide and leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths per year. But as many as 30 percent of patients do not respond to standard treatments such as medication or psychotherapy.
Experts now believe it’s most effective to treat the whole family when traumas occur. UCSF researchers plan to develop a “Whole Family Wellness” intervention that integrates resources from Medi-Cal clinics with outside agencies and test it over a three-year period.
Giant lizards with superpowered hearts. Hairless rodents that don’t seem to age. Songbirds that babble like human babies. These and other scurrying, soaring, and slithering wonders are teaching scientists how our own bodies work – and how to fix them.
Children with dyslexia who watched emotionally evocative videos showed increased physiological and behavioral responses when compared to children without dyslexia.
Whether a Trump triumph or a Biden victory, millions of Americans may expect a decline in their mental health if they live in states that favor the losing candidate. And the higher the margin of victory for the losing candidate, the greater the number of days of stress and depression for residents in those states.
But what is uncertainty? What’s going on in the brain when we feel uncertain? And how might long-term uncertainty experienced by an entire population affect community health?
