Mental Illness Awareness Week: Research on anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD and more

The National Alliance on Mental Illness has designated this week as Mental Illness Awareness Week.

In conjunction with this observance, Healio Psychiatry has compiled a list of most-read articles this year related to seven common mental health conditions: anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, PTSD, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia.

Children with less sleep experience increased depression, anxiety, decreased cognitive performance

Shorter sleep duration among children was associated with increased risk for depression, anxiety, impulsive behavior and poor cognitive performance, according to study findings published in Molecular Psychiatry. Read more.

Botox injections may reduce depression

Individuals who received Botox injections were significantly less likely to report depression vs. those who received different treatments, according to study results published in Scientific Reports. Read more.

30% of injury survivors experience moderate-to-severe PTSD symptoms

More than 30% of civilian-related injury survivors who are treated in EDs exhibited moderate-to-severe PTSD symptoms during the first year after the initial incident, according to study results published in Psychological Medicine. Read more.

Fatty acid diet intervention may stabilize mood among patients with bipolar disorder

A nutrition intervention focused on fatty acids may stabilize mood, energy, irritability and pain among individuals with bipolar disorder, according to data presented at the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology Annual Meeting. Read more.

Childhood sleep problems linked to adolescent psychosis, borderline personality disorder

Sleep problems during early childhood may be associated with the onset of psychosis and borderline personality disorder, or BPD, in adolescence, according to results of a cohort study published in JAMA Psychiatry. Read more.

OCD more common among women vs. men

Women appeared to have a greater lifetime risk for obsessive-compulsive disorder than men, according to results of a meta-analysis published in Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Read more.

BMI linked to major psychiatric disorders

Findings of a genome-wide association study published in JAMA Psychiatry suggest that many overlapping genetic risk variants exist between BMI and schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression. Read more.