Harvard Mental Health Letter: November 2007

People with schizophrenia are at greater risk of dying from heart disease. This may be caused by insufficient attention to a patient's physical health, but some antipsychotic medications worsen the risk for diabetes and heart disease.

Research into autism disorders has found evidence that genetic factors play an important role in the disorder's development. Meanwhile, others are looking for behaviroal indicators in babies that could lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment.

Research into perfectionism suggests that the behavior may arise as a coping mechanism in response to a form of ill treatment by others known as indirect aggression.

Caring for a child with a mental health problem causes a greater financial burden on the family than caring for a child with some other type of medical problem.

Older people with macular degeneration are more likely to experience depression, but those who received problem-solving therapy to help them adapt to and cope with their condition were less likely to develop depression.

Researchers are attempting to identify areas of the brain responsible for the sensation of writer's cramp.

Studies have found links between excessive nighttime eating and depression, and also between the excessive eating and propensity for substance abuse.