Articles about 'Department of Psychiatry'

A team of scientists at the University of Cambridge has discovered that specific genes are linked to individual differences in brain anatomy in autistic children.

Adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have widespread learning and memory problems, according to research published today. The findings have already been used to assist adolescents with OCD obtain the help they needed at school to realise their potential – including helping one individual go on to university. 

A new and relatively simple technique for mapping the wiring of the brain has shown a correlation between how well connected an individual’s brain regions are and their intelligence, say researchers at the University of Cambridge.

Mindfulness training can help support students at risk of mental health problems, concludes a randomised controlled trial carried out by researchers at the University of Cambridge.

Funding cuts and austerity measures are damaging young people’s access to mental health services, with potentially long-term consequences for their mental wellbeing, say researchers at the University of Cambridge.

A ‘brain training’ game developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge could help improve the memory of patients in the very earliest stages of dementia, suggests a study published today in The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Why are we getting so fat?  Why do teenagers really need to lie-in? And can we fix a broken brain? These are just some of the questions that will be answered at Cambridge BRAINFest 2017, a free public festival celebrating the most complex organ in the body.

OCD can be a devastating condition: therapy and medication often doesn’t work, leaving many people unable to hold down a job or a relationship – or even to leave their house. In our series of films, science writer David Adam looks at how research at Cambridge using animals helps us understand what is happening in the brain – and may lead to better treatments.

If a mother picks up an infection during pregnancy, her immune system will kick into action to clear the infection – but this self-defence mechanism may also have a small influence how her child’s brain develops in the womb, in ways that are similar to how the brain develops in autism spectrum disorders. Now, an international team of researchers has shown why this may be the case, in a study using rodents to model infection during pregnancy.

Teenage years can be difficult enough, but for people affected by schizophrenia, this is when symptoms first tend to arise. Dr Kirstie Whitaker (Department of Psychiatry), who is speaking at this year's Cambridge Science Festival, explains in The Conversation how her work may shed light on why this is the case.