Some people diagnosed with schizophrenia might instead be suffering from a rare visual condition that can cause other people’s faces to appear “demonic,” a new study argues. The condition, called prosopometamorphopsia (PMO), can cause others’ facial features to appear horrific — drooped, larger, smaller, out of position or stretched in disturbing ways. “Not surprisingly, people with prosopometamorphopsia often find it disturbing to look at other people’s faces,” researchers said on their website on the condition. “Fortunately, most cases last only a few days or weeks, but some cases perceive distortions in faces for years.” Unfortunately, this disorder in vision has led to a diagnosis of mental illness in some patients.  “We’ve heard from multiple people with PMO that they have been diagnosed by psychiatrists as having schizophrenia and put on anti-psychotics, when their condition is a problem with the visual system,” said senior study author Brad Duchaine, a professor of psychological and brain sciences and principal investigator of the Social Perception Lab at Dartmouth University. To help people understand PMO, Duchaine and his colleagues have produced the first case report to provide accurate and photorealistic examples of the facial distortions experienced by a specific patient with PMO. The patient, a 58-year-old man, sees faces without any distortions if they’re on a screen or on paper. But when he sees someone in person, their face appears…  read on >  read on >

Many teens – especially girls – are affected by body dysmorphic disorder, a condition in which they become obsessed with perceived flaws in their personal appearance, a new study shows. BDD affects about two in every 100 teens (1.9%), according to a report published March 17 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The disorder is six times more common in girls than in boys, affecting 1.8% of girls compared to 0.3% of boys, the researchers said. These numbers show it’s important for doctors to keep an eye out for signs of the disorder, said lead researcher Georgina Krebs, an associate professor of psychology with University College London. “Since young people with BDD tend not to spontaneously disclose their symptoms unless directly asked, it is crucial that clinicians utilize BDD screening tools and ask young people directly about appearance concerns,” Krebs said in a university news release. For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 7,600 kids and teens who participated in the 2017 Mental Health of Children and Young People in England survey. The survey included a question about whether the child is ever concerned with how he or she looks. Those who answered “a little” or “a lot” underwent further screening for BDD. Nearly 70% of young people with BDD also met the diagnostic criteria for at…  read on >  read on >

A common antiseizure drug used to treat epilepsy, migraines and bipolar disorder does not appear to increase the risk of autism for kids exposed to it in the womb, a new study says. Topiramate does not contribute to any risk of kids developing autism if their moms took it during pregnancy, researchers report in the New England Journal of Medicine. “Our findings provide needed clarity on the possible neurodevelopmental impacts of this commonly used drug,” lead researcher Dr. Sonia Hernández-Díaz, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a news release. “While our primary analyses focused on mothers with epilepsy, the study has implications for moms and moms-to-be who live with other conditions treated by topiramate as well,” she added. Topiramate can treat epilepsy and migraine by calming overactive nerves in a person’s body, experts say. Another antiseizure drug, lamotrigine, also is safe for expectant mothers to take, researchers found. However, a third drug, valproate, does appear to increase risk of autism in kids, results show. The results for lamotrigine and valproate are consistent with earlier studies. Nearly 11% of kids exposed to valproate in the womb developed autism, and the risk increased as moms took larger doses of the drug, researchers report. Researchers also noted that while topiramate appears safe for a baby’s developing brains, it remains linked…  read on >  read on >

Stressed out, anxious or desperately needing to recharge? Grab some knitting needles and a pretty ball of yarn — Swedish research shows yarncraft improves mental health without medication. “Knitters have a creative leisure interest that can also help them cope with life and so improve their mental health,” said first author Joanna Nordstrand, an occupational therapist pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Gothenburg. “I’m convinced that this is part of the reason why so many people have taken up knitting these days.” Nordstrand, who is among them, explored the mental health benefits of knitting in a study recently published in the Journal of Occupational Science. For the study, she reviewed 600 posts from the online fiber arts forum Ravelry, where stitching buffs gather to discuss their hobby.  Reinforcing a picture emerging from other studies, their posts revealed three ways in which knitting boosts health. The hobby helps folks unwind, gives them an identity as a knitter in a social context with low stakes. It can also bring structure to people’s lives — which benefits mental health. In the posts, some knitters said they noticed the change in their mental health: When they were knitting, thinking was clearer and easier to manage. “The nurses were wanting to give me [an antianxiety medication] until I told them that I preferred knitting for the anxiety,” one knitter…  read on >  read on >

People with heart disease can stay healthier if they address their emotional problems as well as their physical ailments, a new study says. Treating anxiety and depression reduced ER visits and hospitalizations among patients with heart disease, researchers report in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Psychotherapy, mood-controlling medication or a combination of the two “was associated with as much as a 75% reduction in hospitalizations or emergency room visits,” said lead researcher Dr. Philip Binkley, executive vice chair of internal medicine at Ohio State University in Columbus. Anxiety and depression are common in people with heart failure, Binkley said in a news release, and mental health is known to impact a person’s risk of other health problems. “Heart disease and anxiety/depression interact such that each promotes the other,” he said. For this study, researchers looked at more than 1,500 people admitted to the hospital for blocked arteries or heart failure. About 92% of participants in the study had been diagnosed with anxiety and 56% with depression prior to their hospitalization. The patients were between 22 and 64 years old, and all were enrolled in Medicaid, researchers said. About 23% of patients received antidepressant drugs and psychotherapy, 15% received psychotherapy alone, 29% received antidepressants alone, and 33% received no mental health treatment. The study found that the combination of medication and talk therapy reduced…  read on >  read on >