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March 

Acupuncture Used for Stress Relief, Possible Fertility Treatment

Julia Woodward, MD, Ph.D., director of Psychological Services at Duke Fertility Center, is mentioned in this story about some women turning to acupuncture for help getting pregnant.

Study Ties Belly Fat to Dementia

P. Murali Doraiswamy, MD, associate professor of biological psychiatry, is quoted in this story about a study which suggests that people who have more belly fat during middle age have higher rates of dementia when they reach old age. “It's really a red flag for all of us boomers. Waist size may not be reflective of just your heart health, but your brain function decades later,” he said.

Where Pharma Meets College

Allen Roses, MD, Jefferson Pilot Professor of neurobiology and neurology, is quoted in this article about establishing a virtual pharmaceutical company at Duke University. He said that the idea is to “combine the brainpower of academia with the know-how and money of the pharmaceutical industry.” Sandy Williams, MD, senior vice chancellor at Duke, is also quoted as saying, “Academia should help them if pharma can't do it all,” (referring to accomplished researchers looking for greener pastures outside the troubled pharma industry).

Researchers Gain Insights Into 'On-Off' Switch for Cells

Guang Yao, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy, is quoted in this story about an on-off switch that controls cell growth that could one day help identify targets for drugs to treat cancer and other diseases that involve unnatural cell growth. “The wiring diagram is fundamentally the same. It's very likely that different organisms have evolved a very conserved design principle to regulate their growth,” he said.

How to Sleep Soundly Tonight -- And Wake Up Slimmer, Happier, and Healthier

Colleen E. Carney, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry, is quoted in this story about how to sleep soundly at night. “People have little control over their thoughts, because they may be going in and out of a light stage of sleep, even though they think they're awake,” she said.

Finch Concerts: Female Bird Brain Notes Male Attention

Erich Jarvis, PhD, associate professor of neurobiology, is quoted in this story about how the male finch changes his song when singing to females. Studying birds could offer insights into human communication and learning. “The biggest story to me is that there's a lot more meaning in these songs than people had thought,” he says. 

Monkey Brain Gives Clues to Human Interaction

Michael Platt, PhD, associate professor of neurobiology, is quoted in this story about a study on monkeys and how their brains process social cues to better understand human social behavior and autism. “Our prior studies described how social attention of rhesus monkeys is similar to humans -- motivated by status and sex, and sensitive to the attentive states of other individuals,” he said.

Study: Subliminal Ads Warp Your Brain

Duke and Canadian researchers find that even the briefest exposure to well-known brands can cause people to behave in ways that mirror those brands' traits.

More than 5 Million Americans Have Alzheimer’s: Report

Brenda Plassman, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry, is quoted in this story about a new study that showed that more than one third of Americans have some form of memory loss. “These findings illustrate that nearly every family will be faced with the challenges of caring for a family member with some form of memory impairment,” she said.

Will God Get You Out of Your Depression?

Harold Koenig, MD, professor of geriatric psychiatry, is quoted in this article about how religion impacts mental health. “Depression patients with a strong, intrinsic, religious belief—it holds their life together,” he said.

One-Third of Seniors Have Mental Decline

Brenda Plassman, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry, is quoted in this story about one in three people over age 70 experiencing memory loss. “It’s a huge number,” she said.

Genes Help Explain Post-Trauma Puzzle

John Fairbank, PhD, associate professor of medical psychiatry, is quoted in this story about new research that helps answer the question of why post-traumatic stress doesn’t happen to everyone who endures trauma. Fairbank said this study is an important contribution to a growing body of research showing how severe abuse early in life can have profound, lasting effects. 

Bad Sleep May Be Harder on Women’s Hearts, Minds

Edward C. Suarez, PhD, associate professor of medical psychiatry, is quoted in this Reuters story about sleep problems affecting women’s hearts worse than men’s. “Interestingly, it appears that it’s not so much the overall poor sleep quality that was associated with greater risk, but rather the length of time it takes a person to fall asleep that takes the highest toll,” he said.

Study: Yoga Eases Menopause Symptoms

Laura Porter, PhD, assistant professor of medical psychiatry, is featured in this news video about yoga helping breast cancer survivors cope with menopausal symptoms. "They reported decreases in fatigue and their sleep disturbance, and they did report an increased sense of vigor," she said.

Gene Study: Exercise May Not Improve Mood

James Blumenthal, PhD, professor of medical psychiatry, is quoted in this story about a Dutch study suggesting that exercise does not improve depression. “I doubt that there's no link between exercise and mood because again and again we've seen that when they become sedentary, people are more likely to get depressed, and becoming active improves mood,” he said.

Study: Hostility Harder on Hearts of Blacks

James Lane, PhD, professor of medical psychiatry, and Redford Williams, MD, professor of behavioral psychiatry, are quoted in this article about the finding that a cynical and mistrustful personality leads to greater blood pressure fluctuations for blacks than whites and could explain blacks' higher heart disease rate. “Hostility may be a more important heart disease risk for blacks than whites,” Williams said.

Study: Happy Mind Equals Healthier Heart

Redford Williams, MD, professor of behavioral psychiatry, is quoted in this news story about his finding that patients with a positive outlook fare better when recovering from heart aliments. "This study shows that patients who are more optimistic in their outlook are 30-50 percent less likely to die over the nine years following their diagnosis," he said.

1 in 5 U.S. Seniors Struggles with Memory Lapses

More than one-fifth of Americans over age 70 have some memory impairment that isn't classified as dementia, a new Duke study finds.

CDC Recommends More Flu Shots for Children

Samuel Katz, MD, chairman emeritus of Duke's department of pediatrics, discusses a CDC advisory committee's call for all school-age children up to age 18 to be vaccinated for the flu.

Op-Ed: Universities Can Address System's Challenges

Marvin Swartz, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral science and head of the division of social and community psychiatry, submitted this article about the role North Carolina universities play in fulfilling the need of a public mental health system.

Op-Ed: State Must Rebuild its Mental Health Safety Net

Harold Carmel, MD, associate consulting professor of psychiatry and behavioral science, submitted this article about the need for everyone to have access to a publicly funded safety-net clinic or clinical home where psychiatric assessment and treatment services are available.

Durham Health Problems Detailed

Ross McKinney, MD, professor of pediatric infectious diseases, is quoted in this story about the health conditions in Durham including the increase in cases of HIV. “There has always been a clear association between HIV and poverty,” he said.

Test Can Tell if You're Destined for Alzheimer's, but Then What?

David Goldstein, PhD, professor of molecular genetics and microbiology, is quoted in this story about a test that looks at saliva samples to find a genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s. “It’s bad news you can’t do anything about,” he said.

WUNC / The State of Things: Young Minds on Heavy Meds

John March, MD, professor of psychiatry and chief of child and adolescent psychiatry, is featured in this radio segment about the increasing number of children diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

February 

Researchers Make Key Findings in Evolution of HIV Virus

Researchers at Duke have developed a critical test that provides an early warning of which medicines a patient with HIV will be resistant to, which can better guide that patient toward effective treatment.

More Strokes in U.S. than in Europe

Larry Goldstein, MD, director of the Duke Center for Cerebrovascular Disease, is quoted in this story about strokes being more prevalent in the U.S. than Europe and the role higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and smoking play in those numbers. “There are a lot of data linking lower socioeconomic status and lack of access of care to a variety of ill health effects,” he said.

Acupuncture Relieves Stress of Infertility

Julia Woodward, PhD, director of psychological services at Duke Fertility Center, is featured in this news video about a new program that offers couples struggling to conceive help through the ancient art of acupuncture. “We really appreciate that as people go through fertility treatments, it is a very stressful experience,” she said.

Follow-Up: Duke Doctors Explore Spirituality And Healing

Harold Koenig, MD, associate professor of geriatric psychiatry, and Keith Meador, MD, professor of geriatric psychiatry, are quoted in this follow-up story about their interest in the link between spirituality and health. “The degree to which I understand where they’re coming from in their own spiritual context and the degree to which they understand I’m honoring that, it may make a profound difference,” Meador said.

Packed-on Pounds Put a Damper on Sex for Many in U.S.

Martin Binks, PhD, director of behavioral health at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center, is quoted in this story about how losing weight can boost one’s sex life and gaining weight can damper it. Binks said weight loss can affect how people feel about themselves and their partners.

January 

A Boost to Shots

The way you view yourself can help determine the way your immune system reacts to the flu vaccine, and how many sniffles and coughs you have, report a team of researchers from Duke and the University of Wisconsin-Madison that included Timothy Strauman, chair of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke.

Caffeine Could Spell Trouble for Diabetics

In this HealthDay News article about the effects of caffeine on people with diabetes, James Lane, PhD, professor of medical psychiatry, is quoted. “We want to demonstrate that what we’ve seen in the lab takes place in the real world when people are living their normal lives,” Lane said. This story also appeared in the United Press International and The New York Times Well Blog.

Anger: Myths and Management

Redford Williams, MD, professor of behavioral psychiatry, is quoted in this segment about dealing with anger. “When you are getting angry, things are happening inside your body that are taking hours, days, years off your life,” Williams said.

Caffeine Ups Blood Sugar Level in Diabetics: Study

James Lane, PhD, professor of medical psychiatry, is quoted in this story about his team’s finding that cutting down on caffeine could help people with type 2 diabetes better control their blood sugar levels. “What we are really showing here is that when people with type 2 diabetes who are regular coffee drinkers drink coffee, it produces an elevation in their glucose throughout the day above what it is if they don’t have caffeine,” Lane said. This story also appeared on Fox News.

WUNC / The State of Things: Caregiving

In this radio program, Redford Williams, MD, professor of behavioral psychiatry, and Lisa Gwyther, director of the Family Support Program at the Duke Center for Study of the Aging and Human Development, discuss the difficult job of caregiving for a parent or older relative with dementia or a similar illness.

Second Thoughts About Antipsychotics for Aggression

P. Murali Doraiswamy, MD, associate professor of biological psychiatry, and Joseph McEvoy, MD, associate professor of biological psychiatry, are quoted in this health blog entry about a recent study that found antipsychotics were not any better than sugar pills in reducing aggressive behavior among people with low IQs.

Study Finds More Elderly Develop Diabetes

More elderly Americans are contracting diabetes and the majority develop complications such as heart disease that might be prevented if they properly monitored their health, a Duke researcher told Reuters.