A groundbreaking study has revealed why some people are able to recover from a traumatic event, while others develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Both genetic and environmental factors affect people's risk of developing post-traumatic stress, the new study found.

A particular genetic variant makes people much more susceptible to PTSD after tragic experiences, but only if they have also had an abusive childhood, scientists in the United States have discovered

More Canadian youths are turning to unprescribed use of common medicine from serving as a party popper to other non-medical purposes. The drugs, usually filched from the family medicine box, are mixed with alcohol to produce a deadly cocktail.

Aside from the alarming rise in number of young Canadians taking common medicine such as painkillers, equally dangerous is the lack of awareness of the parents that some pills and tablets are already missing and that their children are frequent attendees to weekend parties where deadly combinations of prescription drugs and alcohol go together

A new study concluded that effective treatment of depressed teenagers included switching medications if needed, and additional support by means of therapy. The findings addressed the problems of parents whose children did not show any satisfactory response from the medications primarily prescribed for treatment of depression.

Researchers headed by Dr. Graham Emslie, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Children's Medical Center in Dallas drew their findings from an experiment that involved 334 patients from 12 to 18 years old. All the subjects have been suffering from major depressive order, and had shown a lack of response to two months of prescription treatment

Because of a large number of complaints it has received from patients who have undergone laser eye surgery, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is planning to have a national study on the relationship between LASIK complications and life quality.

Patients who agree to undergo the laser therapy sign release forms that inform them of potential health risks that may arise following the vision-correction procedure. But depression, which may lead to suicide, is not on the list

Steven Kazmierczak's Northern Illinois University shooting sparked another hard look at the linkage between stopping use of antidepressant drugs like Prozac and a rise in violent tendencies. The conclusion of medics is that the halt in the gunman's Prozac therapy had no direct link to his shooting spree.

But while the connection was not established, medical experts said the NIU incident stressed stopping antidepressant therapy without directions from doctors is risky