Diagnosis of mood and psychotic disorders depend solely on relatively subjective assessment of symptoms and psychometric evaluations, upon which a decision is made to prescribe one or more standardised treatment regimen. Treatment response in turn is evaluated on the same principles. All this in spite of decades' worth of research efforts aimed at understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of these disorders.

The oldest and longest record of nematodes revived after dried storage was for 39 years, which was reported in 1946. Another record reported on the revival and subsequent reproduction of nematodes from moss after having been frozen for 25 years. In regard to tardigrades, the previous longest records of revival after the long-term storage were 9 years for eggs in dried storage at room temperature and 8 years for animals in dried storage under a frozen condition. These animals have the ability to temporarily shut down their metabolic activities induced by certain physiological stimuli including desiccation and freezing, which is called "cryptobiosis."

Do you feel good about getting that National Institutes of Health (NIH)? You should. As government has spent billions on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) outreach promoting the idea that only government-funded science is real science, the rolls of those wanting to stay in academia have ballooned. Grants are more competitive than ever so if you got one, you beat out up to nine other people.

Does that mean that taxpayers are getting the best value for their money? Perhaps not. A new study finds that the NIH is no better at picking beneficial projects than if researchers were just picked in a lottery. 

Analysis of artifacts found on the shores of Rapa Nui, Chile (Easter Island) declares that the spear points were likely general purpose tools and not weapons of war, disputing one popular belief as to why people left or died off.

A new Northwestern Medicine study has found an adolescent male's attitude toward risky sex, pregnancy and birth control can predict whether or not he will stick around after the baby is born.

The longitudinal study -- one of the first reproductive health studies to focus on young men and fatherhood -- also found it was possible to predict whether some young men would become teen fathers. In addition, the research was able to predict fatherhood patterns over 14 years as young men transitioned from being teenagers into young adulthood.

The team of Bruno Giros, a researcher at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and professor of psychiatry at McGill University, reports the first-ever connection between noradrenergic neurons and vulnerability to depression. Published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, this breakthrough paves the way for new depression treatments that target the adrenergic system.

Stressful life events--job loss, accident, death of a loved one--can trigger major depression in one person, but not in another. A deciding factor is resilience, a biological mechanism that determines an individual's capacity to rebound from stressful or traumatic events. Researchers are still learning how resilience works.

U.S. Marshals, acting on a request from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seized yet another ridiculous "dietary supplement," and this one's a doozy. About 90,000 bottles of a bunch of garbage with the brand name RelaKzpro, which is sold by Dordoniz Natural Products of South Beloit, Illinois, were confiscated.

Nine weekly sessions of acupuncture lessen perceived pain intensity, and improve functional capacity and quality of life, in people diagnosed with the blanket pain condition called fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia diagnoses are based on claims of chronic widespread pain, along with fatigue, disordered sleep patterns, and/or depression.  Surveys show that 90% of people who have fibromyalgia try some form of alternative medicine, including massage, hydrotherapy, and acupuncture. Clinical trials have shown acupuncture doesn't work but the authors of the new paper say the lack of efficacy is because those were clinical trials of standard, rather than individually tailored, treatment.

Wide and stubborn variations in longevity have persisted across Europe over the past 20 years, indicates research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

People can expect to live to a ripe old age in northern Spain, north eastern Italy, and in southern and western France, but not so much in parts of The Netherlands, Scandinavia, and the UK, the figures show.

And the UK has one of the highest proportions of the population living in areas of low old age survival.

An increase in old age survival contributes to overall life expectancy, and is particularly important, give the rising proportion of older people in the populations of high income countries, say the study authors.