Sheri D. Pruitt

TUESDAY, May 21 (HealthDay News) -- When a classmate commits suicide, teens are more likely to consider or attempt suicide themselves, according to a new study. This "suicide contagion" occurs regardless of whether the teens knew the deceased student personally, the researchers found.

Tee...Full Article

TUESDAY, May 21 (HealthDay News) -- Pregnant women with specific alterations in two genes may be at increased risk of suffering depression after giving birth, a small new study suggests.

The researchers hope they can use the findings to develop a blood test that could help spot pregnant w...Full Article

MONDAY, May 20 (HealthDay News) -- Music can help soothe the fear and anxiety of critically ill patients who have been placed on ventilators, reducing both their stress and their need for sedatives, according to a new study.

Intensive care unit (ICU) patients allowed to listen to music of...Full Article

FRIDAY, May 17 (HealthDay News) -- Although being openly gay appears to affect a male actor's masculinity ratings, it does not affect views on his performance, according to a new study.

Researchers from Clemson University in South Carolina found that an actor who is "out" can be convinci...Full Article

FRIDAY, May 17 (HealthDay News) -- Teen bullies are more likely to be criminals when they're adults, a new study finds.

UT Dallas researchers analyzed several decades of data collected from more than 400 men in Britain. All of them had similar working-class backgrounds and most came from ...Full Article

WEDNESDAY, May 15 (HealthDay News) -- Military service members who sustain more than one mild traumatic brain injury may be at much greater risk of suicide, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Utah found that the risk for suicidal thoughts or behaviors increased fo...Full Article

THURSDAY, May 9 (HealthDay News) -- Teenage boys who play violent video games for hours on end may become desensitized to the brutality, a small new study finds.

The research focused on 30 boys, aged 13 to 15, who were divided into two groups. One group typically played violent video game...Full Article

FRIDAY, April 26 (HealthDay News) -- When the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings were identified as two brothers -- one of them a teenager -- many parents wondered, "Who raised these boys?"

Mental health experts say it's normal to want to blame parents or close relatives of young pe...Full Article

WEDNESDAY, April 24 (HealthDay News) -- A robot might tidy your kitchen some day, but how will you feel about the mechanical member of the household?

Researchers say people's empathy for robots can be similar to what they feel for other humans.

Functional MRI scans showed t...Full Article

FRIDAY, April 19 (HealthDay News) -- Gender plays a role in how researchers perceive the work of other scientists, according to a new study.

Researchers at Ohio State University found that scientific studies written by men were viewed as higher quality than identical studies listing femal...Full Article

FRIDAY, April 19 (HealthDay News) -- Media use is a serious distraction for college freshmen, with a new study finding young women devote up to 12 hours daily on pursuits such as texting, posting status updates and surfing the web.

And the more time spent using media, the research suggest...Full Article

FRIDAY, April 19 (HealthDay News) -- Men whose fathers were abusive or absent are more likely to get into bar fights, a new study reveals.

These findings about alcohol-related aggression are from a survey of 137 men, aged 18 to 25, in Australia, and appear online in advance of publication...Full Article

TUESDAY, April 16 (HealthDay News) -- It's the day after the Boston Marathon bombings and three people are dead, including an 8-year-old boy who came to cheer on friends during the race. The boy's mother and sister are both seriously injured. A nation is on edge -- again. And parents are wonderin...Full Article

MONDAY, April 15 (HealthDay News) -- Just as the smell of freshly brewed coffee may compel you to pour a steaming cup of java, a small taste of beer may activate part of your brain's reward system and trigger the urge for more, a new study suggests.

Researchers have discovered that senso...Full Article

THURSDAY, April 4 (HealthDay News) -- Many more American women are living with their partners rather than tying the knot, a new government survey finds.

And they live together longer than couples in the recent past, and many more get pregnant before marriage, according to the survey relea...Full Article