October 2009 - Mental Health Update

Depression, neuroses and aches and pains

Researchers at the University of Iowa have been looking into the links between neuroticism, depression and the experience of physical health problems. Previous research has shown that neurotic people - who often feel irritable, sad, anxious or fearful...

Published Thu, Oct 29 2009 8:42 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Service Users' Health, Depression

Antipsychotics and weight gain in children

In the U.S. antipsychotic drugs are often prescribed for children and adolescents. However, new research from the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York suggests that they may - as they do in adults - lead to weight gain making more children...

Published Wed, Oct 28 2009 4:41 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Antipsychotics - side effects

The psychology of torture

Researchers at Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences have been conducting (pain-free) research into the psychology of torture. In the study one of the research team was 'tortured' (although in reality she was acting) by having her hand submerged...

Published Wed, Oct 28 2009 3:36 AM by Mental Health Update

Servicemen and mental-health problems - not just PTSD

A study of more than 800 servicemen and women by researchers at King's College London has found high levels of mental illness and not just post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from which one in 20 were found to be suffering. One in five was found...

Published Fri, Oct 30 2009 4:23 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: PTSD

Figures show extent of prescribing to children

Information obtained by the U.K. Conservative Party under freedom-of-information legislation has revealed the extent of drug prescribing to children for mental-health conditions. They found that in 2007 420,000 prescriptions were issued for ADHD (attention...

Published Fri, Oct 30 2009 4:07 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Antidepressants, ADHD, Antipsychotics

Bad behaviour and problem gambling linked in young people

Bad behaviour and problem gambling often go hand-in-hand in teenage boys. Researchers at the University at Buffalo in New York studied 2,274 people between the ages of 14 and 21. They found that for 14 and 15 year-olds the odds of being a risky or problem...

Published Mon, Oct 26 2009 4:28 AM by Mental Health Update

Feeling down, how we cope with it and how it all links to depression

Everyone feels down from time to time. Most people try and get over it in a process that psychologists call 'mood repair.' Psychologists have identified over a 100 strategies for mood repair (adaptive strategies) but also a number of responses...

Published Mon, Oct 19 2009 3:48 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression - causes

Psychosis and emotions; not so different after all

There has been little research into the emotions of people suffering from psychosis. Historically there has been a divide between the neuroses, like depression and anxiety, which are thought to have an emotional origin and the psychoses which are thought...

Published Mon, Oct 19 2009 6:26 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Psychosis

Kidsmatter initiative gets the thumbs up in Australia

Signs of mental-health problems can be identified in children at an early age, however, only about a quarter of them access mental-health services. Children's mental-health problems can affect their learning, friendships and ability to cope with and...

Published Thu, Oct 08 2009 7:10 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Psychology

Young adults' drug choices: from crack and heroin to cocaine and cannabis

Young people are moving away from crack cocaine and heroin and towards 'ordinary' cocaine and cannabis according to new figures from the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse. In 2008/9 £800m was spent on national drug treatment services...

Published Thu, Oct 08 2009 6:50 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Substance Abuse

Teenagers reach logical maturity before emotional maturity

Teenagers are as logical as adults but lack their social and emotional maturity. This might not be a surprise to too many parents but it comes as the result of a study of 935 10-30 year-olds by researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia. Participants...

Published Thu, Oct 08 2009 8:30 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development

Speed dating - is mimicry the key to a successful evening?

Mimicry could be the key to success for women when they go on speed-dating nights. Nicolas Gueguen from the Universite de Bretagne-Sud studied three women who were taking part in speed-dating sessions and coached them in how to mimic their partners. The...

Published Wed, Oct 14 2009 3:17 AM by Mental Health Update

Lower, more targeted shocks for long-term depression

ECT or electroconvulsive therapy is one of the most controversial ways of treating depression. Despite the Frankenstein-like nature of electric shocks being given to the brain and patients having convulsions there is evidence that it can work for severely...

Published Wed, Oct 14 2009 2:46 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, ECT

Troubled childhoods, early deaths

Having a stressful childhood can significantly reduce people's life expectancy. Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Kaiser Permanente Organisation studied 17,337 men and women to investigate the links between bad childhood...

Published Wed, Oct 14 2009 3:50 AM by Mental Health Update

Mental health and bladder problems

Depression, anxiety and sexual trauma have all been found to be risk factors for urinary-tract problems such as incontinence and an overactive bladder. Researchers from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine looked into this further in...

Published Wed, Oct 21 2009 3:06 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Service Users' Health