November 2009 - Mental Health Update

Danger: rose-coloured spectacles can blur your vision

Being in a bad mood could help people see the world more clearly. Researchers from the University of New South Wales induced happy and sad moods in participants by showing them films or asking them to remember positive or negative events. The participants...

Published Tue, Nov 03 2009 2:26 AM by Mental Health Update

Smoking mums and bad behaviour

Mothers who smoke are more likely to have children who behave badly. Researchers from the universities of York, Hull and Illinois studied more than 14,000 pairs of mothers and children taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study which involves children...

Published Tue, Nov 03 2009 2:10 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development, ADHD

Defining words and diagnosing dementia

Researchers devote a lot of time to diagnosing dementia as quickly as possible as the earlier the condition is diagnosed the more effectively it can be treated. Over 20 years doctors from Oxford have been studying a group of 241 healthy elderly volunteers...

Published Tue, Nov 03 2009 3:50 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alzheimer's Disease

TV, toddlers and aggression

Very young children who watch too much television are more likely to behave aggressively. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television for children below the age of two but this is more honoured in the breach than the observance. Researchers...

Published Tue, Nov 03 2009 3:31 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development

Deep-brain stimulation offers hope for severely depressed

A small-scale study of ten patients by researchers at the University Clinics of Bonn and Cologne has shown some promising results for the use of deep-brain stimulation (DBS) for people with severe depression. The participants in the study had all suffered...

Published Tue, Nov 03 2009 3:07 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Deep-Brain Stimulation

Study backs U.K. government's talk-therapy initiative

The U.K. government has been trying to help more people with mental-health problems with its Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme. Researchers from Exeter University looked at the effectiveness of the programme in Doncaster, South...

Published Tue, Nov 03 2009 4:19 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Anxiety Disorders

Early retirement and better sleep

Sadly, for most people nowadays - barring lottery wins - early retirement is just a distant pipe dream. However, for those people lucky enough to be able to take it it could bring a dramatic improvement in sleep quality. Researchers from the University...

Published Tue, Nov 03 2009 4:51 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Sleep Disorders

Mapping out emotions in York

Researchers at the University of York have a £1.1 million scanner to play with which can map the magnetic fields made by electrical activity in the brain. They tested 19 people to measure how the brain responded to expressions of emotion, both facial...

Published Wed, Nov 04 2009 3:26 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Neuroscience

Depression treatment benefits long lasting for teenagers

Scientists often follow people who take part in research studies to see how they are getting on later. Researchers from Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina did exactly this with 327 depressed teenagers who had taken part in a 36-week study...

Published Wed, Nov 04 2009 3:08 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression - in adolescence

Never judge a book by its cover - but if you do you might be right

Despite advice to 'never judge a book by its cover' people often judge by first impressions, whether it is a profile picture on a social-networking site or at a job interview. Now new research by psychologists at the University of Texas suggests...

Published Wed, Nov 04 2009 2:30 AM by Mental Health Update

The sleep surveyors

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been conducting a huge survey of people's sleep. 403,981 people took part in the survey across all 50 states. Nearly 70% of people said that they had on bad night's sleep a month. Black...

Published Wed, Nov 04 2009 3:52 AM by Mental Health Update

Why some people get PTSD and others don't

It is thought that between 40-70% of Americans have experienced traumatic events yet only about 8% go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) over the course of their lifetimes. Researchers from Yale University studied 1,252 people aged from...

Published Wed, Nov 04 2009 3:39 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: PTSD

Supported housing for eating disorders

Some people with eating disorders receive treatment as day patients at hospital. They spend 7-12 hours a day on site receiving supervised meals, group and individual psychotherapy and nutrition counselling. However, this good work can be undone if patients...

Published Thu, Nov 05 2009 2:27 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Motivational interviewing gets thumbs up from researchers

Motivational interviewing aims to help people explore and deal with their mixed feelings about changing their behaviour and to increase their motivation to make positive changes. It has become increasingly popular over the last decade and is used in psychotherapy...

Published Thu, Nov 05 2009 2:01 AM by Mental Health Update

Yoga and mental health

Women with eating disorders may lack body awareness including having a reduced awareness of basic body signals such as hunger and fullness, energy levels and fatigue. They can also lack awareness of their moods so that instead of being recognised and...

Published Thu, Nov 05 2009 3:17 AM by Mental Health Update