November 2009 - Mental Health Update

Brief interventions for drink drivers

Drink driving is involved in more than a third of all road deaths. Many people who persistently drink drive do not take part in rehabilitation programmes or carry on drink-driving once they get their licences back. Researchers from McGill University in...

Published Mon, Nov 23 2009 3:50 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alcohol Problems

Autism: parent training helps improve behaviour and reduce drugs

Children with autism often have behaviour problems such as tantrums, aggression and self-injury as well. An antipsychotic drug called risperidone is sometimes used to reduce this behaviour but the problems return once the medication is stopped and the...

Published Mon, Nov 23 2009 3:26 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Autism, Risperidone

Drinking in pregnancy and children's problems

In the U.K. the National Health Service advises pregnant women to not drink at all, or, if they do, to drink very little and this approach seems to be vindicated by research from Australia which studied the links between drinking in pregnancy and children's...

Published Mon, Nov 23 2009 2:48 AM by Mental Health Update

Reducing violence on the wards

Healthcare professionals often suffer from violence and one study of nurses in Minnesota found that 13.2% had been assaulted over the last 12 months. Psychiatric nurses are even more at risk and one study found that 20% were assaulted over the course...

Published Mon, Nov 23 2009 2:05 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Inpatients, Violence

Stress and schizophrenia

Schizophrenia affects about 1% of the world's population. Its symptoms - delusions and hallucinations, apathy, social withdrawal and cognitive impairment - can affect relationships, make life difficult and lead to problems holding down or getting...

Published Mon, Nov 23 2009 1:40 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Schizophrenia

Type D personalities and heart problems

Research into the links between health and personality has tended to concentrate on Type A personalities - competitive go-getters who are thought to be more at risk of a heart attack - and the more laid-back Type B personalities who are thought to be...

Published Thu, Nov 19 2009 3:47 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Service Users' Health

Depression and opioids

People with depression are more likely to be prescribed powerful opioids at higher doses and for a longer time. Researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle looked at medical records from two large healthcare plans between 1997 and 2005. They...

Published Thu, Nov 19 2009 3:22 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression

More evidence for meditation

Researchers at the Maharishi University of Management in Iowa have found more evidence for the beneficial effects of meditation. They studied 298 students who either trained to do transcendental meditation or were placed on a waiting list. After three...

Published Thu, Nov 19 2009 3:06 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Meditation

The art of subconscious decision-making

People who do crosswords often find that when they go and do something else the answer to a clue they have been wrestling with pops into their head spontaneously. Dutch researcher Ap Dijksterhuis looked into the issue of subconscious decision-making in...

Published Thu, Nov 19 2009 2:21 AM by Mental Health Update

Mental-health problems and heart disease

Researchers from the VA Ann Arbor Health System in Michigan have been looking into the links between mental-health problems and heart disease. They studied 150,000 veterans who completed a survey in 1999 and were followed for eight years. By the end of...

Published Wed, Nov 18 2009 3:19 AM by Mental Health Update

Mixed halls mean more binge drinking

Binge drinking is a big problem on college campuses in the U.K. and the U.S. A study of more than 500 college students by researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah has found that students in mixed-sex accommodation are more likely to binge drink...

Published Wed, Nov 18 2009 2:58 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alcohol Problems

Telephone counselling helps depressed heart patients

People who have had a coronary artery bypass often develop depression; something which can have a negative impact on their health. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine studied 302 people who had had a coronary-artery bypass....

Published Wed, Nov 18 2009 2:40 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Telemedicine

Scotland's drug problem takes heavy toll

Statistics from Scotland paint a grim picture of the country's drug problem, particularly among older drug users. It is thought that there are around 55,000 'chaotic' drug users in Scotland of whom 15,000 are thought to be over 35. There were...

Published Wed, Nov 18 2009 2:21 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Substance Abuse

Monitoring and marijuana

More than 42% of high-school students in the U.S. admit to taking cannabis. Apart from the risk of a criminal record cannabis use has also been linked to depression, cognitive impairment, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Parental monitoring - parents...

Published Tue, Nov 17 2009 3:49 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Cannabis

Fearless toddlers and reckless criminals

Toddlers who show less fear at the age of three may be more likely to become criminals later in life. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania studied nearly 1,9000 children born in 1969 and 1970 on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. The children...

Published Tue, Nov 17 2009 3:31 AM by Mental Health Update