December 2009 - Mental Health Update

British drinkers underestimate how much they actually put away and the gap between what they think they drink and what they actually do drink could be as much as an average of a bottle of wine a week. Researchers from Liverpool John Moores University...

Published Fri, Dec 18 2009 5:50 AM by Mental Health Update

Twins, genes and cannabis and alcohol dependence

The genes that predispose people to become addicted to alcohol could also play a part in cannabis dependence. Roughly 8-12% of cannabis users are considered to be dependent and, just like alcohol, the severity of symptoms increases with heavier use. A...

Published Mon, Dec 21 2009 6:18 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Cannabis, Alcohol Problems, Genetics

Getting to grips with earworms

An earworm is a song, or fragment of a song, that gets stuck in your head and continually repeats itself. When the mountaineer Joe Simpson, for instance, was near death in the Andes all he could think about was the Boney M song 'Brown Girl in the...

Published Tue, Dec 22 2009 6:51 AM by Mental Health Update

Relational aggression and depression

Relational aggression includes things such as spreading rumours, gossip and socially isolating people. It has been linked to poor health and a team of researchers from Hampton University in Virginia looked into the links between relational aggression...

Published Mon, Dec 14 2009 3:11 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression

Stopping sex offenders reoffending - how successful are treatments?

There is growing confidence in the ability of health professionals to predict reoffending by sex offenders but less optimism about the effectiveness of treatment. Researchers from Oxleas NHS Trust in south-east London studied 273 sex offenders who had...

Published Tue, Dec 15 2009 5:07 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Forensic Psychology

Depression and cognitive deficits

People with depression often have problems thinking - something psychologists call cognitive deficit. However, it is unclear whether these cognitive deficits are due to depression itself or other mental-health problems that can go alongside depression...

Published Tue, Dec 15 2009 4:36 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression

Antidepressants and stroke risk

Middle-aged women who take antidepressants may be at an increased risk of stroke. Researchers from Harvard Medical School compared six years' worth of data on 5,500 postmenopausal women who took the drugs with 130,000 people who did not take them...

Published Wed, Dec 16 2009 5:00 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Antidepressants, Stroke

Leptin and Alzheimer's disease

Leptin is produced by fat cells and sends a signal to the brain telling us to stop eating when we have had enough food. As well as stopping us eating too much there is increasing evidence that leptin also helps with brain development and function and...

Published Wed, Dec 16 2009 5:06 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alzheimer's Disease, Leptin

Culture vultures are happier and healthier

People who participate in or even just attend cultural activities such as painting, dancing or playing a musical instrument tend to feel healthier and less depressed than people who don't. The Norwegian University of Science and Technology have been...

Published Wed, Dec 16 2009 5:05 AM by Mental Health Update

Grumpy men and glowing women - gender and facial expressions

Researchers from the Department of Psychology at the University of Quebec have been looking into the links between gender and facial expression. They showed people a series of androgynous faces and asked them to say whether they were men's or women's...

Published Mon, Dec 14 2009 5:38 AM by Mental Health Update

MAO-A and depression.

Monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) is a chemical in the brain that breaks down other chemicals including serotonin. Serotonin is associated with good mood and high levels of MAO-A have been associated with depression. Researchers at the Centre for Addiction...

Published Wed, Dec 09 2009 2:49 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Antidepressants

Asthma/pregnancy drug may increase mental-health risks

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have been looking into the effects of drugs called beta 2 adrenergic agonists on unborn children. The drugs are used to treat asthma and to inhibit or slow down labour but the study found...

Published Wed, Dec 09 2009 3:27 AM by Mental Health Update

In 2009 around 2 million children in the U.S. had a parent in either the active or reserve component of the military. A study of some of these children by researchers from the RAND corporation found that across all age groups children from military families...

Published Tue, Dec 08 2009 6:52 AM by Mental Health Update

Autism on the rise in the U.S. - nearly 1% of eight-year-olds affected

A study of 300,000 eight-year-olds in the U.S. has found that 1 in 110 has autism, a 57% increase in cases since four years ago. The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Centers for Disease Control...

Published Tue, Dec 22 2009 6:28 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Autism

Atomoxetine and social anxiety

It is thought that 12% of people will suffer from social phobia at some point during their lives. Social anxiety disorder can be remarkably debilitating and result in serious functional impairment. The usual method of treating it is with selective serotonin...

Published Tue, Dec 15 2009 7:23 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Social Anxiety, Atomoxetine