December 2009 - Mental Health Update

Ladies worse than ladettes for heavy drinking

'Ladies' are more at risk from their drinking than 'ladettes.' Researchers from the U.K., including Dr Fiona Measham from Lancaster University have been looking at women's drinking patterns. They found that 'ladette' drinking...

Published Mon, Dec 21 2009 7:22 AM by Mental Health Update

Self-help groups for binge eaters

Binge-eating disorder can lead to obesity, other mental-health problems and problems at work and with friends, families and partners. Several psychological treatments have been found to be helpful in treating binge eating including cognitive behaviour...

Published Thu, Dec 17 2009 2:12 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Depression in new mothers

About one in ten people in the U.S. suffers from depression with women being twice as much at risk as men. Depression can affect the way people bring up their children with mothers' and children's development being affected. A team of researchers...

Published Mon, Dec 14 2009 3:30 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Parenting

Twins in the classroom

It makes no difference to twins' education whether they are educated separately or together. A Dutch study of 839 identical and 1,164 non-identical twins who were followed between the ages of 3 and 12 found that there was no effect on children's...

Published Wed, Dec 16 2009 5:04 AM by Mental Health Update

Guiltless, fearless and lawless - disregarding rules in young children

Some children seem to break rules without experiencing either guilt or a fear of punishment. A team of researchers, led by Amelie Petitclerc from University College Dublin, looked into this issue in a sample of 1,942 children studied from when they were...

Published Thu, Dec 03 2009 7:38 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development

Depression in teenage girls

It is thought that between 10% and 18.5% of people suffer from major depression during their adolescence. The peak age of onset is 15 with the average length of an episode of depression being about 6 months. Girls are thought to be particularly vulnerable...

Published Fri, Dec 04 2009 6:58 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression - in adolescence

Lead and mental-health problems

People with more lead in their bloodstream are more at risk of mental-health problems - even at levels currently considered safe. Researchers from the University of Montreal used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey covering...

Published Wed, Dec 09 2009 3:11 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Lead

Reading help rewires kids' brains

Scientists from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh have shown that remedial help for children who are poor readers can actually alter their brain structure as well as helping them with their reading. The scientists studied 72 children. 47 were poor...

Published Fri, Dec 11 2009 7:20 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development

Antidepressants and adolescents

In 2003 the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration issued a warning that some antidepressants could increase the risk of suicidal behaviour in children and adolescents. Since then the prescription of the drugs has gone down but a new study, by researchers...

Published Fri, Dec 18 2009 7:13 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Antidepressants, Suicide

Purple grape juice and memory loss

There is evidence that a healthy diet can reduce people's risk of Alzheimer's disease and new research suggests that drinking purple grape juice can reduce, or even reverse, memory loss. In a small-scale trial researchers from the University of...

Published Wed, Dec 09 2009 2:28 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alzheimer's Disease

Politicians and their stalkers

Because of their high profile celebrities are more vulnerable to stalking than other people and politicans are no exception. A team of researchers from Canada surveyed 424 politicians from both the Federal (national) and Provincial (local) assemblies...

Published Tue, Dec 15 2009 6:24 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Forensic Psychology

Nearly one in seven women binge eat

Researchers from the Universite de Montreal and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute have been surveying problem eating in a telephone survey of over 1,500 women. None of the women had been classified as anorexic before the start of the study...

Published Mon, Dec 21 2009 6:35 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Why joining in is good for teenagers

Joining in is good for teenagers. Researchers at the University of Hertfordshire found that almost one in three English teenagers belonged to some kind of club such as sports teams, church groups, youth clubs and political organisations. Those that did...

Published Wed, Dec 16 2009 8:18 AM by Mental Health Update

Interpersonal psychotherapy for teenage obesity

Teenage obesity is a growing problem. Weight gain can be caused by binge eating so if this can be reduced or prevented weight gain could be halted or even reversed. Researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the National...

Published Wed, Dec 16 2009 7:45 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Obesity, Interpersonal Psychotherapy

Depression, diabetes and ethnic minorities

Rates of depression in people with diabetes are double those in the general population and even higher among minority groups who have worse blood-sugar control, more diabetes complications and more severe depression. However, few studies have looked at...

Published Fri, Dec 18 2009 7:42 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Diabetes