December 2009 - 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eating disorders and death rates

People with eating disorders are more likely to die early either from the effects of their eating disorder or because they kill themselves. There is evidence that people with eating disorders are more likely to kill themselves than people with other mental...

Published Thu, Dec 17 2009 1:46 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Eating Disorders

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

I feel your pain - no really

'I feel your pain' is one of the most widespread - and some might say nauseating - cliches of the C21st. However, researchers from the University of Birmingham (U.K.) have found - that for some people at least - it may have an element of truth...

Published Tue, Dec 22 2009 7:34 AM by Mental Health Update