February 2010 - Mental Health Update

Polypharmacy and psychiatry

Polypharmacy is prescribing more than one drug to the same patient for the same condition. It is recommended in some situations but in others drugs can work together to cause side effects and polypharmacy also adds to the costs of medical treatment. Researchers...

Published Tue, Feb 02 2010 7:01 AM by Mental Health Update

EMDR for traumatised children

Trauma-focused cognitive therapy has been shown to be effective in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children and adolescents after physical and sexual abuse but there are fewer treatments for children who have suffered a single, severe...

Published Tue, Feb 02 2010 6:30 AM by Mental Health Update

Lack of treatment for depressed people in the U.S.

Most Americans with depression are not receiving adequate treatment and this situation is particularly bad among Mexican Americans and African Americans. A team of researchers led by Hector M. Gonzalez from Wayne State University in Detroit studied 15...

Published Tue, Feb 02 2010 7:21 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression

Clarkson is right say psychologists

In research guaranteed to gratify ageing petrol heads psychologists from the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff have found that a prestigious car really can make men seem more attractive. People in Cardiff city centre were asked to rate the attractiveness...

Published Wed, Feb 03 2010 2:15 AM by Mental Health Update

Brighter children at higher bipolar risk

Children who do better at school are more likely to develop bipolar disorder later in life. Researchers from King's College London and the Karolinska Institute in Gothenburg looked at the exam results of more than 700,000 Swedish teenagers and compared...

Published Wed, Feb 03 2010 2:41 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Bipolar Disorder

Acupuncture for depression in pregnancy

About 10% of pregnant women meet the criteria for major depression and almost 20% have increased symptoms of depression during their pregnancy. These rates are about the same as other women but researchers can sometimes be reluctant to study treatments...

Published Thu, Feb 04 2010 7:25 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Acupuncture

Suicide and genetics

It is estimated that between 10 and 20 million people a year try and kill themselves with around one million succeeding. Previous studies have shown that there is a genetic influence on suicide and that suicides tend to cluster in families. Researchers...

Published Thu, Feb 04 2010 8:39 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Suicide, Genetics

Obesity and ADHD

Recent research has suggested that there is a link between mothers who are obese before they become pregnant and their children's risk of developing ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). This could be down to a number of factors. Mothers...

Published Fri, Feb 05 2010 7:40 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Obesity, ADHD

Genes, bullying and depression

Scientists are discovering more and more information about the way in which people's genes and environment interact to affect their health. A study of 78 girls by researchers at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California looked into the links between...

Published Fri, Feb 05 2010 8:13 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Bullying, Genetics

Befriending for depression

Over 500 charities in the U.K. offer befriending to people where volunteers meet up with people to go for walks, see films, play snooker and a host of other activities. Lack of social support is known to be a risk factor for depression and a team of researchers...

Published Mon, Feb 08 2010 5:46 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression

Excess mortality and schizophrenia

As a group, people with schizophrenia have a higher death rate than other people; something that has been proved in a number of different populations, continents and time periods. In Scandinavia the number of excessive deaths among schizophrenic people...

Published Mon, Feb 08 2010 6:26 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Schizophrenia

Family therapy and teenage depression

Family therapy can help to reduce suicidal thoughts and depression in adolescents. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in American teenagers, accounting for more than 1,300 deaths in children between the ages of 12 and 18 in 2005. Researchers...

Published Mon, Feb 08 2010 7:50 AM by Mental Health Update

Depressed mothers and violent teenagers

Mothers who are depressed during their pregnancy may have children who are more aggressive than others and may also have been more aggressive as teenagers themselves. Researchers from Cardiff University, King's College London and the University of...

Published Mon, Feb 08 2010 8:24 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Violence

Older parents and autism

Putting off having a child until later in life could increase the child's risk of developing autism. Increasing numbers of men and women are starting families later in life. Researchers from the University of California Davis looked at the records...

Published Tue, Feb 09 2010 2:43 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Autism

Mediterranean diet could stave off Alzheimer's

The Mediterranean diet is good for you in all sorts of ways and a new study by researchers at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York has found that it can help stave off memory problems as well. The researchers studied 712 people and divided them...

Published Tue, Feb 09 2010 2:23 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alzheimer's Disease