February 2010 - Mental Health Update

Military veterans still not getting PTSD care

Many military veterans in the U.S. are still not getting the treatment they need for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Dr Karen Seal from the San Franciscon Veteran Affairs Medical Centre lead a team studying this issue. They found that between 2002...

Published Thu, Feb 18 2010 7:33 AM by Mental Health Update

Flexible working and mental health

A team of researchers led by Clare Bambra from Durham University have been reviewing studies into the health benefits of flexible working. They reviewed ten studies which included a total of 16,603 people. Flexible working was found to have a positive...

Published Thu, Feb 18 2010 7:14 AM by Mental Health Update

Cognitive insight and psychosis

Cognitive insight is the ability to self-reflect, realise that beliefs may be mistaken and consider feedback from other people. Lack of it is thought to play an important role in the development and continuation of psychosis, and a team of researchers...

Published Fri, Feb 19 2010 6:31 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Psychosis, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

Alcohol and bipolar disorder

Researchers from the University Medical Centre in Amsterdam have been looking into the effects of alcohol consumption on people with bipolar disorder. They studied 137 people with bipolar disorder. 44 drank very little or nothing at all, 49 were moderate...

Published Fri, Feb 19 2010 8:21 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alcohol Problems, Bipolar Disorder

Holidays and happiness

Holidays can make you happy before you go on them but have little long-lasting effect once you get back. Researchers from Erasmus University in Rotterdam studied 1,530 people, 974 of whom went on holiday during the study period. They found that those...

Published Fri, Feb 19 2010 8:00 AM by Mental Health Update

CBT and learning disabilities

People with learning disabilities suffer from mental-health problems as much as, if not more than, other people. Cognitive behaviour therapy has been found to be effective for a number of different mental-health problems but it is unclear whether people...

Published Tue, Feb 23 2010 6:34 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Learning Disabilities

Stereotype threat, social skills and schizophrenia

Stereotype threat is the feeling that one is the target of demeaning stereotypes and has been found to affect performance among a number of different people doing a number of different tasks. Interestingly people do not have to actually be treated in...

Published Tue, Feb 23 2010 7:09 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Schizophrenia, Social Skills Training, Stigma

Omega-3s and psychosis

Early intervention has been found to lead to much better results for people with schizophrenia and psychosis. This often takes the form of antipsychotic drugs but they have serious side effects and their use is controversial in people who have yet to...

Published Tue, Feb 23 2010 8:14 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Psychosis, Omega-3

Exercise, schizophrenia and growing your hippocampus

Neural plasticity is the brain's ability to change and adapt over time. People with schizophrenia show changes in their brains and it could be the case that they have less neural plasticity than other people. People with schizophrenia also have smaller...

Published Tue, Feb 23 2010 7:48 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Schizophrenia, Neuroscience, Exercise and Mental Health

Obesity and cognitive function

A forty-year study of Swedish twins between 1963 and 2002 has found that those who had a higher body-mass-index when they were middle-aged had 'significantly lower general cognitive ability' and 'significantly steeper decline' than their...

Published Wed, Feb 24 2010 4:41 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Obesity

Depression, obesity and stress

Cortisol is a hormone that is produced in reaction to stress. It is also produced more when people are depressed and plays a role in regulating people's metabolisms. There is thought to be a link between depression, cortisol and obesity but no-one...

Published Wed, Feb 24 2010 4:13 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Obesity, Depression - in adolescence, Stress

Belief in a caring God and depression

New research from Rush University in Chicago suggests that belief in a caring God can improve people's response to treatment for depression. Previous research has suggested that religious belief can help prevent people developing depression in the...

Published Wed, Feb 24 2010 7:24 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Religion and Mental Health

Exercise, illness and anxiety

Having a chronic illness can sometimes lead to the development of anxiety - something that can lower people's quality of life and make them less likely to follow their treatment plans. Researchers from the University of Georgia have been looking into...

Published Wed, Feb 24 2010 7:49 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Service Users' Health, Exercise and Mental Health, Anxiety

ADHD and time perception

People with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) often have problems with their perception of time but it is unclear whether this is due to difficulties in estimating how much time has elapsed or by the fact that they become distracted by other...

Published Thu, Feb 25 2010 6:27 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: ADHD

Young people, mental health and the Internet

Young people often find it difficult to access mainstream mental-health services partly because of the stigma associated with mental-health problems. One way round this is to use the Internet and a team of researchers from University College Cork surveyed...

Published Thu, Feb 25 2010 7:09 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Telemedicine