February 2010 - 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

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

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

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

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

Boys, girls and ADHD

Little is known about the effects of gender, on ADHD over time and on the links between ADHD and other mental-health problems. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and the State University of New York studied 471 children with ADHD in a long...

Published Thu, Feb 25 2010 6:46 AM by Mental Health Update

Mindfulness and the military

Cultivating mindfulness - the ability to be aware and attentive to the present moment without emotional reactivity or volatility - has proved helpful for people with anxiety and depression and a new study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania...

Published Thu, Feb 18 2010 6:29 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Mindfulness

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

Stockholm syndrome - guest post by Pamelia Brown

Stockholm Syndrome - Media Frenzy or Legitimate Disorder? In August 2009, when Jaycee Dugard, a woman kidnapped 18 years ago, was found, the media reported that she displayed symptoms of the psychological disorder known as Stockholm Syndrome, so named...

Published Wed, Feb 17 2010 3:32 AM by Mental Health Update

Anxiety does not affect effectiveness of duloxetine

Some studies have suggested that people who suffer from anxiety as well as depression respond less well to treatments with antidepressants. J. Craig Nelson from the University of California, San Francisco reviewed 11 studies into the effectiveness of...

Published Mon, Feb 15 2010 7:23 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Antidepressants, Anxiety Disorders, Duloxetine

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

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

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

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