March 2010 - Mental Health Update

Wife-batterers' warped perceptions

People who drink too much, have an eating disorder or who take drugs often think that their behaviour is more common than it really is. Initiatives aimed at tackling drinking in college have tried to point out that most students drink much less than their...

Published Thu, Mar 11 2010 6:01 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Violence

Naltrexone and dual diagnosis

Naltrexone is often used to treat drug addicts and alcoholics. People with schizophrenia often have problems with drug use as well and Ileana Berman from Harvard Medical School led a small-scale study of 37 people to see whether naltrexone could help...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 6:50 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Substance Abuse, Schizophrenia, Naltrexone, Dual Diagnosis

Sororities and body image

Sororities are female societies in U.S. universities. They can provide students with opportunities for personal growth and enrichment but have also been criticised for leading their members to focus excessively on their appearance. Ashley Rolnik from...

Published Mon, Mar 15 2010 8:25 AM by Mental Health Update

TMS and hearing voices - study shows disappointing results

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) involves the use of strong, fluctuating magnetic fields to stimulate the surface layers of the brain's cortex. Some studies have shown TMS to be effective in treating auditory hallucinations but a study by researchers...

Published Fri, Mar 19 2010 8:30 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Schizophrenia, Hallucinations, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Calling all Twitterers

For those of you who use Twitter Carolyn Friedman and the team at the Radiography Schools website have compiled a list of the top 100 Twitter feeds to keep up to date with the latest heath news. You can find the list at http://radiographyschools.org/...

Published Wed, Mar 24 2010 2:37 AM by Mental Health Update

Deep-brain stimulation gets thumbs up for severe cases

Deep-brain stimulation involves implanting electrodes into patients' brains. The electrodes are connected to an impulse generator - usually implanted below the collarbone - and deliver continuous, high-frequency, short electrical impulses aimed at...

Published Thu, Mar 04 2010 8:53 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Tourette's Syndrome, Deep-Brain Stimulation

Sleep, spliffs and social networks

Recent studies have found that obesity, smoking and altruism can all spread through social networks, affecting not just our friends but their friends too. Now researchers from the University of California, San Diego and Harvard University have found that...

Published Mon, Mar 22 2010 6:57 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Cannabis, Sleep Disorders, Social Networks

Massage and depression

Researchers from I-Shou university in Taiwan have been reviewing studies into the effectiveness of massage in treating depression. They looked at 17 studies, covering a total of 786 people. In 13 of the studies massage was compared to another treatment...

Published Wed, Mar 31 2010 2:45 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Massage

Scopolamine might lift depression quicker

Conventional antidepressant treatment usually takes between three and four weeks to become effective so finding quicker-working drugs is of great interest both to clinicians and drug companies. The horse-anaesthetic and recreational drug ketamine has...

Published Mon, Mar 08 2010 7:27 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression - medication, Scopolamine

My Mood Monitor checklist helps doctors with diagnosis

A simple one-page questionnaire could be an effective way of screening for mental-health problems in primary care. The My Mood Monitor checklist is made up of 27 questions and is designed to screen for depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety and post-traumatic...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 5:57 AM by Mental Health Update

Obsessive thoughts in adolescence - why it's not just people with OCD

In both children and adults obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterised by the presence of recurrent obsessions or compulsions that are time consuming (over an hour a day) or cause mental distress or impairment. Common obsessions include fear...

Published Wed, Mar 03 2010 6:25 AM by Mental Health Update

Ningdong granule and Tourette's syndrome

Ningdong granule is a prescription used in traditional Chinese medicine. Researchers from Shandong University in China looked at its effectiveness in treating Tourette's syndrome. 64 children between seven and 18 were divided into two groups. One...

Published Fri, Mar 19 2010 9:21 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Tourette's Syndrome, Ningdong Granule

IQ and mental-health problems

Long-term, or longitudinal, studies allow researchers to look back in time to see what factors early in people's lives are associated with them developing mental-health problems later. People who develop schizophrenia later in life tend to have lower...

Published Fri, Mar 19 2010 8:04 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Schizophrenia, Personality Disorders, IQ

Exercise programme helps new mums

An exercise and health-education programme can help new mums to feel happier and reduce their risk of postnatal depression. Researchers from the University of Melbourne studied 161 new mums. 62 of them did an hour of exercise with their babies - led by...

Published Tue, Mar 23 2010 7:43 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Postnatal Depression

Ambition, expectation and depression

Between 1976 and 2000 the gap between the number of high school seniors (Year 13) students who expected to get a degree and those who actually did so more than doubled. This gap between youngsters' expectations and their actual achievements has been...

Published Mon, Mar 22 2010 7:16 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Ambition Inflation