March 2010 - Mental Health Update

Meta-cognitive therapy and ADHD

Meta-cognitive therapy (MCT) uses cognitive-behavioural principles and methods to teach skills and strategies in time management, organisation and planning. A study by Mary Solanto from the Mount Sinai Medical Center looked into how effective MCT might...

Published Wed, Mar 31 2010 6:28 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: ADHD, Meta-Cognitive Therapy

New study sheds light on prescribing patterns

In the U.S. the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has been looking into the prescription of psychiatric drugs such as antipsychotics, antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs. The study used data from the 2005 National Disease and...

Published Tue, Mar 23 2010 5:02 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Antidepressants, Antipsychotics

Speedy marking, higher grades

Marking students' work more quickly might actually improve their grades. Researchers from the University of Alberta studied students giving a four-minute presentation to their classmates. The students were told when they would receive their marks...

Published Wed, Mar 31 2010 2:32 AM by Mental Health Update

Teletherapy for PTSD

Although teletherapy can seem impersonal it does have a number of advantages. It is cheaper and is more suitable for people who find it hard to get into hospital, either for psychological or geographical reasons. Stephane Guay, from the University of...

Published Fri, Mar 26 2010 7:58 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: PTSD, Telemedicine

COPP helps people cope with eating disorders

About 30% of patients do not respond to treatment for an eating disorder and between 30-42% of patients who do manage to put on weight have relapses later. After talking to people with long-term eating disorders clinicians in Canada developed the Community...

Published Tue, Mar 02 2010 8:11 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Eating Disorders

SSRIs and cataracts

A study of more than 200,000 people in Quebec by researchers at the University of British Columbia has found that there is a statistical - though not necessarily a cause and effect - relationship between the use of SSRI (serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 6:35 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: SSRIs - side effects, Cataracts

Depression, diabetes and dementia - the unholy trinity of ageing

A study led by Dr Wayne Katon from the University of Washington has been looking into the unholy trinity of diabetes, depression and dementia. Diabetes and major depression have both been found to be risk factors for dementia. Diabetes increases the risk...

Published Thu, Mar 11 2010 6:47 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alzheimer's Disease, Depression, Diabetes

Loneliness, misery and the web

In the context of human history the Internet is still a relatively recent development and no-one is quite sure of its psychological consequences. Irena Stepanikova from the University of South Carolina studied over 13,000 people asking them about their...

Published Fri, Mar 26 2010 6:56 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Social Support, Internet

Motherhood and suicide

In 1897 Emile Durkheim, one of the founding fathers of sociology, put forward the idea that being a parent makes people less likely to kill themselves. Because of the relatively-low numbers of suicides it has been quite hard to test this theory but a...

Published Tue, Mar 23 2010 5:20 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Suicide

Teenagers and risk taking

Confirming what most parents probably know already researchers from University College London have found that teenagers are more likely to take risks than children or adults. The researchers' study involved 86 boys and men aged between 9 and 35 who...

Published Thu, Mar 25 2010 3:44 AM by Mental Health Update

Family therapy and upset tummies

Functional abdominal pain - which has no physical cause - is a common problem in children. Researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle looked into the effectiveness of family therapy in treating unexplained stomach pain in a study of 200...

Published Thu, Mar 25 2010 7:47 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Family Therapy, Psychosomatic Illness

How does autism affect the rest of the family?

Researchers from the University of Oregon have been looking at how autism affects the families of children who have the condition. They studied 20 families which had a toddler with autism and an older child aged between six and ten who was developing...

Published Tue, Mar 09 2010 8:08 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Autism

Eating disorders and PTSD

People with eating disorders often suffer with anxiety as well. 75% of people with an eating disorder have experienced at least one anxiety disorder during their lifetime with obsessive-compulsive disorder and social phobia being the most common. However...

Published Tue, Mar 02 2010 8:40 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: PTSD, Eating Disorders

Attachment, prenatal stress and cognitive development

Babies whose mothers were stressed when they were pregnant could end up with worse cognitive development than their peers. But any effects on cognitive development can be almost completely overcome by good parenting. A study led by Professor Thomas O'Connor...

Published Mon, Mar 01 2010 2:43 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Stress, Parenting, Attachment

Early cannabis use and psychosis

The link between cannabis use and psychosis is a controversial topic and research into it has often generated more heat than light. The latest study comes from the University of Queensland and involved more than 3,800 21-year-olds. It found that those...

Published Thu, Mar 04 2010 8:36 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Cannabis, Psychosis