July 2010 - Mental Health Update - The Network of Care

Crystal meth and pregnancy - not a happy combination

Taking crystal meth is never the greatest of ideas and a new study by researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles shows how harmful it can be for women to take it while they are pregnant. The researchers compared 276 women who were taking...

Published Fri, Jul 30 2010 3:31 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Methamphetamine

Background music at work? Turn that racket down for better performance

Background music at work is either an aid to concentration, a pleasant distraction or a pain in the neck according to who you ask but does it actually help people to concentrate? Nick Perham from the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff studied people...

Published Thu, Jul 29 2010 3:35 AM by Mental Health Update

Anxious mums and sickly babies

Mothers who suffer from high levels of stress and anxiety during their pregnancy might be more likely to have sickly babies. Researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands asked 174 women in the last third of their pregnancies to fill out questionnaires...

Published Thu, Jul 22 2010 2:11 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Stress, Anxiety

Autism, Asperger's and brain structure

Researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London have been using a sophisticated brain-imaging technique called voxel-based morphometry to compare the brains of people with autism/Asperger's syndrome and a healthy control group...

Published Thu, Jul 01 2010 2:39 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Autism, Neuroscience, Asperger's Syndrome

Surviving stress in Sri Lanka

Children in Sri Lanka have been exposed to a lot of stress over the last few years with the tsunami of 2004 being followed by a civil war between the Buddhist Sinhalese in the south and the Muslim Tamils in the North. Two recent studies have looked into...

Published Fri, Jul 16 2010 2:05 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: PTSD

Drug use and suicide

In the U.S. suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in adults between 18 and 65. There is a link between drug problems and an increased risk of suicide but the specific risk factors among drug users are poorly understood. A team of researchers from...

Published Wed, Jul 28 2010 2:22 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Substance Abuse, Suicide

Meditatin and attention

Buddhist meditation can help people to be more attentive. Katherine MacLean, a graduate student from the University of California, Davis studied 60 people who were already involved in meditation. Half of them studied meditation for three months at a retreat...

Published Fri, Jul 16 2010 1:39 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Meditation, Attention

Race, psychosis and brain scanners

Compared to the White population the incidence of psychosis among people from the African-Caribbean community living in the U.K. has been estimated as from anything between two and 18 times higher. The reasons for this are not completely clear but some...

Published Thu, Jul 01 2010 2:25 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Psychosis, Neuroscience, Diversity

Want to make teenagers happy? Let them have a lie-in

Giving teenagers a bit more of a lie-in on a school morning could have significant benefits for their mood and health. Researchers from the Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence studied 201 children in Years 9 to 12 who all went to a private high...

Published Thu, Jul 08 2010 2:10 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development, Sleep Disorders

Getting to the bottom of bullying

Bullying is a big problem in schools but what makes children become either a bully or a victim? Researchers from Louisiana State University and the University of California at Riverside reviewed 153 studies into this issue carried out over the last 30...

Published Fri, Jul 09 2010 2:19 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Bullying

Life is very long when you're lonely

Loneliness is linked to a number of physical and mental-health problems including anxiety, schizophrenia, depression, poor sleep, a weaker immune system and cardiovascular disease. During adolescence loneliness is thought to peak early on and decline...

Published Thu, Jul 01 2010 2:10 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Psychology, Social Support

What makes a teenage sex offender?

Some researchers think that adolescent sex offenders commit crimes because they lack the social skills to form more conventional relationships and therapies for them often concentrate on providing such skills. However, a review of the research by Michael...

Published Tue, Jul 20 2010 3:50 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Abuse, Forensic Psychology

Review of studies backs meditation - up to a point

Mindfulness meditation is a type of meditation in which people pay total attention to the present moment with a non-judgmental awareness of their experiences and is characterized by an open and receptive attitude. It has received growing attention in...

Published Thu, Jul 15 2010 6:39 AM by Mental Health Update

Chronic fatigue syndrome and global functioning

Over the last 20 years research has found that people with chronic fatigue syndrome often have cognitive problems as well. However, different studies have found different cognitive problems and the studies themselves have often had very different methodologies...

Published Thu, Jul 15 2010 6:57 AM by Mental Health Update

Dog bites and post-traumatic stress

Post-traumatic stress disorder is usually associated with military action or car crashes but a new study from China suggests that, for children at least, it could also be triggered off by dog bites. Researchers from the Peking Union Medical College Hospital...

Published Mon, Jul 12 2010 2:09 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Psychology, PTSD

July 2010 - Mental Health Update

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