August 2010 - Mental Health Update

Heavy drinking and broken body clocks

Heavy drinking could disrupt people's body clocks. Researchers from Taipei Medical University studied some of the genes responsible for governing people's body clocks in a sample of 34 people, 22 of whom were alcoholics. The alcoholics had significantly...

Published Wed, Aug 25 2010 7:07 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alcohol Problems, Body Clocks

Bullying and academic performance

Previous research has looked into the mental-health effects of bullying but new research from the University of California Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.) suggests that it may also affect their schoolwork as well. The study involved 2,300 pupils in 11 middle schools...

Published Tue, Aug 24 2010 4:18 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Bullying

Autistic children's senses not working overtime

Children with autism process information coming from a number of different sources less well than other children. Researchers from Yeshiva University in New York studied 34 children between the ages of 6 and 16, half of whom had autism. The children watched...

Published Tue, Aug 24 2010 2:35 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Autism

Domestic violence and spanking children

People who are violent or psychologically abusive to their partners are also more likely to spank their children. Researchers from Tulane University in New Orleans surveyed mothers and fathers from around 2,000 families with three-year-old children. As...

Published Tue, Aug 24 2010 2:10 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Parenting

Are teenagers' real communities online ones?

Peer groups are important for the development of teenagers' identities and values. More and more teenagers are finding a peer group online via social-networking communities and new research suggests that they may feel as much, if not more, loyalty...

Published Tue, Aug 24 2010 1:52 AM by Mental Health Update

Americans turn to pills not counselling

More Americans are being treated with drugs for their mental-health problems and less with psychotherapy. Researchers from Columbia University in New York compared data from two government surveys carried out in 1998 and 2007. In both years 3% of the...

Published Fri, Aug 20 2010 2:26 AM by Mental Health Update

Binge drinking and high blood pressure - a fatal combination

High blood pressure and binge drinking could be a fatal combination. Researchers from Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul studied more than 6,100 people, aged 55 and over, for 20 years. They found that people with high blood pressure had three...

Published Fri, Aug 20 2010 1:49 AM by Mental Health Update

Mediterranean drinking causes fewer problems

One of the things which often strikes visitors from the U.K. about Spain and Italy is the lack of young people staggering around being drunken idiots and throwing up in the gutter. This has often been put down to the fact that young people in Mediterranean...

Published Fri, Aug 20 2010 1:33 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alcohol Problems

Keep calm and get married

Past studies have shown that people who are married or in a long-term relationship tend to be healthier than those who are single and new research suggests that they are also better at dealing with stress. Researchers from Chicago University studied 500...

Published Thu, Aug 19 2010 3:48 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Stress

Stress and dementia

Stress in middle age could lead to an increased risk of dementia later in life. Researchers from the University of Gothenburg studied 1,415 women who were assessed in 1968, 1974, 1980, 1992 and 2000. The women were asked about their levels of stress in...

Published Thu, Aug 19 2010 3:25 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alzheimer's Disease, Stress

Pesticides and ADHD

Children who are exposed to pesticides in the womb could have an increased risk of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) later. Researchers from the University of California Berkeley tested the levels of organophosphate pesticides in the urine...

Published Thu, Aug 19 2010 2:37 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: ADHD

Hallucinogens and happiness

Although hallucinogenic drugs can have harmful effects there is evidence that controlled administration of them in supportive settings can be helpful. Researchers from Bristol University and Imperial College London carried out an internet survey on the...

Published Thu, Aug 19 2010 1:45 AM by Mental Health Update

How to really make life better for people? Spend more on nurseries

Boosting nursery (kindergarten) education could have a huge impact on people's prospects later in life. Researchers from Harvard University used data from a study into the effect of class sizes on nursery children carried out in the mid-1980s. They...

Published Tue, Aug 17 2010 6:25 AM by Mental Health Update

Are nasty people more at risk from stroke and heart attack?

People who are antagonistic, competitive and aggressive may be at greater risk of having a heart attack or stroke. Researchers from the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore studied 5,614 Italians from Sardinia who ranged in age from 14 to 94. The...

Published Tue, Aug 17 2010 4:52 AM by Mental Health Update

Troubled children stay troubled, poorer at greater risk

Behavioural problems in late childhood and early adolescence carry on into later adolescence and young adulthood and children from disadvantaged backgrounds are more at risk. Researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle studied 800 children...

Published Tue, Aug 17 2010 4:14 AM by Mental Health Update