August 2010 - Mental Health Update

Alcoholics, memories and self-delusion

Being an alcoholic is known to have a number of harmful effects on people's cognition and new research suggests that it damages people's memory without them being aware of it. Anne-Pascale Le Berre from the Universite de Caen/Basse-Normandie in...

Published Fri, Aug 27 2010 6:29 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Memory Problems, Alcohol Problems

Gum disease and Alzheimer's disease

People with gum disease are almost twice as likely to suffer from coronary artery disease as other people and new research suggests they may also be at risk of lower brainpower too. Researchers from New York University studied 152 70-year-old people measuring...

Published Thu, Aug 05 2010 6:36 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alzheimer's Disease

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

Brothers and sisters boost mental health

Children between the ages of 10 and 14 could be protected from depression if they have a sister. Researchers from Brigham Young University in Utah studied 395 families with more than one child, at least one of whom was an adolescent between the ages of...

Published Fri, Aug 06 2010 5:54 AM by Mental Health Update

Could 'Special K' be a solution for bipolar depression?

Ketamine could help people with bipolar disorder shake off depression. Ketamine was first introduced in 1962 and is legally used as a human, and animal, anaesthetic. It is also used as a 'party' drug when it is known, among other things, as 'Special...

Published Wed, Aug 04 2010 7:10 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Bipolar Disorder, Ketamine

Gateway to drug problems could be legal pills

Gateway drugs are the less damaging substances people start taking before they move on to more damaging drugs like heroin and cocaine. Traditionally alcohol, cannabis and tobacco have been seen as gateway drugs but new research from the University at...

Published Tue, Aug 31 2010 2:04 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Substance Abuse

Memory, child abuse and depression

Autobiographical memory is our memory of events and experiences from our own past rather than of skills like how to make a cup of tea, or facts like what the capital of Sweden is. Psychologists divide autobiographical memories into a number of different...

Published Fri, Aug 27 2010 2:08 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Child Abuse

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

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

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

Type 2 diabetes hits teenagers' brainpower as well as their health

Type-2 diabetes - caused by being too fat and not taking enough exercise - usually occurs in middle age but more and more teenagers are also being diagnosed with the condition. Researchers from the New York University Langone Medical Center studied 36...

Published Tue, Aug 03 2010 5:57 AM by Mental Health Update

Depression and Alzheimer's

People with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) which usually precedes it often have depression as well and some studies suggest that having a history of major depression can double the risk of developing dementia. But it is unclear...

Published Thu, Aug 05 2010 6:20 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alzheimer's Disease, Depression

Good fathers and happy sons

Most psychological research into parenting concentrates on the role of mothers but having a good relationship with one's father can also help people to cope better in later life. Researchers from California State University, Fullerton studied 912...

Published Fri, Aug 13 2010 1:55 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Parenting

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

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