October 2010 - Mental Health Update

Men, women, dopamine and drink problems

Men are twice as likely to become alcoholics as women but it is unclear whether there is a biological basis behind this statistic. Researchers from Columbia and Yale University studied students giving them an alcoholic drink and then scanning their brains...

Published Tue, Oct 19 2010 4:01 AM by Mental Health Update

The science of sleep and genes

Some people seem to manage quite happily on four hours of sleep a night while others turn into zombies. A new study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine suggests that this may, in part at least, be down to our genes. They...

Published Tue, Oct 26 2010 3:36 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Sleep Disorders, Genetics

Follow-up post boosts care for people with depression

A few follow-up phone calls and tools for people to monitor their symptoms can significantly help people being treated by their GP for depression. Researchers from the University of Michigan studied 186 people who were being treated for the condition;...

Published Wed, Oct 27 2010 2:45 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression

Implant could help heroin users

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles have been studying the effectiveness of implants in improving the lives of heroin addicts. The implants are inch-long rods that sit just underneath the skin on people's arms. They last for...

Published Thu, Oct 14 2010 2:21 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Substance Abuse, Heroin, Buprenorphine

Family therapy does the trick for anorexia

Psychologists have sometimes seen parents as part of the problem rather than as part of the solution when it comes to dealing with their children's eating disorders. However, a new study led by Dr James Lock from Stanford University School of Medicine...

Published Wed, Oct 06 2010 2:51 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Eating Disorders, Family Therapy

Testosterone and Alzehimer's disease

A study led by Leung-Wing Chu from Queen Mary Hospital at the University of Hong Kong has concluded that low levels of testosterone could be linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. The study looked at 153 Chinese men over the age of 55...

Published Wed, Oct 06 2010 2:36 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alzheimer's Disease, Testosterone

Getting to the bottom of military suicides

Suicide is the second biggest cause of death in the U.S. military with estimates ranging from a rate of nine to 15 deaths per 100,000 service members. The commonest type of traumatic death suffered during military training is suicide and male veterans...

Published Mon, Oct 04 2010 4:03 AM by Mental Health Update

Is happiness more important than education for health?

In general people who are less well-educated tend to suffer from worse health. However, new research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests that happiness could be as important as education in determining people's health. The researchers...

Published Tue, Oct 26 2010 4:12 AM by Mental Health Update

New helpline for parents of children with eating disorders

U.K. charity Care for the Family has launched the U.K.'s first telephone befriending service for parents of children with an eating disorder. It offers parents one-to-one ongoing support from trained befrienders whose own child has had an eating disorder...

Published Mon, Oct 25 2010 2:07 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Eating Disorders

School grades and suicide risk

People who leave school early with low grades could be more likely to kill themselves. Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet and the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare used some of the huge amounts of data which the Swedish state records...

Published Wed, Oct 27 2010 3:05 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Suicide

Are You Becoming an Addict? - Guest Post by Rachel Davis

The worst part of any addiction is that by the time you’re aware of the fact that you’re an addict, you’ve also steeled your mind to believe that you’re not one. Denial is the first sign of any addiction, be it to tobacco, alcohol, drugs or even people...

Published Mon, Oct 11 2010 1:43 AM by Mental Health Update

Teenage drunkenness - more level playing field than slippery slope?

Researchers from Addiction Info Switzerland in Lausanne have been looking into the levels of teenage drunkenness across different countries. They found that rates of drunkenness were converging among different groups with a relative increase among girls...

Published Wed, Oct 06 2010 2:22 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alcohol Problems

Mental-health courts prove useful in U.S.

Mental-health courts aim to move people with a serious mental illness out of the criminal-justice system and into community treatment. The courts were first set up in the U.S. in 1997 and now there are around 250 of them. Treatment is usually a condition...

Published Tue, Oct 05 2010 6:30 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Forensic Psychology

The true cost of mental illness in England

The Centre for Mental Health has estimated that the cost of mental illness in England is £105.2 bn a year. The cost includes health and social care for people with mental-health problems, sickness absence and unemployment and the human costs of reduced...

Published Tue, Oct 05 2010 6:08 AM by Mental Health Update