October 2010 - Mental Health Update

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

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

Internet use and depression

Teenagers who are obsessed with the internet could be more likely to suffer from depression. Researchers from the University of Notre Dame in Australia and Sun-Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China looked at the mental health and internet use of 1,041...

Published Tue, Oct 05 2010 7:00 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression - causes, Depression - in adolescence

ADHD increases suicide risk

Children who are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in early childhood are much more likely to have suicidal tendencies later. Researchers from Maryland University studied 248 children aged between nine and 18. Half of them...

Published Tue, Oct 05 2010 6:38 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Suicide, ADHD

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

Autistic children's siblings show similar symptoms

Researchers from Washington University in St Louis have been looking into the brothers and sisters of children with autism to see if they suffer from any of the symptoms of the condition. They studied nearly 3,000 children in 1,235 families whose brothers...

Published Mon, Oct 04 2010 6:02 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Autism

Alexithymia and PTSD

Alexithymia is a term psychologists use for difficulties in identifying, processing and regulating emotions. It has been linked to a number of different mental-health problems including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Researchers from Ghent University...

Published Mon, Oct 04 2010 4:18 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: PTSD, Alexithymia

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