November 2010 - Mental Health Update

HRT and dementia

Researchers from the Kaiser Permanente health organization in the U.S. have been looking into the effects of hormone therapy on women's risk of developing dementia. They took a large sample of women and asked them about their hormone use during middle...

Published Fri, Nov 19 2010 2:03 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alzheimer's Disease, HRT

Delayed gratification and ADHD

One could say that the ability to delay gratification - not to want everything right here and right now - is one of the hallmarks of becoming a mature, civilized human being, albeit one sadly missing from a lot of people. The inability to take the long...

Published Fri, Nov 19 2010 1:48 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: ADHD

Old musicians stave off brain decay

The auditory cortex is the part of the brain that deals with processing sound and new research from the University of Toronto suggests that in older musicians it might be better preserved than in other adults of a similar age. The researchers studied...

Published Wed, Nov 17 2010 2:51 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Neuroscience

Energy drinks and drink problems

Students often drink so-called energy drinks, which contain large amounts of caffeine, so they can either study or stay up longer socialising. However, new research by scientists at the University of Maryland suggests that they could also lead to more...

Published Wed, Nov 17 2010 2:25 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alcohol Problems, Caffeine

Getting to grips with the neuroscience of Alzheimer's

Researchers from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago have been using MRI scans to investigate what happens in people's brains when they develop Alzheimer's disease. They followed 52 people with mild cognitive impairment, often seen as a...

Published Wed, Nov 17 2010 2:09 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alzheimer's Disease, Neuroscience

Children's memories and trauma

Psychologists have researched how people's memories of a traumatic event can effect how likely they are to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of it. They've found that among adults with PTSD and acute stress disorder (ASD...

Published Wed, Nov 17 2010 1:53 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: PTSD

Mothers' mental health and children's feeding problems

Mothers' eating disorders, depression and anxiety are all known to cause feeding difficulties in their children, however, there have been few studies investigating how eating disorders interact with mothers' other mental-health problems to create...

Published Tue, Nov 16 2010 3:28 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development, Depression, Eating Disorders, Parenting, Anxiety

Homeless youngsters' drug problems

Compared to other young people homeless youngsters are more likely to start taking drugs at a younger age and to take them more often. However, little research has been done into the specific factors that lead homeless youngsters into drug taking. A team...

Published Tue, Nov 16 2010 3:05 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Substance Abuse, Homeless People

Schizophrenia, metabolic syndrome and quality of life

Metabolic syndrome is a collection of factors that can add to people's risk of developing heart disease and other health problems and includes having a pot belly, high cholesterol, being overweight, having high blood pressure and having difficulty...

Published Tue, Nov 16 2010 2:34 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Service Users' Health, Schizophrenia

Reducing seclusion on mental-health wards

People with severe mental-health problems are sometimes locked in a room on their own for the protection of themselves and other people. This practice is known as seclusion and is very controversial with critics seeing it as degrading and traumatising...

Published Tue, Nov 16 2010 2:13 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Seclusion

Major review backs family interventions for schizophrenia

People with schizophrenia are more likely to suffer a relapse if they come from families where they experience high levels of criticism and hostility and where family members blame themselves for the sufferer's illness. There are a number of ways...

Published Fri, Nov 12 2010 3:54 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Schizophrenia, Family Therapy

Motivation, depression and psychotherapy

Over the last 20 years researchers have begun to recognise that other factors - apart from the kind of treatment used and the nature of people's mental-health problems - affect whether psychotherapy gets people better or not. Two of the most important...

Published Fri, Nov 12 2010 3:28 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Psychotherapy

Internet therapy - how many people drop out?

The internet is used more and more to deliver treatment for mental-health problems and research has shown that internet-based treatment is effective for a number of different psychological conditions. However, there are worries about the number of people...

Published Fri, Nov 12 2010 2:39 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Telemedicine, Psychotherapy

Do worry guts children walk less?

Pedometers, which count the number of steps people take, are used both as a research method to monitor people's physical activity and a way of motivating people to take more exercise. In the course of their studies researchers have noted a phenomenon...

Published Fri, Nov 12 2010 2:16 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Psychology, Exercise and Mental Health

Autism, IQs and emotion recognition

Problems in recognising emotions have been seen as one of the main symptoms of autism but previous laboratory studies have produced mixed results and have had a number of flaws including a small sample size, participants with a narrow range of IQs and...

Published Thu, Nov 11 2010 8:26 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Autism, Child Psychology