February 2011 - Mental Health Update

Deafness and dementia

Losing your hearing could increase your risk of developing dementia. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore studied more than 600 men and women over an average of 12 years and all the participants had a hearing test done at the start of...

Published Tue, Feb 15 2011 3:49 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alzheimer's Disease, Deaf People

Cleft lip/palate and child development

Cleft lip and palate is one of the most common congenital malformations affecting around one in 650 children. Despite the fact that in the developed world surgery is usually carried out for the condition at between three and four months people affected...

Published Tue, Feb 15 2011 1:59 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development, Cleft Palate

Self portraits and eating disorders

Women who suffer from anorexia and bulimia draw themselves differently from other women. Researchers from the University of Haifa in Israel studied 76 women. 36 had been diagnosed with anorexia or bulimia, 20 had no eating disorders but were overweight...

Published Wed, Feb 16 2011 3:23 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Eating Disorders, Art Therapy

Ecstasy and cognition

A new study led by John Halpern of Maclean Hospital in Belmont, Massachussetts has found no evidence that ecstasy affects people's cognitive abilities. The study of 111 people compared 52 ecstasy users with 59 non-users. The non-users were also members...

Published Wed, Feb 16 2011 2:41 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Cognition, Ecstasy

Apgar scores and ADHD

An Apgar score is a way of assessing the health of a new-born baby. It is based on several physical signs including breathing, heart rate and muscle tone. A score of seven or higher is considered normal while a nine or a 10 indicate that a baby is in...

Published Wed, Feb 23 2011 3:34 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: ADHD

Sexuality, victimization and drug abuse

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have been looking into the links between sexuality, victimization and drug abuse. They studied 34,635 people using data collected as part of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related...

Published Mon, Feb 28 2011 2:41 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Substance Abuse, Bullying

Study gives thumbs up to parenting programme

Parenting programmes aim to intervene early to improve child-rearing in vulnerable groups and to get children off to a better start in life. There are a number of different programmes available and researchers from New York University have been studying...

Published Mon, Feb 28 2011 3:59 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development, Parenting

Sense of coherence and depression

Sense of coherence (SOC) is a positive way of looking at life and an ability to successfully manage stressful situations. People with a strong SOC are thought to cope better with stress because they consider stressors to be more predictable, have confidence...

Published Fri, Feb 04 2011 6:06 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression - causes

Spirituality and PTSD

Most psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involves making new meaning of the traumatic experience but very few talk about spirituality. Nearly equal numbers of trauma survivors describe their spirituality as helpful, hurtful or neutral...

Published Fri, Feb 04 2011 2:54 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: PTSD, Religion and Mental Health

Pesticides and children's IQ

A relatively common household insecticide could have an impact on children's cognition. Researchers from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health studied 725 pregnant women assessing them for exposure to a compound used in insecticides...

Published Thu, Feb 24 2011 6:04 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development

All work and no play ...

Doing paid work for more than twenty hours a week could be bad for schoolchildren. A team of researchers led by Kathryn C. Monahan from the University of Washington studied 1,800 middle-class teenagers from Years 10 and 11. They found that working for...

Published Mon, Feb 28 2011 5:47 AM by Mental Health Update

Patriotism and personal happiness

The happier people feel about their countries the better they feel about their lives. Mike Morrison from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign led a team of researchers studying data from a Gallup World Poll of 130,000 people in 128 different...

Published Fri, Feb 25 2011 6:38 AM by Mental Health Update

Income inequalities and suicide risk

Because of the recent world economic crisis differences in health between rich and poor people have increased, differences which include mental health. Researchers from the World Psychiatric Association looked into this further in a study of depression...

Published Fri, Feb 25 2011 2:13 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Suicide

Language learning could stave off senior moments

People who speak more than two languages could be at a lower risk of developing memory problems as they grow older. Researchers from the Public Research Centre for Health in Luxembourg - where many people are multilingual - studied 230 men and women with...

Published Wed, Feb 23 2011 3:12 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Memory Problems, Cognition

U.S. anti-drugs campaign shows early promise

In 2005 the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy launched its Above the Influence campaign - funded at a cost of $200m a year - which aimed to prevent teenagers from using cannabis. Unlike previous campaigns, which stressed the risks of the drug...

Published Wed, Feb 23 2011 2:36 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Cannabis