March 2011 - Mental Health Update

Miscarriage effects last for years

The trauma of miscarriage can last for years after the event even after a subsequent healthy birth. Dr Emma Robertson Blackmore of Rochester University in New York State used information from 13,000 women in the Bristol area compiled as part of the Avon...

Published Thu, Mar 03 2011 2:08 AM by Mental Health Update

Child abuse and eating disorders

A team of researchers from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona have been looking into the links between disordered eating and childhood physical and sexual abuse. They studied 708 female undergraduates aged between 18 and 30 asking them about traumatic...

Published Fri, Mar 11 2011 1:39 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Abuse, Eating Disorders

Breastfeeding and brighter babies

Scientists have already found a number of benefits to breastfeeding one's babies and a new study by researchers at Oxford University and the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Essex University has found that an increase in children's...

Published Wed, Mar 16 2011 3:28 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development

Cracking the puzzle of callous children

Badly-behaved children who also have callous and emotional traits such as a lack of guilt, no empathy with other people and a callous use of others are more likely to become serious and long-term criminals. However, there is limited evidence about what...

Published Thu, Mar 17 2011 3:22 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development, Psychopathy

Higher up and happier at work sleep better

Researchers from the University of Surrey have been looking into the links between people's working lives and the quality of their sleep. They used data from the Understanding Society survey of 40,000 households carried out by the Institute of Social...

Published Fri, Mar 18 2011 4:45 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Sleep Disorders

Prematurity, poverty and child development

In 2006 12.8% of births in the U.S. were premature. Premature births are linked to delays in motor/neurologic function, intellectual and academic development, language problems, poorer executive functioning and worse behaviour. Premature births are more...

Published Fri, Mar 25 2011 3:04 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development, Parenting, Premature Babies

NICE issues new Alzheimer's guidelines

The U.K.'s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has changed its policy on the Alzheimer's drugs Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl. Previously the drugs could only be prescribed to people with moderate to severe symptoms but they...

Published Wed, Mar 23 2011 3:17 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alzheimer's Disease

Weighing in in anorexia treatment

Weighing people is of crucial importance in anorexia. For something that sounds quite simple there are a number of issues to think about including the privacy and dignity of patients, what they wear while they are being weighed and whether they are able...

Published Wed, Mar 09 2011 2:00 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Researching regret

Most people have some regrets in life, whether about career choices, romantic relationships or things they wish they had, or hadn't done. Researchers from Concordia University in Montreal looked into regret in a study of 104 adults. The participants...

Published Wed, Mar 02 2011 1:58 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Regret

Seasonal changes in postnatal depression

Postnatal depression is the most common complication of childbirth affecting up to 14.5% of new mothers in the first three months after childbirth. There has been little research into whether postnatal depression varies across the seasons so a team of...

Published Wed, Mar 09 2011 6:26 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Postnatal Depression

Which drugs work best for anxiety?

A team of researchers led by David Baldwin from the University of Southampton have been reviewing trials into drug therapy for generalised anxiety disorder. They reviewed 27 trials comparing nine drugs: duloxetine, escitalopram, fluoxetine, lorazepam...

Published Mon, Mar 14 2011 6:59 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Anxiety Disorders

Computer systems cut down medication errors

The psychiatric unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore has significantly reduced medication errors by using a computerised prescription system and a new computer system for recording drug side effects. Medication errors can be caused by illegible...

Published Tue, Mar 22 2011 2:41 AM by Mental Health Update

Having children - short-term struggles, long-term happiness

Parents of crying babies, temperamental toddlers and troublesome teenagers should draw comfort from a new study which shows that while having more children makes younger parents less happy the opposite is true for older parents. The World Value Surveys...

Published Fri, Mar 18 2011 3:37 AM by Mental Health Update

U.S. report reveals huge Alzheimer's burden

The 2011 annual report of the U.S. Alzheimer's Association has revealed the huge burden of the condition. It is estimated that 5.4 million people in the U.S. suffer from Alzheimer's - about one in eight senior citizens. Nearly 15 million people...

Published Tue, Mar 15 2011 3:01 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alzheimer's Disease

Genes, brainpower and scary areas

Most researchers now think that our genes, our environment, our experiences and our behaviour work together to increase, or decrease, our risk of disease. One gene which is linked to an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease is APOE4 and...

Published Wed, Mar 09 2011 6:58 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Genetics, Cognition