Mental Health Update

Even moderate stress can cause long-term problems

A study of more than 17,000 working adults by researchers from the University of Bristol and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden has found that even mild psychological stress can have an effect on people's health. The study followed the participants...

Published Fri, Mar 25 2011 4:38 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Stress

Childhood epilepsy and mental-health problems

Children with epilepsy are more likely to have mental-health problems. A team of researchers led by Dr Kristin Alfstad from the National Centre for Epilepsy at Oslo University Hospital in Norway, studied information collected from 14,699 parents by the...

Published Fri, Mar 25 2011 3:36 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development, Child Psychology, Epilepsy

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

Hippocampal size and PTSD

The hippocampus is a region of the brain involved in memory and how we interpret the world around us. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) studies have shown that the hippocampus shrinks in people with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and that...

Published Wed, Mar 23 2011 3:52 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: PTSD, Neuroscience, Hippocampus

Sickies - skiving or strategic problem avoidance?

The same levels of illness can lead different people - or the same person at different times - to either take a sickie or struggle into work. A team of researchers, led by Hanna Hultin from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, interviewed more than 400...

Published Wed, Mar 23 2011 3:30 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Stress

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

Scotland - a nation drinking itself to death

NHS Health Scotland, the state-funded body responsible for trying to promote healthy living in Scotland, has produced an alarming report about the scale of Scotland's drinking problem. Since 1994 sales of pure alcohol per adult per year have increased...

Published Wed, Mar 23 2011 3:00 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Alcohol Problems, Scotland

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

One in seven U.K. mental-health workers attacked

A new survey of staff working in the U.K.'s National Health Service has shown that one in seven mental health workers suffered physical violence from service users or members of the public last year. The NHS staff survey also showed that 18% of mental...

Published Mon, Mar 21 2011 3:38 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Violence

Premenstrual troubles and bipolar disorder

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have been studying the interaction between premenstrual symptoms and bipolar disorder. They studied 293 women over a year and found that the women with premenstrual worsening of their bipolar disorder...

Published Mon, Mar 21 2011 3:23 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Bipolar Disorder, PMT

Study shows shocking health of mentally ill

People with severe mental illness can have a life expectancy up to 25 years less than other people. However, this is not due to their illness itself but to poor physical health and unhealthy lifestyles. Researchers from the University of East Anglia surveyed...

Published Mon, Mar 21 2011 3:07 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Service Users' Health

Siblings, autism and theory of mind

Theory of Mind (ToM) can be defined as the ability to work out what other people are thinking and how this might affect their behaviour. In most children ToM shows a significant advance between the ages of three and five. However, the development of ToM...

Published Mon, Mar 21 2011 2:48 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development, Autism

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

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

How parents can stop their children binge drinking

Anna-Karin Danielsson from the Department of Public Health Sciences at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has been looking into the factors behind teenage binge drinking in her Ph.D. thesis. She monitored 1,200 pupils aged between 13 and 19 between 2001...

Published Fri, Mar 18 2011 3:10 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development, Alcohol Problems, Parenting

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