Mental Health Update

Child abuse and psychosis

There is a growing recognition that having a difficult or traumatic childhood can increase the likelihood of people developing psychosis later in life but it is difficult to disentangle what types of trauma or abuse are linked to an increased risk. A...

Published Wed, Nov 10 2010 2:16 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Abuse, Psychosis

Charting the path from childhood delusions to mental illness

Although only around 1% of people suffer from full-blown schizophrenia or psychosis hallucinations or delusional beliefs - psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) - are more common and some psychologists think they are a risk factor for developing mental illness...

Published Mon, Dec 06 2010 3:31 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development, Psychosis, Schizophrenia

Obesity and depression

Past research has shown that being obese can increase people's risk of depression by between 50 and 150%. However, a new study by researchers from the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle suggests that the relationship can work both ways and...

Published Tue, Dec 21 2010 3:56 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Obesity

New research shows how violence spreads through society

Being exposed to violence, either watching it on TV, seeing it in the flesh or suffering it oneself is more likely to make children think it is normal and could lead to them behaving violently themselves. A team of researchers, led by Izaskun Orue from...

Published Wed, Mar 30 2011 2:23 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Child Development, Violence

ADHD and the daydreaming brain

The default mode network (DMN) connects various parts of the brain; it is active when we are daydreaming or staring into space and gives rise to spontaneous thought but is suppressed when we are concentrating on a particular task. New research from the...

Published Thu, Jan 06 2011 2:10 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Neuroscience, ADHD

Schizophrenia and shrinking brains

Brain scans could be used to help people at risk of developing schizophrenia so that they can be offered help before they become unwell. Schizophrenia is known to run in families and researchers from Edinburgh University compared 146 people with a family...

Published Mon, Jan 17 2011 2:34 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Schizophrenia, Neuroscience

Sex differences, genes and autism

Men are more likely to suffer from autism than women and men with autism have more testosterone than men without the condition. Researchers at Washington State University have been looking into the influence of male and female sex hormones on a gene called...

Published Thu, Feb 17 2011 3:34 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Autism, Neuroscience, Genetics

Social difficulties and psychosis

People who go on to develop psychosis often have difficulties in getting on with other people. But are these problems a risk factor for developing the condition? A new study (lead author Eva Velthorst from the University of Amsterdam) looked at 245 people...

Published Tue, Oct 12 2010 2:43 PM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Psychosis

Childhood trauma, cannabis use and psychosis

Although it is still a controversial topic some research has shown that using cannabis in adolescence is associated with an increased risk of developing psychosis. At the same time suffering childhood trauma is associated both with an increased risk of...

Published Mon, Sep 27 2010 3:18 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Cannabis, Psychosis

Girls less likely to be diagnosed with autism even if their symptoms are just as bad

Girls are less likely to be diagnosed with autism than boys even if their symptoms are just as bad. Previous research has shown that boys are four times as likely to have autism than girls but not everyone with symptoms of autism receives a diagnosis...

Published Mon, Nov 22 2010 3:50 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Autism

Mental disorders and risk of suicide in veterans

Researchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor have been looking into the links between mental disorders and suicide in U.S. military veterans. They studied more than 3 million veterans...

Published Wed, Nov 03 2010 3:00 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Suicide, Bipolar Disorder

Antidepressants for psychosis

As well as suffering from delusions and hallucinations people with schizophrenia often experience so-called negative symptoms such as flat mood, lack of interest in being sociable and an inability to experience pleasure, as well as many cognitive problems...

Published Tue, Sep 07 2010 1:30 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Antidepressants, Psychosis

Review gives thumbs up to peer support

Peer support programmes for depression involve patients and volunteers supporting each other by talking and sharing information with one another. They have been found to decrease isolation, reduce stress, increase the sharing of health information and...

Published Wed, Feb 16 2011 2:19 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Social Networks

Lithium and bipolar brains

A team of researchers led by Brian Hallahan from the National University of Ireland in Galway have carried out a review of studies into brain volume, bipolar disorder and the effectiveness of lithium. They found that people with bipolar disorder had increased...

Published Tue, Feb 22 2011 2:57 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Neuroscience, Bipolar Disorder, Lithium

Migraines change brain but don't affect cognition

People who suffer from migraines and severe headaches do show changes to their brain over time but don't show symptoms of cognitive decline. Researchers from Inserm and the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris studied 780 people over 65. They studied...

Published Wed, Jan 26 2011 2:53 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Neuroscience, Migraine

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