Mental Health Update

Medics grappling with graphs

Graphs at the foot of patients' beds are a staple of cartoons, TV programmes and films but it might be more helpful if they were replaced with writing. Researchers at Edinburgh University presented 35 nurses and doctors from the neonatal intensive...

Published Mon, Jan 04 2010 2:52 AM by Mental Health Update

Unemployment hits mental health of U.K. youngsters

Unemployment is having a damaging effect on the mental health of young people. A poll carried out by YouGov for the U.K. charity the Prince's Trust found that among the 2,000 strong sample of 16-25 year-olds surveyed one in ten of those who had been...

Published Mon, Jan 04 2010 2:29 AM by Mental Health Update

I feel your pain - no really

'I feel your pain' is one of the most widespread - and some might say nauseating - cliches of the C21st. However, researchers from the University of Birmingham (U.K.) have found - that for some people at least - it may have an element of truth...

Published Tue, Dec 22 2009 7:34 AM by Mental Health Update

Pleasure, depression and neuroscience

Anhedonia is the inability to experience pleasure and is one of the main symptoms of depression. A brain-scan study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been looking into the neuroscience of anhedonia. The researchers studied 46 people...

Published Tue, Dec 22 2009 7:09 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression

Getting to grips with earworms

An earworm is a song, or fragment of a song, that gets stuck in your head and continually repeats itself. When the mountaineer Joe Simpson, for instance, was near death in the Andes all he could think about was the Boney M song 'Brown Girl in the...

Published Tue, Dec 22 2009 6:51 AM by Mental Health Update

Autism on the rise in the U.S. - nearly 1% of eight-year-olds affected

A study of 300,000 eight-year-olds in the U.S. has found that 1 in 110 has autism, a 57% increase in cases since four years ago. The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Centers for Disease Control...

Published Tue, Dec 22 2009 6:28 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Autism

Ladies worse than ladettes for heavy drinking

'Ladies' are more at risk from their drinking than 'ladettes.' Researchers from the U.K., including Dr Fiona Measham from Lancaster University have been looking at women's drinking patterns. They found that 'ladette' drinking...

Published Mon, Dec 21 2009 7:22 AM by Mental Health Update

Daily cannabis use and psychosis risk

People who increase their cannabis consumption from occasional to daily use could hasten the onset of psychosis. Researchers from Emory University in Atlanta analyzed data from 109 hospitalized patients who were experiencing their first psychotic episode...

Published Mon, Dec 21 2009 7:03 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Cannabis, Psychosis

Nearly one in seven women binge eat

Researchers from the Universite de Montreal and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute have been surveying problem eating in a telephone survey of over 1,500 women. None of the women had been classified as anorexic before the start of the study...

Published Mon, Dec 21 2009 6:35 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Twins, genes and cannabis and alcohol dependence

The genes that predispose people to become addicted to alcohol could also play a part in cannabis dependence. Roughly 8-12% of cannabis users are considered to be dependent and, just like alcohol, the severity of symptoms increases with heavier use. A...

Published Mon, Dec 21 2009 6:18 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Cannabis, Alcohol Problems, Genetics

Depression, diabetes and ethnic minorities

Rates of depression in people with diabetes are double those in the general population and even higher among minority groups who have worse blood-sugar control, more diabetes complications and more severe depression. However, few studies have looked at...

Published Fri, Dec 18 2009 7:42 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Depression, Diabetes

Antidepressants and adolescents

In 2003 the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration issued a warning that some antidepressants could increase the risk of suicidal behaviour in children and adolescents. Since then the prescription of the drugs has gone down but a new study, by researchers...

Published Fri, Dec 18 2009 7:13 AM by Mental Health Update

Filed under: Antidepressants, Suicide

Cannabis and teenagers' mental health

A study by researchers at McGill University has been looking into the effects of smoking cannabis on teenagers. The study found that smoking cannabis on a daily basis can lead to depression and anxiety. Cannabis was found to lead to a decrease in serotonin...

Published Fri, Dec 18 2009 7:03 AM by Mental Health Update

British drinkers underestimate how much they actually put away and the gap between what they think they drink and what they actually do drink could be as much as an average of a bottle of wine a week. Researchers from Liverpool John Moores University...

Published Fri, Dec 18 2009 5:50 AM by Mental Health Update

The benefits of doodling

Far from being a distraction doodling could help people concentrate on mundane tasks. Jackie Andrade from the University of Plymouth asked 40 participants to listen to a dull two-and-a-half minute telephone message about a party. Half the participants...

Published Fri, Dec 18 2009 3:57 AM by Mental Health Update

Syndication

Recent Posts

Tags

Archives