Cannabis use, child abuse and psychosis

Although there is still some controversy around this issue many researchers think that there is a link between cannabis use and psychosis. There is also a link between childhood sexual abuse and psychosis. Some researchers think that all three factors are linked and studies have found that people with psychosis who also use cannabis are significantly more likely to have suffered childhood sexual abuse. Researchers from the University of Ulster and Nottingham Trent University looked at the links between childhood sexual abuse, cannabis use and psychosis in a sample of 5,877 people. The researchers were particularly interested in the order of the link - i.e. did cannabis use come after sexual abuse or vice versa. The study found that sexual trauma with no cannabis use increased the risk of psychosis by a factor of 2.45, cannabis use before sexual trauma increased the risk by a factor of 4.39 and cannabis use after sexual trauma increased the risk 4.25 times.

Shevlin, Mark ... [et al] - Childhood sexual abuse, early cannabis use, and psychosis: testing the effects of different temporal orderings based on the National Comorbidity Survey Psychosis, February 2009, 1(1), 19-28

Reposession and depression in the U.S.

As a result of the financial crisis in the U.S. a large number of people have experienced repossession (foreclosure). Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania studied the health of 250 Philadelphia homeowners whose homes were being repossessed and found that nearly half reported depressive symptoms and 37% met screening criteria for major depression. Many also reported skipping meals and being unable to afford prescription drugs.

You can find out more about the effects of the financial crisis on people's health at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090818182018.htm

Lesbian, gay and bisexual people and mental-health services

Lesbian, gay and bisexual people are twice as likely as heterosexual men and women to seek help from mental-health professionals, according to a survey of 2,074 people carried out by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles School of Public Health. 48.5% of lesbian, gay and bisexual people reported receiving treatment in the last year compared to 22.5% of heterosexuals. Overall lesbians and bisexual women were most likely to receive treatment and heterosexual men least likely. The researchers thought that this could be because of the discrimination faced by lesbian, gay and bisexual people, because certain ethnic groups perceived homosexuality to be a psychological problem and because there is more willingness to see a mental-health professional among lesbian, gay and bisexual people. The study also found that ethnic and racial minorities were less likely to use mental-health services.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/160761.php

Parents' discipline and children's aggression

Parents use a variety of different methods to control their children. As well as using discipline and rewards some parents also use psychological control - which may include emotional manipulation, criticism or excessive personal control - while others use physical punishment. Researchers at the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium studied 600 children between the ages of 8 and 10 comparing the way children managed their relationships with the way their parents disciplined them. Parents' use of physical punishment was significantly linked to the children's level of physical aggression both at home and at school. Parental psychological control was significantly linked to the children's use of relational aggression - the purposeful manipulation or damage to relationships through silent treatment, social exclusion or the spreading of malicious rumours - although this was only significant at home.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/160984.php

Parents' discipline and children's aggression

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/160984.php

Type D personality and artery disease

People with a type D personality have a tendency towards negative affectivity - e.g. worry, irritability and gloom - and social inhibition, showing reticence and a lack of self-assurance. They experience more negative emotions over time but tend not to share them with others because of a fear of rejection or disapproval. Researchers from Tilburg University in the Netherlands studied 184 people with peripheral arterial disease. This is caused by plaque building up in the arteries which supply blood to the arms and legs and can lead to an increased risk of stroke, heart attack and death. Participants in the study filled in a personality questionnaire at the start and were monitored over the next four years. After adjusting for age, sex, diabetes and kidney disease the participants with a type D personality had an increased risk of death.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090817184547.htm

Immigration and suicide in Asian Americans

Asian-American women (who tend to come from the Far East and the Philippines rather than Pakistan, India and Bangladesh) who are born in the U.S. have higher rates of thinking about, and attempting suicide, than other groups. Asian-Americans as a whole have lower rates of suicidal behaviour and a 2006 study found that Asian immigrants had significantly lower rates of psychiatric disorders than American-born Asians and other native-born Americans. Based on a sample of nearly 2,100 people researchers from the University of Washington found that 15.93% of U.S. born Asian-American women had contemplated suicide and 6.29% had made a suicide bid over the course of their lives compared to 13.5% and 4.6% respectively in the population as a whole. The research fits in with the "healthy immigrant" theory which says that immigrants tend to be healthier than the native population at first (because healthier people are more likely to emigrate and/or come from a culture with healthier habits) and then become less healthy as they adopt the habits of the native population.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090817190650.htm

Worrying oneself to death

Chronic worrying, anxiety and being prone to depression are important aspects of the personality trait known as neuroticism. Previous research has shown that high levels of neuroticism can lead to an early death and researchers from Purdue University in Indiana looked into this issue more closely in a study of 1,788 people between 1975 and 2005. They found that people with high levels of neuroticism were more likely to smoke, something that explained 25-40% of the association between high neuroticism and mortality. The researchers thought that neurotic people turned to cigarettes, and possibly alcohol and other drugs, to deal with their worry and anxiety. The other 60% of the excess mortality of neurotic people could not be explained by higher rates of smoking but could be due to biological factors or other environmental issues.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090818130552.htm

Tuneless people, tone-deaf brains

Experts estimate that at least 10% of people could be tone deaf - unable to sing in tune. Researchers at Harvard Medical School compared the brains of tone-deaf people to other people using a sophisticated imaging technique called diffusion tensor imaging. They found differences in the nerve fibres that link the perceptual and motor regions of the brain. These fibres, called the arcuate fasciculus, are known to be involved in linking music and language perception with vocal production. The study found that the arcuate fasciculus was smaller and had less fibres in tone-deaf people and one branch of the arcuate fasciculus in the right hemisphere could not be detected at all in the tuneless.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090818182020.htm

Depression, asthma and E.T.

Stressful and depressing events could make certain children's asthma worse. Researchers from the State University of New York at Buffalo showed 90 children with asthma scenes from E.T. The children were 7-17 years old and half of them had depression as well as asthma. The children with asthma and depression consistently showed breathing difficulties after watching distressing scenes from the film whereas the children with asthma but no depression were unaffected.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE57H58220090818?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Binge-drinking and cognition

Binge drinking is defined as drinking five (four if you are a woman) or more standard alcoholic drinks within a two-hour interval. Researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain studied the effects of binge drinking on cognition in 95 first-year university students. They found that the students who engaged in binge drinking had problems with their visual working memory and had to pay more attention in a task designed to measure this than the other students. The binge-drinking students also had more trouble distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant stimuli. Although only 12.2% of Spanish university students are thought to be binge drinkers it is estimated that 40% of U.S. students are.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090811161259.htm

One of the many amazing things about the brain is its ability to change its structure in response to experience, learning new skills, and memories; something scientists call plasticity. It was once thought that the brain took days or weeks to change its microstructure but new research from Tel Aviv University has shown that the process is much quicker than that. In the study volunteers were scanned using a new technique called Diffusion Imaging MRI. They then played two hours of a race-track video game going over the same virtual race-track 16 times before being scanned again. After two hours the volunteers were scanned again and the researchers observed changes in the hippocampus, motor and visual areas of the brain.

You can find out more about this study at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090812145022.htm

Epilepsy and cognition

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio looked into the effects of epilepsy on children's cognitive abilities. They compared 282 school-aged children - who had had their first epileptic seizure in the last three months - with 147 of their siblings who had not had any seizures. The scientists also looked at three other risk factors: having had multiple seizures, using epilepsy drugs and having abnormal brain waves. Children with all four risk factors were three times more likely to experience cognitive difficulties. Of the children who had had one seizure 27% showed cognitive problems at or near the time of their first seizure and 40% of the children who had additional risk factors showed signs of cognitive problems. Children who took epilepsy drugs had difficulties in processing speed, language, verbal memory and learning compared to children who did not take them.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090812163746.htm

Uncertainty and emotion

Uncertainty can make a bad event feel even worse. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison showed 36 student volunteers a mixture of neutral and distressing images. Before each image was presented the students were shown three symbols: a circle to indicate an image would be neutral, a cross to indicated that it would be unpleasant and a question mark to denote uncertainty. At the same time brain scans measured the levels of activity in two areas of the brain important for emotional responses, the amygdala and the insula. The study found that the insula and amygdala responded more strongly to the distressing picture if it was preceeded by a question mark (uncertainty) than if it was preceeded by a cross (certainty).

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090817210207.htm

Binge drinking: it's not just young people

Binge drinking is usually associated with young people but recent research from the U.S. suggests that older adults do it too. Researchers from Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina surveyed nearly 11,000 people aged 50 and over. 23% of men and 9% of women between 50-64 admitted binge drinking - defined as having five or more drinks on one occasion - on at least one day in the past month. Of those over 65 14% of men and 3% of women reported binge drinking. Binge drinking can lead to accidental injuries, violent behaviour, neurological damage and increases in blood pressure. The survey also looked at risky drinking, defined as drinking an average of at least two drinks a day. Among 50- to 64-year-olds, 19 percent of men and 13 percent of women were at-risk drinkers. The figures among older men and women were 13 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE57G3BG20090817?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&sp=true

Birth difficulties in psychosis: hallucinations in Avon

About 15% of the population report experiencing delusions or hallucinations. It is not clear whether these experiences represent the first signs of things going wrong en route to schizophrenia or whether they simply reflect a variation in the way people perceive the world. Difficulties in pregnancy and around birth have been linked to the later development of psychosis and schizophrenia (in the children not the mothers) and a team of researchers from the University of Bristol looked into the links between these factors and psychosis-like symptoms in a sample of 6,356 12-year-olds. They found that psychotic symptoms were associated with maternal infection during pregnancy, maternal diabetes, a need for resuscitation and a child being in a poor state of health five minutes after birth. There was no association between psychotic symptoms and premature birth or pre-eclampsia.

Zammit, S. ... [et al] - Investigating whether adverse prenatal and perinatal events are associated with non-clinical psychotic symptoms at age 12 years in the ALSPAC birth cohort Psychological Medicine September 2009, 39(9), 1457-1467

Depression, genes and childhood trauma

Many mental-health problems have their origins in interactions between people's genes and their environment and depression is no exception. Researchers from Spain and the Netherlands looked into the inter-relationship between adverse childhood events, variations in genes called 5-HTT and Val66Met and depression. 5-HTT governs the level of a substance called serotonin which has been associated with mood and Val66Met regulates brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) a substance which plays an important part in supporting brain cells and the connections between them. 534 healthy people filled out a questionnaire about their depression symptoms, were asked about their childhood experiences and were tested for the two gene variations. Total childhood adversity, childhood sexual abuse, childhood emotional abuse and childhood emotional neglect were all linked to higher depression scores. The effect of childhood abuse was particularly strong on depression symptoms in people with variations in their 5-HTT and Val66Met genes.

Aguilera, M ... [et al] - Early adversity and 5-HTT/BDNF genes: new evidence of gene-environment interactions on depressive symptoms in a general population Psychological Medicine September 2009, 39(9), 1425-1432

Camomile combats anxiety

Many people with mild-to-moderate anxiety problems use complementary or alternative medicine. Camomile has been used as a traditional herbal remedy for its relaxing and calming effect and causes few side effects. However, there have not been many clinical trials into the effectiveness of camomile for anxiety. In a small trial involving 57 people researchers from the University of Pennsylvania studied the effectiveness of camomile at combating anxiety compared to a placebo. They found that the group taking camomile showed a significantly reduced score on the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale compared to the placebo group and suffered no more side effects than those taking the dummy treatment.

Amsterdam, Jay D. ... [et al] - A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of oral matricaria recutita (chamomile [sic]) extract therapy for generalized anxiety disorder Journal of Clinial Psychopharmacology August 2009, 29(4), 378-382

Naltrexone hits the target for drinking problems

The drug naltrexone is used in the U.S. for the treatment of alcohol dependence. The largest study of its effectiveness so far showed that it decreased the risk of a relapse into heavy drinking by around 36%. However, naltrexone also has a number of unpleasant side effects including nausea, dizziness and fatigue. Researchers from the University of Connecticut looked into the effectiveness of 'targeted' doses of naltrexone i.e. taking it when cravings were particularly strong or before 'triggering' situations. Half of the 163 people in the study took naltrexone daily and half took it on a targeted basis and within the two groups half of the participants were given a placebo. The men taking targeted naltrexone drank less drinks per day on average and both sexes taking targeted naltrexone dranks less drinks per drinking day.

Kranzler, Henry R. ... [et al] - Targeted naltrexone for problem drinkers Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology August 2009, 29(4), 350-357

Borderline personality disorder and invalidating childhoods

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is marked by a chronic pattern of instability in personal relationships, impulse control, moods and self-image. Compared with other mental-health problems people with BPD are much more likely to attempt suicide (75%) and to actually succeed in killing themselves (10%). No-one is quite sure about the causes of BPD although it is often linked to child abuse and neglect. Some researchers think it can be linked to what is known as an invalidating childhood environment which is one in which there is a constant rejection of the child's feelings or behaviour, emotional display is punished but tantrums are sometimes rewarded and there is an over-simplification of the skills involved in problem-solving. As a result of this environment children learn not to trust their feelings, have difficulty recognising and regulating their emotions and tend to cope with distress in an unhelpful way. Because people who have been exposed to an invalidating childhood environment have a low tolerance for strong emotions or moods they often turn to impulsive behaviour - such as self-harm and drug-taking - to deal with them in a process known as avoidance of affect. Researchers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University looked into this theory in a sample of 141 people ranging in age from 18 to 71. They found that those people who said that they had had invalidating mothers were much more likely to display avoidance of affect and BPD features. The study found, in accordance with the theory, that maternal invalidation produced avoidance of affect, which in turn lead to BPD symptoms.

Sturrock, Bonnie A., Francis, Andrew and Carr, Steven - Avoidance of affect mediates the effect of invalidating childhood environments on borderline personality symptomatology in a non-clinical sample Clinical Psychologist July 2009, 13(2), 41-51