More evidence supports a healthy mind in a healthy body

A healthy mind in a healthy body is a wise old saying and one that is increasingly being backed up by research. The latest piece of evidence to support it comes from a study of 725 children by researchers from West Virginia University. They assessed the children's fitness levels and body mass index in Year 5 and again in Year 7 and their academic performance in Year 7. They found that, on average children who were fit in both years performed best academically. The next best performance was among children who were unfit in Year 5 but had become fit by Year 7, then children who were unfit in Year 7 but had been fit in Year 5. The children who were unfit in both years performed worst of all.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100302185522.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

GABA and depression

Most mental-health medications aim to increase the levels of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine in the brain, however, scientists are now looking more closely into the effects of another neurotransmitter - GABA. GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) dampens down brain activity and imbalances in GABA are thought to be involved in some of the runaway thoughts characteristic of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and anxiety. An inability to stop negative thoughts is also thought to be one of the factors leading to depression and researchers from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto looked into the links between levels of GABA and depression in a study of 85 people. 25 had treatment-resistant depression, 16 had major depression but were taking no medication, 19 had major depression but had been successfully treated and 25 formed a healthy control group. Only in the group who had been unaffected by depression did GABA work normally and the less responsive to medication people were the lower the levels of GABA in their brain were.

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/03/03/new-drug-strategy-for-depression/11825.html

Long-term psychoanalysis for young adults - does it work?

Psychotherapy can help with a wide range of different mental-health problems. There is good evidence to support this but little research has been done into whether psychoanalytic psychotherapy is effective in treating young adults. A team of Swedish researchers, led by Annika Lindgren from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm looked into this issue in a study of 134 young adults who underwent long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy. The study found that on all the measures used people got significantly better from the time they started treatment to a follow-up check after they had finished. Interestingly a lower therapist-rated alliance - how well the therapist thought they and the patient were working together) was linked to a better outcome; perhaps because of the extra work therapists put in to improve a relationship they saw as less-than-satisfactory.

Lindgren, Annika, Werbart, Andrzej and Philips, Bjorn - Long-term outcome and post-treatment effects of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with young adults Psychology and psychotherapy: theory, practice and research March 2010, 83(1), 27-43

Obsessive thoughts in adolescence - why it's not just people with OCD

In both children and adults obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterised by the presence of recurrent obsessions or compulsions that are time consuming (over an hour a day) or cause mental distress or impairment. Common obsessions include fear of contamination, fear of harm to oneself or other people and urges related to asymmetry or exactness, and compulsions can include excessive washing and cleaning, checking, counting, repeating, touching, or straightening. Over the last 30 years a number of studies have shown that between 80-90% of the non-clinical population experience intrusive thoughts, images or impulses that are similar in content to clinical obsessions - the only difference being the levels of distress caused to people with OCD. Researchers from the University of Manchester studied 62 adolescents - aged between 12 and 14 - to see if the same was true of them. They found that 77% of the participants in the study reported obsessions and that the levels of distress experienced by the children were related to the significance they attached to their intrusive thoughts.

Crye, Jenny, Laskey, Ben and Cartwright-Hatton, Sam - Non-clinical obsessions in a young adolescent population: frequency and association with metacognitive variables Psychology and psychotherapy: theory, research and practice March 2010, 83(1), 15-26

Eating disorders and PTSD

People with eating disorders often suffer with anxiety as well. 75% of people with an eating disorder have experienced at least one anxiety disorder during their lifetime with obsessive-compulsive disorder and social phobia being the most common. However, there has been little research done into whether people with eating disorders also suffer from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Researchers from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany studied 101 eating-disorder patients. They found that 63.3% of those with anorexia and 57.7% of those with bulimia had experienced at least one trauma. 10% of those with anorexia and 14.1% of those with bulimia fulfilled the study definition for a current diagnosis of PTSD. The patients with an eating disorder and PTSD were more likely to report psychosomatic problems than those without PTSD.

Tagay, Sefik, Schlegl, Sandra and Senf, Wolfgang - Traumatic events, posttraumatic stress symptomatology and somatoform symptoms in eating disorder patients European Eating Disorders Review March-April 2010, 18(2), 124-132

COPP helps people cope with eating disorders

About 30% of patients do not respond to treatment for an eating disorder and between 30-42% of patients who do manage to put on weight have relapses later. After talking to people with long-term eating disorders clinicians in Canada developed the Community Outreach Partnership Programme (COPP) which does not directly concentrate on eating-disorder symptoms but aims to improve people's quality of life while living with an eating disorder, decrease anxiety and depression symptoms, increase people's independence and give them more hope for the future. A team of researchers led by Kim D. Williams from St Paul's hospital in Vancouver studied the effectiveness of COPP in a sample of 31 people with eating disorders. They found that the COPP programme led to significant reductions in 'global distress', hopelessness and eating disorder symptoms and an increase in the participants' BMIs.

Williams, Kim D., Dobney, Tracey and Geller, Josie - Setting the eating disorder aside: an alternative model of care European Eating Disorders Review March-April 2010, 18(2), 90-96

Why a siesta beats an all-nighter

Siestas could be better at boosting people's brain power than all nighters. Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley studied 39 healthy young adults. At noon all the participants in the study took part in a rigorous learning task then at 2p.m. half of them had a 90-minute siesta. At six p.m. all the participants did another learning exercise. Those who stayed awake throughout the day became worse at learning while those who took a nap did a lot better and actually improved in their capacity to learn. The researchers found that the memory-improvement process took place in stage 2, non-REM sleep which occurs between deep sleep and REM - the phase of sleep in which we dream.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100221110338.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Attachment, prenatal stress and cognitive development

Babies whose mothers were stressed when they were pregnant could end up with worse cognitive development than their peers. But any effects on cognitive development can be almost completely overcome by good parenting. A study led by Professor Thomas O'Connor from the University of Rochester Medical Centre measured the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in 125 women as they underwent amniocentesis. When the children were 17 months old the researchers assessed the baby's cognitive development using puzzles, pretend play and memory tests. They also gauged the quality of the relationship between the mothers and their babies using a test in which children are briefly left alone and then reunited with their mothers. The study found that for children with an 'insecure' attachment to their mothers a high prenatal cortisol level was linked to shorter attention spans and weaker language and problem-solving skills. However, there was no link between prenatal cortisol levels and cognitive development in children who had a secure relationship with their mother.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100225140906.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Diabetes, stress and cognitive decline

There has already been quite a bit of research linking diabetes to cognitive decline and a new study from researchers at Edinburgh suggests that stress can also play a part in this link. The researchers studied more than 900 men and women, aged between 60 and 75 with type-2 (adult-onset) diabetes. They tracked people's memories, information-processing abilities and general intelligence over time and found that those people with higher levels of a hormone called cortisol - known to be associated with stress - had declined more.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100222100807.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

CBT and low back pain

Lower back pain is a very common problem and affects one in three adults in the U.K. each year with an estimated 2.5 million people seeking help from their GP. There is thought to be a psychological component to low back pain and researchers at Warwick University have been looking into the effectiveness of CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) in treating it. They studied 701 people with back pain of whom 468 had six sessions of CBT. Those participants who received CBT saw their pain and disability levels fall twice as much as the other group.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7317284/Back-pain-may-be-in-the-mind.html

Personality and post-natal depression

There are well established links between people's personality, the way they think about the world and their vulnerability to depression but it is less clear whether these factors have the same influence on people's tendency to develop postnatal depression. A team of researchers led by Lisa Jones from the University of Birmingham carried out a study of 447 women. 143 had had postnatal depression, 131 had had children and had had depression but not postnatal depression and 173 made up a healthy control group. Both the groups who had suffered from depression had higher levels of neuroticism (a tendency to get anxious and depressed about things) and dysfunctional beliefs and lower self-esteem than the other women but there were no significant differences between the women who had suffered from postnatal depression and those who had depression at other times.

Jones, Lisa ... [et al] - Cognitive style, personality and vulnerability to postnatal depression British Journal of Psychiatry March 2010, 196(3), 200-205

What patients think about involuntary treatment

All over the world large numbers of people are admitted to psychiatric hospitals. The laws governing this are controversial and in the U.K. are governed by the 2007 Mental Health Act. Most laws are based on the assumption that people who are compulsorily admitted to hospital do not recognise their need for care at the time so research has tended to concentrate on whether - looking back on things - people think it was a good idea that they received treatment. A team of researchers, led by Stefan Priebe from Newham Centre for Mental Health, London led a study of 1,613 people in 11 different countries. They were interviewed within a week of admission and again after a month and three months. The number of people who were happy with the decision to involuntarily treat them varied a lot between the different countries and ranged from 71% in Italy to 39% in Lithuania after a month and from 46% in Sweden to 86% in Italy after three months. (The figures for England were 47% and 54% respectively.) Women, people living alone and people with schizophrenia were more likely to be unhappy with their admissions.

Priebe, Stefan ... [et al] - Patients' views of involuntary hospital admission after 1 and 3 months: prospective study in 11 European countries British Journal of Psychiatry March 2010, 196(3), 179-185

Binge drinking and the military: abstinence makes the will grow stronger

In 2008 nearly 185,000 new members were recruited to the U.S. armed forces. Navy and air-force personnel are forbidden to drink alcohol and smoke during their basic training and researchers from RTI international in North Carolina looked at how much people drank before and after starting their basic training. They studied 4,962 young adults, aged between 18 and 25 and found that 43.1% of them had engaged in binge drinking during the month before their basic training, 27.3% of whom could be described as frequent heavy episodic drinkers. This was higher than the average for the rest of the population but the rates after basic training were much lower with 12% being infrequent heavy episodic drinkers and only 9% frequent heavy episodic drinkers. This suggests that although the forces recruit from a pool of heavy drinkers the abstinence involved in basic training reduces this significantly. Over time the rates of binge drinking among the participants climbed again but to nowhere near the levels they had been before.

Bray, Robert M. ... [et al] - Alcohol use after forced abstinence in basic training among United States Navy and Air Force trainees Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs January 2010, 71(1), 15-22

Tobacco, drug use and genetics

Around 60% of adolescents have smoked a cigarette at some point in their lives and around a third have smoked during the last month. Tobacco is often seen as a gateway to cannabis and other drugs but some scientists dispute this 'gateway' theory and suggest that there is a common genetic factor that links tobacco smoking and cannabis use. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam studied 3,744 Finnish twins and found that the 'total variation in the initiation of illicit drugs' was down to starting smoking (40%) genetic factors (32%) common environmental factors (20%) and unique environmental factors i.e. factors experienced by only one of the twins (8%) suggesting that tobacco use was marginally more important than genetics in predicting illegal drug use.

Huizink, Anja C. ... [et al] - Tobacco, cannabis, and other illicit drug use among Finnish adolescent twins: causal relationship or correlated liabilities Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs January 2010, 71(1), 5-14

Young people, mental health and the Internet

Young people often find it difficult to access mainstream mental-health services partly because of the stigma associated with mental-health problems. One way round this is to use the Internet and a team of researchers from University College Cork surveyed 922 college students, aged between 18 and 24 to find out what they thought about doing this. 72.4% of the participants used the Internet several times a day and 30.8% had previously searched for mental-health information online, mostly for depression. 68% said they would use the Internet for mental-health support if they needed to but 79.4% said they would still prefer face-to-face support.

Horgan, A. and Sweeney, J. - Young students' use of the Internet for mental health, information and support Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 2010. 513), 117-123

Boys, girls and ADHD

Little is known about the effects of gender, on ADHD over time and on the links between ADHD and other mental-health problems. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and the State University of New York studied 471 children with ADHD in a long-term study and found that both sexes showed a similar decline in ADHD symptoms as the children got older. However, girls were more likely to 'carry over' mental-health problems from childhood to adolescence, even allowing for the influence of adolescent ADHD.

Monuteaux, Michael C. ... [et al] - The influence of sex on the course and psychiatric correlates of ADHD from childhood to adolescence: a longitudinal study Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry March 2010, 51(3), 233-241

ADHD and time perception

People with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) often have problems with their perception of time but it is unclear whether this is due to difficulties in estimating how much time has elapsed or by the fact that they become distracted by other things. A team of researchers from Taipei looked into this issue in a study of 258 children aged between 10 and 17, 168 of whom had ADHD. In one task children had to press a button for the same length of time that a green circle was lit up on a screen. In another task the children did the same thing but had to count numbers while they estimated the time. The children with ADHD were worse at estimating the time in both tasks but their performance grew worse as the task got more complicated suggesting that attention played a more important part than time perception per se.

Hwang, Shoou-Lian ... [et al] - Deficits in interval timing measured by the dual-task paradigm among children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry March 2010, 51(3), 223-232

Exercise, illness and anxiety

Having a chronic illness can sometimes lead to the development of anxiety - something that can lower people's quality of life and make them less likely to follow their treatment plans. Researchers from the University of Georgia have been looking into the effectiveness of exercise in reducing this anxiety in a review of 40 studies covering nearly 3,000 patients with a variety of medical conditions. The researchers found that, on average, the patients who exercised regularly reported a 20% reduction in anxiety symptoms. Exercise sessions greater than 30 minutes were better at reducing anxiety than those of less than 30 minutes but programmes of exercise of between 3-12 weeks were actually more effective than those of more than 12 weeks- perhaps because they were less daunting for the participants.

You can find out more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/02/24/exercise-helps-to-reduce-anxiety/11681.html

Belief in a caring God and depression

New research from Rush University in Chicago suggests that belief in a caring God can improve people's response to treatment for depression. Previous research has suggested that religious belief can help prevent people developing depression in the first place but this is the first study to show that it can help people recover more quickly from it. The study of 136 adults diagnosed with major depression or bipolar depression found that those with strong beliefs in a personal and concerned God were more likely to experience an improvement. Participants who scored in the top third of the Religious Well Being Scale were 75% more likely to get better with medical treatment for clinical depression. The improved response of the people with a belief in a caring God was not linked to feelings of hope engendered by religion but was tied specifically to a belief that a Supreme Being cared.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/180150.php

Obesity and cognitive function

A forty-year study of Swedish twins between 1963 and 2002 has found that those who had a higher body-mass-index when they were middle-aged had 'significantly lower general cognitive ability' and 'significantly steeper decline' than their thinner counterparts over time. The study - headed by Anna Dahl, from Jonkoping University in Sweden - found the same results for men and women and that obesity was particularly damaging where there were other health problems such as poor muscle strength or depression.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100223154344.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader