PTSD raises diabetes risk

Post-traumatic stress disorder could raise the risk of developing diabetes. Edward J. Boyko of the Department of Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System studied 44,754 service people enrolled in the Department of Defense's long-term Millennium Cohort Study. Three years later 376 of them reported that they had been newly diagnosed with diabetes. Those who developed diabetes were more likely to be overweight or obese, African-American or Asian, to have PTSD symptoms and to have left the military. After taking into account other factors, such as age, weight and race the risk of diabetes was found to be more than twice as high in the presence of PTSD symptoms. There was no increased risk for people with depression although this has been linked to an increased risk of diabetes in previous studies.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE64N4JK20100524?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

All the lonely people ...

British society is becoming increasingly lonely according to a new report - The Lonely Society? - published by the Mental Health Foundation. The report found that 1 in 10 Britons often feel isolated and half think that people are getting lonelier in general. The percentage of households occupied by one person has doubled from 6% in 1972 to 12% in 2008 and the divorce rate has almost doubled in the past 50 years.

You can download a copy of the Mental Health Foundation's report at

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/loneliness-and-mental-health/

CALM programme helps tackle anxiety symptoms

Researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle have been looking into more flexible ways to help people suffering from anxiety. Their study looked into the effectiveness of an intervention called CALM - Coordinated Anxiety Learning and Management - which offers a choice of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), medication or both together backed up with computerised CBT and training for primary-care clinicians in promoting adherence and 'optimising medications.' 1,004 people between the ages of 18 and 75 took part in the study with half taking part in the programme and the other half receiving 'care as usual.' The anxiety symptoms of the participants taking part in the programme were significantly better after 6,12 and 18 months.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/189415.php

Smoking cessation and schizophrenia

Death rates for people with schizophrenia are three times those of the rest of the population. The increased risk is largely due to the fact that people with schizophrenia are two to three times more likely to smoke. However, there has not been that much emphasis on smoking cessation in mental health as it is feared that giving up smoking might lead to people's psychological health getting worse. Researchers from the University of York reviewed the evidence on smoking cessation programmes for people with severe mental illness. They found that for people with well-controlled schizophrenia smoking-cessation programmes were effective and did not lead to a deterioration in mental health. However, it was not possible to say how people with a more acute mental illness would respond to a smoking-cessation programme.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/189532.php

Art therapy, anxiety and asthma

Children with asthma can often also suffer from anxiety; something that tends to make their condition worse. Anya Beebe, an art therapist at the National Jewish Health in Denver led a study into whether art therapy could help children with asthma feel less anxious. The study involved 22 children between the ages of 7 and 14 with persistent asthma. 11 of them received art therapy and the rest received 'care as usual.'The children were tested using several standardized measures for coping skills, anxiety, worry, self-concept, and quality of life before the first therapy session, at the end of the last session and six months later. At the end of seven weeks, the art therapy group had lower anxiety and higher quality-of-life and self-concept scores than the group that didn't have art therapy. The improvements persisted, although they were not as pronounced, six months later.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE64K5MZ20100521?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Creativity and schizophrenia: is the thalamus the missing link?

Creativity and mental illness have long been linked in the popular imagination and there is also research evidence to suggest that creative people have a higher likelihood of mental illness in their family and a slightly-raised risk of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm used brain scans to compare people who did well on creative, puzzle-solving problems and people suffering from schizophrenia. They found that both groups had a reduced number of dopamine receptors in a part of the brain called the thalamus. The thalamus acts as a kind of filter for information before it moves on to the cortex region which handles understanding and reasoning. So, in effect, this filter could be weaker in people with higher creativity and/or schizophrenia allowing the former to combine ideas and concepts together in new and original ways and leading the latter to develop bizarre, unusual and sometimes harmful ways of looking at the world.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=news&id=128504&cn=7

Top guns shoot down suicide rate

There has been no decrease in the overall suicide rate in the U.S. since the 1940s. However, one section of society has achieved a reduction in the last few years - the U.S. Air Force. In 1994 the USAF brought in a suicide prevention programme and a study by Professor Kerry L. Knox of the University of Rochester Medical Center found that it had led to a reduction in suicides of about 21%. The prevention programme encourages members of the Air Force to seek help, promotes the development of coping skills and fights the stigma associated with receiving mental health care. The program stresses the absence of negative career consequences for seeking and receiving treatment.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100520112349.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Expanding waistlines and shrinking brains

Having a pot belly in middle age could raise people's risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Dr Sudha Seshadri from Boston University School of Medicine led a study of over 700 people with an average age of 60. The participants had their body-mass index, waist-to-hip ratio and abdominal fat measured and had MRI scans to measure the volume of their brains. The higher people's body-mass index - i.e. the more overweight they were - the lower the volume of their brains was. There was a stronger connection between visceral obesity - a pot belly - and a reduction in brain volume.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7756628/Middle-age-spread-linked-to-dementia.html

Vaccination and cognition: researchers find no impact

Many parents worry about their children getting a large number of vaccinations at the same time. Researchers from the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky looked into this issue in a study of 1,000 children, all of whom were under 13. The children were divided into three groups according to whether they had got their vaccinations on time (all within their first year of life), had had them later or had only had certain vaccinations. The children took IQ, memory, attention and language tests and the researchers found no differences between the groups.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE64N17120100524?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Legal highs still available

Just weeks after the UK government banned the party drug mephedrone new 'legal highs' are cropping up on the Internet. An investigation by researchers from BBC Wales found 400 other drugs available on the Internet being sold as 'research chemicals' or 'plant food.' The most prominent ones among them were MDAI and NRG-1. Early reports from users have suggested that these drugs may be linked to paranoia, insomnia and 'harsh comedowns' where people feel "severely depressed, even suicidal."

You can find out more about this research at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/10144368.stm

Social anxiety and alcohol abuse

Social-anxiety disorders and alcohol abuse often go hand-in-hand yet little research has been done into the epidemiology of the two conditions when they occur co-morbidly (together). Researchers from Columbia University in New York used information from the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions covering 43,093 people. They found that the lifetime prevalence of comorbid alcohol abuse and social-anxiety disorder was 2.4%. Social anxiety was associated with a 2.8x greater risk of alcohol dependence and a 1.2x greater risk of alcohol abuse. Social anxiety occured before alcohol abuse in 79.7% of co-morbid cases and co-morbid SAD was associated with an increased severity of alcohol dependence and abuse.

Schneier, F.R. ... [et al] - Social anxiety disorder and alcohol use disorder co-morbidity in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions Psychological Medicine June 2010, 40(6), 977-988

Learning disabilities, amygdalas and schizophrenia

People with schizophrenia often have cognitive impairment as well and this is evident before, during and after their illness. At the same time people with a mild learning disability - an IQ of between 50 and 70 - are between three and five times as likely to develop schizophrenia as the rest of the population. This could be because learning disabilities could make people more likely to develop schizophrenia as they become overwhelmed by, and fail to make sense of, the world around them or because the factors that make people vulnerable to schizophrenia also cause cognitive problems. Researchers from Edinburgh University compared 28 people with learning difficulties thought to be at risk of schizophrenia, 39 people with learning difficulties not thought to be at risk and 29 people who were neither at risk nor who had learning disabilities. They used brain scans to measure the size of the participants' amygdalas and looked at the relationship between amygdala size and schizophrenia symptoms. They found that those people with learning disabilities at high risk of developing schizophrenia had significantly larger right amygdalas. In the high-risk group the smaller the left side of their amygdalas was the more negative symptoms - depression and lethargy - of schizophrenia they had.

Welch, K.A. ... [et al] - Amygdala volume in a population with special educational needs at high risk of schizophrenia Psychological Medicine June 2010, 40(6), 945-954

Childhood trauma and early drinking

People who have both post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a drug-abuse problem often say they suffered trauma during their childhood. Studies have also shown that starting to drink alcohol before adolescence or during early adolescence is also linked to traumatic experiences in early childhood. Researchers from Columbia University in New York studied 1,119 children of Puerto Rican background; some were from Puerto Rico itself while others were from the Bronx. The children - who were aged between 10 and 13 at the start of the study - were monitored over the next two years to see if they started drinking. Children who reported both being exposed to trauma and five or more PTSD symptoms were significantly more likely to have started drinking. However, children who were exposed to trauma but had not developed PTSD symptoms were no more likely to start drinking than children who had not suffered any trauma at all.

Wu, Ping - Trauma, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and alcohol-use initiation in children Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs May 2010, 71(3), 326-334

Self-esteem and psychosis

Recently researchers have been looking as much at the depression and lack of motivation (negative symptoms) associated with schizophrenia as at the delusions and hallucinations (positive symptoms) that are usually associated with it. One factor that may contribute to, or be influenced by, depression and lethargy is low self-esteem. Some researchers think that paranoia actually protects against low self-esteem - 'it's not my fault everyone is conspiring against me' - while others argue that people's self-esteem falls as their symptoms get worse. A team of German researchers studied this issue in a sample of 102 people, 58 of whom had schizophrenia. The people with schizophrenia were much more likely to suffer from low self-esteem. Being depressed at the start of the study and taking more antipsychotic drugs were both associated with lower self-esteem after 4 weeks. Drugs might make people's self-esteem worse because of their chemical effects in the brain or because they lead people to develop unpleasant and undignified side effects such as weight gain and drooling. Paranoid ideas were found not to be related to self-esteem although there was a modest link between grandiose delusions and higher self-esteem.

Moritz, Steffen ... [et al] - Course and determinants of self-esteem in people diagnosed with schizophrenia during psychiatric treatment Psychosis June 2010, 2(2), 144-153

Optimism and psychosis

Some researchers think that people with a severe mental illness - such as schizophrenia - who are optimistic are more likely to find means to redefine themselves, to accept their condition, to overcome stigmatising beliefs and to actively function in the community. Others think that optimism means that people are 'in denial' about their illness and that it is not necessarily a good thing. But what makes some people with a severe mental illness more optimistic than others? Researchers from the University of Montreal looked at information from two studies. One was of 150 patients with early psychosis and the second was of 143 people with severe mental illness engaged in a vocational rehabilitation service. They found that in the first sample increased optimism could be explained by higher self-esteem, a higher capacity for leisure activities, low depression and less belief that one's problems constituted an illness. In the second study high self-esteem, low depression and high levels of social support were associated with increased optimism.

Lecomte, Tania, Corbiere, Marc and Theroux, Laurence - Correlates and predictors of optimism in individuals with early psychosis or severe mental illness Psychosis June 2010, 2(2), 122-133

Mental Health Social - new networking site

The mental health social site is a social-networking site for people who have a mental illness, people who work in mental health and all those who are concerned about, or interested in it. You can chat or make comments and follow the debate in the forums. The site has 1,564 members and you can find it at

http://mentalhealthsocial.com

How genes affect Alzheimer's symptoms

Variations in a gene called APOE are known to affect people's chances of developing Alzheimer's disease. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School studied 91 people with Alzheimer's disease. They found that people with one variation of the gene - the one linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease - performed worse on memory tests and had more abnormalities in the part of the brain that deal with memory. People with the other variation did worse in tests of attention, language and executive function and had more prominent abnormalities in the relevant areas of their brains.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100517152522.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Postnatal depression - it's not just mums

Between 10-20% of new mums develop postnatal depression and new research suggests that one in ten dads could also suffer from the condition. James Paulson from Eastern Virginia Medical School reviewed 43 different studies involving 28,004 new parents about fathers' postnatal depression and came up with the 1 in 10 figure. The symptoms were most common in the first six months after a baby's birth and men were more likely to develop them if their partners developed them too. The upheaval caused by the arrival of a new baby and feelings of apprehension about fatherhood both contributed towards the development of depression. The children of depressed men were twice as likely to suffer from behavioural problems - including hyperactivity - as they grew older.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7736903/Large-numbers-of-men-suffer-from-post-natal-depression.html

Weekend course tackles fear of blushing

One of the symptoms of social anxiety can be a fear of blushing. A fear of blushing develops when people feel self-conscious, this makes them blush and feel even more self-conscious leading to a vicious circle developing. Researchers from Dresden Technical University used a weekend course of 'task concentration training' to help people suffering from a fear of blushing. Through reading stories, role-playing and watching themselves on video the participants practiced turning their focus away from themselves and to the task in hand - either the words of a conversational partner or the reading of a story. The participants were also given advice on how to practice re-directing their attention over the next six weeks, first in non-threatening situations and then in more difficult ones. At the end of the weekend 37% of the participants showed clinically significant improvement in their fear of blushing and at a six-month follow-up this had risen to 56%.

You can find out more about this research at

http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2010/05/can-fear-of-blushing-be-cured-in.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BpsResearchDigest+%28BPS+Research+Digest%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Early child care shapes kids' chances

The effects of high-quality child care for toddlers can last well into children's teenage years. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. studied 1,364 children who were followed from the age of 1 month to 15 years as part of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD), the largest, longest running and most comprehensive study of child care in the United States. The researchers reported the type, quantity and quality of child care the children received during their first 4 1/2 years with high quality child care being characterised by the caregivers' warmth, support and cognitive stimulation of the children they were looking after. Even at the age of 15 the children who had been in higher-quality child care as a toddler scored slightly higher on measures of academic and cognitive achievement and were slightly less likely to behave badly. However, the teenagers who had spent the most hours in child care in their first 4 1/2 years were slightly more likely to behave impulsively and take risks at 15 than those who had spent less time in child care.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100514074921.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader