Vitamin D and schizophrenia

Levels of vitamin D in newborn children's blood could be linked to their risk of developing schizophrenia in later life. A team of researchers, led by John J. McGrath of the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, studied blood samples taken from 848 new-born babies, half of whom were later diagnosed with schizophrenia. Those babies who had low or very high levels of vitamin D in their bloodstream were found to be at an increased risk of schizophrenia.

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Vitamin B - a new breakthrough in Alzheimer's treatment

Vitamin B supplements could turn out to be the most effective way of fighting Alzheimer's disease so far discovered. Researchers at Oxford University studied 168 people who were all over 70 and who had been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment - memory problems that are often the forerunner of Alzheimer's disease. Over two years half of the participants were given a daily tablet containing high doses of the B vitamins folic acid, B6 and B12 and half were given a placebo. The participants' brains were scanned and on average taking the B vitamins slowed the rate of brain atrophy by 30% - in many cases the shrinkage was reduced by 53%. It is thought that vitamin B reduces the levels of a harmful protein called homocysteine - which has been linked to brain shrinkage - in the bloodstream. Vitamin B is relatively inexpensive and fairly safe although the doses used in the trial were much higher than those found in food or most vitamin supplements and there is some evidence that high folic acid intake could be linked to cancer. Nevertheless this could be an exciting breakthrough, even if more research is needed to confirm the beneficial effect of vitamin B.

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Bipolar disorder and violence

Previous research into bipolar disorder and violent crime has found that those with the condition are more likely to engage in acts of violence. However, it is unclear whether the disorder itself, or some of the problems that go with it are behind the link. Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Oxford University carried out research in Sweden where the state keeps a huge amount of information about people. They compared 3,700 patients with bipolar disorder, cared for in Swedish hospitals between 1973 and 2004, with 37,000 unaffected people from the general public. They found that the number of people committing violent crime was about the same in people with bipolar disorder and no substance-abuse problem and unaffected people (5% vs 3%). However, people with bipolar disorder and a substance-abuse problem were much more likely (21%) to commit violent crimes. The findings mirror similar research into schizophrenia which also found that it was schizophrenic's drug problems not their condition in itself that lead to an increased risk of violence.

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Eye movements, shifting shapes and autism

Researchers spend a lot of time looking into different ways of diagnosing autism in the hope that early treatment can help to mitigate at least some of the effects of the condition. One of the methods scientists use is to look at what children pay attention to. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, studied 110 toddlers aged between 14 and 42 months. 37 of them had autism, 22 of them had another learning disability while 51 were unaffected by either. The scientists showed the toddlers two videos at the same time - one was of moving geometric shapes while the other was of children dancing, jumping, smiling and playing. While the children watched the videos their eye movements were tracked to see which one they were looking at. 40% of the children with autism spent more than half of the time staring at the geometric patterns while only one of the typically-developing toddlers preferred them. All of the children who had the strongest preference for the geometric pattern, who spent more than two-thirds of the time looking at it, had autism.

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What's the best way to tackle loneliness?

Loneliness is a known risk factor for heart disease and has also been linked to high blood pressure, poor quality sleep, dementia and other health problems. But what is the best way of helping people to overcome it? Researchers from the University of Chicago reviewed 20 studies into the effectiveness of different interventions aimed at tackling people's loneliness. Some worked on means, improving people's ability to make friends and socialise while others worked on opportunity, providing participants with chances to meet new people. However, it was the interventions that worked on motive - people's thoughts about their own likeability and other people's friendliness - that were the most successful. The researchers also found that studies which used techniques of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) were particularly effective.

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Design it yourself offices boost productivity

Workers who have more control over the design and layout of their offices are more likely to be happy, healthy and productive. Researchers from the University of Exeter surveyed more than 2,000 office workers. They asked them about the level of control they had over their office space and about how they felt about their working environment and jobs. The results showed that the more control people had over their offices the happier and more motivated they were. They felt physically more comfortable at work, identified more with their employers and felt more positive about their jobs in general. The same researchers also got participants to work on a series of tasks in a variety of different office environments. Some were bare and functional, some were decorated with plants and pictures, some were designed by the participants themselves while in others the individual's design was 'redesigned' by a manager. The participants who worked in an enriched (decorated) environment were 17% more productive than those who worked in a bare one while those who were allowed to design their own environment were 32% more productive.

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Drunken mums and screwed-up kids

Psychologists sometimes use the maximum number of drinks people can remember having in one evening as a 'proxy' measure of alcohol problems. Not surprisingly women who can remember downing eighteen rum and cokes in an evening don't always make perfect mothers and a team of researchers from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities have been looking into the relationship between mothers' maximum drinks ever consumed in 24 hours and their children's mental-health problems. They found that having a higher maximum consumption, even just at one point in a mother's life, was associated with conduct disorder, disruptive disorder and early substance use and misuse in their children.

Malone, Stephen M., McGue, Matt and Iacono, William G. - Mothers' maximum drinks ever consumed in 24 hours predicts mental health problems in adolescent offspring Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry September 2010, 51(9), 1067-1075

Empathy, autism and accidents with hammers

Children with autism usually have less empathy with, and sympathy for, other people. Autism is usually diagnosed at around three years of old but children's empathetic responses to other people's distress usually develops between one and two. So, could this be used to provide an early diagnosis of, and interventions for, autism? A team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles tested this theory in a study of 158 children. One of the researchers pretended to hit their finger with a hammer and the children's responses were measured at 12, 18, 24 and 36 months, with the children being tested for autism at three. 103 of the children had brothers or sisters with autism and 14 were diagnosed with it at three. The children who went on to be diagnosed with autism paid less attention to, and showed less change in mood after, the researcher's 'accident' leading to hopes that such a test could be used to flag up those at risk of developing the condition.

Hutman, Ted ... [et al] - Response to distress in infants at risk for autism: a prospective longitudinal study Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry September 2010, 51(9), 1010-1020

Searching for a psychopath? Mind the gap!

In Philip Kerr's novel A Philosophical Investigation the authorities scan people's brains and those thought to be at risk of behaving violently or antisocially are monitored closely by the authorities. A team of researchers, led by Adrian Raine from the University of Pennsylvania, have brought this scenario a small step closer in a study of 87 people. They looked for the presence, or absence, of a gap between areas of the brain which closes over in most people but can remain open if the brain develops abnormally. The gap is called the cavum septum pellucidum and 19 of the participants had it. Those who had the gap had significantly higher levels of antisocial personality, psychopathy, arrests and convictions, even if they had not been diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. Those who had been charged or convicted of an offence had a bigger gap than other participants and the results could not be attributed to prior trauma, head injuries, demographic factors or mental illness.

Raine, Adrian ... [et al] - Neurodevelopmental marker for limbic maldevelopment in antisocial personality disorder British Journal of Psychiatry September 2010, 197(3), 186-192

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. Psychiatrists often prescribe antidepressants for these symptoms but there are reports of negative effects as well as positive ones. Researchers from the University of Wolverhampton reviewed 23 studies into the use of antidepressants for people with psychosis. They found a moderate positive effect from the antidepressants and significant responses for the drugs fluoxetine, trazodone and ritanserin.

Singh, Surendra P., Singh, Vidhi and Chan, Kelvin - Efficacy of antidepressants in treating the negative symptoms of chronic schizophrenia: meta-analysis British Journal of Psychiatry September 2010, 197(3), 174-179

Sleepless teenagers store up mental-health problems

On average - and what a blissful prospect this sounds - young people between the ages of 17 and 24 sleep between eight and nine hours a night. However, as more youngsters stay awake using the internet, playing computer games and fiddling with gadgets they are getting less sleep - something which could have profound implications for their mental health. Researchers from the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney looked at the sleeping habits of nearly 20,000 people aged between 17 and 24. They found that over half of those who got fewer than six hours sleep had high levels of psychological distress - more than double the rate of people who got eight or nine hours of sleep.

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Cannabis and other drugs. Is the gateway closing?

Opponents of the legalisation of cannabis often suggest that it is a 'gateway' drug from which people move on to more damaging substances such as heroin or cocaine. However, new research from the University of New Hampshire has called this idea into question. The researchers used information from surveys of 1,286 youngsters carried out in the Miami area in the 1990s. The study found that teenagers who did not graduate from high school or go to college were more likely to have used cannabis as teenagers and other illegal drugs as young adults. However, once the effect of unemployment was taken into account the 'gateway effect' diminished; in other words once people had got a job they were much less likely to move on from cannabis to a more harmful drug. Once the young adults had reached the age of 21 the gateway effect had subsided completely. The strongest predictor of people moving on to other drugs was race with White people being more at risk of doing so than people of Hispanic or African descent.

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What makes a happy teacher?

Researchers at the University of Kent have been looking into what makes a happy teacher. They surveyed 197 of them twice over a three-month period and found that those with career aspirations and a goal to learn were happier than those facing unrealistic standards. Teachers who set high performance standards for themselves had higher levels of wellbeing and those who had a goal of advancing their professional development had higher levels of mental energy and were more committed to their work than those whose goal was to outperform their colleagues. However, teachers who felt that other people demanded more from them than they were capable of giving had higher levels of stress, stress-related ill health and burnout and lower levels of wellbeing.

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Brain training might stave off dementia but it won't stop it

Playing 'brain-training' games, doing crossword puzzles or learning a language might cover up the brain degeneration caused by dementia but can't stop it when it gets past a certain stage. Researchers from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago studied almost 1,200 older people over a 12-year period. They developed a scale to measure people's cognitive activity and tracked them to see whether they developed Alzheimer's. The researchers found that increased cognitive activity was associated with a 52% drop in mental decline over the first six years of the study. However, once people developed dementia their rate of decline accelerated by 42% for each point on the cognitive activity scale. The researchers thought that the cognitive activity allowed people to compensate for their brain's degeneration early on. However, by the time they developed symptoms their brain was in a much worse state and so they appeared to decline more quickly.

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Compatibility - the key to group therapy?

Day-hospital programmes are often recommended for people suffering from eating disorders. They often use group therapy to treat people but there has been little research into which aspects of this are the most important for people's recovery. One aspect of this that researchers are particularly interested in is group cohesion - the 'forces acting on the members of the group to remain in the group.' Group cohesion is, in turn, made up of components such as commitment to the group, compatibility of the group and the extent to which the content of the programme stimulates members. Researchers from Westmead Hospital in New South Wales looked into this issue in a study of 36 women going through an eating disorders day treatment programme. They found that the programme did lead to an improvement in the women's condition and of the aspects of group cohesion it was compatibility that was associated with attendance and treatment response.

Crino, Natalie and Djokvucic, Ivana - Cohesion to the group and its association with attendance and early treatment response in an adult day-hospital program for eating disorders: a preliminary clinical investigation Clinical Psychologist, July 2010, 14(2), 54-61

How many sessions does it take to get better?

Many governments, and private-sector medical companies, limit the number of sessions of psychotherapy that people are entitled to. This is done on financial grounds but there is a lack of research into how many sessions people actually need to get better. A team of researchers, led by Paul Harnett from the University of Queensland, studied this issue by tracking the progress of 125 people as they started psychological treatment. The researchers found that it took 8 sessions for 50% of the clients to show some signs of recovery and 21 sessions for 85% of people to do so. To make a full recovery it took 14 sessions for 50% of the clients to have recovered and 23 sessions for 70% of them to get better. This was much less than the present policies of both the public and private sector in Australia and the researchers recommended a minimum number of 20 sessions for people.

Harnett, Paul, O'Donovan, Analise and Lambert, Michael J. - The dose response relationship in psychotherapy: implications for social policy Clinical Psychologist July 2010, 14(2), 39-44

Health visitors and postnatal depression

With governments all over the world looking to make cuts in expenditure health visitors can often be seen as an easy option for cuts. However, research from the universities of Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield have found that they can play a role in preventing post-natal depression. The researchers studied more than 2,000 women; 767 received normal care from a health visitor while the rest received support from health visitors trained in assessing mental-health problems and giving psychological support. Six months after childbirth the women who had been seen by the health visitors with additional mental-health training were 30% less likely to develop depression.

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PTSD and dementia

Military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could be at an increased risk of dementia. Researchers from the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Texas studied 10,481 veterans, aged 65 and over, who had been seen at the centre between 1997 and 1999, following their progress until 2008. 11.1% of those who had PTSD but who had not been injured in combat developed dementia and 7.2% of those who had PTSD but who had been injured did so compared to 4.5% and 5.9% respectively in those who did not have PTSD. The results remained significant even after other risk factors for dementia, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease were taken into account.

You can find out more about this research by clicking on the link in the title of this post.

Depression and heart problems

Depression is both a risk factor for developing heart disease and makes things worse for those who already have it. Researchers from the University Medical Centre in Groningen, in the Netherlands have been looking into this issue in more detail. They studied 1,019 people with an average age of 67 who had stable coronary heart disease asking them about their depression symptoms. They found that those who had somatic (bodily) symptoms of depression were more likely to have health problems with fatigue, appetite problems and sleeplessness increasing the risk most. However, the cognitive symptoms of depression, such as difficulty in concentrating, were not found to increase people's risk.

You can find out more about this research by clicking on the link in the title of this post.

New figures show extent of U.K.'s drink problem

New figures from the North West Public Health Observatory in the U.K. have revealed the shocking extent of the U.K.'s alcohol problem. The figures show that there were 954,469 alcohol-related admissions to English hospitals in the year ending March 2009, a rise of 9.5% on 2007/8 and which translates to two admissions per minute. Over five years the number of admissions has grown by 65% and the figure excludes those treated only in Accident and Emergency Departments. People in northern cities like Newcastle and Liverpool were three times more likely to be admitted than those in southern areas like the Isle of Wight and the Chilterns. Around 15,500 people die as a result of alcohol each year and over one in four people go over the safe weekly limit.

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