Do men age better than women?

Researchers from University College London have been looking into ageing and happiness in a sample of 11,000 men and women over the age of 50 who they followed from 2002 to 2009. They found that men became happier after their retirement while older women were more likely to feel lonely and/or live alone. 18.7% of the women had depression symptoms compared to 11.5% of the men. Women aged 75 and over had high rates of depression, low life satisfaction, poor quality of life and high levels of loneliness but men over 65 were actually happier than younger men. Men and women between 50-64 who had frequent contact with friends and relatives were less likely to have depressive symptoms than those who had infrequent contact (13.1% vs 17.9%). More affluent older people had fewer depressive symptoms, greater life satisfaction, better quality of life and lower levels of loneliness.

How babies can boost your brainpower

Women sometimes complain about becoming absent-minded while they are pregnant and after giving birth but a new study by researchers at the National Institute for Mental Health in Maryland suggests that their brains might actually get bigger over this period. In a small study the researchers scanned the brains of 19 women who had just given birth and found that grey matter had grown in the hypothalamus, the amygdala, the parietal lobe and the prefrontal cortex. The hypothalamus is involved with motivation, the amygdala with reward and emotion processing, the parietal lobe with the senses and the prefrontal cortex with reasoning and judgment. Intriguingly the mothers who were most enthusiastic about their babies - seeing them as special, beautiful, ideal, perfect etc - were significantly more likely than the other mothers to show growth in areas of the brain relating to maternal motivation, reward and the regulation of emotions.

Pet therapy does the trick for children with autism

Specially-trained dogs are sometimes used to reduce anxiety and improve social skills in children with autism. Researchers from the Universite de Montreal studied 42 children with autism to assess the impact of the dogs. They found that the children's behaviour improved while the dog was staying with them and their levels of the stress horminone cortisol - as measured in their saliva - decreased.

Getting to grips with self-harm in Ireland

Deliberate self-harm is recognized worldwide as a major public-health problem with young people being particularly at risk. A team of researchers from Ireland (where the rate of self-harm in adolescents is estimated as between 8% and 12%) examined this issue more closely in a study of 3,881 teenagers in 39 schools. Among both sexes drug use and knowing a friend who harmed themselves were associated with an increased risk of self-harm. In girls poor self-esteem, forced sexual activity, self-harm by a family member, fights with parents and problems with friends increased the risk of self-harm while in boys bullying, problems with schoolwork, impulsivity and anxiety increased the risk.

McMahon, E.M. ... [et al] - Factors associated with deliberate self-harm among Irish adolescents Psychological Medicine November 2010, 40(11), 1811-1819

Turning down the frequency for successful magnet therapy

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) involves placing electrodes on people's heads and passing brief but strong magnetic pulses through their brain. Canada and Israel already use this technology to treat people with major depression and in the U.S. the Food and Drug Administration has recently approved this treatment. The pulses can be fast- or slow-frequency and it has been suggested that slow-frequency pulses may be safer and have fewer side effects. D.J.L.G. Schutter from Utrecht University in the Netherlands reviewed 9 studies into this topic involving 252 participants. He found that slow frequency TMS had a beneficial effect on people and could be just as effective as fast-frequency TMS.

Schutter, D.J.L.G. - Quantiative review of the efficacy of slow-frequency magnetic brain stimulation in major depressive disorder Psychological Medicine November 2010, 40(11), 1789-1795

Light drinking in pregnancy not so damaging?

Pregnant women are often advised to stop drinking but a new study by a team of researchers, led by Yvonne J. Kelly from University College London suggests that the odd drink while pregnant has no long-term effects on babies' development. The team studied 11,513 children and their mothers - the children were born between September 2000 and January 2002. 6% of the mothers never drank at all, 60% drank but gave up while they were pregnant, 26% said that they were light drinkers (1 or 2 units a week), 5.5% were moderate drinkers (3-6 units a week) while 2.5% were heavy drinkers (more than 7 units a week). Children whose mothers were heavy drinkers were more likely to be hyperactive and have behavioural or emotional problems but there was no evidence to suggest any problems in children whose mothers had been light drinkers and they were actually 30% less likely to have behavioural problems.

Mothers' mental health and children's asthma

Researchers from the Kyushu University Institute of Health Science in Japan have been looking into the influence of mothers' parenting styles and mental health on their children's asthma. They studied 223 mothers who had children between the ages of two and 12. The study found that children over the age of seven suffered more severe attacks if their mothers were overprotective. Mothers who were chronically angry, irritated or who suppressed their emotions also had children who suffered more with asthma.

Anorexia and eyesight

Poor eyesight is a well-known side effect of anorexia and new research from Athens University Medical School had given an indication as to why this might happen. In a detailed study of 33 women, 13 of whom had suffered from anorexia for at least 10 years, they found that the macula - a structure behind the retina, which is responsible for detailed vision - was thinner in the women with anorexia and even thinner in women with bulimia. Neurotransmitters which pass signals from the eyes to the brain were also significantly less active in the women with anorexia.

Study questions fish oils for pregnant women

Women sometimes take fish-oil tablets when they are pregnant in the hope that the omega-3s in them could help to boost their baby's cognition and stop them developing postnatal depression; however, a new study by researchers from the University of Adelaide suggests that they could be wasting their time. The study involved 2,400 women in five Australian maternity hospitals between 2005 and 2009. Half of the women took fish-oil capsules and half took vegetable-oil ones. The study found that there was no difference between the two groups in either their babies' cognition at 18 months or the women's incidence of postnatal depression.

Herbal remedies for anxiety - what works and what doesn't

Researchers from the Global Neuroscience Initiative Foundation, a non-profit organisation based in Los Angeles, have been reviewing research into nutritional supplements for treating anxiety. They pooled the results of 24 studies involving more than 200 participants. They found that extracts of passionflower and kava were effective as were L-lysine and L-arginine but that St John's Wort and magnesium supplements were not. There were no serious side effects from any of the herbal remedies.

Young students more responsible drinkers than young workers

A survey by the U.K. alcohol charity Drinkaware of 1,715 18-24 year-olds has found that students have a more responsible attitude to drink than people of a similar age in full-time work. The survey found that only 3% of students and 5% of young adults at work thought it was acceptable to end up in hospital after drinking too much although 30% of students still admitted blacking out or losing their memory after drinking too much. Only one in ten students said they had drunk more than 16 units (eight pints of beer) in a night compared to one in eight young workers. More than half (54%) of students admitted they drank at least double the daily-limit guidelines. 29% of the students and young workers said that their friends would ridicule them if they chose soft drinks on a night out.

Men, women, dopamine and drink problems

Men are twice as likely to become alcoholics as women but it is unclear whether there is a biological basis behind this statistic. Researchers from Columbia and Yale University studied students giving them an alcoholic drink and then scanning their brains to see how much dopamine had been released. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that creates pleasurable effects when it is released by experiences such as alcohol and sex. The men and women drank similar amounts of alcohol but the men released more dopamine than the women. The dopamine was released in an area of the brain called the ventral striatum which is strongly associated with pleasure, reinforcement and addiction formation.

Vitamin B12 and Alzheimer's disease

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have added further evidence to the theory that vitamin B12 could help to prevent Alzheimer's disease. The researchers followed 271 people, aged between 65 and 79 at the start of the study, for seven years. Those with high levels of vitamin B12 were at a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's over the course of the study. One of the ideas behind this theory is that vitamin B12 - which is found in meat, fish, eggs and milk - reduces the level of a harmful chemical called homocysteine which is known to raise the risks of both strokes and dementia and the study found that those with higher levels of homocysteine were at greater risk.

A little of what you suffer does you good

"Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" has become something of a cliche lately but new research - led by Mark Seery from the University at Buffalo - suggests that, like a lot of other cliches, there may be a grain of truth behind it. The researchers studied 2,398 people who were repeatedly assessed from 2001 to 2004. They found that people who had experienced some, but not too many, adverse events reported better mental health and wellbeing than those who had experienced no adversity or higher amounts of it. People with a history of some life-time adversity were less negatively affected by recent adverse events than other individuals. However, it is well established that too much adversity can lead to higher overall distress, more functional impairment and post-traumatic stress symptoms.

Are autistic brains less well-connected?

A team of researchers led by Jeffery S. Anderson from the University of Utah have been using MRI scans to investigate differences in the brains of people with autism. They scanned 80 people, aged between 10 and 35, with the condition and found that there were differences in people with autism in the way the two hemispheres of the brain - left and right - connected with one another. The deficiencies in the connections in the people with autism were in areas to do with motor skills, attention, facial recognition and social functioning, all areas that people with autism have difficulty with.

You can find out more about this research here.

Dissection and depression

Scientists from Yale University have been dissecting dead people's brains in an attempt to find out more about depression. They analysed brain-tissue samples from 21 people who had been diagnosed with depression and compared them to 18 depression-free individuals. They found that a gene called MKP-1 was twice as active in the people who were depressed. The gene blocks a molecular pathway crucial to the survival and function of neurons.

You can find out more about this research here.

Poor drug taking sends people into crisis

In the U.K. people who might previously have been admitted to a psychiatric hospital are now often referred to Crisis Resolution Home Treatment (CRHT) services who decide whether to treat people themselves or send them on to hospital. CRHTs are an expensive service so finding out what factors make people likely to be referred to them is quite important. One factor that leads people's mental health to go downhill is not taking their medication but there has been little research into how this affects referrals to CRHTs so far. A team of researchers from Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Trust and Newcastle University looked at this issue in a study of 172 referrals to a CRHT. They found that 30% of the referrals had not taken their medication properly in the last month. These people were significantly more likely to have a dual diagnosis - i.e. a drug problem as well as a mental-health problem.

Sreenath, San ... [et al] - Medication adherence in crisis? Journal of Mental Health October 2010, 19(5), 470-474

Missing self-harm in girls with eating disorders

Teenagers with eating disorders could also be cutting themselves. Researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine studied 1,432 eating-disorder patients, aged between 10 and 21, who were admitted to the hospital's eating-disorder programme between 1997 and 2008. They found that 40.8% of them were physically harming themselves. The average age of those who engaged in self-harm was 16, many of them had a history of bingeing and purging and 85.2% of them cut themselves. However, less than half of the girls' medical records showed that they had been asked about self-harm indicating that elsewhere a number of patients with eating disorders could go without this aspect of their behaviour being picked up.

New research claims Reboxetine is useless

Reboxetine - sold as Edronax by Pfizer - is no more effective at countering major depression than a placebo. Researchers from the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care reviewed trials of the drug and found that the risk of taking it far outweighed the benefits. The researchers found that three-quarters of the studies into the effectiveness of the drug - essentially the ones which showed it to be useless - were not published leading them to question the current National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines on its use in the U.K. which claim that "reboxetine is superior to placebo and as effective as other antidepressants."

Sober living houses help addicts clean up

People being treated for drug and alcohol problems in the community often experience problems because they still live in an environment where they are surrounded by drugs. One way around this is Sober Living Houses which are alcohol- and drug-free environments. They don't offer any formal treatment services but encourage, or require, attendance at self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous. Residents are free to stay as long as they like and the houses are financed by residents' fees, some of which at least can be payed by welfare. A team of researchers from the Alcohol Research Group in Emeryville, California studied 55 people living in Sober Living Houses. The participants showed significant improvement on measures of alcohol and drug use, arrests and days worked, got into less trouble with the law and did better in the jobs market. They did well as far as their drug and alcohol use was concerned and involvement in self-help groups was associated with reductions in alcohol and drug use.

Polcin, Douglas L. ... [et al] - Eighteen-month outcomes for clients receiving combined outpatient treatment and sober living houses Journal of Substance Use October 2010, 15(5), 352-366