Anorexia and abortion

Women with anorexia are more likely to have unplanned pregnancies and abortions. Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and from Norway, studied 62,060 women as part of the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. They found that 50% of the women with anorexia reported having an unplanned pregnancy, compared to 18.9% of the women without the eating disorder; for abortions the figures were 24.2% and 14.6% respectively. The researchers thought the difference could be due to the fact that the women with anorexia thought that their condition had rendered them - at least temporarily - infertile.

Brothers, sisters and bullying

Older brothers are more likely to bully their younger siblings than older sisters. Researchers from the Universita' degli Studi Di Firenze in Florence studied 195 children, aged between 10 and 12. They found that children with older brothers were more likely to report being bullied at home and that boys were more likely to bully if they had a younger brother or sister. Older sisters were only likely to bully if they had a bad relationship with their yonger siblings.

New study less hopeful on teenage depression

New research from Duke University in North Carolina has painted a gloomy picture of the recovery rates from adolescent depression. Their study involved 196 participants - 110 of whom were girls - aged between 12 and 17. Some were treated with fluoxetine (Prozac), others with cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), others with a combination of the two, while a fourth group acted as a control group (i.e. had no psychotherapy and took a placebo instead of Prozac). Nearly 95% of the participants recovered and 88.3% recovered within two years. However, over the five-year period of the study 46.6% of the participants who recovered had another bout of major depression. 57% of the girls had a relapse, compared to 33% of the boys - perhaps, thought the researchers, because the girls were more inclined to chew things over and have feelings of inadequacy. None of the treatments was better at preventing relapse but those teenagers who recovered within two years were less likely to become ill again.

Misusing prescription drugs - the hidden rural drugs problem

Misuse of prescription drugs could be described as a hidden drug problem. One in eight U.S. teenagers abuse prescription opioids at some point, something which is associated with using cocaine and heroin as well as gambling, increased sexual activity and impulsivity. Researchers from the University of Kentucky analyzed data from 17,872 12 to 17-year-olds who took part in the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Overall there was no difference in illegal drug use between urban and rural teenagers and the rates of usage were similar for cannabis, cocaine, heroin and hallucinogens. However, 13% of rural teenagers reported abusing prescription drugs compared to 10% of urban ones and they were more likely to have used pain relievers and tranquilizers non-medically. Even after taking other factors into account rural teenagers were 26% more likely to abuse prescription drugs. Poor health, episodes of depression and other substance abuse were all risk factors but children who lived with both parents were 32% less likely to misuse prescription drugs.

PTSD in Iraq troops - levels lower than expected

Researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London have been carrying out the first major study into the mental health of the U.K.'s armed forces while they are on deployment. They studied 611 servicemen and women based in eight locations across Iraq. 92.6% rated their overall health as good, very good or excellent. Servicemen and women were more likely to report good health if they were officers, if they felt their unit was very cohesive and had supportive leadership and if they had taken a period of rest and recuperation outside the operational theatre. 20.5% showed signs of experiencing psychological distress and 3.4% were thought to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - a rate similar to service personnel not on deployment and lower than in police officers, doctors in emergency departments and disaster workers. Psychological distress was more common among service personnel who were young, women, in the army and of junior rank. PTSD was more common among people of junior rank, those who felt themselves in danger of being killed and those who had been more exposed to combat.

Exercise and preventing depression - it works but only if you're having fun

Exercise can help to stave off depression but only if you do it in your spare time. Researchers from Norway and the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London studied 40,401 Norwegians asking them about their physical activity and their levels of anxiety and depression. They found that people who took part in regular physical activity - no matter how intense - were less likely to have symptoms of depression. However, this relationship only held true for activity done during leisure time; those people whose work involved physical effort were as likely to be depressed as those people who worked in sedentary jobs. The more people engaged in physical activity during their spare time the less likely they were to be depressed and those who were not active outside work were almost twice as likely to suffer symptoms of depression as more active individuals.

Psychosis and socialising - investigating the connection

Psychosis symptoms are often preceded by a withdrawal from social relationships and a decline in social function. Researchers from Denmark set out to investigate this further in a study of 398 people. 11 of them had some symptoms of psychosis, 12 were defined as 'prodromal' - i.e. about to develop psychosis, 12 met the diagnostic criteria for psychosis and the remainder were an unaffected control group. The researchers used a questionnaire to measure people's interpersonal problems and found that there was an increase in them as their symptoms got worse. The research adds to other studies suggesting that addressing these problems in getting on with other people could be a useful way of helping people at risk of developing psychosis.

Mondrup, Lise and Rosenbaum, Bent - Interpersonal problems in the prodromal state of schizophrenia: an exploratory study Psychosis October 2010, 2(3), 238-247

What becomes of the school bully?

Ever wondered what happened to the school bully? Do they grow out of it and become normal, law-abiding members of society? A new study by researchers from Iowa State University suggests that they don't and that many of them carry on being just as unpleasant in later life. The researchers used information on 43,093 adults taken from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. 6% of the sample admitted to bullying other children and these people were 10 times more likely to lie, six times more likely to get into a fight and two-and-a-half times more likely than other people to harass or threaten someone.

Lots of friends and feeling in control help people stay healthier

 A lot of research concentrates on how people's bad habits - such as smoking, drinking and eating too much - can affect their health but researchers at Brandeis University in Massachussetts have been looking into the influence of more positive factors. They studied 3,626 adults, aged between 32 and 84, who were assessed over two periods about ten years apart. They found that physical exercise, having a good social network and feeling in control of one's life could delay declines in health by up to a decade - above and beyond the negative effects of traditional risk factors.

School grades and suicide risk

People who leave school early with low grades could be more likely to kill themselves. Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet and the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare used some of the huge amounts of data which the Swedish state records about its citizens. They looked at the school-leaving grades - at age 16 - of almost 900,000 people born between 1972 and 1981 and tracked who later went on to kill themselves between the ages of 25 and 34. They found that those with the highest grades had the lowest risk of committing suicide while those with the lowest grades had a risk three times higher than average. The researchers took into account the educational level of the sample's parents, whether their parents were on benefit or single, the age of their mothers, their parents' mental health and drug use and whether they had been adopted.

You can find out more about this research here.

Follow-up post boosts care for people with depression

A few follow-up phone calls and tools for people to monitor their symptoms can significantly help people being treated by their GP for depression. Researchers from the University of Michigan studied 186 people who were being treated for the condition; 120 of them received the follow-up care and 66 received 'care as usual.' The follow-up care included interventions such as self-monitoring tools so people could keep an eye on their symptoms and follow-up telephone calls from a care manager. After 18 months 49.2% of the people receiving follow-up care were in remission, compared to 27.3% of people in the usual-care control group.

Is happiness more important than education for health?

In general people who are less well-educated tend to suffer from worse health. However, new research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests that happiness could be as important as education in determining people's health. The researchers used data from the Survey of Midlife in the United States, a ten-year study of age-related differences in physical and mental-health. They measured the participants' levels of a substance called Interleukin-6, high levels of which are associated with cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and some cancers. They found that less well-educated people who had meaningful relationships with others, a sense of purpose, self-acceptance and a feeling that their lives were manageable had similar levels of Interleukin-6 to people who were happy and better-educated.

Smoking and anxiety

People with anxiety problems could be more likely to smoke and may have a harder time giving up when they do. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin studied 1,504 people taking part in a smoking-cessation programme in Madison and Milwaukee. 455 had had a panic attack in the past, 199 had social anxiety disorder and 99 had generalized anxiety disorder with some people having more than one condition. Other research has shown that up to a quarter of the smokers in the U.S. have had at least one anxiety disorder in their lifetime. The participants with anxiety disorders were much less likely to succeed on the programme, had higher levels of nicotine dependence and more withdrawal symptoms before quitting.

The science of sleep and genes

Some people seem to manage quite happily on four hours of sleep a night while others turn into zombies. A new study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine suggests that this may, in part at least, be down to our genes. They studied 129 healthy adults, 37 of whom, although unaffected, carried a gene called DQB1*0602 which is associatd with narcolepsy. The participants' sleep was restricted to four hours a night and they were given various tests of memory and attention. The people with the narcolepsy gene were sleepier and more fatigued while both fully rested and sleep deprived and they woke up more during the night; they also spent less time in deep sleep. However, there was no difference in their performance on the memory and attention tasks and in their ability to resist sleep during the daytime.

New evidence on smoking and dementia

A large U.S. study of over 21,000 people has added to the considerable pile of evidence linking smoking to dementia. The study - carried out by Dr Rachel Wittmer from the U.S. health organization Kaiser Permanente - found that smoking 40 or more cigarettes a day led to a 157% increase in the risk of Alzheimer's disease and a 172% increase in the risk of vascular dementia. However, there was no increase in risk in those smoking less than ten cigarettes a day and people who gave up smoking by middle age had the same level of risk as people who had never smoked.

Jailed parents raise children's drug risk

The prison population of the U.S. has grown from 250,000 in the mid-1970s to about 2.25 million today and it is now estimated that one in eight youngsters in the U.S.  has a father who has done time. Children of fathers who have been in prison are known to be at a greater risk of developing mental-health problems, becoming prisoners themselves, dropping out of high school and being poor and a new study suggests - perhaps hardly surprisingly - that they are at a greater risk of developing drug problems too. Michael E. Roettger, formerly of Bowling Green State University in Ohio and now at the University of Colorado in Boulder looked at data from 150,000 young men and women followed from adolescence into early adulthood as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Half of the young men and 39% of the young women whose fathers had been in jail reported using cannabis compared to 38% and 28% respectively of young people whose fathers had not been imprisoned. Those whose fathers had served time also used the drug more frequently and longer into adulthood. One out of every four young men whose fathers had been in prison had used harder drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine - double the rate of other youngsters. While only 4% of white children have a parent who has been in jail one in four African-American children do so.

New report shows true scale of children's drinking

Although there are now some signs that children's alcohol consumption in the U.K. might be levelling off a new report by the charity Alcohol Concern presents a worrying picture of just how much Britain's children are drinking. The report found that 13 girls were admitted to accident and emergency departments every day with alcohol poisoning, compared to ten boys. Between 2002 and 2007 the number of under 18s admitted to hospital through drink increased by a third. Underage drinkers consume around 6.9 million pints of beer (or equivalent thereof) or 1.7 million bottles of wine each week with an estimated 630,000 11-17-year-olds drinking twice or more per week.

Brain scans shed new light on childhood problems

The symptoms which can lead to children being diagnosed with bipolar disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can be quite similar but new research, from a team led by Alessandra M. Passarotti from the University of Chicago at Illinois, suggests that what goes on inside their brains might be completely different. The study involved children between the ages of 10 and 18, some diagnosed with bipolar disorder, some diagnosed with ADHD and others with no mental health problems. The children were wired up to an MRI scanner while they did a memory task involving faces with angry, happy or neutral expressions. Both groups showed dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex which controls executive function, working memory, attention, language and impulsivity. However, the ADHD group showed more severe dysfunction in the areas relating to working memory while the bipolar group showed more dysfunction in areas involved with processing and regulating emotions.

New helpline for parents of children with eating disorders

U.K. charity Care for the Family has launched the U.K.'s first telephone befriending service for parents of children with an eating disorder. It offers parents one-to-one ongoing support from trained befrienders whose own child has had an eating disorder. You can find out more about the befriending service by telephoning 029 2081 0800 or by emailing them at mail@cff.org.uk

Autism - a question of diagnosis?

In the U.S. the Centre for Disease Control estimates that rates of autism have gone up by 60% for boys since 2002 and by 48% for girls. But do these increases reflect a genuine rise in the number of children with the condition or simply the fact that more children are being diagnosed with it? Matthew Maenner a Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied the levels of autism in Wisconsin. He found that the rate rose from five to nine cases per 1,000 children over a seven-year period. At the start of the study individual schools varied widely in the number of children diagnosed with autism with the highest-diagnosing schools having a rate 24 times greater than the lowest-diagnosing ones. However, over time, the gap narrowed and by the end of the study the highest-diagnosing schools had a rate only twice that of the lowest-diagnosing ones. The schools who had around a 1% rate of autism at the start of the study showed little change in their rate of diagnosis suggesting that it was more-frequent diagnosis in the lower-diagnosing shcools rather than a genuine increase in the condition that lay behind the increased rates of the disease.