Jollying along could be best approach for toddlers' tantrums

Jollying children along could be a better way of coping with toddlers' tantrums than punishing them. Researchers from the University of Illinois studied 107 children who were taking part in a larger study of children's social and emotional development. When the children were 33 months old their parents were asked how often their children displayed angry or 'social fearfulness,' and how they dealt with this behaviour by their children. Some of the parents jollied their children along saying 'stop behaving like a baby,' for example while others punished them sending them to their room, taking away toys or removing privileges. When the children reached 39 months their parents were asked about their behaviour again. Those who were more likely to punish their children were more likely to have children who were anxious and withdrawn. This was particularly the case among boys who had a higher level of negative emotions at 33 months.

Brain grows to boost willpower in teenagers

Parents often worry about their children going bad ways when they reach adolescence but a new brain-scan study by a team led by Jennifer H. Pfeifer from the University of Oregon suggests that their willpower (or at least the part of the brain responsible for it) might actually be increasing at this time. The team studied 38 children, once when they were 10 and once when they were 13, monitoring their brain activity when they were presented with pictures of faces making neutral, angry, frightened, happy and sad expressions. Between the ages of 10 and 13 brain activity significantly increased in the ventral striatum and the ventral medial portion of the prefrontal cortex. The ventral striatum is associated with people's responses to rewards and the higher the children themselves rated their ability to resist peer influence the more activity there was in these areas. The team also noticed an increase in the brain's response to sad faces between 10 and 13 which is interesting as rates of depression often increase in adolescence.

Surveying suicide worldwide

A team of researchers led by Guilherme Borges from the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico has been looking into patterns and risk factors for suicide using information from the World Health Organisation's World Mental Health Surveys. The surveys were carried out between 2001 and 2007 and involved 108,705 adults from 21 countries. The researchers found that being young, being female, being less well-educated, unemployed, single, suffering from certain mental illnesses, having mentally-ill parents and having had a difficult childhood were all associated with increased suicidal behaviour. Suicide rates were similar in developed and developing countries although they were highest in Lithuania, Belarus and Russia and lower in Muslim countries. Social support and access to weapons or lethal substances were also important risk factors for suicide attempts.

Genes, brainpower and scary areas

Most researchers now think that our genes, our environment, our experiences and our behaviour work together to increase, or decrease, our risk of disease. One gene which is linked to an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease is APOE4 and researchers from Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia have been researching how this gene is affected by living in a 'psychosocially hazardous' - i.e. scary - neighbourhood. They studied 1,124 people aged between 50 and 70, testing them for the gene and giving them a series of cognitive tests. The people with the risky variation of the gene who lived in the scariest neighbourhoods performed worst in the tests. However, those without the gene who lived in the scary areas and those with the gene who lived in less-frightening parts of town were at no greater risk of worse performance.

Seasonal changes in postnatal depression

Postnatal depression is the most common complication of childbirth affecting up to 14.5% of new mothers in the first three months after childbirth. There has been little research into whether postnatal depression varies across the seasons so a team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh studied this issue in 9,339 new mothers. They screened the mothers for depression four to six weeks after the birth of their child and looked for seasonal variations in levels of depression and suicidal ideation (thoughts of killing oneself). They found that 14% of the women had significant levels of depression and 3% of them had had suicidal thoughts. Although the risk for depression varied over the year with the highest risk being in December there was no seasonal variation in suicidal thoughts.

Sit, Dorothy, Seltman, Howard and Wisner, Katherine L. - Seasonal effects on depression risk and suicidal symptoms in postpartum women Depression and Anxiety DOI 10.1002/da.20807

Recurrence in teenage depression

Major depression is one of the most common mental-health problems in adolescence with rates of around 5.9% among girls and 4.6% among boys. It is associated with functional impairment, risk of suicide and a risk of depression in adulthood. A team of researchers from Duke University in North Carolina looked into the long-term outcomes of 196 adolescents, aged between 14 and 22, who had originally participated in a study into the effectiveness of different kinds of treatment for depression. The researchers found that 96.4% of the participants had recovered by the time they were followed up five years after the original study. Recovery by two years was more likely in participants who responded quickly to treatment (96.2%) than for those who responded only partially or not at all (79.1%). Of the 189 participants who recovered 46.6% had a recurrence. Girls (57%) were more likely than boys (32.9%) to have a relapse.

Curry, John ... [et al] - Recovery and recurrence following treatment for adolescent major depression Archives of General Psychiatry 2011; 68(3):263-270.

Another gene linked to increased risk of mental illness

A team of researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University have been looking into the links between genetics and schizophrenia. They studied 12,229 people in Shanghai: 5,772 had no mental-health problems, 4,187 had schizophrenia, 1,135 had bipolar disorder and 1,135 had depression. The study found that variations in the BCL9 gene led to a greater risk of schizophrenia and were also associated with bipolar disorder and depression.

Li, Junyan ... [et al] - Common variants in the BCL9 gene conferring risk of schizophrenia Archives of General Psychiatry 2011; 68(3): 232-241

Weighing in in anorexia treatment

Weighing people is of crucial importance in anorexia. For something that sounds quite simple there are a number of issues to think about including the privacy and dignity of patients, what they wear while they are being weighed and whether they are able to falsify their weights or not. A team of researchers from the Phoenix Centre in Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire looked into this in a survey of 20 former patients and 98 health professionals. The majority of professionals in outpatient settings said that they weighed patients in normal or light clothing, while in inpatient units the majority said that they weighed patients in underwear. The percentage of patients weighed in underwear who were comfortable with this was double that of those weighed in normal clothing and patients overwhelmingly recommended that weighing should be in underwear; the patients were more concerned with the accuracy of their weight measurement than issues of privacy and dignity. More than half of the ex patients reported having falsified their weights in the outpatient setting and the patients who got weighed in their underwear were just as likely to falsify their weights. The patients who got weighed in clothes falsified their weights by carrying heavy items in their pockets while those who got weighed in their underwear falsified their weights by drinking lots of water before they got weighed.

Jaffa, Tony,  Davies, Sarah and Sardesai, Anagha - What patients with anorexia nervosa should wear when they are being weighed: report of two pilot surveys European Eating Disorders Review
DOI: 10.1002/erv.1093

Growing up in the UK - not so bad after all?

In 2007 a Unicef report rated Britain's children as some of the most unahppy in the developed world. However, a new study, by researchers at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex has painted a rosier picture finding that 70% of children between 10 and 15 rated themselves as happy or very happy. The researchers surveyed more than 2,000 children and found little difference between those living in households in the top fifth of income and those in the bottom fifth. A more important factor was whether children lived with both parents and the happiness of their parents' relationship, particularly that of the mother. 60% of the children said they were completely happy with their family situation with children in one-parent families being less likely to report themselves completely happy. Having older siblings had no effect on happiness but having younger brothers and sisters was associated with less happiness and the effect was greater if there were more younger siblings. Children who quarelled more than once a week with their parents and didn't discuss important matters with them only had a 28% chance of saying they were completely happy with their families but children who ate dinner with their family at least three times a week were more likely to say they were happy with their family. How much television children watched was completely unrelated to how happy they were with family life.

Keep smiling - you might live longer

Being unhappy could be worse for your health than being obese. Professor Ed Diener from the University of Illinois reviewed 160 studies into the connection between a positive state of mind and overall health and longevity. The overwhelming majority of studies supported the idea that happiness was associated with a longer life and the connection was stronger than that between obesity and early death. In the laboratory positive moods were found to reduce stress-related hormones, increase immune function and help the heart recover following exertion.

Miscarriage effects last for years

The trauma of miscarriage can last for years after the event even after a subsequent healthy birth. Dr Emma Robertson Blackmore of Rochester University in New York State used information from 13,000 women in the Bristol area compiled as part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children; the women were all pregnant in 1991 and 1992. The 2,800 women who had suffered a miscarriage or stillbirth were much more likely to be depressed and anxious during their next pregnancy and for up to three years afterwards. Up to a fifth of pregnancies end in miscarriage while 0.5% result in stillbirth.

A tiny tipple could stave off dementia

Moderate drinking - a glass of wine, or a pint of beer a day - could cut dementia risk by almost a third. Researchers from the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim in Germany studied 3,200 people over three years. The participants were all over 75 at the start of the study and none of them had symptoms of dementia, although 217 developed the condition as the study went on. Those participants who drank between two or three units of alchohol a day were 29% less likely to develop dementia than those who were teetotal. However, drinking only protected against Alzheimer's disease not vascular dementia or cognitive decline and prolonged heavy drinking is associated with about one in 10 cases of dementia.

Metabolic syndrome makes for more senior moments

Metabolic syndrome is a catch-all term used to cover a number of different risk factors for health problems, such as high blood pressure, a pot belly, high blood fats (triglycerides), high blood sugar and low 'good' cholesterol - to be defined as having metabolic syndrome you need to have at least three of the above. Researchers from the French National Institute of Health Research in Bordeaux studied 7,087 people aged 65 and over from three French cities. They tested them for metabolic syndrome and gave them a series of memory and cognitive tests two and four years later. Those people (16%) with metabolic syndrome were 20% more likely to show a decline on the memory test and 13% more likely to show a decline on a test of visual working memory.Specifically, higher triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol were linked to poorer memory scores; diabetes, but not higher fasting blood sugar, was linked to poorer visual working memory and word fluency scores.

Humbleness, honesty and work performance

Humility and honesty could be the keys to high performance at work. Researchers from Baylor University in Texas studied 269 people providing health care for 'challenging' clients. The participants worked for 25 different companies in 20 different states. They filled out a personality questionnaire and their supervisors rated their performance on 35 different job skills. Those who scored highest for honesty and humility - defined as high levels of fairness, lack of avarice, sincerity and modesty - were rated as having the highest job performance. The link between humility-honesty and job performance was stronger than those to other positive character traits such as agreeableness and conscientiousness.

Researching regret

Most people have some regrets in life, whether about career choices, romantic relationships or things they wish they had, or hadn't done. Researchers from Concordia University in Montreal looked into regret in a study of 104 adults. The participants completed a survey about their greatest regrets, were asked how they thought the severity of their regrets compared to other people's and were asked about their health. People's age did not determine how effectively they dealth with their regrets but those who felt their regrets were worse than other people's felt worse overall and were more likely to report cold symptoms over the next few months.

Cannabis use and psychosis

Much research has been devoted to the links between cannabis use and psychosis and a team of researchers from Maastricht University in the Netherlands has added to the evidence to suggest that there is a link. The researchers studied 1,923 people who were aged between 14 and 24 at the start of the study. They were asked about their cannabis use and assessed for psychosis symptoms at the start of the study (T1), 3.5 years later (T2) and 8.4 years later (T3). The researchers found that people who hadn't used cannabis at the start of the study but who used it between T1 and T2 had nearly twice the risk of developing psychosis symptoms by the end of the study. If they carried on using cannabis between T2 and the end of the study their risk was 2.2 times greater. By the end of the study the incidence rate of psychosis symptoms was 14% in those who had smoked cannabis compared to only 8% in those who hadn't.

Kuepper, Rebecca ... [et al] - Continued cannabis use and risk of incidence and persistence of psychotic symptoms: 10 year follow-up cohort study British Medical Journal doi: 10.1136/bmj.d738

Spanish study shows drugs' effect on cognition

As well as having adverse effects on people's physical health drug abuse can also affect people's cognition, including their ability to recognise emotions in other people. Researchers from the University of Granada in Spain compared 123 drug users with 67 non users on a variety of different tests. 70% of the drug users showed some type of neuropsychological deterioration, regardless of the type of substance consumed. The study showed deterioration in the drug users' working memory, fluency, flexibility, planning and multitasking abilities. The study also found that drug users had difficulty in recognising negative emotions such as anger, disgust, fear and sadness.

Study gives thumbs up to school emotional-intelligence programmes

Researchers from Loyola University Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago have been looking into the effectiveness of school-based social and emotional learning programmes. The programmes aim to help children recognise and manage their emotions, establish and maintain positive relationships, set and achieve positive goals, make responsible decisions and constructively handle interpersonal situations. The researchers reviewed studies into 213 school-based programmes involving more than 270,000 children. Compared to chidlren in the control groups the children in the programmes showed significantly improved social and emotional skills, caring attitudes and positive social behaviour and less disruptive behaviour and emotional distress. In studies where the children's academic performance was also assessed the children in the programmes performed significantly better.

Why depressed people are at the back of the queue for heart-attack care

Depression is known to increase peoples' risk of developing heart disease and lead to worse outcomes for those who develop cardiovascular problems. Now a new study by researchers from the Institute of Clinical Evaluation Sciences in Canada has found that people with depression who go to hospital emergency departments with the symptoms of a heart attack are less likely to receive priority treatment. The researchers' study looked at 6,874 patients admitted to 96 acute-care hospitals in Ontario from April 2004 to March 2005. 39% of the patients with depression were given a low-priority triage score compared to only 32.7% of the other patients with similar symptoms. Less than 10% of patients who come to emergency rooms with heart-attack symptoms such as chest pains or shortness of breath are actually found to be suffering from heart problems and the researchers think that medical staff might be more inclined to assign these symptoms to psychological causes in people who have suffered, or are suffering from, depression.

Alzheimer's. More risk on the mother's side?

Alzheimer's disease is known to have a hereditary element and people with first-degree relatives with the condition are four to 10 times more likely to develop the disease themselves compared to people with no family history of it. Researchers from the University of Kansas School of Medicine studied 53 people aged 60 and over who were followed for two years. 11 had a mother with Alzheimer's disease, 10 had a father with Alzheimer's and 32 had no family history of the condition. The groups took cognitive tests and had brain scans throughout the study. The researchers found that those participants who had a mother with Alzheimer's disease had twice as much grey-matter shrinkage and one-and-a-half times as much whole-brain shrinkage as people whose fathers had had the disease or who had no family history of it.