Why misery guts might have the last laugh

One might think that being cheerful, worrying less and taking things easy would be the passports to a long and healthy life but new research from the University of California, Riverside suggests that this could be wrong. The researchers used information first gathered by the Stanford University Psychologist Louis Terman on more than 1,500 gifted children who were around 10 when they were first studied in 1921 and who were tracked throughout their lives. The study found that the children who were the most cheerful and who had the best sense of humour as children lived shorter lives on average while those people who were most prudent and persistent throughout their lives lived longest. The cheerful, happy-go-lucky children tended to take more risks with their health over the years. People who were more committed to, and involved in, their work also lived longer while starting formal schooling early was a risk factor for early mortality. People who felt loved and cared for felt a greater sense of wellbeing but didn't necessarily live any longer.

Cracking the puzzle of callous children

Badly-behaved children who also have callous and emotional traits such as a lack of guilt, no empathy with other people and a callous use of others are more likely to become serious and long-term criminals. However, there is limited evidence about what the risk factors for callous and emotional traits are. A team of researchers, led by Edward D. Barker from Birkbeck University, used information from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children to study around 7,000 mothers and their children to find out more. They looked at risks to do with the mother - such as whether the mothers had mental-health problems, were criminals or had drug problems before their children were born - whether the child had a 'fearless' temperament at two and the effects of harsh and warm parenting. Maternal risk was found to increase fearless temperament at two and bad behaviour and callous unemotional traits at 13. Fearless temperament at two was also associated with bad behaviour and callousness at thirteen, above and beyond the influence of parenting and maternal prenatal risk. Fearless temperament in boys manifested itself as an indifference to punishment while in girls it showed itself as boldness towards new people and situations.

Barker, Edward D. ... [et al] - The impact of prenatal maternal risk, fearless temperament and early parenting on adolescent callous-unemotional traits: a 14-year longitudinal investigation Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02397.x

Coping strategies and binge eating

Researchers from the University of Oviedo in Spain have been looking into the prevalence and causes of binge eating and in particular how people's coping styles affect how likely they are to binge eat. They studied 1,913 children between 12 and 18 who filled out a questionnaire about their eating habits and how they coped with the problems in their life. The study found that 6.94% of the children reported bingeing in the last six months. The adolescents who binged were more likely to blame themselves for their problems and were more introverted while those who used more positive-effortful coping were less likely to binge. The authors of the study concluded that helping teenagers deal with problems more constructively could be a good way of cutting down the rates of bingeing.

Sierra-Baigrie, Susana ... [et al] - Exploring the relationship between coping strategies and binge eating in nonclinical adolescents European Eating Disorders Review DOI: 10.1002/erv.1103

Breastfeeding and brighter babies

Scientists have already found a number of benefits to breastfeeding one's babies and a new study by researchers at Oxford University and the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Essex University has found that an increase in children's intelligence could be another. The researchers studied more than 10,000 children from the Bristol area and found that those who were breastfed for at least the first four weeks of life performed better, by an average of three to five points, on IQ tests at five, seven, 11 and 14. The researchers thought that the difference could be due to either long-chain fatty acids in breast milk which help the brain to develop or to the stronger mother-child relationship formed during breastfeeding.

Alzheimer's decline could start much earlier

People with Alzheimer's disease could start going downhill years before they develop the condition. Researchers from the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago studied 2,071 older adults who were all free of dementia at the beginning of the study. Over the course of the study the participants were tested on working memory, perceptual speed and visuo-spatial ability. Over 16 years 462 people developed Alzheimer's disease. The researchers found that Alzheimer's disease was preceded by an average of five to six years of cognitive decline during which the rate of cognitive decline accelerated more than 15-fold. Mild cognitive impairment - the precursor to Alzheimer's disease - was also preceded by about six years of cognitive decline.

Earlier drinkers more likely to turn to the bottle to relieve stress

Children who have their first alcoholic drink at an early age are known to be at a greater risk of developing alcohol problems later in life and new research suggests that they may be especially vulnerable when they are suffering from stress. Researchers from the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany studied 306 people. They were asked how old they were when they had their first drink, about stressful life events in the last three years and daily hassles in the last month and about their drinking at 22. The earlier the participants started drinking the stronger the link was between stress and drinking as young adults.

Mothers' depression and children's problems

Mothers' depression can also put their children at risk of developing mental-health problems. Researchers from the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health studied 80 women with depression and their children who were aged between seven and 17. The mothers were taking part in a study designed to help patients whose first few attempts at treatments by doctors had failed. The children of women who got better earlier showed improved mental health and got on better at home and school. Those whose mothers did not get better over the two years of the study showed no improvement in mental health and more instances of bad behaviour. The study is important as it shows that even where mothers have been ill for a while their children's mental health improves as soon as they (the mothers) start to get better.

Understanding the causes of prenatal depression

Many women suffer from postnatal depression but they can also suffer from prenatal depression as well. Anxiety and depression during pregnancy can result in premature birth or low birthweight and can affect children's health even into their early school years. Researchers from the Norwegain Institute of Public Health studied 50,000 expectant mothers in an attempt to find out more about the causes of prenatal depression. They found that the most important factor was the amount of support women received from their partners - those women who were most unhappy with their relationship were the most likely to be depressed. The women who were happy with their partner were better able to cope with difficulties at work, lack of money and other stressful situations such as moving house or being ill. Older mothers coped better than younger ones and illness, trouble at work and problems with alcohol in the year beforehand were all linked to more emotional distress.

Why quality is as important as quantity in the jobs market

Politicians and economists spend a lot of time thinking about levels of unemployment and about how to get unemployed people back into the workplace but much less about the quality of jobs on offer. However, a new study led by Peter Butterworth from the Australian National University in Canberra has found that having a badly-paid, poorly-supported and short-term job can be worse for people's mental health than not having a job at all. The researchers surveyed 7,000 people of working age who were asked about their employment status and mental health every year for seven years. Overall being unemployed was worse for people's mental health, however, once factors such as educational attainment and marital status were taken into account the mental health of those who were jobless was comparable to, if not better than, that of people in poor-quality jobs. Those people who were in the poorest quality jobs experienced the sharpest decline in mental health over time. Getting a high-quality job after being unemployed improved mental health by an average of three points on the scale used by the researchers but getting a poor-quality job actually decreased mental health by 5.6 points.

U.S. report reveals huge Alzheimer's burden

The 2011 annual report of the U.S. Alzheimer's Association has revealed the huge burden of the condition. It is estimated that 5.4 million people in the U.S. suffer from Alzheimer's - about one in eight senior citizens. Nearly 15 million people in the U.S. look after someone with Alzheimer's disease amounting to 17 billion hours of unpaid care worth more than $202bn. More than 60% of caregivers said they were stressed and more than a third said they were depressed. The $202bn in unpaid care comes on top of around $183bn of formal care from healthcare workers, hospitals and nursing homes, up $11bn on a year ago.

You can find out more about this story here.

Expressed emotion and teenage troubles

Expressed emotion occurs in families where a member is suffering from a mental-health problem. It is made up of three elements: hostility, a negative attitude towards the patient because the family feels the disorder is controllable and that the patient is choosing not to get better; emotional over-involvement when the family blame themselves for the mental illness and critical comments. High expressed emotion has been associated with a slower recovery and a greater likelihood of relapse. A team of Dutch researchers from Utrecht University looked into the links between maternal expressed emotion and mental-health problems in a study of 497 Dutch teenagers and their mothers. Every year, over three years, the mothers were asked about their expressed emotion and the teenagers about their behavioural and emotional problems. The main conclusion of the research was that it was the children's level of emotional and behavioural problems that influenced the mother's expressed emotion and not vice versa.

Hale III, William ... [et al] - How does longitudinally measured maternal expressed emotion affect internalizing and externalizing symptoms of adolescents from the general community? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02400.x

Depressed dads are quicker spankers

Fathers who are depressed are more likely to spank their children. A team of researchers led by Dr R. Neal Davis from Intermountain Healthcare in Utah interviewed more than 1,700 new fathers from 20 large cities in the U.S. 40% of depressed men said that they had spanked their kids in the last month compared to only 13% of men without symptoms. According to a 2009 report from the Institute of Medicine more than 15 million American children are living with an adult who suffers from depression. Although 77% of men and 65% of women in the U.S. are in favour of spanking both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association discourage it.

You can find out more about this research here.

Which drugs work best for anxiety?

A team of researchers led by David Baldwin from the University of Southampton have been reviewing trials into drug therapy for generalised anxiety disorder. They reviewed 27 trials comparing nine drugs: duloxetine, escitalopram, fluoxetine, lorazepam, paroxetine, pregabalin, sertraline, tiagabine and venlafaxine. They found that fluoxetine was the most effective and sertraline was the best tolerated i.e. had fewer side effects. Among treatments currently licensed in the UK duloxetine had the best response, escitalopram was ranked first for depression and pregabalin had the fewest side effects.

Baldwin, David ... [et al] - Efficacy of drug treatments for generalised anxiety disorder: systematic review and meta-analysis British Medical Journal BMJ 2011; 342:d1199

Panic attacks and other problems

There is an increasing amount of evidence to suggest that people who suffer from panic attacks are also more likely to suffer from other physical and mental-health problems. Researchers from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada used information from the huge U.S. National Epidemioligic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. They studied 34,653 people who were asked about their health in 2001-2 and 2004-5. The study found that those people who had panic attacks in 2001-2 were more likely to have generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social phobia, depression and mania in 2004-5.

Kinley, D. Jolene ... [et al] - Panic attacks as a risk for later psychopathology: results from a nationally representative survey Depression and Anxiety DOI 10.1002/da.20809

Tackling weight and eating problems in Spanish schools

More and more teenagers have problems with eating and weight, either because they are too fat or because they show signs of developing an eating disorder. Universal prevention programmes are ones which involve boys and girls and are given to everyone in a particular school or year. They aim to improve pupil's body image, their knowledge of eating disorders and reduce shape and weight concern. Researchers from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona studied 443 children. 201 formed a control group while 143 took part in a media-literacy programme and 99 in the media-literacy and a nutrition-awareness one as well. The children's attitudes to eating, body weight and nutrition were assessed a month, seven months and 30 months after the programmes. The children who had taken part in both programmes had 'healthier' scores on the assessments than those who hadn't.

Gonzalez, Marcela ... [et al] - Disordered eating prevention programme in schools: a 30-month follow up European Eating Disorders Review DOI: 10.1002/erv.1102

Cocaine, genes and shrinking brains

People who are addicted to cocaine have less grey matter in the frontal parts of their brain and in their hippocampi. The frontal parts of the brain are important for paying attention and organising one's behaviour while the hippocampus is important in learning and memory. A team of researchers led by Nelly Alia-Klein at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have found that people with a certain genetic make up may be more vulnerable to the adverse effects of cocaine use than other people. The researchers studied 82 people. 40 of them were addicted to cocaine and 42 were healthy controls. The researchers took DNA samples and scanned the subjects' brains. The cocaine addicts with a low MAOA (monoamine oxidase A) genotype had lower grey-matter density in the frontal parts of the brain than the other cocaine addicts. The genes are responsible for levels of MAOA, an enzyme which regulates neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine that regulate mood.

Schools and children's mental health

There has been a lot of research about the effect of the workplace on adults' mental health but much less research on the effect of children's workplaces i.e. schools. Researchers from the University of Maryland studied 10,700 Year One pupils whose parents and teachers were interviewed. The authors looked at four different areas to assess their children's mental health: learning, behaviour, relationships and emotions. They found that children in classrooms which lacked material resources - such as paper, pencils, child-friendly furniture, computers and musical instruments - and children whose teachers felt their colleagues did not respect them had more problems in all of these areas.

Depression and kidney disease

Depression is already linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and a new study by researchers from the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands suggests that it could be linked to an increased risk of kidney disease too. The researchers studied 5,785 people in the U.S. over a 10-year period. The participants were all over 65 and filled out a questionnaire measuring their levels of depression as well as having a series of medical tests to assess their kidney function. Depression was 20% more common in people with kidney disease than in those without. Over the ten years of the study depression predicted a rapid decline in kidney function, new cases of severe kidney disease and hospitalisation. As well as the physiological effects of depression on the immune and nervous systems the researchers also thought that depression could be associated with delaying seeing a doctor and poor communication between patients and physicians.

Child abuse and eating disorders

A team of researchers from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona have been looking into the links between disordered eating and childhood physical and sexual abuse. They studied 708 female undergraduates aged between 18 and 30 asking them about traumatic events in their past and about their current attitudes to food and their weight. The study found that 14.3% of the sample had suffered childhood sexual abuse and 3.8% childhood physical abuse. The women who had been sexually abused as children were more concerned about weight, however, once depression, anxiety, self-esteem, body-mass index, age and socioeconomic status were taken into account there was no link between sexual abuse and disordered eating behaviours. Childhood physical abuse was associated with a decreased risk of disordered eating and the researchers thought that this was because women who had been physically abused were more concerned with just having a safe, healthy body rather than their weight or physical appearance.

Villarroel, Ana M. ... [et al] - Childhood physical and sexual abuse in Spanish female undergraduates: does it affect eating disturbances? European Eating Disorders Review DOI: 10.1002/erv.1086

Study finds more eating disorders in Muslim girls

Researchers from the University of Granada in Spain have been looking into the prevalence of eating disorders in different cultures. They studied 494 students aged between 12 and 20 from the town of Cueta where 30% of the population is Muslim. They found that the incidence of eating disorders was 2.3x higher among the Muslim youngsters and body dissatisfaction was 80% greater. Overall the study found that one in four of the youngsters had some kind of eating problem and that 15% of them suffered from body dissatisfaction.