Untangling social networks in Holland

Dutch sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst has been investigating people's networks of friends and how they change over time. He followed 604 people, between 18-65, over seven years, asking them about their social networks; who they talked to about their problems, who they asked for help with D.I.Y., who they socialized with etc. The study found that the social context in which we meet people plays a big role in choosing our partners, friends and acquaintances i.e. we are as likely to make friends with people because they are close at hand as for any other reason. The study found that people often picked friends from a context where they had already made other friends and that the extent to which our friends know each other strongly depends on the context in which people meet each other. The size of people's networks stayed remarkably stable over the seven years of the study but there was a higher-than-expected turnover. Only 30% of the 'discussion partners' and 'practical helpers' still held the same position in people's networks seven years later and only 48% of people in people's social networks at the start of the study were still in them at the end.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090527111907.htm

Dementia drugs and side effects

Cholinesterase inhibitors are often prescribed for people with Alzheimer's disease because they increase the level of a chemical called acetylcholine in the brain that seems to help with memory. However, these drugs can have serious side effects and a study by Professor Sudeep Gill of Queen's University in Canada has highlighted some of them. The study, of patients in Ontario province, found that a slower heart-rate was 69% more common among people using cholinesterase inhibitors, there was a 49% greater chance of having a pacemaker fitted and an 18% greater risk of hip fractures. It is thought that the lower heart rate produced by the drug leads to more people being fitted with pacemakers and more fainting which raises the risk of hip fractures. It is not recommended that people stop taking the drugs but it may be a good idea for those people who have had problems with fainting or slow heart rate in the past to see their doctor before, or while, taking them.

You can read more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090527181542.htm

The importance of being attentive

Having attention problems in infant school (kindergarten) could lead to lower high-school grades years later. Researchers from the University of California Davis School of Medicine followed 700 children from the ages of 5-6 to the end of high-school (17-18). The study looked at the relationship between aggressive, inattentive and depressive behaviours at the start of the study and children's later performance on standardized high-school achievement tests. The researchers found that inattentiveness in infant school was the only behaviour that consistently predicted lower scores in reading and maths tests at the end of high-school regardless of the children's IQ.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090526093928.htm

'Man hands on misery to man' - the effects of interpersonal violence on children

Research has shown that there is a link between child abuse and mental-health problems and a study of 3,023 people in Paris has suggested that violence between parents could also have an effect on the mental health of their children. Among the particpants in the study 16% said that they had witnessed inter-parental violence by the age of 18. Witnessing violence was eight times more likely where the parents were alcoholics and more likely in families with financial problems, serious parental disease, housing problems and unemployment. After adjusting for other factors the researchers found that children who were exposed to interparental violence were 1.4x more likely to have depression, 1.75 times more likely to be alcoholics, three times more likely to be involved in conjugal violence themselves and five times more likely to mistreat their own children.

You can read more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090527210730.htm

Preaching to the converted

Most people's choice of newspaper tends to reflect their political opinions but even when people are given a choice of media they still tend to pick ones that confirm their opinions. Researchers from Ohio State University studied 156 undergraduate students. They were asked their opinions on topics such as gun control, abortion, health care and the minimum wage. Then, six weeks later, in what the participants thought was a completely unconnected study, they were asked to come back and take part in a 'market research' study on a mocked-up magazine which contained articles about these issues. It was clear which side of the argument the articles took and the researchers were able to use software to analyse what the students were reading. They found that the students spent 36% more time reading articles that agreed with their point of view. They clicked on an average of 1.9 articles that they agreed with and 1.4 articles that they disagreed with. There was a 58% likelihood of them picking an article they agreed with and a 43% chance of them picking one they disagreed with. People with a strong party affiliation, conservative political views and a greater interest in politics were more likely to pick articles they disagreed with. People who said that they frequently read the news were more likely to avoid opposing viewpoints.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090528110625.htm

Drink Canada Dry

A survey of drinkers in Canada by researchers at the universities of Montreal and Western Ontario has found that regularly drinking even small amounts can lead to binge drinking. The study found that regular drinking increased tolerance leading to people drinking more when they went out socialising. By contrast the study found that those people who rarely drink did not consume more than a couple of drinks on a night out. The study surveyed 10,466 men and women about their alcohol consumption over the last year.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090528110631.htm

Shame and attribution

Over the past few decades shame has come to be seen as increasingly important in psychology. It can help people to behave better, prevent damage to social status and alert people to behaviour that might threaten their relationships. However, shame has also been linked to depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders and addictions. Attributions - the cause people assign to events - are thought to play an important part in people's feelings of shame and researchers at the University of Alberta, in Canada, looked into the links between attribution and shame. They conducted in-depth interviews with 13 people who had experienced an incident which caused them shame and then recovered from it. They found that initially shame was felt to be due to fundamental and inherent character flaws which the participants were powerless to control. However, as time went on people attributed their shame to specific and temporary factors, their self-esteem recovered and they regained a sense of power and control over their future. The shared and external factors that contributed to the event were also idenfitied.

Van Vliet, K. Jessica - The role of attribution in the process of overcoming shame: a qualitative analysis Psychology and Psychotherapy: theory, research and practice June 2009, 82(2), 137-152

Why ignoring the pecking order is better than trying to get to the top of it

People who feel insecure and unsafe in their personal relationships can feel under pressure to try and avoid feelings of inferiority associated with being overlooked or rejected. In contrast people who feel more secure do not fear inferiority or mistakes as they see people as essentially accepting and helpful rather than rejecting and shaming. Researchers have developed a scale to measure these feelings which ranges from insecure striving - where people feel they must compete for their social place and avoid mistakes and inferiority - at one end to non-secure striving at the other. Researchers from the University of Derby studied 62 people diagnosed with depression and measured their:

• striving to avoid inferiority
• fears of missing out, being overlooked and active rejection
• attachment style (the way in which people form relationships which is thought to stem from our very early relationships with our mother our 'primary caregiver')
• perception of their social rank
• and mental-health problems

Striving to avoid inferiority was highly correlated with shame and moderately associated with feeling inferior to others and submissive behaviour. It was also associated with anxious and avoidant attachment, self-harm, anxiety, depression and stress. The researchers concluded that when people feel insecure in their social environments it can lead them to focus too much on a heirarchical view of themselves and others with a fear of rejection if they feel they have been too inferior or subordinate; something which may increase their vulnerability to depression, anxiety and stress.

Gilbert, Paul ... [et al] - The dark side of competition: how competitive behaviour and striving to avoid inferiority are linked to depression, anxiety, stress and self-harm Psychology and Psychotherapy: theory, research and practice June 2009, 82(2), 123-136

Alzheimer's and decision making

People who are suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer's disease may find it harder to prioritise between different information. Researchers at the University of Washington in St Louis studied 198 people, including 109 healthy older adults, 41 people with very-early Alzheimer's, 13 people with early Alzheimer's and 35 younger adults. The participants were asked to study and learn new words each of which had a different point value. All the participants learnt more high-value words but those with Alzheimer's were less able to prioritise the high-value ones.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=news&id=118774&cn=231

Amygdalas and autism

The amygdala is a part of the brain linked to facial recognition and emotions and new research from the University of North Carolina suggests that it may be enlarged in toddlers with autism. Researchers found enlarged amygdalas in toddlers with autism at two and four years of age and found that they were associated with problems in joint attention - the ability to look the right way when Mum says 'look at the fire engine.' The study used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to compare the brains of 50 toddlers with autism to a control group of 33 unaffected infants.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=news&id=118787&cn=20

Weight loss may be sign of dementia

Losing weight, particularly in people who are overweight or obese to begin with, may be one of the early signs of dementia. Tiffany Hughes, a Ph.D. student at the University of South Florida, studied 1,836 Japanese Americans (average age 72) for eight years. Over the course of the study 129 of them developed dementia. People with lower body-mass index (BMI) scores at the start of the study were 79% more likely to develop dementia than those with lower BMI scores. Those who lost weight more quickly over the course of the study - particularly if they were overweight or obese to start with - were nearly three times as likely to develop dementia than those who lost weight more slowly. The results were the same after allowing for other factors such as smoking, exercise and gender.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090518161110.htm

Unravelling the tangles behind Alzheimer's disease

Researchers at McGill University in Montreal have made a significant discovery in the biochemistry of Alzheimer's disease. The disease is caused when tau proteins - which are a normal part of the brain and central nervous system - get out of control and form tangles that are the main cause of Alzheimer's. Scientists have found that tau proteins in normal brains have only three or four proteins attached to them whereas tau proteins in the brains of people with Alzheimer's can have anything from 21 to 25 additional phosphates. The research team at McGill University have now discovered that it is the addition of a single phosphate to the Ser202 amino acid within the tau brain protein that is the principal culprit responsible for Alzheimer's.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090522111618.htm

Women and retail therapy

A survey by Professor Karen Pine, from the University of Hertfordshire, looked into the phenomenon of retail therapy. The survey of 700 women found that 79% said they would go on a shopping spree to cheer themselves up. Four out of ten named 'depression' and six out of ten named 'feeling a bit low' as reasons to go on a shopping spree. However, one in four had experienced feelings of regret, guilt or shame after buying something in the week before the survey and seven out of ten had worried about money during the same period.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090521084834.htm

Child abuse and depression

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in the U.S. looked into the impact of child abuse on people's struggles against depression. The study found that depressed people who had been abused as children were more likely to kill themselves, take drugs or have a personality disorder. They also became mentally ill at a younger age and were more likely to have to go into hospital to be treated.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090521112831.htm

Vitamin D and dementia

An article in this month's Journal of Alzheimer's Disease looks into the links between vitamin D deficiency and dementia. The article, by William B. Grant, points out that low levels of vitamin D are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, dental caries, osteoporosis and periodontal disease all of which are known to either precede dementia or to be a risk factor for it. There is also evidence that vitamin D helps with neuroprotection and reducing inflammation and strong evidence that it has an important role in brain function. As many older people are deficient in vitamin D and it has many other health benefits Dr. Grant recommends that people over 60 should consider having their vitamin D levels tested.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090526140747.htm

Alcohol problems: why being able to hold your drink is not such a good thing

People who need lots of alcohol to get drunk tend to drink more and are at a greater risk of alcholism than other people. They also tend to drink with other heavy drinkers giving them false ideas about how much other people drink. A low level of response (LR) to alcohol is influenced by genes but it is unclear how much it is due to them and how much to drinking more and starting to drink earlier than other people. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, studied 297 men who were tested on their response to alcohol between the ages of 18 and 25. They were then monitored for alcohol problems after 10, 15, 20 and 25 years. Even after taking into account: a family history of alcohol problems, typical drinking quantity, the age when they first started drinking, weight and their age when they started the study LR at the start of the study still predicted the development of alcohol problems later, suggesting that a genetically-determined LR is a risk factor for developing drink problems regardless of environmental factors.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090522172457.htm

Heavy drinkers often injured

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been looking into the links between heavy drinking in students and their risk of alcohol-related injuries. In the U.S., in 2001, around 500,000 college students suffered alcohol-related injuries with more than 1,700 deaths. Around 2.8m college students in the U.S. drove under the influence of alcohol last year and 600,000 students were assaulted by another student who was under the influence. The University of Wisconsin-Madison study of 2,090 heavy-drinking students found that men who drank eight or more drinks at least four times a month and women who drank five or more drinks that often were five times more likely to be injured. Those students who scored highest for sensation seeking also had a greater risk of alcohol-related injuries.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090522172501.htm

Looking on the bright side all over the world

Despite the constant stream of 'bad news' stories in the media these days ranging from terrorism and climate change to swine flu and MPs' expenses the vast majority of people all over the world are optimistic. A joint study by the University of Kansas and Gallup surveyed more than 150,000 adults in over 140 countries. It found that 89% of people expected the next five years to be as good as, or better, than their current life and 95% of people expected their life in five years to be as good as, or better, than their life was five years ago. Optimism was highest in Brazil, Ireland, Denmark and New Zealand and lowest in Zimbabwe, Egypt, Haiti and Bulgaria.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090524122539.htm

MRI scans may lead to earlier Alzheimer's diagnosis

Early diagnosis of dementia is important both in terms of treating people to delay its onset and in helping relatives to prepare for their role as caregivers. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a computer programme called Freesurfer and have been using it to analyse the MRI scans of older adults with a remarkable degree of success. They studied 217 people: 58 of them had mild cognitive impairment which later went on to develop into Alzheimer's disease, 65 had probable Alzheimer's disease and the rest were unaffected. By concentrating on three areas of the brain - the entorhinal cortex, the hippocampus and the supramarginal gyrus - the programme was able to tell with 95% accuracy which of the sample had mild cognitive impairment and with 100% accuracy which of the sample had Alzheimer's.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090521171444.htm

Mirroring and head movements

People use head movements in conversation to convey a range of meanings and emotions. Women use these more than men but when men and women are talking to each other both sexes adapt; women use slightly fewer movements and men slightly more. However, it is unclear whether people do this in reaction to the other person's gender or through 'mirroring' the person they are speaking to. Researchers at the University of Virginia used sophisticated computer technology to preserve the movements of people but change their sex. They recorded a women's head movements, transposed them onto a man's face and played them to participants in the study who thought they were talking to a real person. They found that the participants responded to the head movements of the 'person' they were talking to, suggesting that it is mirroring rather than gender that lies behind the increased frequency of men's head movements when they speak to women.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090525105459.htm