Bullying in the classroom - more Lord of the Flies than sweetness and light

Researchers from the University of Granada in Spain have been looking at what children themselves think about bullying, bullies and their victims and have come up with some surprising results. They studied 1,237 children between 11 and 16. 7.3% were victims, 8.5% were bullies and 84.1% were the uninvolved 'audience' for bullying. The study found that younger children were more approving of the bullying than researchers thought they would be. They saw the victims as passive, socially incompetent, anxious, depressed and insecure and the bullies as strong, brave, outgoing, happy, powerful and self-confident. Girls felt more sympathy towards the victims but boys saw them as vulnerable and morally responsible for their victimisation and said that they should feel 'guilty and ashamed.' As the children got older and took on more adult values they felt more sympathy for the victims and were more likely to reject the bullies.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091028112751.htm

Servicemen and mental-health problems - not just PTSD

A study of more than 800 servicemen and women by researchers at King's College London has found high levels of mental illness and not just post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from which one in 20 were found to be suffering. One in five was found to be misusing alcohol while one in seven suffered from depression or anxiety. Reservists were more likely to experience problems than full-time servicemen, perhaps because they had problems readjusting to civilian life. Young soldiers were the most likely to abuse alcohol while those with less education, lower rank or who were in the Royal Air Force were most at risk of anxiety or depression.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6460190/Tens-of-thousands-of-service-personnel-abusing-alcohol-or-depressed.html

Figures show extent of prescribing to children

Information obtained by the U.K. Conservative Party under freedom-of-information legislation has revealed the extent of drug prescribing to children for mental-health conditions. They found that in 2007 420,000 prescriptions were issued for ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) medication - equivalent to around 35,000 children once repeat prescriptions are taken into account - up by a third since 2005. More than 113,000 prescriptions were written for antidepressants for children under 16 (equivalent to about 9,000 children) and 86,000 prescriptions were written for antipsychotics, a 7% rise since 2005.

You can read more about this story at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6460646/Thousands-of-children-on-antidepressants.html

Healthy diet cuts depression risk

Previous research has shown that a Mediterranean diet - high in fruit, vegetables and fish and low in meat and dairy products - has been linked to a reduced incidence of Alzheimer's disease. Researchers from University College London studied 3,486 people with an average age of 55 taking part in a long-term study of Whitehall civil servants. They asked them about their diet and then five years later assessed them for depression. The study found that - where the average chance of developing depression was 1 - people who had a 'whole-food' diet with lots of vegetables, fruit and fish had a 0.74 chance of developing depression whereas people who consumed a processed food diet with lots of puddings, fried food, processed meat, refined grains and dairy products had a 1.58 chance of becoming depressed.

Akbaraly, Tasnime N. ... [et al] - Dietary pattern and depressive symptoms in middle age British Journal of Psychiatry November 2009, 195(5), 408-413

Grey matter and OCD - reviewing the evidence

There has been a lot of research recently using brain scanning to look at differences in the brains of people with mental-health problems. Because brain scanning is an expensive and time-consuming business studies are often quite small meaning that samples are more likely to be affected by chance factors and extreme cases. One way around this is to pool the results from several different studies together in what researchers call a meta-analysis. Psychologists from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London did exactly this with studies on brain structure and obsessive-compulsive disorder. They looked at 12 different studies comparing to people with OCD to 376 people without. They found that although there was no difference overall in the amount of grey matter in participants' brains those with OCD had more grey matter in the bilateral lenticular nuclei and caudate nuclei and less in the bilateral dorsal medial frontal/anterior cingulate gyri. People with more severe OCD were more likely to have increased grey matter in their basal ganglia. Taking antidepressants did not seem to have any effect on grey matter in people with OCD.

Radua, Joaquim and Mataix-Cois, David - Voxel-wise meta-analysis of grey matter changes in obsessive-compulsive disorder British Journal of Psychiatry November 2009, 195(5), 393-402

Teenagers, genes and intoxication

Researchers from Brown University in Rhode Island have been looking into the links between variations in the OPRM1 gene and alcohol misuse in teenagers. Their study of 187 teenagers with an average age of 15 found that 51.9% of youngsters with an alcohol use disorder had at least one of the variations in the gene compared to only 16.3% of those without an alcohol use disorder. The gene is thought to intensify the pleasurable effects of alcohol and has been linked to an increased rate of alcohol problems in adults. The study showed that the teenagers with variations in this gene were more likely to experience alcohol as intoxicating and pleasurable.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091026161834.htm

Depression, neuroses and aches and pains

Researchers at the University of Iowa have been looking into the links between neuroticism, depression and the experience of physical health problems. Previous research has shown that neurotic people - who often feel irritable, sad, anxious or fearful - are more likely to overestimate their aches and pains. The researchers studied 109 women who filled out surveys at the start of the study to assess their levels of neuroticism and depression. Every day, for three weeks, they reported whether they felt 15 common physical symptoms including aches and pains, gastrointestinal problems and coughs and colds. On the 22nd day the participants were asked to remember how often they had experienced each physical symptom in the last three weeks. The participants who were depressed at the start of the study were more likely to give an exaggerated account of their symptoms whereas those who were neurotic - but not depressed - were not, leading the researchers to conclude that it is depression not neurosis which makes people overestimate their aches and pains.

You can find out more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/10/29/depression-and-magnifying-symptoms/9208.html

ADHD and crime

Children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) are more likely to become criminals as they get older. Researchers from Yale School of Public Health studied more than 10,000 people and found that children with ADHD were twice as likely to commit theft in later life and had a 50% higher incidence of selling drugs. This is the first study to link ADHD with an increased propensity to commit crime; something the researchers estimated costs between $2bn and $4bn p.a. It is thought that ADHD affects between 2-10% of schoolchildren in the U.S. It is far more prevalent in boys than in girls and is common among close relatives suggesting that genes play a part in causing it.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/169145.php

Genes, environment and self-control: looking more closely at nature and nurture

Most scientists now accept that the nature/nurture debate is not a case of either/or but of genes and environment working together in a complex pattern to influence people's mental health. Researchers from the University of Iowa looked into one example of this examining how genes and attachment work together to influence how good young children are at self-control. They studied 89 children testing them to see whether they had a variation in a gene called 5-HTTLPR, measuring the quality of their relationship with their mothers at 15 months and how good they were at self-control at 25,38 and 52 months. They found that among children who carried a certain variant of the gene insecure attachment to their mothers at 15 months led to poorer ability to control their emotions later. However, those children who had secure attachment to their mothers at 15 months did not have problems with self-control later even if they carried the variation in the 5-HTTLPR gene.

Kochanska, Grazyna, Philibert, Robert A. and Barry, Robin A. - Interplay of genes and early mother-child relationship in the development of self-regulation from toddler to preschool age The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry November 2009, 50(11), 1331-1338

Anxiety and birthweight

The list of drinks and substances that pregnant women have to worry about can seem endless and now researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre have added another factor to the list: anxiety itself. The researchers studied a sample of low-income women half of whom were African-American and half of whom were white. The group already had a number of risk factors - including drinking and smoking - but the study showed that anxiety had an influence over and above this. Anxiety in the last third of pregnancy predicted women having significantly smaller babies whereas in the first and second thirds of pregnancy only those with the most severe anxiety had smaller babies.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091027132253.htm

Depressed mums in U.S. fail to get adequate help

Depression in mothers can have a major impact on the entire family, especially on the health and wellbeing of children, and treating depression in mothers can improve the long-term health of their families. However, a study of 2,130 mothers by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has found that 65% of mothers with depression don't receive adequate treatment. Black, Hispanic and other minority mothers were least likely to receive the help they needed. People with health insurance were three times more likely to get proper help than uninsured people.

Antipsychotics and weight gain in children

In the U.S. antipsychotic drugs are often prescribed for children and adolescents. However, new research from the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York suggests that they may - as they do in adults - lead to weight gain making more children overweight and obese and raising their risk for diabetes and heart disease. The study looked at 272 children between the ages of 4 and 19 who were followed for 11 weeks. Those taking Zyprexa gained an average of 18.7 lbs, those taking Seroquel gained 13.4 lbs, those on Risperdal gained 11.7 lbs and those on Abilify gained 9.7 lbs. Up to a third of the children became overweight or obese over the course of the 11-week study.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE59Q4Q920091027?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

Deep brain stimulation and Tourette's

Deep brain stimulation has been used to treat people with depression and now new research from Birmingham University in the U.K. suggests that it might also be helpful for people with Tourette's syndrome too. People with Tourette's have uncontrolled movements, vocalizations and tics and often also suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The researchers used deep brain stimulation on 15 people with severe Tourette's and OCD who had already tried medication and psychological treatments. The brain stimulation involved a surgically-implanted brain pacemaker sending electrical impulses to certain parts of the brain. The participants in the study experienced 52% fewer tics and their OCD, depression and anxiety fell by up to a third. The treatment had no effect on people's cognition but larger studies need to be done before the treatment becomes more widely available.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091027161524.htm

Diabetes and Alzheimer's

Diabetes has been found to increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease but it is unclear what effect it has on people who already have the condition. Researchers from the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Toulouse followed 608 people with mild-moderate Alzheimer's for four years and tested their memory and thinking skills twice a year. 63 of the sample had diabetes. The study found that the participants with diabetes actually declined less over the course of the study. The researchers thought that the participants with diabetes might also be taking medicine for cardiovascular problems improving their circulation and helping to mitigate some of the effects of Alzheimer's.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091027161521.htm

The psychology of torture

Researchers at Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences have been conducting (pain-free) research into the psychology of torture. In the study one of the research team was 'tortured' (although in reality she was acting) by having her hand submerged in supposedly icy water. At different times she displayed indifference to the 'torture' or implied pain by whimpering and pleading with her 'torturers.' The 78 participants, who witnessed the 'torture' via a hidden intercom, were told that the women might have fraudulently taken money and that the study was about moral behaviour. Half of the participants met the woman who was being 'tortured' and half did not. Those participants who had met the woman saw her as being more guilty the more she suffered while those who had not met her saw her as being more guilty the less pain she felt.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091026152818.htm

NICE issues new guidelines on depression

NICE (the U.K.'s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) has issued new guidelines on the treatment of depression. The guidelines say that the evidence for using counselling is 'very limited' and that it should only be used for people with persistent mild-moderate depression who do not want to take antidepressants or have cognitive behavioural therapy. The guidelines also say that antidepressants should not be used to treat persistent mild depression unless other treatments have not worked, the patient has a history of moderate or severe depression or symptoms have persisted for at least two years.

You can download the full text of the guidelines at

http://www.nice.org.uk/CG090

Video games and attention

Researchers from Iowa State University have been investigating the links between video games and attention problems. Their study, of 51 undergraduates aged between 18 and 33, compared those who played video games for two hours or less a week with those who played for around 40 hours a week. Those who played video games longest had more difficulty focusing on tasks requiring longer, more active attention.

You can find out more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/10/23/attention-problems-among-video-gamers/9130.html

Risk taking and low expectations

Low expectations of teenagers could actually make their behaviour worse. Researchers from Wake Forest University, North Carolina and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studied more than 250 children and their mothers. The children were in Year 6 and Year 7 at the start of the study and were re-surveyed a year later. The children whose mothers expected them to be more rebellious and take more risks at the start of the study did so, as did the children who themselves had low expectations of how they would behave when they became teenagers.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091021100752.htm

PTSD and headaches

War veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may also be more prone to migraines and tension headaches. A study of 308 veterans by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, found that those with physical injuries had more than twice the risk of recurrent headaches as people who were not injured. However, those people with PTSD were four times more likely to get headaches. Physical injury was linked only to migraines, whereas PTSD was also linked to tension headaches as well.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE59M4JS20091023?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

Binge-eating and obesity on campus

Psychologists from the Center for Obesity Research and Education in Denver, Colorado have been looking into binge eating and weight problems among female college students. 715 students completed an on-line survey about health habits, behaviours and attitudes and gave their height and weight. Overall African-American students were less likely to binge eat and had less severe symptoms when they did. For both groups the triggers for binges were similar and included feeling depressed and fat. About a third of college students are overweight and this was confirmed by the study which found that 22% of the white students and 37% of the black ones were obese or overweight.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091025162457.htm