Brief feedback for alcohol problems

Brief personalized feedback for problem drinkers usually involves asking people about their alcohol consumption, telling them how much their peers drink and offering information on the risks of problem drinking and self-help measures. The feedback has the advantage that it can be offered over the Internet and by email or post without a therapist's guidance. Researchers in the Netherlands reviewed 14 studies into the effectiveness of brief personalized feedback covering a total of 3,682 people. Nine of the studies involved students, four involved members of the general adult population and one took place in the workplace. The review found that for every eight people who received the feedback one cut back on their drinking, a result similar to that when doctors or nurses saw patients. The feedback also had the advantage of being seen as less obtrusive and stigmatising and more convenient.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE52C59A20090313?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Depression and heart disease

There is an increasing amount of evidence for a link between depression and heart disease. A study of 63,469 women by researchers at Columbia University Medical Centre asked them whether they had any symptoms of depression or used antidepressants. None of the women had any symptoms of heart disease at the start of the study but they were followed between 1992 and 2004 to see if they developed any problems. The study found that the women with the worst depression and those who were taking antidepressants were at higher risk of 'sudden cardiac death' (SCD) and 'fatal heart disease' and women with clinical depression were more than twice as likely to experience SCD. A significant part of the heightened risk was due to the fact that risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and smoking were more common among the women with depression.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090309191852.htm

Popularity and prosperity

When Homer Simpson advised Bart that 'there's nothing more important in life than being popular,' he could have been on to something. Popularity at school could lead to prosperity later in life, according to a new study by researchers at the Institute for Social and Economic Research. They analysed data from a long-term study of people in Wisconsin who were asked, as children, to name their three best friends in their class at school. 35 years later the participants were asked about their earnings. Those children who received the most nominations were more likely to earn more as an adult. Each extra friend nomination was associated with a 2% higher wage and there was a 10% earnings difference between the bottom fifth and the top fifth of the popularity range. Early family environment and the type and size of school played a significant part in shaping friendship networks.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090309171922.htm

Bipolar by inheritance

Many mental-health problems have a strong hereditary element and bipolar disorder is one of them. A study of 1,015 people by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh compared the children of people with bipolar disorder to those whose parents were unaffected. The children of parents with bipolar disorder were 13 times more likely to develop the problem themselves and 5 times more likely to develop another mood disorder. Children of two parents with bipolar disorder were 3.6 times more likely to have bipolar themselves than children with one parent with the condition.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE52344Z20090304?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Aluminium and Alzheimer's

There are a large number of potential risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and one environmental factor that has been linked with a greater risk of the condition is aluminium. French researchers have been following a group of older people over 15 years to investigate the links between aluminium and silica in drinking water and the risk of cognitive decline, dementia and Alzheimer's disease. An intake of 0.1 mg of aluminium or more per day was linked to a 2.26x greater risk of dementia. However, silica, which is thought to either stop aluminium being absorbed by the body in the first place or to encourage its excretion, reduced the risk of dementia. For every 10mg per day intake of silica the risk of developing dementia dropped by 11%.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE52361D20090304?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Trouble and strife and heart disease

Marital strife could be a risk factor for heart disease; but only for women. Researchers at the University of Utah studied more than 300 middle-aged couples all of whom had been married for 20 years or more. The couples answered questions about their relationship and mental state and had their waist, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood-sugar measured. Those women who experienced a high level of conflict and discord within their marriage had higher levels of depression, larger waists and higher blood pressure, cholesterol and blood-sugar. Men did not seem to be affected in these ways by marital discord.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE5240WS20090305?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&sp=true

Overtime? Just say no!

Many people work longer hours than the traditional nine-to-five, but could they be damaging their brainpower? A Finnish study of 2,214 middle-aged civil servants in the UK asked them to complete five standard tests of cognitive function at the beginning of the study, and again five years later. It found that people who worked 55 or more hours a week scored lower on a vocabulary test at the beginning and end of the study, and showed a greater decline in their problem-solving ability. The study took into account the kind of jobs the workers did, their education, and medical conditions like high blood pressure and heart disease. The employees who worked longer hours tended to have higher stress levels, slept less and drank more than those who worked fewer hours but even this did not fully account for their quicker rate of cognitive decline.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE5245P620090305?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&sp=true

PTSD and suicide risk

A study of 1,698 young adults (average age 21) by researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, found that while 75% of them had been exposed to a traumatic event only 8% went on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 10% of those who had developed PTSD had attempted suicide, compared to only 2% of those who had been exposed to trauma but had not developed PTSD, and 5% of those who had never been exposed to trauma. After taking into account factors such as depression, alcohol and drug abuse the young adults who had developed PTSD had a 2.7x greater risk of making a suicide attempt. The researchers concluded that it was the development of PTSD not the trauma itself that led to the increase in suicide risk.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE5245UR20090305?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Optimism and mortality

Some people have a more optimistic view of life than others. A study of 100,000 older (over 50) women in the U.S. which has been following their progress since 1994 has found that those who view the world through rose-tinted spectacles are also likely to live longer. The optimistic women were 14% less likely to die of any cause and 30% less likely to die of heart disease within eight years. The optimists were also less likely to have high blood pressure, diabetes or to smoke. The researchers - from the University of Pittsburgh - also looked at a group of women who were highly mistrustful of other people. These women were 16% more likely to die over the course of the study and 23% more likely to die from cancer.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE5247NO20090305?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&sp=true

Fathers' age and childhood IQ

People in Western countries are increasingly having children later in life. For women having children at an older age can increase the risk of them having Down's syndrome but a number of studies are now suggesting that older fatherhood could carry risks too. Recent studies have linked older fatherhood to autism and schizophrenia and a study of 33,437 children born between 1959 and 1965 has suggested that it could result in a lower IQ as well. The study - carried out by researchers in Australia but based on data from children in the U.S. - tested the children's sensory discrimination, hand-eye coordination, reading, spelling and arithmetic at 8 months (presumably this was only their sensory discrimination and hand-eye coordination!), four and seven. The study found that the older the father the more likely the child was to have lower scores on the test. There was no link between mother's age and children's IQ. The researchers thought that this might be because while the older women were more likely to be able to provide a supportive environment for their children there could be a decline in the quality of men's sperm as they get older.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE5282SN20090309?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&sp=true

Power really can go to people's heads

We often speak about power going to people's heads and a series of experiments carried out by researchers at Stanford University, the London Business School and Northwestern University in the U.S. has shown that this might actually be true. In the experiments some of the participants were asked to recall an experience of holding power or assumed a position of power in a role-playing exercise while others were alloted a subordinate role. In each experiment power led to a perceived control over outcomes that were actually beyond the control of the participants. In one experiment participants were rewarded for predicting the outcome of the roll of a dice. All the participants in the 'power' group rolled the dice themselves compared to only 70% of the participants in the subordinate roles. Despite the fact that it made absolutely no difference who rolled the dice the participants in the 'power,' group had the illusion that they were able to control it.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090303171451.htm

Hostility and weight gain

Hostility* is a psychological concept that is different to - but that overlaps to some extent with - the everyday use of the word. Previous studies have linked hostility to heart disease, high blood pressure and a greater overall risk of death and new research has suggested that it is also linked to weight gain as well. A study, carried out by French researchers, of 6,484 men and women in the U.K. measured the participants' hostility at the start of the study and tracked their weight over the following 19 years. At the start of the study both men and women with higher hostility levels weighed more. The participants' weight rose over the course of the study but while the relationship between weight and hostility remained constant in women hostility was found to accelerate weight gain in men. This could be because hostile people might be less likely to follow healthy-eating and exercise advice or because they are more likely to be depressed which, in itself, can lead to weight gain.


http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE51Q5MQ20090227?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

*for a definition of the psychological term hostility see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostility

New research on treating dual diagnosis

People who are addicted to drugs often have other mental-health problems as well, including depression and anxiety; something psychologists call dual diagnosis. Integrated psychological treatment aims to treat both drug addiction and other mental-health problems at the same time on the basis that people's anxiety and depression may contribute towards their drug problem. Dr Morten Hesse of the University of Aarhus in Copenhagen carried out a review of the research into the effectiveness of this approach. He found that in people who were depressed integrated psychological treatment produced a higher percentage of drug-free days, less depression and more patients sticking with their treatment. However, there was little backing for the integrated treatment of drug abuse and anxiety with some studies showing that it produced worse outcomes. This could be because some treatments for anxiety involve a gradual exposure to the things that make people stressed; an exposure that could lead to people taking drugs again if they have not completely recovered from their addiction. Dr Hesse recommended that the anxiety treatment should be deferred until people were further recovered from their drug addiction.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE5214PQ20090302?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

Impulsiveness and gambling: from the kindergarten to the casino

Being impulsive as a child is associated with a number of problems later in life including delinquency and dropping out of school and mental-health and addiction problems in adulthood and now a Canadian study of 163 children has suggested that it could also be linked to problem gambling. The children's nursery teachers were interviewed about their inattentiveness, distractibility and hyperactivity and then the children were followed up six years later and asked whether they played cards, bought lottery tickets or gambled with friends. An increase of one point on the scale used to measure impulsiveness in the children at nursery was linked to a 25% increase in gambling involvement by year 6. People who start gambling in adolescence are more likely to have severe gambling problems as adults.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE52165S20090302?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&sp=true

Alcohol and depression

Longitudinal studies are studies in which large groups of people are tracked over a long period of time. One such study in New Zealand followed 1,055 children over 25 years and looked into the links between heavy drinking and depression. By the time the children had got to 17-18 19.4% of them were either abusing or dependent on alcohol and 18.2% were diagnosed with depression. People who fulfilled the criteria for alcohol abuse or dependency were nearly twice as likely to have depression as well, a relationship that held true even when other risk factors such as the use of cannabis and other illegal drugs, falling in with a bad lot (or 'affiliation with deviant peers,' in psychology-speak), unemployment and having a criminal partner were taken into account. The researchers thought the link could either be because alcohol triggers off a genetic weakness for depression or because alcohol itself is a depressant.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE52166U20090302?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Schizophrenia: the case of the 49 genes

Scientists at Imperial College London have been comparing samples of brain tissue donated by people with and without schizophrenia. They analysed 51 samples altogether, 28 of which were from people with schizophrenia. The study found 49 genes that worked differently in people with schizophrenia, many of them involved in the chemical signalling between brain cells. The research suggests that abnormalities in the way in which cells signal each other are involved in the development of the condition.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE52239020090303?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&sp=true

Nice research if you can get it ...

Taking part in scientific research doesn't always involve giving blood samples or filling out questionnaires. 80 lucky students at Radboud University in Holland got to spend time watching films, sitting on the sofa and drinking beer, wine or soft drinks. They were taking part in a study into how watching films and adverts featuring alcohol affects people's drinking. Some watched a film with drinking in and commercials featuring alcohol while others watched non-alcoholic films and commercials. The students who saw alcohol on screen drank, on average, 1.5 more bottles of beer than the other group.

You can find out more about this research at

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE52301C20090304?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

What do heroin addicts want and fear? The same as everyone else

Many current theories about drug addiction suggest that addicts are motivated to take drugs by a desire to experience the pleasure they get by taking them and a fear of experiencing the unpleasant withdrawal symptoms of stopping taking them. Several studies have found that the use of alcohol and other addictive drugs is increased when access to other pleasures is reduced and, conversely, when the availability of other pleasures is increased drug use declines. Other theories look at why people start taking drugs in the first place. One theory is that people's views about the rewards of various activities and the costs associated with them come from their families in their childhood and their peers during their adolescence when people are vulnerable to falling in with a bad lot. According to this theory drug addicts should have a very different view of the rewards and costs of different activities than other people. Researchers from the South Essex Parnership NHS Trust and Cambridge University examined this theory by comparing 104 heroin addicts with 104 members of the general public. Both groups were asked to rate 21 pleasurable activities and 22 damaging and disruptive conditions in order of importance. The drug addicts reported that they got more pleasure from children, friends, sex and a good meal than heroin and they rated heroin addiction as the second most damaging and disruptive condition after lung cancer. The rankings of both groups were highly comparable and the researchers concluded that the values and priorities of the heroin addicts were very similar to those of the general population.

Luty, J. and Lawrence, A. - Preferred activities of opiate dependent people Journal of Substance Use February 2009, 14(1), 61-69

Aggression, alcohol and expectancy

Aggression linked to alcohol is a big problem. Its causes can include the physical environment, who people are with and how drunk people are. One factor in people's psychological make-up that makes them more likely to become violent when drunk is what psychologists call their "alcohol-aggression outcome expectancy." Put simply, if people expect to become violent when they get drunk they are more likely to end up being violent. A study of 122 students by researchers at Nottingham University looked into the links between heavy drinking, people's natural propensity to become aggressive and their propensity to become aggressive when drunk - a measure which included their alcohol-aggression outcome expectancy. The study found that higher levels of drinking and higher innate aggression both significantly predicted a tendency to become violent when drunk but that innate aggression was the stronger predictor.

McMurran, Mary - The relationships between alcohol use, trait aggression, and the alcohol-aggression outcome expectancy in male students Journal of Substance Use February 2009, 14(1), 1-9

Childhood temperament and adult sick leave

Mental-health problems and 'medically-unexplained,' musculoskeletal problems (which can themselves be a symptom of mental distress) are the main reasons people are off sick from work. People's perception of their work environment has been linked to a tendency to take time off sick but objective measurement of the workplace does not show this link. In other words it is what people think about their work, rather than the work itself that makes them more or less likely to take time off work. A study of 7,183 people in Aberdeen looked at the links between people's temperament as children and how likely they were to be signed off work sick as adults. They found that the children whose teachers said they 'often complains of aches and pains,' or 'often appears miserable or unhappy,' were much more likely to be permanently sick or disabled as adults.

Henderson, Max, Hotopf, Matthew and Leon, David A. - Childhood temperament and long-term sickness absence in adult life British Journal of Psychiatry March 2009, 194(3), 220-223