Retirement can reduce depression andfatigue, a new study asserts. Researchers followed French workers for 14 years, seven before retirement and seven after. Study participants filled out a detailed questionnaire describing their health and mental status annually. The study, published in the British Medical Journal, found that in the year immediately after retirement, the participants reported [...]
A body of research that finds being grateful improves well-being also shows that children who express gratitude achieve more. Adults who feel grateful have a more positive attitude than those who do not. They’re also less likely to be depressed or abuse alcohol. (Wall Street Journal, 11/23/10)
New Army statistics show that twice as many off-duty National Guard soldiers took their own lives this year than in 2009. But suicides among Army soldiers on active duty appear to be leveling off, new Army statistics show. Eighty-six non-active-duty Guard completed suicide in the first 10 months of 2010, compared with 48 such suicides [...]
The rate of eating disorders among children and teens has risen over the last few decades, a federal report finds. Some of the sharpest increases occurred in boys and minority youths, according to an analysis by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. It found that that hospitalizations for eating disorders jumped by 119 percent [...]
Relatively few children with rapidly shifting moods and high energy have bipolar disorder, though such symptoms are commonly associated with the disorder. Instead, most of these children have other types of mental disorders, according to an NIMH-funded study published online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry on October 5, 2010. Background Some [...]
Depression and diabetes are closely linked and one can cause the other condition, researchers say. They followed nearly 55,000 nurses over ten years and documented their conditions of depression and diabetes through questionnaires. The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found a 17 percent greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes among the [...]
People who inherit two copies of a particular gene (called DAT1 10) are apparently at greater risk for developing attention deficit-hyperactive disorder (ADHD) than people who inherit another form (DAT1 19), researchers have found. Brain scans conducted by neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical School show that a gene nominally tied to ADHD leads to increased [...]
Depression may be linked to increased activity in the gene that regulates the body’s 24-hour clock, a new study suggests. Researchers, whose findings are published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, collected blood samples from 30 people with a history of depression and 30 people who had no history of the condition and then analyzed [...]
The immune system’s response to stress or illness may be linked to depression, a new animal study suggests. Researchers, who presented their findings at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, found that when mice had heightened immune response—as a person would if they were fighting an illness or stress—they were likely to run [...]
Veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) appear to be at higher risk for heart disease, researchers say. The finding is based upon a review of electronic medical records of 286,194 veterans, most of them male with an average age 63 who had been seen at Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers in southern California [...]
Hospitalization rates for psychiatric disorders among children age 5-13 nearly doubled between 1996 and 2007, according to an analysis of data. During the same period, psychiatric hospitalizations for adolescents rose by 42 percent; the rate for adults increased by less than 10 percent. The reasons for the increases are an unclear, according to the analysis. [...]
One in five Americans—or more than 45 million adults—had a mental health condition last year, government researchers reported last week. Of that number, 11 million had a serious illness. But fewer than one in four received treatment for their condition, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) said. Young adults aged 18 to [...]
Depression treatments appear to be less effective in helping poor and working class individuals be productive at work, a new study asserts. Researchers reviewed the cases of 239 patients with major depression who took part in the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program from 1982 to 1986. After being [...]
Young offenders are more likely to have suffered a traumatic brain injury compared with the rest of society, according to new research. A study of 197 young male offenders found about half of them reported having had a childhood neurological injury—three times higher than in non-offenders. Multiple head injuries were linked with carrying out more [...]
A video game called Tetris is effective in treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder by reducing flashbacks of traumatic events, a new study finds. Researchers had 60 subjects watch a movie with images of traumatic injuries, which is an established method of studying effects of trauma. After the film a third played Tetris for 10 minutes while [...]
Women who were victims of childhood abuse may be at increased risk of developing diabetes in adulthood, researchers report. A survey of 67,853 U.S. nurses found that 54 percent reported physical abuse and 34 percent reported sexual abuse before age 18. Moderate and severe physical and sexual abuse was associated with a 26 percent to [...]
Psychologists caution that stress may become a public health crisis New York — Findings from the American Psychological Association’s (APA) newly released 2010 Stress in America survey raise red flags about the long-term impact that chronic stress could have on our physical and emotional health and the health of our families, psychologists said today. The [...]
Young children in military families are about 10 percent more likely to see a doctor for a mental health problem when a parent is deployed than when the parent is at home, researchers report. Visits for mental health problems were the only kind to rise during deployment. The study, which is reported in the journal [...]
WASHINGTON — People aren’t very accurate at predicting how good or bad they’ll feel after an event — such as watching their team lose the big game or getting a flat-screen TV. But afterwards, they “misremember” what they predicted, revising their prognostications after the fact to match how they actually feel, according to new research. [...]
Infants that are fussy when they are three to four weeks old are more likely to develop childhood mental health problems including anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and behavior problems, according to researchers. They administered questionnaires to mothers of 111 infants between 1999 and 2002. Mothers rated their babies on fussiness by answering questions about [...]