Psychiatry / Psychology
Metabolic syndrome: a risk factor for depression?
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A cluster of heart disease and diabetes risk factors known as the metabolic syndrome may be a “predisposing factor for the development of depression,” Finnish researchers report.
Dr. Hannu Koponen of Kuopio University in Kuopio, Finland, and colleagues followed a large group of middle-aged men and women living in central Finland for 7 years. At the start of the study in 1998, they checked for symptoms of depression using a standard instrument called the Beck Depression Inventory. They also assessed the presence of metabolic syndrome in the subjects, using established criteria.
Components of metabolic syndrome include high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, low levels of “good” HDL cholesterol, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and excess belly fat.
Different use of brain areas may explain memory problems in schizophrenics
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The enduring memory problems that people with schizophrenia experience may be related to differences in how their brains process information, new research has found.
The Public Library of Science published the report by Vanderbilt University researchers Junghee Lee, Bradley S. Folley, John Gore and Sohee Park in the online journal PLOS One March 12.
“We found that schizophrenic patients use different areas of their brain than healthy individuals do for working memory, which is an active form of short-term memory,” Park said.
Finally, a reason to start drinking alcohol
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People who do not drink alcohol may finally have a reason to start—a study published on Friday shows non-drinkers who begin taking the occasional tipple live longer and are less likely to develop heart disease.
People who started drinking in middle age were 38 percent less likely to have a heart attack or other serious heart event than abstainers—even if they were overweight, had diabetes, high blood pressure or other heart risks, Dr. Dana King of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and colleagues found.
US House OKs bill backing mental health coverage
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A bill to require health insurers to provide the same level of coverage for mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction as for other ailments was passed on Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The White House made clear its opposition to the bill, saying it favored a less-expansive version passed unanimously by the Senate last September.
Known as mental health parity, the idea is making progress in Congress after a decade-long crusade by advocates for the mentally ill who say insurers can shortchange people with mental conditions ranging from depression to schizophrenia.
Depression, anxiety tied to unhealthy habits
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Depression and anxiety are associated with obesity and poor health behaviors like smoking, drinking, and inactivity, new research indicates.
“Depression and anxiety are serious mental health conditions and without treatment may assume a chronic course,” Dr. Tara W. Strine who led the study told Reuters Health. “Given this, it is important to take depression and anxiety seriously and to seek medical care when needed.”
Strine, from the division of adult and community health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta and colleagues analyzed data from 217,379 U.S. adults who took part in the 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System—a large telephone survey that monitors the prevalence of key health behaviors.
Mother-daughter conflict, low serotonin level may be deadly combination
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A combination of negative mother-daughter relationships and low blood levels of serotonin, an important brain chemical for mood stability, may be lethal for adolescent girls, leaving them vulnerable to engage in self-harming behaviors such as cutting themselves.
New University of Washington research indicates that these two factors in combination account for 64 percent of the difference among adolescents, primarily girls, who engage in self-harming behaviors and those who do not.
“Girls who engage in self harm are at high risk for attempting suicide, and some of them are dying,” said Theodore Beauchaine, a UW associate professor of psychology and co-author of a new study. “There is no better predictor of suicide than previous suicide attempts.”
Drinking and aggression among university students often depends on the context
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* Aggression and violence among university students often involve alcohol consumption.
* A new study has found that both drinking levels and drinking contexts are important.
* Aggression is more likely when students drink at a fraternity, sorority or campus residence, and when a partner is present.
* Attending parties also increases the risk of aggression, especially for women.
A significant proportion of university students experience violence, under circumstances that often involve alcohol. A new study has found that drinking at a fraternity, sorority or campus residence increases the likelihood of aggression, and that attending parties can especially increase aggression for women.
Results are published in the March issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
Depression, Anxiety Are Linked to Obesity, Unhealthy Habits
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People who suffer from depression or anxiety are much more likely to be obese and to smoke — both major risk factors for chronic disease — according to a large nationwide study.
“The relationship between obesity and depression is plausible for several reasons,” said lead author Tara Strine, of the Division of Adult and Community Health in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “First, some patients who are overweight may be prone to depression because of societal attitudes towards obesity. Also, while depression can lead to decreased appetite and weight loss in some individuals, others eat more and gain weight.”
The study, in the March/April issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry, compiled data from more than 200,000 adults in 38 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. All participated in the 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a large telephone survey that monitors the prevalence of key health behaviors.
Mental distress may up stroke risk
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Increased psychological distress, as measured on a standardized scale, is linked to an elevated risk of having a stroke, according to a large study. By contrast, major depression, either recent or lifetime, does not increase the risk.
The results “showed that those people who reported the most psychological distress at baseline had a 40 percent increased risk of ... stroke compared to those who were least psychologically distressed,” Dr. Paul G. Surtees told Reuters Health.
Effects of childhood abuse last a lifetime: study
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Older people who experienced sexual or physical abuse as children suffer from worse mental and physical health than their peers who weren’t abused, Australian researchers report.
“The effects of childhood abuse appear to last a lifetime,” Dr. Brian Draper of the University of New South Wales in Sydney and colleagues write. “Further research is required to improve understanding of the pathways that lead to such deleterious outcomes and ways to minimize its late-life effects.”
Studies have linked abuse in childhood to impaired physical and mental health in a person’s adult years, but there is little information on how a history of abuse might affect older people, explain Draper and colleagues in a report in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Does gingko biloba affect memory?
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Taking the supplement ginkgo biloba had no clear-cut benefit on the risk of developing memory problems, according to a study published in the February 27, 2008, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The three-year study involved 118 people age 85 and older with no memory problems. Half of the participants took ginkgo biloba extract three times a day and half took a placebo. During the study, 21 people developed mild memory problems, or questionable dementia: 14 of those took the placebo and seven took the ginkgo extract. Although there was a trend favoring ginkgo, the difference between those who took gingko versus the placebo was not statistically significant.
The researchers made an interesting observation when they examined the data at the end of the trial. Taking into account whether people followed directions in taking the study pills, they found that people who reliably took the supplement had a 68 percent lower risk of developing mild memory problems than those who took the placebo. Without further study, it is unclear if this difference is real or just a chance occurrence.
Comparison of antipsychotic treatments in adolescents with schizophrenia
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There is a wealth of scientific literature available on the treatment of adults diagnosed with schizophrenia. However, there is a paucity of data to guide the treatment of children and adolescents with schizophrenia. “Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved the use of aripiprazole and risperidone for adolescents with schizophrenia, few controlled data are available to help guide clinicians regarding the management of children and adolescents with schizophrenia who fail to respond to these standard ‘first-line’ antipsychotic treatments,” according to Dr. Sanjiv Kumra. Dr. Kumra is one of the authors of a new study to be published in the March 1st issue of Biological Psychiatry, which was undertaken to help fill this gap in knowledge.
The authors recruited 39 children, 10-18 years of age, who had already failed to respond to at least two antipsychotic treatments, to participate in a 12-week, double-blind, randomized study – the most rigorous of clinical trial designs. After initial assessments, the patients received treatment with either clozapine or “high-dose” olanzapine (doses that exceed the package insert recommendations) and were monitored for improvement in their symptoms.
Persistence key to treat depressed teens
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Teenagers whose initial drug treatment fails to combat depression, which happens in 4 out of 10 cases, can be helped by switching medicine and adding psychotherapy, a U.S. study published on Tuesday said.
“The findings should be encouraging for families with a teen who has been struggling with depression for some time,” said Dr. David Brent of the University of Pittsburgh who headed the research.
“Even if a first attempt at treatment is unsuccessful, persistence will pay off. Being open to trying new evidence-based medications or treatment combinations is likely to result in improvement,” he added.
Anorexics Who Commit Suicide Use Extreme Methods, Leaving Little Doubt of Intent
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A disturbing new study, notable during this Eating Disorder Awareness Week, challenges assumptions that the high suicide rate among anorexics can be explained by compromised physical health that leads to death from the slightest attempt. Research to be published in the Journal of Affective Disorders shows that anorexics who are suicidal use highly lethal methods suggesting an overwhelming wish to die.
According to lead author, University of Vermont assistant professor of psychology Jill Holm-Denoma, while psychiatrists and other doctors have long observed that people with anorexia nervosa die by suicide at surprisingly high rates, there had been no data about what methods they were using to kill themselves. The assumption was often that these are people on the verge of death anyway; they are so malnourished and underweight that the smallest suicide attempt could easily lead to death.
New Model Helps Identify What Works in Mental Health Treatment
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In a race to achieve accountability and credibility, the mental health profession has looked to develop evidence-based treatments (EBTs)—psychotherapeutic procedures that have been shown in empirical research to work for the majority of patients.
The problem with EBTs, however, is that researchers often have multiple ways to measure improvement; things like reductions in symptoms, more harmonious relationships, or improved grades. Invariably, different ways of gauging outcomes yield inconsistent conclusions and this makes for a murky picture as researchers attempt to deem treatments as evidence-based or not.
But Andres De Los Reyes of the Institute for Juvenile Research and Alan Kazdin of Yale University believe they have developed a way to make sense of this information. In the February issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, they detail what they have dubbed “The Range of Possible Changes Model.”
