Human beings have a tremendous propensity for misusing almost any and every technology ever invented.
How people are exposed to light over the day and night can increase depression risk by 30 percent — and decrease it by 20 percent.
The question predicts depression, anxiety and substance abuse risk.
The question predicts depression, anxiety and substance abuse risk.
Questions about a person’s family history of mental illness are one of the quickest ways of predicting their risk of mental illness.
A 30-minute questionnaire about family history of depression, anxiety and substance abuse can predict approximate risk and severity for people, research finds.
Mental illnesses are among the most heritable disorders, so the result comes as no surprise.
However, the fact that the severity of people’s mental illness could be predicted is more novel.
Professor Terrie Moffitt, the study’s first author, said:
“There are lots of kids with behavior problems who may outgrow them on their own without medication, versus the minority with mental illnesses that need treatment.
Family history is the quickest and cheapest way to sort that out.”
The study examined 981 New Zealanders born in a single hospital in 1972 and 1973.
In what is known as the ‘Dunedin study’, these children have been tracked since they were 3-years-old.
The researchers found that more severe family histories of depression, anxiety, and substance dependence predicted worse mental health problems in the future.
The more severe the family history, the more severe the children’s problems.
Because of the stigma attached to mental health problems, it can be difficult to get someone’s family history.
The study’s authors suggest a more indirect line of questioning:
“Has anyone on the list of family members ever had a sudden spell or attack in which they felt panicked?” If the interviewee came up with a name, they were then asked, “Did this person have several attacks of extreme fear or panic, even though there was nothing to be afraid of?”
The study was published in the journal Psychological Medicine (Moffitt et al., 2007).
Personality, though, changes how people interpret and deal with the things that happen to them.
Personality, though, changes how people interpret and deal with the things that happen to them.
People who are extraverted are less likely to suffer mental health problems, personality research finds.
Extraverts are typically outgoing, talkative and energetic and they tend to have more positive emotions.
However, people who are aggressive and neurotic — a tendency to worry and be emotionally unstable — are at higher risk of mental health problems.
Neuroticism is characterised by negative thinking in a range of areas.
Neurotic people are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, as well as drink and drug problems.
Neuroticism, like other aspects of personality, is highly heritable — in other words, it is in a person’s genes.
However, neuroticism can be reduced by psychotherapy.
Neurotic people can learn to think differently, use their neuroticism creatively and perhaps reduce their neuroticism by falling in love.
The conclusions come from almost 600 participants in Switzerland.
They were regularly interviewed from the age of around 19 in 1979, until they were in their fifties in 2008.
The researchers asked them about their families, mental health, personality, any problems with drugs and major life events like relationship break-ups, job losses and so on.
People who are aggressive, neurotic and introverted are particularly at risk, the study’s authors write:
“…persons scoring high on aggressiveness and neuroticism and low on extraversion had an approximately 6 times increased risk for internalising disorder [like depression and anxiety] compared to persons scoring low on aggressiveness and neuroticism and high on extraversion.”
Of course, personality is only one factor that affects whether a person might experience a mental health problem.
Some people’s lives are much more difficult than others.
The researchers found that people who experienced job losses and relationship break-ups were more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety.
Personality, though, changes how people interpret and deal with the things that happen to them.
The study’s authors conclude:
“Our findings stress the fundamental role of personality, mainly neuroticism, for the occurrence, persistence and severity of psychopathology.”
The study was published in the journal European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience (Hengartner et al., 2017).
Fifty percent of people develop a mental health disorder at some point in their lives, the researchers found.
Companion animals — typically dogs and cats — are sometimes thought beneficial for those who are depressed, anxious or lonely.
Common Tourette tics include blinking, coughing, sniffing and facial movements — these usually first appear during adolescence.
Almost one-in-five suffer from mental illness, the study found.
Almost one-in-five suffer from mental illness, the study found.
A healthy diet is linked to good mental health, whatever your age and background, research finds.
People who avoid unhealthy foods — like fried and processed foods — have fewer symptoms of psychological distress.
Only around one-in-ten people in the US eat the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables.
The recommended amount in the US is 1½ to 2 cups per day of fruit and 2 to 3 cups per day of vegetables.
In contrast, a poor diet is linked to poor mental health: sugar and processed grain are thought to be among the main culprits.
Dr Jim E. Banta, the study’s first author, said:
“This and other studies like it could have big implications for treatments in behavorial medicine.
Perhaps the time has come for us to take a closer look at the role of diet in mental health, because it could be that healthy diet choices contribute to mental health.
More research is needed before we can answer definitively, but the evidence seems to be pointing in that direction.”
The study included data from over 240,000 people in California, which was collected across ten years.
The results revealed that 13% of people experienced moderate psychological distress, with 4% in severe psychological distress.
The study’s authors conclude that their study is…
“…additional evidence that public policy and clinical practice should more explicitly aim to improve diet quality among those struggling with mental health.
[…]dietary interventions for people with mental illness should especially target young adults, those with less than 12 years of education, and obese individuals.”
A previous study found that the more fruit and vegetables people eat, the better their state of mind.
Eating just one extra portion of fruit and vegetables per day is enough to measurably improve mental well-being.
Just one portion has the same positive effect as going for a walk on 8 extra days a month.
The study was published in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition (Banta et al., 2019).
This is an indicator of brain health and a better functioning memory.
This is an indicator of brain health and a better functioning memory.
Feeling younger than your age is a sign of brain health, research finds.
Brain scans showed that those who felt younger than their age had increased gray matter in critical brain regions.
They also did better on memory tests and were less likely to report depressive symptoms.
It may be that people are able to intuitively sense their own brain aging.
Professor Jeanyung Chey, who led the study, said:
“Why do some people feel younger or older than their real age?
Some possibilities include depressive states, personality differences or physical health.
However, no-one had investigated brain aging processes as a possible reason for differences in subjective age.”
Many people feel older or younger than their actual age — psychologists call this subjective age.
The researchers asked 68 healthy people aged 59 to 84 years-old about their actual and subjective age.
Brain scans measured the amount of gray matter in various brain regions.
Professor Chey explained the results:
“We found that people who feel younger have the structural characteristics of a younger brain.
Importantly, this difference remains robust even when other possible factors, including personality, subjective health, depressive symptoms, or cognitive functions, are accounted for.”
On the other hand, feeling older could be a sign that it is time to start making changes to improve brain health.
Professor Chey said:
“If somebody feels older than their age, it could be sign for them to evaluate their lifestyle, habits and activities that could contribute to brain aging and take measures to better care for their brain health.”
The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience (Kwak et al., 2018).
How schizophrenia and high intelligence are linked.
How schizophrenia and high intelligence are linked.
High IQ could protect against schizophrenia amongst those at genetic risk from developing the condition, a study finds.
The findings are in stark contrast to the conventional wisdom that those with high intelligence are at increased risk of developing schizophrenia.
A large study has found that intelligence actually has a protective effect.
The study’s lead author, Dr Kenneth S. Kendler, said:
“If you’re really smart, your genes for schizophrenia don’t have much of a chance of acting.”
The study was conducted by researchers at Lund University in Sweden and Virginia Commonwealth University.
It included data from 1.2 million Swedish males born between 1951 and 1975 whose IQ and any hospitalisations for schizophrenia were tracked over 24 years.
Dr. Kendler explained the results:
“What really predicted risk for schizophrenia is how much you deviate from the predicted IQ that we get from your relatives.
If you’re quite a bit lower, that carries a high risk for schizophrenia.
Not achieving the IQ that you should have based on your genetic constitution and family background seems to most strongly predispose for schizophrenia.”
It may be that factors which reduce intelligence, such as childhood trauma, can also contribute to the risk of schizophrenia.
There was no evidence that, for the most intelligence people, there was a higher risk of schizophrenia:
“The question is, might we see some upward bump at that high level of intelligence where really brilliant people have increased risk for the disease and we show no such trend.”
The study was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry (Kendler et al., 2014).
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