Pregnant women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) before, during or after pregnancy often suffer adverse health effects, including depression, post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and chronic mental illness. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found that women who experience intimate partner violence are more likely to seek health care for their infants than non-abused women. Awareness of mothers with frequent infant health concerns can help health care providers identify and provide aid to women in abusive relationships.

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Siblings of Mentally Disabled Face Own Lifelong Challenges, According To Researchers

People who have a sibling with a mental illness are more likely to suffer episodes of depression at some point in their lives, say researchers who analyzed four decades of data. Additionally, they found people with a sibling with low IQ are more likely to live near that brother or sister – but be somewhat emotionally detached from that sibling.
"So little is known about the impact that a person with low IQ or mental illness has on the psychological and social development of his or her siblings, especially beyond childhood," said the study's lead author, Julie Lounds Taylor, PhD. "Our findings highlight the need for families of the mentally ill, specifically siblings, to be more aware of their own mental health needs throughout their lifetimes.

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Therapy hope for eating disorders

More people with eating disorders could benefit from "talking therapies" which aim to release them from obsessive feelings, say UK researchers.
They said a specially-created form of cognitive behavioral therapy might work in four out of five cases.
A 154-person American Journal of Psychiatry study, by the University of Oxford, found most achieved "complete and lasting" improvement.
At present, the treatment is officially recommended only for bulimia patients.
Some statistics suggest that more than a million people in the UK are affected by some kind of eating disorder, the best known types being anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

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Group therapy 'beats depression'

Group-taught meditation is as effective as staying on drug treatments for stopping people slipping back into depression, say UK scientists. Compared to one-to-one sessions, or medication, "mindfulness-based cognitive therapy" (MBCT) is cheaper for the NHS, they say. The trial of 123 people found similar relapse rates in those having group therapy and those taking drugs. The study was published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Recent years have seen much more evidence that so-called "talking therapies" can be as effective as drugs in alleviating mild to moderate depression, and health secretary Alan Johnson recently announced millions in new funding for the treatments.

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Why Are Some People More Susceptible To Depression Than Others?

Research conducted by a team in Switzerland suggests that a family of genes involved in regulating the expression of other genes in the brain is responsible for helping us deal with external inputs such as stress. Their results, appearing in the journal Neuron, may also give a clue to why some people are more susceptible to anxiety or depression than others. The researchers from EPFL and the National Competence Center "Frontiers in Genetics" studied the role of a family of genes known as KRAB-ZFP, which acts like a group of genetic censors, selectively silencing the expression of other genes. These repressors make up about 2% of our genetic material, but little is known about how this "epigenetic" silencing process works, what the long-term consequences are, and even which genes are targeted. (Epigenetic refers to a change in gene expression that is caused by something other than a change in the underlying DNA sequence.)

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Mix of Taiji, Cognitive Therapy And Support Groups Benefits Those With Dementia

Those diagnosed with early stage dementia can slow their physical, mental and psychological decline by taking part in therapeutic programs that combine counseling, support groups, Taiji and qigong, researchers report. Some of the benefits of this approach are comparable to those achieved with anti-dementia medications. Most of the research on dementia and most of the dollars up until this point has gone into pharmacological interventions," said Sandy Burgener, a professor of nursing at the University of Illinois and lead author on the study. "But we have evidence now from studies like mine that show that other approaches can make a difference in the way people live and can possibly also impact their cognitive function.

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Stress-related Disorders Affect Brain’s Processing of Memory

Researchers using functional MRI (fMRI) have determined that the circuitry in the area of the brain responsible for suppressing memory is dysfunctional in patients suffering from stress-related psychiatric disorders. Results of the study will be presented December 3 at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). For patients with major depression and other stress-related disorders, traumatic memories are a source of anxiety," said Nivedita Agarwal, M.D., radiology resident at the University of Udine in Italy, where the study is being conducted, and research fellow at the Brain Imaging Center of McLean Hospital, Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "Because traumatic memories are not adequately suppressed by the brain, they continue to interfere with the patient's life."

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Chanting could help us all live longer,says medic

Chanting has been associated with certain religions for centuries, but many now believe it has a role to play in improving both our physical and mental health. Dr Clive Wood, who will run a 10-week course next year to teach people how to chant, explains its origins, its benefits and how to do it. ASK most people what they mean by chanting and they might think of a choir of monks, or perhaps a football crowd. But recent research has found that chanting has a more surprising effect that has nothing to do with either religion or sport it can also help to keep us healthy physical and mentally.

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Psychiatric Disorders Common among College-age Individuals

Psychiatric disorders appear to be common among 18- to 24-year-olds, with overall rates similar among those attending or not attending college, according to a new report. Almost half of college-aged individuals meet criteria for substance abuse, personality disorders or another mental health condition during a one-year period, but only one-fourth of those seek treatment.

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Symptoms of Depression Associated With Increase In Abdominal Fat

Older adults with symptoms of depression appear more likely to gain abdominal fat, but not overall fat, over a five-year period, according to a new report. About 10 percent to 15 percent of older adults have symptoms of depression, according to background information in the article. "Depression has been associated with the onset of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cardiac mortality [death]," the authors write. "To better prevent occurrence of these major disabling and life-threatening diseases, more insight into underlying mechanisms relating depression to these disorders is needed."

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Lower Childhood IQ Associated With Higher Risk of Adult Mental Disorders

Researchers have hypothesized that people with lower IQs may have a higher risk of adult mental disorders, but few studies have looked at the relationship between low childhood IQ and psychiatric disorders later in life. In a new, long-term study covering more than three decades, researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) found that children with lower IQs showed an increased risk of developing psychiatric disorders as adults, including schizophrenia, depression and generalized anxiety disorder. Lower IQ was also associated with psychiatric disorders that were more persistent and an increased risk of having two or more diagnoses at age 32.

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Mental Illness among the Homeless

Homeless people in Western countries have substantially higher rates of mental health problems than the general population, according to results from a systematic review and meta-analysis published in PLoS Medicine. Searching for studies over the past four decades containing data on the prevalence of mental disorders in homeless people, Seena Fazel and colleagues of the University of Oxford identified 29 studies involving 5,684 homeless individuals based in the US, UK, mainland Europe, and Australia. Combining the data from the surveys, the researchers found that the prevalence of serious mental disorders was raised compared with expected rates in the general population.

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