How Schizophrenics Around the World Describe the Voices They Hear. How we define mental illness is one of the most fraught issues in psychiatry; skeptics of the psychiatric establishment fear that broad definitions of mental illness could make people see their symptoms as more problematic than necessary. A small new paper in the British Journal of Psychiatry adds to the debate, offering a new perspective on how schizophrenia is experienced across cultures. Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann worked with a team of psychologists to interview 20 schizophrenics in three cities: San Mateo, California; Accra, Ghana; and Chennai, India. Most of the patients were in their thirties or forties and had been ill for years.
There were important similarities across the board—almost everyone reported a mix of positive and negative experiences with their voices—but there were several cross-cultural differences in how patients experienced and interpreted their symptoms. How Culture Affects Madness. More Maternal Mental Health Surveillance Is Needed. May 21, 2014 Wiley Maternal depression is more common at four years following childbirth than at any other time in the first 12 months after childbirth, and there needs to be a greater focus on maternal mental health, suggests a new study published today (21 May) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The study using data from 1507 women from six public hospitals in Melbourne, Australia, examines the prevalence of maternal depression from early pregnancy to four years postpartum. The researchers identify the possible risk factors for depressive symptoms at four years postpartum, including previous depression, relationship transitions, intimate partner violence and social adversity.
Questionnaires were completed at recruitment and at 3, 6, 12, 18 months postpartum and four years postpartum. Results show that almost one in three women reported depressive symptoms in the first four years after birth. John Thorp, BJOG Editor-in-chief added: Source: Wiley. Can Twitter be used to gauge the world's emotions? | Health News | Health Research | Diet & Weight Loss Tips | Health Products | Medicines & Drugs | TheHealthSite.com. Australian researchers unveiled on Tuesday a Twitter tool to map moods around the world in real-time to help improve the allocation of mental health services.
The online tool, called ‘We Feel’, analyses up to 32,000 tweets per minute — about 10 percent of all English-language tweets — for 600 words that are then linked to emotions such as love, joy, surprise, anger, sadness and fear. The data will be used to monitor the emotions of individuals and communities across different locations, and ‘ultimately predict when and where potentially life-saving services are required’, said lead researcher Helen Christensen of Australia’s Black Dog Institute, which researches and treats mood disorders such a depression. ‘The power of this information cannot be underestimated. Currently, mental health researchers and associated public health programmes use population data that can be over five years old,’ the professor and director of the institute added.
Mood swings during periods driving you crazy? Listening To Bipolar Disorder - Health News. University of Michigan Health System A smartphone app that monitors subtle qualities of a person’s voice during everyday phone conversations shows promise for detecting early signs of mood changes in people with bipolar disorder, a University of Michigan team reports. While the app still needs much testing before widespread use, early results from a small group of patients show its potential to monitor moods while protecting privacy. The researchers hope the app will eventually give people with bipolar disorder and their health care teams an early warning of the changing moods that give the condition its name. The technology could also help people with other conditions.
More patients, all taking part in the study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and facilitated by the Prechter Bipolar Research Fund at the U-M Depression Center, have already started to use the app on study-provided smartphones. How it works Results so far. Thehealthsite. Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have discovered a potential genetic variant in the asymptomatic individuals that may make brains more resilient against Alzheimer’s. ‘Most Alzheimer’s research is searching for genes that predict the disease, but we’re taking a different approach. We’re looking for genes that predict who among those with Alzheimer’s pathology will actually show clinical symptoms of the disease,’ principal investigator Timothy Hohman, Ph.D., a post-doctoral research fellow in the Center for Human Genetics Research and the Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer’s Center said.
The researchers used a marker of Alzheimer’s disease found in cerebrospinal fluid called phosphorylated tau. In brain cells, tau is a protein that stabilizes the highways of cellular transport in neurons. ‘It appears that certain individuals with a genetic predisposition toward a ‘bad’ neuroinflammatory response have neurodegeneration. What is Alzheimer’s? With inputs from ANI. ThriveOn Wants To Make Mental Health Care Affordable And Accessible. Since 1986, spending on mental health has equaled about one percent of the U.S. economy, or about $150 billion in 2009. So much is at stake, both financially and for the one in five Americans who have experienced a psychological issue, that it’s surprising how few tech companies focus on mental health.
A gradually growing roster of startups, however, want to make it easy for people who are struggling through an emotionally difficult time to find help. These include Y Combinator alum 7 Cups of Tea, Breakthrough, and Talktala. Now ThriveOn is getting ready to join that group. “Part of our mission is rebranding mental health. Affordable, Discreet Help ThriveOn was co-founded in 2012 by Foung, who studied psychology as an undergraduate at Stanford but ultimately decided not to become a clinical psychologist.
During their first meeting with Taylor, Foung and Letourneau first pitched a startup idea that would reduce the amount of paperwork mental health providers need to deal with. Mysask.com - Health News. TORONTO - Evelyn Burns-Weinrib never intended to stick around long enough to help fellow seniors fight depression. In fact, Burns-Weinrib planned to throw in the towel in her own battle with the difficult foe. A woman with depression in her DNA, Burns-Weinrib reached the point several years back where she felt she could not go on. She was essentially estranged from her two children, who both live outside the country.
Her second husband had died. She had developed painful neuropathy in her legs and foresaw a future in which her cherished independence would be eroded. So Burns-Weinrib methodically and purposefully planned to end her life. But even well-laid plans can go awry and Burns-Weinrib's did. Burns-Weinrib, now 80, has helped to fund the development of a website devoted to the subject of late-life depression. She believes the need is great. "You know what? "It's very difficult to get older. Dr. "Late life is full of its challenges," says Madan, Baycrest's psychiatrist-in-chief. Welcome to Forbes. Two-year study aims to get S’poreans to seek help for mental illness. SINGAPORE — With many people in Singapore suffering from mental illness but not seeking treatment, the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) said it has been conducting a two-year study to gain insight into Singaporeans’ understanding and attitudes towards mental conditions, so that more can recognise their conditions and seek help early.
The S$1 million national population-based study is funded by the Health Ministry and began in June last year. It is led by Associate Professor Chong Siow Ann, Vice-Chairman of the Medical Board (Research) at the IMH, who said it comes after a separate study conducted in 2010 identified significant gaps in the treatment of mental conditions. Findings from the 2010 Singapore Mental Health Study showed that as many as 96.2 per cent of those who had suffered from alcohol abuse had never sought help or treatment.
It was the same with those who had an obsessive compulsive disorder or a major depressive disorder. Child health problems 'linked to father's age' 26 February 2014Last updated at 21:59 ET By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News A wide range of disorders and problems in school-age children have been linked to delayed fatherhood in a major study involving millions of people. Increased rates of autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, suicide attempts and substance abuse problems were all reported.
The study, in JAMA Psychiatry, suggests mutated sperm were to blame. However, experts say the benefits older dads bring may outweigh any problems. The investigation by Indiana University, in the US, and Sweden's Karolinska Institute has been described as the largest and one of the best designed studies on the issue. The researchers looked at 2.6 million people and at the difference between siblings born to the same father as it accounts for differences in upbringing between families.
Comparing children of a 45-year-old dad to those of a 24-year-old father it indicated: “Start Quote. Night Eating Disorder Signals More Dangerous Mental Issues : Food & Health News : Food World News. Do you eat a lot of food at night, even after you feel full? Then you may want to see a specialist. Researchers have discovered a fairly rare eating disorder whose signature is excessive eating may just signal other mental health issues. (Photo : Flickr/Iryna Yeroshko) Do you eat a lot of food at night, even after you feel full?
Then you may want to see a specialist. Researchers have discovered a fairly rare eating disorder whose signature is excessive eating may just signal other mental health issues. "Night eating syndrome is characterized not only by eating at night--certainly many college students might have a late night study fest with eating--but it's also characterized by other things, like feeling that you can't eat in the morning, and feeling like you have to eat in order to go back to sleep," said Rebecka Peebles, one of the researchers, in an interview with Reuters Health. Like Us on Facebook The latest study reveals a new type of disorder. . © 2014 Food World News. Sick cities: why urban living can be bad for your mental health | Cities. You are lying down with your head in a noisy and tightfitting fMRI brain scanner, which is unnerving in itself.
You agreed to take part in this experiment, and at first the psychologists in charge seemed nice. They set you some rather confusing maths problems to solve against the clock, and you are doing your best, but they aren't happy. "Can you please concentrate a little better? " they keep saying into your headphones. Or, "You are among the worst performing individuals to have been studied in this laboratory. " Few people would enjoy this experience, and indeed the volunteers who underwent it were monitored to make sure they had a stressful time. To be specific, while Meyer-Lindenberg and his accomplices were stressing out their subjects, they were looking at two brain regions: the amygdalas and the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (pACC).
And something even more intriguing was happening in the pACC. Thus far, nobody has shown that. In this field, a lot is at stake. How to Use Your Mobile Calendar to Manage Stress. Max Wheeler is CEO of Alminder Inc., creator of the Mynd Calendar app for the iPhone. Your schedule is out of control, and that makes you feel out of control because there’s simply not enough time in the day to get everything done. Sound familiar? If you’re finding it more challenging than ever to juggle the demands of both your professional and personal life, you’re not alone.
Many people in today’s competitive and hectic work environment are now putting in extra hours via their personal wireless devices to be “on call” – even when they’re not physically at work. While this trend can help with efficiencies and staying afloat in the working world, it is indirectly creating a number of unhealthy habits. The need for people to “always be in digital loop” actually contributes to increased stress levels. It also, in turn, results in a reduction in time for regular exercise, an increase in unhealthy eating habits and less time for relaxation. 1. 2. 3. Be proactive about scheduling. 4. 5. 6. Why are so many elderly Asians killing themselves? Please support our site by enabling javascript to view ads. SINGAPORE — It is a question that has puzzled mental health experts in Asia for some time: Why are so many elderly Asians committing suicide? The past decade has seen astonishing spikes in the rate of Asians over 65 choosing to end their lives early, particularly in the region’s economically successful countries.
In South Korea, for example, suicides in that age group have risen more than fivefold, from 14 per 100,000 in 1990 to 77 per 100,000 in 2009, according to Hallym University's Institute of Aging. In Taiwan, seniors took their lives more than twice as often as any other age group, at a rate of 35.8 per 100,000 in 2010, versus 17.6 for the national average. Suicides among city dwellers in China aged 70 to 74 surged to 33.76 per 100,000 in the mid-2000s, up from 13.39 in the 1990s. And these numbers are expected to rise. The trend contrasts with what is happening in the world’s most developed countries. An even dimmer future.