Published: September 29, 2009
The latest research from Family Relations shows that parents in low-income environments are more prone to depression when there is a lack of social support.
This is especially prevalent in rural regions, where mental health and social resources can be deficient.
Social support mechanisms such as community groups, churches, and school or sports-related activities, can act as a barrier against negative thinking and allow parents who are prone to depression, in order to make better, more positive choices and engage in healthy parental practices.
The findings support a holistic care plan for families in need, combining skill-based interventions with social recommendations.
These measures may help to decrease the detrimental effects of economic stress on individual and family functioning.
Source:Wiley Blackwell
Published: September 28, 2009
Image: Stockxpert
Here’s a hot potato will this post invite discussion I wonder?
Children whose mothers go out to work have poorer dietary habits, engage in more sedentary activity, and are more likely to be driven to school than children’s whose mothers are not employed, suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
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Published: September 28, 2009
While the occasional all-nighter to cram for exams or finish a grant proposal may seem like no big deal, losing sleep night after night could take its toll on brain health in later life, two new studies suggest. Based on microdialysis experiments in live mice, Dave Holtzman, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, and colleagues report that extracellular amyloid-β levels in the brain fall during slumber and rise with wakefulness. They discovered that these Aβ dynamics rely on the hormone orexin, and that forcing animals to sleep or stay awake decreases or increases Aβ plaque formation accordingly in a mouse model for Alzheimer disease. Holtzman presented some of these findings last year at the Human Amyloid Imaging meeting in Chicago (see ARF conference story). The full report was published online yesterday in Science. [continue reading…]
Published: September 25, 2009
Robert Cloninger, Professor of Psychiatry at the Washington University in St. Louis, has illustrated data on the relationship between inherited personality traits and happiness and how these traits can undergo modification throughout the years.
Psychiatry has failed to improve the average levels of happiness and well-being in the general population, despite vast expenditures on psychotropic drugs and psychotherapy manuals. The practical failure of psychiatry to improve well-being is the result of an excessive focus on stigmatizing aspects of mental disorders and the neglect of methods to enhance positive emotions, character development, life satisfaction, and spirituality. Prof. Cloninger described a simple and practical approach to well-being by integrating biological, psychological, social, and spiritual methods for enhancing mental health. [continue reading…]
