January 2011

That old standby about tucking into a pint of ice cream to get over a breakup? Counterproductive, according to a large new study that finds a link between eating trans fats and an increased risk of depression.

For the study, researchers in Spain tracked the dietary habits, lifestyles and mental health of 12,059 college graduates (average age 37.5) for six years. None of the participants had depression at the start of the study; by the end, researchers had identified 657 new cases, which were self-reported by the participants in questionnaires filled out every two years. Curious? Continue reading

Source: Time

Women get depression

Famous last words…. I vowed that I was not going to pay for a newspaper online…. what’s the point? After all there’s so much that’s freely available. But here I am eating humble pie, I have a confession to make last week I subscribed to the Times and now I can simply say, when you truly value something you will pay for it! I have wallowed this morning in the luxurious prose. Ok Ok I’ll stop here… this is not meant as an endorsement merely a thought that I wanted to share.

Here is a wonderful excerpt from Lucy Fry’s description of her journey with depression through childhood.

In fact it is more like a summer thunderstorm (an analogy a seven-year-old might understand). Heat builds and it is too much. There is nowhere for it to go and something must be done. Nature takes its course and it is neither pretty nor peaceful.

But there follows the rich, distinctive smell that usually hangs in the air after rain. It bounces off pavements and sinks into the skin, a poignant reminder of what has gone before, and what, under the same circumstances of heat and high pressure, will surely come again. Just be prepared. Then cover your head and hope. Hold on to those you love, and know that this too will pass.

Diagnosis is not a cure, nor can it stop the depression. But for me it has at least marked the beginning of a long journey towards a point of acceptance. Yet I still wish that this journey had begun sooner, believing that an earlier diagnosis would have meant fewer years spent hating and blaming myself. Instead, I might have sought the proper treatment and learnt earlier to manage my condition without shame. What’s more, I might have understood that there are positive aspects to some mental illness, that although I can hardly believe it when I am floundering in the lowest depths of mental hell, the capacity for feeling extends both ways.

Link to read more ( you will need to be a subscriber to view this article)

Source: TheTimes

A European research group has studied how smoking habits are transmitted within the home. The results show that, in homes where both parents are present, there is a significant degree of inter-generational transmission of smoking habits between parents and children, particularly between individuals of the same gender.

“Fathers transmit their smoking habits to a statistically significant level to their sons, and the same is true of mothers and daughters. However, if a mother smokes it does not seem to impact on the probability of her son smoking, and similarly a father that smokes does not affect his daughter”, Loureiro, a researcher at the USC and co-author of the study, tells SINC.

The research, which has been published in the journal Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, is based on information from the British Household Panel Survey 1994-2002. “We selected this data source because it gives detailed information on the products consumed in households, including tobacco, making it possible to analyse the transmission of smoking habits between generations”, the experts explain. [continue reading…]

College Freshmen Stress Levels High

sad-girl studentThe New York Times reports Freshmen are reporting record levels of stress in an annual survey involving more than 200,000 students. Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen

The annual survey of freshmen is considered the most comprehensive because of its size and longevity. At the same time, the question asking students to rate their own emotional health compared with that of others is hard to assess, since it requires them to come up with their own definition of emotional health, and to make judgments of how they compare with their peers.

“Most people probably think emotional health means, ‘Am I happy most of the time, and do I feel good about myself?’ so it probably correlates with mental health,” said Dr. Mark Reed, the psychiatrist who directs Dartmouth College’s counseling office.

“I don’t think students have an accurate sense of other people’s mental health,” he added. “There’s a lot of pressure to put on a perfect face, and people often think they’re the only ones having trouble.”

To some extent, students’ decline in emotional health may result from pressures they put on themselves. Curious? Continue reading

Source: New York Times