Depression and Mental Health News Blog
Bullying harms kids' mental health: study Print E-mail

A new study provides strong evidence that being bullied can cause children to develop depression and anxiety.

Among identical twin pairs in which one experienced bullying between the ages of 7 and 9 and the other did not, the bullied twin was significantly more likely to have symptoms of internalizing problems at age 10, Dr. Louise Arsenault of King's College, London, and her colleagues found.

Internalizing problems are psychological problems in which negativity is directed inward toward the self, such as depression, as opposed to outwardly, such as conduct disorder.

This research "really supports the assumption or the belief that being bullied is bad for children's health," Arsenault told Reuters Health. And the fact that children were having these symptoms, which include frequent crying, fear of being alone, and stomach aches --at such a young age strongly suggests that they need help, she added.

Read on
 
Older Women More Likely to Suffer Depression Print E-mail

Older women are more likely than older men to become and remain depressed, Yale researchers report.

The study began in 1998 with 754 people aged 70 and older. The participants were assessed at the start of the study, and again at five 18-month intervals after that.

During the study, 269 (35.7 percent) of the participants suffered depression at some point. Of those, 48 (17.8 percent) were depressed at two consecutive follow-up points, 30 (11.2 percent) at three consecutive points, 17 (6.3 percent) at four consecutive points, and 12 (4.5 percent) at all five follow-up points.

More women than men were depressed at each 18-month follow-up, and women were more likely than men to be depressed at subsequent time points, according to the study, which appears in the February issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Read on
 
Epilepsy drugs linked to suicidal behavior Print E-mail

Epilepsy drugs used by millions of people may increase the risk of suicidal thoughts or behavior, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned in an alert to doctors Thursday.
The FDA analyzed almost 200 studies of 11 different anti-seizure drugs, some that have been on the market for decades. The studies tracked almost 28,000 people given the medications and another 16,000 given dummy pills.
Very rarely were suicidal thoughts or behavior reported. Still, the FDA found drug-treated patients did face about twice the risk: 0.43 percent of drug-treated patients experienced suicidal thoughts or behavior compared with 0.22 percent of placebo-takers.

Read on  

 
Kids with ADHD may be more likely to bully Print E-mail
When her 5-year-old son showed up at the door with a black eye and a bloody cut on his head, Brooke Fike knew it was time to take on the bullies. For weeks, several boys at school had been swinging their backpacks into her son's head. One day they dumped a carton of milk over him during lunch.

As Fike tried to remedy the problem, she realized that the bullies seemed to be the kids in class who couldn’t sit still and listen. They didn’t do their homework. They were almost constantly in motion.

Turns out, those behaviors could have been the first clue to parents and school officials that these boys might be the ones who were going to turn into bullies.

Read on  

 
Key Risk Factors for Suicide Consistent Across Globe Print E-mail

Risk factors for suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts are similar in many countries, new research suggests.

The study, which used data collected by the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey Initiative, looked at people in 17 nations and found that an overall average of 9.2 percent reported having seriously thought about suicide and 2.7 percent attempted suicide. It also found that suicide risk factors are associated with having a mental disorder, being female, younger, less educated, and unmarried.

"Our research suggests that suicidal thoughts and behaviors are more common than one might think, and also that key risk factors for these behaviors are quite consistent across many different countries around the world," study leader Matthew Nock, associate professor of psychology at Harvard University, said in a prepared statement.

Read on

 
More...
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>