At a time when there seems to be more of an emphasis on female empowerment than ever before, messages of shame related to body size still permeate our culture.

At a time when there seems to be more of an emphasis on female empowerment than ever before, messages of shame related to body size still permeate our culture. Open any magazine at the checkout counter, turn on any major network during prime-time, or buy a movie ticket and the images of the women you see will be largely homogeneous. Yes, exceptions do exist, and their voices are getting louder. But when young girls and teens consume these images, it paints a powerful picture of what it means to be beautiful in our culture, and upholds an unrealistic standard. Fortunately, the public is beginning to pay closer attention to these harmful portrayals, and there are more options available for eating disorder treatment than ever before.

Flat Tummy Fury

One such harmful portrayal sparked an outcry recently, when the Flat Tummy Co. was met with a major backlash due to an advertising campaign featured on billboards in Times Square. The company sells appetite-reducing lollipops and other diet substances, and their marketing efforts are directed specifically at young women. The controversial billboards contained phrases like, “Got cravings? Girl, tell them to #SUCKIT,” and “1.5 million BABES and counting,” referring to Flat Tummy’s massive Instagram following. The infantilizing ad, in which no men are featured, portrays young women sucking on lollipops.

The messaging is clear here. Ignore your hunger cues, avoid nourishment, and buy our product. The product itself, a lollipop, is designed to attract a younger demographic, just like the candy cigarettes of days gone by. But this irresponsible campaign’s silver lining is the fury it sparked on social media. Countless outraged women have been speaking loudly about their disdain for what they believe to be Flat Tummy’s use of dangerous pro-ana, thinspo rhetoric in an exploitative marketing campaign.

Women Fight Back

Twitter and Instagram became inundated with messages like, “Hey Twitter, Let’s use our power for good by guilting @FlatTummyCo into taking down their Times Square billboard advertising appetite suppressants. Love, A former-anorexic teenage girl,” from Sophie Vershbow. Instagram user @agostinaele criticized a post featuring a sale on Flat Tummy lollipops, saying, “Your entire campaign is aimed at women because women are always told they must be smaller/thinner/less while men can look however they want. YOU are the problem. Anyone working for this company should feel ashamed. You are disgusting.”

In the midst of the backlash, Tess Holiday started a change.org campaign to pressure Flat Tummy into taking down their Times Square ads. She criticized their messaging, saying, “Hunger is your body’s way of communicating when it needs food, which gives us energy, without which we cannot survive. There is something deeply wrong when marketers tell women that their appearance (based on sexist body standards) is more important than their health and survival.” As of this writing, the campaign has garnered an incredible 100,988 signatures, and the momentum continues to build. Organizers set a goal of 150,000 signatures, which would send a powerful message to Flat Tummy about the harmful nature of their advertising. To add your voice to the cause, simply add your name and email address to the petition here.

Slow but Meaningful Progress

The anger levied at Flat Tummy’s blatant promotion of diet culture is a signal that women are fed up with being told they need to be smaller to be satisfied with their bodies. We know that restrictive eating habits are directly linked to an increased risk of developing an eating disorder. But to begin changing the narrative around body image, it’s imperative that we speak out against dangerous messaging like the Flat Tummy campaign and speak openly about eating disorder treatment.

Take time to talk to the young women in your life about the messages they see and hear in the media, balanced nutrition, and making lifelong healthy habits. Look for ways to encourage other women to embrace their unique shape and honor their bodies no matter their size.

Obese people rewarded with $20 for losing 4 pounds in a month were far more likely to lose significant weight than people given no such cash incentives.

It is incredible how a small cash incentive can help people achieve a goal they’d happily pay far more to achieve.

Reinforcement techniques are an effective, if controversial, technique known to increase the success of addiction treatment programs – for example, by rewarding the passing of drug tests with movie vouchers or restaurant gift certificates.

Well it turns out the same principle holds true for people enrolled in weight loss programs – in a study at the Mayo Clinic, participants who got a $20 reward for meeting weight loss targets each month were far more likely to lose weight than people who received no such incentives.

The Study

A group of obese Mayo Clinic employees agreed to participate in a 1 year weight loss program study.

Half of the participants were told they’d get a $20 reward for each month they achieved a 4 pound weight loss (up to a target weight) but they’d have to pay a $20 penalty for each month they failed to lose at least 4 pounds.

The other half of the participants received no financial rewards or penalties.

The Results

62% of participants in the financial reward group achieved their target weight, compared to just 26% of those in the no-reward group.

Participants in the financial reward group lost an average of 9.08 pounds compared to just 2.34 pounds lost by those in the no-reward group.

Participants in the incentive group were more likely to continue on with the program. Surprisingly, even participants who paid the $20 failure penalty each month were more likely to stay enrolled than people in the no incentive group.

Commentary

Lead study author Steven Driver, M.D. commented on the significance of the findings, saying, "The take-home message is that sustained weight loss can be achieved by financial incentives. The financial incentives can improve results, and improve compliance and adherence."

Image Copyright: Alan Cleaver

Need to lose a few pounds? Consider this – women who regularly read the nutritional information on food labels weigh about 9 pounds less, on average, than women who don’t.

Women who read nutritional information on food labels are significantly less obese than women who don’t.

That’s what an international team of researchers discovered after analyzing data from the CDC’s National Health Interview Survey of more than 25 000 Americans.

Study Findings

• On average, women who read food labels have a body mass index (BMI) score that is 1.49 points lower than women who never read this information (1.49 BMI points equals about 9 pounds for an average American woman.)
• There was only a very minimal difference in BMI scores between men who read and did not read nutritional information
• Urban women and those with a high school or higher education were most likely to pay attention to nutritional information
• Smokers are much less likely than non smokers to read nutritional labels

Discussion – More Nutritional Information in Restaurants to Increase Public Health

Lead study author María Loureiro commented on the significance of the results, saying, "We know that this information can be used as a mechanism to prevent obesity. We have seen that those who read food labels are those who live in urban areas, those with high school and high education. As we would hope therefore, campaigns and public policy can be designed to promote the use of nutritional labeling on menus at restaurants and other public establishments for the benefit of those who usually eat out."

For the full study results - "The effects of nutritional labels on obesity". Agricultural Economics 43: 333, 2012.

Image Copyright: Sukkulaati

Researchers say that people with high self-control don't really have more willpower, they just stop enjoying junk food faster. Fortunately, by paying close attention to the amount consumed, even people with low self-control can become sated faster. 

Do those of us carrying a few extra pounds lack the willpower of our trimmer compatriots?

Researchers at the University of Minnesota say that while that's a popular explanation, it might not be true - and they think they can explain why as well as teach the skills that could lead to more moderate consumption of unhealthy foods.

Based on a series of experiments, the researchers concluded that people with high self-control didn't really have more willpower, they just stopped enjoying the consumption of unhealthy foods (became sated) faster than people with low self-control.

And it's a lot easier to stop doing something when it stops being enjoyable!

Fortunately, they say that people with low self-control can get to satiation faster simply by increasing the attention they pay to eating.

The Experiment

In an experiment, they found that when people with low self-control counted their swallows of unhealthy foods with a baseball pitch counter they became sated much faster than when they paid less attention to the quantity being consumed.

Commentary

Commenting on the significance of the findings for weight management, lead researcher Joseph Redden noted, "People can essentially use attention for how much they are consuming instead of relying on self-control. Really paying a lot more attention to the quantity will lead people to feel satiated faster and eat less." 

The full research results can be found in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Image Copyright: Dread Pirate Jeff

Penn State researchers say food binging may predispose a person to drug addiction.

You can see some similarities between food binging and drug addiction, especially in the way both conditions cause a loss of control over behaviors.

But though the two conditions appear similar, does having one predispose a person to get the other?

The Experiment

Hoping to answer this question, Penn State researchers developed an animal model study to see whether a history of binge eating increased a person’s susceptibility for cocaine addiction.

A number of lab rats were divided into 4 experimental groups. All groups had continual access to nutritional chow.

1. One group received only the healthy food
2. One group received occasional access to supplementary fatty food
3. One group received continual access to supplementary fatty food
4. One group received access to supplementary fatty food for one hour per day, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (The food binging group)

Although the group who had continuous access to fatty food consumed the greatest quantity of this food overall, the rats given thrice a week limited were the most likely to binge.

Once food consumption patterns became established, all rats were then given access to cocaine.

• The rats in the food binging group took the most cocaine, continued for longest to try and get cocaine once it was no longer available and worked the hardest to earn a dose of cocaine.
• Under normal circumstances, about 20% of rats given access to cocaine will develop addiction-like behaviors. Among the binge eating rats, 50% developed addiction like behaviors.

Commenting on the significance of the findings, lead author Patricia Sue Grigson, Ph.D, noted, “While the underlying mechanisms are not known, one point is clear from behavioral data: A history of bingeing on fat changed the brain, physiology, or both in a manner that made these rats more likely to seek and take a drug when tested more than a month later. We must identify these predisposing neurophysiological changes.”

The full research results can be read in the journal, Behavioral Neuroscience.

Image Copyright: @Alveseni

Binge eating disorder, a condition that affects an estimated 2% to 5% of Americans over a lifetime, is now a recognized disorder to be included in the upcoming edition of the DSM – the bible of psychological disorders.

Published by the American Psychiatric Association, the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) has not been updated since 1994. On Wednesday, mental health experts who have been working on the upcoming edition came out with proposed changes for the new and soon to be released edition.

The DSM is the book that defines normal and abnormal behaviors for doctors, for the courts, for research – and basically anyone else with a need to classify states of mind. Because of this, an inclusion into the manual has profound implications – heightened insurance coverage for recognized disorders being one such example of the tangible results of an inclusion into the book.

In the upcoming edition, binge eating disorder will be defined as:

Eating a very significant amount of food in one episode at least once weekly for three months and feeling serious feelings of guilt or depression because of the binge eating. Because there is no purging after the fact, binge eating disorder differs from bulimia.

Columbia University psychiatrist, Dr. B. Timothy Walsh, who is involved in the editing of the new manual, commented on the extreme nature of binge eating disorder, saying, “This is not the normative overeating that we all do, by any means. It involves much more loss of control, more distress, deeper feelings of guilt and unhappiness.”

Dr. Walsh admits that as of yet, "There's no consensus as to what is the best treatment. Several types of medications appear helpful, as do several types of psychological treatment." He’s hopeful that binge eating’s inclusion in the upcoming manual will lead to further research and better treatments to come.

Image Copyright: Corie Howell

Researchers say one way we judge food quantity is by evaluating how many pieces of food we have to eat on our plate, so if you’re trying to lose weight, you can trick your mind into accelerated satiety by cutting food into tiny pieces.

Humans may be the most intelligent of animals, but in a lot of ways, we’re not so smart; and when it comes to weight control, that’s maybe a good thing…

According to new research out of Arizona State University, eating food cut into tiny pieces fools both lab rats and humans into feeling full more quickly.

The Experiment

Previous research had demonstrated that when given a choice, rats preferred to eat food that had been cut into smaller pieces rather than a same quantity of food served in a single larger piece. Rats like to eat a lot of food and they equate large numbers of food pieces with a larger quantity of total food.

Would the same hold true for humans?

To find out, researchers gave 301 study subjects either:

1. A whole bagel to eat
2. That same bagel cut into 4 pieces to eat

Twenty minutes later, subjects were given access to a lunch buffet and invited to eat as much as they wanted to. After they had finished eating, researchers calculated each subject’s total consumption by cataloging the food that had been left.

The Results

On average, subjects who ate the bagel cut into pieces ate fewer total calories at the test meal than subjects who ate the uncut bagel.

Commentary

Lead study author Devina Wadhera explained the results by saying that eating food cut up into smaller pieces is more satisfying than larger portions of food and suggested that, "Cutting up energy-dense meal foods into smaller pieces may be beneficial to dieters who wish to make their meal more satiating while also maintaining portion control."

The full study results were presented at The 2012 Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior in Zurich, Switzerland.

Image Copyright: Hmerinomx

Although we may think eating disorders are a young person’s problem, new research out of The University of North Carolina demonstrates that even after 50, women are still very prone to disordered eating and body image problems.

Do eating disorders really affect many older people?

Although we tend to think of eating disorder victims as predominantly girls and young women in their teens and early twenties, researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine say this just isn’t so – saying that women continue to suffer from body image issues and eating disorders well into late adulthood.

The Study

The researchers used a gender and body image survey study to ask 1850 women over the age of 50 about their weight related thoughts and behaviors.

The Findings

The researchers say that among the American women over 50 surveyed:

• 70% were trying to lose weight and 2 in 3 were unhappy with their current size and weight
• 79% said their weight affected their sense of self worth
• 64% thought about their weight daily
• 41% weighed themselves daily and 40% weighed themselves at least a few times per week
• 7.5% were using diet pills
• 7% acknowledged using excessive exercise for weight control
• 2.5% were using diuretics and a further 2% were using laxatives to control weight
• 1% were vomiting to control weight

Commentary

Striving to explain why negative body image thoughts and behaviors continue to affect older women, lead researcher Cynthia Bulik, PhD noted that “there is such pressure on older women to look younger, to not look like they are becoming older. Everything is about looking younger, trying to stay thin and attractive, whether that means surgery or cosmetics, or whatever, the pressure to not age is so strong. And that leads them down the path of unhealthy eating and dieting behaviors…The bottom line is that eating disorders and weight and shape concerns don't discriminate on the basis of age.”

The full research findings can be found in International Journal of Eating Disorders.

Image Copyright: Corrie Howell

Models with a BMI score of under 18.5 need no longer apply for fashion work in Israel.

Hoping to reduce eating disorder incidence rates, lawmakers in Tel Aviv have banned the use of underweight fashion models.

In Israel, if you want to model professionally, you need to have a doctor’s note proving your BMI score of 18.5 or greater.

Additionally, advertisers who touch-up model photos to enhance a slender appearance must admit to their photoshopping - in writing - on the advert.

Experts claim that unnaturally thin models contribute to body image pressure and drive up eating disorder incidence rates; which are estimated at about 2% of the general population in Israel.

Commenting on a bill he has helped promote, Israeli fashion photographer noted, "I look (back) 15 to 20 years ago, we shot models (sized) 38. Today it's 24.  It is the difference between thin and too thin. This is the difference between death and life."

Critics of the new law, however, say the BMI score cut-off may penalize naturally thin but otherwise very healthy models, such as Israeli supermodel Adi Neumman who has complained that her BMI score of 18.3 no longer qualifies her to work in Israel, even though she eats healthily and exercises.

Image Copyright: JustJasmine

To tackle obesity, the National Health Service in the UK is trying out dinner plates which measure your rate of consumption and deliver recorded messages when you start eating too quickly

If you’re like a lot of people, you eat too quickly and inadvertently eat more than your body needs – before your brain has a chance to register that you’ve long passed satiety.

If only we could receive gentle reminders as we eat whenever our consumption exceeds a recommended healthy rate…

Enter the talking plate behavior modification device - Developed by Swedish scientist Per Sodersen and called the Mandometer, this talking dinner plate helps people to learn to eat at a more moderate rate as a way to control unhealthy weight gain.

The device consists of a plate on a sensitive scale with a monitor on its side. The computer within gauges the rate at which the food leaves the plate and whenever your consumption exceeds a recommended speed, a recorded message urges you to slow down.

On the monitor alongside the plate, a line graph shows a recommended eating rate in blue, so that you can compare your eating rate, shown as a red line, to the optimal rate of consumption. The screen will also periodically flash messages, such as “Are you feeling full yet” as cautions against mindless eating.

An initial study demonstrated that obese children who used the plate ate 15% less, on average, after a year of behavioral training with the talking plate.

To test its mass-market usefulness, the UK National Health Service (NHS) in conjunction with Bristol University plans to hand out the plates (which sell for substantial 1500 pounds each) to 600 obesity suffering families.

Although this large study has yet to produce any results, lead researcher Julian Hamilton-Shield has high hopes for the device, predicting, “It will be a powerful tool to help families retrain their eating habits."

Image Copyright: Lakewentworth

Can’t stop eating? Maybe you’re addicted to food – researchers say that the brains of compulsive eaters respond to the thought of fatty/sugary foods like the brains of alcoholics respond to the thought of a drink.

While a decade ago people mocked the idea of food addiction, times have changed and what once seemed laughable now just seems most likely.

Commenting on the results of the 28 clinical research studies done on food addiction over the last year alone, Nora D Volkow, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) exclaimed, "The data is so overwhelming the field has to accept it. We are finding tremendous overlaps between drugs in the brain and food in the brain."

Some food addiction research highlights from the past year include:

• A study out of The Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter Florida which found that rats given access to an hour a day of junk food would binge eat, even though they had an unlimited supply of nutritional food at all times. When their brains were examined, they showed activity patterns identical to those seen in escalating cocaine use.
  
• University of Texas researchers took MRI scans of women drinking a milkshake and they observed a pleasure response in the brain. They repeated the MRI scans 6 months later and they found that women who had gained weight during that time showed a reduced pleasure response to the same milkshake – this blunted reward system of chronic overeating is identical to the blunted reward systems seen in chronic drug users.
  
• Princeton University researchers found that rats given daily access to a 10% sugar solution (similar to the sugar content of soft drinks) became addicted to the drinks, greatly increased their consumption over time and demonstrated withdrawal symptoms when they couldn’t get the sugar solution.
  
• Yale University researchers found that showing people with ‘addictive’ eating habits a picture of a milkshake caused a similar neural response as is seen when alcoholics anticipate having a drink.

Image Copyright: Malias

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center say they’ve figured out how to help people lose weight – and that typical forms of obesity counseling; which involve helping obese people learn strategies overcome cravings to eat high calories foods, just don’t work.

Describing what happens in a typical obesity counseling session, obesity researcher and lead study author psychologist Brad Appelhans says that people are educated about what causes weight gain and then told to resist intense cravings to consume highly palatable foods that are presented nearly everywhere they go in order to make decisions that will result in a long term payoff.

Describing the effectiveness of such typical counseling, he says, “Yet, we know this approach rarely works. Even highly motivated and nutritionally informed patients struggle to refrain from highly palatable foods that are high in sugar, salt and unhealthy fats.” 

He argues that instead of putting will power - with its abysmal track record - in charge of things, we need to gain a better understanding of the neurobiological processes behind our desires to eat and then design interventions that work in concert with how our minds actually lead us to crave and eat foods that cause us to gain weight.

According to Appelhans, three forces that research says govern the eating decisions of obese people are:

1. Food Reward – Eating tasty foods that aren’t good for us makes us feel good
   
2. Time Discounting – We’d rather feel good for sure with that bowl of ice cream right now than maybe feel good months down the road from weight loss
3. Inhibitory Control – We have to consciously suppress urges to eat foods that aren’t good for us
   

Knowing that these three forces control much of the eating behaviors of all of us who struggle with a few extra pounds, the researchers recommend the following interventions, which don’t involve us using will power to resist high calorie foods:

• Get rid of as many high fat and high sugar foods (the ones you crave) from your home and work environments. You want to stop yourself from seeing and craving these foods all day and night. If the reward and temptation cycle doesn’t get started you don’t have to rely on will power to fight it
• Don’t get yourself into situations where overeating is likely, such as buffet restaurants which demand a great deal of inhibitory control
  
• Use a grocery list to shop from. And don’t deviate from it at the store
• Learn techniques to manage stress, since stress can lead to overeating
• Make short term goals for healthier eating, rather than long term goals of weight loss
  

The full research results can be read in the August edition of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

Image Copyright: Alfon...

After wading through study data on more than 17 000 people with eating disorders, researchers have determined that anorexia nervosa is the most lethal of all mental illness – by far.

Scientists at Loughborough University in England examined data on 17 000 people with eating disorders over almost 50 years (From 1966 to 2010) to come up with a mortality rate for different types of eating disorders. They found that people with anorexia nervosa were 5.86 times more likely to die in any  given year than people of a comparable age from the general population (about 5 per thousand in any given year).

People with bulimia and other types of eating disorders are also at a greater risk of death than the general population:

• Bulimics are 1.93 times more likely to die
  
• People with eating disorders not otherwise specified are 3.9% more likely to die
  

Anorexia was found to be the most deadly of the mental health disorders. Increased mortality rate for other types of mental health disorders include:

• Males with schizophrenia are 2.8 times as likely to die as people from the general population and women with schizophrenia are 2.5 times as likely to die
  
• Males with serious depression are 1.5 times more likely to die than people from the general population and women with depression and 1.6 times more likely to die in any given year.
  

Commenting on why the death rate for anorexia nervosa was so much higher than for other types of mental illnesses, lead study author Jon Arcelus explained, “Of course, eating disorders have serious physical consequences. The study could not identify how people died, but there is no doubt that the reasons behind this are related to the physical problems of the illness.” He says that mortality rates for anorexics are highest when coupled with very low body weights, alcohol abuse and when anorexia is not diagnosed until later in life. Women diagnosed with anorexia before the age of 15 are 3 times more likely to die, which is considerably better than the 18 fold increase in death rate experienced by women diagnosed with the disease between the ages of 20 and 29.

Common causes of illness and death for people with anorexia often stem from complications related to kidney or heart damage, gastrointestinal problems, bone loss and anemia.

Anorexics are also very likely to commit suicide. One in five who dies with anorexia commits suicide.

The full study results can be read in the July edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry

Image Copyright: Victoria EMily

After hearing complaints from the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), Yoplait Yogurt has decided to cancel a commercial that normalized the obsessive thoughts and behaviors inherent in eating disorders.

In the commercial, a slim woman stands in front of an open refrigerator, looking longingly at a slice of cheesecake and negotiates with herself about whether she should eat it and on how bug a slice she ‘deserves’, saying:

”What if I just had a small slice…I was good today, I deserve it. Or, I could have a medium slice and some celery sticks and they would cancel each other out, right? Or I could have one large slice and jog in place as I eat it…”

The internal bargaining ends when another, slimmer, woman comes to the fridge and grabs a Yoplait light – and the two talk about how skinny the Yoplait drinker has become.

According to the National Eating Disorders Association, commercials like these normalize the types of unhealthy internal monologues and obsessions that people with eating disorders strive to overcome on a daily basis.

 Jenni Schaefer, a fully recovered eating disorders survivor and eating disorders author, says she was shocked when she saw the commercial, saying, "they really nailed it on the head--that's exactly what I thought every time I opened a refrigerator door. When you live with an eating disorder, you divide all foods into "good" and "bad" categories, like the yogurt versus the cheesecake. Pretty soon everything moves into the bad category."

A spokesperson for Yoplait commented on the controversial ad spot, saying, "We had no idea…We aren't sure that everyone saw the ad that way, but if anyone did, that was not our intent and is cause for concern. We thought it best to take it down."

Image Copyright: Taragulwell

British researchers who examined the medical records of anorexia patients say that an unusual number of these patients were born between March and June.

According to Oxford University researchers, if you were unlucky enough to start off between March and June, you have a 15% increased chance of developing anorexia. Babies born between September and October, by contrast, have a 20% reduced risk of developing the same condition.

The Study:

The scientists looked at the birth dates of over 1200 anorexia patients and compared these dates to a normal distribution across the year for those without an eating disorder; and they found a statistically significant anomaly – finding that a greater than anticipated number of these anorexia patients were in fact born during the spring months.

The Explanation

Researchers point to environmental factors as the likely cause of the increased springtime risk. Proposed causes include:

• The diet eaten by mothers giving birth to spring babies
• Sunshine levels and vitamin D differentials (low levels of winter sunshine can lead to vitamin D deficiencies during the later winter months – the last trimester months for spring babies)
• Different seasonal infections (an increased risk of influenza, for example, over winter months.)
• Temperature differentials

Lead researcher Dr. Lahiru Handunnetthi commented on the role the environment plays in prenatal development, saying, "During the last trimester of pregnancy, neuronal development takes place, so it may be that maternal nutrition has an impact on the development of psychiatric and neurological disorders. We get different seasonal foods – less fresh vegetables in winter, for example – and people eat different types of food."

Looking at another possible cause, he added that, "The vitamin D hypothesis has been gaining a lot of weight in other neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis. It might be that this is a common theme for psychiatric disorders and neurological conditions which we should look into. Vitamin D might be one of the leading factors making spring babies prone to anorexia.”

The study team, however, acknowledge that their research indentifies only an association spring births and anorexia and that it does not offer any clue to the likely causes.

Dr. Handunnetthi noted that the study team wasn’t shocked to find an upswing in spring baby anorexia cases, explaining that a spring birth is also associated with an increased risk of other mental health disorders, such as depression, bipolar and schizophrenia.

The full research findings can be examined as published in the current edition of the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Image Copyright: !*S4N7Y*!