After studying the data from the large California Health Interview Survey (which surveyed more than 2000 Californians), researchers out of UCLA say that gay men, lesbians and bisexuals are more than twice as likely as heterosexual men or women to seek mental health or addiction treatment services.

• 48.5% of gays, lesbians and bisexuals interviewed received treatment help within the last year, compared to only 22.5 % of heterosexuals interviewed
• 42.5% of gay or bisexual men sought treatment compared to 17.1% of heterosexual men
• 55.3% of lesbian women sought treatment services compared to 27.1% of heterosexual women

On a scale from least to most, heterosexual men were least likely to seek treatment and lesbian women were most likely to search out mental health or addiction treatment services.

The study authors contend that although it is well known that women make greater use of available mental health and addiction treatment services, that sexual orientation is a significant variable in understanding treatment seeking behavior.

The researchers suggest that issues such as community prejudice, family stresses, violence against gays and lesbians and other environmental factors unique to the gay, lesbian and bisexual community may explain the increased seeking of treatment services. They also state that gay and lesbian cultural influences may “increase the social norms and expectations that therapeutic services are appropriate places for coping with the stresses associated with being a sexual minority.”

The full research study results can be read online in the journal, BMC Psychiatry

Michigan University professor, Daniel Eisenberg, says that students with depression are twice as likely to drop out of college, but that when you look closely at the symptoms experienced by students who fare more poorly in school - it becomes clear that the type of depression experienced makes a difference.

Eisenberg explains that 2 of the core symptoms of depression are:

• Sadness, hopelessness etc. (depressed mood)
• A loss of interest in previously enjoyable or worthwhile activities

Eisenberg took a random sample of 2800 Michigan University undergraduate students in 2005 and collected information from each subject on mental health topics; and then followed up with each student 2 years later.

He found that while a diagnosis of depression doubled the risk of an early college exit, that students who complained of depressed mood only did far better academically that students who admitted also (or only) to a loss of interest in worthwhile or pleasurable activities.

People can perform while feeling down, but people don't seem to perform when they can't muster any interest to do so.

Eisenberg explains that many people become functionally depressed, just as people become functional alcoholics. They suffer through depressive symptoms but maintain high performance at school or on the job. This can be problematic and lead to under diagnosis of the disorder, as Eisenberg explains, "Lots of students who have significant depression on some dimension are performing just fine, but may be at risk and go unnoticed because there is no noticeable drop in functioning."

Eisenberg hopes that his research will spark a larger controlled trial examining depression and academic performance.

The research results can be read in their entirety in the B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy

Mental health professionals have seen the promise of internet based therapies for conditions such as social phobia and anxiety disorders, but most considered that for tougher to treat conditions, like low-motivation depression, in-person therapy was irreplaceable. A new Australian research study suggests otherwise.

Dr. Nick Titov and Professor Gavin Andrews, out of the University of New South Wales in Australia, ran a research study to assess the efficacy of internet based therapy for depression, randomly assigning 45 study participants to the internet based therapy program, or to a control group.

Those that received the 8 weeks of internet based therapies completed weekly homework assignments, participated in an online forum with other study subjects and received, on average, 8 individualized emails from a clinical psychologist. In total, therapists spent an average of just 111 minutes in direct contact with each study subject - subjects receiving far less direct clinical contact than in comparable offline therapeutic programs.

At the end of the 8 week net therapy program, 34% of subjects no longer met the diagnostic criteria for depression and 82% reported feeling either very satisfied or mostly satisfied with their involvement with the net based therapy the program.

These results compares similarly to trials conducted on internet based therapies for other mental health conditions.

Professor Andrews commented on the positive outcome, saying, "The results will come as a surprise to many people who believed Internet-based programs wouldn't work in treating depression."

The ability to deliver effective interventions for mental health conditions like depression over the internet may increase the percentages that get treatment. Current barriers to treatment can include:

• Perceiving a stigma associated with visits to a psychologist of psychiatrist
• The higher costs of in person treatment
• The difficulty in getting off work for treatment during business hours
• Finding an appropriate local therapist (this can be very difficult or even impossible in remote or rural areas)

Study subjects participated in the online forum at all hours of the day, even after midnight, emphasizing the convenience and flexibility of therapy without time constraints.

Visit online depression therapy to see the therapeutic program used in the study.

Most research studies that aim to discover mental health condition prevalence rates operate through methods that involve questioning adults about their experiences in the past, sometimes, the distant past.

An adult in her 40s might be asked to report if she had ever experienced persistent sadness that lasted for more than three weeks, since the age of 18, for example.

Might people under report the true occurrence rate? Could people “forget” about the bad times?

A collaboration of researchers out of New Zealand, America and Britain say…maybe. These researchers took a different approach, studying a pool of 1000 subjects from birth to the age of 32 – and in doing so, came up with some very different prevalence rates.

Under this longitudinal approach, the researchers interviewed subjects periodically throughout the 32 year period, asking about symptoms that would indicate depression, anxiety or substance abuse.

The differences were surprising, using the longitudinal approach, the researchers came up with prevalence rates that almost double those found using regressive questioning methods!

• The US National Comorbidy Survey (a retrospective study) found that between the ages of 18 and 32, 18% of Americans experience depression, 25% to 33% experience clinical anxiety and between 6% and 17% experience alcoholism.

• Using a longitudinal approach, researchers found that over that same time period (between the ages of 18 and 32) 41% experience depression, 50% experience anxiety and about 33% experience alcoholism.

The full research results can be seen in the journal, Psychological Science.

Researchers at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) analyzed data from the National Violent Death Reporting System across 17 states for the years of 2005 and 2006 to come up with the alcohol and suicide correlation statistics; evaluating data from almost 20 000 suicides during that 2 year period.

Although alcohol was found in a high percentage of suicide victims across all races and ethnic groups, people of Native American decent were the most likely intoxicated before committing suicide (37.1%) followed by Hispanics (29%).

Alcohol was more likely found in younger male suicide victims; only 18% of female suicide victims were intoxicated before taking their life.

Dr. Alex Crosby, the author of the study report which was published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, explained alcohol’s role in suicidal behavior by saying, “It (alcohol) leads to disinhibition, and it can enhance feelings of hopelessness and depression. Alcohol impairs judgment and can lead to much more impulsive behavior."

The data proves empirically what health workers have always known, that alcohol and suicide go tragically hand in hand. Dr Crosby summed up the significance of the research by stating that any suicide prevention efforts need to address alcohol and drug use as a significant catalyst factor.

Dr Philip May, a professor of sociology in Albuquerque, at the University of New Mexico, suspects that alcohol influences about 40% of suicides within New Mexico. He says that for younger victims, suicide is often an impulsive event, and that in impulsive suicides, alcohol often plays a tragic role.

He explains that alcohol increases suicidal follow-through in 2 ways, either by facilitating the suicidal act, or by increasing the likelihood of suicidal thoughts and actions.

Dr. Crosby concurs, explaining that alcohol worsens depression and can increase feelings of hopelessness. It also lowers inhibition and decreases judgment – all of which stir up to a very dangerous mindset for an already depressed or hopeless person.

At certain periods in life, living with a person who uses maladaptive thinking styles increases your risk of depression. Fortunately, the opposite is also true.

Trying to avoid depression? Well be careful who you live with…

Certain thinking styles increase your risk for depression. For example, people who blame themselves for negative and stressful events beyond their control and those who imagine they have little control over their fate are at greater risk of depression than people with more adaptive thinking styles.

• At certain periods of life, such as when we first attend university, we are strongly influenced by our peers and research shows that we even tend to adopt some of the thinking styles of those around us.
• So if you get close to a person who makes use of thinking strategies that increase the risk of depression, you are more likely to also experience an increased depression risk.

The Study

Once past adolescence, most people don’t change their thinking strategies much – you’re just either a glass half-empty kind of person, or you’re not.

But in times of major transition, such as when moving away from home for the first time to a university dorm room, do such thinking styles then become contagious?

That’s what researchers at the University of Notre Dame wanted to know, and to find out they enlisted 103 pairs of randomly assigned college roommates to participate in a study.

• Each student was given a questionnaire to fill out within a month of arriving on campus and then two more, at 3 and 6 months later.
• The questionnaires measured for cognitive vulnerability to depression and indices of depression

The Results

• Students who got randomly assigned a roommate with maladaptive thinking styles (someone who was at risk of developing depression) were likely to ‘catch’ some of this negative thinking, and you could see this increase in cognitive vulnerability at both 3 and 6 months.
• Conversely, students with higher vulnerability scores assigned to live with students exhibiting very little negative thinking actually reduced their risk of depression by 3 and 6 months of co-habitation
• Students who ‘caught’ negative thinking patterns by 3 months exhibited twice the level of depressive symptoms by 6 months as students who had not increased their negative thinking patterns.

Discussion

The study authors write, "Our findings suggest that it may be possible to use an individual's social environment as part of the intervention process, either as a supplement to existing cognitive interventions or possibly as a stand-alone intervention. Surrounding a person with others who exhibit an adaptive cognitive style should help to facilitate cognitive change in therapy."

Image Copyright: Taylor Dawn Fortune

Your phone’s accelerometer, microphone, location sensor and light sensors provide an app all the data it needs to identify mental health problems – in real time.

Dartmouth University Computer science researcher Andrew Campbell’s new app – Student Life – can track a person’s mental health in real time using passively collected smart phone data.

Though it’s still in the experimental stage, an app like this has enormous potential to serve as an early warning mechanism for people prone to depression and other mental illnesses.

How Does It Work?

The research team had 48 Dartmouth students test the app over a ten week course period. The app tracked and analyzed a wealth of data, most of it collected without any user interaction, by tapping into each phone’s microphone, accelerometer, light sensor and location sensors. For example:

• Your sleeping schedule – time to bed, sleep duration and wake up schedule.
• Your degree of physical activity – total time spent walking, running, sitting and standing.
• The amount of time spent indoors and outdoors.
• The total number of conversations per day, as well as conversation duration.
• The number of people located around you throughout the day (sociability measure).
• Stress levels.
• App usage.
• Eating habits.
• Mood - measured by prompts and user responses.

The Results

Some of the findings:

• Students who had higher sociability scores reported less depression.
• Students with greater levels of physical activity felt less lonely.
• Students with greater sociability had higher grades.
• Students with greater late night activity had lower grades.

Applications

Though for the pilot study the app provided no user feedback, apps like this could provide individual and macro-level feedback.

1. At the individual level, a wellness tracking app could respond to worrisome data indicators with prompts warning about excessive partying, poor sleep habits, a need for more socializing, better eating habits or a need to make an appointment with a mental health professional.
2. At the macro level, such as on a college campus, aggregate data could help health professionals identify periods of excessive stress and implement measures to improve overall well-being.

Although there are many potential uses for this type of data, the researchers acknowledge that privacy issues are a concern.

Want to be happier (and avoid relapse?) Well, leave the car at home and walk, cycle or bus to work. Researchers say active commuting leads to substantial psychological health gains.

Is your daily commute affecting your health and happiness?

Well, according to English researchers, if you drive a car to work each day, it probably is.

Moving beyond the obvious physical health benefits of more active modes of transportation, public health researchers at East Anglia University in the U.K. sifted through 18 years of data on nearly 18 000 people to see how driving in a car to work each day affected mental health and overall wellness. Measures of psychological wellness included: ability to sleep at night, problem solving ability, feelings of self-worth and overall happiness.

The Findings

They found that:

• Having a longer drive to work worsened physiological health, however, having a longer walk or cycle to work improved psychological health.
• Active commuters reported better concentration and less stress than car commuters.
• People who switched from driving to work to walking or cycling reported increased happiness.
• Surprisingly, people who rode public transportation to work also reported better psychological health than car drivers. The benefits of public transit were not as substantial as the benefits seen with active commuting.

The Commentary

Summing up their findings, the researchers suggest that at the macro level, persuading even a fraction of commuters to switch to active commuting could result in substantial national mental health gains.

And in the journal Preventative Medicine, they also offer some individual advice, writing, “car driving (a non-passive travel mode that requires constant concentration) can give rise to boredom, social isolation, and stress…avoiding car driving may be beneficial to well-being.”

Researchers say that not only do random acts of kindness make us feel happier; they can also reduce the severity of social anxiety disorder symptoms.

Researchers at UBC say simple acts of kindness produce big happiness rewards and seem to alleviate some of the distress associated with conditions like social anxiety disorder.

The Study

A pool of socially anxious study subjects were split into three groups

1. Researchers instructed subjects from the first group to engage in multiple small acts of kindness, like buying someone a small gift or cup of coffee or offering a co-worker a ride, two days per week for four weeks
2. Subjects in the second group received belief challenging (CBT) instruction and exercises, two days per week, for four weeks
3. A third group received no therapy or instructions to engage in random acts of kindness

The Results

Subjects in the acts of kindness group experienced increased levels of positive mood that lasted over the entire four weeks of the study period. Subjects in the other two groups experienced no equivalent increase in positive mood.

Only subjects in the acts of kindness group also reported decreased social avoidance and increased relationship satisfaction

Read the full study results in the journal Emotion 

Why Do Acts of Kindness Improve Mental Health?

According to the Mental Health Foundation, some reasons why acts of kindness increase mental health include:

• They distract us from our own problems and help us keep a sense of perspective
• They help us feel grateful for what we have
• They get us more socially engaged and involved
• They improve our self esteem and feelings of competence
• Memories of your act of kindness produce feelings of happiness that last for long after the act is completed
• Positive acts reduce stress and negativity (such as anger and frustration)

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Mindfulness, a technique out of Buddhist meditation that helps people stay focused on the present moment, works as well as anti depressant medications in helping people with depression avoid relapse.

For 18 months, Canadian researcher, Zindel V. Segal of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health followed 84 adult patients who, at the start of the study, had gotten depression under control with medication.

The study subjects were divided into 3 groups:

• 1 group continued to take anti depressant medications to prevent relapse
• 1 group was given a placebo medication
• 1 group was given no medication, but was instead trained in mindfulness and meditation exercises, and instructed to meditate daily for 40 minutes

The Results

After 18 months:

• 60% of the patients given a placebo had relapsed back to depression
• 46% of the patients taking an anti depressant had relapsed
• 38% of the patients trained in mindfulness had relapsed

Although maintenance therapy with an anti depressant medication is effective (see the 54% success rate above) research shows that as many as 40% of patients prescribed a maintenance course of anti depressants to ward off remission fail to take their medications; because of this, the study authors note, “For those unwilling or unable to tolerate maintenance antidepressant treatment, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy offers equal protection from relapse during an 18-month period.”

Why Does It Work?

Segal says that mindfulness exercises and mediation help people with depression become more attuned to triggers that can lead to depressive feelings. Segal explains, saying, "If you had depression triggers, you might turn your attention instead to the fact that you enjoy eating your food, and that you walk outside and it's a bright sunny day."

Segal admits that for some people, finding 40 minutes a day for meditation and mindfulness exercises can be challenging, but she says the dividends of the time expenditure more than make up for any difficulties, adding that, “It’s kind of like going like going to the gym and working a muscle, except in this case you’re not working a muscle in your body, you’re working the muscles in your brain that help you understand and control your emotions.”

Segal is looking into expanding access to mindfulness exercises for people with depression, and may develop an online mindfulness program.

The full results of the study have been published in the Archives of General Psychology.

Image Copyright: Kevin Labianco

For people already predisposed to mental illness (people with mental illness in the immediate family, for example) experiencing stress during adolescence likely increases the risk of experiencing mental illness as an adult.

Could teen angst cause adult schizophrenia, major depression and other serious mental illnesses?

Well if people are anything like mice (and apparently we are) for people already predisposed to mental illness, experiencing stress while a teen greatly increases the odds of developing full-blown mental illness as an adult.

The Experiment

John Hopkins Medical School researchers started off with a group of mice that had a genetic predisposition to serious mental illness.

• Half of the mice served as a control group, and were raised through adolescence as normal
• The other half served as the experimental group. During adolescence, these mice were placed in isolation for 3 weeks (Inducing stress)

The Results

• The mice that were stressed during adolescence were far more likely to exhibit symptoms of mental illness in adulthood than the mice that were raised as normal to adulthood.
• When the researchers examined the brains of the experimental mice they found that mice exposed to stress during adolescence had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol and lower levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in areas of the brain related to higher order brain function, like emotional regulation and thinking.
• To see if it was cortisol that was causing the reduction in dopamine, the researchers then chemically blocked cortisol transmission. This caused dopamine levels to normalize.

The Significance

Commenting on the significance of the research, the study authors point out that:

1. Gaining an understanding of the biological causes of elevated cortisol levels in the brain may help in the development of medications to control stress hormone levels and treat certain mental illnesses.
2. To prevent mental illness, we need to do a better job of protecting people already predisposed to mental illness from stress during adolescence, for example, by protecting children growing up in families with mental illness from experiencing neglect.

Read the full study results in Science.

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In a study which shows an association, but no causality – researchers find that people who drink 4 or more cans of diet soda per day are 31% more likely to get depression than people who do not drink sweetened beverages.

Do diet sodas and fruit drinks cause depression?

Well, researchers presenting findings at the American Academy of Neurology’s 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego later this year won’t go as far as saying that, but they do say that there’s a noteworthy linkage between increased diet drink consumption and an increased prevalence of depression.

More coffee drinking, by the way, seems to slightly lower a person’s risk of depression.

The Study

• NIH researchers polled more than 250 000, 50 to 71 year old study subjects about their drinking habits during 1995 and 1996.
• 10 years later, researchers followed up with all subjects to find out how many had been diagnosed with depression since the year 2000.

The Results

• 11 311 of the 263 925 subjects had been diagnosed with depression

Compared to people who did not regularly drink sweetened drinks:

• People who drank 4 or more cans of diet soda per day were 31% more likely to have been diagnosed with depression (People who drank 4 or more cans of regular soda were 22% more likely)
• People who drank 4 or more cans of diet fruit drinks per day were 51% more likely to have been diagnosed with depression

People who drank 4 or more cups of coffee per day were 10% less likely than non coffee drinkers to have been diagnosed with depression.

The Commentary

The researchers state, "Our research suggests that cutting out or down on sweetened diet drinks or replacing them with unsweetened coffee may naturally help lower your depression risk More research is needed to confirm these findings, and people with depression should continue to take depression medications prescribed by their doctors."

They also stress that that although results show an association between sweetened drinks and an increased incidence rate of depression – there is no way of knowing from this study whether consumption of sweetened drinks causes an increased depression risk.

As an alternate theory, some experts have suggested that depression may lead to increased cravings for sweetened foods and drink s and this is a more plausible explanation for the association than suggestions that sweetened drinks might cause depression in some way.

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Unwanted negative thoughts – researchers say you can eliminate their power by writing them down on paper and then throwing that paper in a trash can.

It sounds a bit silly – almost too simplistic – but according to Ohio State University researchers, it really works…

To eliminate bothersome negative thoughts, all you have to do is write them down on a piece of paper, and then crumple that paper up and throw it in the nearest trash can.

When people write down and then physically throw out unwanted thoughts these thoughts are much less likely to influence future judgments. Conversely, when people write out a thought and keep it safe – in a wallet for example – the thought takes on greater importance and has much greater influence over future judgments.

The Study

Researchers asked 283 study subjects to write down either positive or negative thoughts about the Mediterranean diet.

After writing thoughts on paper:

1. Some subjects were instructed to throw the paper out in a trash can
2. Some subjects were instructed to file the paper away at their desk
3. Some subjects were instructed to fold the paper and place it safely in a pocket, wallet or purse

Subjects were then asked to explain how they felt about the diet and asked whether they intended to make use of the dietary plan.

The Results

Among students who had been instructed to write negative thoughts about the diet:

• Those who had thrown their thoughts away were least critical of the diet, followed by those who filed their thoughts away at a desk. Those who had kept their negative thoughts closest - in a pocket, wallet or purse - were most critical of the diet and least likely to report wanting to try it out at home.

Among students who had been instructed to write positive thoughts about the diet:

• Those who had thrown away their papers were least impressed by the diet, followed by those who had filed their papers away at their desks. Those who had kept their papers closest were most impressed by the diet and most likely to report wanting to try the diet at home.

The Significance

Writing a thought down and throwing it away reduces its power while keeping that thought safe and accessible amplifies its influence.

Commentary

According to lead author Richard Petty, "However you tag your thoughts -- as trash or as worthy of protection -- seems to make a difference in how you use those thoughts…by physically throwing away or protecting your thoughts, you influence how you end up using those thoughts. Merely imagining engaging in these actions has no effect.”

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Penn State researchers say you can improve your sense of well-being and life satisfaction by exercising just a little bit harder or for just a little bit longer than you normally do.

Would you invest a few more sweaty minutes of exercise each day for a pay-off of substantially improved life satisfaction?

Scientists say that you have more control over your well-being than you probably realize, and that one of the best ways to enhance your sense of life satisfaction is by exercising for a few extra minutes each day.

The Experiment

Penn State University researchers recruited 190, 18-25 year old study subjects to participate in a life satisfaction experiment.

For 8 to 14 days, study subjects answered questions on a daily basis about life satisfaction at the moment, recent physical activity, self esteem and other variables.

The Results

After controlling for variables that could influence life satisfaction, such as depression, anxiety, stress, a high body mass index and fatigue, the research team found that exercise was significantly correlated to improved life satisfaction.

Subjects reported feeling greater life satisfaction on days with more physical activity and feeling less satisfied on more sedentary days.

Subjects reported the largest bump in life satisfaction on days when they exercised harder or for a few minutes longer than normal.

Commentary

The study authors say governments looking to boost macro-level mental health need to consider public health polices which encourage physical activity - and at the individual level, anyone wanting to feel a bit better about life ought to try sweating it out for a few extra minutes each day.

Read the full research findings in Health Psychology.

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Researchers say that people who eat more fruits and vegetables, up to a cap at 7 servings per day, are happier and have fewer mental health problems

Eat more fruits and veggies and be happier?

Well, maybe so - researchers at the University of Warwick and Dartmouth College can’t explain why, but after looking at the dietary habits of some 80 000 people in the UK they can say that on average, people that eat more fruits and vegetables are happier individuals.

The Study

The researchers analyzed data from a large sample of study subjects to see how eating fruits and vegetables affected mental health and happiness.

For the data, the researchers accessed three cross sectional health surveys of approximately 80 000 randomly selected citizens of the UK. Each health survey provided information on dietary habits and on happiness and well-being factors, such as life satisfaction, mental well-being, presence of mental disorders, nervousness, low feelings and self reported health and happiness.

The Results

• Even after controlling for confounding variables related to socioeconomic advantage they found that people get happier as they eat more fruits and vegetables.
• Happiness and well-being increases in a dose dependent manor as people eat more fruits and vegetables, until it peaks at 7 servings per day (a single serving = 80 grams of raw fruit or vegetables)
• Although many governments recommend 5 portions per day to reduce cancer and cardiovascular disease risk, in the UK about a quarter of the population eat 1 or fewer portions of fruit or vegetables per day and only 10% consumed 7 or more portions per day.

Commentary

The authors call for future research to investigate how and why eating more vegetables has such a strong influence on well-being, stating, “Human beings, like all animals, are fueled by the food and liquid they consume. Yet the literature on well-being has largely ignored the nature of people’s diets….there seem grounds here for the funding of randomized trials to explore the consequences for mental health of different levels of fruit-and-vegetable consumption.”

Image Copyright: Martin Cathrae