A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience
Prescription for music
Patients with pain or depression could be prescribed specific kinds of music to help alleviate their symptoms as a result of new research. Scientists at Glasgow Caledonian University are using sound engineering and psychology to see how music can convey emotion and regulate mood.
1 in 9 babies in poverty have babies with severely depressed mothers.
More than half of babies in poverty are being raised by mothers who show symptoms of mild to severe depression, potentially creating problems in parenting and in child development, according to a new study.
Continue reading… “Half of Babies in Poverty Have a Mother with Depression”
Computer program detects depressed bloggers.
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University in Israel developed a computer program that they think can detect depression among bloggers. To test their hypothesis, they scanned 300,000 English-language blogs and had clinical psychologists read the subjects that the computer indicated were depressed. The psychologists agreed with the computer 78% of the time:
Continue reading… “Computer Program Can Detect Depression Among Bloggers”
Bad dreams are associated with health problems – from insomnia, fatigue and headaches, to depression and anxiety
One in 20 people suffers with frequent or chronic nightmares, writes Roger Dobson. In one of the biggest studies in the area, results show that bad dreams are associated with health problems – from insomnia, fatigue and headaches, to depression and anxiety.
Continue reading… “How Bad Dreams Are Associated With Health Problems”
Suicide rate between ages of 45 to 54 continues to rise.
For the second year in a row, middle-aged adults have registered the highest suicide rate in the country, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Historically, the eldest segment of the population, those 80 and older, have had the highest rates of suicide in the United States. Starting in 2006, however, the suicide rate among men and women between the ages of 45 and 54 was the highest of any age group.
Continue reading… “Suicide Rate Among Middle-Age Continues to Rise”
Study: Link between antidrepressants and miscarriage.
Pregnancy is often fraught with complications, not least for women suffering from depression while carrying a child: new research suggests that women who take antidepressant medications during pregnancy may have an increased risk of miscarriage.
The obese woman on the left has fat around her organs (shown by the yellow areas) and an enlarged heart which can have dire consequences on her health
Carrying extra pounds may not look attractive from the outside, but it’s been difficult to understand precisely the havoc it wreaks on your insides – until now. Here, in a pair of astonishing pictures, we can see exactly what being overweight does to the organs, bones and muscles. These images of two women were taken by a magnetic resonance imaging (MRIRI) scanner and reveal in horrifying detail the obesity effect.
Continue reading… “Extraordinary Scans Reveal What Being Fat Does to Your Body”
Actor Choi Jin-young (left) hanged himself last month and his sister Choi Jin-sil (right), known as the “nation’s actress” hanged herself in October 2008
Choi Jin-young hanged himself last month with an electrical cord. The 39-year-old actor wasn’t getting any work in local TV, police said, and he had been depressed since the suicide of his famous older sister. The sister, Choi Jin-sil, was known as the “nation’s actress.” When she hanged herself in her bathroom in October 2008, a wave of sympathetic suicides swept South Korea and 1,700 people took their lives the following month.
Continue reading… “Suicide Rate Doubles in Prosperous South Korea”
The Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Wales in 1967
It was embraced by The Beatles and became synonymous with the 1960s hippy lifestyle of peace and love. Now medical experts believe transcendental meditation could be used to treat high blood pressure and psychological problems.
There is a strong link between heavy internet use and depression, UK psychologists have said. The study, reported in the journal Psychopathology, found 1.2% of people surveyed were “internet addicts”, and many of these were depressed.
The Leeds University team stressed they could not say one necessarily caused the other, and that most internet users did not suffer mental health problems. The conclusions were based on 1,319 responses to an on-line questionnaire. Recruitment was via links on social networking sites. People were asked how much they used the internet and for what purposes. They were also asked a series of questions to assess whether they suffered from depression.
Continue reading… “Internet Over Use Linked To Depression”
Study found that getting married, compared to not getting married, was good for the mental health
Marriage really is good for you, with a major international study finding it reduces the risks of depression and anxiety, but these disorders are more likely to plague people once the relationship is over.
Continue reading… “Marriage Wards Off Depression”
A study by researchers at the University of Bergen, Norway, and the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King’s College London has found that depression is as much of a risk factor for mortality as smoking.
Continue reading… “Depression as Deadly as Smoking, Study Finds”
