July 12, 2022
by Patricia Tomasi
A new study published in JAMA looked at the association between repeated exposure to hurricanes and mental health in Florida residents. “Our study sought to examine the relationship between exposure to catastrophic hurricanes on the Gulf Coast and both mental health and functional impairment (e.g., work and social functioning),” study author Dana Rose Garfin told us.
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June 28, 2022
by Patricia Tomasi
A new study published in Scientific Reports looked at the epidemiology of accelerometer-based sleep parameters in US school-aged children and adults. “The study is about the age, gender and racial distribution of objectively measured sleep parameters in the US population,” study author William V. McCall told us.
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June 21, 2022
by Patricia Tomasi
A new study published in Frontiers of Psychiatry looked at whether conspiratorial beliefs about the COVID-19 pandemic post a mental health risk and the relationship between conspiracy thinking and symptoms of anxiety and depression among Polish adults. “My research looks at the relationship between the severity of belief in false information about COVID-19 and the severity of symptoms of anxiety and depression,” study author Pawel Debski told us.
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June 14, 2022
by Patricia Tomasi
A new two-year longitudinal study published in the BMJ looked at lifestyle risk behaviors among adolescents impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our study focused on the ‘Big 6’ health behaviors among adolescents, being physical activity, diet, sleep, recreational screen time, alcohol use and smoking, given these are key predictors of both short- and long-term health and wellbeing,” lead author Dr. Lauren Gardner from the University of Sydney’s Matilda Centre told us.
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June 7, 2022
by Patricia Tomasi
A new study out of Oregon State University looked at the risk of psychiatric diagnoses in the months after a COVID-19 infection. “Previous work during earlier parts of the pandemic reported a high risk of new mental health conditions occurring following COVID infection,” study author Lauren Chan told us. “This study was intended to determine if that risk still exists for patients in the US including patient data until Fall of 2021.”
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May 31, 2022
by Elizabeth Pratt
Cumulative exposure to trauma in childhood is a key indicator of suicide ideation in university students.
Researchers from Trinity College in Dublin found that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were a common cause of poor mental health in college students.
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May 31, 2022
by Patricia Tomasi
A new study published in the Journal of Child Psychiatry and Human Development looked at the association between time spent playing and child mental health. “In January 2021, we published a paper explaining why we thought adventurous play might help to prevent anxiety in children,” study author Helen F. Dodd told us. “We explained how, when children play adventurously, they have opportunities to learn about uncertainty, coping and physiological arousal (heart beating fast, butterflies in your tummy etc.). These learning opportunities should target some of the risk factors that we know exist for child anxiety.”
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May 27, 2022
by Elizabeth Pratt
More than 20% of adults who were exposed to chronic levels of parental domestic violence in childhood develop major depressive disorder at some stage.
Researchers from the University of Toronto found that 22.5% of adults who witnessed domestic violence between parents later developed major depressive disorder, compared with 9.1% of those who hadn’t witnessed parental domestic violence as children.
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May 24, 2022
by Patricia Tomasi
A new study published in Cell Reports looked at early stress-induced impaired brain functioning. “We were trying to figure out how the long-lasting, life-long adverse effects of transient early-life stress on behavioral and endocrine responses to adult stresses come about,” study author Tallie Z. Baram told us. “This is important, because these changes are tied to mental illnesses.”
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May 17, 2022
by Patricia Tomasi
A new study published in the Journal of Development Economics looked at women’s wellbeing in India during the pandemic and its containment. “Our aim was to study how the pandemic and its containment policies affected women's mental wellbeing and food security, in a low income setting,” study author Gaurav Khanna told us. “We wanted to find out how strongly affected women were as they are particularly vulnerable in such settings.”
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