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The more hours worked in a stressful job, the greater the risk of depression. A study of doctors published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that medical residents who worked 90 or more hours a week experienced changes in their depression symptom scores that were three times greater than the change experienced by those working 40 to 45 hours a week. [More]

“Our study was about adolescent health in the context of parental incarceration and foster care,” study author, Luke Muentner told us. “Really, we were hoping to get a deeper understanding of how exposure to both the criminal legal and the child welfare system differentially impacts youth mental health compared to peers who were exposed to only one system as well as those who were never systems-impacted.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research looked at the performance of machine learning models in predicting suicidal ideation, attempts, and deaths. “My study sought to quantify the ability of existing machine learning models to predict future suicide-related events,” study author Karen Kusuma told us. “While there are other research studies examining a similar question, my study is the first to use clinically relevant and statistically appropriate performance measures for the machine learning studies.” [More]

A new study published in Child Development looked at whether older children verify adult claims because they are skeptical of those claims. “When children between four and seven years old are told something surprising, for example that a smaller object is heavier than a much larger object, they will frequently pick up those objects,” study author Samuel Ronfard, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto at Mississauga told us. “Older children engage in such exploratory behavior more frequently than younger children.” [More]

A new study published in Health Services Research looked at whether Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) work requirements in the U.S. increased mental health care use. “We wanted to determine whether imposing work requirement policies on SNAP (food stamp) enrollees increased their levels of depression and anxiety,” study author Lindsay Allen told us. [More]

50% of people who are pregnant or postpartum report feeling dissatisfied with their bodies. A small survey of 161 women aged between 18 and 45 who were either pregnant or postpartum found that more than half were unhappy with how they looked either during or following pregnancy. [More]

Two in three parents report that their children feel self-conscious about their appearance. A national poll found that one in five parents report their teens avoid some activities due to their insecurities and one in three parents report their kids have been treated unkindly due to their appearance. [More]

A new study published in Psychiatry Research looked at whether perceived stress can be linked to enhanced cognitive functioning and a reduced risk for psychopathology. “Our study tested whether low to moderate levels of perceived stress are associated with benefits in cognitive functions and mental health,” study author Assaf Oshri told us. “We relied on the Hormesis model, which is from the field of toxicology- assuming that not all stress is bad for the organism and that there is a threshold of stress from which stress is bad for you.” [More]

A new study published in Science Direct looked at how different dimensions of precarious employment affects mental health. “This is a study that analyzes the relationship between job insecurity and mental health in a Spanish territory (the Basque Country),” study author Erika Valero told us. “Considering the importance of paid work as a social determinant of health, we expected that also in our context, this problem could be related to mental health.” [More]

A new study published in the NeuroReport for Rapid Communication of Neuroscience Research looked at high-frequency ultrasound exposure and whether it could improve depressive-like behavior in an olfactory bulbectomized rat model of depression. “It is well known that whole-body exposure to high frequency ultrasound increases brain activity in humans,” study author Akiyoshi Saitoh. “However, little is known about its impact and associated mechanisms on emotional states like depression. In the present study, we demonstrated the anti-depressant effects of ultrasound exposure in a rodent model of depression.” [More]