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Here are some sobering statistics. According to a survey of 1000 Americans, 47 per cent of men and 40 per cent of women binge drink more on New Year’s Eve than during any other holiday. In a study done by Alcohol Monitoring Systems, though they were fully aware that they were being monitored, over 450,000 DUI offenders still drank 33 per cent more between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Why is it so hard to stay sober during the holidays? [More]

A mother picks up her baby and shows her a stuffed giraffe toy. She tells her baby that giraffes have long necks and spots. The child feels her mother’s arms around her, hears her voice, and looks at the giraffe. The mother has provided tactile, auditory, and visual input, otherwise known as sensory signals. A new study has shown that when infants or young children experience unpredictable sensory signals from their parents, their brains, in particular their executive functioning, doesn’t develop properly and can contribute to mental health problems as they grow. [More]

A recent study on gender minority mental health in the U.S. gathered information from a national survey on college campuses among undergraduate and graduate students. “I have been conducting transgender health research for more than a decade,” study author Sari Reisner told us. “Routine collection of gender identity data as a population demographic is vital to public health. The disparities seen in this study offers an example of why these data are so urgently needed.” [More]

Anxiety has been known to occur in up to 27 per cent of pregnant women. Prenatal anxiety can have a negative effect on the emotional, mental, and physical health of mothers and babies. Prenatal anxiety can also increase a mother’s chances of developing postpartum depression and anxiety, further exacerbating the negative health outcome of her children. Some of the anxieties pregnant women may experience include worries about parenting, the health of the baby and an intense fear of labor. A new study on pregnancy-related anxiety in women during all three trimesters and its association with symptoms of social and generalized anxiety, was recently published in the Journal of Affective Disorders. [More]

For Matthew Heneghan, author of the newly released memoir, A Medic’s Mind, writing became a way of letting the poison out. “I was not gifted with a natural ability to write,” Heneghan told us. “I merely endured the experiences required to give my soul the time it needed to learn how to cry. What you see on paper or page are not letters and phrases from me...they’re tear drops.” [More]

A recent study published in the Journal of Early Intervention looked at the feasibility and effectiveness of Responsive Teaching (RT) with Saudi Arabian mothers and their children diagnosed with autism. RT is a relationship-based early intervention curriculum that was developed by study author, Gerald Mahoney. [More]

A new study, titled, Associations between parenting stress, parent mental health and child sleep problems for children with ADHD and ASD, looked at whether sleep problems experienced by children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were connected to parenting stress. About one in 59 children in the U.S. has been diagnosed with ASD and like ADHD, and it’s more common in boys than girls, about four times more common. One in 37 boys and one in 151 girls were diagnosed with ASD in 2018. [More]

Bipolar disorder is a neuroprogressive illness and early detection is vital. One of the most potent triggers for a bipolar episode is childbirth. Unfortunately, research on postpartum bipolar disorder (PPBD) is scarce, however, a new study published in Psychiatry Research found that nearly 50 per cent of postpartum women had hypomanic symptoms. [More]

The average age of women giving birth is on the rise. Most countries participating in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) experienced a two to four-year increase in the mean age of women giving birth. At the same time, adolescent fertility rates remain high in low and middle-income countries. A new study published in the Journal of Psychiatry Investigation examined the impact of age at childbirth on the maternal mental health of premenopausal women in Korea. [More]

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in children is 1 in 59 and boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls. Research has shown that early intervention can help improve communication skills and the most well known autism therapy is Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). A new study looked at a type of ABA which is showing great promise in helping children with autism. [More]