This At-Home Therapy Doubles Chances Of Severe Depression Relief (M)
The home-based therapy that could change the treatment of severe depression.
The home-based therapy that could change the treatment of severe depression.
Stress contributes to depression but it all depends on how you cope with it.
It is linked to higher risk of self-harm and suicidal thoughts.
It is linked to higher risk of self-harm and suicidal thoughts.
Young people feeling lonely are at twice the risk of mental health problems like depression and anxiety, research finds.
Loneliness is a modern epidemic among young as well as old, with those aged between 16 and 24-years old being the most lonely.
Lonely people were also at higher risk of self-harm and suicidal thoughts and they felt most pessimistic about their ability to succeed.
Dr Timothy Matthews, the study’s first author, said:
“It’s often assumed that loneliness is an affliction of old age, but it is also very common among younger people.
Unlike many other risk factors, loneliness does not discriminate: it affects people from all walks of life; men and women, rich and poor.”
For the study, over 2000 British young people were asked questions such as ‘how often do you feel you lack companionship?’ and ‘how often do you feel left out?’
They were also interviewed about their mental and physical health as well as their lifestyles.
Around 7% of young people said they were often lonely.
Dr Matthews said:
“Our findings suggest that if someone tells their GP or a friend that they feel lonely, that could be a red flag that they’re struggling in a range of other areas in life.
There are lots of community initiatives to try and encourage people to get together and take part in shared activities.
However, it’s important to remember that some people can feel lonely in a crowd, and the most effective interventions to reduce loneliness involve counselling to help individuals tackle negative patterns of thinking.”
While the study cannot tell us that loneliness is the cause of these problems, it does show how widespread the problem is.
Professor Louise Arseneault, study co-author, said:
“It’s important that we become comfortable talking about loneliness as a society.
People are often reluctant to admit that they feel lonely, because there is still a stigma attached to it. That in itself can be profoundly isolating.”
The study was published in the journal Psychological Medicine (Matthews et al., 2018).
The therapy helps the brain work more efficiently and lifts depression.
The bias may make it harder for depressed and anxious people to take a risk on a new relationship, job or other career opportunity.
The bias may make it harder for depressed and anxious people to take a risk on a new relationship, job or other career opportunity.
People with symptoms of depression and anxiety tend to focus more on the mistakes they have made in the past, research finds.
This makes it harder for them to take advantage of potentially beneficial opportunities in the future.
Worse, other studies have shown that people who are depressed tend to believe that bad things that happened to them were inevitable.
The bias may make it harder for depressed and anxious people to take a risk on a new relationship, job or other career opportunity.
One suggestion for escaping this cycle is to consciously focus more on past successes.
Unfortunately, depressed people also have a difficulty appreciating or recalling positive experiences.
Cognitive-behavioural therapy is one way of changing habits of thought that might affect decision-making.
In contrast to the depressed and anxious, people who are emotionally resilient find it easier to adapt to a rapidly changing environment and to take advantage of opportunities.
Professor Sonia Bishop, study co-author, explained:
“When everything keeps changing rapidly, and you get a bad outcome from a decision you make, you might fixate on what you did wrong, which is often the case with clinically anxious or depressed people.
Conversely, emotionally resilient people tend to focus on what gave them a good outcome, and in many real-world situations that might be key to learning to make good decisions.”
The researchers tested the decision-making of over 300 people for their study, some with depression and others with anxiety.
Professor Bishop said:
“We wanted to see if this weakness was unique to people with anxiety, or if it also presented in people with depression, which often goes hand in hand with anxiety.
We also sought to find out if the problem was a general one or specific to learning about potential reward or potential threat.”
The results showed that people with symptoms of depression and anxiety had the most trouble making sound decisions.
Professor Bishop said:
“We found that people who are emotionally resilient are good at latching on to the best course of action when the world is changing fast.
People with anxiety and depression, on the other hand, are less able to adapt to these changes.
Our results suggest they might benefit from cognitive therapies that redirect their attention to positive, rather than negative, outcomes.”
The study was published in the journal eLife (Gagne et al., 2020).
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Those that adhered to this diet had a 33 percent reduced chance of developing depression.
Those that adhered to this diet had a 33 percent reduced chance of developing depression.
A diet rich in vegetables, nuts, fruits and fish could lower depression risk by up to a third, research suggests. The results come from studies on tens of thousands of people around the world. The so-called ‘Mediterranean diet’ is also linked to reduced inflammation in the body. Anti-inflammatory foods include olive oil, legumes, and many other foods rich in plant fibre, vitamins and minerals. Foods that increase inflammation in the body, such as sugar and saturated fats, were linked to higher depression risk. Dr Camille Lassale, the study’s lead author, said:“There is compelling evidence to show that there is a relationship between the quality of your diet and your mental health. This relationship goes beyond the effect of diet on your body size or other aspects of health that can in turn affect your mood.”The results come from an analysis of 41 different studies. Of these, four examined the link between depression and diet in 36,556 people. The results showed that those that adhered to the Mediterranean diet more closely had a 33% reduced chance of developing depression than those who shunned it. Five of the studies showed that eating foods high in saturated fat, sugar and processed foods was linked to a higher risk of depression. Dr Lassale said:
“A pro-inflammatory diet can induce systemic inflammation, and this can directly increase the risk for depression. There is also emerging evidence that shows that the relationship between the gut and brain plays a key role in mental health and that this axis is modulated by gastrointestinal bacteria, which can be modified by our diet.”Dr Tasnime Akbaraly, study co-author, said:
The study was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry (Lassale et al., 2018).“By showing that an adherence to healthy dietary patterns is associated with a reduced risk of depressive disorders, we contribute to the growing body of evidence regarding the importance of our daily diets to our mental and brain health.
Added to recent randomised trials showing beneficial effects of dietary improvement on depression outcomes, there are now strong arguments in favour of regarding diet as mainstream in psychiatric medicine.”
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