September 2010 Archives

A public awareness campaign in Germany appears to have had an impact on male suicide rate. This is useful evidence for those who would like to see such campaigns launched elsewhere.

Also, new technology is being tested which may help young people self-manage their mental health conditions.

Meanwhile a new Earth-like planet has been discovered. Now all we need is for someone to invent faster-than-light travel or stargates or mass effect relays or something.

Psychology Today reports on research by the University of Derby which highlights the mental health benefits of dancing. Apparently it has a similar effect to mindfulness therapies - focusing the mind and diverting it away from negative thoughts.

In fact, there's lots of other good stuff in the journal today, including a piece on anxiety, mental tricks to make you happier and anxiety-driven mantras.

While on the subject of anxiety - msnbc has five ways to tackle anxiety.

Elsewhere, half a million Scot are on antidepressants, with prescriptions on the rise. Some are blaming the uncertainties created by the recession.

(Pic courtesy of pedrosimoes7)

I've been rather quiet on the blogging front recently, mainly because I've been working furiously with colleagues to get Student Zone, our new site for social work students, up and running.

So I'm very pleased to announce that Student Zone is now live and full of lots of new information about work placements, writing essays, course books and finding a job at the end of it.

I hope you find it useful. Please let me know what you think and do get in touch if you have any ideas about the kinds of things we could feature on Student Zone in the future.

By the way, the character above, who we designed to help illustrate Student Zone, is called Sam.

Today I present you with an assorted bag of mental health-related goodies:

A German company has developed a set of toy creatures with mental health problems (see above). Is this something I should disagree with? I'm not sure but I quite like the idea. You can buy the toys here.

Addressing negative thoughts might be the best way to tackle loneliness, research suggests:

interventions targeting social cognition - a person's thoughts about themselves and others - were far more effective than the other strategies.

Massage appears to have positive physical and mental effects.

ShrinkWrapped have provided a handy explanation of adolescent development.

Samaritans have launched an anti suicide campaign aimed at men.

And for all students out there - forget all you thought you knew about the best ways to study because it's all wrong.

Could music be offered on prescription as a treatment for depression one day? Who knows - but a team at Glasgow Caledonian University are looking into the effect of music on mood. This could lead eventually to pieces of music designed to enhance mood in particular ways. Sounds most pleasant.

Elsewhere, my colleagues on the Adult Care Blog have updates on community treatment orders and possible new treatments for Alzheimer's.

On a completely unrelated note, New Scientists reports that the laws of physics may change across the universe. Weird eh?

(Photo courtesy of jrossol on flickr)

Things I have spotted today:

Substance abuse not mental illness is the reason why some mental health patients commit violent crime, the Guardian reports.

Men should be screened for post-natal depression, says the Medical Research Council.

Psychological violence during pregnancy is linked to postnatal depression.

Mental Nurse reflects on things they have learned during their nursing career.

And Community Care reviews an interesting looking book on mindfulness and social work.

Community Care recently ran a survey revealing a 1 in 10 vacancy rate in social work - much higher than equivalent professions.

It also revealed the £70m extra that local authorities spend employing agency social workers.

So why do I keep reading on CareSpace about newly qualified social workers who can't get a job?

Are these isolated examples or part of a wider trend? Are councils choosing to operate with vacant posts rather than train up new staff? Do they prefer to pay the premium associated with agency workers rather than train new staff?

I'd be interested in people's thoughts...

Writing down your worries and then sealing the note in an envelope can have beneficial effects, research suggests. Putting it in an envelope is better than just writing it down, apparently, with the symbolism of the sealed envelope playing an important role.

And have you seen the film Inception yet? I thought it was great - my favourite film of the year so far. Anyway, it's all based on Jungian theories, according to Mind Hacks.

(Picture courtesy of Public Domain Photos on Flickr)

Just had to share this video of Sir Patrick Stewart, aka Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek TNG, offering his backing to David Miliband in the Labour leadership election.

Here are some items lassoed from the ever moving informational herd that is the internet.

Teenagers who get less than five hours sleep a night apparently face a higher risk of mental illness, research suggests.

Scientists are re-examining the potential medical use of banned psychoactive drugs.

And a small-scale study has found mindfulness is associated with improved wellbeing in adolescent boys.

(Photo by Joi on Flickr)

Care services minister Paul Burstow has outlined his vision for a revised mental health strategy, in an opinion piece for Community Care.

In it he says he wants to put mental health on an equal footing with physical health and focus more on the factors that cause mental illness.

While these sentiments are to be welcomed I wonder how they can be squared with a government that seems to be taking such relish in cutting public services.

I also think his criticisms of the previous government's record on mental health were a little unfair as I thought it was an area where they made some progress.

Social workers have been saying it for years but now it seems the medical community is at last catching up. Commenting on recent research, which found that social relationships can have as big an impact on health and wellbeing as factors such as smoking, the journal PLoS Medicine has called for societies to look beyond the medical causes of disease.

Elsewhere, a small scale survey returned positive results when using a dietary supplement called SAMe alongside antidepressants in the treatment of major depression. I had never heard of SAMe but apparently it may work by increasing the availability of serotonin and dopamine. There are various safety concerns associated with it and about.com says:

People with bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders and other psychiatric conditions should only use SAMe under the supervision of their healthcare provider. SAMe has been associated with hypomania and mania.

There's more information about it on Wikipedia. Proceed with caution. More research needed, I think.

There's a nice piece on Mindfulness and Psychotherapy on how you need to change your thought patterns if you want to change your life and how that takes real effort.

And finally a research resource for students - a search engine that finds papers that can be quoted in essays.