Mental health
People with multiple long-term physical health conditions are at a significantly greater risk of developing depression, new research has found. Researchers found that some combinations of illnesses – particularly cardiometabolic ones like diabetes and heart disease – could more than double the likelihood of a future depression diagnosis. With multimorbidity – when patients live with [...]
By John Tinson of Ilika Technologies Neurostimulation technology is a rapidly evolving field of medicine which has the potential to transform management of chronic pain, neurological disorders and psychiatric conditions. Implanted neurostimulation devices, such as spinal cord stimulators, deep brain stimulators and Vagus nerve stimulators work by delivering targeted electrical impulses to specific neural structures. [...]
Regular chats with friends, time spent in nature and mentally engaging activities are strongly linked to better mental health, according to new Curtin University research that highlights the power of simple, everyday behaviours to improve well-being. The study surveyed more than 600 Western Australian adults and found people who chatted with others daily scored 10 [...]
Parents of hospitalised children experienced significantly reduced anxiety after using virtual reality meditation programmes, a new study has found. The research, conducted at Stanford Medicine, showed that a short guided VR meditation lowered parental stress by around 30%, with Spanish-speaking families seeing particularly strong benefits. The team trialled the intervention at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital [...]
Patients suffering from depression, anxiety and trauma-related disorders experienced significant relief from their symptoms after a new treatment that uses sound waves to modulate deep brain activity, according to new research. The study demonstrates that low-intensity focused ultrasound technology can safely and effectively target the amygdala — a brain region known to be hyperactive in [...]
Researchers evaluating a nature-based programme of activities for patients with mild to moderate mental health conditions have shown that improvements in mood and anxiety levels can be seen in as little as 12 weeks. As part of the UK government’s commitment to transform mental health services, seven ‘test and learn’ green social prescribing sites were [...]
Findings from a new UK study could help explain why teenage girls are more susceptible to depression than their male peers. Depression affects 280 million people worldwide. It is twice as common in women than men and this pattern starts to develop during adolescence. Researchers have studied the biological processes that drive [...]
Almost half of patients diagnosed with depression classify as being ‘treatment-resistant’ as new research suggests that many don’t respond to multiple antidepressant options. The study found that 48 per cent of patients whose electronic healthcare records reported a diagnosis of depression had tried at least two antidepressants, and 37 per cent had tried four or [...]
A new study has revealed that while more teenagers report high mental wellbeing, at the same time, those who are struggling are rating their depressive symptoms significantly higher than previous cohorts did at the same age. The study examined changes in how young teenagers in Sweden rated their depressive symptoms over two decades. Researchers compared [...]
Researchers have received £2.4m in funding to develop new noninvasive brain stimulation interventions for patients with a wide range of conditions including depression, schizophrenia, and Tourette’s syndrome. Researchers at the University of Nottingham's School of Medicine, have received a Medical Research Programme Grant to test a series of novel interventions will lead to improved brain [...]
