A balance between fear and relaxation is normal. However, mental dispositions and the continuous influence of environmental stimuli can disrupt this balance. A failure in therapy can often conceal unvoiced fears. This article is based on the lecture “State of the Art: Treating Anxiety Disorders” by Christian Albus, MD, director of the Clinic and Polyclinic … Read more
Recently, I found a thoughtful editorial by Steve Gillard (2019) titled, “Peer support in mental health services: where is the research taking us, and do we want to go there?” His question was certainly timely because peer support has, indeed, become a significant component of mental health services and systems over the past decade in … Read more
The study covered in this summary was published in Research Square as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed. Key Takeaways A high focus on self-presentation was associated with female gender, higher extraversion, lower emotional stability, more frequent alcohol consumption, and having tried tobacco. Given the association of aspects of self-presentation with negative … Read more
The good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s easy to talk about the good, but when it comes to having real conversations about mental health, it’s sometimes an uphill battle. We see so much about mental well-being, services, and hotlines available for those in need. In fact, it’s almost expected for schools and workplaces to … Read more
When a medical condition makes you need the toilet suddenly, ongoing worry about where the nearest one is, is understandable. Here we explore toilet anxiety, and, crucially, how to cope with it Imagine you’re somewhere you’ve never been before, and you suddenly realise you need to use the bathroom. You start looking around and asking … Read more
Newly identified serum biomarkers have the potential to flag patients, via blood testing, with major depressive disorder (MDD) at high risk of suicide. Investigators found patients with MDD who died by suicide had a gene expression signature in blood distinct from patients with MDDwho died by other means. The signature included genes involved in stress … Read more
Structural brain differences appear to distinguish psychopaths from individuals without psychopathic traits, new research shows. Using MRI, researchers found that the striatum was about 10% larger on average in adults with psychopathic traits than in matched control persons and that this relationship was mediated by stimulation seeking and impulse. The striatum is a subcortical region … Read more
Many of us are reluctant to throw things out. We buy. We accumulate. We collect. Eventually our attics are packed with dusty heirlooms that we rarely, if ever, look at. Eventually we’re forced to pare down and head to the Goodwill. But not all of us. Andrew Guzick, PhD Hoarding — or the prolonged difficulty … Read more
Mental health hospitalization rates rose for Canadian children and youth between ages 5 and 24 years in 2020, despite a slight decrease in the overall number of hospital visits, according to new data. Hospitalizations for eating disorders increased significantly, rising nearly 60% for girls between ages 10 and 17 years. “One of the key questions … Read more
May is Maternal Mental Health Month, and although we tend to hear a lot about postpartum depression, as our guest today has pointed out, perinatal distress is really a spectrum of reactions. Childbirth and new parenthood are major life transitions that involve many physical, psychological, and practical changes. These changes may interfere a little or … Read more