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January 24, 2023

Researchers examine how ADHD traits impact mental health

woman with curly red hair and fuzzy white sweater leaning against a wall in her home office with a laptop on her lap — A new examine indicates that grownups with ADHD may need additional psychological well being support. Image credit rating: Counter/Getty Photos.

In a collaborative research, scientists analyzed grownup questionnaire responses to examine the connection between ADHD features, autism features, and mental wellness issues.
The researchers wanted to come across out how considerably having attributes of ADHD or autism raises signs and symptoms of mental wellbeing troubles.
Immediately after analyzing the responses, the researchers concluded that officials have to have to raise more consciousness about the effects ADHD can have on mental wellness, as they imagine that persons with ADHD are much more very likely to internalize their struggles.

Notice deficit hyperactivity ailment (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental dysfunction that influences quite a few individuals from childhood to adulthood. ADHD generally has a lot of comorbid situations, together with mental well being conditions.

Autism — from time to time referred to as “autism spectrum disorder” (ASD) — can have some overlapping qualities with ADHD. Nevertheless, autism manifests on a huge spectrum, with some men and women suffering from signs and symptoms that can more seriously disrupt their high quality of existence.

For this explanation, professional health care suppliers may look at that people with autism might confront far more issues in each day lifestyle in contrast to persons with ADHD.

Researchers from the Universities of Tub, Bristol, and Cardiff, and King’s Higher education London — all in the United Kingdom — required to see no matter if people today who experience characteristics of possibly ADHD or autism also have signs or symptoms of mental health and fitness problems, these as despair or stress and anxiety, and to what diploma they expertise all those symptoms.

Through questionnaires they analyzed, the researchers observed that persons with characteristics of ADHD are extra most likely to internalize mental health challenges than people today with autism.

The success of the study are available in the journal Scientific Reports.

ADHD normally exhibits up in early childhood and can be diagnosed in a youngster as younger as 4 year s old.

The most important signs and symptoms of ADHD are becoming hyperactive and/ or inattentive. Some other indications of ADHD can consist of currently being impulsive, earning careless issues, having issues with executive performing, and having difficulties with time administration.

Somewhere around 8.4{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of youngsters in the United States have a present-day ADHD analysis, and a latest review estimates that 6.76{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of older people globally have symptomatic ADHD.

Dr. Krista Jordan, a medical psychologist at Picking out Therapy in Austin, TX, spoke with Medical News Currently to additional describe what drives the ADHD and melancholy link. Dr. Jordan famous that the quick-allele variation of the 5-HTTLPR serotonin-transportation gene may possibly perform a purpose.

“In people today who have the brief-allele of this gene there is a substantially enhanced probability that they will be diagnosed with ADHD,” described Dr. Jordan. “Interestingly, this very same limited-allele variation of the 5-HTTLPR gene has been connected with greater emotional sensitivity and reactivity.”

There are a few means suppliers handle indicators of ADHD, which may well include things like nutritional interventions and occupational therapy. Other people today could uncover that they need to have remedies.

Some stimulant and non-stimulant prescription prescription drugs incorporate:

For some people today, unmanaged ADHD indications can guide to psychological wellness concerns, which include despair and panic.

The intention of the existing exploration was to uncover out irrespective of whether men and women with ADHD signs have a tendency to internalize their struggles.

They noted, initial of all, that analysis into folks with autism was extra commonly out there than investigate centering people with ADHD, so they wanted to aid restore that harmony.

“There is far increased emphasis on ASD more than ADHD in both equally exploration on internalizing issues and medical apply,” publish the authors.

Alternatively than relying on diagnostic criteria to evaluate the inner struggles of people today diagnosed with ADHD or autism, the researchers made a decision the best approach was to carry out a survey of the basic inhabitants in the U.K.

They recruited 504 individuals from ages 18-79. The average participant age was 45. The contributors ended up just about evenly break up by intercourse, as 49{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of the contributors have been male, and 51{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} ended up woman.

All members accomplished four questionnaires to assess for characteristics connected to autism, ADHD, stress and anxiety, and melancholy:

The 28-item Brief Autism-Spectrum Quotient
The 18-product Grownup ADHD Self-Report Scale
The 7-Product Generalized Anxiousness Ailment Scale
The 9-Product Melancholy Module of the Individual Wellbeing Questionnaire.

The scientists used them to assess the relationship in between autism and ADHD qualities and mental health.

After analyzing the questionnaires, the scientists have been able to affirm their suspicion that folks with ADHD expertise and internalize nervousness and melancholy. On top of that, the authors pointed out that folks with ADHD traits internalized their challenges extra than persons with autism qualities.

“Our results suggest that investigation and scientific follow need to shift some of the concentrate from autism to ADHD,” claims direct researcher Luca Hargitai, a doctoral researcher at the University of Bathtub.

The scientists also ran versions of their questionnaire responses on a computer simulation and received the exact end result — it experienced what the authors referred to as a “100{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} reproducibility price.”

“This indicated that ADHD qualities would constantly dominate ASD attributes as a predictor of internalizing troubles at the inhabitants level,” write the authors.

The success of this research can support healthcare providers be extra conscious that persons with ADHD traits may perhaps be dealing with signs or symptoms of stress and despair. This awareness can improve the probability of treating these troubles.

“The relationship involving psychological wellness concerns like stress and anxiety and melancholy and ADHD are really profound in the scientific populace,” Dr. Allison Chase commented in an job interview with Clinical Information Currently. “We commonly see important comorbidity in between these problems.”

Dr. Chase has a doctorate in scientific psychology from The College of Texas at Austin and is the regional clinical director of Pathlight Temper and Anxiousness Heart. She was not included in the review.

Dr. Chase also highlighted the mechanisms driving ADHD and depression.

“The biological part of the etiology of mental overall health disorders, which include ADHD as nicely as despair and stress, even more supports why we see this crossover of behaviors and indicators in the two little ones and adults,” commented Dr. Chase.

“There are very likely identical mechanisms functioning for the reason that equally psychological health and fitness signs of stress and anxiety and melancholy and ADHD are co-happening,” she additional.

Dr. David Feifel, professor emeritus of psychiatry at the College of California in San Diego, not concerned in the investigate, also spoke with MNT about the research findings.

“This analyze is significant simply because it confirms former proof that acquiring ADHD will increase the danger that a person will produce a psychiatric affliction these kinds of as anxiety and despair,” Dr. Feifel reported.

“In my experience, depression and stress and anxiety manifesting in grown ups can be a immediate final result of the ADHD symptoms they have been struggling with considering that childhood. The difficulty is that lots of adults with undiagnosed ADHD seek enable for depression or anxiety, and neither they nor their psychiatrists realize that ADHD is underlying and driving those people conditions, in section, simply because ADHD in adults is challenging to identify and diagnose unless a health care provider is aware what to search for.”

– Dr. David Feifel

January 13, 2023

Gardening may help reduce cancer risk, boost mental health

A person plants an outdoor garden in the mountains — New research indicates that gardening provides various health and fitness positive aspects, which include a lessened hazard of continual conditions like cancer. Manu Prats/Stocksy

A new review shows that individuals who work in community gardens get different overall health benefits that may well support minimize the threat of long-term diseases like most cancers and can boost psychological health.
The randomized managed trial concerned 145 individuals who never ever gardened ahead of and tracked their physical and psychological wellbeing all through and after a increasing time.
Individuals eaten a lot more fiber, received a lot more training, and felt extra linked and less nervous as a result of their group gardening expertise.

Taking part in community gardening decreases the risk of building really serious health problems, including most cancers and mental overall health issues, in accordance to a the latest review.

Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) have shown that people today receive several wellbeing-marketing added benefits from neighborhood gardening.

Gardeners increased their intake of fiber by ingesting far more refreshing make, received additional exercise tending a garden, and felt more related socially, all of which are protecting components towards most cancers, psychological overall health concerns, and different persistent ailments.

Former observational experiments have instructed that gardening, in normal, may well provide some of these benefits, but the CU Boulder study is the initially randomized controlled demo (RCT) investigating the profit of gardening, and local community gardening in distinct.

The analyze is released in The Lancet Planetary Overall health.

The researchers recruited 291 older people who experienced not gardened right before. Persons averaged 41.5 several years of age, and 34{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} recognized as Hispanic. Of the members, 18{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} ended up male (52 participants), and half arrived from reduce-revenue households.

The researchers carried out a few gardening waves spanning 1 12 months each and beginning in May well, just soon after the past frost in Denver and Aurora, CO, in which the gardens have been situated. Half of just about every wave’s individuals gardened, and 50 percent did not, serving as a manage team.

Each participant acquired an introductory gardening training course from Denver City Gardens and was allocated a conventional, 10-sq. meter neighborhood yard plot, as properly as seeds and seedlings.

The similar was supplied to the regulate-group people as payment for delaying their gardening for the system of the examine.

Direct study writer Jill S. Litt, Ph.D., professor of environmental research at CU Boulder, instructed Health care News Nowadays that just about every participant put in an ordinary of about 90 minutes a week gardening and frequented their garden at the very least 2 times during the week.

“We located that being new to gardening was not a barrier to staying successful at gardening, as our examine only included new gardeners,” Dr. Litt claimed.

Scientists assessed participants’ wellbeing just before the review and group assignment, at harvest time, and the following winter. People today done surveys concerning tension, anxiety, and diet and wore thigh-mounted accelerometers for 7 days at every evaluation.

In the review, the scientists discovered that gardeners eaten slightly more nutritional fiber than the regulate team, though however below the proposed stage of 25–38 grams per working day. They also exercised somewhere around 5 minutes much more at harvest time than the command team.

“I assume it is a fantastic examine, searching at just the logistics of how they did it,” Rebecca Crane-Okada, Ph.D., R.N., advanced oncology nurse and professor of oncology at St. John’s Most cancers Institute in Santa Barbara, CA, not involved in the analyze, advised MNT. “It was a really sophisticated analyze to implement.”

Dr. Litt claimed the analyze tackled an present investigate gap given that scaled-down observational reports suggesting a hyperlink to better health and fitness could not establish if gardening led to a extra wholesome way of living or if it was the other way close to.

She observed the research confirmed “that a holistic intervention this sort of as group gardening can have an affect on various outcomes — fiber, moderate-to-vigorous bodily action — and psychosocial health and fitness — anxiety and anxiety — in an acceptable and cost-effective way, for persons of different social, economic, and demographic backgrounds.”

Dr. Litt mentioned that gardening addresses multiple aspects that are important for lowering the danger of long-term sickness and selling over-all wellbeing.

In accordance to Dr. Crane-Okada, group gardening offers a likelihood to handle regarded “modifiable threat factors” for diseases this kind of as:

Denise Dillon, Ph.D., affiliate professor of psychology at James Cook University in Singapore, was not concerned in the research but has printed former research on the psychological health positive aspects of group gardening.

“In our exploration, individuals who engaged in neighborhood gardening scored better on particular subjective wellbeing and resilience than did individuals who gardened by itself at dwelling or those who engaged in non-gardening, team outside things to do, even with reporting identical amounts of perceived strain.”

– Denise Dillon, Ph.D., psychology professor

Dr. Dillon extra there is “ample evidence from throughout a variety of research paradigms to reveal benefits of direct exposure to normal environments for the purpose of restoration, whether or not physiological or psychological.”

There are hundreds of urban neighborhood gardens in the United States.

Portland, OR, for instance, has 4.45 group gardens per 1,000 men and women, and these kinds of gardens are not restricted to temperate regions — St. Paul, MN, has the next-finest density of local community gardens in the U.S., with 3.84 gardens for every 1,000 folks.

Dr. Crane-Okada credited the gains of local community gardening to remaining outdoors in character and fostering a connection to the earth. She observed that bodily action is needed to get ready, nurture, and harvest a backyard and that being a component of a community rewards psychological nicely-getting.

People today who have been diagnosed with a serious disorder like most cancers can also reward psychologically from time expended operating in a local community backyard, Dr. Crane-Okada reported.

“The nature of gardening, usually outdoor, entails actual physical exercise, a emphasis on something outside the house oneself — that’s why can also be a aware activity — may perhaps be performed in local community, as in this study, which can serve as an more social assistance,” she concluded.

Posted on December 23, 2022
Dementia, stem cell, and mental health research

2022 has been an eventful year when it comes to medical research, but what are some of the most intriguing findings and trends? Our editors, Maria Cohut, Yasemin Nicola Sakay, and James McIntosh reflect on this year’s highlights in our December “In Conversation” episode.

While 2020 and 2021 may have stuck in the collective memory as two intense pandemic years, 2022 has also been an eventful one.

Google’s Year in Search report pinpoints some of people’s most pressing concerns at a global scale throughout 2022. One of these is the monkeypox epidemic, which the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a “public health emergency of international concern” in August.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain in September, after a record 70-year reign, garnered global interest, as did the impact of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

And the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States sparked concern among medical communities worldwide.

But 2022 has also seen a wealth of advances in medical research, from a new way of assessing potential dementia symptoms that may help to diagnose it up to 9 years sooner than the current standard to the discovery of an insulin-mimicking molecule that may, in the future, help treat diabetes.

This December, three of our editors — myself, the Feature Editor, Yasemin Nicola Sakay, the Global News Editor, and Managing Editor James McIntosh — joined the “In Conversation” podcast to talk about some of 2022’s research highlights.

These include the twists and turns dementia research has taken this year, why scientists are increasingly interested in the potential of psychedelics in mental health treatments, and how stem cell research is advancing at a steady pace.

Listen to this month’s installment of our podcast below, or on your preferred streaming platform.

This year has been a very charged one for dementia research. As many as 55 million people around the world live with a form of dementia, the most common form of which is Alzheimer’s disease.

While there are some treatments that target symptoms of dementia, such as memory loss and anxiety, there is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative conditions.

One thing that would help researchers find better treatments to prevent or slow down the progression of dementia symptoms would be finding out its true cause and the mechanisms that drive it.

The ‘amyloid hypothesis’ controversy

In 2006, a study that appeared in the journal Nature lent credibility to what is now known as the “amyloid hypothesis,” which holds that an overaccumulation of beta-amyloid protein in the brain — forming sticky amyloid plaques — disrupts the communication between neurons, thus being largely responsible for the main symptoms of dementia, such as memory and thinking problems.

Since its publication, the Nature paper has been cited in over 2,200 other studies, and the amyloid hypothesis has informed the vast majority of the dementia research conducted until now.

Yet in July 2022, an assistant professor of neurology at Vanderbilt University called into question claimed that some of the images in the seminal study had been manipulated, which may affect the credibility of the amyloid theory.

While the 2006 Nature paper has not, at the time of writing, been retracted, the recent claims of scientific misconduct have caused an uproar among dementia experts, and given rise to many questions.

One question is: If the paper truly does build on inaccuracies, will this invalidate some of the findings in dementia research reported until now? Not so, some experts say.

Speaking to Medical News Today, Dr. Sara Imarisio, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, explained that “the findings from the [Nature] paper were very specific and, contrary to some reports, have not significantly affected the progress or direction of research into Alzheimer’s.”

“Even for research groups who work in this particular area, findings that can’t be reproduced will be identified as controversial and lose credibility, while genuine findings will come to predominate and guide the direction of future studies.”

– Dr. Sara Imarisio

Indeed, some findings about amyloid plaques seem to hold true, as a recently developed drug, lecanemab, which attacks the accumulation of beta-amyloid in the brain, has shown clear promise in recent clinical trials, and its developers hope that the drug will be approved for use in people aged 65 years and older in the U.S. as soon as next year.

New research avenues

But scientists were already aware that beta-amyloid plaques are not the be-all and end-all of dementia research. How so? In our June 2022 podcast, we spoke with Dr. Kamar Ameen-Ali, a lecturer in biomedical science at Teesside University in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Ameen-Ali explained that the crux of the matter is this: Beta-amyloid accumulates in the brains of healthy people just as it does in those of people with dementia symptoms. What makes this protein disruptive in some cases but not others remains unclear.

This is one of the reasons why dementia research does not, and has never stopped at the amyloid hypothesis, influential as it may be.

The controversy has also meant that more and more researchers are looking into alternative or additional pathologies in Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, including the role of tau, another protein implicated in dementia, which, some experts say, may be a better indicator of Alzheimer’s disease progression.

In September, an animal study whose results appeared in PLOS Biology suggested that brain inflammation caused by a dysfunction in the blood-brain barrier may be a likely cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

“These findings may have a significant global impact on the millions of people living with Alzheimer’s disease,” Prof. Warren Harding, chair of Alzheimer’s WA, told MNT about the study.

And in November 2022, a study published in Nature argued that disruptive swelling along axons, which form the link between neurons, may be the true cause of Alzheimer’s symptoms.

One emerging treatment for dementia is stem cell therapy, thanks to the potential of stem cells — which are a kind of “blank slate” cells — to differentiate and “specialize” into cells with different functions, thus providing healthy cells to replace those that have experienced some degree of “damage.”

Stem cell research has made great strides this year, with scientists looking at the potential of stem cell treatment in many incurable or difficult-to-treat diseases.

In April 2022, for instance, a study whose findings appeared in npj Regenerative Medicine showed how implanting induced pluripotent stem cells in rats with Parkinson’s disease-like motor symptoms helped reverse those symptoms by replacing damaged neurons.

Speaking to MNT about the study results, Dr. Jeffrey Kordower, director of the ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center at Arizona State University, said that they gave him “great confidence” about the treatment’s applicability in human patients in the future.

Another stem cell therapy highlight made the press in summer 2022, when the fourth, and oldest patient yet with HIV and leukemia achieved remission after receiving a stem cell transplant.

The patient, a 66-year-old man, achieved long-term remission of HIV 3 years after receiving a stem cell transplant for leukemia, which is a blood and bone marrow cancer.

“When I was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, like many others, I thought it was a death sentence. I never thought I would live to see the day that I no longer have HIV,” the patient declares in a statement for the press.

Creating embryo and brain models from stem cells

Stem cell research has also reached other intriguing and much-debated heights this year. In August 2022, two different research teams reported having successfully created embryo models in the laboratory, using not sperm and egg cells, but stem cells to do so.

The embryo models managed to develop rudimentary structures, including a beating heart, blood stem cell circulation, a head region with folds, and the beginnings of a gut tube.

They are also viable enough to allow researchers to delve deeper into the study of embryonic development. Models like these can also help researchers steer free of experiments with potential ethical implications.

Other researchers managed to create brain organoids — models of brain tissue — from stem cells in the lab. Such models can help scientists learn more about rare neurological conditions, such as microcephaly, where the size of the brain is reduced compared to that of a healthy brain.

More widely, researchers could use models of brain tissue to better understand the way in which viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2, might attack and affect the brain, and to further dementia research.

The importance of stem cell donation

Our own Managing Editor, James McIntosh, donated stem cells earlier this year to help further research on better treatments for people with blood cancers and blood disorders. James talks about his experience at length in a “Through My Eyes” personal perspective article.

When a person donates blood, they can also choose to donate stem cells, which are separated through a process called “apheresis.” It may seem like an unsettling experience, but, James wrote, it was nowhere near as scary as a first-time stem cell donor might think.

In his article, he explains how apheresis works:

“All the heavy lifting was going to be done by a cell-separating machine. The nurse inserted a needle into a vein in my left arm from which my blood was drawn into the machine. The machine then separated the blood into its separate components: red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma, and platelets. Once the blood was separated, the parts containing my precious stem cells were taken away, leaving the rest of the blood to return to me. The nurse inserted another needle into a vein in my right arm, and the blood was able to rejoin my bloodstream here from the machine.”

James encourages everyone who can to donate stem cells for treatment and research: “Stem cells are a vital part of treatment for several serious conditions while also showing a lot of potential in the development of new therapies for currently untreatable diseases. As a result, it is very important for there to be people willing to donate their stem cells. Many will be able to save lives by joining a donation register.”

Our January 2022 podcast on blood donations and transfusions further explains how blood donation works, how to prepare, what the different types of blood donation are, and why this is such a vital part of medical treatment and research.

Another research avenue that has been gaining ground in 2022 is the use of psychedelics in the treatment of anxiety and depression.

Around the world, hundreds of millions of people live with anxiety or depression, which can severely affect their quality of life.

The standard treatments for these mental health conditions include psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), as well as medications such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) — also known as “antidepressants” — which are meant to help rebalance the levels of key chemicals in the brain.

However, according to some estimates, up to 30{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of adults living with major depressive disorder have treatment-resistant depression, which does not respond to standard lines of treatment.

And around 50{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of adults with generalized anxiety disorder do not respond to first-line treatments, such as antidepressants.

In a bid to find more effective ways of addressing the symptoms of hard-to-treat depression and anxiety, researchers have turned to a sometimes-controversial line of inquiry, namely psychedelics, particularly ketamine, LSD, and psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms.

What do psychedelics do?

These drugs are, for the most part, illegal in the U.S. and elsewhere, at least for personal use, but researchers can study their effects in humans under closely supervised, clinical trial conditions, and the results of some of these studies have been intriguing.

In our May 2022 podcast, we spoke to Dr. Adrian Jacques Ambrose, medical director of the Columbia Psychiatry Practice Office.

“For anxiety disorder, as well as panic disorder, there’s hyperactivation of what we call the fear network. [By this] I mean specific parts of the brain that includes the thalamus, the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the striatum,” Dr. Ambrose explained.

And since the human brain has a negativity bias — meaning it tends to hold onto negative memories and emotions — this may exacerbate the negative thinking that occurs in anxiety and depression.

Dr. Ambrose believes that standard treatments such as antidepressants may not always work “because of their lack of specificity.” In contrast, psychopharmacological treatments may be able to “rewire” the parts of the brain involved in this vicious cycle of negative thoughts.

Indeed, a study whose results appeared in JAMA Psychiatry in October 2022 concluded that ketamine can ease depression symptoms in as little as 4 hours by “updating” negative beliefs that people with severe depression hold about themselves and the future.

“We observed each patient before and after ketamine and found an early cognitive effect on beliefs about the future. Notably, patients started to show an optimism bias in belief updating 4 hours after [the] first, single infusion. At one week of treatment, the optimist bias in belief updating correlated to the clinical antidepressant effect,” says study author Dr. Liane Schmidt.

And in November, a study from NEJM found that a single, 25-milligram dose of a synthesized formulation of psilocybin also relieved the symptoms of treatment-resistant depression, although the exact way in which psilocybin acts on the brain remains unclear.

The catch

While studies such as the ones mentioned above seem to indicate that psychedelics may indeed be the way to go when it comes to severe anxiety and depression, they all come with a series of caveats.

In the JAMA Psychiatry study, the participants received ketamine infusions, which is a very specific method of administration. They also received their regular antidepressant treatment throughout the study period.

Speaking to MNT, Dr. Guochuan Emil Tsai, neuropsychiatry expert and CEO of the company SyneuRx, not involved in the study, pointed out that:

“Ketamine infusion is available but not commonly used. It’s usually reserved only for treatment-resistant depression and can only be done in facilities that offer IV infusion and can monitor patients. It would be similar to a dialysis center. Ketamine is also a Schedule III controlled substance with inherent risks.”

The NEJM study came with an even greater caveat: Although psylocibin did help reduce depression symptoms in most of the participants, about a week after the treatment, the most commonly reported side effects were suicidal ideation and intentional self-injury.

“It’s not a recreational process — it”s not like do-it-yourself self-help,” Dr. David A. Merrill, psychiatrist, and director of the Pacific Neuroscience Institute’s Pacific Brain Health Center at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, not involved in the study, told MNT in an interview.

“It really needs to be done with professionally trained, licensed, or certified practitioners who understand the power of these drugs to create a mind-altered state. Dissociation, even at times hallucinations, [are] part of the journey of psychedelics to open the mind to new possibilities, but that journey needs to be supported with professional help,” stressed Dr. Merrill.

So in the course of studying psychopharmacological treatments, a few questions remain: What are the safest doses and delivery methods? Do the benefits outweigh the risks? And who would most benefit from these interventions?

Our editorial team hopes that, in 2023, we may be one step closer to finding the answers to these and other questions that could transform healthcare practices for the better, and that our audience will continue to join us in our exploration of medical innovations.

Posted on November 17, 2022
Expert Voices: Caring for Mental Health With Parkinson’s Disease

In this installment of our “Expert Voices” series, Parkinson’s Information Right now requested psychologist Amy MB Sullivan to response some of your queries similar to applying integrative medication in Parkinson’s disease care.

Sullivan is a board-certified personnel scientific health psychologist and the director of behavioral drugs at the Mellen Middle for Various Sclerosis Treatment method and Exploration at the Cleveland Clinic. Sullivan obtained her doctorate from Argosy College-Atlanta, labored her internship at the College of Cincinnati, and experienced a fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic in agony medication. She specializes in numerous sclerosis mental overall health care and is anxious about medical professional and caregiver self-care, burnout, and psychological health.

Dr. Amy Sullivan cares about health practitioner and caregiver self-treatment, burnout, and psychological health and fitness. (Image courtesy of Amy Sullivan)

What psychological health challenges are exceptional to lifestyle with a progressive condition?

I strongly make use of the grief and acceptance get the job done that has been tailored from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross with my clients, as these are patients who are faced with a functionally, cognitively, socially, financially, and emotionally debilitating disease, occasionally at a incredibly young age. This model theorizes that folks shift, in no specific buy, via and in involving different stages of grief (anger, denial, melancholy, bargaining, and acceptance/adaptation). Lifestyle with out a continual ailment is tough life with a continual disease adds a further layer of complexity.

What do you would like far more medical practitioners would know about the mental wellness challenges of residing with Parkinson’s sickness?

The superior prevalence of mental health conditions in people with persistent ailment, in particular as it relates to men and women with Parkinson’s, with up to 60{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of people becoming impacted by despair through the system of the ailment. This signifies that there are probably lots of contributing factors, a single staying the adjustment to illness and practical alterations. An additional could be medication-induced temper ailments, and one more is probably improvements in the mind from a structural perspective.

I want they would display screen for mental health conditions. Prior to all appointments at Mellen Heart, our sufferers are screened working with the PHQ-9 [questionnaire]. This is then prepopulated into the be aware in their digital well being document, and we can evaluate mood in excess of time. The providers are in a position to evaluate their temper and can pick out to deal with the client or ship the human being to our behavioral medication group.

How can caregivers help a cherished 1 who’s enduring loneliness from social avoidance relevant to their analysis or signs and symptoms?

Pay attention and empathize. Really don’t judge. Communication competencies are essential to all interactions, and even more so with a romance which now has the uninvited visitor of a long-term illness. Caregivers have to don’t forget to acquire care of on their own and be able to converse correctly with the individual they’re caring for.

Parkinson’s can make a particular person truly feel like a load. What recommendations do you have for a affected individual who fears expressing new limitations, these types of as these brought about by fatigue, to their liked kinds?

If just one is in a trusting, harmless relationship, expressing their views or inner thoughts is nutritious. They also have to understand that the caregiver/liked one is possible dealing with their very own variations, and it’s similarly essential to listen to them. Position reversal is repeated: wherever a person who was a remain-at-household associate is now back at work and a individual who was in the function drive is now in the remain-at-dwelling part. All of this is hard, and it is important for each facet to hear and share their emotions.

What advice do you have for an individual who feels they should be “tough” for their spouse and children and not clearly show the toll of the condition on their psyche?

I feel it’s seriously challenging. I normally stimulate clients to be snug sharing their emotions, but it also relies upon on possessing the suitable support system in place. Obtaining that communication concerning clients and caregivers is vital.

A lot of who working experience suicidal ideas feel that realistically they will not be equipped to triumph over these views. How do you reply to that?

Get help instantly. We do not mess all around with suicide. At times it’s vital to get place involving stimulus and reaction. Feelings can be fleeting, and we need to just take a moment to get that place.

It is usually reported that we should system items like analysis and medical disappointments. But what does processing actually seem like, pretty much?

It seems like the flow of expertise, feelings, behaviors, and thoughts, and how these encounters may improve as information and facts is accessed from distinct channels. The method is going to glance unique for each affected person, and we have to recognize each individual’s requires and the approaches they procedure the phases of their disease.

Pro Voices is a every month collection involving a Q&A with an professional in the Parkinson’s house about a particular subject matter. These topics and thoughts are curated from a study in which we check with visitors what they want to master much more about from industry experts. If you’d like to post subjects or inquiries for thought in a potential installment of the series, click in this article to just take the study.

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Posted on September 17, 2022
Marijuana use in pregnancy linked to mental health disorders in kids

Cannabis use is on the increase in the United States and other parts of the earth.

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis discovered small children exposed to cannabis whilst in the womb demonstrate increased indications of psychopathology this sort of as depression and stress and anxiety in early adolescence.

Elevated psychopathology symptoms throughout adolescence can make a younger individual additional vulnerable to establishing psychiatric sickness and material misuse.

Modern analysis demonstrates that leisure cannabis use is on the rise in the United States. And the United Nations Business office on Drugs and Criminal offense Earth Drug Report 2020 states that cannabis was the most used substance all over the world in 2018.

While cannabis is sometimes approved for healthcare use, there are pitfalls linked with its use, including impaired judgment and memory decline. Some earlier exploration also linked cannabis use to psychological overall health concerns these kinds of as stress and anxiety and depression.

A investigation staff from Washington College in St. Louis, MO, has uncovered proof suggesting that youngsters exposed to hashish while in the womb exhibit elevated indicators of psychopathology — including panic and melancholy — as the small children turn into adolescents at ages 11 and 12.

The research appears in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Exploration encompassing the percentage of pregnant men and women utilizing hashish is mixed.

A single examine published final yr showed that hashish use amongst pregnant men and women in the U.S. enhanced from about 6.8{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} to 8.1{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even so, other investigate signifies this percentage could be more substantial, as not all pregnant individuals report cannabis use to their medical doctor. For instance, a 2015 examine identified that treatment method admissions for substance misuse increased from 29{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} to 43{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} for pregnant people using cannabis for the duration of their pregnancy.

And a research published in 2017 uncovered that 14.6{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of pregnant adolescents ages 12 to 17 in the U.S. documented using cannabis while expecting, primarily based on data from 2002-2012.

A popular cause a expecting particular person may possibly use hashish for the duration of being pregnant is to assistance alleviate “morning sickness” indicators these kinds of as nausea and vomiting, stress, anxiety, and suffering.

Having said that, investigation demonstrates utilizing cannabis for the duration of being pregnant can have adverse outcomes on a fetus, including:

Furthermore, a new parent can influence their toddler when nursing if they use hashish. This older research from 1990 shows that cannabis publicity in the course of breastfeeding can minimize a baby’s motor growth at 1 calendar year of age.

In accordance to lead examine writer David Baranger, a postdoctoral scholar at Washington University, the new investigation builds on a prior research the exploration crew experienced done in 2020. The analyze associated prenatal cannabis exposure with worsening mental overall health results in youngsters ages 9-10, these kinds of as:

sleeping difficulties

despair

nervousness

difficulties with impulsivity

issue paying attention

That research showcased info on practically 12,000 small children from the Adolescent Mind and Cognitive Improvement Study (ABCD Analyze).

“In this study, we adopted up with this same team of young children, who are now as previous as 12, to ask no matter if everything has changed,” Baranger explained to MNT.

“Have they improved, or gotten worse? To our shock, we found that little ones with prenatal hashish exposure even now experienced even worse psychological wellness results — matters experienced not gotten better, nor had they gotten even worse.”

Baranger stated the new review indicates that elevated premiums of psychopathology signs or symptoms persist from ages 9 to 12. These indications involve melancholy, nervousness, and other psychiatric conditions.

“Early adolescence is a period of time with greater onset of psychological health conditions. That these kids have a bigger psychological wellness burden at this age implies that they could be at threat for the onset of psychological health disorders in adolescence.”

– David Baranger, lead author of the new analyze

MNT also spoke with psychiatrist Dr. Anish R. Dube, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Kids, Adolescents and their Households, about the findings of this study and the importance of elevated charges of psychopathology signs or symptoms as the little ones in the examine transition from childhood to adolescence.

“Adolescence is a developmental period of the two vulnerability and prospect in a younger person’s lifestyle,” Dr. Dube explained.

“While normal feelings may be experienced more intensely in young people and they may perhaps be inclined to experimentation and routines that provide quick gratification, with a nurturing setting and developmentally proper assistance from their family members and friends, they will mostly increase into balanced, perfectly-adjusted men and women.”

“However, elevated costs of psychopathology indications persisting as youthful individuals transition from childhood to adolescence depart them far more susceptible to not assembly societal anticipations, experiencing better inter and intra-particular complications navigating these several years, and ultimately may perhaps also direct to an enhanced threat of psychiatric illness and material use.”

– Dr. Anish R. Dube

Dr. Dube included that practitioners dealing with little ones exposed to hashish though in the womb and who clearly show indications of psychopathology may perhaps will need to contemplate additional screening and closer adhere to-up of these young people today for the persistence of signs or symptoms or conversion to psychiatric disease.

“They may perhaps be a lot more vulnerable to material use and need to be assessed appropriately and frequently,” he stated.

Over and above continuing to comply with this group of small children as they age and produce, scientists are starting research to additional closely examine the consequences of material use on prenatal and toddler progress, reported analysis group member Ryan Bogdan, Ph.D., affiliate professor of psychological and mind sciences and director of the Brain Lab at Washington University in St. Louis.

“We are at present conducting a research that is recruiting expecting ladies and examining small children shortly just after start so that we may realize neonatal associations with prenatal hashish publicity,” Dr. Bogdan explained.

“We are also section of a huge nationwide examine, the Healthier Mind and Little one Advancement (HBCD) Study, that ideas to recruit approximately 7,500 pregnant females across 30 websites in just the United States to better comprehend how all kinds of prenatal exposures, genetic factors, and early encounters may possibly condition early growth, health and fitness, and habits in early childhood. These scientific studies will be important to assess the effects of prenatal exposures and other variables on early youngster enhancement and health,” he additional.

Dr. Dube famous that he would like to see the subsequent ways for this study to think about identifying aspects affiliated with far better results despite prenatal cannabis exposure.

For example, mitigating circumstances such as precise interventions may well reduce the chance of psychopathology indicators. And then contemplate interventions early in a woman’s being pregnant that might enable with hashish use cessation.

“Further examining brain-primarily based changes in young men and women coming into adolescence with psychopathology signs and symptoms and with prenatal hashish exposure may possibly also enable demonstrate the system by which hashish influences the developing brain and present probable treatments,” he extra.

Posted on September 16, 2022
Mental health benefits of replacing social media with exercise

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Spending less time on social media and more time exercising can enhance emotional well-being and reduce stress, according to research. Thomas Barwick/Getty Images

Replacing 30 minutes of social media use per day with physical activity can enhance emotional well-being and reduce stress, German researchers say.

The benefits of exercise lingered as much as 6 months after the end of their study.

Participants who cut back on social media and exercised more experienced greater happiness and less stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reduced social media use also correlated with less tobacco consumption.

Social media use exploded with COVID-19’s lockdowns and contact restrictions. Millions turned to Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and other platforms to escape feelings of isolation, anxiety, and hopelessness.

However, excessive screen time has led to addictive behaviors, stronger emotional attachment to social media, and deeper mental anguish for many people.

Researchers at the Ruhr-Universitätt in Bochum, Germany investigated the effects of reducing social media use (SMU) and increasing physical activity, or both, on emotional well-being and tobacco consumption.

Julia Brailosvskaia, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the university’s Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, led the two-week experiment.

Brailosvskaia and her team observed that the interventions they suggested may have helped enhance participants’ satisfaction with life. At a 6-month follow-up, the subjects continued to report spending less time on social media, maintaining physical activity, feeling happier, and smoking fewer cigarettes.

The Journal of Public Health recently published these findings.

The study’s authors noted that mental health “consists of two interrelated but separate dimensions: positive and negative.”

With this paradigm, they hypothesized that the positive dimension of their intervention would “increase life satisfaction and subjective happiness.” The negative dimension would decrease “depression symptoms and addictive tendencies of SMU.”

Medical News Today discussed this study with D r .S heldon Zablow, an author and nutritional psychiatrist. He was not involved in the research.

When asked about the effects of social media on mental health, Dr. Zablow asserted:

“If activities interfere with customary basic age-appropriate milestones of economic self-sufficiency, socialization, or health maintenance, then they are detrimental. The activities could be alcohol use, substance use, dietary choices, exercise choices, or entertainment choices—specifically social media.”

Dr. Zablow warned that excessive social media use weakens social interpersonal bonds, which can negatively impact mental health.

MNT also spoke with Dr. David A. Merrill, adult and geriatric psychiatrist and director of the Pacific Neuroscience Institute’s Pacific Brain Health Center at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, regarding the present study. He was not involved in the research.

Dr. Merrill argued that the term social media is a “misnomer that’s almost like a bait and switch,” designed “to increase user engagement.”

Too much social media use, he said, “could end up exacerbating” mental issues for people with behavioral health conditions or addictive vulnerabilities.

“There’s the brain reward system that you get from clicking or scrolling or maintaining the use of the social media,” Dr. Merrill said.

“I think [that the authors are] demonstrating causally that you both need to have a conscious awareness of the need to limit the self-soothing aspect of social media use, and you also need to have alternatives, so you need to have some other way to bring joy into your life, and especially during the pandemic.”

As a psychiatrist, Dr. Zablow emphasized that “the essential part of any treatment program recommended is exercise. Psychotherapy and, when indicated, medication, will not work well if a person does not exercise.”

Dr. Zablow added that exercise increases the production of neurotransmitters, the brain’s “natural antidepressants and antianxiety molecules.”

Consequently, more exercise can build mental health, while less activity due to social media overuse can curtail healthy brain chemistry.

Dr. Brailosvskaia and her colleagues reasoned that a “conscious and controlled reduction of time spent on SMU as well as an increase of time spent on physical activity could causally reduce negative mental health consequences of the COVID-19 situation.” They also believed that combining both interventions might amplify this effect.

The professor mentioned that the methods can easily fit into everyday life with little cost, effort, or risk of violating COVID-19 protocols.

Further, the scientists expected their experiment to reduce stress caused by COVID-19 and diminish smoking behavior.

The researchers recruited 642 healthy adult social media users and placed them in 4 experimental groups.

The social media (SM) group had 162 individuals, the physical activity (PA) group of 161, a combination group of 159, and a control group of 160.

Over 2 weeks, the SM subjects reduced their daily SMU time by 30 minutes and the PA group increased their daily physical activity by 30 minutes. The combination group applied both interventions, while the control did not change their behaviors.

Following the World Health Organization’s physical activity recommendations for adults, the first three groups increased their exercise time by 30 minutes.

The participants completed online surveys and “daily compliance” diaries at the start of the trial, 1 week later, and after the 2-week period. They also submitted follow-up surveys at 1, 3, and 6 months post-experiment.

Dr. Brailosvskaia and her team concluded that their interventions helped people decrease the time they spend with SM.

Even 6 months after the experiment, “the participants had reduced their daily initial SM time by about 37 minutes in the SM group, by about 33 minutes in the PA group, and by about 46 minutes in the combination group.”

Moreover, participants reported having a decreased emotional bond with social media.

All the interventions encouraged more physical activity as well. “Six months later, our participants had enhanced their initial weekly physical activity time for 26 minutes in the SM group, for 40 minutes in the PA group, and for 1 hour 39 minutes in the combination group,” the authors wrote.

Even the control group increased their activity by 20 minutes.

Dr. Merrill was impressed with the study’s “striking findings with the combination of reducing social media with increasing physical activity.” He agreed with the notion that SMU restrictions need a complementing activity that brings joy or a sense of achievement.

According to the study’s authors, the “experimental longitudinal design” of their present research allowed them to establish causality.

However, the study population lacked diversity. All the participants were young, female, German, Caucasian, and highly educated.

Dr. Merrill felt that, while it would be “interesting” to replicate this investigation in the United States with a more diverse group, the results would likely be similar.

The study did not consider which form of SMU the subjects were using or specify which type of physical activity the participants engaged in. The researchers hope that future work will focus more on these factors.

Dr. Brailosvskaia’s research suggests that modest changes in SMU and physical activity could help protect and enhance mental health conveniently and affordably.

The professor and her team recognize how SMU can minimize isolation and help spread information.

“From time to time, it is important to consciously limit one’s online accessibility and to go back to the human roots — […] a physically active lifestyle — to stay happy and healthy in the age of digitalization,” the researchers wrote.

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