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38 news posts in Mental health

Health

07 Oct 2016

Mental illness genetically linked to drug use and misuse

By Tania Fitzgeorge-Balfour, Frontiers Science Writer A person’s genetic risk for psychiatric disorders is related to his or her vulnerability to substance use and misuse There are many reports of drug use leading to mental health problems, and we all know of someone having a few too many drinks to cope with a bad day. Many people who are diagnosed with a mental health disorder indulge in drugs, and vice versa. As severity of both increase, problems arise and they become more difficult to treat. But why substance involvement and psychiatric disorders often co-occur is not well understood. In addition to environmental factors, such as stress and social relationships, a person’s genetic make-up can also contribute to their vulnerability to drug use and misuse as well as mental health problems. So could genetic risk for mental illness be linked to a person’s liability to use drugs? This question has been addressed in a new study, published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Genetics. “Our research shows that if someone is genetically predisposed towards having mental illness, they are also prone to use licit and illicit substances and develop problematic usage patterns,” says Caitlin E. Carey, a PhD student in the […]

Psychology

12 Aug 2016

Burnout is caused by mismatch between unconscious needs and job demands

New research shows that burnout is caused by a mismatch between a person’s subconscious needs and the opportunities and demands at the workplace. These results have implications for the prevention of job burnout. Imagine an accountant who is outgoing and seeks closeness in her social relationships, but whose job offers little scope for contact with colleagues or clients. Now imagine a manager, required to take responsibility for a team, but who does not enjoy taking center-stage or being in a leadership role. For both, there is a mismatch between their individual needs and the opportunities and demands at the workplace. A new study in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology shows that such mismatches put employees at risk of burnout. Burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion from work, which results in a lack of motivation, low efficiency, and a helpless feeling. Its health effects include anxiety, cardiovascular disease, immune disorders, insomnia, and depression. The financial burden from absenteeism, employee turnover, reduced productivity, and medical, legal, and insurance expenses due to burnout and general work-related stress is staggering: for example, the American Institute of Stress estimates the total cost to American enterprises at 300 billion US$ per […]

Psychology

19 Jul 2016

Electric brain stimulation can improve mood and relieve stress

Feeling down? How about an electric pick-me-up for your brain? by K.E.D. Coan Electrical brain stimulation can improve the mood of healthy people as well as those suffering from depression, says study published in Frontiers in Psychology. More than 10% of American adults take antidepressants, according to the CDC’s last survey, but these drugs can come with a variety of unpleasant side effects. As an alternative, a team at Swansea University is developing an approach using electrical brain stimulation to alleviate stress and depression. Past studies have shown this method can relieve depression, but their most recent study presents the first evidence that it can also give healthy people a little boost when they’re feeling down. “We’ve shown that weak electric stimulation is effective to improve the mood of those who are not depressed, but are still affected by the consequences of a stressful, restless, and demanding lifestyle,” said Dr. Frederic Boy, Head of Translational and Consumer Neuroscience at Swansea. Although the idea of electric brain stimulation may give you pause for thought, researchers have safely used transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) for over a decade. Last year, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) also approved tDCS for the treatment […]

Neuroscience

20 Nov 2015

Staff Pick: Understanding auditory hallucinations

Laurence Pope is a Journal Operations Specialist at Frontiers. He studied biochemistry and science communication at Imperial College London before joining Frontiers in 2013. His staff pick this week comes from Frontiers in Human Neuroscience: The role of the primary auditory cortex in the neural mechanism of auditory verbal hallucinations. “We often assume that only people with schizophrenia and other mental disorders experience auditory hallucinations (or ‘hearing voices’). In fact about 5% of mentally healthy people also hear voices,  but these people can control how they respond to them, such as ignore them or record what they hear. It’s these people who may ultimately hold the key to better management of schizophrenia. “The authors of this study found that such people have a better ability to regulate their primary auditory cortex, the area of the brain responsible for processing sound, compared to people with schizophrenia. When auditory hallucinations occur mentally healthy people can direct their attention outwards, while people with schizophrenia have difficulty focusing on external sounds and direct their attention inwards. “These discoveries help bring us closer to understanding how auditory hallucinations occur and why such hallucinations affect people differently.”