Mental Health Research:

The clip below describes key findings about the importance of relationship on physical and mental health.  It synthesizes results from a 75 year longitudinal study of Harvard graduates, one of the most enduring studies that has been done on what makes people happy and thier lives productive.  Recently, George Vaillant, who directed the study for more than three decades published a summation of the insights the study has yielded. Among them:

• Alcohol abuse was the main cause of divorce between the Grant Study men and their wives; it was strongly correlated with neurosis and depression (which tended to follow alcohol abuse, rather than precede it); and—together with associated cigarette smoking—it was the single greatest contributor to their early morbidity and death.

• Late in their professional lives, the men’s boyhood relationships with their mothers—but not with their fathers—were associated with effectiveness at work.

• On the other hand, warm childhood relations with fathers correlated with lower rates of adult anxiety, greater enjoyment of vacations, and increased “life satisfaction” at age 75.

• Vaillant’s key takeaway, in his own words: “The seventy-five years and twenty million dollars expended on the Grant Study points … to a straightforward five-word conclusion: ‘Happiness is love. Full stop.’ ”

Source: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/05/thanks-mom/309287/

Did you know that one of the most popular TED talks of all time was done by Houston University social work professor Brené Brown?  In a funny, insightful and poignant presentation Professor Brown talks about her research on the power of vulnerability and the impact of shame on peopleand relationship. This research identifies vulnerability as a core value in healthy relationships. 

Brene Brown went on to do a second TED talks presentation about her research that was amazing in a similar way to the first, where she dares greatly to demonstrate her own vulnerability.

The Queensland Brain Institute completed a study about mental ill health and marijuana use.  An article on the research follows:

"Researchers at UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute and School of Population Health have found young adults who use cannabis from an early age are three times more likely to suffer from psychotic symptoms.

A study of more than 3,800 21-year-olds has revealed those who use cannabis for six or more years have a greater risk of developing psychotic disorders or the isolated symptoms of psychosis, such as hallucinations and delusions.

The study is based on a group of children born at Brisbane’s Mater Hospital during the early 1980s. They have been followed-up for almost 30 years.

“This is the most convincing evidence yet that the earlier you use cannabis, the more likely you are to have symptoms of a psychotic illness,” lead investigator Professor John McGrath said.

The research, published in the latest edition of Archives of General Psychiatry, also included the results of 228 sets of siblings.

“We were able to look at the association between early cannabis use and later psychotic symptoms in siblings. We know they have the same mother, they most likely have the same father and, because they’re close in age, they share common experiences, which allows us to get a sharper focus on the specific links between cannabis and psychosis – there is less background noise.

“Looking at siblings is a type of natural experiment – we found the same links within the siblings as we did in the entire sample. The younger you are when you started to use cannabis – the greater the risk of having psychotic symptoms at age 21. This finding makes the results even stronger,” Professor McGrath said.

“The message for teenagers is: if they choose to use cannabis they have to understand there’s a risk involved. Everyone takes risks every day – think of the sports we play or the way we drive – and people need to know that we now believe that early cannabis use is a risk for later psychotic illness.”

Schizophrenia is a serious disorder that affects about 1 in a 100 Australians, and usually first presents in young adults. This is also the time when the brain seems most vulnerable to cannabis."

Source: http://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2010/02/early-cannabis-users-three-times-more-likely-have-psychotic-symptoms

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists states in its clinical practice guideleines that zinc is one of six evidence based complimentry therapies for mild to moderate depression.  

The 6 complementary therapies for mild to moderate major depression are:

Omega-3 fatty acids  - Used as adjunct to medication, it may help with bipolar disorder (depression symptoms) and milder cases of major depression

St John’s wort -  Similar efficacy to SSRIs for mild to moderate cases of major depression

S-adenosyl-methionine (SAMe) - May help with depression when used as adjunct to medication

Zinc - May assist depressive symptoms when used as adjunct to medication

N-acetyl cysteine - Some symptom reduction efficacy in bipolar disorder and possibly in depression

Folate (including L-methylfolate) - May assist depressive symptoms as adjunct to medication

Source: Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists clinical practice guidelines for mood disorders

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 2015, Vol. 49(12) 1087–1206 (page 1143)

Childhood Adversity Linked to Bipolar Affective Disorder

University of Manchester researchers identified 19 studies from hundreds published between 1980 and 2014 which gathered data from millions of patient records, interviews, and assessments.

By applying rigorous statistical analysis to the data, the researchers discovered a 2.63 increase in likelihood that people with bipolar disorder suffered adverse childhood trauma, such as physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.

The authors defined childhood adversity as experiencing neglect, abuse, bullying, or the loss of a parent before the age of 19. There was a particularly strong link between emotional abuse with this four times more likely to have happened to people with bipolar.

The study appears in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Source: https://psychcentral.com/news/2016/10/13/childhood-adversity-linked-to-bipolar-disorder/111089.html

Dr Kaley Packham gives an easy to understand presentation on how our brains work and change: