news 2018

Behavioural strategies are better than persuasion for promoting vaccination, a new review of the evidence reveals. Faced with outbreaks of influenza and other vaccine-preventable diseases, parents, educators, healthcare providers, and policymakers around the world often want to know how to persuade people to get their vaccinations.

A unique app available for download in Australia should assist witnesses and victims of one-off events and ongoing occurrences make mobile records in a way that can help with convictions and prevent miscarriages of justice. A unique app, iWitnessed , is launched today by leading Australian cognitive scientists, lawyers and police to assist victims and witnesses record information in a way that can help with convictions and prevent miscarriages of justice.

Non-addictive pain medication has changed how experts approach therapy for substance use disorders. "It's not often that a psychiatrist gets to hear 'Doctor, you saved my life,' " said Ellen Edens, M.D. FW '09, assistant professor of psychiatry and associate fellowship director in addiction psychiatry.

A new study from Lund University in Sweden shows that even children with limited physical disabilities are at risk of developing mental issues later in life. Girls and adolescents from socio-economically vulnerable families are at greatest risk. The study was published in the reputable journal PLOS ONE.

Researchers have made a major breakthrough in the assessment of language development among bilingual families and in the identification of those children who require extra support to improve their language skills. During a three-year study involving nine UK universities including the University of Birmingham, academics interviewed almost 400 families with two-year-old children learning English and another of 13 common additional languages.

Easy access to a gun at home is bad for a child's mental health, particularly for girls -bad enough, according to a new examination of a study of American schoolchildren from the 1990s, to suggest parents think carefully before making the decision to bring a gun into the home, especially one that may be accessible by the children in the household.

In the United States, depression affects 16 million people annually, and according to the World Health Organization it's the leading cause of disability across the globe. Clinicians who treat patients with the disorder understand that different approaches work for different people, but the ability to discern and provide the most effective treatment for a particular individual remains challenging.

Whether idolised as heroes or demonised and labelled terrorists, throughout history people have been willing to die for their groups and the causes they believe in. But why?  Previous theories of extreme self-sacrifice have revealed that a range of factors fuel the decision, including collective identity, hostility from others outside of the group, kin psychology and in some cases diminished mental health and depression.

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine found a significant number of children across four regions in the United States were determined to have fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). The new findings may represent more accurate prevalence estimates of FASD among the general population than prior research.

'Buffering effect' of 2 key regions shielded some from depression, UCLA psychology study finds Stuart Wolpert Some people disturbed by the 2016 presidential election have suffered a loss of appetite, trouble sleeping and concentrating, and have become easily annoyed, while others equally disturbed by the election result have not experienced such symptoms of depression.

Humans can be 'vicariously optimistic' for those we care about, enabling us to view our own lives - and those of our friends and family - through 'rose-tinted glasses'. The research, which is the first to show that such an 'optimism bias' extends beyond the self, found that people readily changed their beliefs about a person they like when receiving good news but barely changed their opinions about them after receiving bad news.

Researchers found that neglected children in Romania who were matched with foster care families earlier in life are more likely to be just as resilient and healthy as their peers later in life. Neglected children who are placed with foster care families earlier in life are more likely to be just as resilient and competent socially, academically and physically as their peers who have never been institutionalized when they reach their teenage years, according to new Stanford research focused on children in Romania.

Girls are more than twice as likely to experience emotional difficulties as boys, while boys are significantly more likely to experience behavioural problems, UCL research has revealed. In the first survey of its kind of more than 30,000 young people aged 11 to 14, UCL's Evidence Based Practice Unit and Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families found 25% of girls said they had experienced emotional problems compared with 11% of boys.

Researchers at King's College London, landscape architects J & L Gibbons and art foundation Nomad Projects have used smartphone-based technology to assess the relationship between nature in cities and momentary mental wellbeing in real time. They found that (i) being outdoors, seeing trees, hearing birdsong, seeing the sky, and feeling in contact with nature were associated with higher levels of mental wellbeing, and that (ii) the beneficial effects of nature were especially evident in those individuals with greater levels of impulsivity who are at greater risk of mental health issues.

ANN ARBOR-The U.S. is the richest country in the world, yet economists estimate that at least half of Americans won't retire with enough money saved to maintain their current lifestyle. So, in order to develop interventions to reverse this trend, researchers must understand how people form spending habits, and when.

A new King's College London study published Thursday 4 January in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found that 1 in 4 pregnant women have mental health problems. This is more common than previously thought - but two simple questions can help identify these problems so that women can be treated. It is the first UK study to examine the prevalence of mental health problems or mental disorders when seen by a midwife for pregnancy care.