Mindfully Healing

Study finds beneficial effect of these two personality traits together on depression. Being extraverted and conscientious helps to reduce the risk of depression in neurotic people, new research finds. People who are highly neurotic typically look at the world in a negative way. They also find it hard to deal with stress and can experience a lot of negative emotions. However, it seems being social and organised helps to ameliorate the effect. Dr Kristin Naragon-Gainey, the study’s first author, explained: “If someone has high levels of extraversion they might be

New brain cells in the hippocampus — an area critical for memory — were reduced by 40%. Even moderate alcohol intake could reduce the brain’s ability to produce new cells by 40%, research suggests. Regularly having as little as 3 to 4 alcoholic drinks could reduce the structural integrity of the adult brain. Ms Megan Anderson, the study’s first author, said: “Moderate drinking can become binge drinking without the person realizing it. In the short term there may not be any noticeable motor skills or overall functioning problems, but in

30 years worth of research reveals that 50% of people benefit from this simple treatment. Sleep deprivation can rapidly reduce the symptoms of depression, 30 years of research suggests. Around half of people with depression who are sleep deprived under controlled, inpatient conditions feel better quickly. Many see improvements in just 24 hours, in comparison to the weeks it can take for antidepressants to start working. ‘Wake therapy’, as it is sometimes called, involves staying awake all night and the next day. Around 50% of people find their depression improves

New theory may explain the complex set of symptoms seen in autism. People with autism often display a complex and confusing range of symptoms, including hypersensitivity to sound, problems interacting with others and repetitive behaviours. Scientist have long wondered what all these — and other, seemingly unrelated symptoms — have in common. Now MIT researchers are testing a brand new theory: that autistic children have difficulties predicting what is going to happen next, and it’s this problem that is at the root of autism (Sinha et al., 2014). Without the

Despite the hardships of ageing, people generally feel happier as they get older. The secret to getting happier with age is learning acceptance, research suggests. Part of acceptance is learning to engage with negative emotions, which might seem an odd way of reducing them. However, older people experienced less anger and negative emotions, the study found. At the same time, they also showed increase levels of acceptance. Acceptance, is not about giving up, but about engaging with emotions, both positive and negative. As the study’s authors explain the… “…goal of

Both happiness and general well-being were boosted in the study of 395 people. Taking a few moments to stop and look at something in the natural environment is enough to make people happier, research finds. LIterally, ‘stopping and smelling the roses’, or in this case noticing anything in the natural world really does work. Both happiness and well-being were boosted by noticing things like a bird, a house plant, a dandelion in the sidewalk, or just the sun shining through the window. In the research, people took a photo of

The simple belief about old age that halves your dementia risk. Having a positive attitude towards ageing can half the risk of developing dementia, new research finds. People with the strongest genetic risk factor for depression — the ε4 variant of the APOE gene — were 49.8% less likely to develop the disease compared to those with a negative view of ageing. For those without the genetic risk factor, those with positive beliefs about ageing had a 43.6% lower chance of developing dementia. Professor Becca Levy, the study’s first author,

A particular part of the brain is one of the first to be affected by dementia. Losing your sense of smell is an early sign of dementia, new research finds. Almost all the people in the research who could not identify any of five common smells went on to develop dementia within five years. Those who could not name four out of five common smells, had twice the risk of developing dementia in the next five years. Professor Jayant M. Pinto, who led the research, said: “These results show that

Many colouring in books advertise themselves as ‘art therapy’, but do they make people feel better? Colouring in books do help to improve people’s mood, new research finds. However, ‘real’ art therapy has other advantages on top, the authors argue. Dr Girija Kaimal, who led the study, said: “The main takeaway is that coloring has some limited benefits like reducing stress and negative mental states. But it does not shift anything else of substance, develop relationships, nor result in any personal development.” Art therapists argue that therapy is about more

The talk therapy that is quicker (and cheaper) than cognitive-behavioural therapy. Depression can be more simply treated by behavioural activation therapy, a new study concludes. Behavioural activation therapy is a more straightforward alternative to cognitive-behavioural therapy — the gold standard of depression treatment. Clinical depression affects around 350 million people around the world, but only a fraction receive the best care. Behavioural activation therapy could be a good alternative that provides access to therapy for more people. The therapy itself focuses on encouraging people to take part in meaningful activities