Divorce later in life might be harder on women than on men, based on patterns of antidepressant use in a new study of people aged 50 or older. Both sexes tended to increase their antidepressant use when going through a divorce, break-up or the death of a partner, researchers found. But women’s use of these drugs was greater than men’s, results show. Antidepressant use increased by 7% in women prior to a divorce and 6% before a break-up, compared to 5% and 3% for men, researchers found. Within a year, antidepressant use went back to normal levels for men. It was a different story for women, however. Women’s use tailed off only slightly immediately after the end of a relationship, and then increased again a year after and onward, results show. “The greater increases in [antidepressant] use associated with union dissolution among women in our study may indeed relate to the fact that the costs of union dissolution on mental health fall more heavily on women than men,” wrote researchers led by Yaoyue Hu, an associate professor with the Chongqing Medical University School of Public Health in Chongqing, China. This could have widespread repercussions around the world, researchers noted. “Gray divorce” from the age 50 onward is becoming more frequent in high-income countries, researchers said. Later-life depression is also relatively common, affecting an estimated 10%…  read on >  read on >

Music may be good medicine for older adults, boosting both their mental and physical health, a new survey finds. Virtually all people between the ages of 50 and 80 (98%) say they benefit in at least one health-related way from engaging with music, according to results from the latest University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging. Three-quarters said music helps them relieve stress or relax, 65% said it helps their mental health and mood, and about 60% said they get energized or motivated by music. Overall, nine of 10 survey participants (89%) said music is very or somewhat important to them. “Music has the power to bring joy and meaning to life. It is woven into the very fabric of existence for all of humankind,” said Dr. Joel Howell, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School who worked on the poll.  Music can benefit a variety of ailments related to aging, Howell added. “We know that music is associated with positive effects on measures from blood pressure to depression,” Howell said in a university news release. Most of the older adults surveyed said they listen to music, with 85% listening a few times a week and 80% watching musical performances a few times over the past year. Two in five (41%) attended a live concert. Fewer actually make music…  read on >  read on >

Depression and a rise in body temperature appear linked, although researchers say it’s not yet clear which causes which. Still, the findings offer a hint that manipulating body temperature might be a new form of therapy against depression. “To our knowledge, this is the largest study to date to examine the association between body temperature — assessed using both self-report methods and wearable sensors — and depressive symptoms in a geographically broad sample,” said study lead Ashley Mason, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). “Given the climbing rates of depression in the United States, we’re excited by the possibilities of a new avenue for treatment,” she added in a UCSF news release. The new study involved more than 20,000 people from 106 countries who wore a device that measured their body temperature. The study ran for seven months, beginning in early 2020. As a person’s level of depression severity rose, so, too, did their body temperatures, Mason’s group reported. The findings were published Feb. 5 in the journal Scientific Reports. There was also a trend suggesting that folks whose body temperatures remained stable over a 24-hour period also had higher risks for depression — but the finding didn’t quite meet statistical significance, the investigators said. It’s also unclear whether higher body temperature can help trigger depression, whether depression…  read on >  read on >

The Pearl Jam song “Jeremy” tells the story of a boy driven mad by bullies who commits suicide in front of his classroom. The song might reflect a real and ongoing threat to teens’ mental health, new research suggests. Teens being bullied face a greater risk of early-stage psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations or paranoia, according to findings published recently in the journal Nature. Bullied teenagers also have lower levels of a key neurotransmitter found in a part of the brain involved in regulating emotions, researchers said. The findings highlight the value of efforts to reduce bullying at schools, said lead researcher Naohiro Okada, a project associate professor with the University of Tokyo’s International Research Center for Neurointelligence. “Anti-bullying programs in schools that focus on promoting positive social interactions and reducing aggressive behaviors are essential for their own sake and to reduce the risk of psychosis and its subclinical precursors,” Okada said in a university news release. “These programs can help create a safe and supportive environment for all students, reducing the likelihood of bullying and its negative consequences,” Okada added. Researchers tracked bullying via questionnaires completed by Japanese teenagers, as well as the effect bullying had on their mental health. They found bullying associated with subclinical psychotic experiences in early adolescence — symptoms that come close to psychosis but do not meet the full…  read on >  read on >

Police seizures of “magic” mushrooms have more than tripled within the past five years, the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse reports. The total weight of psilocybin mushrooms seized by law enforcement increased from 498 pounds in 2017 to 1,861 pounds in 2022, according to a new report published Feb. 6 in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. To put those seizures in perspective, a typical dried mushroom dose in clinical trials for psilocybin therapy runs between 2.5 grams (.08 ounces) to 6 grams (.2 ounces), according to a 2022 analysis in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry. These seizures come in the midst of a surge in public interest regarding the use of psilocybin for therapy and recreation, researchers said. “While psilocybin is by no means the most dangerous drug, recreational use can come with unforeseen risks such as bad trips,” said lead researcher Joseph Palamar, an associate professor of epidemiology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.  “Research studies suggesting its effectiveness in treating mental health issues and extensive positive media coverage may lead some people to seek ‘shrooms’ outside of medical contexts,” Palamar added. “People who use psilocybin outside of medical supervision need to be educated about risks associated with use.” In 2018 and 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted breakthrough therapy status to research using psilocybin as a treatment for…  read on >  read on >

The former ‘party drug’ ketamine has gotten some good press recently, with clinical trials suggesting it might be a powerful and fast-acting antidepressant. Now, one of the first “real-world” studies of ketamine against depression appears to support those findings. Researchers at the University of Michigan and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System say that almost half of 215 veterans who’d been suffering severe, treatment-resistant depression benefited from six weeks of ketamine infusions. “It’s not a silver bullet,” stressed study lead author Dr. Paul Pfeiffer. “But when we see these patients in our clinic, who have been through every treatment available and nothing has worked, to have even a quarter achieve a significant measurable response is very good. We routinely get thanked for making a difference in their lives.”  Pfeiffer led the study with Dr. Avinash Hosanagar. Both are faculty at the U-M Medical School department of psychiatry, and both treat patients in the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. The veterans involved in the new study were selected because they’d all tried and failed multiple treatments to curb their severe depression. Many had other mental health issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety or a history of alcohol or drug abuse. The Michigan researchers had each of the patients receive ketamine infusions beginning in 2019 or the first nine months of 2020. Their outcomes were tracked…  read on >  read on >

They say money can’t buy happiness – and now a new study of Indigenous peoples around the world backs up that assertion. People living in small-scale societies on the fringes of the modern world lead lives as happy and satisfying as folks from wealthy, technologically advanced nations, researchers report Feb. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Surprisingly, many populations with very low monetary incomes report very high average levels of life satisfaction, with scores similar to those in wealthy countries,” said lead researcher Eric Galbraith, a professor with McGill University in Montreal. This runs counter to the notion that economic growth is a sure-fire way to increase the well-being of people in low-income countries, researchers noted. Global surveys have found that people in wealthier countries tend to report higher levels of life satisfaction than those in poorer countries, researchers said in background notes. However, these global polls tend to overlook people in societies where the exchange of money plays a minimal role in everyday life, and where livelihoods depend directly on nature, researchers said. For this study, researchers surveyed nearly 3,000 people from Indigenous or primitive communities at 19 sites around the world. Only 64% of the surveyed households had any cash, researchers said. And yet, their average life satisfaction scores were 6.8 on a 10-point scale across all communities, and…  read on >  read on >