Living closer to outdoor spaces and natural water may be better for your mental health, researchers say. A new study finds that close proximity to nature may reduce an older person’s risk for serious psychological distress. That distress can lead to mild impairment of thinking and memory, as well as dementia. The study is scheduled for presentation at a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, online and in Boston, April 22-27. “Since we lack effective prevention methods or treatments for mild cognitive impairment and dementia, we need to get creative in how we look at these issues,” said study author Solmaz Amiri, a postdoctoral research associate at Washington State University Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. “Our hope is that this study showing better mental health among people living close to parks and water will trigger other studies about how these benefits work and whether this proximity can help prevent or delay mild cognitive impairment and dementia,” she said in a meeting news release. Mental health problems that require treatment and have a moderate to severe effect on a person’s ability to participate in work, school and social situations are considered serious psychological distress. To study this, researchers used data from the U.S. Census and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine how close participants lived to so-called green and blue spaces.…  read on >  read on >

For anyone struggling with a mental health issue who is looking for support coping with stress or managing complicated feelings, help is available. It’s called psychotherapy, and it might be the answer you’re looking for. According to the American Psychiatric Association, psychotherapy “is a way to help people with a broad variety of mental illnesses and emotional difficulties. Psychotherapy can help eliminate or control troubling symptoms so a person can function better and can increase well-being and healing.” Psychotherapy is also known as talk therapy because it involves talking with a professional therapist. Is psychotherapy for you? Psychotherapy may help if you: Feel overwhelming sadness or anxiety Are concerned about your drug or alcohol use Have a mental health diagnosis Have been in an abusive situation Are grieving a loss Are experiencing emotions that interfere with relationships, work, school, or day-to-day functioning Have experienced trauma Where should you start? Dr. Christine Crawford, associate medical director at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) said recently that, “It can be really tough to go online and start googling mental health treatment and support because you’ll get a whole slew of responses. And if you’re already feeling overwhelmed with anxiety and depression or experiencing trauma, it’s going to be incredibly difficult to process all of the information to know where to start.” Crawford suggests starting with a…  read on >  read on >

A new study links obesity with 21 Alzheimer’s disease-related genes. This may help explain why Alzheimer’s is often more frequent among adults who experienced obesity in midlife, according to researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. To study this, the investigators used data from more than 5,600 participants in the long-running Framingham Heart Study to analyze 74 Alzheimer’s-related genes. Of those genes, 21 were either underexpressed or overexpressed in obesity, the research team found. Gene expression refers to the process by which information encoded in a gene is turned into a body function. The researchers found that 13 Alzheimer’s-related genes were associated with body mass index (BMI), an estimate of body fat based on height and weight. Eight genes were associated with waist-to-hip ratio. “Several of the genes were more strongly related to obesity in midlife versus in late life, and also to obesity in women versus men,” said the study’s corresponding author, Claudia Satizabal of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio. These findings are similar to past research that also suggested midlife obesity may be a factor in women’s Alzheimer’s disease risk, Satizabal said. People who develop dementia tend to lose weight about five to 10 years before the onset of the disease. It’s possible this is an unhealthy weight loss…  read on >  read on >

About 44% of U.S. middle and high schools have student-run clubs that shine a light on issues that touch the lives of LGBTQ+ students. And new research suggests that depression risk among LGBTQ+ students is considerably lower in those schools where such Gender-Sexuality Alliances (GSAs), similar to Gay-Straight Alliances, are present and relatively active. “Depression is one of the foremost health concerns among LGBTQ+ youth,” said lead author V. Paul Poteat, a professor in the department of counseling, developmental and educational psychology at Boston College. “While risk of depression has tended to range from 8% to 17% in the general adolescent population, it has ranged from 18% to 23% among LGBQ+ youth,” he noted. GSAs are school clubs that provide a welcoming space for LGBTQ+ teens and their heterosexual cisgender peers to socialize, support one another and learn about LGBTQ+ issues. Typically meeting once a week or every-other-week for up to an hour — either during or after school — GSAs sometimes also advocate for protective and inclusive policies for LGBTQ+ youth, Poteat explained, promoting inclusion and visibility along with socializing and event-planning. He said his team wanted to see whether advocacy work could reduce depressive symptoms by helping lower the risk for loneliness, fearfulness or hopelessness among LGBTQ+ teens. Nearly 1,400 boys and girls in 23 Massachusetts middle and high schools (grades 6 through…  read on >  read on >