Menopause is thought to trigger mood changes among women, with changes in female hormone levels contributing to anxiety, depression and stress. However, a new study says some women are at more risk than others for menopause-linked mental health issues, and many escape them altogether. There’s no evidence that menopause causes a universal rise in risk for mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or psychosis, researchers concluded March 5 in The Lancet journal. Instead, certain groups of women are more likely to have mental health problems during menopause — those with previous depression or depressive symptoms, those whose sleep is disturbed by nighttime hot flashes, and those who had a stressful life event around the time of menopause. “We have a negative media image about menopause, but without looking at someone’s mental health prior to menopause, it’s very challenging to understand what might be biologically related to menopause as opposed to life stage or life trajectory,” said co-senior study author Dr. Hadine Joffe, interim chair of psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “Clinicians need to think about what happened before, because depression might be coincident with menopause but unrelated,” Joffee added in a hospital news release. Menopause can last four to ten years, and tends to begins around age 47, researchers said in background notes. Menopause is thought of as emotionally taxing…  read on >  read on >

The vast majority (84%) of Americans with pets say their animal companion brings a positive mental health impact to their lives, a new poll shows. The poll of more than 2,200 adults conducted early last month also found about two-thirds of respondents calling their pet “a true friend,” a “companion” and someone who “provide[s] unconditional love and support.” That’s according to a news release from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), which jointly funded the poll. Pets can provide a kind of mental health therapy for humans, according to APA president Dr. Petros Levounis. “It’s easy to overlook the role of pets when we’re talking about mental health,” he said. “But for people who do enjoy the company of animals, they can be a source of companionship, comfort, love and friendship. I routinely encourage adoption of a pet to my patients who struggle with addiction to alcohol, drugs or technology. We’re also starting to see more and more research around the role that animals can play in recovery from depression and other psychiatric disorders.” In the poll, about one in five (18%) of people with pets said one or more of their animals was a certified emotional support animal. Other findings from the poll: Nearly two-thirds of respondents said their pet provides a calming presence The same amount said their…  read on >  read on >

(HealthDay news) — More than 1 billion adults and children around the world are now obese, a new global analysis estimates. Nearly 880 million adults now are living with obesity, as well as 159 million children, according to the report published Feb. 29 in The Lancet journal. Obesity rates for kids and teenagers quadrupled worldwide between 1990 and 2022, rising from 1.7% to 6.9% for girls and 2.1% to 9.3% for boys. Meanwhile, adult obesity rates more than doubled during the same period, researchers found. Obesity increased more than twofold in women (8.8% to 18.5%) and nearly tripled in men (4.8% to 14%). “It is very concerning that the epidemic of obesity that was evident among adults in much of the world in 1990 is now mirrored in school-aged children and adolescents,” said senior study author Majid Ezzatti, chair of global environmental health at Imperial College London. These figures outstrip predictions made by the World Obesity Federation, which had predicted that 1 billion people globally would be living with obesity by 2030 in its World Obesity Atlas 2022. Essentially, the globe had already surpassed that mark by the time of the atlas’ publication, according to the new study. Obesity is now the most common form of malnutrition in most countries, researchers said. That’s because the proportion of adults who are underweight declined by more than…  read on >  read on >

Deaths where alcohol played a key role climbed sharply in recent years, hitting women even harder than men, new government data shows. Between 2016 and 2021 (the latest numbers available), “the average number of U.S. deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by more than 40,000 [29%], to 178,000 per year,” reported a team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Put another way, during 2020 and 2021, an average of 488 Americans died each day from excessive drinking, the report’s authors concluded. The rate of increase appears to be accelerating: Between 2016 and 2019, deaths where alcohol was a factor rose by 5%, but between 2018 and 2021 they climbed by 23%. Men continue to lose their lives to alcohol in greater numbers than women, the report found. However, the rate at which women are dying from excessive drinking is rising faster than that of men, the researchers found. Over the study period, deaths from excessive alcohol use among women rose by about 35%, compared to about a 27% rise among men. The new data looked at deaths directly linked to drinking — things like alcoholic liver disease or excessive intoxication — as well as more indirect causes, such as heavy drinking’s role in heart disease and stroke. Over the study period, death rates rose for most forms of alcohol-related deaths, but “death…  read on >  read on >

Teens have a higher risk of self-injury — deliberately cutting or burning themselves — if they have a fraught relationship with a struggling parent, a new study shows. Teenagers were nearly five times more likely to self-injure if, when they were 6, their moms and dads reported stress and discomfort in their role as parents, researchers found. Teens also had a nearly doubled risk of self-harm if they perceived parental hostility and negativity at the age of 6, researchers report. “Stress in parents is hypothesized to have widespread negative impacts on child development, including the development of behavioral problems,” said researchers Tove Wichstrom and Lars Wichstrom, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. “It is therefore possible that increased stress contributes to the emergence of risk factors in children,” including a higher risk of self-injury, they added. For the study, the researchers analyzed data from 759 Norwegian adolescents at ages 12, 14 or 16 to determine the teens’ rate of non-suicidal self-injury. About 10% of the teens reported self-injury within the past year, with girls nearly 12 times more likely than boys to cut, burn or otherwise injure themselves. Such self-injury is typically a way to cope with emotional pain, sadness, anger and stress, according to the Mayo Clinic. It’s rarely meant as a suicide attempt, but rather as a means of…  read on >  read on >

Ultra-processed foods can cause dozens of terrible health problems among people who eat them too often, a new review warns. Researchers linked diets high in ultra-processed foods to an increased risk of 32 separate illnesses. In particular, these foods are strongly tied to risk with early death, heart disease, cancer, mental health disorders, overweight and obesity, and type 2 diabetes, researchers said. For example, ultra-processed foods are associated with a 50% increased risk of heart-related death, a 48% to 53% increased risk of anxiety and common mental disorders, and a 12% risk of type 2 diabetes, researchers said. And the more of these foods people eat, the higher their overall health risks, results showed. Ultra-processed foods include packaged snacks, sugary drinks, instant noodles, sweet cereals and ready-to-eat meals. The products undergo multiple industrial processes to make them tasty and shelf-stable, and contain additives like emulsifiers, coloring agents and chemical flavors. Unfortunately, ultra-processed foods now account for up to 58% of total daily energy intake in some high income-countries, and are proliferating in low- and middle-income countries, researchers said in background notes. “Notably, over recent decades, the availability and variety of ultra-processed products sold has substantially and rapidly increased” in countries around the world, wrote the research team led by Melissa Lane, an associate research fellow with the Deaken University Institute for Mental and Physical Health…  read on >  read on >

Folks hoping to quell their anxiety would do best to use cannabis products that don’t get them high, a new clinical trial has found. The non-intoxicating marijuana compound CBD appears to help manage anxiety better than THC, the chemical in weed that gets people high, researchers say. Patients with anxiety randomly assigned to smoke CBD-dominant products experienced greater improvements in mood than people smoking THC-heavy products or products with an even split between CBD and THC. “Our study suggests that CBD products may be able to relieve anxiety in the moment for adults who use them, and possibly longer-term, in a way that is meaningful and doesn’t necessarily produce the same risks or harms of THC or prescription medications,” said senior researcher Cinnamon Bidwell, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience with the University of Colorado Boulder. About one in five U.S. adults suffer from an anxiety disorder, making it the most common mental illness in the country, researchers said in background notes. Prescriptions for anti-anxiety medications are on the rise, and the drive to legalize marijuana has made cannabis products an attractive treatment option for people with anxiety. Adults rank anxiety among the top three medical reasons for turning to cannabis, alongside sleep and pain, researchers said. However, some studies have suggested that using cannabis too frequently or leaning on potent products high in…  read on >  read on >

According to the advocacy group Autism Speaks, one in every 36 U.S. children has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Early diagnosis is crucial to helping to treat the condition, but how is a diagnosis done? The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has an updated review of what’s involved in diagnosing autism in kids. “Diagnosing autism spectrum disorder [ASD] can be difficult because there is no medical test, like a blood test, to diagnose the disorder,” the agency noted. “Doctors look at the child’s developmental history and behavior to make a diagnosis.” At what age can a diagnosis be made? According to the CDC, the time at which a child receives a diagnosis varies. Sometimes an ASD can be detected as young as 18 months, or even before, but only by the age of 2 can a diagnosis by a trained professional be considered reliable. Unfortunately, in many cases a diagnosis of autism may not come till later in childhood. Some people are unaware that they have an ASD until they are diagnosed as an adult. Ideally, a reliable diagnosis should take place in childhood, when therapies are most effective, the CDC said. Monitoring development As children grow, conversations between parents and health care providers that center on kids’ skills and abilities should be encouraged, the CDC said. Tracking your child’s development — how…  read on >  read on >

Living close to a pub, bar or fast-food restaurant doesn’t do your heart any favors, a new study finds. Folks who live in close proximity to such establishments have a higher risk of heart failure, compared to those who live farther away, researchers report in the Feb. 27 issue of the journal Circulation: Heart Failure.  These findings weren’t a complete surprise, said senior researcher Dr. Lu Qi, a professor of epidemiology at Tulane University in New Orleans. “Previous studies have suggested that exposure to ready-to-eat food environments is associated with risks of other disorders, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity, which may also increase the risk of heart failure,” Qi noted in a journal news release. For the study, researchers analyzed data from the U.K. Biobank, a database containing health information for more than 500,000 adults in the United Kingdom. The team measured study participants’ exposure to three different types of food environments — pubs or bars, restaurants or cafeterias, and fast-food joints. These kinds of ready-to-eat establishments typically provide unhealthy foods and drinks, Qi said. The researchers specifically looked at whether people lived within a 15-minute walk of these eateries, as well as the number of such places located within such an easy walking distance. The study tracked nearly 13,000 heart failure cases during a 12-year follow-up period, and found that close proximity…  read on >  read on >

One out of every five adults who attempt suicide never met the criteria for a mental illness by the time the attempt happened, new research shows. “This finding challenges clinical notions of who is at risk for suicidal behavior and raises questions about the safety of limiting suicide risk screening to psychiatric populations,” concluded a team led by Dr. Maria Oquendo. She’s past president of the American Psychiatric Association and a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. The study, published Feb. 21 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, focused on data from nearly 2,000 Americans ages 20 to 65 who had all had a history of suicide attempt. The study found that 6.2% had no history of a mental illness prior to or after their attempted suicide. Another 13.4% had made a first attempt at suicide prior to the onset of any mental illness diagnosis. Some did not meet the criteria for a mental illness until years after the attempt, the study found. That means that a total of 19.6% of adults with a lifetime history of attempted suicide had no prior evidence of mental illness beforehand. For doctors, this means that they may need to be ask patients questions regarding any prior attempt at suicide, because it may have happened in the absence of a diagnosed mental illness. According to the researchers, a…  read on >  read on >