Want to thrive in tough, stressful times? Stay playful. That’s the take-home message from a new study of who fared best, in terms of mental resiliency, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers said the findings have relevance to weathering any sort of trying times. “Playful” people differ from others in that they display “greater optimism when envisioning future possibilities,” are more creative when it comes to solving problems, and attempt to “infuse quality and enjoyment into everyday activities,” explained study lead author Xiangyou “Sharon” Shen of Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis.  Her team’s study, published Feb. 9 in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, tracked the mental health outcomes for 503 individuals throughout the pandemic.  Psychologists already acknowledge playfulness as an important personality trait, and there’s even a Playfulness Trait Scale to measure it.  According to Shen, during the pandemic folks who scored high on the scale “actively altered challenging situations, found creative substitutes for what was lost, viewed obstacles as opportunities for growth and maintained a strong sense of control over their responses.” More playful people tended to stress out less during the COVID years, compared to less-playful types, the study found. Shen said that playful folk did not necessarily engage in different activities or do any particular activity more often.  Instead, they became more deeply involved in whatever activity they were in; were more…  read on >  read on >

About 93% of people worldwide who struggle with mental health or substance abuse issues aren’t getting adequate care, a new report finds. In many cases, people affected by mental illness do not recognize that they have a diagnosable condition, the Canadian research team found.  But even when diagnoses are made, treatment is often lacking.  Men seemed more likely to go untreated than women, the study found.  Globally, “women were 50% more likely to receive effective treatment despite men having more than twice the substance use disorders prevalence and suicide death rate than women,” wrote a team led by Dr. Daniel Vigo. He’s an associate professor of psychiatry and population and public health at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The new data came from World Health Organization surveys involving nearly 57,000 participants in 21 countries, conducted over a 19-year period.  Countries included the United States and Japan, as well as many nations in Western and Eastern Europe and South America. Participants all met standard criteria for having a mental illness, including substance abuse disorders. People were quizzed on whether they: Recognized their need for treatment Made contact with the healthcare system about it Received a minimum level of adequate treatment Received effective treatment Less than half (46.5%) recognized that they had a condition that merited treatment, the researchers reported.  In the group that did…  read on >  read on >

When and what you eat might play a role in maintaining good mental health, a new study suggests. Researchers in China found that folks with heart disease were more likely to keep depression at bay if they ate a big, calorie-rich breakfast.  There’s evidence that heart disease patients “are more likely to develop depression when compared to the general population — and dietary factors have been shown to play an important role in depression occurrence and development,” noted a team led by Hongquan Xie of the Harbin Medical University. They published their findings recently in BMC Medicine. According to the researchers, the timing of calorie intake “can regulate circadian rhythms and metabolism,” and disruptions in circadian rhythms may be a contributor to depression. Heart disease patients are already at heightened risk for depression, so the new study looked at possible links between daily meals and a patient’s mental health. The team looked at 2003-2018 data from almost 32,000 Americans who enrolled in the U.S. National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey.  Almost 3,500 participants (averaging 66 years of age) had heart disease, and 554 of those people were also diagnosed with depression.  Survey participants also reported what and when they ate during a typical day. The data showed that people who took in the most calories at breakfast (791 calories on average) were 30% less prone to…  read on >  read on >

Turns out, looking on the bright side may do more than lift your mood!  It could also help you save money, especially if you’re on a tight budget. A study published recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology  found that people who are more optimistic about the future tend to save more money over time, even after accounting for income, personality traits and financial literacy. “We often think of optimism as rose-colored glasses that might lead people to save less for the future,” lead author Joe Gladstone of the University of Colorado Boulder, said in a news release. “But our research suggests optimism may actually be an important psychological resource that helps people save, especially when facing economic hardship.” The study analyzed data from more than 140,000 people across the U.S., the U.K. and 14 European countries. Researchers examined survey responses measuring “dispositional optimism” where participants rated statements like “Overall, I expect more good things to happen to me than bad,” or “In uncertain times, I usually expect the best.” What did they find?  Higher optimism was linked to greater savings, even among folks with lower incomes. And even a slight improvement in optimism scores was linked to $1,352 in savings. The link between optimism and savings remained even when researchers controlled for other factors like age, gender, relationship status, parental status, childhood…  read on >  read on >

Heavy weed use may be far more dangerous than people realize, according to a pair of studies published in JAMA Network Open. People diagnosed with cannabis use disorder (CUD) may face nearly triple the risk of death over five years compared to those without the disorder, according to a large study published Feb. 6. The study, conducted in Ontario, Canada, found that people treated for CUD in hospitals or emergency rooms were 10 times more likely to die by suicide than those in the general population. They were also significantly more likely to die from trauma, drug poisoning and lung cancer, researchers found. A separate study — published Feb. 4 — linked rising cases of psychosis and schizophrenia in Canada to CUD since the country legalized recreational marijuana in 2018. Researchers suspect C.U.D. is even more widespread than the data indicate.  When they analyzed Ontario health records from 106,994 people diagnosed with CUD during a hospital or emergency room visit between 2006 and 2021, researchers found: 3.5% of people with CUD died within five years of treatment, compared to 0.6% of a similar group of people without CUD. CUD patients still had a 2.8 times higher risk of death than the general population even after other risk factors like mental illness, heart disease, cancer and other substance use were considered. Young adults aged 25 to…  read on >  read on >

Los Angeles County residents are still recovering from the devastation of the Palisades and Eaton fires, and new data show that emergency department (ED) visits for wildfire-related issues jumped eight-fold in the days after the fires broke out. In fact, the new data “likely underestimate the prevalence of wildfire-associated ED encounters,” a team led by Emily Kajita of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) concludes. Fueled by bone-dry conditions and winds reaching gusts of 100 mph, the Palisades and Eaton fires roared through tens of thousands of acres, destroying more than 16,000 structures and killing 29 people.  The fires took weeks to put out completely and dirtied the air Los Angelenos breathed during that time. Kajita and colleagues looked at LACDPH data on ED encounters occurring in 90% of hospitals across the county. Overall, ED visits actually dropped by 9% in the first six days after the fires broke out, compared to the three weeks prior.   The researchers note that this is in keeping with ED trends during natural disasters generally, as people focus more on moving away from affected areas; schools and businesses are shut down; and many folks take added precautions around their health. However, between Jan. 7 and 12 there was a sharp spike in ED encounters for illnesses and injuries linked directly to the fires.  Rates for…  read on >  read on >

Many seniors suffer long-term health issues after a hip fracture, even after hip replacement surgeries.  Now, research shows that a patient’s mental health could be crucial to how well they bounce back in the years after these injuries. “Addressing overall mental health during the recovery process from hip fractures is crucial,” concludes study senior author and Harvard University researcher Dr. Sarah Berry. More than 300,000 older American adults are rushed to emergency departments each year for hip fracture, according to the researchers, and more than 500,000 hip replacement surgeries each year involve fractures as a contributing cause. About 1 in 4 patients who’ve fallen and suffered a hip fracture will require long-term care in the year after their fall. The new research looked at data on 129 women over the age of 64 who’d recently undergone a surgery to repair a fractured hip. The data were collected as part of a study led by Dr. Ellen Binder of Washington University in St Louis. Berry and colleagues’ new analysis looked specifically at patient “resilience” following their hip fracture.  They looked at numerous mental health factors, including a patient’s education, thinking skills, mental health and depressive symptoms as measured on various tests. Lower patient scores on what’s known as the Geriatric Depression Scale, as well as higher marks on the Global Mental Health Score, were each associated…  read on >  read on >