People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are plagued by unwanted and distressing memories over which they have little to no control. Doctors now think they understand why PTSD patients and others aren’t able to keep troubling memories at bay. Sleep deprivation appears to interfere with people’s ability to restrict the retrieval of memories they’d rather suppress, according to a new study published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. MRI scans show that well-rested people have more control over regions of the brain that manage memories, results show. “This is really important to our understanding of mental health issues as it is well documented that those who suffer with anxiety, depression or PTSD, also have difficulty with sleep,” senior researcher Scott Cairney, an associate professor of psychology with the University of York in England, said in a news release. For the study, researchers used MRI scans to observe the brain activity of 85 healthy adults. Half the participants got a good night’s sleep in a sleep lab, while the other half stayed awake all night. The research team then tested the participants’ ability to suppress memories. “We have previously shown that the brain’s ability to suppress such intrusive memories is contingent on obtaining restful sleep,” Cairney said. “Suppression is a very clever function of the brain as it weakens all of…  read on >  read on >

Simple neglect can be as damaging to a child’s social development as physical, sexual or emotional abuse. Children whose basic needs aren’t met can have lifelong damage done to their ability to form friendships and romantic relationships, researchers reported in a study published recently in the journal Child Abuse and Neglect. Neglect leads children to withdraw from others, avoid popularity, and become less likely to join groups, results show. “Maltreated children often feel shame and may have lower self-esteem and sense of belonging as a consequence of maltreatment, which precipitates withdrawal from their peers,” lead researcher Christina Kamis, an assistant professor of sociology with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said in a news release from the school. “Experiencing abuse or neglect may also cause children to anticipate rejection or victimization by their peers, making them less likely to reach out to others,” Kamis added. For the study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 9,200 participants in a long-term federal study tracking the health of teenagers into adulthood. Students were initially surveyed in grades 7-12, then followed as they became adults. Nearly 41% of the participants reported some form of maltreatment before age 12 or reaching the sixth grade, the study says. That included more than 10% who reported physical neglect, which can include a lack of housing, food, clothing, education, access to medical care, or emotional…  read on >  read on >

Want to help your child cut back on their screen time? Make sure you live near parks and other open spaces where they can frolic outside. New research underlines the importance of green space access as an alternative to spending time on screens, described as watching television, playing video games, and non-school related computer use. “Neighborhood green spaces may draw children out of the house and give them an alternative space to engage in activities other than screen time,” according to Ian-Marshall Lang, lead study author and researcher at University of Michigan’s (U-M) School of Kinesiology. Published last year in the journal Health & Place, the study was inspired by earlier findings on the differences in the effectiveness of community programming and policies by race and ethnicity. National research shows racial and ethnic inequities in green space availability, so Lang and the other authors suspected access to green space was a key factor behind the trend. While programs aimed at reducing time spent on screens are more likely to be successful in green, park-filled areas, the reverse holds. Programs are less successful in neighborhoods where children have less access to green spaces, described by the study authors as areas such as forests, shrubland, open spaces and grassland. “This raises the question of who has access to high green space. Both our study and national data…  read on >  read on >

Ever woke in the night with your thoughts racing about work problems, co-worker disputes, or heavy career decisions? Well, it’s more common than you think. Job stress is robbing U.S. workers of the sleep they need, researchers reported in a study published Jan. 8 in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. Work strain increases risk of sleep disturbances significantly, researchers found. The results indicate that companies could do more to help workers get their rest, which in turn will improve their productivity, said senior researcher Dr. Jian Li, a professor of work and health at UCLA. “Strategies such as redesigning workloads and promoting worker autonomy could play an important role in improving sleep health and workers’ well-being,” Li said. The new study analyzed data from more than 1,700 workers participating in a study of midlife people in the United States. These folks were followed for about nine years on average. Sleep disturbances were assessed based on how often people had trouble falling asleep, waking in the night, waking too early in the morning, and feeling unrested during the day. “Sleep disturbances have been a major public health concern, with recent statistics indicating that approximately 1 in 7 adults experienced difficulty falling asleep, and 1 in 6 adults had trouble staying asleep in the United States,” researchers said in background notes. Researchers analyzed the effect of…  read on >  read on >

Delivering meals to the infirm. Tutoring a student. Patrolling a city park. Helping out at a local library. All these activities not only serve the community, but also can help seniors avoid depression related to social isolation. Volunteering reduces the risk of depression by 43% among seniors, researchers reported in a study published Jan. 8 in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society. “Those engaged in volunteering activities had a significantly lower prevalence of depression,” senior researcher Dr. Guohua Li, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, said in a news release from the college. Volunteerism could be particularly important for seniors who’ve just retired, as they are at higher risk for depression, researchers added. For the study, researchers analyzed data gathered for nearly 3,000 seniors 65 to 79 as part of a study on aging drivers. Overall, about 6% of all the study participants had depression, researchers found But depression was double among those who didn’t volunteer compared to those who did, 8% versus 4%, results show. The study also showed that money is a root of happiness for seniors. Risk of depression was 47% lower for households with annual income of $50,000 to $79,999, and 59% lower for those making $80,000 or more, researchers found. Depression also was more common in people 65 to 69 compared with older seniors. For example, people 70 to…  read on >  read on >

Some of the most effective public policies for suicide prevention aren’t crafted with suicide or mental health in mind, a new study says. Efforts to increase the minimum wage, prohibit gender discrimination, or reduce alcohol consumption “have spillover benefits in that they also prevent suicides,” lead researcher Jonathan Purtle, an associate professor of public health policy and management at the NYU School of Global Public Health, said in a news release from the school. In fact, those policies might be more effective at preventing suicides than efforts to increase access to health care or limit firearms, researchers argue in a study published Jan. 7 in the Annual Review of Public Health. “This research highlights the importance of considering social determinants in suicide prevention,” researcher Michael Lindsey, dean of the NYU Silver School of Social Work, said in a news release. “An individual’s mental well-being is influenced not only by clinical factors, but also by their environment, circumstances, and experiences,” Lindsey added. Suicide rates have been on the rise over the past two decades, increasing by 37% since 2000, researchers said in background notes. For younger people 10 to 24, suicide increased 62% between 2010 and 2020. To see which public policies might best help prevent suicides, researchers first analyzed state bills passed during the last two decades that explicitly mentioned suicide.  They found a dramatic…  read on >  read on >

Patients have more access to their own medical test results than ever before, thanks to legislation requiring results be released as soon as they’re available. But that’s not necessarily a good thing, a new study warns. Many patients are reading test results in their electronic medical record before their doctor has had a chance to go over them, researchers say in a study published Jan. 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. This is provoking a lot of confusion and anxiety, mainly because medical reports contain a lot of jargon the average patient doesn’t understand, researchers said. For example, “a standard pathology report is written by a pathologist for a clinical specialist like a surgeon or a cancer doctor or for other pathologists to read,” lead researcher Dr. Cathryn Lapedis, a pathologist at University of Michigan Health, said in a news release from the college. To address this, Lapedis and her colleagues tested whether patients might benefit from pathology reports written in a way they would better understand. “A patient-centered pathology report gives important information on the patient’s diagnosis in a clear format that minimizes medical terminology,” Lapedis said. “For example, a standard pathology report will include a term like prostatic adenocarcinoma, but the patient-centered report will simply call it prostate cancer.” For the study, researchers recruited more than 2,200 men 55 to…  read on >  read on >