Mental health

About: Mental health is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 183794 publications have been published within this topic receiving 4340463 citations. The topic is also known as: mental wellbeing.

Consensus Statement on the Upcoming Crisis in Geriatric Mental Health: Research Agenda for the Next 2 Decades

Abstract: It is anticipated that the number of people older than 65 years with psychiatric disorders in the United States will increase from about 4 million in 1970 to15 million in 2030. The current health care system serves mentally ill older adults poorly and is unprepared to meet the upcoming crisis in geriatric mental health. We recommend the formulation of a 15- to 25-year plan for research on mental disorders in elderly persons. It should include studies of prevention, translation of findings from bench to bedside, large-scale intervention trials with meaningful outcome measures, and health services research. Innovative strategies are needed to formulate new conceptualizations of psychiatric disorders, especially those given scant attention in the past. New methods of clinical and research training involving specialists, primary care clinicians, and the lay public are warranted.

Anxiety and Depression in Transgender Individuals: The Roles of Transition Status, Loss, Social Support, and Coping.

Abstract: Objective The purpose of the current study was to examine facilitative and avoidant coping as mediators between distress and transition status, social support, and loss. Method A total of 351 transgender individuals (n = 226 transgender women and n = 125 transgender men) participated in this study. Participants completed measures on transgender identity, family history of mental health concerns, perceptions of loss, coping, depression, and anxiety. Results The rates of depressive symptoms (51.4% for transgender women; 48.3% for transgender men) and anxiety (40.4% for transgender women; 47.5% for transgender men) within the current study far surpass the rates of those for the general population. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data-2 separate models were hypothesized, based on reports of anxiety or depression. The SEM results suggest that the processes for transgender women and transgender men are primarily similar for depression and anxiety; avoidant coping served as a mediator between transition status and both distress variables. Social support was directly related to distress variables, as well as indirectly related through avoidant coping. Conclusion Results suggest the need for practitioners to focus on interventions that reduce avoidant coping strategies, while simultaneously increasing social support, in order to improve mental health for transgender individuals. Individuals who are in the beginning stages of their transition will use different coping strategies than those who are in later stages; interventions should be adjusted on the basis of the transition status of transgender clients.

Longitudinal cohort study of childhood IQ and survival up to age 76

Abstract: Objectives: To test the association between childhood IQ and mortality over the normal human lifespan. Design: Longitudinal cohort study. Setting: Aberdeen. Subjects: All 2792 children in Aberdeen born in 1921 and attending school on 1 June 1932 who sat a mental ability test as part of the Scottish mental survey 1932. Main outcome measure: Survival at 1 January 1997. Results: 79.9% (2230) of the sample was traced. Childhood mental ability was positively related to survival to age 76 years in women (P Conclusion: Childhood mental ability is a significant factor among the variables that predict age at death. What is already known on this topic People in deprived conditions tend to have more illness and die younger The reasons for this inequality in health are not fully established What this study adds IQ at age 11 years was significantly associated with survival up to 76 years in an Aberdeen cohort The association was unaffected by adjustment for overcrowding Men with high IQ were more likely to die in active service in the second world war

Mental Health Discourse on reddit: Self-Disclosure, Social Support, and Anonymity

Abstract: Social media is continually emerging as a platform of information exchange around health challenges. We study mental health discourse on the popular social media:reddit. Building on findings about health information seeking and sharing practices in online forums, and social media like Twitter, we address three research challenges. First, we present a characterization of self-disclosure inmental illness communities on reddit. We observe individuals discussing a variety of concerns ranging from the daily grind to specific queries about diagnosis and treatment. Second, we build a statistical model to examine the factors that drive social support on mental health reddit communities. We also develop language models to characterize mental health social support, which are observed to bear emotional, informational, instrumental, and prescriptive information. Finally, we study disinhibition in the light of the dissociative anonymity that reddit’s throwaway accounts provide. Apart from promoting open conversations,such anonymity surprisingly is found to gather feedback that is more involving and emotionally engaging. Our findings reveal, for the first time, the kind of unique information needs that a social media like reddit might be fulfilling when it comes to a stigmatic illness. They also expand our understanding of the role of the social web in behavioral therapy.