Babies living as refugees have some of the same social skills as children with more secure home conditions. This is shown by a new study that researchers from Uppsala University have conducted in cooperation with colleagues in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Bhutan. Over 800 children participated in the study, making it one of the largest infant studies ever conducted using eye movement measurements.
New study: An app can help parents who are mourning the loss of a child. Parents who used the app for three months reported reduced symptoms of prolonged grief and post-traumatic stress, and also had fewer negative thoughts. Some parents thought that in future, the app should be offered early in the process of mourning. The study is published in the scholarly journal Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.
All patients who have had a heart attack are typically treated using beta blockers. According to a Swedish study conducted earlier this year, this drug is unlikely to be needed for those heart patients who have a normal pumping ability. Now a sub-study at Uppsala University shows that there is also a risk that these patients will become depressed by the treatment.
A new thesis at Uppsala University questions the traditional view of stress-induced exhaustion disorder. A new model is proposed in its place that puts more focus on meaningfulness rather than recovery.
Death is blue, or a flying animal. This is how death is most commonly illustrated in Swedish children’s literature, according to a new study from Uppsala University based on analyses of 62 books. Just six out of ten books use the word ‘dead’, which may be a problem.
Upper secondary school students were less likely to seek help for mental ill health when they were forced to study at home during the pandemic. A similar decrease was not seen for secondary school students aged 14–16 who remained in school. This has been shown in a new study at Uppsala University, based on data covering all of Sweden's upper secondary school students between 2015–2021.
Researchers have identified a new neural circuit in the brain which produces a strong sense of discomfort when activated. The discovery also allows them to show for the first time that the subthalamic nucleus, a structure in the brain that controls voluntary movements, may also play a role in the development of depression. The results could lead to better treatments for Parkinson's disease.
Women who used combined contraceptive pills were at greater risk of developing depression than women who did not, according to a new study. The pills increased women’s risk by 73 per cent during the first two years of use. “Since we only investigated combined contraceptive pills in this study, we cannot draw conclusions about other contraceptive options", says leading researcher Uppsala University
Detailed images of illness, death and cancelled activities; these were some of the common themes of children’s drawings during the COVID-19 pandemic. A new study from Uppsala University, in which researchers studied 91 drawings made by children aged between 4 and 6, shows that the pandemic affected the children significantly and that they had extensive knowledge about the disease.
Neurochemical changes in the brain differ among patients with social anxiety treated using both SSRIs and CBT, compared to those treated using only CBT. While the combined treatment involving the medicine blocked the serotonin transporters, availability of such transporters increased in patients who only received CBT. In a double-blind positron emission tomography (PET) study, 24 participants.
A new study from Uppsala University shows that using a weighted blanket at bedtime increases melatonin in young adults. This hormone increases in response to darkness, and some evidence suggests that it promotes sleep. The findings are published in the Journal of Sleep Research.
Support offered by a phone app can relieve post-traumatic stress and depression. A new study from Uppsala University’s National Centre for Disaster Psychiatry involving 179 patients shows that a dedicated PTSD app, PTSD Coach, helps adults suffering from mental health issues after traumatic events.
Several new studies among Syrian refugee families in Turkey and families with infants in Sweden and Bhutan show that children of mothers in poor mental health risk falling behind in their cognitive development. However, very small changes can suffice to break this correlation and enable the children to return to their normal developmental level. The solutions where the same in all three countries
Levels of dopamine and placebo effect can determine whether social anxieties improve when treated with SSRIs. The effect was four times higher for patients with high expectations compared with low expectations, even though the groups received the same medical treatment. Although SSRIs influence levels of serotonin in the brain, the effects on dopamine had the greatest impact for improvement.
Increasing mental ill health is one of the most urgent public health challenges in the world. The global meeting Uppsala Health Summit, to be held online on 18–21 October, will discuss which preventive measures societies should deploy to better address this troubling trend.
Researchers at Uppsala University have designed new antibodies that might provide more effective treatment methods for Alzheimer’s disease. By designing antibodies that bind even to the smaller aggregates, or clumps, of the amyloid-beta protein, it may be possible to check the progress of the disease. The results presents in Translational Neurodegeneration.
Depressive symptoms are more common in teenage girls than in their male peers. However, boys’ mental health appears to be affected more if they suffer from obesity. Irrespective of gender, bullying is a considerably greater risk factor than overweight for developing depressive symptoms. These conclusions are drawn by researchers at Uppsala University who monitored adolescents in a new study.
An adverse upbringing often impairs people’s circumstances and health in their adult years, especially for couples who have both had similar experiences. This is shown by a new study, carried out by Uppsala University researchers, in which 818 mothers and their partners filled in a questionnaire one year after having a child together. The study is now published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.
Individuals with social anxiety disorder have markedly different personality traits than others. Emotional instability and introversion are hallmarks, according to a new study from Uppsala University published in PLOS ONE.
The balance between the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine may affect whether a person develops social anxiety disorder. Previous research has mainly focused on either the serotonin or the dopamine system individually. Now researchers at Uppsala University have demonstrated the existence of a previously unknown link between the two. The results are published in Molecular Psychiatry.
Founded in 1477, Uppsala University is the oldest university in Sweden. With more than 50,000 students and 7,500 employees in Uppsala and Visby, we are a broad university with research in social sciences, humanities, technology, natural sciences, medicine and pharmacology. Our mission is to conduct education and research of the highest quality and relevance to society on a long-term basis. Uppsala University is regularly ranked among the world’s top universities.
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