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A new study from psychiatric epidemiologist Dr Lindsey Hines calls for greater support to help young people avoid problematic drug use. Young people who are exposed to adverse childhood experiences between the ages of 0 - 12 years, including parental drug misuse, are at highest risk for developing problematic adolescent cannabis use as teenagers, according to a new study.

Children who begin reading for pleasure early in life tend to perform better at cognitive tests and have better mental health when they enter adolescence, a study of more than 10,000 young adolescents in the US has found.

Robin Bailey , University of Bolton Adrian Wells , University of Manchester There's a long-held belief that people drink alcohol in excess to drown their sorrows. But recent research into mood and drinking has found the opposite is also true. Using data from 69 studies (12,394 people in total) in the US, Canada, France and Australia, all of which employed surveys to assess mood and drinking levels, the researchers found no evidence that people drank more on days when they felt down.

Pearl Mok , University of Manchester Alex Trafford , University of Manchester Evidence tells us the COVID pandemic and measures put in place to contain the virus negatively affected the mental health of adolescents and young people in the UK and elsewhere. One review study published in August 2021 estimated that the global prevalence of children and adolescents with depression and anxiety had doubled since the start of the pandemic.

Learning that you are autistic at an older age, like Christine McGuiness, is no bad thing say researchers from the University of Bath and King's College London. Receiving an autism diagnosis in your 20, 30s, 40s, 50s or even 60s may seem daunting, but a new study from psychologists in Bath and London finds that the link between the age at which someone gets diagnosed has little bearing on their quality of life.

Across Europe, depression and anxiety disorders became more common following the onset of the pandemic, reports a major review of evidence led by UCL researchers. Later in 2020, depression and anxiety rates reduced again, but fluctuated over the following year. The systematic review, published in The Lancet Psychiatry , pulls together evidence from 177 studies in 20 European countries to assess how the Covid-19 pandemic affected mental health across the continent for the first two years after lockdowns began.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people are more than twice as likely than their straight peers to experience suicidal thoughts or self-harming behaviours, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The study, published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology , is the first ever to analyse nationally representative data on sexual orientation and suicidality in England whilst being able to compare individual sexual minority groups.

Eco-distress is rising around the world, but a new article in the journal Nature by psychologists suggests this could be a positive catalyst for action. More and more people are experiencing -eco-distress existential fears about the future of the planet in view of increased extreme weather events and ecological loss.

Adolescents who show signs of alcohol dependence are more likely to develop depression by their mid-20s, according to a new study led by UCL and University of Bristol researchers. Drinking large amounts of alcohol regularly, but with no signs of dependency, did not predict depression risk, according to the findings published in The Lancet Psychiatry .

A new cohort study has provided compelling evidence that quitting smoking can lead to improved mental health outcomes among people with and without mental health disorders, alleviating concerns raised by both clinicians and smokers. Published in JAMA Network Open , the findings revealed that smoking abstinence between weeks nine and 24 was associated with significant improvements in anxiety and depression scores.

Psychologists surveyed over 4,000 people to test social ability to analyse what factors determine how well you understand and get on with others. Political parties regularly claim to have their finger on the pulse and be able to read the public mood. Yet a new study challenges the idea that being political makes you good at understanding others: it shows gender, not politics, is a far more important factor in determining people's social skills.

Problems with the brain's ability to -prune- itself of unnecessary connections may underlie a wide range of mental health disorders that begin during adolescence, according to research published today.

People who have self-harmed struggle to access appropriate aftercare and psychological therapies, according to a new study carried out by researchers at The University of Manchester. And the barriers to access that they found, may impact significantly on the risk of them self-harming again or developing other mental health problems.

Using talking therapies to effectively treat depression in adults over the age of 45 may be linked with reduced rates of future cardiovascular disease, finds a new analysis of health data led by UCL researchers. In the first-of-its-kind study, published in the European Health Journal , researchers assessed whether evidence-based psychological therapies, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), used to treat depression could play a role in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease later in life.

Parents who frequently exercise harsh discipline with young children are putting them at significantly greater risk of developing lasting mental health problems, new evidence shows.

Dr Vanessa Moulton (UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) and Professor George Ploubidis (UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) highlight in The Conversation their findings that adults with long-term psychological difficulties were disproportionally affected by the pandemic. More than a million people in England are waiting for mental health support due to soaring demand exacerbated by the pandemic.

Researchers from King's College London and University of Oxford have shown that 18.4 per cent of the general UK population report that certain sounds, such as loud chewing, and repetitive sniffing, cause a significant problem in their lives. The condition is known as misophonia. Misophonia is a strong negative reaction to common sounds, which are usually made by other people, and include breathing, yawning, or chewing.

Loneliness can often contribute to depression in expectant and new mothers, finds a new review of evidence led by UCL researchers. The researchers say people working with expectant mothers, such as in antenatal classes or consultations, should be aware of the importance of loneliness and the value of encouraging new mothers to develop and maintain good social connections.

A UCL-led research team has, for the first time, identified a specific region of chromosome 21, which causes issues with memory function and anxiety in a mouse that models Down syndrome, a finding that provides valuable new insight into the condition in people. Most people have 46 chromosomes in each cell, divided into 23 pairs: people with Down syndrome (DS) have an extra copy of chromosome 21, which carries over 200 genes.

Does someone look angry or sad? You can probably offer an answer to that question based on the information you can see just by looking at their face. That's because facial expressions - or a combination of different small facial movements - can be read by other humans to help understand what a person might be feeling at that exact moment.