Answer Addiction

Tag: study

  • Can Cannabis Alter The Teenage Brain?

    Can Cannabis Alter The Teenage Brain?

    A recent study examined how marijuana use impacts the gray matter in the teenage brain.

    A recent study consisting of brain scans of 46 teens in Europe found that smoking just one or two joints seemed to produce changes in the gray matter of their brains.

    The teens appeared to have a greater amount of this tissue, which is a major component of the central nervous system and is responsible for information processing. However, this does not necessarily mean that more gray matter is better.

    According to a 2006 article in the Postgraduate Medical Journal, the brain naturally shrinks as people age. This process is called “pruning” and is part of the normal development process at all ages.

    This new study, titled “Grey Matter Volume Differences Associated with Extremely Low Levels of Cannabis Use in Adolescence,” notes that gray matter volume (GMV) in the temporal regions of the brain is “associated with contemporaneous performance on the Perceptual Reasoning Index and with future generalized anxiety symptoms in the cannabis users.”

    While there has been little research on the effects of cannabis on the brain compared to substances like alcohol, it is generally considered true that permanent changes and damage to the young, developing brain are more significant due to the compounding issues that development disruption causes over time. However, it’s difficult to determine whether the increased gray matter observed in the studied teens is a bad thing, a good thing or a little of both.

    “At the age at which we studied these kids (age 14), cortical regions are going through a process of thinning,” said Hugh Garavan, lead author of the study and a professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont School of Medicine, to NBC News. “So, one possibility is that the cannabis use has disrupted this pruning process, resulting in larger volumes (i.e., a disruption of typical maturation) in the cannabis users. Another possibility is that the cannabis use has led to a growth in neurons and in the connections between them.”

    Gray matter can also be altered by a number of common activities other than drug use. Studies have found that meditation can result in changes to this part of the brain. Others have found that habitual interaction with action video games reduces gray matter in the hippocampus while playing 3D platformer video games increases it. Even becoming pregnant has shown to create significant changes in gray matter structure that last for two years after birth.

    In this latest study, the 46 teens self-reported smoking very small amounts of cannabis in their lifetimes, equivalent to one or two joints, and reported that they had not consumed any other illicit substances.

    Not only did the study find greater GMV levels around the amygdala, hippocampus and other areas of the brain, follow-ups found higher levels of “sensation seeking” and anxiety symptoms among the cannabis-using teens compared to controls. However, the authors of the study specifically stated that these behavioral differences were unrelated to the amount of gray matter.

    “Of the behavioral variables tested, only sensation seeking and agoraphobia differed between the cannabis users and controls and these factors were not related to GMV differences,” the study reads.

    The authors also noted that behavioral differences should be “interpreted with caution” due to the low sample size, but they are notable as “panic and anxiety symptoms are frequently reported side effects by naïve and occasional cannabis users.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Can Treating Insomnia Ease Depression Symptoms For Menopausal Women?

    Can Treating Insomnia Ease Depression Symptoms For Menopausal Women?

    Researchers explored possible treatment options for depression and insomnia in menopausal women.

    Depression symptoms in women going through menopause may decrease when insomnia is treated, new research has found.

    According to Reuters, researchers enlisted 117 women going through menopause who also had insomnia. Most women, according to Reuters, experience menopause anywhere between age 45 and 55. Menopause occurs when the hormones estrogen and progesterone stop being produced by the ovaries. One of the main symptoms for women is insomnia.

    The women were split into three groups randomly. One group received cognitive behavioral therapy, the second group received a type of CBT called sleep restriction therapy, and the third was given information about habits to make sleeping and falling asleep easier (also referred to as sleep hygiene education).

    Of the women in the study, 4.3% had been diagnosed with moderately severe depression. Researchers found that both types of therapy helped to alleviate depression symptoms, while the sleep hygiene education did not have the same results.

    “We can add targeted cognitive behavioral treatment of insomnia to the current arsenal of treatments available to alleviate menopausal associated insomnia and with this treatment we have the added benefit of reductions in depressive symptoms which frequently co-occur with sleep disturbance associated with menopause,” senior study author Christopher Drake of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan, told Reuters via email. “We hope to one day show that targeting insomnia symptoms early when depression is mild or yet to develop can prevent depression from ever developing in the first place.”

    When it comes to insomnia, CBT helps people learn techniques that address the mental aspects of insomnia, like overcoming negative emotions, anxiety and a racing mind.

    Previous research has found that CBT can help those with insomnia to create better bedtime routines and improve their sleep patterns.

    When it comes to sleep restriction therapy, it can be done solo or in addition to CBT. The goal of this type of therapy is to limit how many times a person wakes during the night and to decrease the total amount of time they spend in bed but not the total amount of time they spend asleep.

    In this particular study, women receiving CBT went through six face-to-face therapy sessions with a medical professional in the behavioral sleep medicine field. Those undergoing sleep restriction therapy had two face-to-face sessions and three phone sessions. The remaining group undergoing sleep hygiene education received six emails per week, each with tips for better sleep routines and information on sleep and its connection to health and lifestyle. 

    Researchers do note that this study has some limitations, such as the fact that women with major depression were not included in the study. The study also did not take into account hot flashes, which are a common symptom of menopause that could interfere with sleep.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Did The CDC Overestimate The Number Of Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancies?

    Did The CDC Overestimate The Number Of Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancies?

    A new study suggests that CDC may have inflated the number of pregnancies affected by alcohol use. 

    In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention caused a stir by saying that women of childbearing age who aren’t on birth control should abstain from drinking so that they didn’t unintentionally have pregnancies affected by alcohol.

    The CDC said at the time that 3.3 million women were at risk of having alcohol-exposed pregnancies each month. 

    However, a new study finds that the CDC vastly overestimated the number of pregnancies that might be affected by alcohol. 

    “We estimate 731,000 U.S. women had [alcohol-exposed pregnancies] and 481,000 resulted in [alcohol-exposed births],” researchers wrote. “Under our assumptions, the estimated expected actual number of [alcohol-exposed pregnancies] is 2.5 million less than the CDC estimate of the number at risk of an [alcohol-exposed pregnancies].” 

    The study, published in the January edition of the journal Women’s Health Issues, was led by researchers Sarah Roberts and Kristen Thompson from the University of California San Francisco’s Department of Gynecology. They used the same data set that the CDC did, but they adjusted how the number of alcohol-affected pregnancies were calculated. They also considered that because of miscarriage and abortion, not all pregnancies lead to births. 

    In the original calculations, the CDC assumed that any woman who both had an alcoholic drink and who had unprotected sex in the previous month could have a pregnancy affected by alcohol. However, this inflated the number of pregnancies affected, Roberts told Quartz. 

    “That’s not the right way to do this,” she said. 

    The calculations gave the maximum number of alcohol-exposed pregnancies that could possibly occur, rather than a more realistic, likely estimate, Roberts explained. 

    In the new calculations, researchers raised the number of drinks a woman had to have to be considered “at risk” from one to seven. Roberts said this reflects the CDC’s classification of what level of drinking is considered potentially harmful. They tempered the likelihood of pregnancy resulting from unprotected sex using national data that shows that just 38% of unprotected sex leads to pregnancy, and 64% of those pregnancies lead to births. As a result, the study estimated the amount of pregnancies actually affected by alcohol as less than 25% of the original CDC estimate.  

    The high number the CDC put out “contributed to a sense of moral panic around the topic,” Roberts said. In the future, it’s important that the agency take a more wholistic and realistic picture of the risk of drinking and unprotected pregnancy. 

    “It would be great if future efforts could take into account this method,” she said. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Smoking, Alcohol Use Linked To Different Brain Areas

    Smoking, Alcohol Use Linked To Different Brain Areas

    A new study suggests that individuals who smoke may do so in order to increase their brain connectivity with nicotine.

    Connectivity in certain areas of the brain may affect smokers’ and drinkers’ tendencies to continue the behavior, new research has found. 

    The study, done by researchers in the department of computer science at the University of Warwick, looked at the neural mechanisms connected to two types of substance use: drinking alcohol and smoking. 

    Researchers studied 2,000 study participants, according to Science Daily. In doing so, they discovered that those who smoked had low connectivity, particularly in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, which is a brain region that is connected with impulsivity.

    This suggests, according to researchers, that individuals who smoke may do so in order to increase their brain connectivity with nicotine, which has a stimulating effect. It also suggests that being impulsive may play a role in beginning and continuing to smoke. 

    In drinkers, researchers noted that there was high overall connectivity in the brain, particularly in the brain region associated with reward, which is the medial orbitofrontal cortex. The stimulation in this reward center, according to researchers, may be what leads some individuals to drink. 

    “Importantly the extent of these functional connectivity changes in the brains of drinkers and smokers correlated with the amount of alcohol and nicotine being consumed,” Science Daily stated. “Critically they were even detectable in individuals smoking only a few cigarettes or drinking one unit of alcohol every day.”

    Researchers also noted that it may be possible to study an individual’s connectivity at age 14 to predict whether they would smoke or drink at age 19. 

    “These discoveries help to show that there are different neural bases of different types of addiction, and that the orbitofrontal cortex, a key brain region in emotion, is implicated in these two types of addiction,” said Professor Edmund Rolls from the University of Warwick. 

    According to Professor Jianfeng Feng, also from the University of Warwick, the findings of this study could be vital when it comes to public health implications. Feng cited a World Health Organization study which states there are 1.1 billion people in the world who smoke and 2.3 billion who drink. He also noted that more than 3 million people die annually due to alcohol use disorder.

    “These are key discoveries that advance our understanding of the neurological bases of smoking and drinking and also provide new evidence on the different neurological mechanisms that are related to these two types of human addictive behavior, smoking and drinking, and these advances have implications for prevention and treatment of these two substance use,” Feng noted. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • The Link Between Hearing Loss And Depression In The Elderly

    The Link Between Hearing Loss And Depression In The Elderly

    A new study examines the link between depressive symptoms and hearing loss in older Hispanic adults.

    Having to ask people to repeat themselves or nodding along politely to a conversation they cannot hear is common for the thousands of elderly Americans who live with hearing loss. Now a new study shows that hearing loss isn’t just an inconvenience: It can be a real health threat linked to depression. 

    The study, published in the journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, examined 5,328 Hispanic adults, testing their hearing and screening them for depression.

    Adjusting for other contributing factors to depression like educational level and cardiac health, the researchers found that moderate hearing loss made people nearly twice as likely to suffer from depression. People with severe hearing loss were about four times more likely to be depressed. 

    “People with hearing loss have trouble communicating and tend to become more socially isolated, and social isolation can lead to depression,” Justin S. Golub, assistant professor of otolaryngology-head & neck surgery at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and lead study author told Columbia University Irving Medical Center. 

    Golub pointed out that the study only found a link, and researchers couldn’t definitively say that hearing loss causes depression. 

    “That would have to be demonstrated in a prospective, randomized trial,” he said. “But it’s understandable how hearing loss could contribute to depressive symptoms.”

    However, the study did find that the likelihood of depression increased with the severity of hearing loss in the individuals who were screened. 

    “The odds of having clinically significant depressive symptoms increased approximately 45% for every 20-dB increase in hearing loss,” the study authors wrote. “Objective hearing loss appears to be associated with clinically significant depressive symptoms in older Hispanic people, with greater hearing loss seemingly associated with greater odds of having depressive symptoms. Given the high prevalence of untreated hearing loss in older adults, hearing loss may be a potentially modifiable risk factor for late-life depression.”

    Hearing loss is the third most common chronic condition for the elderly and has been linked with dementia and cognitive decline. Researchers looked at Hispanics because this group may be under-diagnosed with depression because of language and cultural barriers. The results show the need for more research into hearing loss and depression in the elderly population at large. It also suggests that screening for and treating hearing loss may be an important part of health care for older patients. 

    “Most people over age 70 have at least mild hearing loss, yet relatively few are diagnosed, much less treated, for this condition,” Golub said. “Hearing loss is easy to diagnose and treat, and treatment may be even more important if it can help ease or prevent depression.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Connection Between Addiction, Excess Social Media Use Explored

    Connection Between Addiction, Excess Social Media Use Explored

    A new study’s results could potentially change the way excessive social media use is treated.

    There’s been a lot of debate over whether technology and social media can be addictive, and a study has strengthened the connection between the behaviors of people with substance use disorders and those who use social media excessively. 

    “This result further supports a parallel between individuals with problematic, excessive [social media] use, and individuals with substance use and behavioral addictive disorders,” the authors of the study wrote in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions. 

    As part of the study, researchers asked individuals about their social media use and its effects on their lives and had them complete the Iowa Gambling Task, a measure used by psychologists to determine decision-making abilities. They found that people who performed poorly on the task were more likely to have excessive social media use. People who abuse drugs also generally performed poorly on the task. 

    “With so many people around the world using social media, it’s critical for us to understand its use,” lead study author Dar Meshi, an assistant professor at Michigan State University, said in a press release. “I believe that social media has tremendous benefits for individuals, but there’s also a dark side when people can’t pull themselves away. We need to better understand this drive so we can determine if excessive social media use should be considered an addiction.”

    Meshi added that with one-third of people on the planet using social media, researchers and health care providers need to better understand the ways this can affect health and social functioning. 

    “Our findings will hopefully motivate the field to take social media overuse seriously,” Meshi said. 

    People with substance use disorders are known for not making the best decisions, something that was also found in people who used social media heavily. 

    Meshi explained, “Decision-making is oftentimes compromised in individuals with substance use disorders. They sometimes fail to learn from their mistakes and continue down a path of negative outcomes. But no one previously looked at this behavior as it relates to excessive social media users, so we investigated this possible parallel between excessive social media users and substance abusers. While we didn’t test for the cause of poor decision-making, we tested for its correlation with problematic social media use.”

    In the study, authors concluded that the results could change how we as a society perceive and potentially treat excessive social media use. 

    “Our results have important societal implications,” they wrote. “Taking this into consideration, our current finding, which demonstrates a behavioral similarity between excessive [social media] use and substance use and behavioral addictive disorders, can influence the beliefs and practices of policy makers, therapists, and tech industry leaders.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Are Young People Who Self-Harm More Likely To Commit Violent Crimes?

    Are Young People Who Self-Harm More Likely To Commit Violent Crimes?

    A new study examined whether adolescents who self-harm have a higher risk of hurting others. 

    New research has determined that a predilection for self-harm in adolescence and early adulthood may also foretell a risk for harming others. Data culled from a long-term study on twins from preschool age until their early 20s suggested that individuals who reported harming themselves were three times more likely to commit violent crimes than those that did not.

    Negative experiences during childhood, including mistreatment and low self-control, appeared to increase the odds of a self-harmer becoming a “dual harmer,” as the study labeled such individuals, as well as developing a dependency on alcohol and/or drugs.

    “We know that some individuals who self-harm also inflict harm on others,” said study author Leah Richmond-Rakerd of Duke University. “What has not been clear is whether there are early-life characteristics or experiences that increase the risk of violent offending among individuals who self-harm.” 

    The results of the study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, examined data compiled on more than 2,200 twins born in the United Kingdom between 1994 and 1995 who took part in the Environmental (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, which examined childhood behavior disorders in its subjects between the ages of five and 18.

    Beginning at age 18, the E-Risk study asked participants to report any experience with self-harm since the age of 12 as well as violent behaviors and any criminal records accrued between the ages of 10 and 22. Additional childhood experiences, including family psychiatry, maltreatment and low self-control, were also reviewed for the study.

    Of the 2,049 participants in the study, 13.4% met the criteria for self-harm, while 19.4% matched criteria for violent crime. Among the individuals who presented as dual harmers, there were higher incidents of low self-control and maltreatment; as US News and World Report noted, genetics and family history did not appear to impact the likelihood of self-harm or dual harm.

    “Our study suggests that dual-harming adolescents have experienced self-control difficulties and been victims of violence from a young age,” said Richmond-Rakerd. Other clinical characteristics exhibited by dual harmers included “higher lethality behaviors,” such as hanging or drowning, and acts of self-aggression, such as hitting themselves with objects or banging their heads against a wall and aggression towards others. Self-harmers, by comparison, appeared to engage in lower-lethality methods like cutting.

    Dual harmers also appeared to have a greater chance of exhibiting psychotic symptoms and meeting criteria for drug or alcohol dependency. As Richmond-Rakerd noted, early determination of the chance of dual harm behavior among self-harming young people through a “treatment-oriented, rather than punishment-oriented approach” could “guide interventions that prevent and reduce interpersonal violence.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Depression Changes How We Use Language

    Depression Changes How We Use Language

    Researchers studied an online forum for mental health issues to examine how people with symptoms of depression used language.

    Depression can change both the content and style of the language that people use, according to a study published in the journal of Clinical Psychological Science. 

    The study compared the use of language in online forums dedicated to addressing depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation. It found that absolutist words — like never, always, completely and nothing — were 50% more frequent in forums dealing with depression than in control forums. In groups for people with suicidal ideation, absolutist language was 80% higher than in control groups, according to JSTOR Daily. 

    “Absolutist thinking is considered a cognitive distortion by most cognitive therapies for anxiety and depression,” study authors wrote. 

    However, the increased use of absolutist language wasn’t limited to people who are currently clinically depressed. 

    “We found elevated levels of absolutist words in depression recovery forums. This suggests that absolutist thinking may be a vulnerability factor,” study authors wrote. 

    The use of absolutist words was more closely connected to depression than the use of negative words like “sad,” “frustrated” or “upset.” However, people in the depression forums did use these negative words more frequently than people in the control forums, according to JSTOR. 

    Another interesting finding, which had been previously identified, is that people with depression were more likely to use first-person singular pronouns and less likely to use third-person pronouns. This could suggest that people with depression are isolated or focused on themselves. Which pronouns someone uses can predict the presence of depression more reliably than negative words, according to one study. 

    “We know that rumination (dwelling on personal problems) and social isolation are common features of depression,” Mohammed Al-Mosaiwi wrote for JSTOR. “However, we don’t know whether these findings reflect differences in attention or thinking style. Does depression cause people to focus on themselves, or do people who focus on themselves get symptoms of depression?”

    Last year, researchers developed an algorithm that could predict depression by evaluating a person’s speech or texts. 

    Tuka Alhanai, first author of the paper outlining the technology, told MIT News that in the future it could be an important diagnostic tool.

    “We call it ‘context-free’ because you’re not putting any constraints into the types of questions you’re looking for and the type of responses to those questions,” Alhanai said. “If you want to deploy [depression-detection] models in a scalable way … you want to minimize the amount of constraints you have on the data you’re using. You want to deploy it in any regular conversation and have the model pick up, from the natural interaction, the state of the individual.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Are Kids With Depression Who Play Football At Higher Risk For Concussions?

    Are Kids With Depression Who Play Football At Higher Risk For Concussions?

    Researchers investigated whether kids with depression who play the contact sport are at a higher risk of suffering a concussion.

    Kids who suffer concussions while playing football may be at a greater risk of depression than others, Time reported.

    Published in The Journal of Pediatrics, the research squares with previous studies concluding that depression is an “all-too-common symptom of concussions,” as young athletes and retired NFL players alike struggle with mental health issues following brain injuries sustained on the football field. 

    Time, however, turned the situation on its head by asking if kids diagnosed with depression who play football are somehow more susceptible to suffering concussions than others their age.

    Surprisingly, new research on the matter says yes, as children who have been previously diagnosed with depression have a “five-fold increased risk” of suffering concussions.

    The new study collected data on 863 youth football players (aged 5 to 14) in the Seattle area across two separate seasons. Interestingly, researchers found that 5.1% of those football players suffered concussions — a trend well above the 4.4% range tracked in previous studies. Also, only 16 of the 863 players had been diagnosed with depression (0.02%). 

    Regardless, researchers felt that their odds of suffering a concussion was “statistically significant” and would color many parents’ decisions to allow their kids to participate in the sport.

    Dr. Sara Chrisman, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of adolescent medicine, argued that children with a history of depression are far more inclined to notice concussion symptoms (fatigue and nausea) than other kids. In other words, children who have already been diagnosed with depression are more likely to understand their symptoms, which might underscore the higher rate of reported concussions. 

    “Often people with mental health issues are very in tune with uncomfortableness in their bodies,” said Chrisman. “They’re more likely to be aware of changes. What’s not as distressing to someone else, might be distressing to them.”

    Additionally, Chrisman noted that prior research has linked depression and risky behavior — especially in young men. “In general, depression makes people want to crawl into a hole,” Chrisman said. “But depression is expressed differently in different people.” 

    Adolescents with a history of depression might play football more aggressively than others, Chrisman suggested, which puts them at a much higher risk for suffering a concussion. Conversely, children who act aggressively are more likely to visit a psychologist, increasing the odds of a depression diagnosis. 

    Still, while all signs point to a clear connection between concussions and depression, further research needs to be conducted before any definitive conclusions can be made on the subject. “To our knowledge, depression history has not been previously reported as a risk factor for concussions in a prospective manner,” the researchers wrote in their study. 

    But it’s not all doom and gloom for children wanting to participate in football. “In general, we found that kids weren’t going back to play football until they’ve recovered from their concussions,” Chrisman observed, noting that many schools, parents and doctors have been effectively working together to ensure their kids’ well-being. “That hasn’t been true in some prior studies. Some systems in place are working.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Have Depression Or Anxiety? There May Be Health Risks Down The Line

    Have Depression Or Anxiety? There May Be Health Risks Down The Line

    A new study examined whether people with depression/anxiety could be at higher risks of future health problems.

    Could struggling with depression and anxiety put you at risk for more health issues down the road? According to Forbes, new research points to yes.  

    A recent study determined that those with depression/anxiety could be at the same or higher risk level for future health problems as smokers or those who are overweight.

    The study examined data from the Health and Retirement Study, which included the health data of 15,000 older US adults over four years. Of those, 16% reported high levels of depression and anxiety, 31% were considered obese and 14% were smokers. 

    In comparing individuals with anxiety and depression to those without, researchers found that those with depression and/or anxiety had a 65% higher risk of heart conditions, a 64% higher risk for stroke and a 50% higher risk of high blood pressure. Especially high was the increased risk of arthritis, at 87%. 

    Lead study author Aoife O’Donovan of the UCSF Department of Psychiatry says these odds are in line with individuals who smoke or are overweight.

    “These increased odds are similar to those of participants who are smokers or are obese,” he said, according to Forbes. “However, for arthritis, high anxiety and depression seem to confer higher risks than smoking and obesity.”


    Researchers also discovered connections between depression/anxiety and more mild health issues like back pain, stomach pain and shortness of breath. Headaches were 161% higher in those with depression and/or anxiety in comparison to those who were smokers or obese.

    However, the study did not find any links between depression and anxiety and cancer. 

    “Our findings are in line with a lot of other studies showing that psychological distress is not a strong predictor of many types of cancer,” O’Donovan tells Forbes. “On top of highlighting that mental health matters for a whole host of medical illnesses, it is important that we promote these null findings. We need to stop attributing cancer diagnoses to histories of stress, depression and anxiety.”

    A possible limitation of this study, according to Forbes, is that the data used came from self-assessments of individuals versus clinical assessments. 

    “The methodology in this case relied on in-depth interviews and other survey methods, but the results are still observational, not clinical,” Forbes states.

    As these findings are in line with other past studies, researchers are reiterating the importance of mental health care. 

    “Anxiety and depression symptoms are strongly linked to poor physical health,” the study’s first author, Andrea Niles said, according to Forbes. “Yet these conditions continue to receive limited attention in primary care settings, compared to smoking and obesity.”

    View the original article at thefix.com