Don’t worry, be happy: How excessive worrying may influence the rate of neurodegeneration

Wor­ry­ing and the Aging Brain (Dana Foun­da­tion): Over the past decade, sci­en­tists and clin­i­cians have not­ed a sig­nif­i­cant asso­ci­a­tion between com­mon men­tal health con­di­tions and accel­er­at­ed brain aging—the changes to brain struc­ture, phys­i­ol­o­gy, and func­tion that are thought to lead to lat­er cog­ni­tive decline. Both depres­sion and anx­i­ety dis­or­ders, for exam­ple, are strong­ly cor­re­lat­ed with…

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Study finds psychiatric diagnoses to be ‘scientifically meaningless’

__________ Psy­chi­atric diag­no­sis ‘sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly mean­ing­less’ (Sci­ence Dai­ly): “A new study, pub­lished in Psy­chi­a­try Research, has con­clud­ed that psy­chi­atric diag­noses are sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly worth­less as tools to iden­ti­fy dis­crete men­tal health dis­or­ders. The study, led by researchers from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Liv­er­pool, involved a detailed analy­sis of five key chap­ters of the lat­est edi­tion of the wide­ly used…

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Time to rethink Mental Health, especially anxiety disorders and depression

The glob­al men­tal health cri­sis could cost the world $16 tril­lion by 2030. With men­tal dis­or­ders on the rise in every coun­try in the world, nowhere is immune. Poor men­tal health stops employ­ees from reach­ing their full poten­tial and forces them to take more sick days, stunt­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and eco­nom­ic growth. This is also a…

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Q: What do people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety have in common? A: A brain with similar gray-matter loss

. Dif­fer­ent men­tal dis­or­ders cause same brain-mat­ter loss, study finds (press release): “A meta-ana­ly­­sis of 193 brain-imag­ing stud­ies shows sim­i­lar gray-mat­ter loss in the brains of peo­ple with diag­noses as dif­fer­ent as schiz­o­phre­nia, depres­sion and addiction…The find­ings call into ques­tion a long­stand­ing ten­den­cy to dis­tin­guish psy­chi­atric dis­or­ders chiefly by their symp­toms rather than their underlying…

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Study: Long-term use of anxiety and sleeping pills can increase Alzheimer’s risk

Anx­i­ety and sleep­ing pills ‘linked to demen­tia’ (BBC): “A study of old­er Cana­di­an adults found that past ben­zo­di­azepine use for three months or more was linked to an increased risk (up to 51%) of dementia…Benzodiazepines are used to treat anx­i­ety dis­or­ders and insom­nia. Dr James Pick­ett, head of research at the Alzheimer’s Soci­ety, said 

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