(HealthDay)—A global study about what men and women want in a mate seems to confirm—to a point—long-established stereotypes.
Men still go for looks—in general they said their preference is for a partner who is younger and physically attractive. Women said they’d prefer an older partner who’s ambitious and has good financial prospects.
The researchers, from the University of Texas at Austin, explained that these responses, which came from 10,000 participants in 33 countries, can probably be traced back to the respective mating challenges men and women faced throughout the course of human evolution.
On a more positive note, both sexes do gravitate toward some of the same less superficial traits—a pleasant disposition, good social skills, and similar politics and religious beliefs.
Another study with an international team of researchers found that men and women approach relationships in another similar way: They’re both influenced by deal breakers, or perceived negative traits, and deal makers, the traits that they find most appealing.
Both sexes process these pros and cons simultaneously when they meet someone new and apply higher standards when considering someone for a long-term relationship. Also, deal breakers have a greater influence on choices than deal makers—it’s easier to be turned off by the negatives than to be turned on by the positives.
Deal breakers range from unhealthy—even dangerous—lifestyle habits like substance abuse to being too needy, lazy or unkempt. Deal makers include, not surprisingly, being attractive and having a solid career, but also being kind, smart and having a good sense of humor.
(HealthDay)—Millennials struggling with depression aren’t being helped by their use of Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat, a new study reports.
College students who meet the criteria for major depressive disorder tend to use social media more often and are more heavily addicted to social media, researchers found.
They’re also more likely to use social media in ways that exacerbate or highlight their depression, the study said.
For example, depressed young adults are more likely to compare themselves on social media to people who appear better off than them, said first author Anthony Robinson. He’s a research assistant in the psychology department at Texas State University.
Folks who post to Facebook or Instagram take pains to portray themselves in a flattering light, Robinson said.
“If people are making comparisons based on this inflated image that’s being presented, it can cause feelings of inferiority,” Robinson said.
Depressed young adults were also more likely to be bothered if tagged in an unflattering picture, less likely to post pictures of themselves with other people, and more likely to self-censor what they posted to avoid the judgment of others, results showed.
For the study, Robinson and his colleagues asked 504 undergraduates at Texas State to complete an online survey. The survey assessed their social media use and asked a variety of psychological questions.
Those with symptoms of depression reported behaviors like excessive sleeping, feelings of hopelessness and guilt, or a loss of pleasure in activities they used to enjoy, Robinson said.
About 16 percent of the students met the criteria for major depressive disorder, which Robinson said was an “extremely high” proportion.
Major depressive disorder affects nearly 7 percent of Americans 18 and older in any given year, according to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health. Young adults 18 to 25 are the age group most likely to have had a major depressive episode in 2016, around 11 percent.
The no-holds-barred, say-anything-without-consequences nature of social media could contribute to people feeling bad about themselves, Robinson said.
“If you’re spending more time on these platforms and you’re being trolled or cyberbullied, it’s going to have a negative effect on your psychological well-being,” Robinson said.
But because this was an observational study, the researchers can’t say in what direction the association between depression and social media works, noted Joseph McGuire, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. He was not involved with the study.
“Is it that people who tend to be on social media more then start to feel depressed, or is it that the people who are more depressed are more withdrawn and this is their only social contact?” McGuire asked.
“If I spend two hours a day, am I more likely to be a little bit down or depressed compared with someone who is only on 20 minutes a day? Or do I never go out because I’m depressed, but I still want that social contact, so I log on to social media?” he continued.
Another new study backs up these findings. Researchers found that people are more aware of their own physical ailments if they tend to use Facebook a lot and frequently compare themselves to people apparently better off than themselves, according to findings in the January issue of the journal Heliyon.
College students who are feeling depressed should assess their own social media use, and either cut back or try to change their online behaviors if they are using the technology in ways linked to depression, Robinson said.
It wouldn’t hurt at all if they also sought counseling, McGuire said.
“There’s a lot of counseling centers available at academic centers. There’s that support there, and it’s intended to help kids who are struggling,” McGuire said. “Reaching out to a professional, even if you don’t think you have a problem, then you can at least start to have that dialogue.”
The new study was published Jan. 9 in the Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research.
Findings from a novel online questionnaire of people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) who rated their perceptions of care in a hospital’s emergency department suggest the majority of these patients do not receive proper care, say researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center.
The study, published in the journal Open Access Emergency Medicine, is the first known investigation of the presentation of CFS in the emergency department (ED). The findings highlight a profound lack of understanding of CFS by health care workers, says the study’s senior investigator, allergist and immunologist James N. Baraniuk, MD, a professor of medicine at Georgetown who treats people with CFS.
He says two-thirds of respondents report they either would not go to an ED because they believed they wouldn’t be taken seriously, or had previous unsatisfactory experiences. Only a third of patients in the survey said they received appropriate treatment in the ED.
“The high proportion of patients who were basically told ‘It is all in your head’ by ED staff indicates that there is much misunderstanding and misgivings about the diagnosis of CFS. These patients should feel they are respected and that they can receive thorough care when they feel sick enough to go to an ED,” he says.
Baraniuk says more training is needed for ED staff and physicians to better understand the disorder.
The 282 participants in the survey all had physician-diagnosed CFS. Participants were predominantly women (87 percent), educated (70 percent had at least a college degree), and had a primary care physician (93 percent).
From the survey, researchers determined that:
Only 59 percent of CFS patients had gone to an ED. In this group, 42 percent were dismissed as having psychosomatic complaints.
33 percent had symptoms consistent with a condition known as orthostatic intolerance, which occurs when a person feels faint when standing or sitting upright because not enough blood is reaching the brain and heart. The symptoms only improve when a person lies down.
CFS patients who went to the ED collectively rated caregivers’ knowledge about CFS at 3.6 on a 10-point scale.
41 percent of CFS respondents did not go to the ED when ill because they felt nothing could be done or they would not be taken seriously.
“An already-available CFS Symptom Severity Questionnaire can be used in the ED to assist with the diagnosis of CFS, and to differentiate exacerbations of CFS symptoms from medical emergencies such as heart attacks or infections,” Baraniuk says.
The number one reason for going to the ED was orthostatic intolerance.
“This is of importance because it provides a starting point for diagnosis and treatment by ED physicians,” Baraniuk says. “This condition is something that can be readily addressed by ED caregivers. There is a real need for physician education that will improve their efficiency in identifying and treating CFS and in distinguishing CFS symptoms from other diseases in the exam room.”
“We found that intolerance of exercise and intolerance to alcohol consumption were common to those diagnosed with CFS so this may help distinguish CFS from other conditions,” says study co-author Christian R. Timbol, MD, who worked with Baraniuk as a medical student before becoming an emergency medicine resident physician at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.
Chronic fatigue syndrome affects between 836,000 and 2.5 million Americans, according to a National Academy of Medicine review of over 9,000 articles covering 64 years of research.
This reviewers renamed the syndrome “Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease” to emphasize the disability, post exertional malaise or exhaustion that follows mild exertion, cognitive dysfunction and orthostatic intolerance (blood pressure and heart rate changes that cause dizziness) that are the salient features of the illness.
Many objects and people can convey an emotional meaning. A pair of wool socks, for example, has an emotional value if it was the last thing the grandmother knitted before her death. The same applies to words. The name of a stranger has no emotional value at first, but if a loving relationship develops, the same name suddenly has a positive connotation. Researchers at the University of Göttingen have investigated how the brain processes such stimuli, which can be positive or negative. The results were published in the journal Neuropsychologia.
The scientists from the Georg Elias Müller Institute for Psychology at the University of Göttingen analysed how people associate neutral signs, words and faces with emotional meaning. Within just a few hours, participants learn these connections through a process of systematic rewards and losses. For example, if they always receive money when they see a certain neutral word, this word acquires a positive association. However, if they lose money whenever they see a certain word, this leads to a negative association. The studies show that people learn positive associations much faster than neutral or negative associations: Something positive very quickly becomes associated with a word, or indeed, with the face of a person (as their recent research in Neuroimage has shown).
Using electroencephalography (EEG), the researchers also investigated how the brain processes the various stimuli. The brain usually determines whether an image or word is positive or negative after about 200 to 300 milliseconds. “Words associated with loss cause specific neuronal reactions in the visual cortex after just 100 milliseconds,” says Dr. Louisa Kulke, first author of the study. “So the brain distinguishes in a flash what a newly learned meaning the word has for us, especially if that meaning is negative.”
It also seems to make a difference whether the word is already known to the subject (like “chair” or “tree”) or whether it is a fictitious word that does not exist in the language (like “napo” or “foti”). Thus, the existing semantic meaning of a word seems to play a role in the emotions that we associate with that word.
University students who are Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) are at higher risk of self-harm and attempting suicide than their heterosexual counterparts, finds new research.
The study also shows that low self-esteem may explain the increased risk of self-harm in LGB students. Low self-esteem may result in LGB students who have faced discrimination or have struggled to accept or share their sexuality with others.
The study was carried out by a team at The University of Manchester, Leeds Beckett University, Lancaster University and Edith Cowan University in Australia, and is published in Archives of Suicide Research today.
Of the LGB students who completed an online questionnaire, 65% had carried out non suicidal self-harm over their lifetime compared to 41% of heterosexual students.
Self-harm typically includes behaviour such as cutting, hair pulling, scratching, burning or non-lethal overdoses.
And 35% of LGB students had attempted suicide in their lifetime compared to 14% of non-LGB students.
The study was completed by of 707 students with an average age of 23 from two English Universities of which 119 self-identified as LGB.
The study does not tell us, however, whether being at University increased the risk of self-harm in LGB people.
And it is not possible to compare the student sample with prevalence rates for non-suicidal self-injury and suicide attempts across the population as a whole.
Dr. Taylor said: “Surprisingly, there is little data on the psychological mechanisms that might explain the association between being lesbian, gay or bisexual, and self-harm in UK students. This data highlights how low self-esteem may leave some LGB students more at risk.
“Interestingly, anxiety and depressive symptoms did not appear to be important once self-esteem was taken into account.
He added: “So prevention and intervention efforts directed at these psychological mediators by Universities may help to reduce risks in this population.
“Universities are already doing a lot of good things in this area such as counselling and psychological support which is targeted at LGB people.
“And tackling discrimination and improving acceptance of LGB people through public policy and media campaigns may be helpful in reducing any impact on self-esteem.”
Dr. Elizabeth McDermott of Lancaster University said: “Young people’s mental health is a national concern and this study confirms that lesbian, gay or bisexual young people have elevated rates of suicidality and self-harm compared with heterosexual youth. We know much less about how LGB young people seek help for their mental health problems, or what type of support would be effective.”
The paper Psychological correlates of self-harm within gay, lesbian and bisexual UK University students, is published in Archives of Suicide Research.
A Michigan CEO’s reply to his employee’s sick day email has gone viral.
Madalyn Parker, a web developer at Olark Live Chat, emailed her colleagues at the end of June to let them know she’d be taking two days off to focus on her mental health.
“Hopefully I’ll be back next week refreshed and back to 100%” Parker wrote in the email.
In an unexpected turn of events, CEO Ben Congleton replied directly to Parker, thanking her for shining a light on mental health.
“I use (your email) as a reminder of the importance of using sick days for mental health – I can’t believe this is not standard practice at all organizations,” Congleton wrote.
“You are an example to us all, and help cut through the stigma so we can all bring our whole selves to work.”
Parker went on to share screengrabs of the email exchange on Twitter. The tweet, posted on June 30, has since been retweeted more than 11,000 times as of Tuesday.
When the CEO responds to your out of the office email about taking sick leave for mental health and reaffirms your decision. ? pic.twitter.com/6BvJVCJJFq
Congleton was praised by some Twitter users for the refreshing response.
“Great to see such understanding from executive management,” one Twitter user wrote.
The CEO took the email exchange a step further, writing about mental health in the workplace on Medium.
He urged other company leaders to “empower and motivate” their teams by “expressing gratitude” to their employees and reflecting on their business values.
A new South Carolina law requires all police officers to be trained on how to de-escalate situations involving people with mental illnesses.
The Criminal Justice Academy in Columbia has a 4.5-hour class dedicated to covering the topic of mental health. The cadets are taught how to pick up on cues from a person that may be mentally ill, de-escalate the situation and get that person to communicate with them.
“We want to see how they interact with someone who may be having a mental episode to see if they are articulating correctly and if their communication skills are on par,” former academy instructor Major Florence McCants told Fox News.
Patrolman Jacob Meyers said that’s an area he struggled in during training.
“If they are not in the same state of mind that they are usually in getting that personal communication can be difficult,” he said.
Bill Lindsey, the executive director of The National Alliance on Mental Illness (N.A.M.I.) South Carolina, said he has worked with the Criminal Justice Academy since 2004, when mental health training was on voluntary basis.
“We really think that the more officers that are trained the better outcome we will have there,” Lindsey said.
At least 25 states and the District of Columbia have laws requiring officers to be trained to respond to mental health, substance use and behavioral disorder issues. Training varies from state-to-state. In South Carolina, cadets are taught during their 12 weeks at academy training.
Experts believe having cadets go through various training scenarios also helps them to understand and implement safety techniques during situations where mentally ill individuals may become violent.
“Ninety percent of the time when someone is in psychosis they are terrified," Lindsey said. "They are terrified of authority and so there is either a fight-or-flight mentality, that you want to get away from the situation.”
Now that the training is mandatory, officers who have graduated can do the 2-4-hour training course online. To maintain their certification, they are also required to have 40 hours of in-service-training every three years.
Terace Garnier is a Fox News multimedia reporter based in Columbia, South Carolina. Follow her on twitter: @TeraceGarnier
There are a lot of misconceptions out there about major depressive disorder (MDD). Some think that depressed people merely need a change of heart, choosing to think happy thoughts instead of sad ones. Others think that depression results from chemical imbalances in the brain, not entirely untrue. However, MDD has a complexity well beyond these ideas, pushing scientists to find more innovative ways for treating depression.
Software Treatment
Recently, one group of researchers decided to try a treatment with a new angle. Their method, called the Emotional Faces Memory Task (EFMT), was developed by two researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
To test this method, the researchers asked patients to identify emotions in a series of faces. At each face, the patients also pointed out all previous faces that gave them the same emotion. For ease of use, doctors can give the treatment through an app on a patient engagement platform that has a clinically proven efficacy, called the Click Neurobehavioral Intervention.
While it sounds simple, EFMT aims to balance the hyperactive amygdala with the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that makes decisions about incoming information.
During the testing phase, patients using EFMT actually reduced their symptoms by over 40 percent! The control group’s symptoms had only reduced 15 percent, giving little doubt to researchers about the new method’s effectiveness. According to lead researcher Dr. Brian Iacoviello, this treatment works just as well as drug therapy and provides a much safer, unobtrusive route for the treatment.
Understanding depression starts with the underlying causes and physical reactions that scientists have observed over the years. Depression holds so much complexity because millions of chemical messages control a person’s mood. While they may not understand every nuance of a specific case, researchers can observe the physical changes.
First, you should understand that your body controls emotions through the brain. In people with depression, the condition directly affects the amygdala, thalamus, and hippocampus regions.
According to Harvard Medical School, researchers now believe that nerve cell generation and function play an important role in MDD. In animal studies, researchers have seen that antidepressants do cause nerve cell growth and improve nerve connections. That fact means that researchers are likely on the right track.
Another observation involves the amygdala, the portion of the brain associated with emotions. Here, scientists have discovered that depressed people have a hyperactivity in this region. This hyperactivity means that they dwell and act on emotions more often than is healthy.
In essence, they do not regulate their emotions well. These new studies are demonstrating and pushing the need for improved methods of treating depression.
Common Treatments for Depression
Outside of this new software treatment, people with depression can use a few other methods. Most require close oversight from a doctor and do include risks and varying levels of efficiency. In alternative treatments, people often respond differently to each kind and may need high determination to find the right one.
Antidepressants
Many people with clinical depression use medication to manage their emotions. The downside to antidepressants, however, is that they target and boost the chemical messages in the brain.
Eventually, this process may improve nerve function and mood, but it can take several weeks. In addition, the medicine can have mild to severe side effects and may even increase suicidal thoughts in some people.
Otherwise known as psychological counseling, patients can go to a mental health professional to talk through their emotions. In this option, the professional can help patients get through the root cause of their depression. They can learn to control their emotions. Again, people will respond differently based on their willingness and level of depression.
So far, people commonly use antidepressants and counseling to get through severe depression. These methods can have varying levels of efficiency and safety and don’t always address the root physical causes. While some people do try alternative and lifestyle treatments like taking supplements, these methods need more proven research. Depression sufferers need treatment now that helps them balance and control their emotions. Thanks to the innovative research from Mount Sinai, these people may soon have another path for treating their depression.
Dr. Manny Alvarez serves as Fox News Channel’s senior managing health editor. He also serves as chairman of the department of obstetrics/gynecology and reproductive science at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. Click here for more information on Dr. Manny’s work with Hackensack University Medical Center. Visit AskDrManny.com for more.
Actor Nelsan Ellis, who was well-known for his starring role on HBO’s “True Blood,” died Saturday at age 39 from heart failure, which his family claims was a result of his withdrawal from alcohol.
Ellis’ family released a statement to The Hollywood Reporther through the actor’s manager revealing his struggle with alcohol and drug abuse. His father said that after "many stints" in rehab, Ellis had attempted to withdraw from alcohol on his own, which led to a blood infection. According to their statement, Ellis’ liver was swollen, his blood pressure plummeted and his heart raced out of control.
The family said he was hospitalized for four days before his death.
The devastating effects of heavy alcohol use on cardiovascular health are well-documented. In February, University of College London researchers conducted a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association that found heavy drinking is linked to worse heart health in both the short and long term.
“Arterial stiffness is an important indicator of cardiovascular aging and is known to be strongly associated with cardiovascular disease and related mortality,” lead author Darragh O’Neill of University College London said, according to Reuters.
O’Neill added that stiff-walled arteries are strongly related to high blood pressure and coronary artery disease, as well as other harmful illnesses. To reach these conclusions, researchers studied 4,000 British government employees who were originally recruited between 1985 and 1988.
The study participants were asked to report their drinking habits every four to five years, with researchers measuring for arterial stiffness starting between 2007 and 2009. The study found higher rates of heavy drinking among the male participants compared to female, as well as higher rates of stiffer arteries.
Additionally, those who drank heavily more consistently had higher initial measures of arterial stiffness than those who drank moderately, Reuters reported. Those who were once heavy drinkers showed greater increase in arterial stiffness compared with consistently moderate drinkers.
Researchers also noted that the men who were heavy drinkers were the only group to experience a significantly accelerated change in arterial stiffness.
“The most important implication is that long-term consistently-heavy drinking can lead to increased risk of stiffened arteries, particularly amongst males, but also that male former drinkers are at risk of accelerated rates of arterial stiffness compared to moderate drinkers in early old age,” O’Neill told Reuters.
And while some may consider heart health a key motivator in giving up alcohol, the American Addiction Centers warns against cutting it of “cold turkey” without a medical supervisor present.
“Alcohol withdrawal can be fatal, as the brain and central nervous system experience a rebound after being suppressed by alcohol respectively for an extended period of time,” according to the organization. “Sudden removal of the central nervous system depressant can be life-threatening.”
Police in Indiana reported that 11 teenagers became ill and had to be hospitalized after they consumed gummy bears reportedly laced with THC, a substance associated with and found in marijuana.
La Porte County Police said they are investigating the incident after they received a call asking for medical assistance, according to WNDU. When police arrived at the home, they found a 19 year-old man outside the residence.
“The male told Deputy Phillips that he had ingested an unknown type drug and was ill and wanted to go to the emergency room,” a press release from the La Porte County Sheriff’s Office stated.
The young man said his friends, who were at a house nearby, also consumed the drug.
Police were able to locate the home where they discovered the other male and female teenagers, aged between 18 to 19-years-old.
“All complained of rapid heart rate, pain in their legs and blurred vision; several were suffering from hallucinations,” police said.
The parents of a Pennsylvania girl who overdosed on heroin are hoping to help others struggling with drug addiction by sharing their daughter’s poem about her battle in her obituary.
Delaney Farrell, of Selinsgrove, died last Saturday, five years after she was introduced to heroin. She was found dead inside a hotel bathroom in Williamsport, according to WNEP.
In her obituary, Farrell’s parents described their daughter as "funny," someone who loved to "always make a joke" and eat dozens of Oreo cookies.
"Delaney would also write in her journals or on just random pieces of paper; some were private but some she would share," the obituary read. The obituary included a poem Farrell had sent to her sister about her struggle to overcome her drug addiction.
"Funny, I don’t remember no good dope days. I remember walking for miles in a dope fiend haze," the poem read.
She continued to say everything she remembered, from her "sisters cry and [her] dad having to break down the door," to "shooting up in the bathroom and falling out at the park."
Farrell described the guilt she felt while she was using drugs, "remember only causing pain, destruction and harm."
"I remember constantly obsessing over my next score but what I remember most is getting down on my knees and asking God to save me cuz I don’t want to do this no more !!!" Farrell wrote at the end of the poem.
Bridget Farrell, her mother, told WNEP that she wanted to share her daughter’s poem about the struggles with drug addiction in hopes that it could help someone going through the same situation.
"If it could help even just one person it would be worth it. What do you think she would have said? She definitely would have wanted me to do it," Farrell told the news station.
"That’s what she was going through and that’s what was going through her mind and that was her life at the time," she added.
Retired Army Captain Karen-Nicole “Cole” Knapper spent more than a decade fighting for freedom, with her first combat tour coming just six weeks after 9/11. In total, Knapper served four combat tours overseas, including serving as a company commander while deployed in Afghanistan. During her service she earned the Bronze Star Medal in 2002 as corporal, and again in 2010 as a company commander. Knapper was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in both 2010 and 2012.
But medals are not the only reminders Knapper has of her time spent overseas. She is one of the 11 to 20 percent of post 9/11 veterans who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“I did my first combat tour six weeks after 9/11,” Knapper told Fox News. “I deployed to the Middle East, things were obviously very crazy, but it really wasn’t until my last tour of duty which was in 2009, when I was a company commander – that one was the most traumatic.”
Knapper said she continues to live with the experiences and pain from PTSD. One memory of a visit to eastern Afghanistan is particularly troubling for the retired officer.
“There was one evening when I was out visiting some of my soldiers, some of my troops in eastern Afghanistan,” Knapper said. “I couldn’t sleep, I made my way to the infirmary. When I walked in there was this horrible screaming. There was this woman who, both of her arms had been broken.”
Knapper said she remembers the woman’s husband standing right near her as doctors worked to address the compound fractures and bone sticking out from the wounds.
“For me, that’s an image I can’t get out of my mind,” she said. “And I think it’s because it really just brought to the forefront, violence against women. You know, you hear about it, but to see it… it’s the hardest thing.”
Knapper, who is a doctoral candidate at Columbia University in instructional technology and media, receives both individual and group therapy for PTSD, including psychotherapy and psychiatry. Her treatment includes cognitive therapy and a regiment of Zoloft and vitamin therapy.
“There’s this idea that just because you’re a veteran, that you’re just crazy,” Knapper said. “I think that there needs to be more support. There’s not enough.”
