Individuals who are studied were previously members of the 500 Family Study, which studies families living in eight urban and suburban communities in the United States. The parents in the families included on the study have professional occupations, work longer and have higher earnings than average workers in the United States.
Analysis shows that working mothers spent more time multitasking compared to working fathers, with 48.3 in women and only 38.9 in men. That’s 10 more hours staying on work. But what’s more important is the experience. While men report that they enjoyed work when they had to do multitasking, women report negative emotions like stress and feelings of conflict both at home and work.
What’s more, mothers are more likely to multitask and do labor-intensive work like housework and childcare. Fathers multitask on activities like conversations or self care. Such disparity of work makes multitasking harder to women, and therefore they are likely to harbor negative thoughts. Also, activities assigned to mothers like house care and childcare are more exposed to public and therefore subject to outside scrutiny.
The study dispels the notion that women are ultimate multitaskers, able to juggle work, childcare and homecare with ease. In fact, the study shows multitasking moms experience much more stress and conflicted compared to men. Researchers recommended that men do more domestic jobs, like helping take care of the children and house work. Businesses and employers can help, for example, by granting working fathers early leave on work or start it late and limit homework, so they could take care of the family.
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Filed under Mental Health by on Jan 27th, 2012. Comment. 
This conclusion comes from the study of researchers based in Stanford University in California, U.S after studying 27 adolescents aged 13 to 18 years diagnosed with type I BD with symptoms of mania during the last 12 months who were matched with 24 healthy controls of similar age, ethnicity and gender.
The participants, along with their parents, were made to complete a questionnaire that assesses their sleep. Mood is measured using Young Mania Rating Scale and Childhood Depression Rating Scale.
Results shows that adolescents with BD suffer from longer onset of time needed to fall asleep and more frequent nighttime awakening during weekdays. This problem is not present on healthy controls, and researchers suggest that this finding maybe used to accurately identify youths with bipolar disorder.
Detecting and identifying bipolar disorders in young children had been challenging for decades, because youths elicit symptoms that are different from adults. For example, moods of affected adolescents may change several times a day, or even elicit both mania and depression at the same time. Bipolar disorders compounded with depression, ADHD and disruptive behavior problems are not unheard of, and they commonly occur in young people.
The condition itself is controversial in children, because of its rising diagnosis among children in the United States. Recent research says that at least 2 percent of children in the country have the disorder.
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Filed under Bipolar Disorder, Mental Illness by on Jan 27th, 2012. Comment.
Pathological gambling has long been associated with psychiatric diagnoses in several studies, but was limited to patients with concurrent problems like alcohol abuse, mood and personality disorders. The Spanish study is the first one to explore the relationship between psychotic disorders and problem gambling.
The current study recruited one hundred individuals 18 years old and above who are admitted to a psychiatric unit in a hospital. All were matched to a hundred age-and-gender matched healthy controls with no psychiatric illness. They are investigated for prevalence of gambling problems and presence of psychiatric illness.
The found psychiatric illnesses are as follows: 45% had mood disorders, 35% psychotic disorders, 3% anxiety and 3% personality disorders. The rest had adjustments and eating disorders. Their gambling behavior was assessed using National Opinion Research Center DSM-IV Screen for Gambling Problems (NODS) which establishes levels of severity, risk and presence of pathologic gambling.
It is found out that those who are admitted at the psychiatric unit had more numbers of individuals with pathological gambling (17 percent) compared to the controls (just 3 percent). There is no good difference between people who are in the psychiatric unit but don’t have illness and controls.
This experiment that proved higher prevalence of problem gambling among psychiatric persons is the first of its kind. Researchers said that if larger study is conducted, will lead to better understanding between pathological gambling and psychiatric disorders. In addition, it will help in the development of therapies that will solve such problem.
Spain has more than forty large-scale casinos, majority of them are privately-operated. Casinos are not legal until 1977, until that time only state-run lotteries are permitted. Recently, the country has experienced rapid growth of online gambling.
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Filed under Mental Health, Mental Illness by on Jan 27th, 2012. Comment.
Methamphetamine is psychostimulant drug, illicit but widespread in many countries, that mainly exerts effects like increased alertness, euphoria, self-esteem and libido among users. The usual administration of the drug is to turn crystals into vapor for inhalation. But injecting the drug is becoming more common, because of quicker effects.
The finding comes from a study of more than 1,800 individuals, a significant number in terms of research. The participants were coaxed into joining the study because they received $20 after each visit. Drug use patterns, usage, presence of mental health problems and suicidal tendencies and HIV risky behaviors were gathered and assessed.
In need of Suicide monitoring
Analysis of results shows that at eight percent (8) of participants reported at least one suicide attempt. Those who appear at risk are often younger in age, females and “aboriginal” according to researchers. Both frequent and infrequent users are at increased risk compared to those who do not inject the drug. Because of the figures, researchers recommend that injected methamphetamine users should be placed under suicide monitoring.
Those participants who use injected heroin or cocaine do not appear to be at risk.
What makes injected meth users at risk?
Researchers note that injected meth users do have factors that make them different from cocaine, heroin and even same meth users that tend to snort the drug. Those who inject methamphetamine are:
- More addicted or dependent to methamphetamine compared to those who snort the drug
- Even though they are at more risk for overdose compared to ‘snorters’, it is likely to be non-fatal
- Injectors experience greater social stigma
- Those who inject methamphetamine are likely to have other psychiatric disorders
These factors makes injected amphetamine users more socially isolated and have poorer social support systems – good indicators of suicide risk.
Researchers recommend that substance-abuse treatment institutions also include suicide prevention programs. A community based setting can ease access to drug addicts who want to seek help and rehabilitation.
The study is published in this month’s issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
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Filed under Drug Abuse, Mental Illness by on Jan 23rd, 2012. Comment.
