Tag • #depression

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Touch can reduce pain, depression and anxiety, say researchers

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Monday, 8 April - 15:00

More consensual touch helps ease or buffer against mental and physical complaints, meta-analysis shows

Whether it is a hug from a friend or the caress of a weighted blanket, the sensation of touch appears to bring benefits for the body and mind, researchers say.

The sense of touch is the first to develop in babies and is crucial in allowing us to experience the environment around us as well as communicate. Indeed, the loss of touch from others during the Covid pandemic hit many hard.

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Living with my depressed husband is ripping me apart. What can I do? | | Ask Annalisa Barbieri

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Friday, 29 March - 14:30

I have sympathy for him, but I’m concerned by the pressure on you. You deserve to be happy, and cannot do all the emotional work for both of you
• Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a family-related problem sent in by a reader

I am in my mid- 30s and have been with my husband, who is 10 years older than me, since I was a teenager .

I felt very loved, at least for much of our time together. A couple of years ago, however, things changed .

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Silver Haze review – memory-haunted portrait of scarred, damaged lives

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 27 March - 11:00 · 1 minute

Vicky Knight plays a nurse injured in a fire who falls in love with a patient in Sacha Polak’s sombre, thoughtful drama

Here is a tough drama of damaged lives which reunites director Sacha Polak with lead performer Vicky Knight, the star of her 2019 film Dirty God . Knight has spoken with courage about her own childhood experiences of being scarred in a pub fire in London and this film draws on her life, both in terms of her survivor’s story and her adult existence; like her character, she has worked in healthcare.

Knight plays Franky, a nurse haunted by memories of the blaze that injured her, and also by her unresolved feelings about her errant dad who ran out on the family when she was little. Franky falls in love with a troubled patient called Florence (Esmé Creed-Miles), who has tried to take her own life. Franky’s own home life with her sister and mother is complex and difficult and although Franky and Florence have their vulnerability and loneliness in common, she finds herself drawn into something approaching a quasi-daughter relationship with Florence’s caring foster mum Alice, as the relationship begins to disintegrate; this is a wise and warm performance from Angela Bruce.

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The debilitating impact of tinnitus, and how a new app could help – podcast

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Thursday, 29 February - 05:00

It’s thought that about 15% of us are affected by tinnitus, and despite its potentially debilitating impact on mental health and quality of life, there isn’t any cure for the condition. Madeleine Finlay speaks to John, who has used CBT techniques to learn to live well with his tinnitus, and Dr Lucy Handscomb, a tinnitus researcher who is involved in trialling a new app that could hold promise for sufferers.

• In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978

Find out more about the support available via Tinnitus UK

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People in 20s more likely to be out of work because of ill health than those in early 40s

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Sunday, 25 February - 23:51

Resolution Foundation report calls for action as number of young people experiencing poor mental health increases

Young people are more likely to be out of work because of ill health than people in their early 40s, a report calling for action on Britain’s mental wellbeing crisis has found.

People in their early 20s with mental health problems may have not had access to a steady education and can end up out of work or in low-paid jobs, the Resolution Foundation research revealed.

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The Finnish miracle: how the country halved its suicide rate – and saved countless lives

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Thursday, 22 February - 14:00

It is now often known as the ‘world’s happiest country’, but Finland used to have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. From alcohol to antidepressants, here are the changes that made the difference

“Now he’s died,” said his mother’s voice down the phone. Instantly, Jaakko Teittinen knew that what he had feared for years had happened: his older brother, Tuomas, had taken his own life. He was 33.

In a state of shock, Jaakko left work to join his mother at Linnanmäki, a theme park in Helsinki, where she was spending the day with Tuomas’s two children, who lived in foster care and had no idea what had just happened. While his mother started to make arrangements, he went on the rides with his brother’s children, trying not to give away what was on his mind.

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AI companion robot helps some seniors fight loneliness, but others hate it

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 12 December - 00:00 · 1 minute

Enlarge / ElliQ, an AI companion robot from Intuition Robotics. (credit: ElliQ )

Some seniors in New York are successfully combating their loneliness with an AI-powered companion robot named ElliQ—while others called the "proactive" device a nag and joked about taking an ax to it.

The home assistant robot, made by Israel-based Intuition Robotics, is offered to New York seniors through a special program through the state's Office for the Aging (NYSOFA). Over the past year, NYSOFA has partnered with Intuition Robotics to bring ElliQ to over 800 seniors struggling with loneliness. In a report last week, officials said they had given out hundreds and had only 150 available devices .

ElliQ includes a tablet and a two-piece lamp-like robot with a head that lights up and rotates to face a speaker. Marketed as powered by " Cognitive AI technology ," it proactively engages in conversations with users, giving them reminders and prompts, such as asking them how they're doing, telling them it's time to check their blood pressure or take their medicine, and asking if they want to have a video call with family. Speaking with a female voice, the robot is designed to hold human-like conversations, engage in small talk, express empathy, and share humor. It can provide learning and wellness programs, such as audiobooks and relaxation exercises.

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Minister warned about mental pressure of benefits system after applicant kills himself

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Saturday, 18 November - 10:00

Coroner issues report to work and pensions chief, Mel Stride, following inquest into death of man with severe depression

A coroner has written to work and pensions secretary Mel Stride warning that processes in the benefit system can worsen symptoms of mental illness after a man killed himself amid fears over his application for universal credit.

Kirsty Gomersal, the area coroner for Cumbria, issued a prevention of future deaths (PFD) report to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) following an inquest into the death of man diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety who took his own life in March.

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In depression treatment trials, placebo effect is growing stronger

news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 26 September, 2023 - 18:20 · 1 minute

A person sits next to computer screens with other hardware strapped to his head.

Enlarge / A decent placebo setup for transcranial magnetic stimulation is difficult to distinguish from actual treatment. (credit: Monty Rakusen )

Placebos have occupied an increasingly awkward spot in the medical landscape over the last few decades. Even as placebo-controlled trials have become accepted as the gold standard for evidence, we've grown to appreciate just how powerful the placebo effect can be. Confusing matters further, a new study has expanded on a previous finding: The placebo effect for antidepressant treatments appears to be growing stronger over time.

Earlier work had shown this was happening with placebo pills. The new study shows that it's happening with a treatment called transcranial magnetic stimulation. Fortunately, effective treatments appear to be getting better in parallel, so this hasn't obviously interfered with any results yet.

Stimulating magnets

Transcranial magnetic stimulation is fairly straightforward in principle. It's possible to use magnetic fields to induce currents in many materials. One of the materials where that works is the brain, where neural activity depends on the presence of voltage between a cell and its environment. So, by carefully shaping the magnetic field, it's possible to influence the activity in specific areas of the brain. Critically, this can be done with equipment placed outside the skull and, so, is quite non-invasive compared to many other interventions.

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