News round-up (4 October 2024)

Women who have experienced birth trauma or baby loss are having to wait six weeks for mental health assessments from specialist teams, a new report has found. Other surveys this week show increasing rates of mental ill health among those working in the film and tv industry, while for people undertaking PhDs, research finds, the longer they continue their studies, the greater their risk of developing mental health problems. There is positive news in the area of paternal mental health, with a study in Pakistan finding that, after receiving CBT-based group therapy, 70% of fathers with postpartum depression experienced full remission of their symptoms.

 

Main stories this week

People who migrate as adolescents have a higher risk of psychosis, study finds

People who migrate to another country as adolescents have an increased risk of psychosis, according to a new study.

 

New AI phone apps can detect signs of mental illness

New smartphone apps, developed independently, are showing some success at detecting signs of depression and bipolar disorder.

 

UK government missed opportunities to support mental health during pandemic, report says

The UK government’s response to the mental health impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was “slow, sporadic and reactive”, according to a new report from the Centre for Mental Health, a think tank.

 

Video games designed to boost mental wellbeing in children show modest benefits

Video games designed to address mental health problems in children are effective, though the difference they make is relatively small, a study has shown.

 

 

Other stories from the week

Women whose babies have died have to wait six weeks for mental health support

Women who have experienced the loss of a baby or are suffering trauma symptoms after birth are waiting an average of six weeks to be assessed by specialist mental health teams, according to a new report.

The report, based on a survey carried out by the Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA) of 41 maternal mental health teams in England, also found that the average waiting time for one-to-one therapy following an assessment is 16 weeks. However, waits across the country varied from 0 to 12 months.

While all four countries of the UK have community perinatal mental health teams, England is the only one to implement specialist maternal mental health services for birth trauma and baby loss. NHS England began rolling out the services after publication of the NHS’s long-term plan in 2019. Although most areas of the country have a team, access to services is varied, the MMHA found. The target for teams is to assess women within two weeks of a referral – however, the average waiting time is six weeks, with some areas leaving women waiting up to 52 weeks to be assessed.

In one region, Humber, the service has closed because of lack of funding.

Studying for a PhD takes a toll on students’ mental health

A study of Swedish PhD candidates has shown that they are at an increased risk of developing mental health problems.

The researchers looked at the rates at which all Swedish PhD students were prescribed psychiatric drugs and were hospitalised for mental-health problems. It found that, on average, the longer they were doing doctoral studies the more they needed to access such services. By the fifth year of study, the likelihood that PhD candidates needed mental-health medications had increased by 40%, compared with the year before study.

The students at highest risk of being prescribed psychiatric medication during PhD studies were women and people who’d taken such medicines before starting their programme.

The authors also compared PhD students with a sample of the general population aged 18–70. Before beginning their programmes, PhD candidates used mental-health services less frequently than the general population, but by the end of their studies, the rates were the same.

Mental health crisis deepens among staff working in film and television

More than a third (35%) of people working in film and television describe their mental health as “poor” or “very poor,” a new survey has found.

The survey, carried out by the Film and TV Charity, surveyed 4,300 people working in the industry. The 35% figure represents a significant increase since the last survey in 2022, when 24% described their mental health as “poor” or “very poor”.

Nearly 1,300 respondents, or 30%, said  they had considered taking their own life.

Another finding was that only 12% of those surveyed felt that the industry is a mentally healthy place to work, while 63% said their job harmed their mental health.

Nearly an equal number of workers (64%) admitted that they had considered leaving the industry, up from 60% in 2022.

Marcus Ryder, the charity’s CEO, said: “The early headlines from our 2024 survey are remarkably consistent – somewhat positive given the various crises that have hit the sector in recent years, but far more a cause of great concern that things are not improving quickly enough.”

Food insecurity taking a toll on people’s mental health, report finds

People with mental illness are more than twice as likely to find it hard to put food on the table as those without, according to a new report by the Food Foundation.

More than one in four (28%) of people with a mental health condition are living in households experiencing food insecurity, compared to 11% of people without a mental health issue, the survey found.

The two issues are interlinked: food insecurity increases levels of anxiety, stress and depression, the report said. More than 70% of people without reliable access to food said it made them feel more anxious, while 67% said it increased depression and 66% said it increased stress.

Similarly, people living with mental health issues are more likely to face financial problems which can lead to food insecurity, creating “a cycle that is difficult to break,” the report says.

Group therapy reduces depression in fathers

A therapeutic intervention involving group parenting significantly reduces male postpartum depression, a study has found.

The study, carried out by Canada’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), in collaboration with researchers in Pakistan, found that the intervention led to 70% of participants experiencing full remission of symptoms.

The research, published  in JAMA Psychiatry, involved 357 fathers from low-income households in Pakistan. Fathers were randomly assigned to receive either standard care or participate in the four-month Learning Through Play Plus Dads (LTP + Dads) programme, a parenting and mental health initiative adapted from a similar programme for Pakistani mothers.

Fathers in the LTP + Dads programme were provided with calendars detailing child development stages and activities to encourage parent-child engagement. They also attended 12 group sessions led by community health workers and psychologists, which combined cognitive behavioural therapy to help manage depressive symptoms with life skills training in topics including time management and emotional regulation.

As well as its effectiveness in treating postpartum depression, the programme had a positive impact on household dynamics and child social and emotional development, the study found.

Physical contact helps make depression contagious, study finds

Physical contact with another individual may be the mechanism by which depression spreads to others, a study from researchers at the Naval Medical University in China has found.

Previous research has shown that depression can be contagious: in other words, an individual who spends time with a depressed person is more likely to become depressed themselves. The mechanism by which this happens had not been identified, however.

In the new study, a non-depressed mouse placed in a cage with depressed mice began, after five weeks, to show depressive behaviour and hormonal markers indicative of depression. When the researchers used a transparent dividing wall, however, to separate the non-depressed mouse from the depressed mice, there was no contagion.

The researchers believe that this finding suggests that either physical contact, or chemical transmission, is involved in the process of contagion. This is backed by another set of experiments, in which a non-depressed mouse was put in a cage with the bedding of the depressed mice, and while researchers noted some depressive behaviour, it was milder than in the cage in which the mice all intermingled.