COVID-19 pandemic impacts mental health worldwide

Physical distancing measures to mitigate viral spread increased anxiety

March 18, 2021

Science Daily/Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

A study conducted at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health reports a high global prevalence of both depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic and shows how implementation of mitigation strategies including public transportation and school closures, and stay-at-home orders impacted such disorders. The results are published in Psychological Medicine.

"Our research found an elevated global prevalence of these mental health issues during COVID-19 and also revealed there was a wide variance in each at the region- and country-level," said, João Castaldelli-Maia, MD, PhD, NIDA-INVEST Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Epidemiology, and lead author. In particular, Asia (most studies came from China) presented lower levels of both anxiety and depression, compared to the other regions of the world. Closure of public transportation increased levels of anxiety, whether it was two weeks or four weeks past the passage of closure enactment, especially in Europe."

Using an end date of July 29th, 2020, the researchers analyzed data from Pubmed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and medRxiv, among other databases, for depression and anxiety prevalence. They also reviewed the Oxford Covid-19 Government Response Tracker for the containment and closure policies indexes; and the Global Burden of Disease Study for previous levels of depression and anxiety. The WHO database which includes COVID literature for studies published by the same date was also used.

In total, 226,638 individuals were assessed within 60 included studies. Global prevalence of both depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic were 24 percent and 21 percent, respectively. Asia with rates of 18 percent for each, and China especially, had the lowest prevalence of both disorders. Regarding the impact of mitigation strategies on mental health -- whether it was public transportation closures, school closings, workplace closures, cancellation of public events, or restrictions on gathering -- only public transportation closures increased prevalence of anxiety, especially in Europe.

Castaldelli-Maia and colleagues found a 21 percent global prevalence of anxiety. Asia had lower levels of anxiety (18 percent) compared to other regions of the world (29 percent). In this case, Europe did not differ from Asia and other regions of the world. Again, a subgroup analysis at the country-level showed that China had a lower prevalence of anxiety at 15.5 percent compared to all other countries at 26 percent.

"Our study confirms how critical it is to investigate levels of mental health disorders and the possible impacts of social distancing measures on mental health outcomes, according to Silvia Martins, MD, PhD, associate professor of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School, and senior author. "Mental health concerns should not be viewed only as a delayed consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also as a concurrent epidemic."

Within the subgroup of Asian countries, estimates of depression prevalence ranged from 15 percent to 20 percent. When comparing the prevalence of depression in the pre-and post-COVID-19 eras, the estimates ranging from 1.3-3.4 percent, are demonstrably larger after the initiation of COVID-19.

Depression was observed among 26 percent of the population in Europe, and among 39 percent in other non-Asia regions of the world. A further analysis showed that China had a lower prevalence of depression, 16 percent compared with 29 percent in other countries.

Similarly, the prevalence of anxiety, as reported in the subgroup of Asian countries is higher post-COVID-19. Rates of anxiety prior to COVID-19 ranged from 2.1 to 4.1 percent vs. 18 percent in the present study. Increases in anxiety can be observed in countries outside Asia and Europe (3 to 7 percent vs. 29 percent).

"The lower levels of depression and anxiety that we found in Asian countries could be culture-dependent," observes Martins.

The effect of public transportation closures on anxiety levels points to the importance of these systems to global populations, particularly the results in Europe but not in Asia. "These findings could be linked to the fact that Europe has a more effective and implemented public transport network on average, making Europeans depending more on public transportation than people in Asian countries," noted Martins.

"The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting physical distancing measures to mitigate viral spread, has certainly impacted population mental health worldwide, and the high prevalence of mental health disorders is a considerable concern during the COVID era," said Castaldelli-Maia. "These results have important implications for policymakers and show the urgent need for the healthcare sector to increase support now for prevention and early intervention of depression and anxiety."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210318085630.htm

Beta-blockers not likely to cause depression yet may contribute to sleep disturbances

March 15, 2021

Science Daily/American Heart Association

Beta-blockers treat various cardiovascular diseases and were not more likely to cause depression compared to other similar treatments, according to new research published today in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal. While depression may occur during beta-blocker therapy, the research suggests beta-blockers are not the likely cause.

Beta-blockers are a class of medications that reduce the heart rate, the heart's workload and the heart's output of blood, which, together, lower blood pressure. They are a common treatment for cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure, arrhythmias, chest pains and high blood pressure. Researchers have suspected beta-blockers of having negative psychological side effects, including depression, anxiety, drowsiness, insomnia, hallucinations and nightmares.

"The possible mental health side effects of beta-blockers have been the subject of discussion in the scientific community for many decades," says Reinhold Kreutz, M.D., Ph.D., a professor at the Berlin Institute of Health, Institute of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology and the study's supervising and corresponding author. "So, our results showing beta-blockers are not the cause of so many of these negative side effects are quite consequential."

The study is the first of its kind to examine the entire spectrum of mental health side effects in relation to beta-blockers. The researchers analyzed data for more than 50,000 individuals from 258 studies including beta-blockers in double-blind, randomized controlled trials. Nearly 70% of the studies were clinical trials focused on high blood pressure treatment, and 31 assessed depression in placebo-controlled trials.

Results from the comprehensive analysis revealed:

• Despite being the most frequently reported mental health side effect, depression did not occur more frequently during beta-blocker treatment compared to placebo treatment.

• The rate of discontinuing medication use due to depression was not any different for those taking beta-blockers compared to those on other treatments.

• Unusual dreams, insomnia and sleep disorders may be linked to beta-blockers.

• Among the mental health events analyzed, the most common reason for discontinuing beta-blockers was fatigue/tiredness.

"Our results indicate that concerns about adverse mental health events, especially depression, should not affect the decision about beta blockers. Beta-blockers are mostly safe regarding psychological health," said Kreutz. "We found no indication of an association between beta-blocker use and depression. The same was true for most of the other mental health symptoms, as reported in the studies that were included in our analyses. However, sleep-related symptoms such as unusual dreams or insomnia did emerge during beta?blocker therapy for some patients."

Kreutz added, "Patients with a history of cardiovascular events such as a heart attack or stroke were prone to develop psychological complications. Though we found beta-blockers were not causally linked, these patients should be monitored."

The original studies did not include individual patient data, so for this analysis, researchers were unable to investigate whether sleep-related symptoms were persistent for those taking beta-blockers. Additional research is needed to address this question.

The researchers report there an important limitation to consider when interpreting the results of their analysis: most beta-blocker trials were conducted more than 20 years ago, before a uniform language to describe adverse events was established. Additionally, the authors only considered randomized, double-blind trials for their analysis, which left out some studies that might provide more data on long-term beta-blocker treatment.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210315110146.htm

New discovery explains antihypertensive properties of green and black tea

Study results may lead to new blood pressure-lowering medications

March 8, 2021

Science Daily/University of California - Irvine

A new study from the University of California, Irvine shows that compounds in both green and black tea relax blood vessels by activating ion channel proteins in the blood vessel wall. The discovery helps explain the antihypertensive properties of tea and could lead to the design of new blood pressure-lowering medications.

Published in Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry, the discovery was made by the laboratory of Geoffrey Abbott, PhD, a professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the UCI School of Medicine. Kaitlyn Redford, a graduate student in the Abbott Lab, was first author of the study titled, "KCNQ5 potassium channel activation underlies vasodilation by tea."

Results from the research revealed that two catechin-type flavonoid compounds (epicatechin gallate and epigallocatechin-3-gallate) found in tea, each activate a specific type of ion channel protein named KCNQ5, which allows potassium ions to diffuse out of cells to reduce cellular excitability. As KCNQ5 is found in the smooth muscle that lines blood vessels, its activation by tea catechins was also predicted to relax blood vessels -- a prediction confirmed by collaborators at the University of Copenhagen.

"We found by using computer modeling and mutagenesis studies that specific catechins bind to the foot of the voltage sensor, which is the part of KCNQ5 that allows the channel to open in response to cellular excitation. This binding allows the channel to open much more easily and earlier in the cellular excitation process," explained Abbott.

Because as many as one third of the world's adult population have hypertension, and this condition is considered to be the number one modifiable risk factor for global cardiovascular disease and premature mortality, new approaches to treating hypertension have enormous potential to improve global public health. Prior studies demonstrated that consumption of green or black tea can reduce blood pressure by a small but consistent amount, and catechins were previously found to contribute to this property. Identification of KCNQ5 as a novel target for the hypertensive properties of tea catechins may facilitate medicinal chemistry optimization for improved potency or efficacy.

In addition to its role in controlling vascular tone, KCNQ5 is expressed in various parts of the brain, where it regulates electrical activity and signaling between neurons. Pathogenic KCNQ5 gene variants exist that impair its channel function and in doing so cause epileptic encephalopathy, a developmental disorder that is severely debilitating and causes frequent seizures. Because catechins can cross the blood-brain barrier, discovery of their ability to activate KCNQ5 may suggest a future mechanism to fix broken KCNQ5 channels to ameliorate brain excitability disorders stemming from their dysfunction.

Tea has been produced and consumed for more than 4,000 years and upwards of 2 billion cups of tea are currently drunk each day worldwide, second only to water in terms of the volume consumed by people globally. The three commonly consumed caffeinated teas (green, oolong, and black) are all produced from the leaves of the evergreen species Camellia sinensis, the differences arising from different degrees of fermentation during tea production.

Black tea is commonly mixed with milk before it is consumed in countries including the United Kingdom and the United States. The researchers in the present study found that when black tea was directly applied to cells containing the KCNQ5 channel, the addition of milk prevented the beneficial KCNQ5-activating effects of tea. However, according to Abbott, "We don't believe this means one needs to avoid milk when drinking tea to take advantage of the beneficial properties of tea. We are confident that the environment in the human stomach will separate the catechins from the proteins and other molecules in milk that would otherwise block catechins' beneficial effects."

This hypothesis is borne out by other studies showing antihypertensive benefits of tea regardless of milk co-consumption. The team also found, using mass spectrometry, that warming green tea to 35 degrees Celsius alters its chemical composition in a way that renders it more effective at activating KCNQ5.

"Regardless of whether tea is consumed iced or hot, this temperature is achieved after tea is drunk, as human body temperature is about 37 degrees Celsius," explained Abbott. "Thus, simply by drinking tea we activate its beneficial, antihypertensive properties."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210308131703.htm

Higher income predicts feelings such as pride and confidence

Findings similar from 162 countries, study finds

March 4, 2021

Science Daily/American Psychological Association

People with higher incomes tend to feel prouder, more confident and less afraid than people with lower incomes, but not necessarily more compassionate or loving, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

In a study of data from 162 countries, researchers found consistent evidence that higher income predicts whether people feel more positive "self-regard emotions," including confidence, pride and determination. Lower income had the opposite effect, and predicted negative self-regard emotions, such as sadness, fear and shame. The research was published online in the journal Emotion.

The findings were similar in both high-income countries and developing countries, said lead researcher Eddie M.W. Tong, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the National University of Singapore.

"The effects of income on our emotional well-being should not be underestimated," he said. "Having more money can inspire confidence and determination while earning less is associated with gloom and anxiety."

In what they called the most comprehensive analyses to date, the researchers conducted an independent analysis and a meta-analysis of five previous studies that included a survey of more than 1.6 million people in 162 countries. The analyses also included a category of emotions people feel about others, such as love, anger or compassion. Unlike self-regard emotions, the studies didn't find a consistent link between income level and how people feel about others.

"Having more money doesn't necessarily make a person more compassionate and grateful, and greater wealth may not contribute to building a more caring and tolerant society," Tong said.

The findings from the study are correlational, so the study can't prove if higher income causes these emotions or if there is just a link between them.

Levels of income also may have long-term effects. In an analysis of a longitudinal survey including more than 4,000 participants in the United States, the researchers found that higher income predicted higher levels of self-regard emotions about 10 years after the initial survey of participants, while low income predicted greater levels of negative self-regard emotions, such as fear and shame.

"Policies aimed at raising the income of the average person and boosting the economy may contribute to emotional well-being for individuals," Tong said. "However, it may not necessarily contribute to emotional experiences that are important for communal harmony."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210304100351.htm

High life satisfaction linked to better overall health

March 3, 2021

Science Daily/University of British Columbia

New research from UBC finds that higher life satisfaction is associated with better physical, psychological and behavioural health.

The research, published recently in The Milbank Quarterly, found that higher life satisfaction is linked to 21 positive health and well-being outcomes including:

• a 26 per cent reduced risk of mortality

• a 46 per cent reduced risk of depression

• a 25 per cent reduced risk of physical functioning limitations

• a 12 per cent reduced risk of chronic pain

• a 14 per cent reduced risk of sleep problem onset

• an eight per cent higher likelihood of frequent physical activity

• better psychological well-being on several indicators including higher: positive affect, optimism, purpose in life, and mastery -- as well as lower: hopelessness, negative affect, perceived constraints, and loneliness

Dr. Eric Kim and his team examined data from a nationally representative sample of 12,998 U.S. adults over age 50, in which participants were asked to self-evaluate their life satisfaction and health.

This study is the first to see whether a positive change in life satisfaction is associated with better outcomes on a wide range of physical, behavioural and psychosocial health and well-being indicators over a four-year period.

"Life satisfaction is a person's evaluation of his or her own life based on factors that they deem most relevant," says Dr. Kim, an assistant professor in UBC's psychology department and lead author of the study. "While life satisfaction is shaped by genetics, social factors and changing life circumstances, it can also be improved on both the individual level as well as collectively on the national level."

Dr. Kim says in recent years, intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization have urged countries to use well-being indicators in addition to traditional economic indicators, like GDP, when making policy decisions.

"The results of this study suggest that life satisfaction is a valuable target for policymakers to consider when enhancing physical, psychological and behavioural health outcomes at the policy level," says Dr. Kim.

The researchers decided to examine a four-year time period as there is emerging evidence that indicates changing levels of life satisfaction is an important determinant of voting behaviour. Further, election cycles happen approximately every four years in many countries.

"It is in the interest of policymakers' election and reelection campaigns to consider how life satisfaction can be improved," says Dr. Kim. "But more importantly understanding what the downstream health and well-being effects of altering life satisfaction might be for populations over a four-year period is critical to evaluate, and this is precisely the kind of question we tried to answer in our study."

Dr. Kim says policy-makers who are interested in looking for practical ideas on how to improve life satisfaction at the policy level can look to the Global Happiness and Well-Being Policy Report, which is generated out of a broader UN initiative co-led by UBC economics professor emeritus Dr. John Helliwell and Columbia University professor Dr. Jeffrey Sachs.

"As our nations pause and reevaluate our priorities in light of the widespread change caused by COVID-19, our policymakers have a rare and excellent opportunity to pursue well-being for all in the post-pandemic world."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210303091405.htm

Benefits of Technology in Online Speech Therapy

Guest Post: Eliza Brooks (Commercial site link. This is not an endorsement)

In America, kids and even adults experience speech disabilities. These disabilities can become huge problems in the long run, especially when kids become adults and apply for jobs. Or kids may also have communication problems in school that can hinder their learning process. Some disabilities are stuttering, autism, or aphasia. 

If you or someone you know have speech disabilities, technology has paved the way for better communication for everyone. And this is in the form of online speech therapy. Let’s dig deeper into what online speech therapy’s benefits are and the technological advancements in this field. 

Benefits of Online Speech Therapy

 Those with communication disorders would likely hire a speech pathologist to help them improve their speech. Before, face-to-face speech therapy was the method. However, technology has paved the way for better speech therapy through online courses. Here are some benefits:

·       Enrolling in online speech therapy classes means you’ll still be working with professional pathologists

·       Parents can get involved during the speech therapy classes and see their kids’ progress over time

·       Without a doubt, online speech class is more convenient as students don’t have to travel all the way to the school for their therapy sessions. 

·       Those with mobility issues should find that online speech therapies are more hassle-free and versatile. 

·       You can enroll wherever you are in the world. You can attend therapy sessions remotely and still have the same schedule and progress as others.

Technological Advancements in Online Speech Therapy

 Without a doubt, technology has impacted online speech therapies. It has made the entire experience better and more convenient. This paves the way for a more enjoyable learning experience. Here’s how technology has impacted digital speech therapy:

Artificial Intelligence

AI is all around us. From house equipment to office tools and gadgets, Artificial Intelligence is undeniably making waves online today. And in speech therapy, AI can be used for voice recognition. It can be easy for virtual classes to collaborate when there are voice recognition features. Also, some online activities in speech therapy can make use of voice recognition. 

Apps and Software

 Nowadays, onboarding for virtual speech therapy is quick and easy. Gone are the days when students have to queue up for enrollment in physical schools. Students have to go from one counter or department to another to undergo through each enrollment process. On the other hand, technology has given rise to apps and various software for virtual speech therapy sessions. All you have to do is sign up and enter virtual classrooms to start the session. 

Robotics

 In 2005, technology created Kaspar. Kaspar is a robot with a human face that helps children with communication disabilities, specifically those with autism. Kaspar is the size of a little child and is deployed in schools under the supervision of adults. However, recent research has made Kaspar wireless. Through virtual controls and interactions, Kaspar can also help children with their speech disorders. 

CONCLUSION

 Technology has impacted every sector in society, and online speech therapy is one of them. This niche has taken advantage of technological advancements, making learning more progressive for students. And will it stop here? Definitely not. As long as there’s connectivity, there will be continuous technology innovation. 

Benefits of team building exercises jeopardized if not truly voluntary

February 25, 2021

Science Daily/University of Sydney

Zoom dress up parties, tug-of-war, 'trust falls' and escape rooms -- team building exercises have become the go-to tool for managers trying to increase organisational and team rapport and productivity, but unfortunately many employees resent compulsory bonding and often regard these exercises as the bane of their workplace existence.

A paper published this week by University of Sydney School of Project Management researchers in the Journal of Social Networkshas found participants have mixed feelings about team-building interventions, with the research revealing ethical implications in forcing employees to take part.

"Since publishing our previous research on team-building exercises, many workers told us that they despise team building activities and see them as a waste of time, so we decided to look in more depth at what's behind this," said the paper's lead researcher, Dr Petr Matous, who in 2019 published research with Dr Julien Pollack that argued spending time developing relationships with people you aren't close to is more effective than general team-bonding exercises.

"Almost every day at work, workers are subjected to interventions that are implicitly or explicitly designed to change our networks of working relationships," said Dr Matous.

"Teams are formed, merged and restructured, staff are relocated and office spaces are redesigned. We are expected to participate in drinks after work and team building events. All this is done with the aim of improving workplace effectiveness, efficiency, collaboration and cohesion -- but does any of this work?" said Dr Matous.

The study found that team-building exercises which focused on the sharing of, and intervening into personal attitudes and relationships between team members may be considered too heavy-handed and intrusive, although the researchers say some degree of openness and vulnerability is often necessary to make deep, effective connections with colleagues.

"Among the participants we interviewed, some were against team building exercises because they felt they were implicitly compulsory and did not welcome management's interest in their lives beyond their direct work performance."

"Many people do not want to be forced into having fun or making friends, especially not on top of their busy jobs or in stressful, dysfunctional environments where team building is typically called for," said Associate Professor Julien Pollack, Interim Director of the John Grill Institute of Project Leadership.

"These activities often feel implicitly mandatory. People can feel that management is being too nosy or trying to control their life too much.

"We recommend an approach where people can opt out of team building discreetly, by conducting team-building only among selected pairs of individuals who can choose whether or not to proceed with strengthening their relationship. Their choice would not be visible to management.

"An important point is to target the right relationships, and we can do that by analytically identifying critical links in collaboration and communication networks among employees.

The researchers said there are numerous schools of thought that propose differing psychological methods for strengthening relationships.

In this study the researchers chose a self-disclosure approach where participants were guided through a series of questions that allowed them to increasingly disclose personal information and values. The method is well-tested and has been shown to increase interpersonal closeness, however, to be successful it must be voluntary.

"With caution, many relational methods to improve teams and organisations can be borrowed from other fields. The question is how to apply them effectively to strengthen an entire collective, which is more than just the sum of individual relationships, and that's where analysing methods using network science makes the main contribution," said Dr Matous.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210225143709.htm

Depressed and out of work? Therapy may help you find a job

Treatment also helps workers be more effective, study finds

February 22, 2021

Science Daily/Ohio State University

If depression is making it more difficult for some unemployed people to land a job, one type of therapy may help, research suggests.

In a new study, 41% of unemployed or underemployed people undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) found a new job or went from part- to full-time work by the end of the 16-week treatment for depression.

Those who had a job but found it difficult to focus on and accomplish work tasks because of depression said the treatment helped to significantly reduce these problems.

"For the most part, researchers have focused on showing that therapy relieves symptoms of depression," said Daniel Strunk, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at The Ohio State University.

"But reducing symptoms isn't the only goal people have when they start CBT. Many are hoping to find a job or improve their productivity at their current job. Here we found that therapy can help people achieve these goals, as well."

Strunk conducted the study with Iony Ezawa and Graham Bartels, who were graduate students at Ohio State when the study was conducted. The research was published online this month in the journal Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

This study involved 126 people who participated in a 16-week course of CBT at the Ohio State Depression Treatment and Research Clinic.

CBT teaches coping skills that help patients counteract and modify their negative beliefs, Strunk said.

"It works on the idea that people with depression invariably hold these overly negative views of themselves and their futures," he said.

"For example, if an unemployed patient doesn't get one job they interviewed for, they may think 'no one is ever going to hire me.'"

In this study, 27 patients were seeking to improve their employment status (land a job or go from part- to full-time) at the beginning of treatment. Eleven of them (41%) had succeeded by the end of the 16 weeks.

"It is hard to say exactly how good this success rate is since we don't know how many would have gotten jobs without the treatment," Strunk said.

"But the findings were encouraging and suggest that the CBT is having an impact."

CBT had a clear impact for those who had jobs and reported at the beginning of the treatment that depression was hurting their effectiveness.

"Working patients reported at the end of treatment that they were much more successful at concentrating and accomplishing tasks at their jobs," he said.

Findings showed that one way CBT had this effect was by reducing patients' "negative cognitive style," or the extent to which patients view negative events in overly pessimistic ways, according to Strunk.

"CBT helps patients overcome these views by teaching them that the experience of depression is not their fault and that they can take steps to improve their concentration and accomplish work more successfully even when experiencing depressive symptoms," Strunk said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210222164224.htm

Gut microbiome implicated in healthy aging and longevity

Data from over 9,000 people reveal a distinct gut microbiome signature that is associated with healthy aging and survival in the latest decades of life

February 18, 2021

Science Daily/Institute for Systems Biology

The gut microbiome is an integral component of the body, but its importance in the human aging process is unclear. ISB researchers and their collaborators have identified distinct signatures in the gut microbiome that are associated with either healthy or unhealthy aging trajectories, which in turn predict survival in a population of older individuals. The work is set to be published in the journal Nature Metabolism.

The research team analyzed gut microbiome, phenotypic and clinical data from over 9,000 people -- between the ages of 18 and 101 years old -- across three independent cohorts. The team focused, in particular, on longitudinal data from a cohort of over 900 community-dwelling older individuals (78-98 years old), allowing them to track health and survival outcomes.

The data showed that gut microbiomes became increasingly unique (i.e. increasingly divergent from others) as individuals aged, starting in mid-to-late adulthood, which corresponded with a steady decline in the abundance of core bacterial genera (e.g. Bacteroides) that tend to be shared across humans.

Strikingly, while microbiomes became increasingly unique to each individual in healthy aging, the metabolic functions the microbiomes were carrying out shared common traits. This gut uniqueness signature was highly correlated with several microbially-derived metabolites in blood plasma, including one -- tryptophan-derived indole -- that has previously been shown to extend lifespan in mice. Blood levels of another metabolite -- phenylacetylglutamine -- showed the strongest association with uniqueness, and prior work has shown that this metabolite is indeed highly elevated in the blood of centenarians.

"This uniqueness signature can predict patient survival in the latest decades of life," said ISB Research Scientist Dr. Tomasz Wilmanski, who led the study. Healthy individuals around 80 years of age showed continued microbial drift toward a unique compositional state, but this drift was absent in less healthy individuals.

"Interestingly, this uniqueness pattern appears to start in mid-life -- 40-50 years old -- and is associated with a clear blood metabolomic signature, suggesting that these microbiome changes may not simply be diagnostic of healthy aging, but that they may also contribute directly to health as we age," Wilmanski said. For example, indoles are known to reduce inflammation in the gut, and chronic inflammation is thought to be a major driver in the progression of aging-related morbidities.

"Prior results in microbiome-aging research appear inconsistent, with some reports showing a decline in core gut genera in centenarian populations, while others show relative stability of the microbiome up until the onset of aging-related declines in health," said microbiome specialist Dr. Sean Gibbons, co-corresponding author of the paper. "Our work, which is the first to incorporate a detailed analysis of health and survival, may resolve these inconsistencies. Specifically, we show two distinct aging trajectories: 1) a decline in core microbes and an accompanying rise in uniqueness in healthier individuals, consistent with prior results in community-dwelling centenarians, and 2) the maintenance of core microbes in less healthy individuals."

This analysis highlights the fact that the adult gut microbiome continues to develop with advanced age in healthy individuals, but not in unhealthy ones, and that microbiome compositions associated with health in early-to-mid adulthood may not be compatible with health in late adulthood.

"This is exciting work that we think will have major clinical implications for monitoring and modifying gut microbiome health throughout a person's life," said ISB Professor Dr. Nathan Price, co-corresponding author of the paper.

This research project was conducted by ISB and collaborators from Oregon Health and Science University, University of California San Diego, University of Pittsburgh, University of California Davis, Lifestyle Medicine Institute, and University of Washington. It was supported in part by a Catalyst Award in Healthy Longevity from the National Academy of Medicine, and the Longevity Consortium of the National Institute on Aging.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210218142758.htm

Eating more refined grains increases risk of heart attack, early death

The researchers examined diets from diverse populations in low, middle and high-income countries.

February 19, 2021

Science Daily/Simon Fraser University

A new study published in The British Medical Journal by researchers including SFU health sciences professor Scott Lear found consuming a high number of refined grains, such as croissants and white bread, is associated with a higher risk of major cardiovascular disease, stroke and early death.

The Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study has been examining diets from diverse populations in low-, middle- and high-income countries around the world. Over 16 years of analysis of 137,130 participants in 21 countries, including Canada, the researchers found the intake of refined grains and added sugars have greatly increased over the years.

Grains were categorized into three groups: refined grains, whole grains and white rice. Refined grains included goods made with refined (e.g. white) flour, including white bread, pasta/noodles, breakfast cereals, crackers, and bakery products/desserts containing refined grains. Whole grains included whole grain flours (e.g. buckwheat) and intact or cracked whole grains (eg. steel cut oats).

The study found that having more than seven servings of refined grains per day was associated with a 27 per cent greater risk for early death, 33 percent greater risk for heart disease and 47 per cent greater risk for stroke.

"This study re-affirms previous work indicating a healthy diet includes limiting overly processed and refined foods," says Lear.

No significant adverse health effects were found with consuming whole grains or white rice.

The study suggests eating whole grain foods like brown rice and barley, and having fewer cereal grains and refined wheat products. Reducing one's overall consumption of refined grains and having better quality carbohydrates is essential for optimal health outcomes.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210219155857.htm

Study links prolonged sedentary time to distractibility in adults with obesity, overweight

February 17, 2021

Science Daily/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau

Scientists used accelerometers to track daily activity levels for a week in 89 adults with obesity or overweight and, in a series of tests, measured their ability to multitask and maintain their attention despite distractions. The study revealed that individuals who spent more sedentary time in bouts lasting 20 minutes or more were less able to overcome distractions.

Reported in the International Journal of Obesity, the research adds to the evidence linking sedentary behaviors and cognition, said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign kinesiology and community health professor Dominika Pindus, who led the work on the paper.

"Several studies have examined the relationship between different types of sedentary behaviors such as TV viewing and cognitive functions in children and adults," Pindus said. "The relationships they observed varied with the type of sedentary behavior. These studies primarily measured sedentary behaviors during leisure time."

The research found that regularly sitting for extended periods is linked to increased mortality and cardiovascular disease, Pindus said. People who do not engage in at least 60 minutes per day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and sit for eight hours or more have an increased health risk. Other studies suggest that bouts of prolonged sitting lasting 20 minutes or more negatively affect levels of blood sugar after a meal.

"Few studies, however, have examined the relationship between prolonged sedentary time and cognitive functions," Pindus said. To address this gap in research, she and her colleagues focused on the associations between objectively measured, prolonged sedentary time and cognition in adults 25-45 years old with obesity or overweight.

"We know from previous research that people with obesity or overweight don't do as well on certain types of cognitive tasks," Pindus said. "These tasks engage executive functions -- cognitive functions that are important for reasoning and staying focused on a goal."

Some studies have found that long-term physical activity interventions in preadolescent children or older adults can improve those functions.

"But we don't have much data on how prolonged sedentary time is linked to executive functions in working-age people with obesity or overweight," she said. "If we can show how sedentary time and physical activity in everyday life relate to executive functions in those individuals, we may be able to design more targeted lifestyle interventions to improve cognition in this population."

The researchers collected baseline information for all participants, tested their cognitive ability and calculated each person's body mass index and percent body fat. Participants wore accelerometers on their waists during waking hours for seven days. They also completed cognitive tasks and measures of brain function in a laboratory setting.

"We used EEG recordings to measure electrical potentials that are generated in the brain while participants engaged in tasks that challenged them to focus, ignore distractions and flexibly switch attention between tasks," Pindus said. A controller connected to a computer allowed participants to respond to problems while the speed and accuracy of their responses was recorded.

A statistical analysis of participants' sedentariness in relation to their speed and accuracy on a task that measures distractibility found a relationship between the two, Pindus said.

"Our key finding was that people who spent more time in prolonged sedentary bouts were more easily distracted," she said.

More research is needed to determine how the structure of a person's sedentary time influences cognition, Pindus said.

"If you make sure to break up your sitting time with brief bouts of physical activity, could that reduce how distracted you will be?" she said. "And if it does, what is driving this effect? This is something we want to explore."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210217132335.htm

Sounds influence the developing brain earlier than previously thought

February 12, 2021

Science Daily/Johns Hopkins Medicine

Scientists have yet to answer the age-old question of whether or how sound shapes the minds of fetuses in the womb, and expectant mothers often wonder about the benefits of such activities as playing music during pregnancy. Now, in experiments in newborn mice, scientists at Johns Hopkins report that sounds appear to change "wiring" patterns in areas of the brain that process sound earlier than scientists assumed and even before the ear canal opens.

The current experiments involve newborn mice, which have ear canals that open 11 days after birth. In human fetuses, the ear canal opens prenatally, at about 20 weeks gestation.

The findings, published online Feb. 12 in Science Advances, may eventually help scientists identify ways to detect and intervene in abnormal wiring in the brain that may cause hearing or other sensory problems.

"As scientists, we are looking for answers to basic questions about how we become who we are," says Patrick Kanold, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University and School of Medicine. "Specifically, I am looking at how our sensory environment shapes us and how early in fetal development this starts happening."

Kanold started his career in electrical engineering, working with microprocessors, a natural conduit for his shift to science and studying the circuitry of the brain.

His research focus is the outermost part of the brain, the cortex, which is responsible for many functions, including sensory perception. Below the cortex is the white brain matter that in adults contains connections between neurons.

In development, the white matter also contains so-called subplate neurons, some of the first to develop in the brain -- at about 12 weeks gestation for humans and the second embryonic week in mice. Anatomist Mark Molliver of Johns Hopkins is credited with describing some of the first connections between neurons formed in white matter, and he coined the term subplate neurons in 1973.

These primordial subplate neurons eventually die off during development in mammals, including mice. In humans, this happens shortly before birth through the first few months of life. But before they die off, they make connections between a key gateway in the brain for all sensory information, the thalamus, and the middle layers of the cortex.

"The thalamus is the intermediary of information from the eyes, ears and skin into the cortex," says Kanold. "When things go wrong in the thalamus or its connections with the cortex, neurodevelopmental problems occur." In adults, the neurons in the thalamus stretch out and project long, armlike structures called axons to the middle layers of the cortex, but in fetal development, subplate neurons sit between the thalamus and cortex, acting as a bridge. At the end of the axons is a nexus for communication between neurons called synapses. Working in ferrets and mice, Kanold previously mapped the circuitry of subplate neurons. Kanold also previously found that subplate neurons can receive electrical signals related to sound before any other cortical neurons did.

The current research, which Kanold began at his previous position at the University of Maryland, addresses two questions, he says: When sound signals get to the subplate neurons, does anything happen, and can a change in sound signals change the brain circuits at these young ages?

First, the scientists used genetically engineered mice that lack a protein on hair cells in the inner ear. The protein is integral for transforming sound into an electric pulse that goes to the brain; from there it is translated into our perception of sound. Without the protein, the brain does not get the signal.

In the deaf, 1-week-old mice, the researchers saw about 25% -- 30% more connections among subplate neurons and other cortex neurons, compared with 1-week-old mice with normal hearing and raised in a normal environment. This suggests that sounds can change brain circuits at a very young age, says Kanold.

In addition, say the researchers, these changes in neural connections were happening about a week earlier than typically seen. Scientists had previously assumed that sensory experience can only alter cortical circuits after neurons in the thalamus reach out to and activate the middle layers of the cortex, which in mice is around the time when their ear canals open (at around 11 days).

"When neurons are deprived of input, such as sound, the neurons reach out to find other neurons, possibly to compensate for the lack of sound," says Kanold. "This is happening a week earlier than we thought it would, and tells us that the lack of sound likely reorganizes connections in the immature cortex."

In the same way that lack of sound influences brain connections, the scientists thought it was possible that extra sounds could influence early neuron connections in normal hearing mice, as well.

To test this, the scientists put normal hearing, 2-day-old mouse pups in a quiet enclosure with a speaker that sounds a beep or in a quiet enclosure without a speaker. The scientists found that the mouse pups in the quiet enclosure without the beeping sound had stronger connections between subplate and cortical neurons than in the enclosure with the beeping sound. However, the difference between the mice housed in the beeping and quiet enclosures was not as large as between the deaf mice and ones raised in a normal sound environment.

These mice also had more diversity among the types of neural circuits that developed between the subplate and cortical neurons, compared with normal hearing mouse pups raised in a quiet enclosure with no sound. The normal hearing mice raised in the quiet enclosure also had neuron connectivity in the subplate and cortex regions similar to that of the genetically-engineered deaf mice.

"In these mice we see that the difference in early sound experience leaves a trace in the brain, and this exposure to sound may be important for neurodevelopment," says Kanold.

The research team is planning additional studies to determine how early exposure to sound impacts the brain later in development. Ultimately, they hope to understand how sound exposure in the womb may be important in human development and how to account for these circuit changes when fitting cochlear implants in children born deaf. They also plan to study brain signatures of premature infants and develop biomarkers for problems involving miswiring of subplate neurons.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210212193230.htm

Research finds college students with ADHD are likely to experience significant challenges

February 23, 2021

Science Daily Lehigh University

According to a 2017 UCLA study, students with ADHD make up about 6% of the college student population and represent the most common type of disability supported by college disability offices. But are these students receiving enough academic support from their institutions? Despite ADHD being prevalent among college students, there has been little research focused on how having ADHD impacts the transition to college and ongoing academic success. Until now.

New research from George DuPaul, professor of school psychology and associate dean for research in Lehigh University's College of Education, and colleagues confirms students with ADHD face consequential challenges in succeeding and completing college and predicts ways academic success can be improved.

The paper, "Academic Trajectories of College Students with and without ADHD: Predictors of Four-Year Outcomes," by DuPaul and colleagues from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, University of Rhode Island, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was published in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology.

The study, which is one of largest and most comprehensive investigations of college students with ADHD ever conducted, is the first to systematically examine the functioning of ADHD students across four years of college.

"College students with ADHD are likely to experience significant academic difficulties throughout their college years, are at higher than average risk for dropping out of college and require academic support prior to and throughout their college years," said DuPaul.

Through annual psychological and educational evaluations of more than 400 college students, half of whom were identified with ADHD, the researchers assessed multiple academic outcomes including GPA by semester, progress toward graduation by academic year, self-reported study skills by academic year and college drop-out status. The four-year study involved student participants from colleges in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, including Lehigh University, and Rhode Island.

The researchers found that on average, college students with ADHD received grades that were half a grade level below their peers and that this deficit was present across all four years. Additionally, results showed that college students with ADHD were significantly less likely to stay enrolled across semesters.

"It was somewhat surprising to see the magnitude of the academic deficits experienced by college students with ADHD because these were students who had the skills to successfully graduate from high school and matriculate in a four-year college or university," explained DuPaul. "We expected smaller declines in their educational performance in college."

Although medication did not substantially improve academic outcomes, the researchers found that there were several variables that predicted academic success for students with ADHD, including having fewer depression symptoms, possessing better executive functioning skills like planning and time management, and having received educational accommodations in high school as well as academic support services in college.

DuPaul hopes the findings will be of interest to college disabilities offices, health care and mental health professionals who work with college-aged students, higher education faculty and administrators, as well as individuals with ADHD and their families.

"Our findings highlight the importance of providing academic support services for students with ADHD prior to college matriculation, the vital need to improve executive functioning skills in these students, and necessity to screen for and treat depressive symptoms experienced by college students with ADHD," said DuPaul.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210223110358.htm

Empathy helps explain how parental support can prevent teen delinquency

Study on 4,000 children monitored over four years, finds children who felt their parents were empathic were less likely to commit serious crime

February 22, 2021

Science Daily Taylor & Francis Group

A new study of nearly 4,000 school children has found that youngsters who feel they have empathic support from their parents and caregivers are verging away from a wide range of delinquent behavior, such as committing crimes.

Published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Moral Education, the research, which drew on data surveying children over a four year period from when they were aged 12 to 17, also shows that those who received empathy were less likely to execute acts of serious delinquent behavior, compared to those who simply felt they had supportive parents.

In addition, the new findings -- out today -- demonstrate that parents/caregivers who display greater empathy enhance their teenagers' own development of empathy, or the ability to acknowledge and understand the feelings of others.

The results follow an investigation of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children data source, which features a series of interviews with 3,865 boys and girls across Australia over the period when delinquent behavior first tends to appear.

Author of the paper, Professor Glenn Walters from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, USA, states his findings demonstrate that parental support, as perceived by the child, plays a "small but significant role" in the development of empathy in early adolescent youth.

The Associate Professor of Criminal Justice adds: "Empathy in youth also appears to have the power to mediate the negative association between perceived parental support and future juvenile delinquency."

The study was launched to expand on results of several previous articles which investigated the relationship between parental support and delinquent behavior in teenagers. The proposition is that strong parental support reduces the propensity for such behavior. However, the results have been mixed.

Forensic psychologist Professor Walters wanted further clarification. Could parental support and delinquent behavior include an indirect relationship, rather than direct, and be mediated by another factor: high levels of empathy?

To find out, he first scrutinized two interview sessions where the children were asked about their level of parental support as they perceived it, and their development of empathy. To determine parental support, they were asked to rate statements such as "I trust my parents" and "I talk to my parents." To assess empathy, they were asked to rate statements such as "I try to empathize with friends," and "I try to make others feel better."

In the final session, when they were 16 or 17, they were asked how often they had engaged in 17 delinquent acts in the past year. These acts varied in their seriousness, from drawing graffiti in a public place to purposely damaging or destroying property to using force or the threat of force to get money or things from someone.

Using a variety of statistical techniques, Professor Walters found that empathy did indeed appear to mediate the relationship between parental support and delinquent behavior. Children who reported more parental support tended to have higher levels of empathy, and these children were less likely to engage in delinquent behavior.

"What the current study adds to the literature on the parental support-delinquency relationship is a mechanism capable of further clarifying this relationship," Walters says. "The mechanism, according to the results of the present study, is empathy."

He does concede, however, that other factors such as social interest and self-esteem may also play a role in mediating the relationship between parental support and teenage delinquency, and says these factors should be explored in future research.

Walters also suggests, in future research, empathy should be measured from a younger age and that new criminalities such as cybercrime -- not included in this data set -- should be assessed.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210222192833.htm

Toddler sleep patterns matter

A new study links inconsistent sleep times to higher body mass index (BMI) percentiles

February 22, 2021

Science Daily University of Delaware

Establishing a consistent sleep schedule for a toddler can be one of the most challenging aspects of child rearing, but it also may be one of the most important.

Research findings from a team including Lauren Covington, an assistant professor in the University of Delaware School of Nursing, suggest that children with inconsistent sleep schedules have higher body mass index (BMI) percentiles. Their findings, published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, suggest sleep could help explain the association between household poverty and BMI.

"We've known for a while that physical activity and diet quality are very strong predictors of weight and BMI," said Covington, the lead author of the article. "I think it's really highlighting that sleep may be playing a bigger role here than it's been given credit for."

The study used data from an obesity prevention trial for mothers and their children living in Baltimore. All of the families were eligible for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and 70% were living at or below the poverty line. As part of the trial, 207 toddlers wore accelerometers that measured their sleep and physical activity for up to a week at a time. Mothers also completed a food diary that was compared with the Healthy Eating Index, a measure of diet quality based on the recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Researchers wanted to examine the relationship between poverty and BMI, specifically looking at whether the consistency of when toddlers went to bed, their level of physical activity and diet quality could explain the association. They found that children from households with greater poverty had more overall inconsistent sleep onset times. And those with more inconsistent bedtimes had higher BMI percentages.

Covington said it is likely a bidirectional relationship. "There's a lot of teasing out the relationships of the mechanisms that are at play here, which is really difficult to do because I think they're all influencing each other," she said.

Sleep recommendations suggest children go to bed within an hour of their usual bedtime on a nightly basis. But for families living in poverty, such scheduling may not be so easily done, Covington said, especially if a caregiver is the only parent, juggling multiple jobs, parenting multiple children or dealing with a tenuous housing situation.

"There's so many factors that are at play and not necessarily controllable, especially in disadvantaged communities," said Covington, who hopes in the future to develop interventions for families that support healthy routines.

Covington, who joined the UD faculty in 2018, became interested in sleep research while working as a pediatric intensive care nurse. She encountered several families who lost a baby to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) as a result of their sleep environment.

"There's so much stigma and stereotypes out there and people are just so quick to judge," she said. "These families just want to do what's right for their child. They just either don't personally know how to or they don't have the resources to do it."

Covington is currently working on a study comparing the sleep similarities between children and their caregivers. She and other researchers, including Associate Professor Freda Patterson from the Department of Behavioral Health and Nutrition, School of Nursing professor Emily Hauenstein and UD graduate students Angeni Cordova and Shannon Mayberry, also completed a systematic review of the existing research literature looking at the influence of the family context in early childhood health sleep health.

Their findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Sleep Health, found that the presence of household chaos and poor-quality marital relationships were directly associated with early childhood sleep problems and variable sleep timing.

For families who have been struggling during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, creating a regular evening routine may be a doable way to make a difference in a child's health, despite the other upheaval going on at this time.

"Implementing a consistent bedtime could be one behavioral change that a family could potentially do," said Covington, who came to UD because of the opportunity to work with other sleep and disparity researchers. "It's more attainable than maybe getting healthy food at the grocery store or playing outside on the playground, especially now with the cold weather. Just having a consistent bedtime can help provide some sense of structure, but then maybe have better implications for health and BMI as well."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210222124714.htm

Lonely adolescents are susceptible to internet addiction

February 22, 2021

Science Daily University of Helsinki

Loneliness is a risk factor associated with adolescents being drawn into compulsive internet use. The risk of compulsive use has grown in the coronavirus pandemic: loneliness has become increasingly prevalent among adolescents, who spend longer and longer periods of time online.

A study investigating detrimental internet use by adolescents involved a total of 1,750 Finnish study subjects, who were studied at three points in time: at 16, 17 and 18 years of age. The results have been published in the Child Development journal.

Adolescents' net use is a two-edged sword: while the consequences of moderate use are positive, the effects of compulsive use can be detrimental. Compulsive use denotes, among other things, gaming addiction or the constant monitoring of likes on social media and comparisons to others.

"In the coronavirus period, loneliness has increased markedly among adolescents. They look for a sense of belonging from the internet. Lonely adolescents head to the internet and are at risk of becoming addicted. Internet addiction can further aggravate their malaise, such as depression," says Professor of Education and study lead Katariina Salmela-Aro from the University of Helsinki.

Highest risk for 16-year-old boys

The risk of being drawn into problematic internet use was at its highest among 16-year-old adolescents, with the phenomenon being more common among boys. For some, the problem persists into adulthood, but for others it eases up as they grow older. The reduction of problematic internet use is often associated with adolescent development where their self-regulation and control improve, their brains adapt and assignments related to education direct their attention.

"It's comforting to know that problematic internet use is adaptive and often changes in late adolescence and during the transition to adulthood. Consequently, attention should be paid to the matter both in school and at home. Addressing loneliness too serves as a significant channel for preventing excessive internet use," Salmela-Aro notes.

It was found in the study that the household climate and parenting also matter: the children of distant parents have a higher risk of drifting into detrimental internet use. If parents are not very interested in the lives of their adolescents, the latter may have difficulty drawing the lines for their actions.

Problematic net use and depression form a cycle

In the study participants, compulsive internet use had a link to depression. Depression predicted problematic internet use, while problematic use further increased depressive symptoms.

Additionally, problematic use was predictive of poorer academic success, which may be associated with the fact that internet use consumes a great deal of time and can disrupt adolescents' sleep rhythm and recovery, consequently eating up the time available for academic effort and performance.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210222124640.htm

Depression, anxiety, loneliness are peaking in college students

February 19, 2021

Science Daily Boston University

A survey by a Boston University researcher of nearly 33,000 college students across the country reveals the prevalence of depression and anxiety in young people continues to increase, now reaching its highest levels, a sign of the mounting stress factors due to the coronavirus pandemic, political unrest, and systemic racism and inequality.

"Half of students in fall 2020 screened positive for depression and/or anxiety," says Sarah Ketchen Lipson, a Boston University mental health researcher and a co-principal investigator of the nationwide survey published on Februray 11, 2021, which was administered online during the fall 2020 semester through the Healthy Minds Network. The survey further reveals that 83 percent of students said their mental health had negatively impacted their academic performance within the past month, and that two-thirds of college students are struggling with loneliness and feeling isolated -- an all-time high prevalence that reflects the toll of the pandemic and the social distancing necessary to control it.

Lipson, a BU School of Public Health assistant professor of health law, policy, and management, says the survey's findings underscore the need for university teaching staff and faculty to put mechanisms in place that can accommodate students' mental health needs.

"Faculty need to be flexible with deadlines and remind students that their talent is not solely demonstrated by their ability to get a top grade during one challenging semester," Lipson says.

She adds that instructors can protect students' mental health by having class assignments due at 5 pm, rather than midnight or 9 am, times that Lipson says can encourage students to go to bed later and lose valuable sleep to meet those deadlines.

Especially in smaller classroom settings, where a student's absence may be more noticeable than in larger lectures, instructors who notice someone missing classes should reach out to that student directly to ask how they are doing.

"Even in larger classes, where 1:1 outreach is more difficult, instructors can send classwide emails reinforcing the idea that they care about their students not just as learners but as people, and circulating information about campus resources for mental health and wellness," Lipson says.

And, crucially, she says, instructors must bear in mind that the burden of mental health is not the same across all student demographics. "Students of color and low-income students are more likely to be grieving the loss of a loved one due to COVID," Lipson says. They are also "more likely to be facing financial stress." All of these factors can negatively impact mental health and academic performance in "profound ways," she says.

At a higher level within colleges and universities, Lipson says, administrators should focus on providing students with mental health services that emphasize prevention, coping, and resilience. The fall 2020 survey data revealed a significant "treatment gap," meaning that many students who screen positive for depression or anxiety are not receiving mental health services.

"Often students will only seek help when they find themselves in a mental health crisis, requiring more urgent resources," Lipson says. "But how can we create systems to foster wellness before they reach that point?" She has a suggestion: "All students should receive mental health education, ideally as part of the required curriculum."

It's also important to note, she says, that rising mental health challenges are not unique to the college setting -- instead, the survey findings are consistent with a broader trend of declining mental health in adolescents and young adults. "I think mental health is getting worse [across the US population], and on top of that we are now gathering more data on these trends than ever before," Lipson says. "We know mental health stigma is going down, and that's one of the biggest reasons we are able to collect better data. People are being more open, having more dialogue about it, and we're able to better identify that people are struggling."

The worsening mental health of Americans, more broadly, Lipson says, could be due to a confluence of factors: the pandemic, the impact of social media, and shifting societal values that are becoming more extrinsically motivated (a successful career, making more money, getting more followers and likes), rather than intrinsically motivated (being a good member of the community).

The crushing weight of historic financial pressures is an added burden. "Student debt is so stressful," Lipson says. "You're more predisposed to experiencing anxiety the more debt you have. And research indicates that suicidality is directly connected to financial well-being."

With more than 22 million young people enrolled in US colleges and universities, "and with the traditional college years of life coinciding with the age of onset for lifetime mental illnesses," Lipson stresses that higher education is a crucial setting where prevention and treatment can make a difference.

One potential bright spot from the survey was that the stigma around mental health continues to fade. The results reveal that 94 percent of students say that they wouldn't judge someone for seeking out help for mental health, which Lipson says is an indicator that also correlates with those students being likely to seek out help themselves during a personal crisis (although, paradoxically, almost half of students say they perceive that others may think more poorly of them if they did seek help).

"We're harsher on ourselves and more critical of ourselves than we are with other people -- we call that perceived versus personal stigma," Lipson says. "Students need to realize, your peers are not judging you."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210219190939.htm

Boys who play video games have lower depression risk

February 18, 2021

Science Daily University College London

Boys who regularly play video games at age 11 are less likely to develop depressive symptoms three years later, finds a new study led by a UCL researcher.

The study, published in Psychological Medicine, also found that girls who spend more time on social media appear to develop more depressive symptoms.

Taken together, the findings demonstrate how different types of screen time can positively or negatively influence young people's mental health, and may also impact boys and girls differently.

Lead author, PhD student Aaron Kandola (UCL Psychiatry) said: "Screens allow us to engage in a wide range of activities. Guidelines and recommendations about screen time should be based on our understanding of how these different activities might influence mental health and whether that influence is meaningful.

"While we cannot confirm whether playing video games actually improves mental health, it didn't appear harmful in our study and may have some benefits. Particularly during the pandemic, video games have been an important social platform for young people.

"We need to reduce how much time children -- and adults -- spend sitting down, for their physical and mental health, but that doesn't mean that screen use is inherently harmful."

Kandola has previously led studies finding that sedentary behaviour (sitting still) appeared to increase the risk of depression and anxiety in adolescents. To gain more insight into what drives that relationship, he and colleagues chose to investigate screen time as it is responsible for much of sedentary behaviour in adolescents. Other studies have found mixed results, and many did not differentiate between different types of screen time, compare between genders, or follow such a large group of young people over multiple years.

The research team from UCL, Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) and the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute (Australia) reviewed data from 11,341 adolescents who are part of the Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative sample of young people who have been involved in research since they were born in the UK in 2000-2002.

The study participants had all answered questions about their time spent on social media, playing video games, or using the internet, at age 11, and also answered questions about depressive symptoms, such as low mood, loss of pleasure and poor concentration, at age 14. The clinical questionnaire measures depressive symptoms and their severity on a spectrum, rather than providing a clinical diagnosis.

In the analysis, the research team accounted for other factors that might have explained the results, such as socioeconomic status, physical activity levels, reports of bullying, and prior emotional symptoms.

The researchers found that boys who played video games most days had 24% fewer depressive symptoms, three years later, than boys who played video games less than once a month, although this effect was only significant among boys with low physical activity levels, and was not found among girls. The researchers say this might suggest that less active boys could derive more enjoyment and social interaction from video games.

While their study cannot confirm if the relationship is causal, the researchers say there are some positive aspects of video games which could support mental health, such as problem-solving, and social, cooperative and engaging elements.

There may also be other explanations for the link between video games and depression, such as differences in social contact or parenting styles, which the researchers did not have data for. They also did not have data on hours of screen time per day, so they cannot confirm whether multiple hours of screen time each day could impact depression risks.

The researchers found that girls (but not boys) who used social media most days at age 11 had 13% more depressive symptoms three years later than those who used social media less than once a month, although they did not find an association for more moderate use of social media. Other studies have previously found similar trends, and researchers have suggested that frequent social media use could increase feelings of social isolation.

Screen use patterns between boys and girls may have influenced the findings, as boys in the study played video games more often than girls and used social media less frequently.

The researchers did not find clear associations between general internet use and depressive symptoms in either gender.

Senior author Dr Mats Hallgren (Karolinska Institutet) has conducted other studies in adults finding that mentally-active types of screen time, such as playing video games or working at a computer, might not affect depression risk in the way that more passive forms of screen time appear to do.

He said: "The relationship between screen time and mental health is complex, and we still need more research to help understand it. Any initiatives to reduce young people's screen time should be targeted and nuanced. Our research points to possible benefits of screen time; however, we should still encourage young people to be physically active and to break up extended periods of sitting with light physical activity."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210218201158.htm

Preschoolers with higher cardiorespiratory fitness do better on cognitive tests

February 18, 2021

Science Daily University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau

Researchers report that 4-6-year-old children who walk further than their peers during a timed test -- a method used to estimate cardiorespiratory health -- also do better on cognitive tests and other measures of brain function. Published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, the study suggests that the link between cardiorespiratory fitness and cognitive health is evident even earlier in life than previously appreciated.

Most studies of the link between fitness and brain health focus on adults or preadolescent or adolescent children, said doctoral student Shelby Keye, who led the new research with Naiman Khan, a professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Such research has consistently found positive correlations between people's aerobic exercise capacity and their academic achievement and cognitive abilities, she said. Studies have found that higher cardiorespiratory fitness in older children and adults corresponds to the relative size and connectivity of brain structures that are important to cognitive control.

"But it isn't yet known at what point in the developmental trajectory of childhood this relationship emerges," Keye said.

Previous reports suggest that, just like older children and adults, preschoolers are failing to meet daily recommended guidelines for physical activity.

"This is worrisome, since brain development of core cognitive control processes begins in early childhood and continues well into early adulthood," Khan said. And yet, studies of this age group are limited, he said.

To better understand the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and brain health in 59 preschool-aged children, the researchers subjected them to several tests. The children walked as far as they could in six minutes, a test that allowed researchers to estimate their cardiorespiratory fitness. An early cognitive and academic development test gave the team a measure of each child's intellectual abilities, and a computerized "flanker" task measured how well they were able to focus on the important part of an image while ignoring distracting information. Participants also took part in a computerized task that required them to alter their responses depending on whether flowers or hearts appeared on the screen -- a measure of mental flexibility.

A subset of 33 children also engaged in an auditory task that required them to respond to certain sounds and not others while wearing an EEG cap. The EEG measured electrical activity during the cognitive control task.

"The EEG offers a noninvasive way to measure children's ability to pay attention despite distractions and process information in real time as they complete tasks," Keye said.

Statistical analyses revealed a relationship between the children's physical fitness and their cognitive abilities and brain function, the researchers said.

"Preschool children with higher estimated cardiorespiratory fitness had higher scores on academic ability tasks related to general intellectual abilities as well as their use of expressive language," Keye said. "They had better performance on computerized tasks requiring attention and multitasking skills, and they showed the potential for faster processing speeds and greater resource allocation in the brain when completing these computerized tasks."

The study does not prove that cardiorespiratory fitness enhances cognitive abilities in young children but adds to a growing body of evidence that the two are closely linked -- even in children as young as four years old, the researchers said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210218140110.htm

Most teen bullying occurs among peers climbing the social ladder

Highest rates of bullying occur between friends and friends-of-friends

February 17, 2021

Science Daily University of California - Davis

Teens who bully, harass, or otherwise victimize their peers are not always lashing out in reaction to psychological problems or unhealthy home environments, but are often using aggression strategically to climb their school's social hierarchy, a University of California, Davis, study suggests. These findings point to the reasons why most anti-bullying programs don't work and suggest possible strategies for the future.

"To the extent that this is true, we should expect them to target not vulnerable wallflowers, but their own friends, and friends-of-friends, who are more likely to be their rivals for higher rungs on the social ladder," said Robert Faris, a UC Davis researcher on bullying and author of the paper "With Friends Like These: Aggression From Amity and Equivalence." The paper was published recently in the American Journal of Sociology. Co-authors are sociologists Diane Felmlee at Pennsylvania State University and Cassie McMillan at Northeastern University.

Faris, a professor of sociology, said friends and associates with close ties to one another likely compete for positions within the same clubs, classrooms, sports and dating subgroups, which heightens the risk of conflict and aggression. This paper is the first known to show that those rivals are often their own friends.

This differs from some common theories and definitions of bullying, in which the behavior stems from an imbalance of power and is mainly directed at youths in the lower social strata in school or community environments who possibly have physical, social or psychological vulnerabilities.

The study focuses, instead, on a broader definition of peer aggression -- theorizing that aggression can actually improve the social status of the aggressor.

Using a large, longitudinal social network study of more than 3,000 eighth, ninth and 10th graders in North Carolina over the course of a single school year, the authors found that teens who were friends in the fall were more than three times as likely to bully or victimize each other in the spring of that same school year. This is not merely animosity between former friends who drifted apart: Schoolmates whose friendships ended during the year were three times as likely to bully or victimize each other in the spring, while those whose friendships continued over the school year were over four times as likely to bully those friends, researchers said.

'Frenemy effect'

This "frenemy effect" is not explained by the amount of time friends spent together, Faris explained. Additionally, "structurally equivalent" classmates -- those who are not necessarily friends, but who share many friends in common -- are also more likely to bully or otherwise victimize each other. Compared to schoolmates with no overlapping friendships, those whose friendships are perfectly overlapping are roughly three times more likely to bully each other, and those who share the same bullies or victims are more than twice as likely to bully each other.

Finally, being victimized by friends is particularly painful, and is associated with significant increases in symptoms of depression and anxiety, and significant decreases in school attachment, researchers said.

Real-life case

The paper cites the real-life case of Megan Meier, who hanged herself in 2007 after being bullied by people she thought were her friends -- with the added twist of a mother orchestrating the social media bullying scheme. "The tragedy of Megan Meier highlights more than the limitations of the criminal justice system in addressing complex, often subtle, social problems like bullying," researchers said. The case illustrates the need for research in this area: ... "contrary to the once-prevailing view of bullying as a maladjusted reaction to psychological deficiencies, emotional dysregulation, empathy deficits, or problematic home lives, [the perpetrator of the bullying] is one of millions of adolescents who has harmed a schoolmate for instrumental reasons: to exact retribution, achieve prominence, or vanquish a rival," researchers said. Indeed, the research shows, "the desire for popularity motivates much aggressive behavior."

Few anti-bullying programs work

Additionally, the researchers conclude, few anti-bullying programs work. "The reason for the typically low success rates, we believe, is that aggressive behavior accrues social rewards, and to a degree that leads some to betray their closest friends. Even the most successful prevention programs are unable to alter the aggressive behavior of popular bullies, who use cruelty to gain and maintain status," the authors said. The popularity contests ubiquitous in secondary schools, the authors wrote, encourage peer bullying.

The authors suggest that efforts to support and strengthen adolescent friendships -- such as broadening extracurricular offerings and hosting camps, trainings and retreats -- could help de-emphasize popularity and reduce the "frenemy effect."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/02/210217151139.htm