The authors of this study set out to investigate sleep patterns in children with Down syndrome by asking parents to complete a questionnaire on sleep habits. Typical sleep problems included sleep maintenance problems, snoring, and disordered breathing. The authors administered a 33 item questionnaire on children’s sleep habits to the parents of 35 children with [read the full story…]
Many studies have shown that people with learning disabilities are at risk of overweight and obesity, The authors of this study were interested in the potential impact of beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of parents of adolescents with learning disabilities on the body mass index (BMI) of the adolescents and the parents. They also wanted to [read the full story…]
This cross sectional study uses data from the Health Survey for England to explore the relationship between poor mental health and low income. The research team from Exeter University included 94,870 adults in the study (1997-2006) which used the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) to assess happiness, symptoms of anxiety or depression and sleep disturbance [read the full story…]
The autumn leaves are falling in my neck of the woods, so it’s time to say thanks to everyone who took part in last months poll, which asked if you would be interested in a mobile app of the Mental Elf to receive daily alerts on your smartphone. 71% of people who responded said that [read the full story…]
Thanks very much to everyone who took the time to participate in our September poll, which asked your preferred method for keeping up to date with the Mental Elf. Half of those who voted said that a weekly email newsletter would be the best way to keep up to date. Visiting the website was quite [read the full story…]
The NHS Confederation have published a 20-page report that examines the views of mental health service users and carers on personal health budgets. Personal health budgets are defined as the allocation of NHS funding which patients/ service users, after an assessment, are able to personally control and use for the services they choose to support [read the full story…]
A group of researchers from Dresden in Germany have recently updated a review they originally published in 2005, which provides 12-month prevalence and disability burden estimates of a broad range of mental and neurological disorders in the European Union (EU). Their review included studies from all 27 EU member states plus Switzerland, Iceland and Norway [read the full story…]
This report from the NHS Information Centre contains results from an annual survey of secondary school pupils in England in years 7 to 11 (mostly aged 11 to 15). 7,296 pupils in 246 schools completed questionnaires in the autumn term of 2010. The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and the National Foundation for Educational Research [read the full story…]
Childhood sexual abuse is a strong predictor of schizophrenia in later life, a leading psychiatrist has told the International Congress of the Royal College of Psychiatrists 2011. It is a contributing cause of 17 per cent of cases of psychotic illness including schizophrenia, Professor Paul Bebbington, Head of the Department of Mental Health Sciences at [read the full story…]
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation have commissioned Ipsos MORI to conduct a survey which provides robust data on the levels and patterns of alcohol consumption and influences on drinking behaviour in 13-16 year olds. The survey involved 5,700 teenagers from schools in England and data was statistically modelled using binary logistic regression to highlight the strongest influences [read the full story…]
