Back to work
Contrary to expectations, individuals returning to work during the coronavirus pandemic in China did not suffer increased levels of mental health problems, finds a study in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. The Chinese government imposed a lockdown on one of its largest cities, Chongqing, on Jan. 31, but began allowing some people to return to work in February. Researchers surveyed 673 full-time employees (excluding health-care workers) approved to go back to their jobs in late February. Approximately 11% of respondents met the criteria for a diagnosis of PTSD, 3.8% reported moderate to severe anxiety and 3.7% reported moderate to severe depression. These rates were lower than those reported a month earlier for the general population in China. The researchers suggest the low prevalence of mental health problems among returning workers could be due to confidence instilled by strictly enforced prevention measures. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2020.04.055opens in new window
‘Infodemic’
People with more social media exposure to information about COVID-19 report more anxiety, according to a study in PLOS ONEopens in new window. Researchers used online questionnaires to survey 4,872 adults from 31 regions in China between Jan. 31 and Feb. 2. The researchers asked participants how often they had been exposed to news or information related to COVID-19 through social media in the previous week. The survey also included measures of depression and anxiety. The researchers found that 82% of respondents reported being frequently exposed to information about the pandemic through social media. Nearly half of respondents (48%) reported high levels of depression symptoms, nearly a quarter (23%) reported high levels of anxiety symptoms and about 19% reported high levels of both depression and anxiety symptoms. Exposure to social media was associated with greater odds of reporting anxiety and a combination of depression and anxiety, but not with reports of depression on its own. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231924opens in new window
Teens and COVID-19
About 4 in 10 teens in China experienced symptoms of anxiety or depression during the COVID-19 outbreak there, finds a study in European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Researchers conducted an online survey of 8,079 Chinese adolescents ages 12 to 18 in March, asking about the teens’ awareness of COVID-19, as well as whether they experienced depression and anxiety symptoms. Overall, 44% reported depressive symptoms, 37% reported anxiety symptoms and 31% reported both. Girls were more likely than boys, and older teens more likely than younger teens, to report symptoms. DOI: 10.1007/s00787-020-01541-4opens in new window
Less sex during pandemic
During the height of the COVID-19 outbreak, overall sexual activity, frequency, satisfaction and risky sexual behaviors appear to have decreased among young men and women in China, according to a study in The Journal of Sexual Medicine. Researchers conducted an online study in March with a convenience sample from China of 459 heterosexual individuals ages 18 to 45. They found that although 25% of participants reported experiencing a reduction in sexual desire related to the coronavirus pandemic, 18% of men and 8% of women said they experienced an increase in sexual desire. In addition, 44% of participants reported a decrease in the number of sexual partners, 37% reported a decrease in frequency of sexual activity and 35% experienced a reduction in sexual satisfaction. Only five participants reported increased engagement in risky sexual behaviors during the COVID-19 outbreak. DOI: 10.1016/j.jsxm.2020.04.380opens in new window
Online therapy
When added to usual depression care, an online version of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) can help treat patients’ depression symptoms, according to a study in JAMA Psychiatry. The online version of MBCT, called Mindful Mood Balance (MMB), combines the practice of mindfulness meditation with cognitive therapy to teach patients adaptive ways of regulating their emotions. A randomized clinical trial of 460 U.S. patients found that adding MMB to usual depression care led to greater reductions in depressive and anxious symptoms, higher rates of remission and higher levels of quality of life compared with patients receiving usual depression care alone. DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.4693opens in new window
Cooperating for cookies
Children are more willing to delay gratification when working with another child to achieve a goal than when working solo, suggests an update of the classic “marshmallow test” published in Psychological Science. Working in both Germany and Kenya, researchers created pairs of more than 200 5- and 6-year-olds, put the children in separate rooms and placed a cookie in front of each of them. In one condition, each child had to rely only on their own self-control to earn a second cookie by waiting until the researcher returned, much like the original experiment. In another condition, each child received a second treat only if both children in the pair waited. In both cultures, more children held off on eating the first cookie in the cooperative condition compared with the solo condition. DOI: 10.1177/0956797619894205opens in new window
Family support
Psychotherapy appears to help children and adolescents at risk for developing bipolar disorder stay healthy, according to research in JAMA Psychiatry. Researchers studied 127 U.S. children and teens ages 9 to 17 to determine which of two types of treatment was more effective at delaying new and recurring bipolar symptoms: four months of a family-focused therapy that teaches patients and families better communication and problem-solving skills or four months of a traditional form of psychoeducation focused on understanding and coping with mood symptoms. Nearly 77% of the adolescents in the family-focused treatment recovered from their initial symptoms during the study, and the average time before new symptoms of depression returned was 87 weeks. The numbers for the psychoeducation group were 65% and 63 weeks. DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.4520opens in new window
What God looks like
The same racial and gender biases that people bring to religious worship are also present in their work life, suggests research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Researchers showed 444 Christians in the United States 12 pairs of faces that differed in gender and race and asked them which face in the pair looked more God-like. The researchers found that participants were more likely to report that God was male and the same race as themselves. In a second study, 1,012 Christians looked at the faces of 32 job applicants and rated how well each would fit a supervisory position. Christians who conceptualized God as white and male rated white male job applicants more favorably than all other types of applicants. This preference for white male job applicants held for all participants—whether white or black, male or female—that viewed God as a white male. DOI: 10.1037/pspi0000233opens in new window
Another risk of pollution
People who live near a major road or highway have a higher risk of developing neurodegenerative disorders, according to a study in Environmental Health. Researchers analyzed data for 678,000 adults ages 45 to 84 who lived in the Vancouver area from 1994 to 1998. During a follow-up period from 1999 to 2003, the researchers identified 13,170 cases of nonAlzheimer’s dementia, 4,201 cases of Parkinson’s disease, 1,277 cases of Alzheimer’s disease and 658 cases of multiple sclerosis (MS). For each of the disorders, they found that living within 50 meters of a major road or 150 meters of a highway was associated with increased risk, ranging from 7% to 25% increased risk per disorder. For non-Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, the associations were mediated by levels of air pollution. The numbers of Alzheimer’s and MS cases may have been too low to identify linkages of air pollution with those disorders. DOI: 10.1186/s12940-020-0565-4opens in new window
You're gonna love it
People overestimate how much others will appreciate, pay for or wait for objects and experiences, suggests research in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Researchers surveyed 4,748 people across five online and in-person studies, and in each one they found that people overestimate the value of goods (e.g., a treadmill or a round-trip ticket to Paris) and positive experiences (e.g., attending a screening of the latest Star Wars movie). A similar, but opposite, bias was found in a sixth study with 3,096 participants contemplating negative experiences. The researchers suggest the overestimation bias occurs because people believe that others have less nuanced experiences—that is, they have more purely positive reactions to “good” things and more purely negative reactions to “bad” things—than they do themselves. DOI: 10.1037/xge0000700opens in new window
Bilingual babies
Babies born into bilingual homes change the focus of their visual attention more frequently and more quickly than babies in monolingual homes, according to research in Royal Society Open Science. Researchers tracked the gaze of 102 infants ages 7 to 9 months (half of whom were from bilingual homes) while the babies looked at two side-by-side pictures. The researchers found that infants from bilingual homes shifted attention from one picture to the other more frequently than infants from monolingual homes, suggesting these babies were exploring more of their environment, possibly to obtain additional information. The study also found that when a new picture appeared, babies from bilingual homes were 33% faster at redirecting their attention toward it. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.180191opens in new window
Tau tangles predict atrophy
Images of pathological tau protein tangles in the brain can predict future brain atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease patients, suggests a study in Science Translational Medicine. Researchers recruited 32 patients with early-onset Alzheimer’s and used PET scans to measure tau tangles and beta-amyloid plaques, which are both well-known neurological characteristics of Alzheimer’s. The researchers found that tau levels detected in participants’ brains at the start of the study predicted both the location and degree of atrophy over the next year or two. In contrast, beta-amyloid levels did not predict subsequent brain atrophy. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aau5732opens in new window
Autism underdiagnosis
One-fourth of children under age 8 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have not received a diagnosis, and this underdiagnosis is worse among black and Hispanic children, according to a study in Autism Research. Researchers analyzed the school and medical records of 266,000 children in 11 U.S. states who were 8 years old in 2014. They found that of 4,498 children whose records indicated they had symptoms meeting diagnostic criteria for ASD, 25% were not given a formal diagnosis and more than half of those without a diagnosis did not receive ASD services in school. Nonwhite children were less likely to receive a diagnosis, as were those whose symptoms were identified at a later age and those who did not have other developmental issues. The researchers point to the need for children with ASD to be given a formal diagnosis in order to receive appropriate services. DOI: 10.1002/aur.2255opens in new window
To be honest, I'm lying
People sometimes lie in order to appear honest, suggests research in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. In an online experiment, researchers asked 115 Israeli lawyers to imagine working on a case that their client expected would take between 60 and 90 billable hours of work. Half of the lawyers were told that the case would take 90 hours; the other half were told the case would take 60 hours. The participants who “worked” 90 hours billed for only 88 hours, on average, with 18% lying to report fewer hours than they actually worked. Across eight more online experiments with 1,795 participants in Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States, people also underreported exam scores, travel mileage and gambling winnings, all in a similar effort to appear honest. DOI: 10.1037/xge0000737opens in new window
How much longer?
Knowing when a task will end can make people better at it, suggests research in Cognition. Researchers asked 64 Israeli undergraduate students to perform a variety of Stroop tasks and spatial tasks while ignoring distracting stimuli. Participants completed 10 blocks of 240 trials in about an hour and a half. Half of the participants were told the experiment was split into blocks and were given information about how many blocks they had completed as they went along, while the other half were not. Neither group received feedback on performance. The informed participants performed better, as measured by speed and accuracy, particularly toward the experiment’s end, suggesting that knowing when the task was going to end helped them allocate their effort. A second experiment with 83 students and 12 blocks replicated the finding that feedback on progress has a positive impact on performance and also showed that feedback can lead to less mental fatigue. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104189opens in new window
Preventing Parkinson's
People who develop Parkinson’s disease before age 50 (young-onset Parkinson’s) may have been born with defective brain cells that went undetected for decades, suggests a study in Nature Medicine. Using biochemical techniques, researchers generated special stem cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), from blood cells of patients with young-onset Parkinson’s. Like embryonic stem cells, iPSCs can produce any cell type of the human body, including dopamineproducing neurons. The researchers noticed three key abnormalities in the iPSC-derived dopamine-producing neurons from Parkinson’s patients: elevated alpha-synuclein, elevated protein kinase C and malfunctioning lysosomes. In experiments with the iPSCs, the researchers also discovered that a compound currently used to treat skin cancer may be able to reverse these abnormalities, suggesting a possible new intervention for preventing the progress of young-onset Parkinson’s. DOI: 10.1038/s41591-019-0739-1opens in new window
Makeup dehumanizes
Women are perceived as having less humanlike traits when they wear heavy makeup compared with going barefaced, suggests research in Sex Roles. Across four studies, researchers asked 981 participants mainly from the United Kingdom and the United States to rate photographs of women’s faces, which either showed heavy makeup use or no makeup. The researchers found that both female and male participants rated the women with heavy makeup as having less humanness, agency, experience, competence, warmth and morality compared with the women without makeup. Faces with makeup were also rated as more sexualized than faces without makeup. The researchers speculate that heavy makeup prompts people to perceive women’s faces as more objectlike, resulting in a subtle form of dehumanization. DOI: 10.1007/s11199-019-01115-yopens in new window
Exercise rewards
Low-intensity and high-intensity exercise modulate different brain networks, according to a study in Brain Plasticity. Researchers assessed 22 male athletes who, on separate days, engaged in low- and high-intensity treadmill exercise for 30 minutes. Before and after the exercise, researchers used resting-state fMRI to examine functional connectivity of brain regions linked to specific behavioral processes. Participants also completed questionnaires measuring their mood before and after exercising. The questionnaire data showed a significant increase in positive mood after both exercise intensities. The fMRI data showed that low-intensity exercise led to increased functional connectivity in networks associated with cognitive and attentional processing while high-intensity exercise led to increased functional connectivity in networks related to emotional processing. DOI: 10.3233/BPL-190081opens in new window
A drug for autism symptoms
A drug called bumetanide, which has been used to treat edema, improved some symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in young children, and with no significant side effects, according to a study in Translational Psychiatry. Researchers treated 42 children in China with ASD, ages 3 to 6, with 0.5 milligrams of bumetanide twice a day for three months while a control group of 41 similarly aged children with ASD received no treatment. The researchers assessed behaviors such as imitation, emotional response, and verbal and nonverbal communication. The children who received the drug showed improvements in behavior, while those not receiving the drug showed little change. Also, the drug led to a decrease in the ratio of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) to glutamate in the brain, suggesting that this ratio could serve as a biomarker for the effectiveness of autism treatments. DOI: 10.1038/s41398-020-0692-2opens in new window
Puberty blockers
Transgender individuals who received puberty blockers during adolescence have fewer suicidal thoughts as adults than those who wanted the medications but could not access them, according to a study in Pediatrics. Researchers surveyed 20,619 transgender people in the United States ages 18 to 36 and found that 17% of survey respondents said they had wanted puberty blockers. However, less than 3% who said they wanted puberty suppression during adolescence actually received it. About 90% of survey respondents who wanted but could not access puberty blockers experienced suicidal thoughts as adults. For respondents who had been able to access puberty blockers, 75% reported suicidal thoughts. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2019-1725opens in new window
Ageism shortens life
Ageism can reduce life expectancy in older people, suggests research in PLOS ONE. Investigators performed a systematic review of 422 studies from around the world, conducted between 1969 and 2017, that included more than 7 million participants. The research examined ageist attitudes and discrimination at the societal and individual levels, including older persons’ own stereotypes about aging. The investigators found that ageism was associated with lower longevity, lower levels of older people’s physical and mental health, and worse health behaviors. Ageism was also associated with older patients being less likely to receive medical treatment and with lesser duration, frequency and appropriateness of the treatment provided. Further, ageism was associated with lower rates of inclusion in clinical trials. Older people with less education were more likely to experience adverse health outcomes related to ageism than those with more education. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220857opens in new window
Stress and pregnancy loss
In a study in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, 1 in 6 women who had early pregnancy loss experienced long-term post-traumatic stress and anxiety. Researchers surveyed 537 women in the United Kingdom who had a miscarriage before 12 weeks and 116 women who had ectopic pregnancies. They found that one month following pregnancy loss, 29% suffered post-traumatic stress, 24% experienced moderate to severe anxiety and 11% had moderate to severe depression. Eight months later, for women who had a miscarriage, 16% had post-traumatic stress, 17% had anxiety and 5% had depression. Among those who had ectopic pregnancies, 21% had post-traumatic stress, 23% had anxiety and 11% had depression. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2019.10.102opens in new window
Genetics of schizophrenia
Though African populations harbor the greatest genetic diversity because most human evolution occurred in Africa, most genetic studies of schizophrenia have been carried out in people of European and Asian descent. To better understand the genetic variations associated with schizophrenia, researchers examined the genomes of 1,826 Xhosa people from South Africa, half of whom had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. In a study in Science, the researchers found genetic patterns linked to schizophrenia that were generally similar to those of Europeans, but they also identified a variety of rare mutations in genes involved in synaptic function and brain plasticity. The results indicate the high degree of genetic heterogeneity associated with schizophrenia. DOI: 10.1126/science.aay8833opens in new window
