Getting help for depression in Scotland – support groups, online & face-to-face courses, newsletter, telephone service, and more
20th December 2009
The e-newsletter from Depression Alliance Scotland (DAS) popped into my inbox last week. What good work they do. The new information that particularly caught my eye was access to an online facilitated self-help course. The description runs: "We have a new service offering support for people to use Living Life …
NICE guidance on promoting mental wellbeing at work
17th December 2009
There are several recent research studies I've come across that highlight the need for better working conditions. Magnusson Hanson & colleagues' research on "Psychosocial working conditions and depressive symptoms among Swedish employees" shows clear links between decision authority, conflict & support and the development of subsequent depressive symptoms, while Nyberg …
Berlin weekend: self-affirmation theory
13th December 2009
All day Friday and all day Saturday exploring Berlin. Then on Saturday evening we went to a reasonable restaurant and this morning - Sunday - I woke with what seems to be a pretty good dose of food poisoning. Humph. Well it's been a peaceful day for me with my …
Berlin weekend: approaches to happiness
12th December 2009
Berlin, Saturday morning. We flew in from Edinburgh pretty early yesterday. Direct flight. Easy. Guilt over air travel a little allayed by buying carbon offsets through ClimateCare. We're staying in a Miniloft, one of the really nice set of self-catering apartments designed by Matthew Griffin & Brita Jurgens, an architect …
Recent research: six studies on depression - adolescents, heart disease, telephone management, memories, & primary care
10th December 2009
Here are half a dozen recent research papers on depression (all details & abstracts to these studies are listed further down this blog post). The first two are about the well-known Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS). There have been a whole series of research papers published on this …
Handouts and internet resources for healthy eating
7th December 2009
Here are details of information leaflets and other excellent resources about food. "We are what we eat" is bit over-simplified, but only a bit. It's amazing how important what we eat and drink is for our psychological and physical health. This site's blog posts "New research shows diet's importance for …
New research shows diet’s importance for preventing depression
6th December 2009
You know how it is - no buses in sight, then two come along at once. It's been a bit similar for good research on diet and depression. There have been plenty of studies on individual components of diet and mood (e.g. fish, folate, other B vitamins), but very little …
Recent research: articles from November journals
3rd December 2009
I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - EndNote - which currently contains over 13,600 abstracts. Every few weeks I scan through all the articles I've found interesting in the previous month (in the general areas …
Recent research: diet associated depression, weight & violence, vitamin D fall prevention, IBS & anxiety, yoga & mindfulness
26th November 2009
Here are a mixed bag of six recent research papers on diet, vitamin D, IBS and yoga (all details & abstracts to these studies are listed further down this blog post). The first three papers highlight the toxic effects on psychological health, physical health, and society of our processed, high …
Peer groups: Cumbria autumn group – reflection
25th November 2009
Wednesday morning - about 36 hours since we got back to Edinburgh and less than a week since we began the group. The last half day started as usual with some of the "self-care practices" that quite a few us use (Tai Chi, meditation, running, and so on). Good breakfast, …