Thursday, October 11, 2018

World Mental Health Day 2018


World Mental Health Day

World Mental Health Day is observed every year on the 10th of October to take awareness of mental health issues into the community. The theme for 2018 was Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World[1].

Pathfinder Clinic WMHD2018 Event

On World Mental Health Day 2018 Pathfinder Clinic psychologists manned a desk for the day in the atrium at Magarpatta City, Pune. They used a short mental health quiz to pique the interest of anyone entering the shopping complex and rewarded all participants with an origami patronus! They were also administered a test of their current resilience. Our psychologists engaged in over-the-counter discussions on what constituted mental health issues. People brought out their own family and interpersonal problems, and to many it was an eye-opener that mental health issues could be contributory.

Why focus on young people?

Young people don't vote. They often don't have a voice and depend upon others to champion their right to health justice. The growing prevalence of youth mental health problems is a tsunami, and parents, the community and governments float in a small boat, named “denial”, on the quiet sea[2]. Most mood and anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia have their onset in this age group[3]. Investing in early intervention programs is not only beneficial for patients, but also cost-effective[4].

What is changing in the young persons world?

The increasing use of online technologies and growing connectivity to virtual networks through the day and night add to pressures faced by adolescents. It is unclear whether some of these changes affect normal aspects of human behavior and cause psychiatric disorders. At the other end of the spectrum are young people caught in humanitarian crises due to conflict and environmental disasters that can overwhelm the coping ability of the individual.

Building resilience in young people

Resilience in young people is determined by their personal and social resources. Engaging young persons in therapy builds resilience through processes of bouncing back and personal growth[5]. Resilience is also built through the process of enhancing immunity to stress by 'innoculation', especially if the prior stress occurs early in life, is mild in its magnitude, and is controllable by the individual[6].

References

  1. WHO. World Mental Health Day 2018. Accessed 2018-11-03
  2. Helen Christensen, 1 Charles F. Reynolds, 3rd, 2 and Pim Cuijpers. Protecting youth mental health, protecting our future. World Psychiatry. 2017 Oct; 16(3): 327–328. Published online 2017 Sep 21. doi: [10.1002/wps.20437]. Accessed 2018-11-03
  3. Cornelius LR, van der Klink JJ, de Boer MR, Brouwer S, Groothoff JW. High prevalence of early onset mental disorders among long-term disability claimants. Disabil Rehabil. 2016;38(6):520-7. doi: 10.3109/09638288.2015.1046566. Epub 2015 May 14. Accessed 2018-11-05
  4. Celso Arango. First-Episode Psychosis Research: Time to Move Forward (by Looking Backwards). Schizophr Bull. 2015 Nov; 41(6): 1205–1206. Published online 2015 Sep 20. doi: [10.1093/schbul/sbv126]. Accessed 2018-11-05
  5. Ayed N, Toner S, Priebe S. Psychol Psychother. Conceptualizing resilience in adult mental health literature: A systematic reviewand narrative synthesis. 2018 Jun 11. doi: 10.1111/papt.12185. [Epub ahead of print]. Accessed 2018-11-16.
  6. Ashokan A, Sivasubramanian M, Mitra R. Seeding Stress Resilience through Inoculation. Neural Plast. 2016;2016:4928081. doi: 10.1155/2016/4928081. Epub 2016 Jan 5. Accessed 2018-11-16.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Diet and mental health

strawberries


Mental health and diet quality are closely linked. The food choices you made as a teenager affect the development of conduct and emotional problems that continue into adulthood. Lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity are attributed to changes in diet and exercise habits. Recently there is increasing evidence that diet and exercise also have a major influence on mental health. Dieting peaks after the festival season. This post will help you avoid the 'isms' and fads and point you in the direction indicated by current research.

A good quality diet predicts better mental health

Evaluating the quality of the complete diet provides a better and more consistent picture of nutrition status than focusing on individual nutrients like magnesium or food groups like various fatty acids (omega, polyunsaturated). A traditional diet of vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, and whole grains is associated with lower risk for depression and for anxiety disorders as compared to a "western" diet of processed or fried foods, refined grains, sugary products, and beer (Jacka 2010).

Switching to a high quality diet improves mental health

Switching to a healthy diet improves mental health. Unhealthy diets are associated with lower scores on mental health tests. The best part is that improvements in diet quality are mirrored by improvements in mental health (Jacka 2011). Also the reverse, when diet quality deteriorates psychological functioning is adversely affected.


What constitutes a high quality diet?

The quality of diet is assessed using food frequency questionnaires. Points are allotted for each type and frequency of food consumed. For example one point is allotted for each of at least two fruit servings per day, at least four vegetable servings per day; using reduced fat or skimmed milk, using soy milk, consuming at least 500mL of milk per day; using high fibre, wholemeal, rye or multigrain breads; having at least four slices of bread per day; using polyunsaturated or monounsaturated spreads or no fat spread; having one or two eggs per week, using cottage cheese, using low fat cheese. Out of a maximum possible score of 74, the average is about 33.0 (+9.0).You can get some idea of your diet quality score from this chart (Collins 2008).

Preventive psychiatry

Improving diet quality improves mental health outcomes. Especially for adolescents this is an important preventive intervention. Three quarters of all long term psychiatric illness manifest during adolescence and early adulthood (Kessler 2005) . These illness are among the most disabling. They occur with a high enough frequency to contribute a major portion of life years lost due to disability. Mental health illnesses cause long-term problems at work and at home. They usually persist over the lifetime and require medication and support at various stages. Adopting a high quality diet is an important primary preventive intervention for improved mental health - easy to implement and proven to be effective.

References
  1. Collins CE, Young AF, Hodge A (2008). Diet quality is associated with higher nutrient intake and self-rated health in mid-aged women. J Am Coll Nutr 27: 146–157.
  2. Jacka FN, Pasco JA, Mykletun A, Williams LJ, Hodge AM, O'Reilly SL, Nicholson GC, Kotowicz MA, Berk M. Association of Western and traditional diets with depression and anxiety in women. Am J Psychiatry. 2010 Mar;167(3):305-11. Epub 2010 Jan 4.
  3. Jacka FN, Kremer PJ, Berk M, de Silva-Sanigorski AM, Moodie M, Leslie ER, Pasco JA, Swinburn BA.A prospective study of diet quality and mental health in adolescents. PLoS One. 2011;6(9):e24805. Epub 2011 Sep 21.
  4. Kessler RC, Berglund P, Demler O, Jin R, Merikangas KR, et al. (2005) Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry 62: 593–602.