1. Road noise may raise your risk for depression
People who live with constant road noise may face a higher risk of developing depression, according to a study at the Centre for Urban Epidemiology at University Hospital Essen, Germany, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The risk was about 25 percent higher for people living in areas with a lot of traffic, compared to those living in areas with little road noise.
Read more on this study here.
2. Anxiety around the arrival of a new baby affects men as much as it does women
Anxiety around the arrival of a new baby is just as common as postnatal depression, and the risks for men are nearly as high as for women, researchers have found. A mental health researcher reviewed 43 separate studies and found anxiety before and after a child arrives is just as prevalent as depression, affecting around 1 in 10 men, around half the rate for women.
For the full study, visit here.
3. Bright light therapy may treat non-seasonal depression
Bright light therapy has been used effectively for seasonal affective disorder (SAD), the kind of depression that comes on at a specific time every year, often the dark days of late fall and winter, and then lifts – it’s particularly prevalent in the Northern Hemisphere. Now a new study has found that it may work to treat non-seasonal depression as well.
For more on this study, visit here.
4. Eating more fish may lower your risk of depression
In a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health in September 2015, researchers from the Medical College of Qingdao University in China reported that people who consumed the most fish had a 17 percent lower risk of depression than those who ate the least amount of fish.
For more on this study, read here.
5. Eating refined carbohydrates could increase your risk for depression
In 2015, US researchers also found that a diet high in refined carbohydrates could be a risk factor for the development of depression in post-menopausal women. This study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition examined the dietary glycaemic index (GI), glycaemic load, types of carbohydrates consumed and depression in more than 70 000 postmenopausal women who participated in the National Institute of Health’s Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study between 1994 and 1998.
The researchers found that higher GI values and the consumption of added sugars and refined carbohydrates were associated with an increased risk of new cases of depression in post-menopausal women. The study also found that greater consumption of dietary fibre, whole grains, vegetables and fruit (in whole form, not juice) was associated with a decreased risk of depression. This, according to the researchers, suggests that dietary interventions could serve as treatments and preventive measures for depression.
See here for more on this study.