Workaholics risk depression, internet addiction!

If you were one of the nearly three-quarters of workers logging on to work emails instead of switching off over the holidays, it could be unhealthy and counterproductive, researchers warn.

British psychologists found it is workplace high-fliers, rather than students or the unemployed, who risk isolation, depression and anxiety disorders as they increasingly show signs of internet addiction.

More than 60 per cent of participants said they used the internet compulsively and that was strongly linked to working excessively, even when emotional stability was taken into account.

Cristina Quinones-Garcia of Northampton Business School and Nada Korac-Kakabadse of Henley Business School surveyed 516 people, both employed and unemployed, on their emotional stability, workload, life satisfaction and internet usage.

More than 60 per cent of participants said they used the internet compulsively and that was strongly linked to working excessively, even when emotional stability was taken into account.

The researchers said the addictive tendency of compulsive internet use was seen strongest in the the employed group and they were therefore more at risk to the withdrawal symptoms of isolation, anxiety and depression.

The researchers told the British Psychological Society's Division of Occupational Psychology annual conference that workplace over-achievers were more likely to burn out more quickly, and their performance in the office would suffer.

They warned that companies should set limits on out of office work expectations to take pressure off and help workers relax with their families.

Auckland registered psychologist Sara Chatwin said "workcreep", where employees increasingly stay alert and prioritise work above all else, is occurring in New Zealand and the study results are not surprising. "It's dog eat dog and people want to be on top . . . but I see it all the time and this is an increasing phenomenon and stress is a killer.

"People are increasingly staying plugged in. That means they cannot relax and get the benefits of that relaxation process," she said.

An Expedia survey of 300 New Zealand workers found 73 per cent of them log in to check work emails when they are on holiday, with nearly a third checking them regularly throughout a trip away.

Chatwin said it may be the case that workers were wanting to check in on what was awaiting them on their return to the office.

"In some of the workplace cultures we have, where it's hyper-competitive or there, are mantra's like ‘always please the client' and ‘the customer is always right', you're bound to end up with these work activities creeping in and becoming habits," she said.

Prenatal Depression Affects Infant's Brain to Increase Risk of Anxiety and Depression

Children of depressed parents are at an increased risk of developing depression themselves, a combination of both genetic and environmental factors. However, because offspring brain and behavior are commonly assessed years after birth, the timing of such maternal influences is unclear.

In a study published in Biological Psychiatry, Dr. Anqi Qiu, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore along with colleagues examine the association between antenatal maternal depressive symptomatology and neonatal amygdala volume and microstructure and thus establish evidence for the transgenerational transmission of vulnerability for affective disorders during prenatal development.

The researchers recruited 157 Asian mothers at 10 to 13 weeks pregnancy and assessed maternal depression at 26 weeks gestation using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (a 10-item questionnaire that was developed to identify women who have postpartum depression). Afterward, the newborns aged six to fourteen days old underwent magnetic resonance imaging scans to ascertain the structure of their amygdala and diffusion tensor imaging scans to determine the integrity of the amygdala's pattern of neural connections.

After adjusting for household income, maternal age, and smoking exposure, postconceptual age at magnetic resonance imaging, and birth weight, found significantly lower fractional anisotropy (p = .009) and axial diffusivity (p = .028), but not volume (p = .993), in the right amygdala in the infants of mothers with high compared with those with low-normal Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale scores. That is to say the amygdala's microstructure (e.g., its "wiring") was abnormal in the infants born to depressed mothers.

This finding suggests propensity for abnormal amygdala function, a feature of mood and anxiety disorders, may be transmitted from mother to child during fetal life.

The researchers write “These findings suggest the prenatal transmission of vulnerability for depression from mother to child and that interventions targeting maternal depression should begin early in pregnancy.”

This study provides added evidence supporting the notion that mental health screening should be included among the medical evaluations that women undergo when they discover that they are pregnant. Indeed, the authors conclude that their study supports that "interventions targeting maternal depression should begin early in pregnancy."

Dr. John Krystal, MD, Robert L. McNeil Jr. Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Neurobiology; Chair, Department of Psychiatry; Chief of Psychiatry, Yale-New Haven Hospital, leading expert in the areas of alcoholism, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorders and Editor of Biological Psychiatry commented "Attention to maternal health during pregnancy is an extremely high priority for society for many reasons.” The notion that maternal depression might influence the brain development of their babies is very concerning. The good news is that this risk might be reduced by systematic screening of pregnant women for depression and initiating effective treatment."

Casual Sex Causes Depression and Leads to Suicide!

Casual sex can cause depression and can even lead to thoughts of suicide, a new study suggests. Researchers interviewed around 10,000 people and found that teenagers with depressive symptoms were more likely to engage in casual sex. These same people were more likely to seriously consider suicide later in life, according to the study. Dr Sara Sandberg-Thoma, of Ohio State University and lead author of the study, said: 'Several studies have found a link between poor mental health and casual sex, but the nature of that association has been unclear. 'There's always been a question about which one is the cause and which is the effect. 'This study provides evidence that poor mental health can lead to casual sex, but also that casual sex leads to additional declines in mental health.' Young people from 80 American schools and 52 middle schools were interviewed when they were in grades seven to twelve and then again when they were aged 18 to 26. They were asked questions about relationships, depression and thoughts of suicide. Twenty nine per cent of the subjects said they had experience of a casual sexual relationship, which was defined as 'only having sex' with someone as opposed to dating. This included 33 percent of men and 24 percent of women. The link between casual sex and mental health was found to be the same for both men and women according to the study published in the Journal of Sex Research. Dr Claire Kamp Dush, professor of human sciences at Ohio State University, said: 'That was unexpected because there is still this sexual double standard in society that says it is OK for men to have casual sexual relationships, but it is not OK for women. 'But these results suggest that poor mental health and casual sex are linked, whether you're a man or a woman. Researchers found that each additional casual sexual relationship increased the odds of suicidal thoughts by 18 percent. However they also found that although casual sex was linked to suicidal thoughts, it did not have any effect on depressive symptoms. It is thought that this may be because depressive symptoms fluctuate during adolescence and it is hard to capture an accurate reading when it is only measured twice. 'Just because a person does not indicate depressive symptoms in one survey is not always proof that he or she is doing OK,' said Dr Kamp Dush. 'We need to look at multiple indicators of mental health, including suicidal thoughts.' 'The goal should be to identify adolescents struggling with poor mental health so that we can intervene early before they engage in casual sexual relationships,' said Sandberg-Thoma. 'Young adulthood is a time when people begin to learn how to develop long-term, satisfying and intimate relationships,' said Dr Kamp Dush.

Singapore Celebrities Who Battled Depression

1. Stefanie Sun / Sun Yan Zi

Reports in 2011 stated that Stefanie Sun admitted to suffering from depression for a year.

During that period of time, she could hardly speak and was suspicious of everyone around her.

Shin Min evening daily reported that the singer very quickly shot to fame, but within the first 3 to 4 years of stardom, she suddenly "retired" from showbiz for a year.

Sun admitted that she would avoid colleagues who knocked on her door by blasting music and pretending she didn't hear them to avoid all matters relating to work. Others from showbiz speculated that the star's quick rise to fame brought too much stress and pressure, causing her to sink into depression.

When Sun was interviewed by a Hong Kong entertainment channel and quizzed about her health condition, she admitted she had struggled with depression.

She said: "That period of time was the lowest point in my life."

She added that she could hardly talk or relate to others at work. Even though she wanted to strike a conversation, she could not bring herself to.

Her thoughts also became very negative, thinking the worst of all her problems.

She would have doubts about the encouragement that came from close friends. When she received affirmation and applause from fans, she felt all of it was false.

As a result, Sun felt that she had to take a break from showbiz, knowing that her condition would worsen if she did not retreat to rest.

She also said candidly that she faced opposition with wanting to take a break because she was the main money spinner for her record company at that time.

Now the singer, who is in better spirits, attributes her recovery to friends who have given her the space for self-reflection. She realised that the world still revolves without her, and things go on - a realisation that has helped her to see more meaning to life.

2. Quan Yifeng

"A successful person isn't necessarily happy, but a happy person will be successful." Quan Yifeng, the Taiwan-born MediaCorp host has been receiving treatment for severe depression, anxiety and sleep problems since 2007.

She also suffered post-natal depression after giving birth to her daughter in 1999.

During the course of her treatments, Quan said she has changed many therapists, but they mostly referred to her experiences before coming up with a diagnosis.

She said: "In this 10 years, I haven't lost my temper in situations where I should have lost my temper. In situations where I should not have lost my temper, I lost my temper, making me very confused.

"I felt that people were trying to harm me... I was suspicious about the people around me."

She said that she was once afraid to drink a cup of water because she thought that someone might have poisoned it. The fear caused her to lose weight until she was just 39kg, she said. 

3. Mavis Hee

In June 2006, Hee hit the headlines in Singapore when she was arrested after harassing two hotel guests at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. She was warded at Singapore's Institute of Mental Health, and was diagnosed with clinical depression after a stay of four weeks. She was not charged by the police. In October 2006, she came out to explain her actions in a series of interviews with the Singapore media, explaining that she was on the road to recovery. She also thanked her fans for their immense support all these years.

4. Yvonne Lim

Yvonne Lim's failed relationship caused her depression

The actress went through a bout of depression and was heavily dependent on sleeping pills after her engagement was called off.

She is more wary when it comes to matters of the heart now as the bubbly actress recounted her most heartbreaking relationship to date. Lim shared that her relationship with her ex-boyfriend reached the stage of "marriage" and he eventually proposed to her. The actress sunk into depression and even contemplated suicide after the other party broke off their engagement.

Lim shared that she grew unhappy with each passing day and decided to let go of this heartbreaking relationship. "Back then, I was really hurt by it. I stayed by myself for six months and eventually sunk into depression. I had to see a doctor and depended on sleeping pills to get some rest. I thought about suicide but did not do anything foolish when I thought of my family."

5. Thomas Ong

Local actor Thomas Ong has revealed that his decision to forgo having a single place to stay for three months caused him to suffer from depression.

Speaking at the press conference for his new TV drama Secrets for Sale, the former MediaCorp star said that after moving in and out of rented apartments for the past 10 years, he "wanted to experience what it's like to be without a home."

During those three ‘homeless' months, Ong primarily stayed with two of his friends, who let him use their guest room or living room. Occasionally, we would stay at a budget hotel or live with his godson in Kuala Lumpur.

The nomadic lifestyle caused him to suffer both physically and mentally. He said: "I didn't know it would be so depressing not having a fixed place to go back at the end of the day."
Even though he knew that he was slipping into depression, he did nothing to stop the slide, saying: "I wasn't in a clear state of mind then. I intentionally wanted to have this experience. Maybe actors are sickos."

Ong is much better now after meeting a senior financial advisor, Mr Hang Chang Choon, who encouraged him to start planning for his future.

With Mr Hang's advice, Ong decided to become a financial advisor as well, learning how to manage his finances as his life.

Looking back on his bleakest period, he says that he "always knew that it was just an experiment and that (he) would be okay in a few months time".

Five Psychiatric Illnesses Shares Genetic Risk

These psychiatric illnesses seem very different — schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, major depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Yet they share several genetic glitches that can nudge the brain along a path to mental illness, researchers report. Which disease, if any, develops is thought to depend on other genetic or environmental factors.

In a new study published in lancet, the genetic data of 60,000 people were analysed. The findings strengthen an emerging view of mental illness that aims to make diagnoses based on the genetic aberrations underlying diseases instead of on the disease symptoms.

Two of the aberrations discovered in the new study were in genes used in a major signaling system in the brain, giving clues to processes that might go awry and suggestions of how to treat the diseases

The work began in 2007 when a large group of researchers began investigating genetic data generated by studies in 19 countries and including 33,332 people with psychiatric illnesses and 27,888 people free of the illnesses for comparison. The researchers studied scans of people’s DNA, looking for variations in any of several million places along the long stretch of genetic material containing three billion DNA letters. The question: Did people with psychiatric illnesses tend to have a distinctive DNA pattern in any of those locations?

Researchers had already seen some clues of overlapping genetic effects in identical twins. One twin might have schizophrenia while the other had bipolar disorder. About six years ago, around the time the new study began, researchers had examined the genes of a few rare families in which psychiatric disorders seemed especially prevalent. They found a few unusual disruptions of chromosomes that were linked to psychiatric illnesses. But what surprised them was that while one person with the aberration might get one disorder, a relative with the same mutation got a different one.

Jonathan Sebat, chief of the Beyster Center for Molecular Genomics of Neuropsychiatric Diseases at the University of California, San Diego, and one of the discoverers of this effect, said that work on these rare genetic aberrations had opened his eyes. “Two different diagnoses can have the same genetic risk factor,” he said.

In fact, the new paper reports, distinguishing psychiatric diseases by their symptoms has long been difficult. Autism, for example, was once called childhood schizophrenia. It was not until the 1970s that autism was distinguished as a separate disorder.

But Dr. Sebat, who did not work on the new study, said that until now it was not clear whether the rare families he and others had studied were an exception or whether they were pointing to a rule about multiple disorders arising from a single genetic glitch.

“No one had systematically looked at the common variations,” in DNA, he said. “We didn’t know if this was particularly true for rare mutations or if it would be true for all genetic risk.” The new study, he said, “shows all genetic risk is of this nature.”

The new study found four DNA regions that conferred a small risk of psychiatric disorders. For two of them, it is not clear what genes are involved or what they do, Dr. Smoller said. The other two, though, involve genes that are part of calcium channels, which are used when neurons send signals in the brain.

New test to detect suicidality?

A simple measurement of the sweat gland activity of a depressed person can determine if he or she is suicidal - with 97 per cent accuracy. Now another large clinical study confirms the correlation.

Blood pressure, blood circulation and activity in the sweat glands of the fingers can reveal if a person is suicidal.

"The results are so strong that I'm astonished", says Lars-Håkan Thorell, associate professor in experimental psychiatry at Linköping University, one of the researchers behind the study. "We can determine very accurately whether a person risks committing suicide, which can revolutionise suicide prevention."

In the German-Swedish study, published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, 783 depressed in-patients in Germany were tested for hyporeactivity - reduced ability to react to various stimuli. A suicidal depressed person reacts differently to environmental changes, compared to a healthy person. The result confirms previous research stating that there is a strong correlation between hyporeactivity and suicide in depressed people.

The test found that hyporeactivity was present in up to 97 per cent of depressed patients who later committed suicide, compared to just 2 per cent of the depressed patients who were not hyporeactive.

But the study also shows there is no relation between the severity of depression and hyporeactivity. Associate Professor Thorell: "It indicates a certain per cent, even if the normal population can have this neurophysical disorder. Everyone who has it is not suicidal - but almost all suicidal, depressed patients have it."

Hyporeactivity was most prevalent in the bipolar patients: of 126 patients, 80.2% were affected, compared to 67.3% of the depressed patients and 58.5% of those with other diagnoses. The study also shows that people with recurrent depression run a risk of becoming hyporeactive at some later point in life.

"It was probably the case that certain nerve cells in the hippocampus are damaged by depressions and negative stress."

Hyporeactivity can be measured by the test person listening to a pattern of tones, while the body's reactions are measured via sensors on the fingers. The first time they hear a tone, virtually all people react. This is a general orientation reaction which occurs automatically. But when the tone is heard again, the reaction decreases amongst some people: the hyporeactive.

"A depressed person has a biological inability to care about the surroundings, while a healthy person continues to react."

Associate Professor Thorell will now engage the spin-off company Emotra to conduct a study in some 15 countries together with his co-authors, including Professor Manfred Wolfersdorf, professor of psychiatry and director of the Bayreuth city clinic, and Professor Wolfgang Kaschka, University Hospital Ulm.

Suicide rates in Singapore hit an all time high in 2012

Suicide rates in Singapore hit an all time high in 2012 according to a local charity group.

(AFP, 12 Jul) – Suicide rates in Singapore hit an all time high of 487 in 2012 according to a local charity group dealing with the problem.

The Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) say there has been a 29 per cent increase since 2011 as more young people, bogged down by stress and relationship woes, took their own lives.

“These include unemployment, stress with studies or work, financial worries, family life, struggles with social interactions and feelings of loneliness,” said SOS.

SOS provides emotional support through private counselling and a 24-hour telephone hotline to prevent suicides.

Christine Wong, executive director of SOS, says young people under stress tend to hide their pain behind a facade, not knowing where, how or who they can approach for help.

“People around them may not be aware of their distress and are hence, unable to provide the support needed,” Ms Wong said.

Ms Wong says the community should play an important role in “de-stigmatising” suicide by encouraging those under stress to talk about their struggles and suicidal feelings.

SOS received 39,994 calls on its telephone hotline in 2012, down from 40,025 in 2011.

Suicide cases have consistently hovered around two percent of total deaths in Singapore, an affluent city-state of 5.3 million residents known for its pressure-laden school system.

Despite a virtually full employment rate, Singapore also has a highly competitive work environment.

Suicide is an offence in the compact island-state and anyone who survives an attempt faces a jail term of up to a year, a fine or both.