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Discrimination is never pleasant and it can result in stress, but can it actually harm your mental health? According to a new research study from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the Department of Epidemiology at UCLA the answer could be yes. Dr. Vickie Mays, a professor at the School of Health, explained “We now have decades of research showing that when people are chronically treated differently, unfairly or badly, it can have effects ranging from low self-esteem to a higher risk for developing stress-related disorders such as anxiety and depression.” Mays continued by stating “We know that when people have a psychiatric disorder, it’s not good for any of us. For example, it can affect parenting — a depressed mom might not be able to interact with her child in a way that best promotes that child’s development, leaving the child more vulnerable to certain behavioral disorders. In that sense, we all suffer from the effects of discrimination.”
Department of Community Health Sciences professor Dr. Gilbert Gee performed an earlier study on mental health, discrimination, and stress which also demonstrated similar findings and showed the mental health impact that discrimination can have. According to Dr. Gee “Much of the research has focused on symptoms of sadness and anxiety resulting from the mistreatment, and that’s very important, but we wanted to look at clinical outcomes. If you don’t get a job and you’re left to wonder whether it had to do with your race or gender, that can have an impact on your mental health.”
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Bariatric surgery is used to treat severe obesity, and a new study shows that patients who require this type of surgery usually suffer from mental health issues as well. These mental health problems typically include binge eating, depression, and even social anxiety. In addition to determining the prevalence of mental health disorders in people who were considering bariatric surgery the researchers also wanted to see whether these disorders had an impact on the weight loss and results that patients had after they underwent the bariatric procedure. The study conclusions and statistics were published in the journal JAMA. University of California-Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine researcher Dr. Aaron J. Dawes was part of the team who undertook the study, and a total of 59 publications on bariatric surgery and mental health disorders were analyzed using the meta data. These publications covered more than 65,000 patients who fit the study criteria.
The study on bariatric surgery and mental health problems in obese patients showed that almost 1 in 4 patients in this group had a mood disorder. These mood disorders included depression, which affected 19% of the patients, and binge eating disorder, which was present in around 17% of the patients. Approximately 12% of the individuals who were analyzed as part of the study had anxiety. Bariatric patients seem to suffer from mental health issues in greater numbers than the general population and the higher rates are cause for concern. According to the research team “Previous reviews have suggested that self-esteem, mental image, cognitive function, temperament, support networks and socioeconomic stability play major roles in determining outcomes after bariatric surgery.”
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A number of research studies have shown that probiotics are an important food group that can offer mental health benefits. The study results have shown that individuals who have more good bacteria in their intestines and digestive system tend to have better mental as well as physical health, but why? How does bacteria in your gut affect your mental health? Which foods have probiotics in them? What about supplements? All of these are questions that you probably need answered. More beneficial bacteria in your digestive system promotes faster and more effective detoxification, a stronger immune system, and other positive benefits. People who include more probiotics in their diet generally have fewer negative thoughts, they are less anxious, and they have a better mood than individuals who do not regularly eat fermented foods which naturally contain large numbers of probiotics.
In the studies on probiotics and mental health researchers found that people who did not consume these beneficial bacteria as part of their regular diet had lower levels of brain activity in areas of the brain associated with emotion as well as other functions. An increase in foods with probiotics increased the activity in these brain areas. Foods that are rich in probiotics are usually foods which have been fermented. Yogurt, kombucha, kimchi, and sauerkraut are all foods that have a lot of probiotics in them. When purchasing yogurt make sure that the product actually has live probiotic cultures in order to get the benefits of these good bacteria, some commercial yogurts may have little if any live bacteria cultures.
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New research has many experts calling for mental health and substance abuse benefit integration for children and adolescents. These problems are delivered most effectively through the primary medical care setting, and that is especially true with younger age groups like children and adolescents. Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles have confirmed that this is the most beneficial relationship. According to the researchers integrating mental health and substance abuse benefits into the primary care model improved outcomes by as much as 66% for children and adolescents. UCLA professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, lead study author, and UCLA Youth Stress and Mood Program director Joan Asarnow, Ph.D. explains “The take-home message is that integrated care works. Kids and teens do better than they otherwise would. That’s promising because we have a huge mental health problem in this country.”
Dr. Lonnie Zeltzer, UCLA distinguished professor of pediatrics, anesthesiology, psychiatry, and biobehavioral sciences and a study co-author, discussed the integration of mental health and substance abuse into primary care models for children and adolescents. “The old model has been that if your child has a medical problem, he or she goes to the pediatrician. But mental health was often not addressed, or if it was, patients were referred to a mental health specialist, and the child’s health insurance determined whether or not the child had access to the mental health specialist as well as the quality of that care. Children of poorer families lost out.” Asarnow also stated “Integrated approaches bring mental health care to a setting where kids already are, reducing barriers to mental health care such as stigma or the practical complications of shifting to a different care setting.”
