If you have a family history of a particular mental disorder there is a chance you have some of the genes associated with it. However this doesn’t mean that you will definitely develop that disorder, you just have a genetic predisposition to it. The genetic component to mental disorders is…
Saying that depression is just about feeling sad is just like saying ‘the flu is only about sneezing’. This blog explains why depression is more severe, persistent and pervasive than sadness. Written by PhD student Rosa Cheesman and placement student Tilly Minchin.
People often believe that those who struggle with a mental illness can ‘snap out of it’ or ‘get a grip’ but this isn’t true. The severity of symptoms can vary both between people and over time, but this doesn’t mean that the mental illness is no longer present. Beliefs like…
Mental health research does not aim to identify a single factor to “blame” for a disorder. Instead, researchers hope to understand the complex interplay of a number of different factors and use this information to generate new approaches to prevention and treatment. “Our mental health is the…
Next up in our myth-busting series, Yasmin [EDIT lab PhD student] and Elisavet [EDIT lab placement student] address the common misconception that you either have a mental health disorder or you don’t. The truth is, it’s not that simple. We all have mental health, be it good or average…
In this week’s EDIT Blog Mythbusters series, Meg and Daniel explain why depression, and other mental health conditions, should be taken as seriously as physical health problems.
Researchers from EDIT lab and the Twins Early Development Study have just published an article about the genetics of the ‘p factor’ across childhood and adolescence. What is the p factor and what did they find?
Psychological therapies, such as cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) are first-line treatments for the most common mental health problems, namely anxiety and depression (National Institute for Care and Excellence, 2009), and yet they are only partially effective. For example, similar to anti-anxiety/antidepressant medications, approximately half of individuals do not experience a…
Unfortunately, mental health problems are sometimes seen as a sign of weakness. This view can be held by unaffected individuals as well as the sufferers themselves, who believe that they would cope better if only they were stronger characters. Here, we discuss why this is NOT the case and why…
Yasmin [EDIT Lab PhD student] outlines our latest publication on anxiety symptoms in the family. Anxiety in parents is associated with anxiety in offspring, but it’s not yet clear how this happens. We conducted the first study to use a ‘genetically sensitive’ research design to examine the effects of mother,…
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