Mental Health Questions And Answers: Dr Ashwin Venkataraman – Clinical Research Fellow

Studies that track people over time show taking up physical exercise seems to reduce the risk of developing mental disorders, indeed not only does research show regular exercisers have better mental health and emotional wellbeing and lower rates of mental illness. On longer trips, he finds he is flooded with creative thoughts and afterwards notices a definite improvement in his sleep. Physical positive parts of exercise can be especially important to those with severe mental illnesses similar to schizophrenia, who die on average 16 to 20 years earlier than the general population -largely because of physical health risk factors stemming from poor access to medical care, poor diet, little exercise and weight gain about medication use. It’s a well-known fact that the benefits for physical health are so extensive, that even if it doesn’t as an example, alcoholism is associated with diabetes mellitus, hypertension and head injury which all increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia.

The majority of conditions and alcohol consumption result in inflammation in the brain, and in Alzheimer’s disease neuroinflammation is associated with beta amyloid deposition in the brain.

Excessive alcohol drinking is commonly recognised as leading to brain damage and cognitive difficulties, however importantly it also increases the risk of other dementias. So here is the question. Alzheimer’s disease? Awareness raising events like World Mental Health Day do a huge amount to raise the profile of psychiatric illnesses. Notice that’s important as these illnesses often have little resources and funding in many areas of the world, and in some suffer significant social, cultural and political barriers to access evidence based care. Eventually, events like World Mental Health Day are necessary, and do contribute to this. Sounds familiar? I firmly believe most of us know that there is no health without mental health, and feel the need, alongside my colleagues, for parity of esteem for Psychiatry.

I work as part of the Perinatal Psychopathology and Offspring Development research group led by Professor Paul Ramchandani at the Centre for Psychiatry.

We particularly focus on the perinatal period and the first few years of life.

Accordingly the group is interested in understanding how best to prevent mental health problems in children. I believe a key research question in this field is. Sadly are important strides to reduce stigma associated with mental health in recent years. World Mental Health Day plays an important part of efforts to increase public understanding of mental illness and I am in involved in a study called Healthy Start, Happy Start, led by Professor Ramchandani.

Children with established behavioural problems are at risk of significantly worse outcomes through childhood and into adult life including their educational achievement, and mental and physical health.

So research is funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment to test the clinical and cost effectiveness of an early intervention programme for young children at risk of developing behavioural problems. Consequently, research has shown that behavioural problems affect 510″percentage of children. We asked a few of our ‘world leading’ researchers in the Department of Medicine to pinpoint the most pertinent questions facing them in their work, and to share their views on the importance of World Mental Health Day. Generally, professor Anne ‘Lingford Hughes’ We need to characterize brain mechanisms underlying substance misuse and addiction to inform that which underpins vulnerability to these psychiatric disorders, and how they are best treated.

We will investigate if alcoholism also leads to betaamyloid deposition in the brain by using only one imaging technique that can measure beta amyloid in the brain, Positron Emission Tomography.

This provides a potential mechanism by which alcoholism may result in Alzheimer’s disease, if beta amyloid is found.

With that said, this will allow us in the future to identify the underlying mechanisms of alcohol related brain damage and how this links with Alzheimer’s disease to possibly inform new prevention and treatment strategies. You see, we will assess if ‘beta amyloid’ is associated with memory, genetics, and changes in the brain using Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Current treatments are lengthy and very few people receive them, psychological treatment can help. Professor Michael Crawford My focus is on personality disorders, that are severe and distressing mental health conditions. Usually, a key innovation of the HS, HS study is to offer ‘VIPPSD’ to one or two caregivers including dads, mums and grandparents.

Besides, the study has enrolled going to be delivered widely across the NHS. Plenty of individuals experience mental health challenges but the stigma surrounding them means they are often hidden. Undoubtedly it’s therefore very necessary to continue to raise awareness.

Currently, we are using two neuroimaging types -positron emission mography and magnetic resonance imaging -to image the neurotransmitters in the brain and brain responses during processes involved in addiction viz reward, impulsivity and emotional dysregulation as well as cue reactivity. In addition we link these with pharmacological challenges to see how the system responds and if it differs in controls against addicts. With newspapers and television frequently portraying children, mental health is often misunderstood, young people and adults with mental health problems in a negative light. For instance, just as someone has experienced a mental health problem at some stage in their lifetime, By the way I feel I know it’s really important to raise awareness around what mental health is, specifically on days like World Mental Health Day. Mental health, like physical health, is important through all stages of life but starts from conception. Through raising awareness of the value of early support for children, we can reduce stigma and develop accessible services.