Markham's Behavioral Health

Link between reduced sleep and childhood obesity

From Science Daily on 05/20/14:

One of the most comprehensive studies of the potential link between reduced sleep and childhood obesity finds compelling evidence that children who consistently received less than the recommended hours of sleep during infancy and early childhood had increases in both obesity and in adiposity or overall body fat at age 7.

Editor's note: 

I have found this research on the link between obesity and sleep deprivation interesting because most of my adult life I was sleep deprived due to my work schedule. I noticed over those years I gained almost 100 lbs going from 180 to 280 over a period of 30 years. Now that I am retired and sleeping much more, I have found it much easier to lose weight.

Copycat suicides

From Science Daily 

Heightened newspaper coverage after a suicide might have a significant impact on the initiation of some teenage suicide clusters, according to new research published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal. The study reveals that the content of media reports is also important, with more prominent stories (ie, published on the front page) and those that describe the suicide in considerable detail more likely to be associated with so-called copycat suicides.

"Our findings indicate that the more sensational the coverage of the suicides, and the more details the story provides, then the more likely there are to be more suicides," explains lead author Dr Madelyn Gould from the New York State Psychiatric Institute in the USA.

Editor's note: When I do a risk assessment on a client who is suicidal I always ask if they know someone, or is there someone in their family who has committed suicide. If the answer is "yes" this increases the risk.