A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
The largest study of its kind has shown that smoking during pregnancy could cause epigenetic changes in the fetus, resulting in birth defects and health problems later in life. Christina Markunas of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and her colleagues have found that newborn children of mothers who smoked while pregnant are more [...]
Most youngsters believe their parents are oblivious to their web activities, while some admit to making fake social media profiles and fudging browser histories to deceive tech-savvy ones, a new report shows. Seventy per cent of children aged between 8 and 17 said their parents did not know about all their internet activities, a survey involving [...]
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about some of the places to access advice on helping kids (and/or yourselves) with regard to being online. Last week, the ACMA blog published the latest findings from Roy Morgan Research, providing the latest findings around how Aussie teens are using the internet. Whether or not the findings [...]
Australia had a quick and effective response to HIV at the start of the epidemic. Some 30 years later, however, there’s a tendency to underestimate the sheer effort involved in maintaining HIV prevention responses. Misinformation and lazy assumptions about quick fixes can mar sustained and effective HIV prevention. The nation’s initial response was multifaceted. On [...]
Millions of people with mental health issues lead happy, productive, and extremely normal lives. Many people with mental health conditions never tell their loved ones, and their behavior may be no different from people without mental health conditions. Indeed, more than 25% of Americans receive a mental health diagnosis at least once. But this doesn’t [...]
I expected that within 10 years we would have found the major genes that contribute to schizophrenia, depression, and autism. Since then, there has been a lot of enthusiasm about genes and mental illness and some false starts, but surprisingly little progress. via Eric Kandel: A Biology of Mind.
The tendency of people to forge friendships with people of a similar appearance has been noted since the time of Plato. But now there is research suggesting that, to a striking degree, we tend to pick friends who are genetically similar to us in ways that go beyond superficial features. For example, you and your [...]
Teenagers are experiencing more depression and anxiety than they did a decade or more ago, with doctors reporting an increase in the most serious and difficult cases. A review of 19 studies conducted across 12 countries has found the majority showed a deterioration in the mental health of teenage girls when it came to depressive and [...]
Paula Orbea started the online petition on Friday after her 11-year-old daughter saw the message on a van in the scenic Blue Mountains west of Sydney during the school holidays. It has so far been signed by nearly 25,000 people. "I agree with free speech, but where is the line? At what point do we [...]
Countries are gradually giving up the goal of high GDP and trying to find a better measure of human well-being. Science will help us to do that. I reckon that over the next few decades we will see biomarker measures come to be used in a systematic way, and genetic markers are in that spirit." [...]
