Poverty and mental disorders: breaking the cycle in low-income and middle-income countries
By contrast, mental health interventions were associated with improved economic outcomes in all studies, although the difference was not statistically significant in every study.
Transfer recipients experience large increases in psychological wellbeing. We find no overall effect on levels of the stress hormone cortisol, although there are differences across some subgroups. Monthly transfers are more likely than lump-sum transfers to improve food security, while lump-sum transfers are more likely to be spent on durables, suggesting that households face savings and credit constraints. Together, these results suggest that unconditional cash transfers have significant impacts on economic outcomes and psychological wellbeing.
Financial stress and depression in adults: A systematic review
Some other studies find no relationships when financial stress was indicated by low income. For example, Zimmerman and Katon [16] found that when other socioeconomic confounders were considered, no relationship between low income and depression was observed. Besides, there is evidence showing a negative association between low income and major depressive disorder in South Korea [17]. A 2010 review on poverty and mental disorders also finds that the association between income and mental disorders (including depression) was still unclear [18]. Furthermore, this review finds that compared to absolute income (or wealth), relative income (or wealth) in a reference group is a more important risk factor of depression. There is evidence showing a positive association between low-income ranks and current depression scores as well as follow-up depression scores, while no association is found between absolute low income and depression [58]. The findings here are in line with the previous review, which mainly focused on the association between income inequality and depression [61].
Mental Health Problems Among Young People in Affluent Communities
Instead, they found that affluent neighbourhoods – and the affluence of their school – were more strongly linked to young people’s mental health.
Depression as a disease of modernity: explanations for increasing prevalence
General and specific characteristics of modernization correlate with higher risk. A positive correlation between a country’s GDP per capita, as quantitative measure of modernization, and lifetime risk of a mood disorder trended toward significance (p=0.06). Mental and physical well-being are intimately related. The growing burden of chronic diseases, which arise from an evolutionary mismatch between past human environments and modern-day living, may be central to rising rates of depression. Declining social capital and greater inequality and loneliness are candidate mediators of a depressiogenic social milieu. Modern populations are increasingly overfed, malnourished, sedentary, sunlight-deficient, sleep-deprived, and socially-isolated. These changes in lifestyle each contribute to poor physical health and affect the incidence and treatment of depression. The review ends with a call for future research and policy interventions to address this public health crisis.
The Double-Edged Sword of Affluence
A deeper dive into the distress of affluent children reveals a duality of stressors: achievement pressures and isolation from adults.5 In affluent communities, children are often pressed to excel at multiple academic and extracurricular pursuits to maximize their long-term academic prospects, which in turn may lead to high-stress levels. More recently, the news has highlighted the lengths some affluent parents are willing to go to secure their child’s spot at a prestigious university.6This type of unrelenting pressure for affluent students to excel has been associated with stress-related symptoms such as insomnia, stomach pain, headaches, anxiety, and depression. The term affluent neglect describes the correlation between the commitment to professional development often required of affluent parents and the sense of isolation experienced by their children.
We found that sedentary behaviour significantly increases the risk of depression, especially in individuals under the age of 20. Engaging in appropriate exercise and reducing sedentary behaviour can be beneficial to prevent depression.
Embodied Education represents an educational philosophy emphasizing “physical engagement”, which requires individuals to cultivate dual awareness of both bodily sensations and environmental interactions, with awareness serving as its core mechanism (Singh & V, 2021). The body plays an important role in this process, simultaneously reflecting somatosensory information and environmental interactions (S. Liu & Ba, 2021).
Busting the myth that depression doesn’t affect people in poor countries
While the poor are more likely to be depressed, the vast majority of the poor are not, so poverty alone does not lead to depression.
It is suggested that an integrated embodiment approach with CBT enhances outcomes across a wide range of emotional disorders. A description of our embodiment method integrated with CBT for inducing affective experience, emotional regulation, acceptance of unwanted emotions and emotional mastery is given. Finally, the paper highlights the importance of the therapeutic alliance as a critical component of the change process.
Analyses of sunlight exposure data found that specific photovoltaic power output, global horizontal irradiation, diffuse horizontal irradiation and global tilted irradiation at optimum angle were significantly inversely correlated to COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality. This suggests that stronger sunlight exposure potentially leads to lower COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality. Findings from this study suggest that the relatively low COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality in tropical countries were possibly due to better sunlight exposure that translates into adequate vitamin D status.
COVID-19 fatalities, latitude, sunlight, and vitamin D
The present study finding a strong correlation between latitude and COVID-19 fatalities may be explained by the role of sunlight on the skin producing vitamin D, 5 and the research linking Vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 fatalities.2, 3, 4, 5, 6 While the present study does not address Vitamin D directly, its production in the human body due to UV sunlight exposure, and the known increase of UV radiation intensity closer to the equator lead to the likelihood that populations closer to the equator have more adequate endogenous vitamin D compared with populations farther away, thereby reducing the likelihood of a fatal dysfunction of the immune system in the presence of COVID-19.
The False Narrative of an Africa Unscathed by COVID-19
Africa’s geographic and environmental conditions, including warmer weather and lower population density, may have played a small role in slowing the early spread of COVID-19. Researchers from Georgia State University and University of Dschang found that in 182 countries, urbanized areas were more likely to have higher COVID-19 case rates in the early part of the pandemic. Yet the study also found that the protection afforded by lower population density became less effective as the pandemic continued into 2021.
The Overdiagnosis and Mistreatment of Autism
The ones most affected by this euphemistic fog are not the high-functioning adults demanding validation, it’s the children who still cannot speak, and whose parents are begging to know: Will they ever be able to live independently?
The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness?
Suicide rates among people in most age groups have been increasing steadily for the past 20 years in the United States.
