All posts tagged: finds

Sleep disorders associated with higher risk of dementia, study finds

Sleep disorders associated with higher risk of dementia, study finds

Published by José

A new meta-analysis has found that individuals with sleep disorders face an increased risk of developing dementia. Specifically, those with obstructive sleep apnea had a 45% higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease, while individuals with insomnia had a 59% increased risk of vascular dementia and a 49% higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease compared to people without these sleep disorders. The research was published in GeroScience. Sleep disorders are conditions that disrupt the quality, timing, or duration of sleep, affecting a person’s ability to function during the day. Common types include insomnia, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and narcolepsy. Insomnia involves difficulty falling or staying asleep, while sleep apnea is characterized by repeated interruptions in breathing during sleep. Restless legs syndrome causes uncomfortable sensations in the legs and a strong urge to move them, often disrupting sleep. Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder that leads to sudden episodes of sleep during the day. Sleep disorders can be caused by stress, medical conditions, lifestyle factors, or mental health issues. Chronic sleep problems are linked to fatigue, mood disturbances, memory …

New GLP-1 Survey Finds Users Cutting Restaurant Spend

New GLP-1 Survey Finds Users Cutting Restaurant Spend

Published by skeptic

Last week’s GLP-1 headlines included Novo Nordisk partnering with telehealth platforms Hims & Hers, LifeMD, and Ro to offer its weight-loss drug Wegovy directly to consumers at substantial discounts, aiming to improve affordability and access. Meanwhile, Eli Lilly reported robust demand for its rival anti-obesity medication, Mounjaro. We’ve occasionally highlighted key trends in the GLP-1 space and consumer sentiment around these drugs. The latest consumer pulse comes from a new survey conducted by financial website FinanceBuzz. FinanceBuzz surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults earlier this year and asked whether they have used GLP-1 drugs and for what purpose. What they found is that more than half of the GLP-1 users (52%) dialed back their spending at restaurants. About 37% reduced spending on alcohol, and about 29% reduced supermarket spending.  The survey provided a snapshot of top concerns about GLP-1 drugs from users and potential users… About 20% of Americans have tried GLP-1s. Most Americans don’t plan on starting GLP-1s. However, many are considering the need to lose weight.  In a separate survey, a KFF Health Tracking Poll of 1,500 adult participants …

Every child withdrawn from RSE at faith school, Ofsted finds

Every child withdrawn from RSE at faith school, Ofsted finds

Published by skeptic

All parents at a faith school have withdrawn “their children from relationships and sex education” (RSE), an Ofsted report has found. Although parents are allowed by law to withdraw from the sex education aspect of RSE, withdrawal from relationships is not permitted, raising questions about Ofsted’s findings. Beth Jacob Grammar School, an independent Jewish faith school in London, was also found to not teach compulsory information about different types of relationships and the legal rights of LGBT people. In its report published last week, Ofsted said pupils “do not find out” about all the groups of people protected under UK law and do not gain “clear information about diverse groups in Britain”. Ofsted also said the school’s proprietor and leaders do not ensure the school meets the independent schools standards “consistently and securely”. Independent faith schools are consistently found disregarding legally mandated teaching in RSE which they judge to conflict with their religious beliefs; some seek to keep children uninformed about the world outside their immediate community. Similar failings were also reported in 2023, when …

Testosterone heightens neural sensitivity to social inclusion and exclusion, study finds

Testosterone heightens neural sensitivity to social inclusion and exclusion, study finds

Published by José

A new study published in Neuropharmacology has found that testosterone can heighten the brain’s responsiveness to both positive and negative social experiences. In a carefully controlled experiment, healthy men who received testosterone showed amplified brain activity related to empathy for others’ inclusion and exclusion experiences, even though their self-reported feelings of empathy remained unchanged. These results suggest that testosterone may play a role in fine-tuning social vigilance by strengthening the brain’s sensitivity to emotionally significant cues. Empathy is often described as the ability to understand and share the emotions of others, and it has been widely studied in the context of negative experiences like sadness or distress. However, researchers have paid less attention to how positive empathy—feeling joy for others’ successes—may be influenced by hormones such as testosterone. Most prior research has focused on whether testosterone impairs empathy, particularly for others’ suffering. Much less is known about how it might shape more complex forms of social responsiveness in both positive and negative emotional contexts. The research team sought to bridge these gaps. They designed a …

Impaired identity and negative affectivity predict depression and anxiety symptoms, study finds

Impaired identity and negative affectivity predict depression and anxiety symptoms, study finds

Published by José

A study conducted in Poland examined the relationship between maladaptive personality traits and symptoms of depression and anxiety. It found that impaired identity and negative affectivity were strong predictors of both depression and anxiety, while empathy and detachment were specifically associated with anxiety symptoms. The research was published in Scientific Reports. Maladaptive personality traits are enduring patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that are inflexible, unhealthy, and interfere with a person’s ability to function effectively in daily life or maintain fulfilling relationships. These traits often cause distress to the individual or those around them and can create difficulties in work, social, and personal contexts. Unlike typical personality traits, maladaptive traits are extreme, rigid, and resistant to change. Although they are linked to personality disorders, they can also occur in less severe forms. The main domains of maladaptive personality traits include negative affectivity, detachment, antagonism, disinhibition, and psychoticism. Negative affectivity involves frequent experiences of negative emotions such as anxiety and sadness. Detachment refers to social withdrawal and emotional coldness. Antagonism includes traits like hostility, manipulativeness, and …

Youth with traumatic brain injuries show higher levels of psychopathic traits, new study finds

Youth with traumatic brain injuries show higher levels of psychopathic traits, new study finds

Published by José

A new study published in Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology has found that adolescent males in juvenile detention who have experienced a traumatic brain injury tend to exhibit higher levels of psychopathic traits than those without such injuries. The research also highlights that brain injury severity and number of injuries are linked to lower cognitive functioning and higher substance use—factors that, in turn, are associated with more pronounced psychopathic traits. Traumatic brain injury, often caused by a blow or jolt to the head, can disrupt brain function. While symptoms vary, even mild injuries have been linked to long-term difficulties with thinking, emotion regulation, and behavior. In justice-involved populations, especially among adolescents, traumatic brain injury is common and has been associated with outcomes like substance use, aggression, and poor mental health. Psychopathic traits, which include behaviors such as impulsivity, callousness, and manipulation, are also more common in youth who are incarcerated. These traits are often grouped into two domains: interpersonal and affective traits, like lack of empathy and shallow emotions (Factor 1), and lifestyle and …

Expressing negativity improves support from romantic partners, new research finds

Expressing negativity improves support from romantic partners, new research finds

Published by José

When people face stressful situations, reaching out to a partner for emotional support is a common response. But not all support is created equal—and not everyone receives it in the same way. New research published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin suggests that the way people express their emotions, particularly negative emotions, can influence the quality of support they receive from romantic partners. Across three studies, the researchers found that expressing more negativity—through sadness, worry, or frustration—tended to elicit higher-quality support, even when the stressor was relatively minor. Although receiving emotional support from close partners is linked to better coping and psychological well-being, research has mostly focused on the person giving support. Less is known about how support-seekers might influence the kind of help they receive. The authors, Kirby Sigler and Amanda Forest from the University of Pittsburgh, wanted to understand whether expressing negative emotions helps people receive better emotional support. “I was interested in this topic because social support is an important contributor to individual and relational well-being and I wanted to begin to …

Women unconsciously tune into infant distress, regardless of parental status, study finds

Women unconsciously tune into infant distress, regardless of parental status, study finds

Published by José

A new study published in Biological Psychology has found that women—whether they are mothers or not—are more likely to have their attention captured by distressed infant faces, even when those faces are presented so briefly that they are not consciously perceived. Using eye-tracking technology and subliminal exposure to emotional facial expressions, the researchers discovered that sad baby faces triggered longer reaction times than both happy baby faces and sad adult faces. These results suggest that the human brain may automatically prioritize signs of infant distress, highlighting an unconscious attentional bias that could support caregiving behavior. While previous studies have shown that overt, visible cues from babies—such as facial expressions or cries—readily capture adults’ attention and provoke nurturing behavior, it remained unknown whether this effect would extend to subliminal cues. The research team aimed to determine whether distressed infant faces could influence attention even when they were processed below the threshold of awareness. They also sought to explore whether parental experience modulates this unconscious response. “We were fascinated by the idea that certain emotional signals—like a …

In new book, Adam Sobsey retraces his ancestors’ exodus and finds his Jewish soul

In new book, Adam Sobsey retraces his ancestors’ exodus and finds his Jewish soul

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — Passover is about memory. The central commandment at the traditional seder feast is to remember the exodus, the flight of the ancient Israelites from slavery to freedom. Adam Sobsey’s new book, “A Jewish Appendix: A Memoir,” isn’t about Passover, but it is about tracing the journey his great-grandparents took in 1910 from a small town in northeastern Romania to Ellis Island and eventually to Pittsburgh. Sobsey, 54, never talked to his great-grandparents about that exodus. In fact, they refused to talk about it to anyone. His parents drifted away from their Jewish observance, and he was left with a Jewish identity in name only — sort of like his appendix that was surgically removed in 2018. But the following year, Sobsey and his wife, Heather, took “a sort of speculative ancestry tour” to the place his great-grandparents on his mother’s side came from. The book recounts that three-month journey, which also took Sobsey to Albania, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Greece, a tour he realized later, spanned of the borders of the Ottoman Empire.  …

Nearly all schools now restrict mobile phones, survey finds

Nearly all schools now restrict mobile phones, survey finds

Published by skeptic

Almost all schools restrict phones as mandated by government, but online safety remains a top issue cited by leaders, a major new survey by the Children’s Commissioner has found. Yet the study found just 3.5% of secondary schools are imposing total mobile phone bans. The Children’s Commissioner’s School and College Survey, published on Thursday, gathered results from nearly 19,000 schools and colleges in England. It revealed 90% of secondary schools and 99.8% of primary schools already have policies in place that stop the use of mobile phones during the school day, in line with DfE non-statutory guidance. But the majority (79%) of secondaries allow pupils to bring phones to school if they keep them out of sight and do not use them. Meanwhile 7.9% of secondaries require pupils to hand in their phones during schooltime, while around 10% allow pupils to use their phones at some points of the day, such as breaks and lunchtime. The survey found secondary schools reporting higher concerns about behaviour tended to enforce stricter phone policies, while concerns about online …