According to researchers at Texas A&M International University, the strongest risk factors for violent behaviour were depression and having delinquent peers. Other factors included a parent’s psychological abuse of a partner, anti-social personality, negative relationships with adults and family conflict, they said. Overall, the researchers found, the factors that did increase the risk of violent behaviour had pretty small effects.

Amnesia is a condition that severely disrupts the aptitude to create lifelong memories. Pertaining to the topic, the long-held hypothesis that our brains utilize diverse mechanisms for producing long-term and short-term memories has been confronted by a new study from UCL Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience. After observing patients with amnesia, this theory was created by neuroscientists. The team examined patients with a detailed type of epilepsy known as ‘temporal lobe epilepsy with bilateral hippocampal sclerosis’.

According to a research conducted at the Mayo Clinic points to a mind-body connection through nerves, hormones, and chemicals in the brain and body. Hypnosis is best used in conjunction with other forms of therapy. The Mayo Clinic lists the following benefits of hypnosis: changing negative habits (stop-smoking), reduce stress and anxiety, control pain, relieve irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), lower blood pressure, reduce frequency and intensity of migraines, treat asthma, and heal skin disorders.

A new study, published in an editorial in the October issue of British Medical Journal, has indicated a link between mental illness and obesity in patients. “Evan Atlantis from the University of Adelaide’s School of Medicine said that several psychosocial, lifestyle and physiological factors may be involved in the complex inter-relationship between obesity and mental illness. Reduced physical activity and overeating, particularly comfort foods rich in fats and sugars, to improve mood are common among depressed and anxious patients.

According to a new study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, psychosocial therapy combined with medication can effectively improve depression and recovery in stroke patients. The long-term study indicated that adding psychosocial therapy not only improved depression scores short term, it also sustained the improvements for long term.