Could taking probiotics help the post-baby blues?

New study reveals taking a live bacteria tablet during pregnancy could HALVE a mother's risk of post-natal depression

• New research reveals the benefits of taking probiotics during pregnancy
• Probiotics are a live 'bacteria' that can be found in fermented foods
• Study points to a simple way mothers could manage their mental health
• The outcome of this trial suggests an alternative to traditional medications

Women at risk of depression while pregnant, or after giving birth, could benefit from increasing their intake of probiotics during pregnancy, according to a recent New Zealand study.

In Australia, figures show that depression can affect up to one in ten women while they are pregnant, and almost one in seven are affected during the first year after birth.

Researchers from the University of Auckland and the University of Otago surveyed a sample group of 423 women who were between 14 and 16 weeks pregnant.

Taking a probiotic tablet once a day during pregnancy and in the first six-months after birth halved a mother's risk of clinically significant anxiety, the research found. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4990842/Taking-probiotics-pregnancy-helps-post-natal-depression.html

Lack of sleep is linked to depression and anxiety

• Rates of the condition fell by a fifth among insomniacs given therapy to help them rest
• Insomniacs are at greater risk of paranoia, depression, anxiety and nightmares
• Researchers at the Oxford University, monitored  3,890 sleep-deprived people
• They found that people who miss out on sleep damage their mental health

People who do not get enough sleep are at greater risk of paranoia, depression, anxiety and nightmares.

It was previously thought people struggling with depression and mental health problems could not sleep at night as a result.

But a study now shows it is probably the lack of sleep causing these issues and not the other way around. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4860076/Lack-sleep-linked-depression-anxiety.html

• Having seafood at least twice a week reduces the risk of depression
• Omega-3 fatty acids may combine with female sex hormones to help brain
• Around five million Britons are living with depression at any one time

The secret to happiness could lie in something as simple as a tuna sandwich or cod and chips.

Eating fish can keep the blues at bay, according to a new study – but only in women. Researchers discovered that having seafood on the menu at least twice a week reduces the risk of depression among females by 25 per cent. However, for men, fish had no protective effect. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2620307/Feeling-Try-tuna-sandwich-Eating-fish-reduce-risk-depression-25-woman.html

Depression 'over-diagnosed' with drugs dished out to patients who are simply sad or unable to sleep

Million of patients are being wrongly diagnosed with depression when they are simply sad, according to a new report.

Anti-depressants are being dished out to people grieving loved ones, suffering sexual problems or even unable to sleep, claims a newly-published scientific paper published by academics at Liverpool University.

The number of people diagnosed with mental illnesses like depression has doubled since 2002. It is believed more than five million people are now labelled depressed or suffering anxiety in the UK.

Liverpool University's Professor of Primary Medical Care, Chris Dowrick, claims in a new report that up to half of these patients have been misdiagnosed.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, the academic, who also works as a GP, said: 'Over-diagnosis is now more common than under diagnosis.'

He has called for guidelines on diagnosing depression to be tightened and for pharmaceutical companies to be banned from marketing their drugs to GPs.

'Over recent decades there has been an increasing tendency, especially in primary care, to diagnose depression in patients presenting with sadness or distress and offer them anti-depressant medication,' he wrote. Read more at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2534408/Depression-diagnosed-drugs-dished-patients-simply-sad-unable-sleep-warns-expert.html