What happens to us in our childhood has a lot to do with our future mental health, that has been known for a long time. Now, an international study carried out by members of IDIBAPS and the mental health CIBER area (CIBERSAM), Linköping University (Sweden) and King’s College London (United Kingdom) has investigated more about how the environment affects us in the development of mental disorders.
And it is that, mental problems can be due to many factors and the combination of both, for example, biological, genetic, environmental or psychological. Some of these causes are not modifiable, but most of them are, especially those related to lifestyle or society.
The research, which has been published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, sought to find out if by improving society and lifestyle there would be fewer mental disorders, since it is one of the major health problems, which according to Joaquín Raduà, one of the authors of the study, affects one in five people.
38% less schizophrenia, reducing childhood adversities
The results of the work indicated that if childhood adversities or bullying were reduced, 38% of cases of schizophrenia could be avoided, and depression could be reduced by 15% in child abuse. In addition, they also found that reducing work stress could prevent one in five cases of depression, or what is the same, 20% of them.
Something as simple as doing more physical exercise could reduce cases of Alzheimer’s by up to 15%
Regarding the impact of lifestyle in mitigating this type of problem, they observed that doing more physical exercise would reduce Alzheimer’s cases by 15%, that lowering metabolic risk factors, such as blood fats, could prevent 10% of depression cases. Finally, taking measures against being overweight before and during pregnancy would prevent one in 15 cases of autism in babies.
As the authors explain, by improving society and changing lifestyles “we could prevent millions of people from developing mental disorders. But it also means that many disorders, probably most, would still be there. That is why it is so important to dedicate more resources to mental health research to create treatments that more effectively improve the quality of life of people with one of these disorders.”
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