National Coalition on Mental Health and Aging Meets

The National Coalition on Mental Health and Aging held its first quarterly meeting of 2009 in February at the American Psychological Association in Washington, D.C. The featured speaker was Dr. Marie Bernard, Deputy Director for the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health. By way of background, Dr. Bernard related that NIA was established in 1974 to support and conduct research on aging. The divisions at NIA include the Division of Aging Biology, Division of Behavioral and Social Research, Division of Neuroscience and the Division of Geriatrics and Clinical Gerontology. $63 million is budgeted for mental health studies at NIA.

Several topics are currently being studied at NIA including aging and mental health; cognitive function and psychosocial factors; caregiver stress; stress, aging and the immune system; and midlife, menopause and depression.

Dr. Bernard discussed current NIA efforts including the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregivers Health (REACH) project. The project has helped improve the quality of life and lower the prevalence of clinical depression. The research shows that even one additional hour of free time for caregivers resulted in positive outcomes.

Dr. Bernard related some other NIA research findings:

• Nearly 18 percent of those 65 and older experience depressive symptoms.
• Lack of sleep, an issue for many caregivers, increases blood pressure, increases blood sugar, increases appetite, depresses mood and impairs cognition.
• Caregivers often experience a reduction of white blood cells which inhibits the ability to fight infection.
• Physical activity for older adults is beneficial for a number reasons including obvious ones such as maintaining a healthy weight, improving bone and muscle strength, improving outlook and reducing caregiver stress. Two of the less obvious benefits are that physical activity is more beneficial for preventing diabetes than medication and physical activity improves cognition.

For more information about NIA visit http://www.nia.nih.gov/

Also noted at the meeting Older Americans Mental Health Week will be May 24 – 30, 2009.