Can college drive you crazy? No more so than everyday life, according to a new survey conducted by Columbia University researchers and published in the American Medical Association’s Archives of General Psychiatry. The survey suggests that nearly 46% of college students aged 19 to 25 and 48% of of non-college adolescents the same age suffer from at least one psychiatric disorder. These shocking results are blunted somewhat when you take into account that alcohol abuse is considered a psychiatric disorder.
According to the study, 20.7% of the 2,100 college students polled suffer from alcohol abuse, while another 17.7% have personality disorders. Those of the same age group who don’t attend college are most likely to suffer from personality disorders (21.6%) and nicotine dependence (20.7%). Not surprisingly, college students were found more likely to abuse alcohol than their non-college peers, who were determined to have a higher risk of drug and nicotine addiction, as well as bipolar disorder. However, college students are much less likely to get treatment for their disorders.
Online students beware: a new study conducted by researchers at Universite Laval in Quebec, Canada, indicates that heavy thought might contribute to obesity. The limited study — apparently, there are only 14 obese people in Quebec — suggests that intellectual activity causes increased fluctuations in glucose and insulin levels in your body. Since glucose is the only fuel used by brain cells, the brain may in turn tell the body to replenish the burned glucose by eating more. (more…)
