Category: Psychological Science

Can smoking effect your mental health? Dr Robyn Wootton, a genetic epidemiologist studying mental illness talks about her research, art, twins, and why she’s passionate about genetics.

“In the UK, if your car breaks down, you can get help within 60 minutes. When your mind breaks down, it can take 18 months.” There have been multiple examples of this notion that have stuck with me over the years. Mental illness affects 1 in 4 people every year and the prevalence of mental illness is rising at dramatic rates. Having experienced mental health problems myself and having seen close friends really struggle with recurrent mental illness, I became all too aware of how little we can do when someone is really suffering. This lack of funding, both into research and into services has made me frustrated and passionate about trying to help, leading me to become a genetic epidemiologist studying mental illness.

My PhD focused on the genetics of positive mental health (such as happiness, trust, gratitude and optimism) by studying twins and now I’m looking at the association between tobacco/alcohol and mental illness. This year, I got involved in Creative Reactions, which explores the relationships between science and art. The artist I was paired with, Chris Bowles, managed to see connections between my work that I had never noticed before.

Chris noticed the many forms of symmetry (e.g. in the double helix, in pairs of chromosomes, in identical twins etc.) and was particularly interested in how two identical twins, who share 100% of their genetic material, can be discordant for mental illness. That is to say, one twin gets depression and the other doesn’t. You can see this in the two different images Chris has placed side by side. Both have the same double helix in the background, however one looks chaotic and the other more clear. I see this as the same genetics producing different outcomes in different individuals. And of course, these different outcomes are the result of different environments we are exposed to, represented as cigarette smoke throughout the images.

Smoking is much more prevalent amongst individuals with depression and schizophrenia than the general population. This was thought to be due to people with depression and schizophrenia smoking more in order to alleviate their symptoms. But recent research suggests that smoking can also increase your risk of developing depression and schizophrenia due to lasting changes to the brain. This is further evidence that we need to help individuals stop smoking both because of detrimental effects on mental health as well as physical health.

I’m using the method of Mendelian randomisation (MR) to look at whether cigarette smoking really does increases your risk of developing schizophrenia and depression. MR uses genetic variants that make an individual more susceptible to take up smoking. The idea is that these genetic variants are inherited randomly at conception and hence are kind of like a randomised control trial. They should be inherited independently of other lifestyle factors (e.g. education, alcohol consumption etc.) and your genes are fixed for your lifetime and therefore having mental illness cannot go back in time and change the genes you were born with. The University of Bristol has a world leading MRC funded research centre (the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit) where current MR methods are being developed.

I didn’t ever think it was possible to have a career combining so many different things that I was interested in. But if I could go back in time, then I would tell myself to get involved with research earlier on. Especially at Bristol, there are lots of opportunities for undergraduates to help with conducting research experiments. Don’t be afraid to speak to academics.

Don’t be afraid to be passionate about something. During my undergrad, I was always going on about how fascinating I thought genetics was. Someone on my course met an academic who studied genetics of mental illness and told me about her. This turned out to be Dr Claire Haworth, my PhD supervisor. I would never have met her and done a PhD if I hadn’t of banged on all the time about how much I loved genetics!

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Dr Robyn Wootton is a senior research associate in the School of Psychological Science and part of the Tobacco and Alcohol research group (TARG), who conduct research into the psychological and biological factors underlying health behaviours.

Bristol became the first UK university to launch a ‘Science of Happiness’ course in 2018, designed to teach students a set of science-based strategies for living a more fulfilling life. It’s being led by eminent psychologist Professor Bruce Hood, who has carried out world-leading research into how the brain works and how human’s think.

Here’s his top 7 Happiness Hacks for International day of happiness [19 March]:

The course draws on the latest results in psychology and neuroscience to get to the root of what happiness is and how to achieve it, as well as teaching tangible practices which students can apply in their everyday lives. It’s being led by eminent psychologist Professor Bruce Hood, who has carried out world-leading research into how the brain works and how human’s think.

The Science of Happiness (SoH) course has been an extremely popular voluntary 10-week lecture series with over 800 students signing up in the first year. The course combines weekly lectures with weekly happiness hub-meetings run by undergraduate senior students who meet with 6-8 attendees to discuss mental health and well-being.

Professor Hood said: ‘Feedback on the course has been extremely positive. On measures of mental well-being, those who took the course maintained their levels of well-being over the 10-week period leading up to exams, whereas those in the waiting list control group dropped significantly on mental well-being scores over the same period.

This evaluation tells us two things: 1) the first-term is a time associated with reduced mental well-being over the 10-week period for students, and 2) those who attended the course proved to be more resilient.’

It comes amid growing concerns around the mental health and well-being of students, with 94 per cent of universities experiencing a sharp increase in the number of people trying to access support services (IPPR Report – Sept 2017). The course is one part of Bristol’s wider approach to improving wellbeing and pastoral care across the University. Bristol’s new course was inspired by Yale University’s highly-successful ‘Psychology and Good Life’ course – the most popular in its history, with one in four students enrolling.

‘Thank you so much for this inspiring course. It came just at the right time for me as I returned to my studies to reassure me that ‘hiccups’ are normal but to always persevere through to make your dreams come true, knowing people around you care, no matter how hard it is to love oneself at times(!)’ Student taking the Science of Happiness course.

Classes address a series of core issues such as whether happiness is in the genes and can really be changed, how our minds distort happiness, the role of culture in happiness, pursuing experience rather than possessions and how to reset happiness levels. Alongside the theory, students will also learn a variety of exercises to practice and reflect on how these effect happiness-levels through weekly Happiness Hubs.

‘Most people think that the path to happiness is success in jobs, salaries, material possessions, and relationships. While these goals are associated with happiness, they do not necessarily guarantee happiness and indeed, the relentless pursuit of these may actually contribute to unhappiness.’ Professor Bruce Hood.

“The course is aimed at all students and not just those who might identify as having challenges with their wellbeing. Ultimately, the aim of this course is to give students a greater understanding of what happiness is and how the human mind often sabotages happiness. Greater awareness amongst the student body will equip students to pre-empt and improve the mental health of themselves and others.”

Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, Professor Judith Squires said: “This new course is pioneering in the UK. We hope it will be hugely beneficial to our students, not just during their time at university but throughout their lives.

“It’s an example of how our own research can directly benefit the wellbeing of our community, equipping them with the personal skills to thrive and grow in an increasingly complex world. This course is linked to our Bristol Futures initiative, which offers a range of courses and events to support our students’ wellbeing. We look forward to hearing students’ feedback on the course and to working in partnership with our students to develop it further in future years to help them flourish.”