Mindfulness therapy works for recurrent depression

LONDON: For people with recurring depression, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy may be more helpful than other treatments, according to a new analysis.

Cognitive therapy focuses on substituting constructive patterns of thinking for maladaptive thought processes. Mindfulness meditation focuses on being aware of incoming thoughts and feelings and accepting them without reacting to them.

Combining mindfulness techniques with cognitive therapy should be an option for patients, according to study leader Willem Kuyken of the University of Oxford in the UK.

“It is about choice for patients and adding another choice for people at high risk of depressive relapse to stay well in the long-term,” Kuyken told Reuters Health in an email.

“When mindfulness is combined with cognitive therapy, one of the things we see is people being trained to regard their thoughts as just thoughts and not to get ensnared by them,” said Richard Davidson, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study.

The research team analyzed data on 1,258 participants from nine randomized controlled trials that compared mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) to other treatments for recurring depression among people who were fully or partially in remission.

Overall, people receiving MBCT were about 31 percent less likely to have depression again after 60 weeks, compared to people who received other treatments, including self help.

After excluding self help, the researchers found that people who received MBCT were still 21 percent less likely to have depression again after 60 weeks, compared to people on other treatments.

MBCT worked equally well regardless of age, sex, education, relationship status, age at onset of depression and previous episodes.

However, in people with more severe depressive symptoms, MBCT worked especially well, compared to other treatments.

“Depression is a recurrent illness,” said Davidson, of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Relapse is a very significant problem with depression, and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy may be particularly valuable in reducing the risk of relapse.”

The researchers write in JAMA Psychiatry April 27 that MBCT teaches skills that help people with recurrent depression to stay well.

Davidson said there is no one-size-fits-all approach to depression. MBCT may be a good choice for some people, but not all.

“We need to better understand it and that’s one of the important tasks of future research,” he told Reuters Health.

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Qatar National Bank says systems ‘secure’ after cyber attack

DOHA: Qatar National Bank said on Sunday that its systems were “fully secure” following a cyber attack which potentially exposed the names and passwords of tens of thousands of customers.

In a statement released on its website, QNB also said that the hack would have “no financial impact” on its customers but admitted for the first time that clients in Qatar had been targeted.

“QNB Group’s Risk Team monitored abnormal activity in our system environment, this was immediately communicated to relevant authorities,” read the statement.

“We also took immediate steps and our systems are fully secure and operational. The attack only targeted a portion of Qatar-based customers.”

The data leak, which was reported late last month, was said to include details such as mobile phone numbers, credit card numbers and international bank transactions.

Media reports claimed that a 1.4GB trove of documents was leaked online anonymously.

Among the information reportedly leaked were the bank details of several journalists working for satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera, which has its headquarters in Doha.

Another folder leaked apparently revealed details of the work of internal and overseas intelligence agencies and the country’s ruling family.

But many Qatar-based customers were left in the dark as in its only previous statement, QNB said it refused to comment on social media reports after reports of the hack circulated online.

The bank’s statement on Sunday said some of the information released online was culled from “non-QNB sources”.

“While some of the data recently released in the public domain may be accurate, much of it was constructed and contains a mixture of information from the attack as well as other non-QNB sources, such as personal data from social media channels,” it said.

“We believe the nature of this incident is fundamentally an attempted attack on QNB Group’s reputation and not specifically targeted at our customers,” it added, stressing all customers accounts were “secure”.

QNB is one of the largest banks in the Middle East, and last month reported a first quarter seven percent increase in profits to almost $800 million, despite the impact of low global oil prices.

Puerto Rico to default on $422 mn debt payment: governor

SAN JUAN: Puerto Rico’s financial crisis deepened Sunday as Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla announced the US commonwealth would default on $422 million in debt.

The governor said that San Juan can’t pay creditors when it needs to fund public sector salaries, health and education budgets, which, if neglected, could unleash a “humanitarian crisis.”

Puerto Rico has been locked in recession for a decade, and already defaulted on some debt payments at the beginning of the year.

Despite sweeping spending cuts and some policy reforms, it has not been able to stop the deterioration of its budget deficit.

Garcia Padilla says he does not want a bailout but simply legal ability to restructure existing debt.

But in order to do so, the US territory in the Caribbean needs the Congress in Washington to act, and it will not for partisan political reasons, the governor said.

“This was a painful decision. We would have preferred to have had a legal framework to restructure our debts in an orderly manner,” he said in a somber televised address.

“I have had to make a choice, and I made a choice,” he added.

“I have decided that your basic needs are more important than anything else,” he told the territory’s 3.5 million residents.

The $422 million in bond obligations is owed by the Government Development Bank (BGF).

Prior defaults by the island were smaller in nature; this one includes debt held by Wall Street bondholders and hedge funds.

With a debt of about $70 billion, the island is basically bankrupt; the BGF only has $562 million in assets.

“We have asked the US Congress time and time again to give us the tools to restructure our debts,” the governor said. “We do not want a bailout, nor has one been offered. We want a process to restructure, which won’t cost US taxpayers anything.”

Residents of this former Spanish colony won by the US in 1898 eventually were given a type of US local government with a legislature and governor.

Island natives have American citizenship but cannot vote in US presidential elections if they are Puerto Rico residents.

Puerto Rico’s relationship with the US federal government is largely handled by the US Interior Department.

Garcia Padilla stressed that he firmly opposed US federal control over locally earned tax dollars.“That would be reestablishing colonial rule over Puerto Rico, and would be reopening a Pandora’s box with extremely dangerous consequences,” he warned.

akistanis amongst top five expats remitting money

DUBAI: A United Arab Emirates based money exchange service provider has included Pakistanis in its list of top five expatriate nationalities in the Gulf remitting money by availing their services.

According to a foreign news agency, the money exchange provider company named Wall Street Exchange has stated that top five expatriate nationalities availing their services have been Indians, Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans.

The company, with the help of its currency rates and customer facilities, reported a 10 percent growth in its business for 2015.

Wall Street Exchange’s Chief Marketing and Support Services Officer Sultan Al Mahmoud said, “We recorded a substantial 10 per cent growth in the total value of remittance in 2015 compared to 2014. ”

He went on to say that the expatriate also found it easy to avail their services such as credit card and utility bill payments while sending money to their countries.

Mahmoud said that the increase in number of expatriate sending money to their home countries is one of the reasons why the growth in remittance is taking place. He added, “The weakening of various currencies against the US dollar encouraged more expatriates to remit money”.

According to the World Bank Group’s Migration and Remittances Fact book 2016, India topped the Top 10 list of remittance receiving countries with an estimate of $72.2 billion followed by China with $63.90 billion. Phillipines was placed at third position with $29.7 billiion.

Pakistan was at eight place on the list with remittances recorded at $20.1 billion while Bangladesh was at 10th spot with $15.8 billion worth of remittances.

UAE was named in the list of top migrant countries by the World Bank with the likes of Saudi Arabia, United States of America, Canada, Russia, Australia and Spain.

Mahmoud expressed his optimism that the remittance business will grow in 2016. He referred to UAE Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s statement which stated that 252,000 work permits were issued in the first two months of this year.

U2 guitarist The Edge makes history as he rocks Sistine Chapel for cancer

The Edge, lead guitarist with the Irish band U2, has become the first rock star to play in the Sistine Chapel, a venue he described as “the most beautiful parish hall in the world”.

The performer, whose real name is David Evans, sang four songs on Saturday night for about 200 doctors, researchers and philanthropists who attended a conference at the Vatican on regenerative medicine called Cellular Horizons.

Backed by a choir of seven Irish teenagers, and wearing his trademark black beanie cap, he played acoustic guitar and sang a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “If it be your will”, and versions of U2 songs “Yahweh”, “Ordinary love” and “Walk on”.

The Edge, whose father died last month from cancer and whose daughter overcame leukaemia, is on the board of foundations working for cancer prevention.

He joked with his audience, telling them he was stunned when asked to play in the chapel which was painted by Renaissance master Michelangelo in the 16th century.

“When they asked me if I wanted to become the first contemporary artist to play in the Sistine Chapel, I didn’t know what to say because usually there’s this other guy who sings,” the musician said, referring to U2 front man Bono.

“Being Irish you learn very early that if you want to be asked to come back it’s very important to thank the local parish priest for the loan of the hall,” he said.

He then thanked Pope Francis and other Vatican officials “for allowing us to use the most beautiful parish hall in the world”.

The Edge dedicated his performance of “Walk on”, written in 2000 for Myanmar democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi when she was under house arrest, to Pope Francis, who he described as “the people’s pope”.

“He’s doing an amazing job and long may he continue,” he added.

The rock star sprinkled his address with technical terms such as bio markers and angiogenesis.

“I can tell this is a really cool audience because normally when I say angiogenesis eyes glaze over,” he said. Angiogenesis is the process through which new blood vessels, which tumours need to grow, are formed. Scientists are seeking ways to block tumour angiogenesis.

The Vatican conference, which was addressed by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Friday, was organised by the U.S.-based Stem for Life Foundation to share ideas and treatments on the use of adult stem cells to cure rare diseases.

Trump hits out at Clinton and Cruz ahead of Indiana primary

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump hit out hard at Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz Sunday, sounding unapologetic two days before a key primary in Indiana he says will decide the Republican presidential race.

A new poll ahead of the winner-take-all vote Tuesday put the Republican frontrunner far in front of Cruz, who is hoping the Midwestern state will act as a Trump firewall.

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Trump concentrated on attacking Clinton, doubling down on his much-criticized statement that the likely Democratic nominee’s only appeal to voters is the “woman’s card.”

“She’s done a lousy job in so many ways and even women don’t like her,” he said. “But it is the woman’s card and she plays it. And I will let you know in about six months whether or not she plays it well, but I don’t think she’ll play it well.”

“If she were not a woman, she wouldn’t even be in this race,” he added.

Clinton dismissed his comments on CNN.

“I have a lot of experience dealing with men who sometimes get off the reservation in the way they behave and how they speak,” she said, going on to criticize a talk Trump gave this week, billed as his first major foreign policy speech.

“I found it disturbing,” she said.

With a path to the Democratic nomination for her rival Bernie Sanders virtually impossible, Clinton sounded confident looking ahead to November’s general election, saying she would work with him to shape her party’s platform.

The Vermont senator who calls himself a Democratic socialist wasn’t throwing in the towel, however.

At a news conference in Washington, Sanders appealed to hundreds of so-called superdelegates in a bid to snatch the nomination.

These number around 700 and, in contrast to “pledged” delegates, can vote for any candidate at the party’s national convention in Philadelphia in July, which culminates the nomination process.

Either candidate needs 2,383 delegates in order to clinch the nomination. Currently, Clinton has 2,176, including 510 superdelegates, while Sanders has 1,400, including 41 superdelegates, according to a CNN tally.

Clinton “will need superdelegates to take her over the top at the convention in Philadelphia,” Sanders told reporters.

“It is incumbent upon every superdelegate to take a hard and objective look at which candidate stands the better chance of defeating Donald Trump,” he said.

– ‘A real liar’ –

Trump on Sunday also targeted Cruz, dismissing his closest Republican rival’s criticism of Trump’s endorsement by former boxing champion Mike Tyson, whom Cruz called a rapist.

“No big deal, I didn’t have a meeting or anything, I haven’t seen Mike in years,” the real-estate billionaire said on Fox.

Asked whether a victory for Trump in Indiana on Tuesday would clinch the nomination for him, Trump said, “Yes, it’s over,” adding, “I think it’s over now.”

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll released on Sunday gave Trump a 15 point lead in Indiana.

The survey gave him 49 percent of likely Republican primary voters, followed by 34 percent for Cruz and 13 percent for the third-place candidate, Ohio Governor John Kasich.

Although Trump has beamed with confidence at his Indiana rallies, the GOP battle is going down to the wire.

The debate over Trump is focused on whether he can win a majority of the 2,472 delegates who choose the nominee at the Republican convention in July.

Should he reach the magic number of 1,237, the nomination is his because nearly all delegates are bound to vote for their candidate in the first round.

If Trump falls short before the convention, Cruz hopes to snatch the nomination on a second ballot when most delegates become free to vote for whomever they choose.

Trump currently has 1,002 delegates, compared to 572 for Cruz and 157 for Kasich, according to a CNN tally.

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Cruz dismissed the contention that with it being “mathematically impossible” for him to clinch the nomination in the first ballot, winning on the second ballot would be seen as stealing the nomination.

“Nobody’s going to clinch it on the first ballot,” the conservative US senator from Texas said. “It’s why Donald Trump is so desperate to say the race is over now.”

Cruz fired back at Trump, saying on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the tycoon “is attempting to perpetuate one of the greatest frauds in the history of modern elections, which is he is trying to convince people that he’s some sort of outsider.”

“Donald and Hillary are really flip sides of the same coin,” he added. “If we end up in the general election having two candidates on the ballot who are both big government, rich New York liberals, we will have profoundly failed this country.”

Cruz evaded questions about whether he would bow out of the Republican contest if he loses in Indiana.