PsychBriefs: April 21-27, 2007

Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. This week: April 21-27, 2007.

Findings On Monkey Cognition Help Scientists Study Autism
Columbia's Primate Cognition Laboratory has demonstrated for the first time that monkeys have the ability to reflect about their thoughts and to assess their performance, despite their lack of language. Researchers hope this research will allow them to further study the cognitive abilities of infants and autistic children.
[STORY] [ABSTRACT] [FULL TEXT]

Brain Needs Sleep And Time To Remember
A new study shows the brain requires a good night's sleep to remember and make sense of "the big picture."
[STORY] [ABSTRACT] [FULL TEXT]

Counseling After Suicide Eases Only Feelings Of Blame
Dutch researchers have found that cognitive behavior grief counseling programs reduce feelings of blame but do not help with grief or depression experienced by family members of people who commit suicide.
[STORY] [ABSTRACT] [FULL TEXT]

Eating Habits In Rats May Hold Key To Treating Binge Eating Disorder
A study involving rats and Oreo® cookies offers clues to treating obesity and binge eating in humans.
[STORY] [ABSTRACT]

Deep Brain Stimulation To Treat Therapy-Resistant Depression
German researchers report success in treating resistant cases of severe depression using electrodes designed to stimulate the brain's reward system.
[STORY] [ABSTRACT] [INTERVIEW]

Delayed Development In Siblings Of Autistic Children
Thirty percent of children who have older siblings with autism experience delays in verbal, cognitive and motor development. Researchers say this is because they often inherit genes that cause a weakened expression of autistic symptoms.
[STORY] [ABSTRACT]

Gender Differences In Political Interviews
A linguistic analysis of similar interviews of Bill Clinton and Hilary Clinton respectively, shows that each tended to conform to their gender roles in the interviews, largely because the interviewers were more likely to address them along gender lines.
[STORY] [ABSTRACT]

Ceiling Height Affects Thoughts And Feelings
Those in the real estate industry have long noted the value of a high ceiling despite having little empirical evidence to back it up. However, a new study shows that high ceilings invoke feelings of freedom, allowing people to think creatively while lower ceilings cause people to feel confined, and thus focus on specifics.
[STORY]

Many Smoke During Pregnancy, Study Shows
An estimated 12.4 percent of pregnant women in the United States are addicted to cigarettes and as many as 21.7 percent of pregnant women use cigarettes shows a study of 1,516 pregnant women age 18 and over. Researchers found a correlation between dysthymia, major depressive disorder, and panic disorder and women who continued to smoke during pregnancy.
[STORY] [ABSTRACT]

Self-Help Materials May Alert Binge Drinkers To Harmful Behavior
Sending out a self-help pamphlet to interested drinkers in the general population reduced binge drinking by 10 per cent in a Canadian study. Researchers say this is because reading statistics on norms may challenge the perception of many binge drinkers that their behavior is common.
[STORY] [ABSTRACT]