PsychBriefs: January 13-19, 2008

Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work.

Bisexuality more than a phase
A ten-year study of 79 non-heterosexual women shows that bisexuality in women should not be viewed as a transitional or temporary phase. Bisexual subjects stayed consistently attracted to both sexes throughout the length of the study and rarely came to identify themselves as either lesbian or heterosexual. The study also dispels the idea that these women are unlikely to commit: At the conclusion of the study, 89 percent of bisexual women were involved in a monogamous relationship of at least one year.
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Anthropomorphism helps alleviate loneliness
Pets, gadgets and God can help compensate for loneliness, shows a series of new experiments. Researchers found that people were more likely to believe in God, angels and miracles at lonely points in their lives and tended to ascribe human characteristics to animals when they were made to feel alone.
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Brain activity illustrates benefits of intensive OCD therapy
PET scans of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) patients receiving desensitization therapy, show changes in brain activity after just four weeks of treatment. The scans revealed significant reductions in brain cell activity in the right and left thalamus, areas linked to OCD, following treatment. The study also showed increases in activity in the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, an area of the brain associated with the suppression of negative emotions, congruent with improvements in OCD symptoms.
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