Psychology News and Research Briefs Archive
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Kids, Not Teachers, Challenge Gender Roles Even trained teachers may have trouble implementing gender equality in the classroom, while children often challenge the boundaries of sex roles on their own. Continue reading Kids, Not Teachers, Challenge Gender Roles
Are Antidepressants Targeting the Wrong Problem? Researcher challenges two widely held beliefs about depression: That it is triggered by stress and that it arises from imbalances in neurotransmitters. Continue reading Are Antidepressants Targeting the Wrong Problem?
Depression and Anxiety Affect Many Preschoolers Researchers say up to 15 percent of children under age five are affected by high levels of depression and anxiety. Continue reading Depression and Anxiety Affect Many Preschoolers
Workplace Suicides Increase 28 Percent Occupational suicides increase by 28 percent last year, reports the Department of Labor. Continue reading Workplace Suicides Increase 28 Percent
New Insight On Why Cohabiting Before Marriage May Increase Risk of Divorce New study shows that "testing" the relationship by living together may point to problems. Continue reading New Insight On Why Cohabiting Before Marriage May Increase Risk of Divorce
Alzheimer's Risk: Ignorance Isn't Bliss A new study shows that learning you have a genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease does not produce long-term depression or anxiety. Continue reading Alzheimer's Risk: Ignorance Isn't Bliss
Can Summer Jobs Prevent Teen Suicide? Holding a summer job has surprising benefits for teens at risk of suicide. Continue reading Can Summer Jobs Prevent Teen Suicide?
Army Suicides Continue to Rise A report shows Army suicides have risen for the fourth month in a row, continuing a rising trend. Continue reading Army Suicides Continue to Rise
Witnessing Family Violence As A Child May Lead to Depression, Alcoholism in Adulthood Witness violence between parents before the age of 18 has been found to have great effects on adult mental health including increased risk of depression, alcoholism and spousal and child abuse. Continue reading Witnessing Family Violence As A Child May Lead to Depression, Alcoholism in Adulthood
Kindergarten Behavior Predicts High School Test Scores Research finds that attention levels in kindergarten are strongly linked to high school achievement test scores. Continue reading Kindergarten Behavior Predicts High School Test Scores
Renters Just As Happy As Homeowners Research from the height of the housing boom shows that homeowners are neither happier nor more involved in their communities compared to renters. Continue reading Renters Just As Happy As Homeowners
Facebook's Connection To Bad Grades Students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have lower grades. Continue reading Facebook's Connection To Bad Grades
ADHD Study Shows Behavior Modification As Effective As Pills Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may benefit as much from learning skills to cope with attention deficit as they do from taking ADHD drugs. Continue reading ADHD Study Shows Behavior Modification As Effective As Pills
Doodling Helps Memory Why doodling can help you remember what you hear. Continue reading Doodling Helps Memory
Stress, Social Activity Affect Demential Risk New research released by the American Academy of Neurologists shows that people who are not easily distressed, sociable and active face a notably lowered risk of dementia. Continue reading Stress, Social Activity Affect Demential Risk
Study Shows Virginity Pledges Prevent Precautions, Not Premarital Sex A study has found that "virginity pledges," vows to abstain from sex until marriage, have no effect on whether teenagers have sex, but do decrease the use of precautions against pregnancy and STDs. Continue reading Study Shows Virginity Pledges Prevent Precautions, Not Premarital Sex
The Link Between Panic Attacks and Heart Danger Health records reveal that older panic attack sufferers have greater risk of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. Continue reading The Link Between Panic Attacks and Heart Danger
One in Five Young Adults Has Mental Health Disorder Almost one in five people between the ages of 19 and 25 suffers from a personality disorder such as social anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder, though few seek help. Continue reading One in Five Young Adults Has Mental Health Disorder
Brain Scans Show Sparks Don't Have To Fade Both scientists and relationship experts say the rush of early love only lasts somewhere between three months and three years. However, new research finds that for some couples, this phase can last longer than 20 years. Continue reading Brain Scans Show Sparks Don't Have To Fade
Most Children On Antidepressants Not Receiving Therapy A large-scale study on children and teens on antidepressants shows that at least half do not receive therapy in conjunction with medication. The study used data from a database of 6.8 million youth with insurance claims for antidepressants. Data showed that only about 40 percent also received a referral for at least one therapy session. Continue reading Most Children On Antidepressants Not Receiving Therapy
Teen Insomnia Increases Risk of Depression and Substance Abuse Teens with sleeping troubles are vulnerable to depression, drug use, binge drinking and suicidal ideation later in life, shows new research published in the journal SLEEP. Continue reading Teen Insomnia Increases Risk of Depression and Substance Abuse
Findings Support Dedicated, Long-Term Psychotherapy A meta-analysis of 48 years of research on long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (LTPP) shows that dedicated psychotherapy continuing more than one year or 50 sessions is more effective than shorter term therapies at treating complex mental health problems such as personality disorders or complex depressive and anxiety disorders. Continue reading Findings Support Dedicated, Long-Term Psychotherapy
Youth Suicides High For Second Year After a decade of decline, youth suicides soared by 18 percent between 2003 and 2004. New figures from 2005, the most recent year available, show that teen suicide rates dropped slightly but remained significantly higher than expected, suggesting the spike is not an anomaly. Continue reading Youth Suicides High For Second Year
Brain Scans Show Relationship Between Guilt, Depression As if feeling guilty wasn't bad enough, a new study by the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has confirmed a deep, cognitive association between guilt and depression. Continue reading Brain Scans Show Relationship Between Guilt, Depression
Stress In Early Pregnancy Linked to Schizophrenia Mothers who experience severely distressful events such as a natural disaster, war-related events or the loss of a loved one early in pregnancy may have offspring with increased predisposition to schizophrenia. Continue reading Stress In Early Pregnancy Linked to Schizophrenia
Study Shows Troops Turn to Alcohol After Returning from Combat A new investigation on alcohol misuse by military personnel before and after deployment shows young soldiers and reservists are particularly vulnerable to developing problems with alcohol after returning home from combat. Continue reading Study Shows Troops Turn to Alcohol After Returning from Combat
Psychiatrists Talking Less, Prescribing More Due To Insurance Policies The time patients spend in talk therapy with psychiatrists fell by 15 percent between 1996 and 2005, shows an examination of office-based psychiatrists published in this month's edition of The Archives of General Psychiatry. Continue reading Psychiatrists Talking Less, Prescribing More Due To Insurance Policies
Why Women Start Life Happier, But End Up Less Content Research to be published in the Journal of Happiness Studies shows that American women have the advantage over their male counterparts when it comes to happiness early in life and share similar goals when it comes to finances and family. Continue reading Why Women Start Life Happier, But End Up Less Content
Meditation Slows HIV Meditation is used to improve a number of health problems including anxiety, depression and pain. Now, new research shows it may even aid in the battle against the progression of HIV. Continue reading Meditation Slows HIV
How War Changes Children's Ideas About Right and Wrong For many of the world's children, youth is not merely a time of carefree play. The United Nations estimates that children in as many as 50 countries around the world are currently affected by war. Continue reading How War Changes Children's Ideas About Right and Wrong
Background Television May Impair Attention In Young Children A new study published in the journal Child Development shows homes with a T.V. always on may harm a young child's ability to focus--even if they're not actually watching it. Continue reading Background Television May Impair Attention In Young Children
Gestures May Reveal Innate Linguistic Structure An English speaker kicks a ball, but a Turkish speaker ball kicks--at least if you're following the grammatical order of his or her language. However, a new study shows that without words, speakers of these two language order things in the same way. Continue reading Gestures May Reveal Innate Linguistic Structure
ADHD: An Evolutionary Advantage? In today's society, impulsivity and continuous need for novelty are traits likely to be associated with little more than job loss. However, in other eras of human existence, such traits might have been an individual's key to survival: Research published in ... Continue reading ADHD: An Evolutionary Advantage?
Oxytocin To Treat Shyness Oxytocin, the hormone and neurotransmitter best known for its role in bonding between mothers and infants, may now be used to treat shyness. Continue reading Oxytocin To Treat Shyness
Overtime Linked to Depression and Anxiety Researchers at the University of Bergen in Norway compared 1350 individuals who work 41 to 100 hours per week with 9092 workers who worked 40 hours per week or less using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (PDF). Continue reading Overtime Linked to Depression and Anxiety
Mothers Shape Fathers' Role in Parenting Studies show that the earlier fathers become involved with their children, the better chance kids have of doing well in school and being socially adept. But what determines fatherly involvement? Continue reading Mothers Shape Fathers' Role in Parenting
Debt Stress Increases Physical Health Problems It's no secret that bills can stress us out. But being in debt can also lead to a substantially increased risk of digestive tract issues, depression, migraines and even heart attack, shows a new poll of more than 1000 Americans. Continue reading Debt Stress Increases Physical Health Problems
Bottling Up Feelings May Help with Trauma A new study on 3000 people affected by the events of 9/11 by University of Buffalo researchers shows that people who were not initially communicative about their feelings were coping better two years later than those who were ready to express themselves earlier. Continue reading Bottling Up Feelings May Help with Trauma
Regular Cannabis Use Doubles Schizophrenia Risk As many as one in seven cases of schizophrenia may be triggered by cannabis use, suggests new Australian research. Continue reading Regular Cannabis Use Doubles Schizophrenia Risk
Psychosis, Drug Addiction Common Among Female Sexual Offenders A Swedish study of sex offenders shows that women who commit sexual crimes are highly likely to have experienced psychiatric illness or substance addiction. Continue reading Psychosis, Drug Addiction Common Among Female Sexual Offenders
Fathers Suffering Post-partum Depression May Hinder Child Development Men are also at a high risk for depression following the birth of a child, shows new research presented at the American Psychiatric Association meeting in Washington last week. Continue reading Fathers Suffering Post-partum Depression May Hinder Child Development
Step-Siblings Bring Bad Grades So much for the Brady Bunch. New research shows that children in blended families involving step- or half-siblings have more long-term behavioral problems in school and lower grades than other children. Continue reading Step-Siblings Bring Bad Grades
Virtual Reality Helps Addicts Prepare for Cravings Can resisting temptation in the virtual world help addicts say no in reality? University of Houston Associate Professor of Social Work Patrick Bordnick is has alcohol-dependent individuals donning virtual reality helmets to answer this question. Continue reading Virtual Reality Helps Addicts Prepare for Cravings
Smoking Greatly Increases Risk of Depression Smokers are far more likely to suffer from depression than non-smokers shows new research from Spain's University of Navarra and University of Las Palmas of Gran Canaria and the Harvard School of Public Health. Continue reading Smoking Greatly Increases Risk of Depression
One in Five Teens Smokes A new survey of teenagers by German researchers show that one in five teens and preteens smokes cigarettes. The study examined more than 7000 adolescents and their parents. Results showed that 20.5 percent of boys and 20.3 percent of girls smoked. Continue reading One in Five Teens Smokes
Child Neglect Leads to Aggression Child neglect may have as harmful an impact on development as child abuse, according to a report issued in the current edition of Pediatrics. Continue reading Child Neglect Leads to Aggression
History of Depression Increases Alzheimer's Risk Individuals who have suffered depression are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease later in life than those who have not, according to a study published in the current edition of Neurology. Continue reading History of Depression Increases Alzheimer's Risk
Sad People Willing to Spend More Money Feeling glum drives spending for a specific type of individual, shows research by social psychologists at Harvard and Carnegie Mellon Universities. Continue reading Sad People Willing to Spend More Money
Teens with TVs Engage in Unhealthy Habits It may come as no surprise that teenagers with televisions in their rooms get less exercise than those without (1.8 hours per week versus 2.5 hours to be exact) but findings to be released in the May issue of Pediatrics show negative effects extend to eating. Continue reading Teens with TVs Engage in Unhealthy Habits
1 in 50 Infants Abused, Often in First Week of Life The first national study on non-fatal child abuse and neglect in infants shows that 91,278 children--about 2.3 percent of infants in the U.S.--were neglected or physically, sexually or emotionally abused before age one in 2006. Continue reading 1 in 50 Infants Abused, Often in First Week of Life
Studies Link Insomnia to Depression in Young and Old Two studies appearing in this month's edition of the journal SLEEP provide new insight into the relationship between insomnia and depression. Continue reading Studies Link Insomnia to Depression in Young and Old
Waist Measurement Linked to Alzheimer's A spare tire in your forties can lead to a loose screw in your seventies, shows a new study. A new study of 6,583 people age 40 to 45 has found that those with the largest waist circumferences were almost three times as likely to develop dementia 36 years later. Continue reading Waist Measurement Linked to Alzheimer's
Focusing on Love Keeps Couples from Cheating People with wondering eyes need only focus on how much they love their current partner, shows new research on monogamy. Continue reading Focusing on Love Keeps Couples from Cheating
PsychBriefs: March 16-22, 2008 Attractive women want it all While the qualities men look for in potential mates vary little with their own attractiveness, women calibrate their wants based on their own desirability. Continue reading PsychBriefs: March 16-22, 2008
It's Not How Much You Earn, But How You Spend It Money can buy happiness--if you spend it on other people. Research from the current edition of the journal Science shows that even for people with little to spend, the greater percentage of income used for charity or gifts, the greater levels of personal happiness. Continue reading It's Not How Much You Earn, But How You Spend It
Genetic Variation Makes Some More Susceptible to PTSD Not everyone who experiences trauma develops post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to new research, this may be due to genetic differences which make some people more likely to develop the disorder. Continue reading Genetic Variation Makes Some More Susceptible to PTSD
ADHD Increases Risk for Bulimia Impulsiveness associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) puts teen girls with attention problems at a substantial risk for eating disorders, shows a new study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. Continue reading ADHD Increases Risk for Bulimia
Low-Income Women at High Risk for Postpartum Depression A mother's chance of becoming depressed after childbirth is strongly tied to her family income, education level and occupation, shows research on more than 4000 women from varying socioeconomic backgrounds. Continue reading Low-Income Women at High Risk for Postpartum Depression
Youth Who Feel Unsafe Have Trouble Delaying Gratification Would you behave differently if you thought you could die tomorrow? For youngsters growing up in areas where personal safety is often at risk, this question informs daily behavior. Continue reading Youth Who Feel Unsafe Have Trouble Delaying Gratification
Low Serotonin, Fights with Mom a Deadly Combo for Girls Sixty-four percent of teen girls who engage in self-harm share two factors in common: low levels of serotonin, a chemical associated with mood quality, and conflicts with their mothers. This finding comes as a result of a study by University of Washington ... Continue reading Low Serotonin, Fights with Mom a Deadly Combo for Girls
Is Happiness Genetic? While about half of the happiness we experience in life comes from factors such as relationships and health, the rest of it may be a matter of inheriting the right genes, shows a new study on twins. Continue reading Is Happiness Genetic?
Low Testosterone Linked to Male Depression In the early years of life, women are more likely than men to be depressed. As we age, however, rates of male depression soar to near-equal levels with women. Continue reading Low Testosterone Linked to Male Depression
When Medication Fails, Combination Therapy May Help Depressed Teens For the 40 percent of clinically depressed teenagers who do not respond to their first antidepressant treatment, a combination of medication and psychotherapy has an excellent chance of providing successful treatment. Continue reading When Medication Fails, Combination Therapy May Help Depressed Teens
How Childhood Relationships Affect Expectations About Motherhood A study of 160 women in the last trimester of their first pregnancy shows a woman's relationship with her parents during early childhood has a substantial impact on her expectations about motherhood. Continue reading How Childhood Relationships Affect Expectations About Motherhood
New MRI Test for Alzheimer's Boasts 96 Percent Accuracy British researchers have developed a new test for Alzheimer's Disease that can identify the disease almost instantly, with near-perfect results. Continue reading New MRI Test for Alzheimer's Boasts 96 Percent Accuracy
Researchers Examine Connection Between Rap Music and Sexism Sexist rap music may not cause sexist ideas, but it can reinforce pre-existing beliefs, shows a new study. Continue reading Researchers Examine Connection Between Rap Music and Sexism
Television Enforces Racial Stereotypes A study on television viewing shows that the way Latinos are depicted may affect viewers' racial stereotypes. University of Arizona researchers exposed white subjects to television clips that depicted Latinos in flattering and unflattering ways. Continue reading Television Enforces Racial Stereotypes
PsychBriefs: February 10-16, 2008 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Continue reading PsychBriefs: February 10-16, 2008
PTSD Means Long-Term Risk For Physical Disease Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been linked to a wide range of health problems including diabetes, fibromyalgia and heart disease. Continue reading PTSD Means Long-Term Risk For Physical Disease
Review Supports Importance Of Active Father Figures Regular contact with a father figure leads to fewer psychological problems in girls and fewer behavioral problems in boys. For low-income children, this contact also leads to a lower chance of criminal activity and improved language and reasoning skills. T... Continue reading Review Supports Importance Of Active Father Figures
9/11 Continues to Impact America's Mental Health Fear of terrorism following the September 11th attacks continues to impact the mental health of American citizens on a micro-level, shows a new study focusing not on New Yorkers, but rather, Midwesterners. Continue reading 9/11 Continues to Impact America's Mental Health
Low-Quality Day Care Means High Stress Levels For Children Leaving home for daycare is often an upsetting experience for young children. However, the quality of child care can make a huge difference as to whether children stay upset or gain new social and linguistic skills while away from home. Continue reading Low-Quality Day Care Means High Stress Levels For Children
Chronic Pain Alters Brain Function Chronic pain is often only the start of the problem for sufferers, who also suffer high rates of depression, anxiety and sleep disorders. Continue reading Chronic Pain Alters Brain Function
Depression Most Persistent in Older Women Older women are more likely to become depressed than older men and more likely to stay that way, shows a study by researchers at Yale School of Medicine. The study monitored 754 seniors age 70 and older from 1998 to 2005 for seven years. Subjects complete... Continue reading Depression Most Persistent in Older Women
PsychBriefs: January 27-February 2, 2008 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Continue reading PsychBriefs: January 27-February 2, 2008
Midlife Crisis A Global Phenomenon The happiest times occur early and late in life while midlife proves to be a low-point, shows a new analysis of depression across the world. Continue reading Midlife Crisis A Global Phenomenon
Bullying Both A Cause and Effect of ADHD Research appearing in February's Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology shows that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to be bullies--and to have been bullied. Continue reading Bullying Both A Cause and Effect of ADHD
New Evidence for Environmental Schizophrenia Causes A study of Swedish health records finds evidence supporting an "infectious hypothesis" of schizophrenia development, linking the disorder to viral infections in childhood. Continue reading New Evidence for Environmental Schizophrenia Causes
Brooding Can Be Deadly Couples who both express their anger and resolve their issues live longer and have healthier marriages than couples in which one or both members suppress their anger, show preliminary findings from a 17-year study on married couples. Continue reading Brooding Can Be Deadly
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. Continue reading PsychBriefs: January 13-19, 2008
Antidepressant Success May Be Greatly Exaggerated A new review of trials on commonly prescribed antidepressants shows these drugs have only about a 50-50 percent chance of successfully treating depression, despite reports of far higher success rates. Continue reading Antidepressant Success May Be Greatly Exaggerated
Adult Personality Type May Be Determined By Preschool Young children who are shy tend to stay that way into adulthood, shows new research on personality that shows the same goes for aggressive children, although they tend to mellow out somewhat as time goes by. Continue reading Adult Personality Type May Be Determined By Preschool
Study Suggests Smart Kids Grow Up To Be Liberal Children who show innate intelligence tend to hold liberal social beliefs as adults, suggests British research. Continue reading Study Suggests Smart Kids Grow Up To Be Liberal
Brain Damage Study Supports Role of Amygdala in PTSD A psychiatric study of Vietnam veterans shows neurological evidence for the theory that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is related to an increase in activity in the amygdala caused by decreased activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Continue reading Brain Damage Study Supports Role of Amygdala in PTSD
PsychBriefs: January 6-12, 2008 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Continue reading PsychBriefs: January 6-12, 2008
MRIs Show Culture Influences Brain Functions Where you were raised can affect the parts of your brain used to perform different tasks. Researchers at MIT studied 10 American and 10 East Asian patients using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to find out whether their respective cultures aff... Continue reading MRIs Show Culture Influences Brain Functions
Family Meals Reduce Disordered Eating in Teen Girls Worried about your daughter's eating habits? New research shows eating five or more meals together per week as a family considerably decreases the likelihood of teen girls engaging in extreme diet behaviors such as fasting or vomiting. Continue reading Family Meals Reduce Disordered Eating in Teen Girls
Perceptions of Populariy Influence Weight Gain in Adolescent Girls Being unpopular may be bad for physical as well as emotional health of teenage girls. A new study finds that girls who rate themselves as having low social standing weigh in at an average of two body mass index (BMI) points above their more popular peers. Continue reading Perceptions of Populariy Influence Weight Gain in Adolescent Girls
New Research Pinpoints Risk for Psychotic Disorders Teens who display a combination of symptoms such as paranoia and social withdrawal have a 68 to 80 percent chance of developing a psychotic disorder such as schizophrenia, reports a government-funded study released yesterday. Continue reading New Research Pinpoints Risk for Psychotic Disorders
PsychBriefs: December 30, 2007-January 5, 2008 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Continue reading PsychBriefs: December 30, 2007-January 5, 2008
Exercise Lowers Anxiety and Stress in Menopausal Women Women entering and progressing through menopause have one more piece of information to add to their arsenal. Continue reading Exercise Lowers Anxiety and Stress in Menopausal Women
Estrogen Linked to Anorexia High levels of estrogen in the womb may increase risk of anorexia, shows new research published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Continue reading Estrogen Linked to Anorexia
Foster Children Experience Marked IQ Gains Over Institutionalized Orphans Abandoned children who receive foster care receive an average eight- to ten-point IQ boost over those who enter orphanages, shows a new study on abandoned Romanian children. Continue reading Foster Children Experience Marked IQ Gains Over Institutionalized Orphans
Moderate Exercise Helps Prevent Dementia Risk of developing vascular dementia, the second most common dementia after Alzheimer's disease, can be lowered with moderate exercise, shows research on 749 individuals age 65 and older. Continue reading Moderate Exercise Helps Prevent Dementia
Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Cause Drop in Verbal IQ Past research shows that attending schools in low-income areas hurts learning even when teaching does not suffer. Now, research from Harvard University shows that children who grow up in disadvantaged neighborhoods experience declines in verbal IQ. Continue reading Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Cause Drop in Verbal IQ
Suicide Rates Jump Among Middle-Aged Suicide rates for Americans aged 45 to 54 increased almost 20 percent between 1999 and 2004, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marking an all-time high for this age group since the organization began tracking suicide rates in 1980. Continue reading Suicide Rates Jump Among Middle-Aged
PsychBriefs: December 9-15, 2007 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Continue reading PsychBriefs: December 9-15, 2007
Study Shows Divorce Does Not Hurt Parenting A longitudinal study of divorced and married parents reveals few changes in parenting behaviors following divorce. The study followed 5,004 children living in two-parent households at the start of the study. Continue reading Study Shows Divorce Does Not Hurt Parenting
Guidelines for Psychopharmacological Treatment of Young Children Released In light of a recent increase in the number of children aged 3 to 6 receiving psychiatric medication, medical professionals have released a set of treatment guidelines. Continue reading Guidelines for Psychopharmacological Treatment of Young Children Released
Autism Linked to Brain Overgrowth in First Year of Life Brain overgrowth between the ages of six and twelve months may may contribute to the development of autism, suggests research presented at last week's American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Continue reading Autism Linked to Brain Overgrowth in First Year of Life
Shopping Patterns Can Predict Normal, Psychotic Personalities Taking a look at holiday shopping patterns may help identify personality disorders, says Paul Albanese, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Kent State University. Continue reading Shopping Patterns Can Predict Normal, Psychotic Personalities
PsychBriefs: December 2-December 8, 2007 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Continue reading PsychBriefs: December 2-December 8, 2007
Does Acknowledging Assault Make Victims Less Vulnerable? Research has shown that someone who has experienced sexual or physical assault in the past is at a greater risk for victimization in the future. Continue reading Does Acknowledging Assault Make Victims Less Vulnerable?
Rerouting the Path of Least Resistance Makes Healthy Choices Easy Making medical appointments, heading to the gym and eating right are so essential to our health, it seems absurd that we so often let them fall wayside to busy schedules and stress... Continue reading Rerouting the Path of Least Resistance Makes Healthy Choices Easy
Anorexic Brain Set on Planning, Not Pleasure Women who recover from anorexia show notably marked differences in brain patterns one year after recovery, states a report in this month's American Journal of Psychiatry. Continue reading Anorexic Brain Set on Planning, Not Pleasure
PsychBriefs: November 25-December 1, 2007 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Continue reading PsychBriefs: November 25-December 1, 2007
Counseling and Free Nicotine Patches Double Rates of Smoking Cessation Just five phone counseling sessions and two weeks of free nicotine patches doubled the rate of people who successfully quit smoking in a trial program in Portland, Ore. In an experiment, 4614 callers to the Oregon Tobacco Quitline were offered either one 1... Continue reading Counseling and Free Nicotine Patches Double Rates of Smoking Cessation
Doctored Photos Can Alter Memories Doctored photos can easily change viewers' recollections of significant historic events, shows a study of 299 subjects aged 19 to 84. Continue reading Doctored Photos Can Alter Memories
Infants Show Preference for Altruism Are we born samaritans? New research from Yale University suggests infants as young as six months old show a preference towards people whose actions make them "helpers" and not "hinderers." Continue reading Infants Show Preference for Altruism
Initial Success A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, at least according to William Shakespeare. But according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego and Yale University our names, and specifically our initials, do have a subconscious impact on performance... Continue reading Initial Success
Suicide Risk in Bipolar Patients Depends Strongly On Family History A family history of suicide has been linked to increased suicide risk for people with many mental health disorders. However, for individuals with bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, having a relative who ended their own life may increase their risk by as much as three times. Continue reading Suicide Risk in Bipolar Patients Depends Strongly On Family History
Initial Screenings of Soldiers Returning from Deployment Missed Majority of Mental Health Problems Previous reports focusing only on early screenings of military returning from the war in Iraq missed the majority of mental health problems ultimately faced by soldiers, shows new research. Continue reading Initial Screenings of Soldiers Returning from Deployment Missed Majority of Mental Health Problems
ADHD Brains Mature Three Years Later Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder delays development of certain regions of the brain by an average of three years shows a study of 446 youth with and without the disorder. Continue reading ADHD Brains Mature Three Years Later
That's My Choice and I'm Sticking To It Researchers at Yale University have found that cognitive dissonance, the psychological state in which an individual's beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors are at odds, is a mind state that not only appears in adults but in children and other primates as well. Continue reading That's My Choice and I'm Sticking To It
Weight Control Determined by Emotional Drivers In the October 2007 issue of Obesity, a study by researchers at The Miriam Hospital's Weight Control & Diabetes Research Center found that when dieting, emotional eaters lost less weight and regained more than those eating in response to external factors. Continue reading Weight Control Determined by Emotional Drivers
Hand Gestures Help Math Processing Encouraging children to gesture as they work through unmastered math skills helps them more successfully learn how to complete the process correctly. Continue reading Hand Gestures Help Math Processing
Combination Therapy Best Addresses Teen Depression Using cognitive-behavioral therapy in conjunction with antidepressants has both short- and long-term advantages over using either treatment alone. Continue reading Combination Therapy Best Addresses Teen Depression
Violent Programming Cultivates Aggressive Behavior in Boys A Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute study published in the November issue of Pediatrics suggests the more violent television preschoolers view, the more likely particularly boys were to exhibit aggressive behavior. Continue reading Violent Programming Cultivates Aggressive Behavior in Boys
Study Findings May Shed Light on Veteran Suicide New research reveals surprising findings on veterans and suicide. Continue reading Study Findings May Shed Light on Veteran Suicide
Small Talk Sharpens Memory A University of Michigan study being published in the February 2008 issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin reveals merely talking for ten minutes to another person can improve both memory and test performance. Continue reading Small Talk Sharpens Memory
Researching a New Avenue in Treatment of Alcoholism The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has granted $1.9 million in funding to Gerard J. Connors, Ph.D., professor of Psychology at the University of Buffalo, as well as director of the University's Research Institute on Addictions... Continue reading Researching a New Avenue in Treatment of Alcoholism
Hearing "Messages" May Foreshadow Schizophrenia Reported in this month's British Journal of Psychiatry a study by researchers at Yale University has found that hearing "messages" embedded in other vocalizations may be an indicator of potential schizophrenia. Continue reading Hearing "Messages" May Foreshadow Schizophrenia
Plastic Surgery a Well-Received Option UCLA scientists report the majority of women and a large number of men have some level of interest in undergoing cosmetic surgery, according to a study published in the October 2007 issue of the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Continue reading Plastic Surgery a Well-Received Option
PsychBriefs: October 21-27, 2007 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Continue reading PsychBriefs: October 21-27, 2007
Death-Defying Thoughts Researchers examine how the human brain reacts to terrifying thoughts. Continue reading Death-Defying Thoughts
Researchers Identify False Memories with Brain Scans Patterns of electrophysiological activity in the brain may be used to distinguish false memories from real ones, shows a report published in November's Psychological Science. Continue reading Researchers Identify False Memories with Brain Scans
Playground Prowess and Popularity Surveying 99 boys and 109 girls on loneliness, their peers' athletic ability and how much they liked their fellow students, researchers have found a direct correlation between perceived athletic ability and popularity. Continue reading Playground Prowess and Popularity
Report Rates Depression Risk by Occupation Is your job bringing you down? The problem could be the field you work in, shows a new report from the the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on depression in working adults by occupational field. Continue reading Report Rates Depression Risk by Occupation
PsychBriefs: October 14-20, 2007 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Continue reading PsychBriefs: October 14-20, 2007
Review of PTSD Therapies Finds Current Research Inadequate The Institute of Medicine has urged Congress to provide funding for adequate, unbiased research on post-traumatic stress disorder after finding inadequate evidence to confirm the effectiveness of most treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Continue reading Review of PTSD Therapies Finds Current Research Inadequate
Toddlers Understand Whole Better Than Parts Children in the early stages of language acquisition are more likely to attribute new vocabulary to whole objects rather than parts, shows a new study. Continue reading Toddlers Understand Whole Better Than Parts
Oxytocin Linked to Mother-Child Bonding in Humans Maternal instinct is delivered in a hormonal package, shows new research establishing the connection between the levels of oxcytocin in a pregnant woman's body and her mothering skills. Continue reading Oxytocin Linked to Mother-Child Bonding in Humans
New Meditation Technique Provides Quick Results Years of meditation training may not be the only road to a Zen state, shows new research on integrative body-mind training (IBMT), a form of meditation developed in the 1990s which aims at producing the effects of traditional Chinese meditation in a relatively short time. Continue reading New Meditation Technique Provides Quick Results
PsychBriefs: October 6-12, 2007 Medication May Treat Alcoholism Topiramate, an anticonvulsant used to control seizures, has been shown to perform better than a placebo in treating alcoholism. Researchers tested 371 alcohol-dependent men and women in a randomized 14-week trial and found th... Continue reading PsychBriefs: October 6-12, 2007
Depression May Predict Mental Impairment in Elderly A two-year study of individuals age 65 and older shows that depression puts seniors at risk for subsequent declines in executive function. Researchers tested 709 subjects yearly using the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale, monitored patients' medical charts and ... Continue reading Depression May Predict Mental Impairment in Elderly
PsychBriefs: September 30-October 6, 2007 More Evidence for Influence of Cinematic Smoking A study of 1,528 adults age 18 to 25 highlights the impact of on-screen smoking on young adults. Comparing subjects' exposure to smoking in films over the past 30 days to rates of smoking, investigators found... Continue reading PsychBriefs: September 30-October 6, 2007
Conscience or Cognitive Science? When the moral compass fails, the threat of punishment for wrongdoings is always there keep people in line. And yet, every day people transgress social mores despite knowledge of personal or even legal consequences. Now, psychologists are one step closer to... Continue reading Conscience or Cognitive Science?
Too Much or Too Little Sleep Increases Risk of Mortality Sleep anything but seven to eight hours a night and you may greatly increase your risk of death, shows a Finnish study of 21,268 twins published in yesterday's issue of the journal SLEEP. Based on questionnaires completed between 1975 and 1981, these subje... Continue reading Too Much or Too Little Sleep Increases Risk of Mortality
Two Genes Shown to Increase Risk for Suicidal Ideation Can a simple test predict your risk for suicidal thoughts? A DNA study has identified two genes that increase the risk of suicidal thoughts in patients taking antidepressants by as much as 50 percent. The study examined the DNA of 120 people with no histor... Continue reading Two Genes Shown to Increase Risk for Suicidal Ideation
PsychBriefs: September 23-29, 2007 Could Alzheimer's Be "Type III" Diabetes? New research from Northwestern University researchers shows that Amyloid beta oglimers in the brain of Alzheimer's patients remove insulin receptors from nerve cells, rendering neurons insulin resistent, thereby dis... Continue reading PsychBriefs: September 23-29, 2007
When Giving Up is Good for You We admire those who never give up and teach our children to "try, try again." And with good reason: Reaching one's goals is a key to mental health. However, when it comes to physical health, new biological evidence suggests that giving up may sometimes be ... Continue reading When Giving Up is Good for You
Increased Gay Suicide Risk Linked to Harassment Past studies have identified being gay as a risk factor for suicide among adolescents and young adults, increasing an individual's risk of attempting suicide by as much as 400 percent. New research on undergraduates at the University of Washington, however,... Continue reading Increased Gay Suicide Risk Linked to Harassment
Loneliness Alters Genes Related to Immunity Prior research has shown being lonely means an increased risk for health problems such as Alzheimer's and heart disease. Now a new study shows social isolation actually causes changes in genes related to inflammation and immune system activity. Dr. Steven ... Continue reading Loneliness Alters Genes Related to Immunity
Pedophilia Linked to Low Activity in Hypothalamus New research using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows that an underactive hypothalamus may be part of the neurological basis of pedophilia, adult sexual attraction toward children. The study, which appears in the current issue of Biological... Continue reading Pedophilia Linked to Low Activity in Hypothalamus
Grandpa Said What?!: Impulse Control and the Aging Brain As we age, both bodies and personalities change. However, for some older adults, these changes can be quite disturbing: New research shows inappropriate social behavior, what appears to be increased racism and problems with impulse control and gambling can ... Continue reading Grandpa Said What?!: Impulse Control and the Aging Brain
PsychBriefs: September 16-22, 2007 Stressed Women More Likely to Birth Girls A study of 6000 infants and mothers shows that pregnant women with high stress levels are five percent more likely to have girls than relaxed mothers. Researchers suggest that high levels of stress hormones may make... Continue reading PsychBriefs: September 16-22, 2007
Caregiver Stress Hastens Aging At Chromosome-Level The catchphrase "stress kills" is no longer just lip service. Stress impacts human beings on a core molecular level that may shorten lives up to eight years, reveals research by Ohio State University's Ronald Glaser and Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser. It comes d... Continue reading Caregiver Stress Hastens Aging At Chromosome-Level
Childhood Abuse Linked to Adult Migraines Physical or sexual abuse experienced in childhood may predispose victims to migraine with depression">depression later in life, shows a study of 949 female migraine sufferers. The research, conducted by Dr. Gretchen Tietjen, a neurologist at the University... Continue reading Childhood Abuse Linked to Adult Migraines
High Testosterone Levels in the Womb May Cause Autism An eight-year study by British researchers has linked high levels of testosterone in the womb to increased incidence of autistic traits later in life. Dr. Simon Baron Cohen, the director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge Universi... Continue reading High Testosterone Levels in the Womb May Cause Autism
PsychBriefs: September 9-15, 2007 Preschoolers Who Sleep Less Suffer Learning Problems Preschoolers who sleep less than ten hours per night are at risk for learning problems when they enter school, shows a six-year study of 1500 Canadian children. Children who regularly underslept before ... Continue reading PsychBriefs: September 9-15, 2007
Study Shows Autonomy Essential to Children of All Cultures University of Illinois researchers studying parenting styles in both the U.S. and China have shown that controlling parents are destructive to children's academic achievement no matter what the cultural context. The six-month study appearing in the Septemb... Continue reading Study Shows Autonomy Essential to Children of All Cultures
Research Identifies Natural Treatments for ADHD, Compulsive Gambling Findings to be published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience report that an extract from French maritime pine trees called Pycnogenol may help ease the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The study examined 57 Slovakian children... Continue reading Research Identifies Natural Treatments for ADHD, Compulsive Gambling
Republican vs. Democrat: A Matter of Brain Chemistry? Research by New York University and UCLA researchers appearing in Nature Neuroscience shows that liberal or conservative leanings may come down to cognition rather than conviction. In the experiment college students across the political spectrum were instr... Continue reading Republican vs. Democrat: A Matter of Brain Chemistry?
'Purging Disorder' Identified as Distinct Eating Disorder What's the difference between purging after a binge and throwing up after a normal-sized meal? According to University of Iowa psychology professor Pamela Keel, these behaviors mark a critical distinction between the widely recognized eating disorder bulimi... Continue reading 'Purging Disorder' Identified as Distinct Eating Disorder
PsychBriefs: September 2-8, 2007 Suicide Rates Rise in U.S. Girls A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on 2004 suicide rates shows an eight percent increase in suicides among Americans age 10 to 24 following a 13-year decline. This increase was most dramatic among gir... Continue reading PsychBriefs: September 2-8, 2007
Teen Suicides Increase After Antidepressant Warnings In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European regulators issued warnings against the use of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in children and adolescents. Shortly thereafter, the FDA issued a mandate sta... Continue reading Teen Suicides Increase After Antidepressant Warnings
Back to School: Studies Highlight Strategies for Better Learning Just in time for the start of the school year, two studies published in the August edition of Current Directions in Psychological Science are shedding light on effective learning practices. The first focuses on "metacomprehension," our ability to judge ho... Continue reading Back to School: Studies Highlight Strategies for Better Learning
Cocaine Use Down Among Highly Educated A study by researchers at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows that cocaine use has decreased among Americans with college degrees in the last 20 years, while remaining constant among those who did not finish high school. Researchers c... Continue reading Cocaine Use Down Among Highly Educated
Breast Augmentation Linked to Tripled Risk of Suicide Women who undergo cosmetic breast augmentation are three times more likely to commit suicide or die alcohol or substance dependence related deaths, shows a new study of Swedish women. The study, published in the August, 2007 issue of Annals of Plastic Surg... Continue reading Breast Augmentation Linked to Tripled Risk of Suicide
PsychBriefs: August 19 - 25, 2007 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Boys with Reading Problems Fare Better with Female Teachers A study of 175 third- and fourth-grade boys in a ten-week read... Continue reading PsychBriefs: August 19 - 25, 2007
New Vaccine Battles Proteins Linked to Alzheimer's Disease Scientists have successfully used a vaccine to suppress strings of the pathological form of tau protein thought to form "tangles" in the brain, leading to Alzheimer's disease. The vaccine encourages the immune system to battle these tangles by introducing f... Continue reading New Vaccine Battles Proteins Linked to Alzheimer's Disease
Work-Family Conflict May Trigger PTSD in Female Soldiers While combat exposure is a recognized trigger for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), new research shows work-family conflicts are also a significant predictor of PTSD in female military personnel. Researchers at the University of Michigan Institute for... Continue reading Work-Family Conflict May Trigger PTSD in Female Soldiers
Breakups Don't Hurt As Much As We Imagine Are the weepy breakup scenes of film and television more fiction than fact? A new study called "Mispredicting Distress Following Romantic Breakup: Revealing the Time Course of the Affective Forecasting Error" suggests breakup stress is rarely as bad as we ... Continue reading Breakups Don't Hurt As Much As We Imagine
PsychBriefs: August 11 - 18, 2007 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Army Suicide Rates Up Army suicide rates have risen to 99 soldiers for 2006, up from 87 in 2005. Of these, 30 were soldier... Continue reading PsychBriefs: August 11 - 18, 2007
Child Maltreatment Rates Soar During Military Deployment War deployments place stress on both soldier parents and civilian spouses left behind. However, it is the children who may suffer the most as they both miss and worry about the deployed parent and are affected by the additional stress put on the family, oft... Continue reading Child Maltreatment Rates Soar During Military Deployment
Psychologists Explain Why 'They All Look the Same' The difficulty some people have distinguishing between members of another race has become something of a joke, with minorities arguing that, in fact, "All white people look alike." Humor aside, many argue that this effect points to prejudice, ignorance or l... Continue reading Psychologists Explain Why 'They All Look the Same'
More Teens Engaging in Self-Injury Research published in the August 2007 issue of Psychological Medicine indicates that Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI), the deliberate, direct destruction of body tissue without conscious suicidal intent, has increased among high school students. Led by rese... Continue reading More Teens Engaging in Self-Injury
PsychBriefs: August 3 - 10, 2007 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Women Less Likely to Choose Manly Men for Long Haul When looking for long-term commitment, women view men with more femini... Continue reading PsychBriefs: August 3 - 10, 2007
What's Good About Feeling Bad? Can the emotion of remorse benefit society? Psychologists studying the two types of guilt say yes. Guilt that generates a concern about punishment and keeps you from behaving in an unacceptable manner in the future is said to come from "withdrawal motivat... Continue reading What's Good About Feeling Bad?
Preschoolers Say McDonald's Carrots Taste Best The marketing of obesity-friendly foods may have the strongest effect on preschool aged children, shows a study from the August issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Researchers asked 63 children between the ages of three and five to play ... Continue reading Preschoolers Say McDonald's Carrots Taste Best
Virtual Reality Helps PTSD Veterans Imagine finding yourself in this situation. Earlier this week, a reporter was escorted down an Iraqi street during the morning call to prayer. There was a marketplace to the right, nondescript buildings down the road and a few pedestrians milling about. The... Continue reading Virtual Reality Helps PTSD Veterans
Infants Have Theory of Mind By 13 Months New research shows that babies can read minds...sort of. Theory of Mind, the ability to recognize that others have their own thoughts and emotions, has long been a hot topic in the field of infant cognition. Famous developmental psychologist Jean Piaget ar... Continue reading Infants Have Theory of Mind By 13 Months
Teen Girls in Juvenile Centers More Aggressive Than Male Peers Incarcerated teen girls are more aggressive than boys in or out of juvenile detention centers, reports a study in the July issue of Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice which shows that the percentage of girls that are aggressive while incarcerated is nearly... Continue reading Teen Girls in Juvenile Centers More Aggressive Than Male Peers
You are What Your Friends and Family Eat If you've noticed you're having trouble fitting into your jeans lately, look to your friends and family--odds they've been packing on the pounds too. According to a study released in the July 26 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine, your chances o... Continue reading You are What Your Friends and Family Eat
Stubborn Streak in Toddlers Not Necessarily a Bad Thing According to researches at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan, children between the ages of 14 and 27 months who exhibit defiant but cooperative behavior when being controlled by their mothers are not behaving badly, but rather... Continue reading Stubborn Streak in Toddlers Not Necessarily a Bad Thing
Night Owl Pre-Teens Prone To Bad Behavior With summer vacation in full swing, many kids are enjoying late nights filled with sleepovers, video game competitions and all-night reading sessions. Parents, however, may want to watch those bedtimes: Experts studying the correlation between sleep and beh... Continue reading Night Owl Pre-Teens Prone To Bad Behavior
Big Girls Don't...Go To College? Obese girls are half as likely to attend college as their thinner peers, shows a new study appearing in Sociology of Education. They are also more likely to consider killing themselves and to try drugs or alcohol. Analyzing data on almost 11,000 adolescent... Continue reading Big Girls Don't...Go To College?
Psychology Of A Suicide Bomber Headlines read daily of slaughtered and wounded masses killed by suicide bombers in the Middle East. What drives these and other self-sacrificing terrorists to kill not only others but themselves in the name of a cause? According to a new report, poverty a... Continue reading Psychology Of A Suicide Bomber
Can Alcohol Inhibit Aggression? The belligerence associated with barrooms and their brawls is just one possible effect of alcohol consumption, shows a new study by University of Kentucky psychologists. Hypothesizing an "attention-allocation model" that proposes drinking affects the areas... Continue reading Can Alcohol Inhibit Aggression?
Girl Talk Leads To Anxiety And Depression It seems the normally calming effect of expressing your troubles may not kick in if you're a teenage girl who spends a lot of time discussing them. University of Missouri associate professor of psychological sciences Amanda Rose reports that 'co-rumination... Continue reading Girl Talk Leads To Anxiety And Depression
Depression Treatment May Trigger Thoughts of Suicide in Genetically Predisposed Men A study of 1,447 people with depression, conducted by Roy H. Perlis, M.D. of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and his colleagues found that 10 percent of the men studied expressed suicidal thoughts during at least one follow up vis... Continue reading Depression Treatment May Trigger Thoughts of Suicide in Genetically Predisposed Men
Reading vs. Doing Produces Different Forms of Thinking In May, we reported on how the "woulda" and "shoulda dones" in life affect decision-making. Now, a new series of experiments by Vittorio Girotto of the University IUAV of Venice, Italy and his colleagues demonstrates how this type of thinking differs betwe... Continue reading Reading vs. Doing Produces Different Forms of Thinking
Putting Feelings Into Words Examined In Brain Scans Why does talking to a friend or writing in a journal make us feel better in troubled times? Simply naming an emotion does nothing to solve our problems, but often makes them feel less intense. A brain imaging study conducted by a group of UCLA psychologists... Continue reading Putting Feelings Into Words Examined In Brain Scans
Antidepressants Pose Small Risk During Pregnancy Two studies published in the June issue of the New England Journal of Medicine show that exposure to serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Prozac and Paxil is not a significant cause of birth defects. Interviewing more than 9.000 mothers ... Continue reading Antidepressants Pose Small Risk During Pregnancy
Good Instruction Not Enough For Low-Income Students Providing comprehensive instruction by quality teachers is all it takes to raise the famously dire reading scores of low-income schools, right? Wrong. A new study realeased by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows that school and classroom... Continue reading Good Instruction Not Enough For Low-Income Students
Your Brain Loves Paying Taxes As Much As It Loves Cheeseburgers Can you get as much satisfaction from paying taxes as you can from eating a cheeseburger? According to a study conducted at the University of Oregon, the answer is yes. The pleasure center of your brain reacts the same way to paying taxes, giving to chari... Continue reading Your Brain Loves Paying Taxes As Much As It Loves Cheeseburgers
Study Finds The Blind Have Superior 'Serial Memory' Remembering the order of things can be key to finding the right doorway, shirt or flavor of yogurt for someone who cannot see. A new study shows that this aspect of understanding and organizing the world may train the minds of the blind to have superior "se... Continue reading Study Finds The Blind Have Superior 'Serial Memory'
Studies on Smoking are Summer Blockbusters in Their Own Right As blockbusters begin to hit the movie theaters, a trio of separate studies regarding smoking and cinema have been released this first month of summer shedding light on both the suggestive power of seeing big screen heroes light up and the ineffectiveness o... Continue reading Studies on Smoking are Summer Blockbusters in Their Own Right
Diabulimia: Emerging Eating Disorder in Diabetic Teens A Growing Cause for Concern Eating disorders revolve around food: how much, when, where, and what exercise must be done to counter its effects. The criteria aren't that different from what a teenager trying to manage their diabetes goes through, except that teens with diabetes must a... Continue reading Diabulimia: Emerging Eating Disorder in Diabetic Teens A Growing Cause for Concern
Math: Easier Than 1, 2, 3 For Young Children According to a study conducted at Harvard University, children as young as five years old are able to solve approximate addition and subtraction problems involving large numbers even before they have been taught basic mathematical concepts. Continue reading Math: Easier Than 1, 2, 3 For Young Children
Dating Violence, Sexual Assault Linked To Suicide In Urban Teens According to a report in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, recent dating violence among urban teen females and lifetime history of sexual assault among urban teen males may be associated with suicide attempts. According to the ... Continue reading Dating Violence, Sexual Assault Linked To Suicide In Urban Teens
Sleep Sex: More Nightmare Than Dream Come True From "dirty talk" to intercourse, men and women suffering from a rare but legitimate set of disorders may engage in a variety of sexual activity, both alone or involving others, all while asleep. Because amnesia is a symptom, those who sleep alone may never... Continue reading Sleep Sex: More Nightmare Than Dream Come True
Prior Adult Day Care Experience Protects Against Accelerated Cognitive Decline Normally Experienced By Alzheimer's Patients In Nursing Homes According to a study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, prior experience in an adult day setting may lessen the association of nursing home placement with the cognitive decline shown by Alzheimer's patients after such placeme... Continue reading Prior Adult Day Care Experience Protects Against Accelerated Cognitive Decline Normally Experienced By Alzheimer's Patients In Nursing Homes
PG-13 Films Teach Kids Violence A report on top-earning movies marketed to adolescents published in Pediatrics shows that 87 percent of PG-13 films contain scenes of violence. Studying a sample of 77 films released between 1999 and 2000, researchers found 2251 acts of violence, with a me... Continue reading PG-13 Films Teach Kids Violence
Study Challenges Beliefs About Teen Sex For sex education programs to be eligible for federal and state funding as abstinence-only programs, they must teach that "[s]exual activity outside the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects." However, a study appe... Continue reading Study Challenges Beliefs About Teen Sex
Why Quarrelling Siblings Risk Depression Another reason to make nice with your brothers and sisters: Siblings who don't get along or are distant before age 20 have an increased risk of becoming depressed for the next thirty years. A report appearing in the June American Journal of Psychiatry deta... Continue reading Why Quarrelling Siblings Risk Depression
How Forgetting Helps Us Remember Imagine if every time someone asked you for your address, you recalled that of your childhood home, college dorm, and your first apartment. Fortunately, all that usually comes to mind is the address of our current place of residence, but why is that? A Sta... Continue reading How Forgetting Helps Us Remember
Infants Begin Learning Rules Of Speech At Seven Months From birth, babies show a preference for the sound of human speech over other sounds. Now, research published in Psychological Science shows that at just seven months, infants are already scanning what is said to them for patterns. The study presented infa... Continue reading Infants Begin Learning Rules Of Speech At Seven Months
Divorce Nearly Doubles Chance Of Ritalin Use A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows that children whose parents have divorced are significantly more likely to be on the attention deficit disorder (ADD) drug Ritalin than children of married parents. Studying 5000 children w... Continue reading Divorce Nearly Doubles Chance Of Ritalin Use
Race And The Psychology Of Police Shootings Can training be used to counter potentially deadly racial stereotypes? While the great majority of police shootings are necessary and often heroic, news reports still tell of questionable shootings. Most frequently the victims are young, black men, who man... Continue reading Race And The Psychology Of Police Shootings
PsychBriefs: May 26 - June 1, 2007 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Concussions Tied To Depression A study of 2,552 retired NFL football players shows that receiving multiple concussions is ... Continue reading PsychBriefs: May 26 - June 1, 2007
Bullies Invade "Second Lives" Seems there's no escape from the so-called Real World. Advertising, business and even terrorists have invaded the cyber-utopias dreamed of by some early Internet theorists. Bullies too have made their way into virtual realms and are on the rise, shows a UK ... Continue reading Bullies Invade "Second Lives"
New Explanation Offered For Alzheimer's Progression Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute scientists have posited a new hypothesis for the progression of Alzheimer's disease. They believe an imbalance in the ratio of two Amyloid B-peptides (AB) peptides, AB40 and AB42, cause the disease. "We have found that two ... Continue reading New Explanation Offered For Alzheimer's Progression
One Third Of Child Drinkers Get Booze From Parents Seventeen percent of children have tried alcohol before they finished grade school, shows a study published in this month's Preventative Medicine. By the end of junior high, that number jumps to 41 percent, the longitudinal survey of 3,709 racially diverse ... Continue reading One Third Of Child Drinkers Get Booze From Parents
MRIs Reveal Highly Distinct Branches Of Anxiety Anxiety is a word used to describe feelings associated with both worry and fear. However, a new study by University of Illinois psychologists provides evidence for that these are actually two types of anxiety so different they take place in opposite hemisph... Continue reading MRIs Reveal Highly Distinct Branches Of Anxiety
Quality Child Care Buffers Effects Of Poverty Poverty in early childhood has been repeatedly linked to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety later in life. However, University of North Carolina researchers now show that high quality childcare during these years may help protect them fro... Continue reading Quality Child Care Buffers Effects Of Poverty
New Orleans PTSD Rate Ten Times That Of General Public In a paper presented May 18 at the 2007 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Annual Meeting, held in Chicago, IL, Professor Lisa D. Mills, MD, Director, Section of Emergency Medicine Ultrasound, Louisiana State University at New Orleans, showed t... Continue reading New Orleans PTSD Rate Ten Times That Of General Public
Long-Term Study Shows Gender and Income Differences Don't Affect Intelligence Much Does being born rich, male or female make you smarter? Researchers at the National Institutes for Health (NIH) have been studying hundreds of children for eight years to find out just that. Announcing the initial findings of their ongoing study of healthy ... Continue reading Long-Term Study Shows Gender and Income Differences Don't Affect Intelligence Much
New Tool For Monitoring Effectiveness Of Teen Counseling Vanderbilt University reports its Peabody College of Education and Human Development has developed a new tool that will enable mental health practicioners to better assess the affectiveness of their services on adolescent patients. The Peabody Treatment Pr... Continue reading New Tool For Monitoring Effectiveness Of Teen Counseling
Suicide Rates Highest Among Young Asian-American Women CNN reports that suicide is the second leading cause of death among Asian-American women age 15 to 24 and these women have the highest suicide rate of any demographic. As early as fifth grade, these young women show the highest rates of depression and suici... Continue reading Suicide Rates Highest Among Young Asian-American Women
How Meditation Changes The Brain's Attention Span The observational capacities of the human brain are limited by a phenomenon known as the "attentional blink." Here, the brain ignores the second of two quickly presented stimuli, having allocated too many resources to the first. For example, when two images... Continue reading How Meditation Changes The Brain's Attention Span
Can A Walk In The Park Cure Depression?: Ecotherapy Vs. Antidepressants Imagine going to the psychiatrist and walking out with a prescription for a few weeks of farm work. This happens to residents of European countries such as Holland where 600 "care farms" are integrated into the health system for this very purpose--and it se... Continue reading Can A Walk In The Park Cure Depression?: Ecotherapy Vs. Antidepressants
PsychBriefs: May 5-May 11, 2007 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Questions About Temptation Give 'License To Sin' Asking college kids how often they think they'll skip class next week lea... Continue reading PsychBriefs: May 5-May 11, 2007
Veteran Suicide Rates Rise Due To Inadequate Resources A report issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs today states that approximately 5000 veterans will commit suicide this year, largely because the VA lacks widely available 24-hour care. Examining its 1,400 clinics, inspectors found that many clinics l... Continue reading Veteran Suicide Rates Rise Due To Inadequate Resources
New Evidence For Progressive Theory Of Schizophrenia Since the naming of schizophrenia, experts have argued about its course: Is it a structurally progressively disease or are its symptoms the result of existing lesional damage to the brain, perhaps present from birth? While the dominant theories support the ... Continue reading New Evidence For Progressive Theory Of Schizophrenia
Have Parents Been Duped By Educational Television? America's children are watching television before they can walk--or even sit up. One in five babies and children under the age of 2 now has their own television set in their room reports a survey of 1009 parents, and that number doubles by age 4. Other fin... Continue reading Have Parents Been Duped By Educational Television?
"Typical" Eating Disorder Criteria Miss Males, Non-Whites Criteria for diagnosing eating disorders have been designed around their most common patient, a white, teenage female. However, recent research shows that as many as one in four people with eating disorders are male, suggesting these guidelines may miss a l... Continue reading "Typical" Eating Disorder Criteria Miss Males, Non-Whites
PsychBriefs: April 28-May 4, 2007 Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. This week: April 28-May 4, 2007. Mentally Ill Die 25 Years Earlier People treated for serious mental illness in public sys... Continue reading PsychBriefs: April 28-May 4, 2007
Alcohol Can Shrink Your Brain Heavy alcohol use over a lifetime leads to decreases in brain volume, shows research to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 59th Annual Meeting. Comparing MRIs from 1,839 people age 34 to 88, researchers discovered that people who had, on av... Continue reading Alcohol Can Shrink Your Brain
Migraine-Suicide Link May Appear As Early As Middle School Past research has shown that rates of depression and anxiety more than double among people who suffer chronic migraines. Even more striking are the suicide rates: almost one in four women and one in seven men who experience migraine with aura, a visual or n... Continue reading Migraine-Suicide Link May Appear As Early As Middle School
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 Labo... Continue reading PsychBriefs: April 21-27, 2007
Brains Don't Equal Money Being a genius is little guarantee of financial success, and being a little behind the curve doesn't mean you're destined to burger-flipping wages, shows a longitudinal survey on intelligence and wealth. In fact, there's no notable gap in wealth between pe... Continue reading Brains Don't Equal Money
Family Turmoil, Violence Put Physical Strain On Organs of Adolescents Chronic exposure to psychological stressors including family problems, abuse, poor housing and exposure to violence may damage the organs of children and adolescents, report Cornell University researchers. Using blood pressure measurements and urine sample... Continue reading Family Turmoil, Violence Put Physical Strain On Organs of Adolescents
New Credential For Co-Occurring Mental and Addiction Disorders As many as 80 percent of recovering addicts also suffer from mental disorders such as depression or bipolar disorder. At best, these individuals alternate between addiction counselors and mental health counselors, a practice studies have shown to be unsucce... Continue reading New Credential For Co-Occurring Mental and Addiction Disorders
Maternal Depression May Predict Behavior in ADHD Kids A mother's mental health is crucial to any child, but for children with ADHD, it may be the difference between a smooth childhood and one filled with errant behaviors such as fighting, bullying and theft, shows University of Maryland research published in t... Continue reading Maternal Depression May Predict Behavior in ADHD Kids
Changes in Brain Structure Can Predict Alzheimer's Years in Advance Losses in the brain's gray matter are evident years before the first symptoms of Alzheimer's disease appear, shows research published in the most recent issue of Neurology. Researchers performed brain scans and cognitive tests on 136 cognitively healthy in... Continue reading Changes in Brain Structure Can Predict Alzheimer's Years in Advance
Gay Men (And Women) Vulnerable to Eating Disorders Comedian Margaret Cho once joked that when it came to eating disorders, gay men took them far more seriously than women. A population-based study released today by Columbia University reveals the truth behind the (dark) humor. The survey of 516 straight a... Continue reading Gay Men (And Women) Vulnerable to Eating Disorders
Survey: Bullies Torment 9 in 10 Children Children who are bullied are more likely to show signs of depression and have suicidal thoughts later in life. As are the bullies themselves--in addition to ending up in prison. This makes news showing that nearly all children in America's schools have been... Continue reading Survey: Bullies Torment 9 in 10 Children
Drug Frees Combat Veterans of Nightmares Almost one in four combat veterans experience nightmares related to post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD). Surprisingly, a drug used to treat high blood pressure and prostate problems may be the key to helping them sleep through the night, shows a small stu... Continue reading Drug Frees Combat Veterans of Nightmares
Gun In Home Doubles Risk Of Suicide Suicide rates in the 15 states with the highest percentages of households with firearms are nearly double that of the lowest six states, shows a new study published in The Journal of Trauma. Researchers examined data on state gun ownership rates compared t... Continue reading Gun In Home Doubles Risk Of Suicide
Diabetes Linked to Cognitive Impairment Diabetes is linked to a higher risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a transitional stage between normal aging and Alzheimer's which may impair memory, language and reasoning. Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center interviewed and assessed 91... Continue reading Diabetes Linked to Cognitive Impairment
War Study Sheds Light On Stress and Gender A study on citizens who lived through the Croation war may shed light on differences on how men and women respond to stress and uncertainty. University of Michigan researchers analyzed data on Croatian male and female civilians collected between 1998 and 2... Continue reading War Study Sheds Light On Stress and Gender
Even E-Rated Games May Harm Kids, Show 3 New Studies Just in case you doubted recent findings on the startling effects of video games on real-life behaviors, University of Iowa researchers have published a book discussing three new studies showing striking correlations between even cartoon-like video games an... Continue reading Even E-Rated Games May Harm Kids, Show 3 New Studies
Psychotherapy Critical To Treating Bipolar Disorder Intensive psychotherapy, in addition to medication, offers the best hope in helping people with bipolar disorder heal faster and stay better longer, shows a new study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Researchers split 293 bipolar p... Continue reading Psychotherapy Critical To Treating Bipolar Disorder
1/4 Of Depression Diagnoses Not Really Depression A study of more than 8000 patients published in the Archives of General Psychiatry suggests that many cases of major depression are actually false positives, normal but temporary responses to life events such as death or divorce. Researchers surveyed the p... Continue reading 1/4 Of Depression Diagnoses Not Really Depression
Study: Family Stability And Behavior Problems In Children The twists and turns of parental love lives can have drastic effects on the behavior and academic success of children, particularly where divorce is involved. A new study shows just how important a stable family is to child behavior and achievement, even if... Continue reading Study: Family Stability And Behavior Problems In Children
New Findings On Bipolar Medication Adding antidepressants to mood-stabilizing drugs offers no help treating bipolar disorder, shows a clinical trial funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and published online yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Three-hundred ... Continue reading New Findings On Bipolar Medication
Study Focuses On Our Lack Of Focus Does your mind trail from its focus often? Perhaps five, ten percent of the time? More? If you're anything like the students at the University of North Carolina, that number is probably around 30 percent, shows a new study to be published in July's Psycholo... Continue reading Study Focuses On Our Lack Of Focus
Racing Video Games May Lead to Real-Life Crashes Men and women who play virtual driving games such as Grand Theft Auto are more likely to report engaging in hazardous driving and getting into accidents when the hit the road in real life, show German studies of 198 people. In one study researchers had som... Continue reading Racing Video Games May Lead to Real-Life Crashes
Women Of All Sizes Feel Bad About Their Bodies After Viewing Models We're all familiar with the studies that show heavier women feel worse after seeing images of the "thin-ideal" women portrayed on television and in magazines. However, a new study published in this month's Sex Roles: A Journal of Research shows that even w... Continue reading Women Of All Sizes Feel Bad About Their Bodies After Viewing Models
Less Than 1/3 of American Mental Health Disorders Treated A survey of Americans' psychiatric needs shows that while almost 30 percent of the population suffers from mental health disorders, less than one-third of those affected receive treatment for them. The study, which involved comprehensive interviews of 816 ... Continue reading Less Than 1/3 of American Mental Health Disorders Treated
Reading Troubles Lead To Depression, Anxiety In Disadvantaged Children Difficulties in reading may precede depression and anxiety, especially for children from low-income families, report researchers from the University of Delaware and West Chester University of Pennsylvania. A study of 105 children age four to 12 published ... Continue reading Reading Troubles Lead To Depression, Anxiety In Disadvantaged Children
Day Care Linked to Behavior Problems The good news for working parents? Children who spend ten or more hours per week at a day care center have stronger vocabulary skills by fifth grade, particularly if they receive high quality care. The bad news? The more time they spend in child care, the m... Continue reading Day Care Linked to Behavior Problems
Counseling By Phone Found Effective A study of more than 400 depressed individuals has found telepsychotherapy, counseling by qualified clinical professionals given over the phone, to have long-lasting positive effects. Seventy-seven percent of individuals who were given both antidepressants... Continue reading Counseling By Phone Found Effective
Internet Helps Teens Bond With Real-Life Pals Hours spent in front of the computer might not be the worst thing for teens after all--especially when it comes to their social lives. While findings from the early days of the Internet showed that teens mainly communicated online primarily with strangers ... Continue reading Internet Helps Teens Bond With Real-Life Pals
Scriptural Violence Prompts Aggression in Readers A new study by University of Michigan researchers seeks to further understand the use of religion to justify acts of violence in countless instances ranging from the medieval Crusades to the events of 9/11. The study shows that, just as watching violent med... Continue reading Scriptural Violence Prompts Aggression in Readers
Study on Brain Damage Reveals Truths About Morality Would you kill one infected person to prevent many others from catching a deadly disease? For most, this decision is difficult, clouded by conflicting emotions. However, for rare individuals with injuries to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC), a reg... Continue reading Study on Brain Damage Reveals Truths About Morality
Brain Study Shows Fears Learned From Others Same As Fears Experienced Firsthand The brain uses similar neural processes to learn fears whether through personal experience or social observation, show NYU psychologists. Subjects in the study watched a video that showed another person receiving electric shocks connected to a colored squa... Continue reading Brain Study Shows Fears Learned From Others Same As Fears Experienced Firsthand
Analysis: Depression in U.S. Blacks Less Common But More Severe Depression weighs heavily upon U.S. blacks, a new study shows, despite lower rates of major depressive disorders. Analyzing self-reports from 6,082 African-Americans, Caribbean-Americans and non-Hispanic whites, researchers found that while 18 percent of w... Continue reading Analysis: Depression in U.S. Blacks Less Common But More Severe
Belief In Status Quo Helps Some Shirk Social Responsibility Life's not fair. For some kids, the old parental adage only becomes truer with time as they become aware of worldwide inequities in areas such as hunger, education, gender, healthcare. Others, it seems, have an easier time accepting the status quo as fair ... Continue reading Belief In Status Quo Helps Some Shirk Social Responsibility
Substance Abuse, PTSD Common Among Veterans Nearly three times as many veterans are taking advantage of the two free years of health care offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) than did in Vietnam, many to be treated for mental health problems, shows a report funded by a VA grant and publ... Continue reading Substance Abuse, PTSD Common Among Veterans
Proposed DSM Addition to Cover Symptoms of Childhood Trauma An article published in the latest issue of the American Psychological Association's Monitor on Psychology reports on a new diagnosis being proposed for inclusion into the 2011 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-V.... Continue reading Proposed DSM Addition to Cover Symptoms of Childhood Trauma
Study: Short Walks Reduce Cigarette Cravings as Well as Nicotine Patch Craving a smoke? Take a walk, say researchers. And it doesn't even have to be a long one--just five minutes of exercise has been found to dramatically reduce the intensity of cigarette cravings, according to a new study published in the journal Addiction. ... Continue reading Study: Short Walks Reduce Cigarette Cravings as Well as Nicotine Patch
Article: Is America Overmedicating Its Foster Children? It seems the ever-increasing use of psychiatric drugs to treat children may be hitting hardest the troubled youngsters placed foster homes and residential facilities after their parents lose or forfeit custody: Parents and child advocacy groups are accusing... Continue reading Article: Is America Overmedicating Its Foster Children?
Infant Education Helps Depressed Moms Infants rely on parental interaction for stimulation and healthy development. Unfortunately, that interaction is often interrupted by the post-partum depression which affects about 30 percent of mothers. However, a new Canadian study published in this month... Continue reading Infant Education Helps Depressed Moms
How Snoring May Lower Your Child's IQ Sleep disorders pose an even greater threat to intellectual impairment in children than lead exposure, says a new study by the University of Virginia Health System. Studying children with enlarged tonsils and adenoids, researchers found that those who snor... Continue reading How Snoring May Lower Your Child's IQ
Do Angry Women Have Genetics to Blame? Why are some women angrier than others? It may all be in the genes, says a new study by University of Pittsburgh researchers. Prior studies have shown increased serotonin production to be associated with aggression and anger in humans and animals. In this ... Continue reading Do Angry Women Have Genetics to Blame?
Do R-Rated Films Make Teens Smoke? A new study says yes--but only in the case of white adolescents. The study, published in the March issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, interviewed non-smoking teens in 2002 on how much television they watched, the films they had seen t... Continue reading Do R-Rated Films Make Teens Smoke?
Depressed Elderly May Die Younger Elderly people with physical ills are highly likely to suffer from depression which in turn greatly increases the likelihood of early death, report University of Liverpool researchers. In a project involving more than 300 elderly people who had been dischar... Continue reading Depressed Elderly May Die Younger
Use of ADHD Drugs Triples Around the World Just weeks after the FDA decided to require that ADHD drugs be labeled to warn patients of potentially fatal psychiatric and cardiovascular symptoms, the University of California, Berkeley has publised a country-by-country analysis which shows that use of t... Continue reading Use of ADHD Drugs Triples Around the World
Antidepressants May Help Men Drink Less The Canadian Institutes of Health Research have published research showing that antidepressants may help men consume less alcohol. Surveying 14,063 male and female Canadians on their use of alcohol and antidepressants, they found that whether male or female... Continue reading Antidepressants May Help Men Drink Less
Mental Health Disorder Diagnosis May Soon Be a Blood Test Away Screening for panic disorders, potential substance abuse problems and other mental health conditions may soon be possible via a simple blood test. Analyzing genetic data in immature white blood cells from subjects with and without panic disorders, Universi... Continue reading Mental Health Disorder Diagnosis May Soon Be a Blood Test Away
New Research on Happiness Says Life Events Do Matter Popular psychological wisdom that says rich or poor, lucky or unlucky, individual happiness is stuck around a set point that merely fluctuates with good and bad events only to return to that point is wrong, according to a new study on human happiness. Rathe... Continue reading New Research on Happiness Says Life Events Do Matter
What Would You Decide After 53 Hours Without Sleep? On top of hurting your health and damaging your memory, it seems lack of sleep can also influence your moral decision-making skills. A study by researchers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research tested 26 healthy adults on the course of action to ta... Continue reading What Would You Decide After 53 Hours Without Sleep?
The Face of Male Depression Researchers estimate that more than 6 million men in the United States suffer from depression. And yet, as we reported in October, many fail to seek treatment or even realize what's wrong with them. Recognizing depression in men can be difficult even for t... Continue reading The Face of Male Depression
Why Seeing Red May Lead to Failure In Western culture, the color red can mean stop, emergency, debt or danger--and as a study published in this month's Journal of Experimental Psychology: General reveals, it can also mean failure. Researchers exposed subjects to various hues and saturations... Continue reading Why Seeing Red May Lead to Failure
Early Sexual Experience Linked to Teen Delinquency Adolescents who start having sex a year or more earlier than their peers are 20 percent more likely to commit acts of delinquency such as stealing, vandalizing property and selling drugs. Meanwhile students who waited longer than the average student at thei... Continue reading Early Sexual Experience Linked to Teen Delinquency
Military Families Underserved as Iraq, Katrina Take Psychological Toll Three articles published this weekend illustrate the increasing toll placed on the mental health of both soldiers and their families as they face extended separations, fear of death and injury, trauma and loneliness following extended and repeated tours in ... Continue reading Military Families Underserved as Iraq, Katrina Take Psychological Toll
One in Three Young Teenage Boys Are Heavy Users of Pornography Young teenage boys are very heavy users of sexually explicit media content on digital or satellite television, video, and DVD and the Internet. When surveyed anonymously, 90 percent of boys and 70 percent of girls aged 13 and 14 reported accessing sexually... Continue reading One in Three Young Teenage Boys Are Heavy Users of Pornography
Helping Girls Resist Media Sexualization Imagine a 5-year-old girl walking through a mall wearing a short T-shirt that says "Flirt." Consider the instructions given in magazines to preadolescent girls on how to look sexy and get a boyfriend by losing 10 pounds and straightening their hair. Envis... Continue reading Helping Girls Resist Media Sexualization
For Many, Grieving Process Defies Traditional Model It's taught in medical schools and psychology classrooms around the world: the stage theory of grief which says the grieving process follows five clear stages, beginning with a sense of disbelief or numbness and moving on through anger, bargaining and depre... Continue reading For Many, Grieving Process Defies Traditional Model
Autism Genome Project Indentifies New Genetic Links An international research project analyzing DNA samples from 1,168 families with two or more children with autism has located two possible sites linked to the development of the disorder: a "previously unsuspected" region of chromosome 11 and the deletion o... Continue reading Autism Genome Project Indentifies New Genetic Links
Babies Can Remember--Just Not for Long New research shows that babies can form memories--despite few people being able to recall anything before preschool. The trouble is, they also forget, said Duke University researcher Patricia J. Bauer at the annual meeting of the American Association for t... Continue reading Babies Can Remember--Just Not for Long
The Limits of Compassion: Why Sympathy Alone Won't Prevent Genocide Conceptualizing of large numbers of deaths and other atrocities is overwhelming. Logic tells us that the death of 100,000 people is more tragic than the death of 100, but does the increase really produce any change in emotion--or even the expected change of... Continue reading The Limits of Compassion: Why Sympathy Alone Won't Prevent Genocide
Poor Sleep Hurts Young and Old While we often hear about working adults' lack of shut-eye, two studies released this week show that both teens and seniors also suffer from not sleeping enough--or well enough. The first, published in the yesterday's Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, sh... Continue reading Poor Sleep Hurts Young and Old
What Brain Scans Reveal About Love The Wall Street Journal has published an interesting article discussing the chemical basis of love. In the lab it seems falling in love is a lot like addiction--and heartbreak isn't too different from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Read more: Is It Love or... Continue reading What Brain Scans Reveal About Love
Empathy and the Neuroscience of Therapy Twenty therapist-patient pairs recently let themselves be wired to skin sensors and videotaped during their sessions in the name of neuroscience. Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) were studying the pairs, hoping to find physiological... Continue reading Empathy and the Neuroscience of Therapy
Rehab Redux There's a lot going on in the world of the addiction rehabilititation these days, Lindsay Lohan news aside. In "Rehab Reality Check," Newsweek reports on competing strategies in the imperfect science of addiction treatment and a forthcoming paradigm shift ... Continue reading Rehab Redux
Choosy Daters Win More Hearts Just in time for Valentine's Day, Northwestern University researchers have some simple but scientifically proven dating advice: Be picky! Studying speed daters who met with a slew of potential partners for just four minutes each, they found that people wh... Continue reading Choosy Daters Win More Hearts
Life Harder on Teen Girls, Depression Study Shows A shocking number of young women age 15 to 24--about 20 percent--is affected by major depression, studies show, making them more likely to attempt suicide, abuse alcohol and enter into abusive relationships. New findings from the University of South Caroli... Continue reading Life Harder on Teen Girls, Depression Study Shows
Antipsychotic Drugs May Also Help Autism Second generation antipsychotics are in the news yet again: Just weeks after quetiapine was found to aid recovering anorexics, risperidone has been shown helpful in treating some symptoms of autism spectrum disorders according to a review of three randomize... Continue reading Antipsychotic Drugs May Also Help Autism
Loneliness, Depression Bad for Mind, Body and Soul A set of studies published in this month's issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry suggest that social isolation and depression are bad for both mental and physical health. More than 800 senior citizens were evaluated for loneliness on a five point sca... Continue reading Loneliness, Depression Bad for Mind, Body and Soul
Study: Folic Acid May Help Mental Functioning Folic acid, a naturally occurring form of vitamin B-9 necessary for new cell production, may help improve mental functioning in aging adults, shows a Dutch study of more than 800 men and women age 50 to 70 with low levels of homocysteine, a risk factor for ... Continue reading Study: Folic Acid May Help Mental Functioning
Survey Shows Binge Eating Most Prevalent Eating Disorder A new study by Harvard psychiatrists aims at highlighting eating disorders as a top public health concern in America. The study, published in the February 1, 2007 issue of Biological Psychiatry, is the first to provide concrete figures on the prevalence of ... Continue reading Survey Shows Binge Eating Most Prevalent Eating Disorder
Does Chronic Irritability Equal Childhood Bipolar Disorder? New Study Says No The diagnosis of pediatric Bipolar Disorder (BD) is controversial; the prescription of antidepressants to increasing numbers of diagnosed children as young as four even more so. Many doctors are reluctant to diagnose or even recognize the disease before ad... Continue reading Does Chronic Irritability Equal Childhood Bipolar Disorder? New Study Says No
Warning: Antidepressants Double Fracture Risks in Older Patients Health professionals prescribing antidepressants to older adults should be on the alert: Daily use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Paxil or Prozac has been found to double the risk of fractures in osteoporatic patients, report McG... Continue reading Warning: Antidepressants Double Fracture Risks in Older Patients
The New Addiction That's Probably in Your Purse Anyone who's endured the oblivious cell phone user yapping through movies, train rides or even library visits won't be surprised to find that certain folks may be so attached to their phone that personal relationships and obligations may suffer. Now, Univer... Continue reading The New Addiction That's Probably in Your Purse
Forgetting Your Native Tongue May Help You Pick Up a Second When learning a second language, many people find that they have occasional difficulty remembering words from their native tongue. This phenomena is called first-language attrition, and is currently being studied by University of Oregon researchers Benjamin... Continue reading Forgetting Your Native Tongue May Help You Pick Up a Second
Television Not an Effective Educational Tool British psychologist Aric Sigman warns that using educational television in the classroom may harm student learning. Contradicting arguments that students at moneyed schools have an unfair educational advantage because of the ease in obtaining televisions, ... Continue reading Television Not an Effective Educational Tool
Article: Parents' Jobs Stress Children Too The average American work week has increased ten hours in the last 30 years and with this jump has come more stress at home--for parent and child alike, scientists reported this week at the annual meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association. A study... Continue reading Article: Parents' Jobs Stress Children Too
Research Locates Seat of Smoking Addiction The insula, the same region of the brain recently shown to prevent overspending, is now being linked to vice rather than virtue. Research published in tomorrow's issue of Science shows that smokers with lesions in this area of the brain were 136 times more ... Continue reading Research Locates Seat of Smoking Addiction
First Socio-Cultural Study of Serial Killers by US Region The journal Homicide Studies has released results of the first ever study on regional and state differences in male serial killer activity in the United States--and news is bad for the U.S. South. Researchers examined both social factors such as the percen... Continue reading First Socio-Cultural Study of Serial Killers by US Region
Antidepressants Superior to Therapy in Treating Depression After Heart Attack A Canadian study of cardiac patients has shown the antidepressant Celexa (Citalopram) to be successful in treating the severe depression experienced by nearly one-third of heart attack sufferers. Talk therapy, meanwhile, appeared to have no effect. The stu... Continue reading Antidepressants Superior to Therapy in Treating Depression After Heart Attack
Article: Why We Stress-Eat Hunger should be the last thing on our minds as we struggle to meet a deadline or argue with loved ones. Mentally taxing situations don't use enough energy to require eating more either. So why then do many of us--particularly those already concerned with w... Continue reading Article: Why We Stress-Eat
Understanding Others Key to Altruism When a team of researchers at Duke University began using fMRIs to study the brain's connection to altruism, they expected to find that selfless acts were linked to reward systems in the brain--but were treated to some surprising findings. They discovered ... Continue reading Understanding Others Key to Altruism
The Demographics of Binge-Drinking Education and gender affects how likely a person is to binge drink at various times throughout their life, a study of 11,500 Brits born in the same week of 1958 reveals. For males, less education was tied to a tendency to binge-drink in their twenties, wit... Continue reading The Demographics of Binge-Drinking
Antipsychotic Drug Helps Anorexics Quetiapine, one of the atypical antipsychotics which have become popular in the treatment of schizophrenia, has shown to help in the recovery from anorexia. In a study of 19 patients published in this month's International Journal of Eating Disorders, nine ... Continue reading Antipsychotic Drug Helps Anorexics
To Buy or Not to Buy: Brain Chemistry May Make the Call Stanford University psychologists are using brain images to learn more about why some people are impulse shoppers and others have an easier time holding on to their dough. Experimental subjects were given $40 and the option to keep the money or to buy vari... Continue reading To Buy or Not to Buy: Brain Chemistry May Make the Call
New Alzheimer's Gene Identified A five-year study of genetic data has uncovered a new genetic variation linked to Alzheimer's disease. Studying the Alzheimer's-related faulty processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP), researchers found that this was linked with two variations in the S... Continue reading New Alzheimer's Gene Identified
Bilingualism Staves Off Dementia Scientists at Canada's Rotman Research Institute at the Baycrest Research Centre for Aging and the Brain have found that using two languages throughout one's life delays symptoms of dementia for up to four years. Researchers charted 184 patients with Alzhe... Continue reading Bilingualism Staves Off Dementia
Do the Powerful Lack Empathy? Why do Stanford, Northwestern and NYU researchers have experimental subjects scribbling letters on their foreheads? It's a study in power--and the possibility that powerful people lose the ability to see things from someone else's perspective. After being ... Continue reading Do the Powerful Lack Empathy?
Migraine-Depression Link Reported A survey of more than a thousand female headache sufferers shows that women who suffer from migraine symptoms and severe related symptoms have a 32-fold increase for depression. Women who experienced chronic headaches (15 or more per month) were furthermor... Continue reading Migraine-Depression Link Reported
Instinctive Decisions Most Reliable Under some circumstances following your gut is your best bet, shows research from University College London psychologists. Participants in their study, published in today's issue of Current Biology, were given between zero and 1.5 seconds identify on which ... Continue reading Instinctive Decisions Most Reliable
How Teens Use Social Networking Sites A nationwide survey of 12- to 17-year-olds shows that most teens are using social networking sites like MySpace responsibly and in ways that mimic normal social behavior. More than half of teens surveyed reported having a profile, but two-thirds of these a... Continue reading How Teens Use Social Networking Sites
'Dawn Simulation' Provides AlternateTreatment for SAD Two new therapies have shown to be successful at treating people suffering from the winter blues. Dawn simulation, which uses a bedside machine to gradually deliver light at the same time as the summer sunrise, and negative air ionization have shown to be e... Continue reading 'Dawn Simulation' Provides AlternateTreatment for SAD
Length of Inpatient Youth Mental Health Treatment Declines Dramatically The median inpatient hospital stay for youth receiving mental health treatment declined from 12.2 days to 4.5 days between 1990 and 2000. This decrease occurred in spite of increases in the diagnosis of serious psychiatric disorders and cases of self-injury... Continue reading Length of Inpatient Youth Mental Health Treatment Declines Dramatically
Half of Social Workers Experience Secondary PTSD Social workers experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at twice the rate of the general population, shows a new study by University of Georgia assistant professor Brian Bride. Like family members of war veterans and Holocaust survivors, they may ex... Continue reading Half of Social Workers Experience Secondary PTSD
Nightmares, Sleep Difficulties May Precede Suicide Attempt Nine out of ten people who attempt suicide report having experienced sleep disturbances, shows a Swedish study of 165 patients. The most common disturbances were difficulties falling asleep (73 percent), difficulties staying asleep (69 percent), and awakeni... Continue reading Nightmares, Sleep Difficulties May Precede Suicide Attempt
Diet Articles May Cause Eating Disorders in Teens The 44 percent of middle school girls who frequently read articles about weight loss and dieting are twice as likely to try unhealthy weight loss measures such as smoking and fasting and three times as likely to try vomiting than girls who did not read the ... Continue reading Diet Articles May Cause Eating Disorders in Teens
Childhood Physical Abuse Shown to Cause Adult Depression Children who are physically abused have a 59 percent higher chance of developing major depression later in life compared to other children, shows a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The study followed 680 abused children and 520 non-ab... Continue reading Childhood Physical Abuse Shown to Cause Adult Depression
Without Memories of the Past, Dreams of Future May Be Impossible Brain scans from a Washington University - St. Louis study suggest that our ability to envision the future is impacted greatly by our ability to recall the past. Without memories, doing so may even be downright impossible, results show, helping to explain ... Continue reading Without Memories of the Past, Dreams of Future May Be Impossible
Psychiatrists Ask: When to Discontinue ADHD Medication? An article published in the September issue of the Journal of Psychopharmacology studies the same questions many attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) patients ask as they enter adulthood: What are the long-term effects of using psychostimulants l... Continue reading Psychiatrists Ask: When to Discontinue ADHD Medication?
FDA Warning: Antidepressants May Increase Suicide Risks in Young Adults The Food and Drug Administration has proposed that antidepressants such as Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft must now feature an FDA label warning of increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in patients under 24. This action follows a meta-analysis of 372 s... Continue reading FDA Warning: Antidepressants May Increase Suicide Risks in Young Adults
Holding Hands Eases Stress A University of Virginia study of 16 married women who scored high on a marriage-satisfaction inventory showed that simply holding their husband's hand eased both physical sign of stress and their brains' responses to pain. Researchers took magnetic resona... Continue reading Holding Hands Eases Stress
Depression Often Follows Head Injury People who sustain head injuries are at a high risk for depression new research shows. An alarming 33 percent of patients who suffered head injury in a study developed a "major depressive disorder" within one year. These patients were also found to have sus... Continue reading Depression Often Follows Head Injury
Report: Children's Shows Contain Twice the Violence of Primetime TV An analysis of children's programming released by the Parents' Television Council (PTC) reports that shows aimed at five- to ten-year-olds involve even higher levels of violence and other mature content than many prime-time programs. Examining almost 450 ... Continue reading Report: Children's Shows Contain Twice the Violence of Primetime TV
Acupuncture Helpful But Inadequate Treatment for Depression Following two studies showing the ancient treatment to successfully treat symptoms of depression in young women and pregnant women, University of Arizona researcher Dr. John J. B. Allen reports acupuncture alone is not an adequate treatment for depression. ... Continue reading Acupuncture Helpful But Inadequate Treatment for Depression
Video Game Fun Rooted in Basic Psychological Needs New video games and cutting-edge consoles freshly unwrapped, millions of gamers are now sitting down with for what most perceive as a bit of post-holiday fun. However, researchers at the University of Rochester in New York report that the motivation to play... Continue reading Video Game Fun Rooted in Basic Psychological Needs
How Partner Reacts to Your Good News Is Vital Although people may fret over how their partner responds to bad news, a new study shows that how couples react to each other's good news is in fact a better indicator of relationship health. Researchers questions 79 couples about how their partners reacted... Continue reading How Partner Reacts to Your Good News Is Vital
Psychedelic Mushrooms: The Magic Cure for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? Just months after a Canadian medical professor revisited a 40-year-old experiment with LSD that kept some alcoholics sober since the sixties and researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reported that the rave drug Ketamine might just be... Continue reading Psychedelic Mushrooms: The Magic Cure for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?
Happiness Can Be Distracting, Researchers Say A new study reports that feelings of happiness boost creativity--but make it harder to focus on a single task. As the brain receives data from all of the body's sensory organs--the eyes, nose, mouth, skin and ears--it must decide what is immediately pertine... Continue reading Happiness Can Be Distracting, Researchers Say
Cognitive Exercise Helps Seniors' Skills Stay Sharp Short-term cognitive training can have lasting affects, a study published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association reports. Almost 3000 seniors participated in the five-year, multi-site trial. Some received no cognitive training while three o... Continue reading Cognitive Exercise Helps Seniors' Skills Stay Sharp
Depression and Anxiety Worsen for 76% of Sufferers Around Holidays Results of a poll released by the Canadian Mental Health Association shows the holiday season taking quite a toll on mental health with the general population citing "added social pressure, financial stress, raised holiday expectations, an increased feeling... Continue reading Depression and Anxiety Worsen for 76% of Sufferers Around Holidays
Brain Scans May Aid Early Detection of Schizophrenia Recently released findings show that reductions of gray matter in the brain identifiable through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are linked to an elevated risk of schizophrenia. For the last ten years, University of Ediburgh scientists have been tracking ... Continue reading Brain Scans May Aid Early Detection of Schizophrenia
Half of Relationships Suffer After First Child A study of Australian couples shows that nearly half of couples report a "significant decline" in their relationship after they have children. However, intervention programs that address expectations about being parents and teach communication and conflict ... Continue reading Half of Relationships Suffer After First Child
Article: As ADD Kids Grow Up, Many Reject Medication As the original Ritalin generation enters adulthood, many childhood sufferers of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are choosing to wean themselves off the medications of their youth. Around 90 percent of c... Continue reading Article: As ADD Kids Grow Up, Many Reject Medication
Body Image Gap Between White and Black Women May Be Narrowing The gap in body image that has long thought to exist between black and white American women may be narrowing in one respect: dissatisfaction with weight. A University of Indiana meta-analysis of more than 50 studies dating back to 1966 shows that overall, ... Continue reading Body Image Gap Between White and Black Women May Be Narrowing
Bonuses--Not Raises--Boost Employee Performance Bosses hoping to motivate employees to work harder may want to trade merit-based raises for performance-based bonuses, suggests a Cornell University study. The four-year study which tracked more than 700 workers found that a 1 percent increase in pay gener... Continue reading Bonuses--Not Raises--Boost Employee Performance
Spinal Fluid May Hold Biomarkers for Alzheimer's Preliminary tests by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York have identified a pattern of 23 proteins in spinal fluid which have thusfar identifed Alzheimer's disease with promising accuracy. While further research is necessary, scientists ... Continue reading Spinal Fluid May Hold Biomarkers for Alzheimer's
New Dyslexia Model Finds 'Noise' at Root of Disorder Recent studies by University of Southern California researchers suggest the reading problems associated with dyslexia are caused by problems filtering out external "noise." These findings contradict the long-held theory that the learning disorder was due t... Continue reading New Dyslexia Model Finds 'Noise' at Root of Disorder
Drug Blocks Alcohol Cravings Researchers at a leading brain research center in Australia have discovered a drug blocking the chemical in the brain linked to alcohol cravings. In studies involving rats, scientists found they could block receptors of Orexin, the hormone associated with ... Continue reading Drug Blocks Alcohol Cravings
Young Hispanic and Elderly Asian Women at Highest Risk for Suicide Young Hispanic and older Asian females have notably higher rates of suicide and suicidal ideation than their non-Hispanic white counterparts, reported experts from the New York State Office of Mental Health at a hearing of the State Assembly last week. In ... Continue reading Young Hispanic and Elderly Asian Women at Highest Risk for Suicide
How Patients Request Antidepressants Affects Physician Care A study by University of California at San Francisco researchers shows that patients who approach physicians with a general interest in antidepressants are more thoroughly evaluated for depression than patients who request specific medications or merely de... Continue reading How Patients Request Antidepressants Affects Physician Care
Smokers Who Cut Back More Likely to Quit Going cold turkey isn't the only road to kicking the habit, a review published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research reports. Analyzing 19 studies on smoking reduction, University of Vermont researchers found that reducing the number of cigarettes smoked and ad... Continue reading Smokers Who Cut Back More Likely to Quit
New Moms at Greatest Risk for Postpartum Depression The first few weeks following childbirth are the riskiest time for postpartum depression, says a new Danish study. This time is especially risky for new mothers who are seven times more likely than women with other children to be hospitalized for depression... Continue reading New Moms at Greatest Risk for Postpartum Depression
Depression Screening and Intervention Cost-Effective for Employers Using a five-year simulated model, researchers at Harvard Medical School and the National Institute for Health estimated that implementing advanced outreach programs for depression would save employers an average of about $3,000 per 1000 workers. These res... Continue reading Depression Screening and Intervention Cost-Effective for Employers
Survey: Many Workers Suffer Abusive Boss A Florida State University survey shows that a quarter or more of American workers have experienced mistreatment by their supervisor. Reported offenses included silent treatment (31 percent), badmouthing (27 percent), invasions of privacy (24 percent) and... Continue reading Survey: Many Workers Suffer Abusive Boss
Chronic Stress Alters Neuron Growth New research shows that long-term daily stress actually changes the shape of neurons in the brain, helping to explain the association of prolonged stress with mental illness. Using rats exposed to stressful conditions, scientists found that stressed rats p... Continue reading Chronic Stress Alters Neuron Growth
Oxytocin to Treat Autism Symptoms? Researchers from the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine are experimenting with oxytocin, a hormone tied to social cognition, to treat symptoms of autism. Adults with autism and Asperger's syndrome received intravenous doses of either oxytocin or a saline placebo... Continue reading Oxytocin to Treat Autism Symptoms?
Common PTSD Drug Found Ineffective Guanfacine (Tenex®) is no more effective than a sugar pill in treating symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), reports a trial published in today's edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry. Sixty-three veterans with PTSD symptoms were gi... Continue reading Common PTSD Drug Found Ineffective
Article: Online Games and Addiction Online role-playing games such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft which allow users to take part in a continuing fantasy drama with thousands of players from all over the world are now being called the cause of failing marriages, lost jobs and even suicide.... Continue reading Article: Online Games and Addiction
Broken Home Doubles Chance of Schizophrenia Whether the separation is due to death or divorce, children from broken homes are twice as likely to develop schizophrenia, a British study shows. Odds further increase when a parent dies or is absent for a year or more. The study further showed that Carib... Continue reading Broken Home Doubles Chance of Schizophrenia
Yoga for Juvenile Inmates? The young inmates at Alameda County, California's Juvenile Justice Center have been receiving age-old lessons in self-control and relaxation thanks to a novel program that brings yoga to them five times per week for a year. Within just three months, partici... Continue reading Yoga for Juvenile Inmates?
One in Three Mentally Ill Patients Return to Hospital Within a Year A study of mentally ill Canadian patients found that 37 percent re-entered the hospital within one year. Older adults, patients with personality disorders such as schizophrenia and people who had originally had a long-term stay were most likely to be readmi... Continue reading One in Three Mentally Ill Patients Return to Hospital Within a Year
Morbidity Rates Down Among Anorexics Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have announced some positive findings from a long-term study of sufferers of anorexia. The study, which followed all Swedish women between the ages of 10 and 24 who entered treatment for anorexia between... Continue reading Morbidity Rates Down Among Anorexics
Well-Being Therapy Eases Distress in Schools A study by Italian researchers shows that Well-Being Therapy (WBT), an approach focusing on helping patients' sense of well-being by increasing awareness of positive moments and changing thoughts that disrupt well-being, may have success in schools. One hu... Continue reading Well-Being Therapy Eases Distress in Schools
Videogame Violence Affects Brain Function Teens who play violent video games experience decreased activity in parts of the brain associated with control and concentration and increased activity in the areas linked to emotional arousal, a study by Indiana University researchers shows. Comparing two... Continue reading Videogame Violence Affects Brain Function
Findings: Proteins Anchor Long-Term Memories in Brain A mathematician at University of Utah Brain Institute has published a paper detailing how long-term memories may be stored in the brain. The paper proposes that in a synapse, the junction between neurons, proteins called "AMPA receptors" are held in place b... Continue reading Findings: Proteins Anchor Long-Term Memories in Brain
Article: Dealing with 'Desk-Rage' "Desk-rage," or outbursts of anger at work, are on the rise. In a 2001 survey of workers, 42 percent reported yelling or verbal abuse in their office while 10 percent reported physical violence. Corporate consultants report a growing acceptance of such beh... Continue reading Article: Dealing with 'Desk-Rage'
Article: Increasing Number of Youth on Multiple Psychiatric Medications Many children and adolescents these days aren't simply on psychiatric medication, but on "cocktails" of two or more medicines a day designed to combat everything from poor concentration to insomnia. Without substantial proof that the benefits of such combin... Continue reading Article: Increasing Number of Youth on Multiple Psychiatric Medications
Trust and Risk-Taking: Inherited Traits? Current research by the Institute for the Study of Labor and the University of Bonn suggests willingness to take risks and to trust others--traits that may lead to economic success--tend to run in families. Interviewing 3600 families across the socioeconom... Continue reading Trust and Risk-Taking: Inherited Traits?
Boys and Girls Process Language in Different Parts of Brain When children make language mistakes, girls use the part of the brain used for declarative memory or tasks like memorizing words and associations while boys use procedural memory and the part associated with governing the rules of language, Georgetown Unive... Continue reading Boys and Girls Process Language in Different Parts of Brain
Parenting-Focused Infotainment Helps Real-Life Families Reality shows where seasoned professionals help clueless parents learn to discipline and care for their unruly offspring may be more than just fluff entertainment. Watching programs promoting good parenting skills and children's behavioral problems can actu... Continue reading Parenting-Focused Infotainment Helps Real-Life Families
Poor Perceptions About Sleep May Lead Alcoholics to Relapse Inaccurate perceptions about sleep quality can have troubling effects on recovering alcoholics, a University of Michigan study has found. Monitoring a group of such patients, researchers found that they tended to overestimate how long it took for them to f... Continue reading Poor Perceptions About Sleep May Lead Alcoholics to Relapse
How Kids Seperate Truth from Fiction Parents who urge children not to believe everything they hear need not worry: Children as young as four are able to distinguish fantasy from reality using context clues according to Effects of context on judgments concerning the reality status of novel enti... Continue reading How Kids Seperate Truth from Fiction
Depressed Youth Try Alcohol Sooner Ten- to 13-year-olds who show signs of depression are more than twice as likely to try alcohol than their peers, a Columbia University study has shown. Interviewing more than 1000 children in this age group who had never tried alcohol, researchers found th... Continue reading Depressed Youth Try Alcohol Sooner
Article: Intimacy Isn't for Everyone While therapy frequently aims at building intimate relationships, for some patients lacking other psychological problems, solitude may be a valid preference. Read more: Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle: For Some People, Intimacy Is Toxic ... Continue reading Article: Intimacy Isn't for Everyone
Youth in Developing Countries Happiest People between the ages of 16 and 34 in developing countries such as China are twice as likely to report leading happy lives as their peers in developed nations like Britain and Japan, a survey by MTV Networks International (MTVNI) shows. Overall, 43 perce... Continue reading Youth in Developing Countries Happiest
Myelin 'Internet' Makes Human Brain Unique But Vulnerable, Researcher Says Myelin, the layer of fat and protein insulating neurons and conducting the neuronal impulses in human brains, was called a "recent invention of evolution" which causes man's "unique vulnerability to highly prevalent neuropsychiatric disorders" in a paper pu... Continue reading Myelin 'Internet' Makes Human Brain Unique But Vulnerable, Researcher Says
'The mere presence of money changes people' A series of experiments conducted by University of Minnesota researcher Katherine Vohs show that money not only causes people to work harder toward their own goals--but also to distance themselves from others. When primed with pictures or thoughts of money... Continue reading 'The mere presence of money changes people'
Depression Linked to Osteoporosis, Bone Pain Hebrew University scientists studying a link between depression and osteoporosis found that rats induced into a depressive state lost up to 17 percent of their bone density in just four weeks. Researchers theorize this is due to impairment in the body's bon... Continue reading Depression Linked to Osteoporosis, Bone Pain
Article: Holidays Hard on Social Anxiety With the holiday season comes a flurry of reasons to get out of the house--and into situations that may be straining for sufferers of social anxiety or social phobia. While the first instinct may be to simply "get through" the holidays, experts urge individ... Continue reading Article: Holidays Hard on Social Anxiety
Eating Disorders Passed Down from Mother to Child By the age of ten, signs of disturbed eating patterns are likely to appear in children whose mothers suffer from eating disorders says a longitudinal study of 56 children published in October's British Journal of Psychiatry. The children and their mothers,... Continue reading Eating Disorders Passed Down from Mother to Child
Depression, Low Self-Esteem Worsen Schizophrenia Symptoms British researchers studying 100 schizophrenic patients who had recently experienced a relapse into psychosis found that depression, low self-esteem and negative views about others contribute to more severe auditory and persecutory hallucinations. Patients... Continue reading Depression, Low Self-Esteem Worsen Schizophrenia Symptoms
PTSD Rates Higher in Women An review of 290 studies on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) published in the American Psychological Associations Psychological Bulletin shows that women are about twice as likely than men to meet diagnostic criteria for the disorder. Women were not f... Continue reading PTSD Rates Higher in Women
Criminal Exhibitionists Likely to Re-Offend A long-term study of exhibitionists published in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law shows that they are likely to offend again or commit additional sexual offenses. Researchers followed 208 male exhibtionists from 1983 to 1996. O... Continue reading Criminal Exhibitionists Likely to Re-Offend
Depression, PTSD After Breast Cancer Diagnosis Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and major depression are among the significant mental health problems experienced by the majority of women following a breast cancer diagnosis according to new research by scientists at Dartmouth University. Contacting... Continue reading Depression, PTSD After Breast Cancer Diagnosis
Occupational Therapy Benefits Dementia Patients and Caregivers A study published today by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has found community-based occupational therapy to improve the daily life of patients with dementia and to greatly reduce the burden on their caregivers. Dutch researchers studied 135 patients wit... Continue reading Occupational Therapy Benefits Dementia Patients and Caregivers
Language Disorder Tied to Genetics Research published in the current issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science has shown genetics to be the most important factor in the development of Specific language impairment (SLI), a condition which causes slow language development unrelated ... Continue reading Language Disorder Tied to Genetics
'Biomarkers' in Blood May Help Army Screen Stressed Recruits With attrition rates of new recruits at 15 percent and the need for soldiers ever-growing, scientists are looking toward stress research to screen U.S. Army recruits for potential problems before they occur. One technique that shows promise is testing for ... Continue reading 'Biomarkers' in Blood May Help Army Screen Stressed Recruits
Resisting Sleep May Help Insomniacs In order to treat insomnia and chronic exhaustion, some specialists are now prescribing "sleep restriction," which allows people go to bed only for the amount of time they are already able to sleep, gradually increasing this time and thus reducing the numbe... Continue reading Resisting Sleep May Help Insomniacs
Half of Inmates Suffer from Mental Illness A Department of Justice study has shown that more than half of inmates housed in U. S. prisons suffer from mental illness, with 54 percent showing signs of mania, 30 percent depression and 24 percent a psychotic disorder. The study also found that as many a... Continue reading Half of Inmates Suffer from Mental Illness
Survey: Caregiving Takes Toll on Middle-Aged Women An independent poll has found that women age 35 to 54 are less happy than the rest of the population. Only 20 percent described themselves as "very happy" in contrast to 34 percent of other people surveyed. Many of these women cited multiple caregiving rol... Continue reading Survey: Caregiving Takes Toll on Middle-Aged Women
Social Rejection Hurts Brain Function Researchers have found that being socially excluded causes notceable changes in the brain. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), they monitored 30 subjects' brain activity. After completing a personality inventory half were told their answers indicated they ... Continue reading Social Rejection Hurts Brain Function
Research Suggests New Theory of Memory Storage Brown University researchers have set forth a new theory of memory storage challenging the widely held belief that new memories are transferred by the hippocampus to the neocortex during sleep. Using in vivo recordings, they found that this transfer is rat... Continue reading Research Suggests New Theory of Memory Storage
Vitamins, Fish Oil May Help Treat Depression Dietitians at Sydney University in Australia have identified several nutritional supplements which may aid in treating depression. Their study, published in Nutrition & Dietetics, found St. John's Wart, vitamins B-6, B-12, folate, the essential amino acid ... Continue reading Vitamins, Fish Oil May Help Treat Depression
Adolescents, Decision-Making and Rationality Adolescents have never been known for their great decision-making skills, but a new study has shown them to be no more optimistic about the risks associated with actions such as smoking than are adults. Rather, they are more likely to overestimate their ris... Continue reading Adolescents, Decision-Making and Rationality
Article: Mental Illness and Intimate Relationships For years, mental health professionals have urged patients with severe mental illness to avoid romantic relationships or simply failed to address the sexuality of their clients. However, both studies on these individuals and a new website giving a voice to... Continue reading Article: Mental Illness and Intimate Relationships
13 Percent of Teens with Problem Acne Attempt Suicide Acne may have devastating effects on the mental health of teenagers, a new study shows. In a New Zealand study of nearly 9570 students age 12 to 18, nearly 35 percent of the students with problem acne also reported suicidal thoughts and ten percent reported... Continue reading 13 Percent of Teens with Problem Acne Attempt Suicide
Why Dog Owners Are Happier A British study has found that dogs may keep people happier simply by obliging their owners to get outside and walk them even during bad weather and moods. This act further brings owners into contact with other dog walkers, giving social lives a boost, and... Continue reading Why Dog Owners Are Happier
Researchers Discover How Memories Are Packaged University of California, Irvine researchers have released a report which may help to explain why some memories are more vivid than others. Employing an fMRI to study individuals who experienced and then recalled a complex event, scientists found that thos... Continue reading Researchers Discover How Memories Are Packaged
Reading from Realistic Picture-Books Speeds Toddler Learning A study by University of Queensland and University of Virginia researchers shows that reading to toddlers from books with high iconicity, or images resembling those of real life, helps them learn about the world around them faster. One hundred thirty-two c... Continue reading Reading from Realistic Picture-Books Speeds Toddler Learning
Percentage of Infants Thought to be 'Depressed' Some doctors now claim that infants too may suffer from depression, exhibiting tell-tale signs such as a lack of emotional expression and trouble eating and sleeping. Either a damaging home environment or genetic predisposition may account for the baby blue... Continue reading Percentage of Infants Thought to be 'Depressed'
New Model for Brain Chemistry of Depression Levels of neurotransmitters called monoamines, which include serotonin, dopamine and neurepinephrine, have long been believed to be lower in the brain during depressive episodes. However, scientists have only just been able to create a convincing model to e... Continue reading New Model for Brain Chemistry of Depression
Gene Linked to Depression Found to Enlarge Brain Region A variation of a gene linked to mental illness has been found to shape the pulvinar, a part of the brain associated with negative emotions. University of Texas researchers studied the brains of 49 deceased people, finding that those who had carried two sho... Continue reading Gene Linked to Depression Found to Enlarge Brain Region
Happy People Get Sick Less Often Carnegie Mellon psychologist Sheldon Cohen has shown that people who report an abundance of positive emotions in their lives are less likely to develop a cold when exposed to the virus--and report fewer symptoms if they do. Cohen had published a similar pa... Continue reading Happy People Get Sick Less Often
Report: Strains on Mental Health May Undermine Knowledge Economies A report by researcher Rifka Weehuizen of the United Nations University - MERIT suggests that knowledge-based economies may be damaging the so-called mental capital that supports them by placing high demands on workers' abilities to be highly adaptable, sel... Continue reading Report: Strains on Mental Health May Undermine Knowledge Economies
Children Benefit from Accurate Perceptions of Likability Children with realistic perceptions of how well they are liked by peers are less likely to become depressed--even if they are not well liked, research at Florida State University shows. At the beginning and six months into the schoolyear, students in grade... Continue reading Children Benefit from Accurate Perceptions of Likability
Study: Second-Generation Antipsychotics Show No Advantages in Treating Schizophrenia A study by Britain's National Health Service has shown second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs), thought to be better at treating schizophrenia with fewer adverse effects, to be no more effective than less expensive first-generation antipsychotics (FGAs). T... Continue reading Study: Second-Generation Antipsychotics Show No Advantages in Treating Schizophrenia
'Spiritual' People More Depressed Than 'Religious' Counterparts While past research has shown that being religious--participating in organized worship services--is tied to lower rates of depression, a new Canadian study shows that being spiritual--searching for a meaning to life--is actually associated with higher risk ... Continue reading 'Spiritual' People More Depressed Than 'Religious' Counterparts
Music Therapy Eases Schizophrenia Symptoms British researchers have found that encouraging patients to express themselves musically can improve the mental health of individuals living with schizophrenia. One hundred fifteen patients with schizophrenia were randomly assigned to a group receiving eit... Continue reading Music Therapy Eases Schizophrenia Symptoms
Boys More Likely to Recover from Anorexia A UCLA study shows that the symptoms of anorexia may be more persistent in recovering female patients than recovering male patients. Studying 99 male and female anorexics age 14 to 17, researchers found that one year after recovery, 8.4 percent of females ... Continue reading Boys More Likely to Recover from Anorexia
Atomoxetine Treats ADHD-Anxiety Combo Patients who suffer from both Attention Hyperactivity Deficit Disorder (ADHD) and anxiety disorders may have success when prescriped with atomoxetine (marketed as Strattera), according to a presentation at 53rd annual meeting of the American Academy of Chil... Continue reading Atomoxetine Treats ADHD-Anxiety Combo
Child Abuse Alters Brain Chemistry A long-term study on monkeys shows that being raised by an abusive parent may alter brain chemistry in such a way that children are more prone to abusing their own offspring as adults. Emory University researchers studied infant monkeys raised by both abus... Continue reading Child Abuse Alters Brain Chemistry
Group Therapy Alleviates Cancer Stress A trial reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry shows that group therapy including cognitive restructuring, relaxation training and coping skills can help reduce overall stress and cancer-related anxiety in women undergoing treatment for breast cance... Continue reading Group Therapy Alleviates Cancer Stress
Fathers Vital to Child Language Development in Dual-Income Homes A new study shows that in families with two working parents, fathers play a greater role in child language development than do mothers. Researchers videotaped couples interacting with their two-year-old children. Returning a year later, they found that whe... Continue reading Fathers Vital to Child Language Development in Dual-Income Homes
Study Clears Misconceptions About Blacks and Suicide Findings from the National Survey of American Life show more suicide attempts by black Americans than previously thought. Surveying more than 5000 adults from African-American and Caribbean American backgrounds, the study found that 4.1 percent have tried ... Continue reading Study Clears Misconceptions About Blacks and Suicide
Cognitive Decline Often Undiagnosed in Older Patients For patients over 65, hospitalization for an acute illness may also be accompanied by a decline in cognitive ability that goes undiagnosed or even unnoticed says research by Sharon Inouye, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Aging Brain Center at Hebrew SeniorLif... Continue reading Cognitive Decline Often Undiagnosed in Older Patients
New Screening Tool Helps Detects Dementia Earlier Scientists at Saint Louis University have developed a new tool for diagnosing dementia believed to work better than the routinely administered Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE). SLUMS, or the Saint Louis University Mental Status Examination, supplement... Continue reading New Screening Tool Helps Detects Dementia Earlier
Two-Thirds of Depressed Patients Curable in One to Four Treatment Steps A study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) shows that more than two-thirds of patients can be relieved of depression if they work with doctors to try several medications and/or therapies until they find the best treatment for them. Th... Continue reading Two-Thirds of Depressed Patients Curable in One to Four Treatment Steps
Poor Readers Show Higher Risk of Suicide, Dropout Adolescents with reading problems are more likely to drop out of school and to consider suicide, a Wake Forest University Study shows. Researchers tracked 188 high school students for three years. They found that 25 percent of students testing in the lowe... Continue reading Poor Readers Show Higher Risk of Suicide, Dropout
Paxil Shown to Treat Compulsive Hoarding A University of California, San Diego study shows that paroxetine (marketed as Paxil) is effective in treating compulsive hoarding syndrome. Studying 79 patients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), 32 of whom also had compulsive hoarding syndrome, re... Continue reading Paxil Shown to Treat Compulsive Hoarding
26 Genes Linked to Alcoholism, Other Addictions A genome analysis funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has identified 188 genetic variants, most of which occur within 26 genes, as being associated with alcoholism. Of those thought to p... Continue reading 26 Genes Linked to Alcoholism, Other Addictions
Effects of Tsunami Trauma on Adults and Children Researchers studying the mental health of Thai people affected by the 2004 tsunami have found interesting differences between the mental health of children and adults affected by the tragedy. Children were found to be at a key risk for Post-Traumatic Stres... Continue reading Effects of Tsunami Trauma on Adults and Children
Mothers with PTSD Drawn to Violent Entertainment; Children May Suffer A study of 76 mothers with a history of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has found that these mothers watch more violent programming than other mothers, said researchers at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry in ... Continue reading Mothers with PTSD Drawn to Violent Entertainment; Children May Suffer
Internet Program Helps Prevent Eating Disorders Researchers have found that an eight-week online cognitive behavioral program called Student Bodies helps prevents eating disorders in high-risk college-aged women. Four-hundred eighty college-age women with high body shape and weight concerns were recruit... Continue reading Internet Program Helps Prevent Eating Disorders
Early Alcohol Abuse Leads to More Severe Dependency A study funded by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism published in Pediatrics shows that individuals who become alcohol-dependent at younger ages experience stronger symptoms of dependency. Researchers interviewed more than 4500 people who h... Continue reading Early Alcohol Abuse Leads to More Severe Dependency
Torture Victims Suffer Long-Term Brain Trauma Studies by a psychotraumatology research group show that torture may affect the way the brain works for years after the trauma. Studying a group of people who had experienced varying degrees of torture, researchers found not only evidence of dissociation, o... Continue reading Torture Victims Suffer Long-Term Brain Trauma
How Advertisements Affect Body Satisfaction in Women A study published in Psychology of Women Quarterly examines the impact of images of "thin-ideal" women in advertisements on women with and without prior feelings of body image concerns. Studying a group of female undergraduate students who viewed advertise... Continue reading How Advertisements Affect Body Satisfaction in Women
Study Okays Ritalin for Preschoolers, Debate Ensues A long-term study of preschoolers with Attention Deficit Disorder which will appear in the November Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology, suggests that the benefits of giving small doses Ritalin, a drug normally prescribed only... Continue reading Study Okays Ritalin for Preschoolers, Debate Ensues
Survey Shows 'Cyberbullying' Up With the ever-increasing use of blogs, instant messaging and social networking sites among teens and children has come a rise in bullying via the Internet, or "cyberbullying," a study published in the most recent issue of Pediatrics says. In a survey of te... Continue reading Survey Shows 'Cyberbullying' Up
Anxiety and Physical Ailments Associated A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds that people who suffer from ailments such as asthma, migraines, thyroid disease and arthritis are more likely to suffer from an anxiety disorder. Interestingly, the majority of people with both p... Continue reading Anxiety and Physical Ailments Associated
Study: How Childhood Abuse Impacts Adult Interactions New York University psychologists have shown that adults may have difficulties meeting someone who reminds them of a parent who emotionally or physically abused them as children. In the study, published in the November issue of Personality and Social Psych... Continue reading Study: How Childhood Abuse Impacts Adult Interactions
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Effective for Children with OCD A review published in the October 18, 2006 edition of The Cochrane Library shows cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to be equally successful a treatment as medication for children and adolescents with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Analyzing four clin... Continue reading Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Effective for Children with OCD
Ethnic Pride Leads to Happier Adolescents A Wake Forest University study published in the September/October issue of Child Development shows that teens with positive feelings toward their ethnic group are happier than those with negative feelings about their ethnicity. More than 400 ninth graders ... Continue reading Ethnic Pride Leads to Happier Adolescents
Study: Job Strain, Depression and Burnout Finnish researchers have found a correlation between job strain and depression, says a study published in this month's Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Questioning 3,270 workers, researchers found that high job strain was the biggest ris... Continue reading Study: Job Strain, Depression and Burnout
Study Probes 'Compulsive' Internet Use A study by Stanford University School of Medicine researchers published in CNS Spectrums: The International Journal of Neuropsychiatric Medicine provides hard data showing how patterns of Internet use have come to resemble those associated with other compul... Continue reading Study Probes 'Compulsive' Internet Use
Marijuana-like Compound Found to Slow Alzheimer's Marijuana may slow the brain inflamation believed to contribute to age-related degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, researchers said at the annual meeting of the Society of Neuroscience yesterday. Using rats with brain inflammation similar t... Continue reading Marijuana-like Compound Found to Slow Alzheimer's
Genetic Variant Linked to Autism Scientists have uncovered a genetic variant leading to increased risk for autism. Studying a sample of more than 1200 families with more than one child affected by autism, researchers found that children with autism spectrum disorders were more likely to h... Continue reading Genetic Variant Linked to Autism
Preventing Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome After Health Trauma A study published in the journal Critical Care shows that support from loved ones and hospital staff decreases the risk of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in patients who have undergone a major intensive-care intervention. Researchers gave 65 survivo... Continue reading Preventing Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome After Health Trauma
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Exercise Prescribed for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome A British review of treatments for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) published in the Journal for the Royal Society of Medicinehas found that cognitive behavior therapy and exercise are the most effective ways to treat the disease. In comparison, antidepressan... Continue reading Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Exercise Prescribed for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Autistic Children Lag in Distinguishing Living vs. Non-Living Things Researchers at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University have found that very young children with autism take longer to learn how to categorize objects and have particular difficulties learning to distinguish between living and non-li... Continue reading Autistic Children Lag in Distinguishing Living vs. Non-Living Things
Alzheimer's Drugs Found Ineffective, Dangerous A large-scale clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine and funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) shows that Zyprexa, Risperdal and Seroquel, antipsychotics prescribed to treat delusions and aggression associated wit... Continue reading Alzheimer's Drugs Found Ineffective, Dangerous
Mental Illness May Keep Pregnant Women Smoking A study of 744 low-income women published in the American Journal of Public Health shows that women who continue to smoke during pregnancy are more likely to suffer from psychiatric disorders such as anxiety disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorde... Continue reading Mental Illness May Keep Pregnant Women Smoking
Researchers Identify Traits Linked to Aggressive Behavior University of Missouri researchers have found that people with certain personality traits need little provocation to cause them to act out aggressively. For their analysis, participants ranging from seven to 48 years old were monitored and exposed to varyi... Continue reading Researchers Identify Traits Linked to Aggressive Behavior
Money Can In Fact Buy Happiness, Love A study of jackpot lottery winners by researchers at Britain's University of Nottingham shows that contrary to the old adage, money can in fact buy you happiness. Ninety-seven percent of the winners surveyed reported feeling as happy or happier than they h... Continue reading Money Can In Fact Buy Happiness, Love
Attitudes About Learning May Affect Your Memory A series of experiments by Columbia researchers show that people who believe that intelligence can be acquired through dedication and hard work have better memories than people who think smart people are just born that way. According to Columbia psychology... Continue reading Attitudes About Learning May Affect Your Memory
Schema Therapy Gives New Hope for 'Untreatable' Borderline Personality Disorder A controlled study appearing in the Archives of General Psychiatry shows that Schema Therapy (SFT) is twice as effective a treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder as the widely practiced approach, Transference Focused Psychotherapy (TFP). Eighty-six ... Continue reading Schema Therapy Gives New Hope for 'Untreatable' Borderline Personality Disorder
What's Everyone So Stressed Out About? Financial Concerns, Obligations Top the List Results of a survey of more than 2700 adults show that 74 percent of people experience stress related to rising prices, 53 percent over not having money for emergencies and 36 percent over paying for basic necessities. Outside of the financial sphere, more... Continue reading What's Everyone So Stressed Out About? Financial Concerns, Obligations Top the List
Study: Spouse Personality and Recovery A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology says having a neurotic or anxious spouse may hinder your recovery after a major health crisis, while having a positive spouse can help it. Researchers assessed personality, signs of depr... Continue reading Study: Spouse Personality and Recovery
How Close Relationships Affect Healing: A Neuroscientific Overview Research has long shown that people with strong social networks and relationships heal faster than those who do not. Now the emerging field of "social neuroscience" offers several explanations as to why. At the top of the list is the discovery of "mirror n... Continue reading How Close Relationships Affect Healing: A Neuroscientific Overview
Depression After Heart Attack Strong Indicator of Future Health About one in five patients who suffers a heart attack will become depressed in the first year of recovery. While many physicians perceive this as a normal, passing reaction to such a serious health crisis, a new study published by the Archives of Internal ... Continue reading Depression After Heart Attack Strong Indicator of Future Health
Playtime Prescribed to Overscheduled Kids As many parents enroll children in an ever-increasing number of sports, enrichment and academic-related activities, health officials say the one thing missing from many kids' schedules these days is some good old-fashioned play. A report presented at the a... Continue reading Playtime Prescribed to Overscheduled Kids
Therapy Via Video? Rural Patients Sign Up for 'Telepsychiatry' For patients in rural areas of the United States, getting to a therapist once involved hours of driving on country roads. Now thanks to a rapidly expanding network of telepsychiatry centers being set up in rural health clinics across the U.S. however, thera... Continue reading Therapy Via Video? Rural Patients Sign Up for 'Telepsychiatry'
Behavior Therapy Helps Seniors Sleep A study at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has found behavioral therapy to be highly effective in treating senior citizens with insomnia. Twenty-five patients who reported persistent problems sleeping were brought in for the experiment. Sev... Continue reading Behavior Therapy Helps Seniors Sleep
High BMI May Lead to Low Cognitive Functioning A longitudinal study of French adults published in Neurology shows that a high body mass index (BMI) is linked to poorer in cognitive function in healthy middle-aged adults. Participants aged 32 to 65 performed four cognitive tests in 1996 and then again 2... Continue reading High BMI May Lead to Low Cognitive Functioning
Family Environment Can Reverse Depression Gene, Study Says A study by UCLA researchers in the current edition of Biological Psychiatry shows that for people with the short version of the 5-HTTLPR gene, a variation linked to predisposition for depression, having a supportive, loving family early in life significantl... Continue reading Family Environment Can Reverse Depression Gene, Study Says
Study: Mixed Emotions Mean More Creative Workers A study by University of Washington psychologists shows that people who experience emotional ambivalence, the ability to feel both positive and negative emotions at the same time, are more creative workers than those who only feel sad, happy or neutral.That... Continue reading Study: Mixed Emotions Mean More Creative Workers
Choice to Share Custody with Abusive Ex-Spouse Influenced by Fear, Finances A study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships shows that, rather than choosing a context that would be both safe and the most beneficial to the children, the decision to share custody with an abusive ex-husband is most commonly motiv... Continue reading Choice to Share Custody with Abusive Ex-Spouse Influenced by Fear, Finances
LSD: A Far Out Treatment for Alcoholism? Erika Dyck, a Canadian history of medicine professor, has unearthed research from the 1950s and 1960s showing the results of a group of Canadian psychologists' experiments using the drug LSD to treat alcoholism. Noting that the symptoms of delirium tremens... Continue reading LSD: A Far Out Treatment for Alcoholism?
Sensory Integration Dysfunction Misdiagnosed as ADHD, Autism In a seminar by the Conejo Valley Mental Health Professionals Association last week, Dr. Shiro Perera Torquato suggested that some children diagnosed with ADHD, Asperger's syndrome or Pediatric Bipolar Disorder may in fact be suffering from Sensory Integrat... Continue reading Sensory Integration Dysfunction Misdiagnosed as ADHD, Autism
Pill-popping Up as Other Drugs Wane Among Teens A survey of California high school and middle school students reveals that 15 percent of 11th graders, 9 percent of ninth graders and 4 percent of seventh graders have abused prescription drugs, replacing inhalants as the third most abused drug among teens ... Continue reading Pill-popping Up as Other Drugs Wane Among Teens
More Middle-Aged Women Being Treated for Eating Disorders While bulimia and anorexia typically begin the teens or early 20s, increasingly more middle-aged women are seeking treatment for eating disorders following a relapse years after recovery, or when the disease, in addition to the responsibilities of work and ... Continue reading More Middle-Aged Women Being Treated for Eating Disorders
Neuroticism May Predict Depression A longitudinal study of more than 20,000 Swedish twins has found the personality trait of neuroticism is a strong predictor of the development of major depression later in life. Between 1972 and 1973, the twins answered questionnaires related to neuroticis... Continue reading Neuroticism May Predict Depression
National Survey: Hispanics Manage Stress Best A national survey released today shows that Hispanic-Americans are most likely to spend time with friends and family or to exercise to relieve stress while engaging in fewer unhealthy coping behaviors such as smoking. The study also found that Hispanic men ... Continue reading National Survey: Hispanics Manage Stress Best
Severity of Injury Determines Risk of PTSD in Wounded Soldiers A study of U.S. Soldiers seriously wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan published in the October 2006 issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry shows the severity of an injury one month after its occurrence determines the likelihood of a soldier developing Post... Continue reading Severity of Injury Determines Risk of PTSD in Wounded Soldiers
Influx of Boomer Addicts Enter Nursing Homes As the Woodstock generation ages, older adults struggling with chemical dependency in addition to medical issues are becoming more and more common in nursing homes, leaving many facilities struggling for resources even as state legislatures expand funding f... Continue reading Influx of Boomer Addicts Enter Nursing Homes
Genetics May Help Fine-Tune Antidepressant Prescription Scientists at the Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine have found a genetic variation that influences how patients respond to different classes of antidepressants. Of 241 male and female Korean patients with major late-life depression, 136 were treat... Continue reading Genetics May Help Fine-Tune Antidepressant Prescription
Montessori Socially and Academically Superior to Traditional Education, Study Says Research published in the September 29, 2006 issue of Science shows notable academic and social benefits to the Montessori method of education which emphasizes self-directed learning, small groups, minimal grading and testing, independence, responsibility a... Continue reading Montessori Socially and Academically Superior to Traditional Education, Study Says
Study: Eating Disorder Patients Likely to Self-Harm Eating disorder clinic The Renfrew Center has published findings from a study of its patients showing that nearly half--44 percent--admit to having self-harmed. Nine percent of those reported engaging in self-harm behaviors including cutting, bruising and b... Continue reading Study: Eating Disorder Patients Likely to Self-Harm
Cohabitation Lessens Bulimia Symptoms A five-year study of Norwegian teenagers living with bulimia has shown that binging and purging tended to wane once young women moved in with a partner or were married. Cohabitation did not improve their feelings about body image or prevent them from taking... Continue reading Cohabitation Lessens Bulimia Symptoms
Human Genome Scan Uncovers Areas Associated with OCD Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have identified six areas of the human genome believed to lead to susceptibility for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). In an analysis of DNA from 1,008 individuals from 219 families with two or more obsessive-co... Continue reading Human Genome Scan Uncovers Areas Associated with OCD
Study: Black Tea Eases Stress A study by University College London researchers published in Psychopharmacology shows that tea-drinkers are able to de-stress more quickly than people drinking a tea substitute and carry less of the stress hormone cortisol in their bloodstreams. Seventy-f... Continue reading Study: Black Tea Eases Stress
Improving Tourette's Symptoms with Parent Management Training A study by researchers at the Yale University School of Nursing shows that using Parent Management Training (PMT) can reduce the symptoms of children with Tourette's Syndrome and chronic tic disorders. Continue reading Improving Tourette's Symptoms with Parent Management Training
Parents of ADHD Children Also Taking Medication Parents of children prescribed drugs to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are more than nine times likely than other parents to also take the drugs, says a study by Medco Health Solutions. Moreover, if one parent and child in the househo... Continue reading Parents of ADHD Children Also Taking Medication
Men Equally Likely as Women to Be Compulsive Buyers A study to be published in the October issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry shows that men are nearly as likely to suffer from compulsive buying disorder as women. Continue reading Men Equally Likely as Women to Be Compulsive Buyers
Bipolar, Epilepsy Drug Associated with Birth Defects, FDA Warns Lamotrigine (marketed as Lamictal), a drug used in the treatment of epilepsy and bipolar disorder, may increase the chances of having a baby with a cleft lip or palate if taken during the first trimest of pregnancy, the Food and Drug Administration warned t... Continue reading Bipolar, Epilepsy Drug Associated with Birth Defects, FDA Warns
Club Drug Ketamine Could Conquer Depression A study by researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of 18 treatment-resistant patients suffering from major depression found that a single dose of ketamine, a human and veterinary anaesthetic known for its recreational among ravers and ... Continue reading Club Drug Ketamine Could Conquer Depression
U.S. Suicide Rates Decline Dramatically Researchers from the University of South Carolina reported Thursday that suicide rates in the United States have dropped significantly in recent years. Analyzing statistics gathered by the National Center for Health Statistics and the Census Bureau, resear... Continue reading U.S. Suicide Rates Decline Dramatically
Racing Thoughts Lead to Brighter, More Energetic Moods Think fast! ...and you just might end up feeling happier, more energetic and more powerful, according to a study published in the September 2006 issue of Psychological Science. In an experiment by researchers at Princeton University, half of the participa... Continue reading Racing Thoughts Lead to Brighter, More Energetic Moods
Multitasking Easy Only When Stimuli Type Differ A study to be published in the October issue of Psychological Science shows that the human brain is quite capable of conducting two tasks at the same time--for example talking while driving--so long as the tasks were of distinct types of perceptual stimuli.... Continue reading Multitasking Easy Only When Stimuli Type Differ
Hair-Pulling Disorder Rooted in Genetics Duke University researchers have found evidence that suggests trichotillomania, a disorder causing people to compulsively pull their hair, may be based in a genetic mutation. In a study of 44 families in which one or more members suffered from the disorder... Continue reading Hair-Pulling Disorder Rooted in Genetics
Attraction Based on 'Ease' of Mental Processing Experiments published in the current issue of Psychological Science show that attractiveness depends upon the ease of mental processing a given object has on the brain. Continue reading Attraction Based on 'Ease' of Mental Processing
Stereotypes, Stigma Prevent Depressed Men From Seeking Treatment Older men are less likely than older women to seek treatment for depression or to recognize its symptoms due to traditional ideas about masculinity and the stigma of depression, says a study published in the October 2006 edition of the American Journal of G... Continue reading Stereotypes, Stigma Prevent Depressed Men From Seeking Treatment
Majority of Repeat DUI Offenders Suffer From Mental Illness A study of repeat DUI offenders published in the September edition of Journal of Studies on Alcohol has shown that more than half of DUI offenders suffer from one or more mental disorders. Continue reading Majority of Repeat DUI Offenders Suffer From Mental Illness
Bipolar Disorder Means Huge Losses at Work A study by Harvard researchers published in the September 2006 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry shows that U.S. workers with bipolar disorder had an average of 65.5 "lost" days per year--more than twice the rate for workers with major depression.... Continue reading Bipolar Disorder Means Huge Losses at Work
Scientists Establish Link Between Popular Acne Drug and Depression Researchers at the University of Bath have released results of a study showing a link between the acne drug Roaccutane (often marketed as Accutane in the U.S.) and depression in mice. Continue reading Scientists Establish Link Between Popular Acne Drug and Depression
Columbia Neurologists Discover Neurocircuit of Fear Response Columbia University researchers have discovered the brain's mechanism for keeping frightening or otherwise emotionally intense stimuli from interfering with normal functioning. Continue reading Columbia Neurologists Discover Neurocircuit of Fear Response
Short-lived Depressive Symptoms in Teens Lead Scientists to Re-examine Antidepressant Evaluation Methods A study published in the September issue of the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology showed that the the short duration of depressive symptoms in teens makes it difficult to gauge the efficacy of antidepressants versus placebos. Continue reading Short-lived Depressive Symptoms in Teens Lead Scientists to Re-examine Antidepressant Evaluation Methods
Children Who Witness Violence at Home More Likely To Bully A study by researchers at the University of Washington and Indiana University published in Pediatrics shows that children who have witnessed violence in the home are more likely to be bullies. Continue reading Children Who Witness Violence at Home More Likely To Bully
Teens Under-Use Empathy Region of Brain Teenagers under-use the region of the brain involved in considering their own and other people's emotions according to a study presented at the BA Festival of Science at University College London. Continue reading Teens Under-Use Empathy Region of Brain
Depression Linked to Risky Sex Behavior in African-American Youth A new study from the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center and Brown Medical School reveals that African American adolescents with symptoms of depression are more than four times likely to engage in risky sexual behavior. Continue reading Depression Linked to Risky Sex Behavior in African-American Youth
Hopkins Research Shows Chronic Depression Genetically Linked A study published in the American Journal of Psychology shows that chronic depression is more than twice as likely to occur in people whose close relatives developed chronic depression early in life. Continue reading Hopkins Research Shows Chronic Depression Genetically Linked
Gene Linked to Schizophrenia Susceptibility Scientists at UCLA have found that female infants possessing a specific immune gene closely resembling their mothers' are more susceptible to developing schizophrenia later in life. Continue reading Gene Linked to Schizophrenia Susceptibility
Depression-Resistant Mice May Hold Key to Human Happiness Researchers at McGill University and the University of Nice, France, have created a permanently happy breed of mouse. Continue reading Depression-Resistant Mice May Hold Key to Human Happiness
Attractiveness, Trustworthiness Gauged in Milliseconds A study by Princeton psychologists has found that judgments about attractiveness and character traits such as trustworthiness and competence are formed in just one-tenth of a second. Continue reading Attractiveness, Trustworthiness Gauged in Milliseconds
Eleven Percent of Girls Report Self-Harm In a survey of more than 6,000 15- and 16-year-old British students, researchers from the Universities of Bath and Oxford found that 11% of teenage girls and 3% of teenage boys had engaged in self-harm. Continue reading Eleven Percent of Girls Report Self-Harm
Teens At Risk With Both Main and Casual Sex Partners A study by researchers at the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center and Brown Medical School has showed that teens are more likely to use condoms with partners they perceive as "casual" than with a "main" or serious partner. However, the study also foun... Continue reading Teens At Risk With Both Main and Casual Sex Partners
Study Finds Nicotine Withdrawal Starts Within First Half-Hour A study published in Psychopharmacology has shown that increased nicotine cravings in smokers begin with in thirty minutes after smoking the last cigarette. The study divided 50 pack-a-day smokers into two groups, the first of which was allowed to smoke at... Continue reading Study Finds Nicotine Withdrawal Starts Within First Half-Hour
Employers Take New Interest in Employee Mental Health Many employers are increasing mental health services available to workers as new research reveals the costs of depression, anxiety, and other disorders--not to mention related litigation--can have on the bottom line: The number of firms with employee-assis... Continue reading Employers Take New Interest in Employee Mental Health
Soldiers Suppressed War Traumas, Government Ignored Emotional Damages in Post-WWII Finland A project examining Finnish culture after World War II shows the government ignored the psychological impact of the war on soldiers as it focused on economic and political damages. Continue reading Soldiers Suppressed War Traumas, Government Ignored Emotional Damages in Post-WWII Finland
Refining Parent's Approach To Discipline - Disciplining the "Callous-Unemotional" Child A study of child-management training programs at the University of New South Wales, Australia suggests that children exhibiting a "callous-unemotional" temperament respond poorly to typical approaches to discipline such as time-out. Focusing on a group of b... Continue reading Refining Parent's Approach To Discipline - Disciplining the "Callous-Unemotional" Child
Sunlight Gives Your Brain A Boost Researchers at the Universities of Liege and Surrey have released findings associating exposure to daylight with increased cognitive function. In the study, Daytime Light Exposure Dynamically Enhances Brain Responses, subjects were exposed to bright white l... Continue reading Sunlight Gives Your Brain A Boost
NIH Study on Autism Finds Entire Brain Affected A recent study by the National Institutes of Health has indicated that neurological signs in autistic patients are not limited to the brain areas involved in social interaction, communication, and reasoning. Previously it has been held that problems in tho... Continue reading NIH Study on Autism Finds Entire Brain Affected
Doctors Fail to Treat Nearly Two-Thirds of Depressed Pregnant Women Research at the University of Michigan Depression Center recently published in General Hospital Psychiatry has found that the "majority of pregnant women who have full-blown major depression aren't getting any treatment for the condition, and neither are mo... Continue reading Doctors Fail to Treat Nearly Two-Thirds of Depressed Pregnant Women
Children with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Are Prime Targets for Bullies In Peer Victimization in Children With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Relations With Symptoms of Psychopathology, published in the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, vol. 35, No. 3, researchers find that children with OCD are almost three... Continue reading Children with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Are Prime Targets for Bullies
Is Marriage Good For You? It Is If You Are Depressed. A new evaluation of the National Survey of Families and Households performed at Ohio State University questions the old belief that marriage is good for everyone. Going in the examiners thought that depressed people would benefit less from being married be... Continue reading Is Marriage Good For You? It Is If You Are Depressed.
Despite Therapists' Misgivings, AA and Other Mutual-Help Groups Are Shown Effective Among mental health professionals, there is some skepticism about the value of AA and other groups to many types of patients. Therapists express concern that atheist or highly religious people may have difficulty with the religious aspects of AA and other ... Continue reading Despite Therapists' Misgivings, AA and Other Mutual-Help Groups Are Shown Effective |
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