Psychology/Psychiatry
Distinguishing Between The Forgetful And Those At Risk Of Alzheimer’s Disease - It can be difficult to distinguish between people with normal age-associated memory loss and those with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). However people with aMCI are at a greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and identification of these people would mean that they could begin treatment as early as possible…
Does A Lab-Measured Compassionate Brain Fare Well In Real Life? - A new series of studies is being launched by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, exploring insight knowledge on how laboratory measures of moral qualities, such as compassion, relate to real-life behavior. Founder of the UW’s Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM), Dr. Richard J. Davidson at the Waisman Center, was awarded a three-year, $1…
Genetic Connection To Traumatic Experience - Rutgers scientists have uncovered genetic clues as to why some mice no longer in danger are still fearful while others are resilient to traumatic experiences - knowledge that could help those suffering with crippling anxiety and PTSD…
Suicide Recommendations Lead To Drop In Suicides Across England And Wales - According to new research published by The Lancet, there has been a substantial decrease in suicide rates among health authorities across England and Wales that adopted a new range of suicide recommendations…
Measures Must Be Taken To Prevent Depression In Adolescents - As one of the most common, unrecognized and untreated health problems among young people, tackling depression is a serious priority for countries worldwide. The psychiatric disorder causes serious social and educational problems for patients, as well as leading to increased risk of suicide and substance abuse…
Mentoring Helps Survivors Of Violence, Child Abuse - Can mentoring relationships help female students who survive childhood abuse or domestic violence? Absolutely, according to new research from Concordia University, published in the Journal of College Student Development…
For Those With Low Self-Esteem, Facebook Is Not Such A Good Thing - In theory, the social networking website Facebook could be great for people with low self-esteem. Sharing is important for improving friendships…
What Real Commitment To Your Marriage Means - What does being committed to your marriage really mean? UCLA psychologists answer this question in a new study based on their analysis of 172 married couples over the first 11 years of marriage. “When people say, ‘I’m committed to my relationship,’ they can mean two things,” said study co-author Benjamin Karney, a professor of psychology and co-director of the Relationship Institute at UCLA…
People-Pleasers Feel Pressure To Eat When They Believe It Will Help Another Person Feel More Comfortable - If you are a people-pleaser who strives to keep your social relationships smooth and comfortable, you might find yourself overeating in certain social situations like Super Bowl watch parties. A new study from Case Western Reserve University found that, hungry or not, some people eat in an attempt to keep others comfortable…
Anesthesia Exposure Linked To ADHD In Children - A study by researchers at Mayo Clinic, Rochester Minn., and published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, reveals that children who have been under anesthesia many times when they are young have a greater risk of developing attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). According to David Warner, M…
Abnormal Brain Structure In Both Siblings - Addiction Only Affects One - A study conducted by Dr. Karen Ersche, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, England, and published in Science, reveals that one sibling who is addicted to drugs, and the other who is not, have similar brain abnormalities. These abnormalities come from an area of the brain that is vital for aiding people in exhibiting self control…
Women Copy Each Others’ Eating Patterns - When two women are eating together, one is more likely to put food in her mouth when the other one is doing so too - while one’s food-filled fork is coming towards her mouth, the other one is more likely to do the same within five seconds, researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, reported in PLoS One (The Public Library of Science 1)…
Our Dining Partners Influence Our Eating Behavior - Share a meal with someone and you are both likely to mimic each other’s behavior and take bites at the same time rather than eating at your own pace, says a study published in the Feb. 2 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE. This behavior was found to be more prominent at the beginning of an interaction than at the end…
Britain’s First Adult Autism Survey Reveals Previously ‘Invisible’ Group With Autism - New research on autism in adults has shown that adults with a more severe learning disability have a greater likelihood of having autism. This group, mostly living in private households, was previously ‘invisible’ in estimates of autism…
Study Finds Testosterone Makes Us Less Cooperative And More Egocentric - Testosterone makes us overvalue our own opinions at the expense of cooperation, research from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) has found. The findings may have implications for how group decisions are affected by dominant individuals…
Men More Likely To Have An Accurate Memory Of Unpleasant Experiences - A woman’s memory of an experience is less likely to be accurate than a man’s if it was unpleasant and emotionally provocative, according to research undertaken by University of Montreal researchers at Louis-H Lafontaine Hospital…
Divorce Hurts Health More At Earlier Ages - Divorce at a younger age hurts people’s health more than divorce later in life, according to a new study by a Michigan State University sociologist. Hui Liu said the findings, which appear in the research journal Social Science & Medicine, suggest older people have more coping skills to deal with the stress of divorce…
Access To Psychotropic Medicines Affected By Health Systems Factors - In a cross-sectional analysis of WHO-AIMS data published in this week’s PLoS Medicine, Ryan McBain of Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA and colleagues investigated the associations between health system components and access to psychotropic drugs in 63 low- and middle- income countries (LAMICs)…
Mom’s Love Good For Child’s Brain - School-age children whose mothers nurtured them early in life have brains with a larger hippocampus, a key structure important to learning, memory and response to stress. The new research, by child psychiatrists and neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St…
Psychologists Analyze The Development Of Prejudices Within Children - Girls are not as good at playing football as boys, and they do not have a clue about cars. Instead they know better how to dance and do not get into mischief as often as boys. Prejudices like these are cultivated from early childhood onwards by everyone…
Hope For Those With A Depressive Disposition - Good news for the 13 per cent of the population with depressive personality traits: their negative outlook does not have to be permanent. This has been shown by psychologist Rachel Maddux in new research from Lund University in Sweden. Depression is a serious and sometimes devastating health problem which affects millions of people worldwide…
Military Suicide Rates Rose - According to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health, between 2005 and 2007, suicide rates among individuals serving in U.S. military services increased, particularly among those in the regular Army and National Guard. The study, which included the entire active duty U.S…
Good Kindergarten Attention Skills Predict Later Work-Oriented Behavior - Attentiveness in kindergarten accurately predicts the development of “work-oriented” skills in school children, according to a new study published by Dr. Linda Pagani, a professor and researcher at the University of Montreal and CHU Sainte-Justine. Elementary school teachers made observations of attention skills in over a thousand kindergarten children…
Altering Behavior: From Reducing Bullying To Training Scientists - If you want to change how teenagers view bullying, go to the straight to the source of most school trends: the most connected crowd. According to new intervention research, targeting the most influential students in a school could be a key factor in reducing harassment and bullying…
Windows To The Mind - The eyes are the window into the soul - or at least the mind, according to a new paper published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Measuring the diameter of the pupil, the part of the eye that changes size to let in more light, can show what a person is paying attention to…
