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Archive for January, 2011

 

I’m happy to announce that I’ve just finalised an agreement with Penguin to write a book on what hallucinations tell us about the mind, brain and human nature. From the proposal:

The mind and brain can generate fantastical visions and disembodied voices, illusory people and shifting landscapes, internal symphonies and sensed presences. These states happen at the extremes of human experience, in madness, terror and brain disturbance, but they are often an exaggeration of our natural tendency to hallucinate that we rely on for everyday perception – a tendency that has inspired great works of art and shaped history.

We all hallucinate, and our perception relies on it. We have blind spots in our vision that our brain fills with hallucinated experience. Occasionally we experience intense and vivid hallucinations, after taking certain drugs, during mental illness, with epilepsy or brain injury, during hypnosis, after being taken hostage, during deep-sea dives, while blacking out at high Gs, or at other extremes of human experience that tax the body and mind. But it is not just these situations that trigger hallucinations: one in ten healthy adjusted people hallucinate more than patients in hospital with psychosis. In other words, hallucinations are part of human nature.

Read in Full:  http://mindhacks.com/2010/09/21/the-book-of-reality-distortions-2/



 

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on September 17, 2010 

Researchers have discovered that a journal describing what happened to an individual during an intensive care unit stay may help reduce, or mitigate post-traumatic stress disorder.

The diary, often created by ICU staff or close relatives, seems to help patients make more sense of what has happened to them by reducing fragmented or delusional memories of the time spent in ICU.

The research study is found in BioMed Central’s open access journal Critical Care.

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/17/hospital-diaries-protect-from-ptsd/18334.html



 

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on September 17, 2010

Despite having been used for over 30 years, the pharmacological action of antidepressants such as Prozac has remained obscure.

European research published this week sheds new light on the mechanisms of action of these drugs.

In particular, the researchers have revealed, for the first time, a sequence of reactions caused by Prozac at the neuron level, which contributes to an increase in the amounts of serotonin, a chemical “messenger” essential to the brain, and deficient in depressive individuals.

Details of this work are published in the journal Science.

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/17/researchers-learn-how-prozac-works/18336.html



 

Article Date: 17 Sep 2010 – 0:00 PDT

Long-term exposure to a common stress hormone may leave a lasting mark on the genome and influence how genes that control mood and behavior are expressed, a mouse study led by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests. The finding, published in the September issue of Endocrinology, could eventually lead to new ways to explain and treat depression, bipolar disorder, and other mental illnesses.

Scientists and physicians have long been interested in the cause of depression, a sometimes debilitating disorder that affects about 16 percent of people at least once over the course of a lifetime. While studies have shown that many other mental illnesses are strongly heritable, studies have shown that the risk of depression is only about 40 percent genetic. Consequently, environmental factors are thought to play a major role in causing this disease.

Read in Full:  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/201406.php



 

by Paul Linde, M.D. 

Psychiatry’s Sickest of the Sick: Abandoned by Public Health Officials

The homeless mentally ill in the city of San Francisco have been so visible for so long they’ve become almost part of the landscape to us city dwellers–essentially invisible people who, for all intents and purposes, have disappeared.

But for visitors, who flock to neighborhoods such as North Beach, the Embarcadero, South of Market, and the Haight in search of a little urban adventure, they can’t help but notice both the numbers of mentally ill and the intensity of psychiatric illness on display.

I still see these people. Time and again when I am out and about in San Francisco, I observe many of the “frequent flyers,” many of whom I know by name, that I’ve assessed in the psychiatric ER of San Francisco General Hospital, where I’ve worked as a physician and psychiatrist for more than 20 years. I’ve had to discharge many of them back out to the streets because there is no will on the part of the city or the state of California to provide appropriate care to these patients.

In my opinion, this is tantamount to discrimination.

There is no will on the part of the politicians or public health officials to provide them appropriate care. The wish is for “out-of-sight, out-of-mind.” Cut services enough and maybe they’ll leave town. These people don’t vote. They don’t donate to political campaigns. They don’t show up at meetings of the San Francisco Health Commission. They don’t live in Pacific Heights or Noe Valley.

These patients are people. Each one of them is someone’s son or sister or father or daughter or brother or mother. Nearly all have been lost to their loved ones and find themselves abandoned–swirling around the streets and the jail cells and the emergency rooms of the city, not taking their psych meds because they don’t believe they are sick and smoking marijuana and crack cocaine or drinking alcohol to deal with their psychiatric symptoms and emotional pain. Their staunchest advocates are family members who’ve lost loved ones to suicide, homicide, accidental death, victimization, homelessness, or incarceration.

Read in Full:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-everyman-psychiatrist/201009/san-franciscos-homeless-mentally-ill-still-neglected



 

Funding for surfing lessons is being piloted for the first time by the NHS as a form of therapy.

20 young people diagnosed with mental health difficulties are to get six weeks of tuition in the water off Cornwall.

It’s the first time the NHS has funded such a scheme and it could provide a blueprint for other health trusts across the country.

Jon Kay reports.

Source/View Video Report 1:45:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11318935



 

  • September 11th, 2010 1:28 pm ET

Monday is the first day of school at The Lang School, a new independent private school for twice exceptional children in grades K-8.

The Lang School is the first elementary school in New York City and the only independent elementary school in the United States to serve children who are both gifted and with learning differences. There are as many as 50,000 twice exceptional students in New York City and up to 1 million nationwide, and they face particular challenges. With diagnoses such as ADHD, Aspergers, auditory processing challenges, dyslexia, and anxiety, twice exceptional students are mostly shuttled out of general education settings at an early age and languish wherever they land after that.

“Exceptionally bright children with learning differences are usually viewed as underachievers in gifted programs,” says Founder and Director Micaela Bracamante. “Their academic and social challenges aren’t addressed. And in special education programs their gifts are unrecognized and untended year after year. Neither approach acknowledges that giftedness and special education needs can require simultaneous support.”

As the mother of a gifted child with learning differences, Bracamonte knows these challenges first-hand. After struggling to find an appropriate educational setting for her son, when all avenues seemed to be closed, she forged a new path, joined forces with nationally recognized experts in gifted and special education, and created The Lang School as a model environment for twice-exceptional students.

 

Enrollment is limited and space is still available.

For further information, contact The Lang School at 212.977.7777 or through www.thelangschool.org.

Read in Full:  http://www.examiner.com/gifted-education-in-new-york/first-2e-school-opens-its-doors-nyc-this-monday



 Broomhayes School

Broomhayes School provides residential care for about 30 people

Up to 30 staff at a school run by the National Autistic Society (NAS) in Devon may be made redundant as part of restructuring, the charity has said.

Broomhayes School in Bideford has 204 staff and provides year-round education and care for children and young people aged between 10 and 21 with autism.

The society confirmed some posts were “at risk of redundancy”.

It said a 30-day consultation began on Thursday and no action would be confirmed until the end of that time.

The school provides residential care for about 30 people. It is one of six around the country run by the society.

The society said the proposal to restructure existing staffing and ways of working was forward because of the several older students were due to leave and their places had not yet been filled.

Read in Full:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-11346033



 Service Dog Puppies

Reported by: Patrice Walsh 

Penfield, NY–

5 year old Vincent Ognibene has never spoken a word. But the youngster has brought his family more love than he will ever know.

Vincent was a healthy baby but suffered severe epileptic seizures when he was 16 months. He was diagnosed with autism a year later. He suffers 20 seizures a day. He also wanders and has learned to unlock doors. He has gotten out of the house unnoticed before and that scares his parents.

The Ognibenes have researched service dogs and how they help autistic children and children with seizure disorders.  They believe a dog would not only be Vincent’s voice, but also his protector.

Corinna Ognibene says she worries about her son every day:  “we don’t get to put Vinnie to bed knowing he is safe; with a dog at his side, the dog would alert us, so we could be there for Vinnie.”

But the Ognibene’s say since so much training is involved in service dogs for autistic children and children with seizure disorders, they can cost 25-thousand dollars or more.

That’s why they are holding a fundraiser called: “A Dog For Vincent.”  It began with emails and flyers to friends inviting them to a neighborhood garage sale.

Now it has become a community-wide sale.  Many people who don’t know the family have donated items and cash to help Vincent get a service dog.

The garage sale will be held at their Penfield home this weekend. I have attached a flyer with more information about the sale.

        COMMUNITY GARAGE SALE TO BENEFIT VINCENT OGNIBENE
        WHEN: SEPTEMBER 17, 18,19
        WHERE: 7 Shadow Creek, Penfield NY
        TIME: 8am-4pm

Source:  http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story/A-Dog-For-Vincent/f0Z9NVkAG0y7vJ0NUZlU3Q.cspx



Online Dating: 10 Psychological Insights


September 16, 2010


Psychological research reveals who uses internet dating and why, which strategies work, and uncovers the truth about lying online.
Somewhere between one-third and three-quarters of single people with internet access have used it to try and meet someone new. But, over the years, we’ve heard conflicting stories about how successful it is.

Believe the internet dating companies and it’s all sweetness and light, with wedding bells ringing in the distance; believe the media scare stories and it’s all lying, cheating, perverted social misfits. The truth is somewhere in between, but where?


Fortunately, now there’s enough research to suggest what’s really going on. So, here are my 10 favourite psychological insights on internet dating.


1. Internet daters are not losers


Contrary to the stereotype, there’s little evidence that internet dating is the last resort of social misfits or weirdos.


In fact, quite the reverse. Internet daters are more likely to be sociable, have high self-esteem and be low in dating anxiety (Kim et al., 2009; Valkenburg, 2007). These studies found no evidence that people use online dating because they can’t hack it face-to-face. It’s just one more way to meet new people.


People’s motivations to start online dating are many and various, typically involving a triggering event like a break-up, but overall Barraket and Henry-Waring (2008) have found that people’s motivations are less individual and more social. People aren’t using online dating because they are shy but because they have moved to a new city, are working long hours or don’t have time to meet anyone new.


2. Online daters do lie (but only a little)


Although 94% deny their internet dating profiles contain any fibs (Gibbs et al., 2006), psychologists are a suspicious lot. Toma et al. (2008) measured the heights and weights of 80 internet daters, as well as checking their driving licences for their real age.


When this data was compared with their profiles, it showed that nine out of ten had lied on at least one of the attributes measured, but the lies were only small ones. The most frequent offender was weight, with daters either adding or shaving off an average of 5%. Daters were more truthful about their age (1.5% deviation) and height (1.1% deviation). As expected women tended to shave off the pounds, while men gave themselves a boost in height.


These lies make little difference in the real world because the vast majority of fibbing would have been difficult to detect in person. Most people want to meet up eventually so they know big lies are going to be caught.


3. Photo fallacies


The saying ‘the camera never lies’ is bunk. Even without Photoshop to iron out the wrinkles, camera angles and lighting can easily change perceived attractiveness.


People instinctively understand this when choosing their profile photo so Toma and Hancock (2010) took photographs of internet daters, then judges compared these to the real profile photos.


Although less physically attractive people were the most likely to choose a self-enhancing photo, overall the differences were tiny. The lab photos were only a little less attractive than those chosen for online dating profiles (about 5% for women and 4% for men). Once again, internet daters weren’t lying much…


4. Your best look


Clues to which types of profile photos work come from one online dating site which has analysed 7,000 photographs in its database (oktrends, 2010):


  • *Women had higher response-rates when they made eye-contact with the camera and looked flirty. Conversely the least successful pictures for women were looking away with a flirty face.
  • *Men’s best look was away from the camera, not smiling. But guys should avoid a flirty face, which was associated with a drastic reduction in messages.

They then looked at which photos were associated with the longest online conversations. These were where it showed the dater:


  • *Doing something interesting
  • *With an animal
  • *In an interesting location (travel photo)

The photos associated with shorter than average conversations were (in increasing order of conversational deterrent):


  • *In bed (associated with slightly shorter conversations)
  • *Taken outdoors
  • *Having fun with friends
  • *And the most likely to deter interactions: drinking! (associated with the shortest conversations)

(Remember, these are all associations so we can’t be sure about causality.)


Read in Full:  http://www.spring.org.uk/2010/09/online-dating-10-psychological-insights.php


Proof Positive: Can Other People Make Us Happy?


By Daniel Tomasulo, Ph.D.

When we feel love and kindness toward others it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.
– Dalai Lama

Are we happy when we get what we want?


It depends.


This year the keynote speaker at the American Psychological Association convention was Dr. Dan Gilbert of Harvard. His book Stumbling on Happiness is an international bestseller and his talk was about affective forecasting: Do we know what will make us happy?


He pointed out that we are hardwired from birth to be happy when we get salt, fat, sweet things and sex. Beyond that our culture provides us cues about what will make us happy. That was when he showed us a photo of his mother.


He explained that his mother was the cultural agent informing him of what will make him happy: Marry a nice girl, find a job you like, and have some children.


Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/09/13/proof-positive-can-other-people-make-us-happy/


Women: Hope To Marry Young? Head To Alaska, Steer Clear Of Alabama


Article Date: 17 Sep 2010 – 5:00 PDT


When men outnumber women, females marry younger and the age gap between spouses grows, a University of Michigan study shows.


“Women don’t stay on the market long because men are more motivated to commit,” said Daniel Kruger, research assistant professor in the U-M School of Public Health. “They want to secure the relationship before some other guy gets her.”


The study looked at the ratio of men to women in the 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S with 2000 U.S Census data to determine how it impacted marital ages.


Male and female behavior differ because each gender has a somewhat different reproductive agenda, and the ratio of men to women impacts that behavior. Women want commitment from men, Kruger says, because having a reliable, stable provider greatly benefits their children. This means men may have to build up their social status and resources to be considered marriageable.


However, men can have more offspring with multiple sexual partners and thus are not as eager to settle down, said Kruger, who studies human behavior and motivation from an evolutionary perspective.


Read in Full:  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/201543.php


Touching the space between us


Slate has an excellent article on the psychology of collaborations that highlights the often underplayed role of the creative relationship and bemoans are obsession with the illusory ‘lone genius’.


The author is Joshua Wolf Shenk who you may recognise from one of the best psychology articles I’ve yet read – an Atlantic article on happiness and ageing – which we covered last year on Mind Hacks.


This new piece is part of a ongoing series that aims to pick up on our cultural neglect of the dynamic interaction between partners.


But a burgeoning field has shown that, from the very first days of life, relationships shape our experience, our character, even our biology. This research, which has flowered in the last ten years, took root in the 1970s. One reason, explains the psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik, was the advent of the simple video camera. It allowed researchers to easily capture and analyze the exchanges between babies and their caregivers. In video of 4-month-olds with their mothers, for example, the two mimic each other’s facial expressions and amplify them. So, a baby’s grin elicits a mother’s smile, which leads the baby to a full-on expression of joy—round mouth, big eyes. This in turn affects the mother, and so on in a continuous exchange that entwines the pair.


Read in Full:  http://mindhacks.com/2010/09/15/touching-the-space-between-us/


Freedom to Love


When did “I love you,” degenerate into “Meet my needs!”