Five Top Skills Proven to Entice Your Mate to Love and Respect You
The science of intimate relationships has identified specific behaviors of partners that succeed in creating mutually enriching marriages.
Partners who think and act in certain ways nearly guarantee themselves love relationships in which they feel fulfilled, loved and appreciated.
First, the good news is both you and your partner are wired for love, your body’s health depends on it. Second, you are wired to release of a certain love hormone, Oxytocin, the chemical known as the “cuddle hormone,† in response to certain behaviors.
Feeling loved and secure has everything to do with knowing how to create an Oxytocin response that makes you and your partner feel loved and secure.
What about couples that don’t currently have Oxytocin response patterns in place?
“No, problem,†says neuroscience. Because of the brain’s neural “plasticity,†a lifelong ability to grow and develop new neural circuitry, partners can learn to rewire their own and their partner’s love patterns, even late in life.
In a groundbreaking book on the subject of healing marriage relationships, “Emotional Intelligence in Couples Therapy, Dr. Brent J. Atkinson presents a tour of some of the most revolutionary findings from neuroscience and the science of intimate relationships, such as the work of Dr. Antonio Damasio on emotion and behavior and the groundbreaking work of Dr. John Gottman on “Why Marriages Succeed or Fail.”
According to Dr. Atkinson, he sums it up with five “prerequisite†groups of skills that predict relationship success. The five skill sets are as follows:
1. Partners use a ‘soft start-up’ when bringing up an issue.
A ‘soft startup’ refers to how partners communicate verbally and nonverbally, when they bring up issues, share a frustration, or express their dissatisfaction. In contrast to a ‘harsh startup,†a soft startup takes an approach that is firm yet tactful and gentle. It allows partners to express any dislikes or upsets without attacking the other’s character.
They do not sugarcoat or beat around the bush, yet avoid talking down, or making disapproving or judgmental comments, like the plague. Here are examples of a ‘soft’ and ‘harsh†startup:
What Defensiveness Means in a Couple Relationship – And the Formula to Create a Safe Haven For Your Love
Recent research on the brain reminds us that all communications, regardless how they are delivered, are attempts to emotionally connect. As it turns out, we are wired for love and empathic connection.
What does it mean when you or your partner react defensively? For one, it means your brains are working the way they’re designed to work.
In Hold Me Tight, research expert on intimacy, Dr. Susan Johnson, states it makes sense scientifically that couples fight over silly things. Beneath the content of what partners say to one another in fights, each wants to be assured of their value in relation to the other.
Partners are asking three core questions that connect to both our deepest yearnings and our deepest fears as human beings:
Are you accessible when I try to reach out to you?
Will you be responsive to my needs?
Are you engaged in this relationship?
In other words, beneath the content of words spoken in fights, partners are looking for answers to questions of: Are you there for me? Are you emotionally present? Do you see, value and love me?
Read in Full: http://blogs.psychcentral.com/relationships/2011/04/what-defensiveness-means-in-your-couple-relationship/
Serotonin Seems to Skew View of Others’ Intimacy
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 14, 2011
A new finding suggests our view of the intimacy of other couples’ relationships is influenced by the brain chemical serotonin.
University of Oxford scientists studied healthy adult volunteers and discovered that when the activity of serotonin, a neurotransmitter associated with mood, is low then the adult rated couples in photos as being less “intimate†and less “romantic’†than those with normal serotonin activity.
The results raise the possibility that lower serotonin activity in people with depression and other psychiatric conditions could contribute to changes in the way they perceive personal relationships.
The Medical Research Council-funded study is published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
“Serotonin is important in social behavior, and also plays a significant role in psychological disorders such as depression,†said Professor Robert Rogers of the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University, who led the research.
“We wanted to see whether serotonin activity influences the judgments we make about peoples’ close personal relationships.”
Problems with social relationships, and a feeling of social isolation, are a feature of depression in some people. It is possible that alterations in brain systems — such as serotonin — contribute to these difficulties by changing the way people think about relationships with partners.
Such understanding is important as supportive close relationships are known to protect against the development of mental illnesses and to promote recovery in those affected by psychiatric conditions.
The opposite is also true: dysfunctional relationships can be triggers for those at risk of these conditions.
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/03/14/serotonin-seems-to-skew-view-of-others-intimacy/24381.html
Learning to Trust: Opening to Your Life
For the most part I would say many of us suffer from a massive lack of self-trust. Trust is born while we’re in the womb and during our early years of life. The more our parents attuned to us, listened to and validated how we were feeling, the more we cultivated the ability to trust ourselves and the people around us. The opposite of this may have been growing up with parents who seemed indifferent, neglecting or abandoning. When this happens it becomes difficult to trust ourselves and others. Even if you think you had a “great childhood†you may still have difficulty trusting yourself, so how do we cultivate trust?
This is where I am a big believer in learning how to cultivate a welcoming and caring relationship to the difficult parts of ourselves. For many people, it may be easy to go with the flow when we’re feeling well, but when shame, anger, sadness, or fear arises, forget about it. We’ll do all that we can to get away from it because we don’t trust that we can tolerate it.
The more we run, the more that feeling sticks around.
David Richo wrote a book called Daring to Trust
“All of us have been lied to, deceived, or let down in some way. Yet we can remain heart-centered while proceeding with caution, and we can develop the greater resilience in the face of life’s inevitable rejections and disappointments.”
Richie Davidson, PhD says resilience is the maintenance of high level of affect in the face of adversity. This means not getting swept up the in the storms of the unpleasant events of our lives.
How do we cultivate the ability to trust ourselves to do this?
Read in Full: http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=42319&cn=5
Couples May Not Communicate Better Than Strangers
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 16, 2011
Closeness or familiarity with others is not necessarily linked to strong communication skills.
In fact, married people may think they communicate well with their partners, but psychologists have found that they don’t always convey messages to their loved ones as well as they think.
And, in some cases, the couples communicate no better than strangers.
The same communication problem also is true with close friends, a recent study has found.
“People commonly believe that they communicate better with close friends than with strangers. That closeness can lead people to overestimate how well they communicate, a phenomenon we term the ‘closeness-communication bias,’†said Boaz Keysar, Ph.D., a professor in psychology at the University of Chicago.
Keysar’s colleague Kenneth Savitsky, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Williams College, devised an experiment resembling a parlor game to study the issue. In it, two sets of couples sat in chairs with their backs to each other and tried to discern the meaning of each other’s ambiguous phrases. In all, 24 married couples participated.
The researchers used phrases common in everyday conversations to see if the spouses were better at understanding phrases from their partners than from people they did not know. The spouses consistently overestimated their ability to communicate, and did so more with their partners than with strangers.
“A wife who says to her husband, ‘it’s getting hot in here,’ as a hint for her husband to turn up the air conditioning a notch, may be surprised when he interprets her statement as a coy, amorous advance instead,†said Savitsky, who is lead author of the paper, published in the January issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
“Although speakers expected their spouse to understand them better than strangers, accuracy rates for spouses and strangers were statistically identical. This result is striking because speakers were more confident that they were understood by their spouse,†Savitsky said.
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/03/16/couples-may-not-communicate-better-than-strangers/24414.html
Are Facebook Friends Real Friends?
I don’t think I realized just how insecure I was until I joined Facebook two years ago. I thought the 12 or so years of therapy would have resulted in a more evolved woman. But here’s the truth: every time I lose a friend on Facebook I take it personally.
Yes, that is ridiculous. I know. But I still feel the blow.
I try not to remember the number of friends I have when I go to bed at night, but somehow it sticks—unlike every phone number I’ve tried to memorize. So, upon logging on to Facebook every morning, I immediately notice that I lost two friends overnight. While I was sleeping!
What especially irks me is when I lose three friends right after I post something. Now I know that it probably has nothing to do with the content of my post, but it’s the same punch in the gut that I feel when I read an unkind comment on one of my posts: “You are the most self-absorbed, clueless, bad writer I’ve ever come across…”
Maybe a stage-four people-pleaser who wants to be liked by everyone in this world should not live her life out loud for everyone to comment on or to vote as friend-worthy or not. Maybe I should become an accountant and live a secret life and stay away from all kinds of social network sites. However, I think the easier thing for me to do is to grow a thicker skin. Because I did attempt to change my career earlier this year and, while it was admittedly nice to be free from the public criticism, I felt as though I was missing out on the fun. I missed blogging. I missed Facebook. I even missed Twitter!
Clearly most people are more selective than I am when they friend folks on Facebook. A friend of mine won’t allow anyone from her high school, because she just doesn’t want to go back there. Others keep their circle of friends to only those people that they are still in touch with today, the same group that would receive a Christmas card.
Me?
I have John Paul II and Jesus among my friends!
Read More … http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/04/05/are-facebook-friends-real-friends/
Does the Internet Promote or Damage Marriage?
April 1, 2011
By Therese J. Borchard
Does Facebook lead to infidelity? Some statistics say so. I will be participating in a webinar on April 4 at 5 p.m. hosted by PBS/This Emotional Life that explores this topic. To prepare, and to get your feedback, I recently posted a blog on Psych Central about marriage and the internet. I have excerpted a few paragraphs here. You can read the whole post here.
Here’s my honest opinion, after reading hundreds of comments and emails from people who have been involved in online relationships or emotional affairs as well as the responses on the discussion boards of the Emotional Affairs support group on Beliefnet’s community site:
Although the internet and social media can foster intimacy in a marriage, it seems to do more harm than good. Of all the comments I’ve read, 90 percent of the opposite-sex relationships that were damaging to the marriage happened online.
Now I am no relationship expert. If I were I’d be able to sustain a dozen or so friendships with men online. But the only male friendships that I’ve been able to continue through the years–ones that are actually strengthened by our online dialogue–are those where there is at least 30 years difference between us. Their average age is 75. One is a priest, one an ex-priest, and one a deacon. See a pattern?
In the 15 years that I have been married, I have met a handful of men that I liked and admired, with whom I shared interests and a sense of humor. Had one or two been women, I’m sure they would have become my best friends. However, on some level, I knew that a closer bond was somehow inappropriate, or disrespectful to my marriage. It’s a source of frustration for me. Because the correspondence gave me great joy, like it does with my female friends.
But there is no getting around the opposite-sex thing … the “When Harry Met Sally†problem.
I can say that having read more than 500 descriptions of emotional affairs, both on the comboxes of my posts and on the discussion boards of the Emotional Affair support group. Most of the these relationships start out benign: an email from a guy you knew in college, friending an ex-boyfriend on Facebook (as suggested by Facebook: “people you might know!â€), getting to know a co-worker better online. But the relationship can take a dangerous turn very quickly if you’re not careful, and even more easily if you are doing most of the talking behind a computer. Because you don’t have any non-verbals with which to interpret statements. What a person could very easily say over coffee comes off way wrong in an email. And what she would never say over coffee, she does in an email because she gets to hide behind her computer.
I’m not saying it’s impossible to talk to someone of the opposite sex online. I have many male acquaintances and co-workers. But I think only a minority of folks can handle an intense, intimate relationship with a person of the opposite sex without it getting in the way of marriage. And maybe the failure rate is so high among my readers because most of them suffer from depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or addictions. For those guys, it’s even harder.
Why?
Read More … http://blog.beliefnet.com/beyondblue/2011/04/does-the-internet-promote-or-damage-marriage.html
Sexual Monogamy Does Not “Lead” to Happiness
Recently, there has been a fair bit of discussion in the media about sexual promiscuity and depression. I think it started with the recent results of a CDC study that showed that young people (teenagers and 20-something year old adults) are having less sex. Shocking, isn’t it, since mass media shows a very different picture? I have more to say about this in a later post that I’ll put online shortly.
That report led to last week’s piece in The New York Times by conservative op-editorial columnist Ross Douthat, who argued that this was ‘good news’ because it might mean that young people will be happier. That is, that by being monogamous, people will be happier. He based this argument on a book, written by sociologists Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker, called “Premarital Sex in America.” He claimed, “Their research, which looks at sexual behavior among contemporary young adults, finds a significant correlation between sexual restraint and emotional well-being, between monogamy and happiness – and between promiscuity and depression.”
Douthat takes this one step further and says the correlation is much stronger for women, and that women’s emotional well-being is tightly linked to sexual stability. “Among the young people Regnerus and Uecker studied, the happiest women were those with a current sexual partner and only one or two partners in their lifetime. Virgins were almost as happy, though not quite, and then a young woman’s likelihood of depression rose steadily as her number of partners climbed and the present stability of her sex life diminished.”
I do not doubt that some people who are in monogamous relationships are really happy – I have a few close friends who I think fall into this camp. But I also do not doubt that some of those who are cheating on their spouse, or who are single but playing the field, are also very happy. This said, it seems that people with large numbers of sexual partners feel compelled to lie when asked for fear of being called something unsavory. (Yes, that’s right, not just women! Both women and men are viewed negatively when they have large numbers of sex partners according to Marks and Fraley, 2005.) So, as you may have guessed, I do not agree that people who have not established monogamous sexual relationships are by default suffering from unhappiness, which is what seems to be implied by Douthat.
Read in Full: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/loves-evolver/201103/sexual-monogamy-does-not-lead-happiness
The 7 Things Newlyweds Should NEVER Do
Ah, wedding season. That time of year when brides and grooms say, “I do” and live happily ever after. Unfortunately, dreaming of “happily ever after” can create unrealistic expectations and lots of problems down the road.
So much of marriage advice today is too complicated, too pie-in-the-sky, and too out of touch with contemporary marriage. In the end, the best advice we have learned over the years for newlyweds is like our recurring message – simple things matter in love and marriage!
Here are the 7 things newlyweds should NEVER do:
1. Never go to bed mad at each other. Going to bed angry is toxic! This is the number one piece of advice from successfully married couples around the world. Don’t listen to the “so called experts” who say you can sleep on it and talk about it in the morning when you are calmer.  This is just NOT true!
2. Don’t mount up a “butt load” of debt when you first get married. Wracking up too much debt is pure poison when it comes to your marriage. Keep the use of credit cards under control.  The single greatest cause of divorce and marital discourse is money.
3. Never make assumptions about what your new spouse likes, dislikes, enjoys, or thinks. Assumptions lead to trouble – and men who order for their wives could end up eating alone. Ask them! The old adage is certainly true that to assume is to make an “ass out of you and me!”
4. Don’t get into role stereotypes early in your marriage. Phrases such as “that’s a man’s job” or “that’s woman’s work” have no place in modern romances. Early role assignments based on stereotypical roles will only create imbalance and potential frustration later. Talk about your strengths and how the two of you can share the burdens of life together.
5. Don’t tally or keep score of wins and losses. There are no winners and losers in a great marriage. “Keeping score” or holding grudges is NOT OK. You shouldn’t cast blame when things go wrong.  Don’t be afraid to argue and debate an issue. Just remember to fight fair and learn to argue effectively.
6. Don’t assume that marriage is fair, just, and beautiful all the time. Just like life, marriage comes with its ups and downs. If you go into marriage believing it will be like a Hollywood movie with roses, sunshine, and no responsibilities, you are in for a big disappointment. Every successful marriage has to deal with setbacks.
Read in Full: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/building-great-marriages/201104/the-7-things-newlyweds-should-never-do
Do the Words We Use Tell Others About Our Marriage?
We have been engaged in marriage research for nearly three decades around the world and have never been asked this question until our recent research trip to the Miami area – “Are there words or phrases you listen for when you interview the best marriages around the world?” This is a great question and we are delighted to share the answer with our thousands of loyal readers around the world.
The most successfully married couples (longevity plus measured happiness according to our marriage interview protocol) use specific words and phases as they talk about their relationship with each other.
Here are the words and phrases commonly used by happily married couples categorized into the seven pervasive characteristics of successful marriage from the 28 year study of marriage in 45 countries of the world:
1. Togetherness In successful marriages, two become one in so many positive and important ways without losing their individual identities. The most important words and phases used by successfully married couples are: We, us, our, together, team, we are like one, we cannot imagine life without each other.
2. Truthfulness: In successful marriages, couples talk about anything and everything. There are no sacred cows – no secrets. In the best marriages you hear these words and phases: Confidant, complete trust, we never worry about betrayal, we know nearly everything about each other, we are the keepers of each other’s deepest and darkest secrets.
3. Respect: Successful love and marriage is about mutual love and respect. In the best marriages you hear these words and phrases:  Mutual respect, admiration, kindness, politeness, we do nice things for each other with no expectation of something in return,  we put each other’s needs first. Successfully married couples do all these things automatically.
4. Fitness: In successful marriages, to live until “death do us part” requires a mutual concern about good health. Here are the words and phrases they use: Health, fitness, exercise, vitamins, nutrition, salads, taking annual physical exams, take your medicine, we exercise together, we shop for food together!
5. Joint finances: In successful marriage, it is not YOUR money and MY money. It is OUR money. Here are the words and phrases they use: Our financial goals, our house, our bills, joint decision making,  joint finances (no separate checking accounts), live within our means, we talk before we buy big items.
6.  Tactile communication: In successful marriages, touching each other multiple times per day is the norm. Their mantra is, “I love you so much I must touch you.” They use these words and phrases: Warmth, caring, friendship, love, understanding, we love to hug, we have great sex, touching acknowledges your presence, our hands communicate loving messages, touching is our private Morse Code.
Read in Full: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/building-great-marriages/201103/do-the-words-we-use-tell-others-about-our-marriage
Is My Marriage Worth Saving?
We have said for many years, “Most marriages and relationships can be saved, but not all!” And our corollary has always been – “Most marriages and relationships are worth saving, but not all!” Here’s what we mean.
In the case of abuse – sexual, physical, mental – many failing marriages and relationships are simply not worth saving. In fact, to attempt to save them puts one or both partners in the relationship at risk for further abuse.
Our six decades of life and three decades of research on love and marriage, tells us that some relationships become so poisoned, so dysfunctional, and so hopeless, that it is better to end them than to operate under the illusion that they are worth saving or can be saved.
We recently interviewed a young American couple that had been married for 14 years. It was clear from the beginning of the interview that this was not a match made in heaven. In fact, this marriage had failed so miserably that the only just and decent thing to do was end it. End it now! No amount of counseling and therapy, no amount of praying, and no amount of hoping were going to save this marriage.
For 14 years, the husband had “mentally abused” his wife. When we interviewed them, it became clear to us that she had had enough of his disrespect, his belittling, his mental abuse, and his coldness. The truth is, the mental anguish she suffered over the years had taken its toll – on her, her three children, and on her marital relationship. She asked us the most profound question of all – “How can I continue to live with a man that makes me feel so worthless, so insignificant, and so meaningless. How can I continue to live with a man that respects me so little?”
Her questions reveal the truth of all this. Sometimes it is just time to move on. Sometimes, to save your soul you have to free yourself of all that is oppressive. Sometimes, you must remove the albatross around your neck if you have any hope of living out your life with happiness, hope, self-respect, and meaningfulness.
Read More … http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/building-great-marriages/201102/is-my-marriage-worth-saving
How Can Arguing Actually Improve Your Marriage? Six Tips
Remarriage with Children is Tough. But the Way You Talk Can Change Everything
I am going to say something that will make you want to hit your head against the wall, it’s so obvious: Remarriage with children is difficult. Here’s the part that’s less obvious: talking to your spouse or partner about the difficulties of remarriage with children can be more difficult still.
You may already know why remarriage with children is difficult. Exes who are angry or even vindictive about the remarriage; children of any age in loyalty binds; divorced dads/husbands who parent from guilt and fear, and fail to protect their wives or partners from the fall-out of those kids’ loyalty binds (usually hostility and rejection). Wives who are unprotected become easy targets, collateral damage in the long-raging divorce war.
Yes, you probably already know that there are myriad factors beyond your control contributing to the stress you feel in your remarriage with children. Now what? Being you-relational, smart, driven to fix the mess-you will want to talk to your husband about it. You have talked about it. And it hasn’t worked. In fact, more often than not the talks have devolved into arguments. Your husband says things like, “Why can’t you just let it go?” and “This again? Why can’t you stop?” Or maybe he listens initially, but then it turns into the same old same old argument with the same old accusations. You end up screaming. He says you’re “out of control” and shuts you down by walking out of the room or refusing to talk. That just makes you feel angrier, even more isolated and hopeless. On your worst days you want a divorce because you are in an impossible position: if you speak about what is destroying you and your marriage-problems with his kids, the way they treat you, for example–it will start another argument, and you will be blamed again. “They’re hardly ever here. Can’t you just STOP?”
Read in Full: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/stepmonster/201103/how-can-arguing-actually-improve-your-marriage-six-tips
I Found Out My Husband Is Gay
Teens Who Choose Music Over Books Are More Likely to Be Depressed, Study Finds
ScienceDaily (Apr. 4, 2011) — Adolescents who spend more time listening to music are far more likely to have major depressive disorder, while young people who spend more time reading books are far less likely to have such a diagnosis, according to a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study published in the April edition of the journal Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
The findings add to the growing body of research linking emotional health to media exposure. The study was unique in that it was one of the first to measure media exposure using an intensive “real-life” methodology called ecological momentary assessment, in which the behaviors of study participants are repeatedly sampled in real time. The method is more reliable than standard surveys and helped researchers recognize this large association between exposure to music and depression, said Brian Primack, M.D., Ed.M., M.S., assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Pitt’s School of Medicine, who led the study.
Read in Full: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110404161817.htm
Antidepressants Linked to Thicker Arteries
ScienceDaily (Apr. 2, 2011) — Antidepressant use has been linked to thicker arteries, possibly contributing to the risk of heart disease and stroke, in a study of twin veterans. The data is being presented on April 5 at the American College of Cardiology meeting in New Orleans.
Depression can heighten the risk for heart disease, but the effect of antidepressant use revealed by the study is separate and independent from depression itself, says first author Amit Shah, MD, a cardiology fellow at Emory University School of Medicine. The data suggest that antidepressants may combine with depression for a negative effect on blood vessels, he says. Shah is a researcher working with Viola Vaccarino, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health.
The study included 513 middle-aged male twins who both served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. Twins are genetically the same but may be different when it comes to other risk factors such as diet, smoking and exercise, so studying them is a good way to distill out the effects of genetics, Shah says.
Read in Full: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110402163856.htm
Depression Dulls Sensitivity to Partner’s Thoughts, Feelings
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 31, 2011
It is no surprise that researchers have discovered that depression erodes intimate relationships.
Depression breeds feelings of loneliness and withdrawal. So when your partner in a relationship is feeling depressed, it can be as though he or she is not even there.
Israeli researchers determined depression impairs the ability of a partner to accurately perceive the others’ thoughts and feelings.
Depression impairs what psychologists call “empathic accuracy.†Depression can also exacerbate alienation, depression, and the cycle by which they feed each other.
The investigators studied these dynamics in relationships, particularly the role of gender.
Their study will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
The study revealed a surprising dynamic: “It’s called the partner effect,†said Reuma Gadassi, lead author and a psychology graduate student at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
“Women’s depression affects their own accuracy. But it also affected their partner’s accuracy negatively.”
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/03/31/depression-dulls-sensitivity-to-partners-thoughts-feelings/24857.html
Pediatrics Gets it Wrong about Facebook Depression
You know it’s not good when one of the most prestigious pediatric journals, Pediatrics, can’t differentiate between correlation and causation.
And yet this is exactly what the authors of a “clinical report†did in reporting on the impact of social media on children and teens. Especially in their discussion of “Facebook depression,†a term that the authors simply made up to describe the phenomenon observed when depressed people use social media.
Shoddy research? You bet. That’s why Pediatrics calls it a “clinical report†— because it’s at the level of a bad blog post written by people with a clear agenda. In this case, the report was written by Gwenn Schurgin O’Keeffe, Kathleen Clarke-Pearson and the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Communications and Media (2011).
What makes this bad a report? Let’s just look at the issue of “Facebook depression,†their made-up term for a phenomenon that doesn’t exist.
The authors of the Pediatrics report use six citations to support their claim that social media sites like Facebook actually cause depression in children and teens. Four of the six citations are third-party news reports on research in this area. In other words, the authors couldn’t even bother with reading the actual research to see if the research actually said what the news outlet reported it said.
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/03/28/pediatrics-gets-it-wrong-about-facebook-depression/
Depression Needs A Second Opinion
Article Date: 12 Mar 2011 – 1:00 PST
As he struggled for decades with a depression that often left him despondent, Eric Wilson never thought to get a second opinion.
“This might be true of many of us,” he said. “We feel we have more ownership of what we see as our body and physical health so, if a doctor gives me a diagnosis I don’t like, I’m likely to get a second opinion. It just wasn’t the same for mental health.”
After decades of broken relationships, multiple flirtations with suicide, and manic highs and lows, he received his final and accurate diagnosis of bipolar II mixed. This form of bipolar disorder is difficult to diagnose because its sufferers often are highly functioning and extremely productive. The highs can masquerade as general happiness. The difficulty is when the mood swings drastically and uncontrollably.
Researchers have found that as many as 69 percent of initial diagnoses of people with bipolar disorder were incorrect, underlining the importance of seeking a second opinion. With bipolar, the wrong medication can have devastating effects, plunging a patient into a deeper depression or into rapid cycles of highs and lows.
Wilson describes his journey from a dangerously moody teen to happily married father in “The Mercy of Eternity.” He credits the loving persistence of his wife and the wonder of his daughter for pushing him beyond that first incorrect diagnosis of his disease.
He is sure he would never have sought additional help on his own.
Read in Full: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/218993.php
Depression May Increase the Risk of Kidney Failure
ScienceDaily (Mar. 11, 2011) — Depression is associated with an increased risk of developing kidney failure in the future, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). Approximately 10% of the US population will suffer from depression at some point during their lifetime.
Lead investigator, Dr. Willem Kop (Department of Medical Psychology and Neuropsychology at the University of Tilburg, the Netherlands) and colleagues studied 5,785 people from four counties across the United States for 10 years. The participants were 65 years and older and not yet on dialysis. They completed a questionnaire measuring depressive symptoms and a broad range of medical measurements, including estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and risk factors for kidney and heart diseases. The investigators examined whether depression predicted the onset of kidney disease or other medical problems in which the kidneys play a critical role.
According to the results, depression coincided with the presence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and was 20% more common in individuals with kidney disease than those without kidney disease. The study shows that depression predicted subsequent rapid decline in kidney function, new onset clinically severe kidney disease (or end-stage renal disease), and hospitalizations that were complicated by acute kidney injury. When the investigators corrected for the long-term effects of other medical measures, the predictive value of depression for hospitalizations with acute kidney injury remained high.
Read in Full: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110310173202.htm
History of a Suicide: An Interview with Jill Bialosky
Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Jill Bialosky, author of the new book History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life, in which she brilliantly weaves together her sister’s inner life and brings an awkward but essential topic of discussion out of the shadows.
1. If you could have readers leave with one piece of truth about suicide, what would it be?
Jill: Suicide is a multi-faceted, complex event and though there may be a present catalyst that triggers it, ultimately it is a psychological drama that happens within the mind of a suicidal individual resulting from intense inner pain. This is a theory developed by Dr. Edwin Shneidman, one of the leading figures in the study of suidiology and it is the one theory that makes sense to me.
We must recognize the inner pain of someone who is suicidal as quickly as possible. One of the conundrums is that those who are suffering deeply tend to isolate themselves and disguise their inner pain to protect loved ones. We must look for warning signs and be not afraid to ask.
2. Why don’t we have the language we need to talk about suicide? How can we develop one?
Jill: Suicide is still a taboo subject. People are uncomfortable talking about it. Suicides are particularly painful for family and loved ones to process because of overwhelming feelings of shock, guilt, shame, anger and responsibility survivors of suicides experience. Suicide taps into fears about recognizing the fragility of human existence, worry and feelings of helplessness in the face of those we love who are suffering. With that said, we need to begin to raise the veil and open the dialogue.
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Check out the book at Amazon.com: History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life.
If you’re thinking of suicide, please read this first.
Read More … http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/03/31/history-of-a-suicide-an-interview-with-jill-bialosky/
Wealth is of the Heart & Mind, Not The Pocket
Are Rich People More Depressed Than Poor? And Other Depression Factoids
I taped a radio show the other day with Court Lewis of American Variety Radio in which he wanted me to cover the demographics of depression.
So here we go. Many of these stats I assembled from the book Understanding Depression by J. Raymond DePaulo Jr., MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Others I picked in articles here and there.
Depression and Gender
More women are depressed than men because women have more to be depressed about than men. Kidding, of course. But I still don’t understand how our gender got stuck with labor pains and all that. Almost one in five women in the US will have one or more episodes of clinical depression, which is TWO or THREE times the rate of depressive illness that men have.
Some say the discrepancy can be attributed to all the mood-altering hormonal effects of the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, childbirth, infertility, and/or contraceptives. Based on the Armageddon that happened to me around childbirth, I’d give that theory a thumbs up. That, and I have to track my menstrual cycle because I’ve been known to go off on people a day or two before my period. However, men’s depression has been crawling up to meet us lately with the recession cutting more male jobs than female jobs. Naddy naddy boo boo.
Married men have lower rates of depression than single men, but not so for married women. (I have my theories but consider myself very lucky so I won’t go into them.) Women who are married are no better off than women who are widowed, divorced, or single (never been married).
Age and Depression
Before age 13 depression is fairly uncommon in both girls and boys. The biggest factor for severe depressive illness in children appears to be genetic. Both parents of severely depressed children often have depression.
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/03/10/are-rich-people-more-depressed-than-poor-and-other-depression-factoids/
Diet Coke and Depression
When you are a recovering drunk, you don’t have a ton of options at parties. I used to be an avid Diet Coke drinker. But last summer my sister scared the, well you know what, out of me when she started talking about what aspartame can do to your system. I am chemically sensitive as it is, and many of you are, too, probably — which is why I don’t drink alcohol and gave up smoking.
But I was curious if Diet Coke was really that dangerous. I did some research, and as you well know, every paranoia will be confirmed eventually by some article on the web.
I found an article about Diet Coke on John McManamy’s website. What was particularly interesting to me was the relationship between aspartame and depression and bipolar disorder.
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/03/14/diet-coke-and-depression/
Tai Chi Beats Back Depression in the Elderly, Study Shows
ScienceDaily (Mar. 20, 2011) — The numbers are, well, depressing: More than 2 million people age 65 and older suffer from depression, including 50 percent of those living in nursing homes. The suicide rate among white men over 85 is the highest in the country — six times the national rate.
And we’re not getting any younger. In the next 35 years, the number of Americans over 65 will double and the number of those over 85 will triple.
So the question becomes, how to help elderly depressed individuals?
Researchers at UCLA turned to a gentle, Westernized version of tai chi chih, a 2,000-year-old Chinese martial art. When they combined a weekly tai chi exercise class with a standard depression treatment for a group of depressed elderly adults, they found greater improvement in the level of depression — along with improved quality of life, better memory and cognition, and more overall energy — than among a different group in which the standard treatment was paired with a weekly health education class.
The results of the study appear in the current online edition of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
Read in Full: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110316131122.htm
For Teens, Acne Problems May Be More Than Skin Deep
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 16, 2011
For many teens, acne is a much bigger problem than a facial blemish. New research finds that depression and other psychological disorders may be more prevalent in adolescent acne patients.
Steve Feldman, M.D., a professor of dermatology at from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, conducted a systematic review of the published research literature to arrive at this conclusion. They found that while most teenagers consider acne to be a cosmetic problem, many others report that acne has a significant impact on their self-esteem and quality of life, often leading to anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts.
“With this study, we found that acne is more than skin deep for those aged 13 to 18,†Feldman said. “Depending on how the patient feels about it, acne can have a potentially large and negative impact on their lives or it can have a small affect.”
In a New Zealand study cited by the authors, for example, greater severity of acne correlated with more depressive symptoms. And problem acne was associated with an increase in frequency of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.
As a result, Feldman said the presence of these psychological disorders “should be considered in the treatment of acne patients when appropriate.”
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/03/16/for-teens-acne-problems-may-be-more-than-skin-deep/24452.html
Depression Drugs — SSRIs — May Reorganize Brain Plasticity, New Research Suggests
ScienceDaily (Mar. 18, 2011) — Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) such as Prozac are regularly used to treat severe anxiety and depression. They work by immediately increasing the amount of serotonin in the brain and by causing long term changes in brain function. However it can take weeks of treatment before a patient feels any effect and both beneficial effects and side effects can persist after treatment is stopped.
New research published by BioMed Central’s open access journal Molecular Brain investigates physiological changes within the brain that may be caused by SSRI treatment.
The hippocampus is an area of the brain involved in long term memory and spatial awareness, and is involved in symptoms afflicting people with Alzheimer’s disease, such as loss of memory and disorientation. Neuronal cells in the hippocampus can change their activity and strength of connections throughout life, a process known as plasticity, which thought to be one of the ways new memories are formed. Altered plasticity is often associated with depression and stress.
Read in Full: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110316084425.htm
Mancession and Male Depression: Open Your Minds and Shut Your Mouths
I used to think a woman’s depression rate was two or three times that of a man’s simply because of the hormonal roller coaster she gets to ride from the time she first gets her period in junior high (or now in first grade — okay, maybe not that early) until she can stop buying sanitary items or, even better, stop making her husband buy them for her.
But now I’m not so sure.
Women are giving more weight these days to domestic tasks like raising kids and keeping the house in order than to their menstrual cycle and the biological trauma of childbirth. Because, in sync with Dr. Boadie Dunlap’s editorial in the British Journal of Psychiatry, as we switched roles in our home, the adjustment has been much more difficult than the simple plan we forecast in Quicken: my income increases, his household responsibilities increase. Easy enough?
The recession, of course, has been dubbed the “mancession†by some because about 75 percent of the jobs lost have been in industries that belong to men: construction, manufacturing, and labor. The downsizing has been further compounded by innovations in technology (less manual labor) and outsourcing to foreign countries, where labor doesn’t cost so much.
Since men derive a substantial amount of their self-esteem from their jobs, and societal norms—although gradually shifting—still dictate the man as the breadwinner, men are at increased risk for depression until the economy turns around.
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/03/18/mancession-and-male-depression-open-your-minds-and-shut-your-mouths/
Euthymics Bioscience Initiates Triade Trial For Major Depression
Article Date: 16 Mar 2011 – 1:00 PDT
Euthymics Bioscience, Inc. announced the initiation of an advanced clinical study of its lead product candidate EB-1010 for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). The TRIADE (Triple Reuptake Inhibitor Anti-Depressant Effects) trial is a phase 2b/3a clinical trial designed to assess the safety and efficacy of EB-1010, a novel serotonin-preferring triple reuptake inhibitor. The trial will be conducted at 25 centers throughout the U.S., and Euthymics plans to enroll approximately 300 individuals. Patient recruitment is now underway and top-line results are expected in mid-2012.
Read in Full: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/219200.php
Study Shows Children’s Psychiatric Symptoms Improve After Depression Remission In Mother
Article Date: 16 Mar 2011 – 2:00 PDT
Children of mothers with major depressive disorder showed improvement in their own psychiatric symptoms in the year after their mothers’ depression responded to treatment, according to a study appearing in the online edition of The American Journal of Psychiatry.
Since the children of parents with major depression are also at increased risk of a psychiatric disorder diagnosis, the relationship between maternal remission and the decrease in offspring symptoms is encouraging as it represents an improvement in a child’s future prospects, said authors of the study, published March 15 at AJP in Advance, the online advance edition of The American Journal of Psychiatry, the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association.
Read in Full: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/219242.php
Depressed Dads More Likely to Spank Kids
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 16, 2011
Difficulties with depression for new parents are usually focused on moms, but depression can also affect fathers — and make them more likely to spank children as young as 1 year old.
About 40 percent of depressed fathers in a survey said they’d spanked kids that age, versus just 13 percent of fathers who weren’t depressed.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and many child development experts warn against spanking children of any age.
The researchers said spanking is especially troubling in children who are only 1, because they could get injured and they “are unlikely to understand the connection between their behavior and subsequent punishment.”
In addition, four out of five dads had recently visited a pediatrician for their child’s routine visit — an opportunity to get help for themselves that was missed.
The authors analyzed data on 1,746 fathers from a nationally representative survey in 16 large U.S. cities, conducted in 1999-2000. Lead author Dr. Neal Davis said that was the most recent comprehensive data on the subject, and he believes it is relevant today. Depression among fathers is strongly tied to unemployment rates, which are much higher now than a decade ago, he said.
The men were questioned about depression symptoms, spanking and interactions with their 1-year-olds, but weren’t asked why they spanked or whether it resulted in physical harm.
Overall, 7 percent of dads had experienced recent major depression.
Some likely had a history of depression, but in others it was probably tied to their children’s birth, similar to postpartum depression in women, Davis said. A pediatrician now, Davis did the research while at the University of Michigan.
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/03/16/depressed-dads-more-likely-to-spank-kids/24436.html
High-Quality Follow-Up Depression Care Via Online Messaging
Article Date: 18 Mar 2011 – 0:00 PDT
Online messaging can deliver organized follow-up care for depression effectively and efficiently, according to a randomized controlled trial of 208 Group Health patients that the Journal of General Internal Medicine e-published in advance of print.
After five months, compared to the half of the patients randomly assigned to receive usual care, the half who had three online care management contacts with a trained psychiatric nurse were significantly more likely to feel less depressed, take their antidepressant medication as prescribed, and be “very satisfied” with their treatment for depression. The patients in the trial were starting antidepressant medication that their primary care providers prescribed.
Read in Full: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/219441.php
4 April 2011 Last updated at 17:07
People with autism use their brains differently from other people, which may explain why some have extraordinary abilities to remember and draw objects in detail, according to new research.
University of Montreal scientists say in autistic people, the brain areas that deal with visual information are highly developed.
Other brain areas are less active.
The National Autistic Society says the findings significantly increase understanding of the condition.
The research, published in the journal Human Brain Mapping, pulls together 15 years of data on the way the autistic brain works.
Better at visual tasks
It suggests that the brains of autistic people are organised differently from those of other people; the area at the back of the brain, which processes visual information, is more highly developed.
That leaves less brain capacity in areas which deal with decision-making and planning.
That may be why people with autism can be better than others at carrying out some types of visual tasks.
For example, some are able to draw highly accurate and detailed images from memory.
However, they can find it difficult to interpret things like facial expressions.
The condition varies in severity, with some people functioning well, but others completely unable to take part in normal society.
The researchers believe their findings may lead towards new ways of helping people to live with the condition.
“For example, this may show a means to help people to literacy in a much more natural way than the usual methods of helping autistic people,” said Dr Laurent Mottron from the University of Montreal.
“The natural tendency is to think that autism is a form of disorganisation. Here, what we see is that it is a reorganisation of the brain,” he said.
Understanding autism
Autism experts regard the research findings as significant.
“This review highlights that autism should not only be seen as a condition with behavioural difficulties, but should also be associated with particular skill,” said Dr Christine Ecker from the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College, London.
“It offers us unique insights into the way people with autism perceive their environment and helps us to understand some of their behaviour.”
She said it added to the understanding of autism. “Knowing the strengths and difficulties of someone with autism may help to better understand their needs and help them maximize their potential.”
Read in Full: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12937009
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 1, 2011
If you ever wondered what social networking websites actually were for, researchers today have at least one answer. A new study shows that Facebook is actually the result of a Harvard psychology experiment that inadvertently gained popularity outside of the Introductory to Psychology class it was designed for.
“It was meant as a simple lab requirement for our undergraduate psychology students,†said Mark Zuckerberg, a professor of psychology at Harvard who masqueraded as the site’s CEO. “We never imagined they would turn it into an actual social networking website.”
The study began with a website that featured only a login page, a profile page, and a way to denote that other people in the class were friends. Researchers were interested in whether or not people in the class would immediately become competitive and try and gain as many friends as possible.
They hypothesized that humans are naturally competitive and once friendship numbers were public information, otherwise rationale adults would start behaving in a frenzied, competitive manner to obtain more and more friends.
In order to accommodate the competitive nature of subjects within the study, more friends were recruited from outside the Introductory to Psychology course.
“We quickly used up all the friends in the class, even at a class size of 1,200, it just wasn’t enough for the more competitive students. Luckily, Harvard is a big school,†said Zuckerberg.
After the Harvard campus was depleted, the researchers started adding local wildlife and dogs to the site, which they initially had generically named, “How Many Friends Can You Get?.com”
The name was changed first to “Bookface,†and then finally “Facebook†when the researchers saw how people enjoyed looking at faces in a book. “We never knew that books could contain so many pretty pictures,†the researchers wrote in the study.
The study started going awry when the students started befriending the campus rats.
“At some point, you have to know when to call it quits,†the researchers said.
Students around the Harvard campus began suffering from Facebook withdrawal and Facebook depression shortly after the experiment was shut down. A group of rogue students took over the site and reopened it to the general public a week later.
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/04/01/facebook-revealed-to-be-psychology-experiment-gone-wrong/24944.html
ScienceDaily (Mar. 31, 2011) — Roughly 15% of children suffer from migraines, and approximately one-third of these affected children have migraines with aura, a collection of symptoms that can include weakness, blind spots, and even hallucinations. Although the causes of migraines are unclear, a new study in The Journal of Pediatrics suggests a connection between migraine headaches in children and a heart defect called patent foramen ovale, which affects 25% of people in the U.S.
Dr. Rachel McCandless and colleagues from the Primary Children’s Medical Center and the University of Utah studied children 6-18 years old who were diagnosed with migraines between 2008 and 2009. The 109 children enrolled in the study were treated at the Primary Children’s Medical Center, which serves kids from Utah, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Colorado, and parts of Wyoming.
The researchers took two-dimensional echocardiograms of each child’s heart, looking for a patent foramen ovale (PFO), a common defect in the wall between the two upper chambers of the heart. Although a PFO is not necessarily dangerous, it can allow unfiltered blood to bypass the lungs and circulate throughout the body. As Dr. McCandless explains, “Some adult studies have suggested a link between having a PFO and migraine headaches.”
Of the studied children who had migraines with aura, 50% also had a PFO; this is nearly double the PFO rate of the general population. However, only 25% of children who had migraines without aura had a PFO. Dr. McCandless and colleagues hypothesize that if a causal relationship can be established, closure of a PFO with a catheter device may help in the treatment of certain kinds of migraines, specifically migraines with aura. It is her hope that “our study will help guide future research about this difficult problem.”
Journal Reference:
- Rachel T. McCandless, Cammon B. Arrington, Douglas C. Nielsen, James F. Bale, L.LuAnn Minich. Patent Foramen Ovale in Children with Migraine Headaches. The Journal of Pediatrics, 2011; DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2011.01.062
ScienceDaily (Mar. 25, 2011) — The death of parents entails an increase in their children’s risk of dying. This is shown in a new study performed by Mikael Rostila, a researcher at the Center for Health Equity Studies (CHESS) in Sweden, and Jan Saarela, a researcher at Ã…bo Akademi University in Finland. Those especially affected are younger children, and primarily if they lose their mother.
“Among children between 10 and 18 years of age, there’s an increased risk of death. Compared with children who have not lost their mother at these ages, their risk of dying is nearly doubled. But even children up to the ages of 40-50 are affected by their mother’s death, but in that case primarily over a longer term,” says Mikael Rostila. In other words, our parents are very important to us throughout our lives.
“The fact that it’s primarily the loss of a mother that impacts children can be explained in different ways. It may be so that the relation between mother and child is characterized by a stronger emotional contact, entailing that the child is affected more by the loss. Other studies have shown that mothers transfer material and economic resources to their children to a greater extent than fathers do, which may have a positive effect on their health,” says Mikael Rostila.
Somewhat surprisingly the findings of the study indicate that older children who lose a parent evince lower mortality than children whose parents are living.
“This may be because the parents’ final stage of life brings with it a great deal of anxiety and caring and many elderly parents are in ill health for an extended period. Paradoxically, their death can be a relief to the child in that the parent no longer has to suffer,” says Mikael Rostila.
The study also shows that death by accident or suicide, for example, has the greatest consequences for the health of children.
“This is rather to be expected in that the unexpected loss of a parent means that we find it more difficult to accept the loss. We have no time to prepare ourselves for the event. This entails a greater risk of winding up in a crisis or depression,” says Mikael Rostila.
Read in Full: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110323105313.htm
Anxiety has overtaken depression to become the most commonly diagnosed psychological disorder in the United States, with social anxiety its most frequent manifestation. Part of the cause of extreme social anxiety is thought to be related to bad experiences – being laughed at in class, blushing in front of friends, choking on a first date – so that a person learns to fear social situations. But that’s unlikely to be the whole story. Social anxiety runs in families suggesting some people have an innate predisposition for the disorder. The authors of a new study believe they’ve identified, for the first time, a neural correlate of this vulnerability.
Wen Zhou and colleagues scanned the brains of nineteen women while they were exposed to the smell of two types of men’s sweat, a floral scent, and the human steroid (and putative pheromone) androstadienone. One of the male sweat types was sexual, the other was neutral, and they were collected from men’s armpits as they watched either a sexual film or an educational documentary. The women weren’t told what the different smells were or where they came from.
Human sweat is known to convey social signals. For example, it’s been shown that people can tell a person’s emotional state purely from the smell of their sweat. The key findings in this new study are that the two types of sweat, compared to the other odours, led to increased activation in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) of the women’s brains, and that the level of this activation was related to the women’s amount of self-reported trait social anxiety. The women didn’t have any psychiatric diagnoses but the higher they scored on a measure of trait social anxiety (e.g. they said they felt uncomfortable in large groups), the less activation they exhibited in their OFC when exposed to the men’s sweat.
It’s important to emphasise that most of the women (nearly 90 per cent) didn’t realise the smells were from humans, and the smells had no effect on their in-the-moment mood or anxiety levels. Consistent with this, the different smells didn’t differentially affect the amygdala, a bilateral subcortical structure associated with fear processing. What the study appears to be showing is that subconscious social signals trigger increased OFC activity compared with nonsocial smells, and that the level of this activity is moderated by trait social anxiety.
Misreading Faces Tied To Child Social Anxiety
Article Date: 01 Apr 2011 – 3:00 PDT
Children suffering from extreme social anxiety are trapped in a nightmare of misinterpreted facial expressions: They confuse angry faces with sad ones, a new study shows.
“If you misread facial expressions, you’re in social trouble, no matter what other social skills you have,” says Emory psychologist Steve Nowicki, a clinical researcher who developed the tests used in the study. “It can make life very difficult, because other people’s faces are like a prism through which we look at the world.”
It’s easy to assume that a socially anxious child would be especially sensitive to anger. “It turns out that they never learn to pick up on anger and often make the error of seeing it as sadness,” Nowicki says. “It sets up a very problematic interaction.”
Some socially anxious children long to interact with others, he says, and may try to comfort someone they think is sad, but who is actually angry. “They want to help, because they’re good kids,” Nowicki says. “I’ve seen these kids trying to make a friend, and keep trying, but they keep getting rebuffed and are never aware of the reason why.”
The study was co-authored by Amy Walker, a former undergraduate student at Emory, now at Yeshiva University, and will be published in the Journal of Genetic Psychology.
Read in Full: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/220974.php
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 29, 2011
A new research study of thousands of people with bipolar disorder suggests genetic risk factors may play a prominent role in the decision to attempt suicide.
Knowledge of the genetic factor may lead to better suicide prevention efforts by providing new directions for research and drug development.
Johns Hopkins scientists, reporting in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, identified a small region on chromosome 2 that is associated with increased risk for attempted suicide.
This small region contains four genes, including the ACP1 gene, and the researchers found more than normal levels of the ACP1 protein in the brains of people who had committed suicide.
This protein is thought to influence the same biological pathway as lithium, a medication known to reduce the rate of suicidal behavior.
“We have long believed that genes play a role in what makes the difference between thinking about suicide and actually doing it,†said study leader Virginia L. Willour, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Willour and her colleagues studied DNA samples from nearly 2,700 adults with bipolar disorder, 1,201 of them with a history of suicide attempts and 1,497 without.
They found that those with one copy of a genetic variant in the region of chromosome 2 where ACP1 is located were 1.4 times more likely to have attempted suicide, and those with two copies were almost three times as likely.
Willour and her colleagues were able to replicate their findings in another group of samples: This one made up of DNA from more than 3,000 people with bipolar disorder.
http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/03/29/genetic-link-to-suicide-attempts/24779.html