Vol. 2 no 07: November 2008

Download PsychDigest 200811 Vol 2 no 7

 

Anxiety & stress

  • Preventing PTSD by inhibiting memories of the traumatic event

  • What if there were no God? Political conservatives and liberals differ in their answers

Autism spectrum disorders

  • People with autism make more rational decisions

  • Mild autism in girls may escape detection

  • Clue to why autistic children do not learn from imitation

  • Autism severity—watch the toddler's eyes

Depression

  • FDA approves non-invasive therapy for depression

  • Creating psychological distance from distressing events reduce depressive symptoms

  • Self-help strategies for sub-threshold depression

Developmental psychology

  • Babies see more than we realise

  • Infants also learn from experience

  • Gene associated with dyslexia also linked to general reading difficulties

  • Young children do not always link beliefs with behaviour

  • Learning from mistakes only happens after the age of 1

Health psychology

  • Mental barriers may prevent obese women from getting exercise

Memory

  • For better recall, combine bizarre with funny

  • Watching memories being captured and recalled in the brain

  • We have a much larger memory capacity than we thought

Neuroscience

  • Our brains have their own satellite navigation

  • Eureka! How distractions help us solve complex problems

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

  • Compulsive hoarding a separate syndrome from OCD

  • Young children can develop full-blown OCD

Organizational psychology

  • A ‘fake-proof’ personality test

  • Workers lie more when they e-mail, and feel more justified doing so

Personality

  • Leaders with inflated egos

  • Antisocial behaviour linked to low cortisol levels

  • Religious people are helpful, honest, and generous—under certain circumstances

Schizophrenia

  • Efficiency vs resiliency—mental trade-offs depending on gene variant

Sex & gender

  • Sexual coercive behaviour in adolescents linked to childhood abuse

Sleep disorders

  • Adolescent insomnia linked to depression and substance abuse

  • Shaping your brain activity for better sleep quality

Social psychology

  • Racism: Being ‘colour-blind’ can backfire

  • Physiological responses to disturbing images and sounds can predict political views

 

DRUGS & MEDICATION

Alternative & complementary therapies

  • Omega-3 could be beneficial in bipolar disorder

  • St John's

    Wort relieves symptoms of major depression

 

PSYCHLITS: ON THE PSYCH RADAR

  • Learning a second language hinders social adjustment in girls

  • Traumatic brain injury prevalent under juvenile delinquents

  • Call for routine screening for depression in heart disease patients

  • If you want to keep your patients, use the phone

  • Depression and diabetes lethal combination for older people

  • Adolescents in poor neighbourhoods at increased risk of suicide

  • Smoking increases risk of major depression for women

  • Sweeter dreams with sweet smells

  • Nerve cells in our eyes control sleepiness

  • Direct stimulation of the brain restored voluntary movement to paralyzed limbs

  • Parents with schizophrenia increase infant mortality

  • Children exposed to second-hand smoke show symptoms of nicotine dependence

  • Bringing balance to the brain

  • Family may experience post-traumatic stress months after loved one's stay in ICU

  • Pathway responsible for obesity found in the brain

  • Older men more likely to father a child with autistic spectrum disorder

  • BPD linked to malfunction in brain's emotion-regulating circuit

  • ADHD stimulants may decrease the risk of substance abuse in adolescent girls

  • Bipolar disorder in children may continue into adulthood

  • Axis II personality disorders common in bipolar disorder

  • Interpersonal therapy rapidly improves occupational function in bipolar I

Psych–pointers…
  • The Hodology of hallucinations

 

Books & publications

Conferences & events