Women: Guarding Against Unhappiness
Penelope Trunk has an intriguing blog entry today entitled, What women can do when they’re young to be happy later on. I say intriguing, because her suggestions may raise an eyebrow or two: 1. Don’t have kids. 2. Keep your career. 3. If you are divorced, get plastic surgery. Her entry goes into more depth and her [...]
Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics
My colleague Gilles Frydman wrote a great entry today over at e-Patients.net about a new report released this month by the Association for Psychological Science. Don’t let the “psychology” fool you, as this report, entitled “Helping Doctors and Patients Make Sense of Health Statistics” (PDF), is about statistics in medicine and the shocking lack of [...]
DSM-V: Transparency or Secrecy?
In a world expecting greater and greater transparency in how important medical and mental health research is conducted, should such transparency extend to the intricate workings of determining what constitutes a valid mental disorder diagnosis? That’s the question posed by two sides wrangling over how transparent the new DSM-V process should be. Robert Spitzer, a former [...]
ADHD Experts Promote Drugs
With the focus on conflicts of interest by U.S. researchers in the spotlight in the past year (due to Sen. Grassley’s continuing investigation into researchers who failed to disclose millions of dollars in incomes from pharmaceutical companies), you’d think both pharmaceutical companies and experts who get paid by them would’ve learned a thing or two. Apparently [...]
How Crazy Are You?
That’s what a new BBC2 reality-TV show, “How Mad Are You?” asks 10 participants. Three experts watch them perform a variety of tasks, such as doing a stand-up comedy routine or playing paintball, and then has to identify the 5 people out of the 10 who have a mental illness. While UK newspapers skewered the concept [...]
What Happened to HealthyPlace?
After losing their HONCode accreditation earlier this year, it appears HealthyPlace has taken another hit, this time to its self-help support communities. As its members list and latest posts show, its once-thriving support forums seemed to have been taken over by spammers. People who’ve tried to contact the site’s owners have had no response. Meanwhile, Wyeth’s [...]
You Can Only Change Yourself
One of life’s hardest lessons to learn is that you can only change yourself. Some people spend inordinate amounts of time and energy upset, angry, or frustrated by other people’s thoughts and behaviors. But to what end? You can rail against the rain or feel sanguine about the snow, but there’s not a whole lot you [...]
The More IM Use, the Worse Test Scores
A new study just published suggests that the more expertise one has with instant messaging (IMing), the worse one’s test scores. And, not surprising and consistent with prior research, the new study (Fox, 2008) found that IMing increases the time it takes to complete a task. The study looked at 69 undergraduates who were randomly assigned [...]
Shedding Light on a Dark Side of Online Community
Today, The New York Times has a look at mind control websites and online communities that reinforce the delusional beliefs of its members: Identified by some psychologists and psychiatrists as part of an “extreme community” on the Internet that appears to encourage delusional thinking, a growing number of such Web sites are filled with stories from [...]
Congratulations to Katherine Stone, Postpartum Progress
We’d like to take a moment to congratulate our occasional contributor, Katherine Stone, author of the fantastic blog, Postpartum Progress, for being named one of WebMD’s 2008 Health Heroes. This is the third year of these awards that honor everyday Americans who face health issues with vision, helping to drive others to action. She is a [...]
Mental Disorders Common in Hospitals
If you need any further proof of how significant mental health concerns are in today’s society, look no further than the news article we published today noting that 22 percent of hospital admissions have a mental disorder as well. That’s a significant number. And while most people who are admitted to the hospital with a [...]
Media: Stop Using PPD to Describe Big Event “Let-Down”
One thing that really bothers me is when people use the term “postpartum depression” to refer to the deep disappointment some people experience after a big event is over. As an example, this bit from CNN.com this week: “After two intense years of campaign ups and downs for both major U.S. political parties, the nation [...]
If you think you're too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.
-- Bette Reese
-- Bette Reese
