I wrote at the beginning of the Andrea Yates retrial about the public opinion shift on mental health that defense attorneys were banking on to get her prison sentence overturned. Wednesday she was found guilty by reason of insanity, and the discussion has continued about whether people overall have become more sympathetic to those with […]

As I’m going through the past few months of accumulated email (yes, it’s been that kind of summer!), I ran across a submission about a month ago pointing me to a blog entry over at The Trouble with Spikol (also mentioned in a recent blog entry by one of my co-bloggers).
It’s a great entry […]

Study suggests TV watching lowers physical activity
Not surprising to any American, when you watch TV, you aren’t as active and the more you watch, the less active you become. I honestly thought this was common knowledge, but apparently we needed to confirm this in research to ensure our perception in this area was actually true. […]

The unbelievable popularity of violent video games (first-person shooters, etc) has led many researchers and government officials to be concerned about the psychological effects of playing them. Craig Anderson (Iowa State) has made a career on experimentally testing violent media and the results of their exposure. He has shown in the past that violent video […]

Via The Trouble With Spikol (great mental health blog!):
Hungarian mental health stakeholders from the group Sötét Nappalok, Fényes Éjszakák Egyesület (Darkest Days, Brightest Nights Society) are raising bipolar disorder public awareness by riding a rollercoaster for 10 days straight. When they finish on July 28 they’ll have broken a world record as well as brought […]

The number of factors implicated in the growing obestity problem in the United States seems to have no limit. Air conditioning and lack of sleep are the newest buzz areas of concern, and a recent study just found that using larger tableware (bowls, plates, etc) can increase the portion size people serve themselves. This could […]

AP had a story Monday about how being distracted can lower the quality of learned information. They discuss how watching TV while you study is a bad idea. This topic is becomming more widely discussed with the emergence of the “multitasking generation”. Many folks are concerned that kids are growing up in a fast paced […]

Someday I’m going to write a nice article about flying with children, tips and suggestions on how to minimize the disturbance to others, distraction techniques, etc. Today’s not that day.
For the past 6 months or so, I’ve been doing a lot of traveling relating to consulting with a company a short plane ride away in […]

There have been more frequent stories of late about neurosurgical procedures for various mental disorders. The most written about appears to be deep brain stimulation for depression, which is an emerging option for people with the most life-threatening and chronic depression. A surgical procedure for anxiety disorders has also been developed, although the procedure is […]

A challenging new book by psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, Going Sane, criticizes the many products, therapies and lifestyle enhancements peddled to consumers as the means to happiness. Even CBT, he argues, is simply the latest psychotherapy fad. Is the promise of bliss not only unrealistic, but unattainable? From an interview in The Guardian:
“The cultural demand now […]

The Design for Our Future Selves awards 2006 from the Royal College of Art offered seven awards for ‘An architecture, design or communication project which addresses a social issue or engages with a particular social group in order to improve independence, mobility, health or working life.’
Christopher Peacock won the Snowdon Award for Disability Projects and […]

The Anxiety, Addiction and Depression Treatments blog highlights another study indicating the benefits of psychotherapy (CBT) with antidepressants:
In the field, it is virtually impossible to prevent those who are recovering from depression from encountering sad mood provocation. We never know what may be waiting for us around the next corner. But what this new information […]