Patients with social phobia whose brains “lit” up the most, particularly in two regions towards the back of the brain that process what we see, responded the best to psychotherapy. (Source: Gabrieli Lab, MIT)
Brain Imaging Predicts Psychotherapy Success in Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder
National Institute of Mental Health
Treatment for social anxiety disorder or social phobia has entered the personalized medicine arena—brain imaging can provide neuromarkers to predict whether traditional options such as cognitive behavioral therapy will work for a particular patient, reported a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded study that was published in the January 2013 issue of JAMA Psychiatry.
Although psychotherapy and drugs, such as antidepressants and benzodiazepines, exist as treatments for SAD, current behavioral measures poorly predict which would work better for individual patients. “Half of social anxiety disorder patients have satisfactory response to treatment. There is little evidence about which patient would benefit from a particular form of treatment,” said John D. Gabrieli, Ph.D., lead author of the study. “Currently, there is no rational basis for prescribing one treatment over the other. Which treatment a patient gets depends on whom they see.”
Enter personalized medicine, the use of genetic or other biological markers to tailor treatments to those who would actually benefit from them, thus sparing the expense and side effects for those who would not. Brain imaging could identify neuromarkers or targeted areas of the brain that could one day optimize treatment for individual patients. Neuromarkers are being used in other areas of mental illness, for instance, to predict the onset of psychosis in schizophrenia and the likelihood of relapse in drug addiction.
American Psychological Association
February 27, 2013
Older people who have low expectations for a satisfying future may be more likely to live longer, healthier lives than those who see brighter days ahead, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
“Our findings revealed that being overly optimistic in predicting a better future was associated with a greater risk of disability and death within the following decade,” said lead author Frieder R. Lang, PhD, of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. “Pessimism about the future may encourage people to live more carefully, taking health and safety precautions.” The study was published online in the journal Psychology and Aging®.
(…)
Because a darker outlook on the future is often more realistic, older adults’ predictions of their future satisfaction may be more accurate, according to the study. In contrast, the youngest group had the sunniest outlook while the middle-aged adults made the most accurate predictions, but became more pessimistic over time.
“Unexpectedly, we also found that stable and good health and income were associated with expecting a greater decline compared with those in poor health or with low incomes,” Lang said. “Moreover, we found that higher income was related to a greater risk of disability.”
(…)
The findings do not contradict theories that unrealistic optimism about the future can sometimes help people feel better when they are facing inevitable negative outcomes, such as terminal disease, according to the authors. “We argue, though, that the outcomes of optimistic, accurate or pessimistic forecasts may depend on age and available resources,” Lang said. “These findings shed new light on how our perspectives can either help or hinder us in taking actions that can help improve our chances of a long healthy life.”
To Make Mice Smarter, Add A Few Human Brain Cells
For more than a century, neurons have been the superstars of the brain. Their less glamorous partners, glial cells, can’t send electric signals, and so they’ve been mostly ignored.
Now scientists have injected some human glial cells into the brains of newborn mice. When the mice grew up, they were faster learners. The study, published Thursday in Cell Stem Cell, not only introduces a new tool to study the mechanisms of the human brain, it supports the hypothesis that glial cells — and not just neurons — play an important role in learning.
Paul Bloom: The Psychology of Everything
What Compassion, Racism, and Sex tell us about Human Nature
Paul Bloom, Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology, Yale University
Give Paul Bloom one hour, and he’ll teach you “the psychology of everything,” illustrating some of the most fundamental elements of human nature through case studies about compassion, racism, and sex. He discusses some of the biggest questions in the nature versus nurture debate, including “Are we hard-wired to care about others?” Bloom points out why stereotyping can be both detrimental and beneficial, and he even explains what the porn preference of monkeys tells us about our own sexual choosiness, or lack thereof. After the hour is up you’ll understand why Bloom calls psychology, because of its cross-disciplinary nature, “the perfect liberal arts major.”
One of this generation’s most prominent author, J.K. Rowling’s new book “The Casual Vacany” has a character that suffers from OCD. The character is one of the main ones as well and Rowling hopes that this will prevent the trivializing of OCD, especially from media outlets.
Rowling said it was based on her own experiences of the illness which she suffered from as well, which consisted of her “checking, double-checking, triple-checking things.”
The Casual Vacancy is Rowling’s first novel apart from the Harry Potter series.
Of course!
I made it using the tag cloud generator by Heather Rivers. For some reason the link doesn’t seem to be working right now…
Medical News Today (08 Oct 2012) — The stigma of mental illness often has a greater impact on people’s employment prospects than physical disability or illness, Australian researchers reported today.
The study, commissioned by WISE Employment, a not-for-profit organization aimed at empowering job seekers to find meaningful work, revealed that mental illness, even in today’s supposed period of apparent enlightenment, continues to be a serious obstacle to employment.
The study was commissioned as part of Mental Health Week, which started on Sunday, October 7th, 2012.
The researchers explained that one in every five Australian adults has been affected with some kind of mental illness during the last 12 months.
The main barrier to employing people who have had or have a mental illness is simply ignorance - or lack of understanding, said Matthew Lambelle, from WISE Employment.
Matthew Lambelle emphasized that mental illness is not linked to job performance.
WISE Employment (WISE) says it is dedicated towards the reduction of stigma associated with employing people who have a mental illness. The organization says that people with a mental illness are capable of working, and doing their jobs well; sometimes even being the best person for a position.
WISE explained that most employers with at least five workers most likely already have personnel with some kind of mental illness, many in positions of trust and responsibility.
