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Brain Blogger covers topics from multidimensional biopsychosocial perspectives. It reviews the latest news and stories related to neuroscience, psychiatry, and neurology. It serves as a focal point for attracting new minds beyond the science of the mind-and-brain and into the biopsychosocial model.
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by Veronica Pamoukaghlian, MA in Brain Blogger
If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind is controllable – what then? — George Orwell, in 1984 The concept of brainwashing was first used to describe certain obscure procedures carried out in early Communist China, but the idea of “cleansing the mind” can be traced [...]... Read more »
Schell BH. (1994) The ominous shadow of the CIA has imprinted itself on the brain research community. The journal of the California Alliance for the Mentally Ill, 5(1), 38-40. PMID: 11653317
by Jordan Gaines, PhD student in Brain Blogger
Gift-giving isn’t easy — particularly during the holidays, when there are so many different people for whom to buy. It’s overwhelming and stressful, and people cope with the burden in different ways. Some, like myself, begin lists in September, all the while picking up hints from others and taking note, then making my purchases before [...]... Read more »
Dunn, E., Huntsinger, J., Lun, J., & Sinclair, S. (2008) The Gift of Similarity: How Good and Bad Gifts Influence Relationships. Social Cognition, 26(4), 469-481. DOI: 10.1521/soco.2008.26.4.469
by Alex Kadner, PhD in Brain Blogger
Major depression is a very common and debilitating. It is characterized by low mood, changes in sleeping patterns, changes in appetite, lack of energy and a very substantial loss of quality of life. Depression may not improve for long periods of time, often years, and that someone who has experienced one episode of major depression [...]... Read more »
Kessler, R. (2003) The Epidemiology of Major Depressive Disorder: Results From the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R). JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 289(23), 3095-3105. DOI: 10.1001/jama.289.23.3095
Stafford, R., Ausiello, J., Misra, B., & Saglam, D. (2000) National Patterns of Depression Treatment in Primary Care. The Primary Care Companion to The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 02(06), 211-216. DOI: 10.4088/PCC.v02n0603
Warden, D., Rush, A., Trivedi, M., Fava, M., & Wisniewski, S. (2007) The STAR*D project results: A comprehensive review of findings. Current Psychiatry Reports, 9(6), 449-459. DOI: 10.1007/s11920-007-0061-3
Preskorn SH. (2011) What Do the Terms "Drug-Specific Response/Remission Rate" and "Placebo" Really Mean?. Journal of psychiatric practice, 17(6), 420-424. PMID: 22108399
Warner-Schmidt, J., Vanover, K., Chen, E., Marshall, J., & Greengard, P. (2011) From the Cover: Antidepressant effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are attenuated by antiinflammatory drugs in mice and humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(22), 9262-9267. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1104836108
by Amie Martin, MSW, LMSW in Brain Blogger
With another United States election around the corner, and what promises to be an exciting — if not benchmark — time in modern history, there is arguably not a person untouched by one of the hottest global and domestic issues at hand: the economy. The effects world affairs have on individuals is widely varying, depending [...]... Read more »
Falagas ME, Vouloumanou EK, Mavros MN, & Karageorgopoulos DE. (2009) Economic crises and mortality: a review of the literature. International journal of clinical practice, 63(8), 1128-35. PMID: 19624782
Gresenz CR, Stockdale SE, & Wells KB. (2000) Community effects on access to behavioral health care. Health services research, 35(1 Pt 2), 293-306. PMID: 10778816
by Jennifer Gibson, PharmD in Brain Blogger
Personalities come in all shapes and sizes. Boisterous and docile. Flamboyant and reserved. Extroverted and introverted. Sociable and shy. But, when does a normal variation in personality characteristic, such as shyness, become a medical condition? Not as often as you might think, according to a new study that observed little connection between shyness and social [...]... Read more »
Burstein M, Ameli-Grillon L, & Merikangas KR. (2011) Shyness versus social phobia in US youth. Pediatrics, 128(5), 917-25. PMID: 22007009
Burstein M, He JP, Kattan G, Albano AM, Avenevoli S, & Merikangas KR. (2011) Social phobia and subtypes in the national comorbidity survey-adolescent supplement: prevalence, correlates, and comorbidity. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 50(9), 870-80. PMID: 21871369
Cox BJ, MacPherson PS, & Enns MW. (2005) Psychiatric correlates of childhood shyness in a nationally representative sample. Behaviour research and therapy, 43(8), 1019-27. PMID: 15967173
Ginsburg GS, Kendall PC, Sakolsky D, Compton SN, Piacentini J, Albano AM, Walkup JT, Sherrill J, Coffey KA, Rynn MA.... (2011) Remission after acute treatment in children and adolescents with anxiety disorders: Findings from the CAMS. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 79(6), 806-13. PMID: 22122292
Hitchcock CA, Chavira DA, & Stein MB. (2009) Recent findings in social phobia among children and adolescents. The Israel journal of psychiatry and related sciences, 46(1), 34-44. PMID: 19728571
Schutters SI, Dominguez MD, Knappe S, Lieb R, van Os J, Schruers KR, & Wittchen HU. (2011) The association between social phobia, social anxiety cognitions and paranoid symptoms. Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica. PMID: 22077136
by Veronica Pamoukaghlian, MA in Brain Blogger
A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul. — Franz Kafka In this era of tablets, videogames and virtual reality, it may seem anachronistic for kids to be told that “reading is good for you.” Though there are many ways in which reading can be beneficial for the education [...]... Read more »
Muto T, Hayes SC, & Jeffcoat T. (2011) The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy bibliotherapy for enhancing the psychological health of Japanese college students living abroad. Behavior therapy, 42(2), 323-35. PMID: 21496516
Joling, K., van Hout, H., vanʼt Veer-Tazelaar, P., van der Horst, H., Cuijpers, P., van de Ven, P., & van Marwijk, H. (2011) How Effective Is Bibliotherapy for Very Old Adults With Subthreshold Depression? A Randomized Controlled Trial. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 19(3), 256-265. DOI: 10.1097/JGP.0b013e3181ec8859
by Jennifer Gibson, PharmD in Brain Blogger
Depression is a common mental health disorder that negatively affects daily functioning and quality of life. Unfortunately, depression is often a recurrent disorder. Current treatment guidelines are based on clinical features of the disease, but new evidence points to sociodemographic and psychosocial characteristics that influence the severity and prognosis of depression. Specifically, a study published [...]... Read more »
Colman I, Naicker K, Zeng Y, Ataullahjan A, Senthilselvan A, & Patten SB. (2011) Predictors of long-term prognosis of depression. CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal , 183(17), 1969-76. PMID: 22025655
Howland RH, Wilson MG, Kornstein SG, Clayton AH, Trivedi MH, Wohlreich MM, & Fava M. (2008) Factors predicting reduced antidepressant response: experience with the SNRI duloxetine in patients with major depression. Annals of clinical psychiatry : official journal of the American Academy of Clinical Psychiatrists, 20(4), 209-18. PMID: 19034753
Katon W, Unützer J, & Russo J. (2010) Major depression: the importance of clinical characteristics and treatment response to prognosis. Depression and anxiety, 27(1), 19-26. PMID: 19798766
by Jennifer Gibson, PharmD in Brain Blogger
Pregnancy is far from a stress-free time of life. But, most mothers try their best to provide a healthy, happy placental home for nine months, knowing that anything she does to or for herself, she does to her growing fetus. The placental environment is sensitive to many foods, drinks, medications, and even activities, and the [...]... Read more »
Blair MM, Glynn LM, Sandman CA, & Davis EP. (2011) Prenatal maternal anxiety and early childhood temperament. Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 14(6), 644-51. PMID: 21790468
Buitelaar JK, Huizink AC, Mulder EJ, de Medina PG, & Visser GH. (2003) Prenatal stress and cognitive development and temperament in infants. Neurobiology of aging. PMID: 12829109
Davis EP, Glynn LM, Schetter CD, Hobel C, Chicz-Demet A, & Sandman CA. (2007) Prenatal exposure to maternal depression and cortisol influences infant temperament. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 46(6), 737-46. PMID: 17513986
Davis EP, & Sandman CA. (2010) The timing of prenatal exposure to maternal cortisol and psychosocial stress is associated with human infant cognitive development. Child development, 81(1), 131-48. PMID: 20331658
de Weerth C, van Hees Y, & Buitelaar JK. (2003) Prenatal maternal cortisol levels and infant behavior during the first 5 months. Early human development, 74(2), 139-51. PMID: 14580753
Huizink AC, Robles de Medina PG, Mulder EJ, Visser GH, & Buitelaar JK. (2003) Stress during pregnancy is associated with developmental outcome in infancy. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 44(6), 810-8. PMID: 12959490
Sandman CA, Davis EP, Buss C, & Glynn LM. (2011) Exposure to Prenatal Psychobiological Stress Exerts Programming Influences on the Mother and Her Fetus. Neuroendocrinology. PMID: 21494029
Sandman CA, Davis EP, Buss C, & Glynn LM. (2011) Prenatal programming of human neurological function. International journal of peptides, 837596. PMID: 21760821
by Jennifer Gibson, PharmD in Brain Blogger
People want to feel good about themselves. From the time children are young, they are told to believe in themselves and be confident. As they grow, children are showered with sometimes-undue praise in an effort to boost their self-esteem and self-confidence. They, in turn, learn to give themselves positive feedback and tell themselves they have [...]... Read more »
Burson KA, Larrick RP, & Klayman J. (2006) Skilled or unskilled, but still unaware of it: how perceptions of difficulty drive miscalibration in relative comparisons. Journal of personality and social psychology, 90(1), 60-77. PMID: 16448310
Kim YH, & Chiu CY. (2011) Emotional costs of inaccurate self-assessments: both self-effacement and self-enhancement can lead to dejection. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 11(5), 1096-104. PMID: 21942697
Kruger J, & Dunning D. (1999) Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of personality and social psychology, 77(6), 1121-34. PMID: 10626367
Moore DA, & Healy PJ. (2008) The trouble with overconfidence. Psychological review, 115(2), 502-17. PMID: 18426301
Pronin E. (2008) How we see ourselves and how we see others. Science (New York, N.Y.), 320(5880), 1177-80. PMID: 18511681
Moore DA, & Small DA. (2007) Error and bias in comparative judgment: on being both better and worse than we think we are. Journal of personality and social psychology, 92(6), 972-89. PMID: 17547483
by Veronica Pamoukaghlian, MA in Brain Blogger
Immorality is inevitably tied to social constructions and our value system. Ultimately, it is defined by the idea of morality inherent to our social context. We seldom stop to think about what the intrinsic idea of immorality actually means in the mind. In a way, if our brain reacts to something that can be called [...]... Read more »
Cope, L., Borg, J., Harenski, C., Sinnott-Armstrong, W., Lieberman, D., Nyalakanti, P., Calhoun, V., & Kiehl, K. (2010) Hemispheric Asymmetries during Processing of Immoral Stimuli. Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience. DOI: 10.3389/fnevo.2010.00110
de Oliveira-Souza, R., Hare, R., Bramati, I., Garrido, G., Azevedo Ignácio, F., Tovar-Moll, F., & Moll, J. (2008) Psychopathy as a disorder of the moral brain: Fronto-temporo-limbic grey matter reductions demonstrated by voxel-based morphometry. NeuroImage, 40(3), 1202-1213. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.12.054
Eskine KJ, Kacinik NA, & Prinz JJ. (2011) A bad taste in the mouth: gustatory disgust influences moral judgment. Psychological science, 22(3), 295-9. PMID: 21307274
by Jennifer Gibson, PharmD in Brain Blogger
The lifetime prevalence of a major depressive disorder in the United States is nearly 20%. Unfortunately, many cases of depression are undiagnosed owing to nondisclosure of depression symptoms by patients. A new study evaluates the reasons for nondisclosure and emphasizes that we have a long way to go to erase the stigma associated with mental [...]... Read more »
Bell RA, Franks P, Duberstein PR, Epstein RM, Feldman MD, Garcia EF, & Kravitz RL. (2011) Suffering in silence: reasons for not disclosing depression in primary care. Annals of family medicine, 9(5), 439-46. PMID: 21911763
Garcia JA, & Crocker J. (2008) Reasons for disclosing depression matter: the consequences of having egosystem and ecosystem goals. Social science , 67(3), 453-62. PMID: 18450349
Quinn DM, & Chaudoir SR. (2009) Living with a concealable stigmatized identity: the impact of anticipated stigma, centrality, salience, and cultural stigma on psychological distress and health. Journal of personality and social psychology, 97(4), 634-51. PMID: 19785483
Moreno MA, Jelenchick LA, Egan KG, Cox E, Young H, Gannon KE, & Becker T. (2011) Feeling bad on Facebook: depression disclosures by college students on a social networking site. Depression and anxiety, 28(6), 447-55. PMID: 21400639
by Stephen Dougherty in Brain Blogger
Researchers from Japan explore the brain at rest and find that higher gray and white matter cerebral blood flow during rest is associated with intelligence and higher white matter cerebral blood flow is associated with creativity.... Read more »
Buckner RL, Andrews-Hanna JR, & Schacter DL. (2008) The brain's default network: anatomy, function, and relevance to disease. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1-38. PMID: 18400922
Raichle ME. (2009) A paradigm shift in functional brain imaging. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 29(41), 12729-34. PMID: 19828783
Takeuchi H, Taki Y, Hashizume H, Sassa Y, Nagase T, Nouchi R, & Kawashima R. (2011) Cerebral blood flow during rest associates with general intelligence and creativity. PloS one, 6(9). PMID: 21980485
by Jennifer Gibson, PharmD in Brain Blogger
Mental health and physical wellbeing are strongly interconnected. Specifically, depression is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, as well as an increased incidence of overweight, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. However, these links are mostly defined in older populations. For one of the first times, a new epidemiological study, published in the November issue [...]... Read more »
Ludescher B, Machann J, Eschweiler GW, Thamer C, Maenz C, Hipp A, Claussen CD, & Schick F. (2011) Active depression is associated with regional adiposity in the upper abdomen and the neck. International journal of psychiatry in medicine, 41(3), 271-80. PMID: 22073766
Rubin RR, Gaussoin SA, Peyrot M, DiLillo V, Miller K, Wadden TA, West DS, Wing RR, Knowler WC, & Look AHEAD Research Group. (2010) Cardiovascular disease risk factors, depression symptoms and antidepressant medicine use in the Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) clinical trial of weight loss in diabetes. Diabetologia, 53(8), 1581-9. PMID: 20422396
Rutledge T, Linke SE, Krantz DS, Johnson BD, Bittner V, Eastwood JA, Eteiba W, Pepine CJ, Vaccarino V, Francis J.... (2009) Comorbid depression and anxiety symptoms as predictors of cardiovascular events: results from the NHLBI-sponsored Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) study. Psychosomatic medicine, 71(9), 958-64. PMID: 19834049
Shah AJ, Veledar E, Hong Y, Bremner JD, & Vaccarino V. (2011) Depression and history of attempted suicide as risk factors for heart disease mortality in young individuals. Archives of general psychiatry, 68(11), 1135-42. PMID: 22065529
by Robert A. Yourell, MA in Brain Blogger
When one of my duties was handling complaints about clinicians in our managed care network, I got the most complaints about psychiatrists. Sorry, docs, but it wasn’t because they thought you were projecting thoughts into their toasters. The biggest piece of the pie was problems with appropriate communication. These tended to boil down to neglect [...]... Read more »
Tulsky JA, Arnold RM, Alexander SC, Olsen MK, Jeffreys AS, Rodriguez KL, Skinner CS, Farrell D, Abernethy AP, & Pollak KI. (2011) Enhancing communication between oncologists and patients with a computer-based training program: a randomized trial. Annals of internal medicine, 155(9), 593-601. PMID: 22041948
by Jennifer Gibson, PharmD in Brain Blogger
The causes of and risk factors for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are not fully understood. But, new data reports that the risk of recurrence among siblings with autism is substantially higher than previously believed. Until recently, the risk of recurrence of ASD was estimated to be between 3% and 10% for children with a sibling [...]... Read more »
Muhle R, Trentacoste SV, & Rapin I. (2004) The genetics of autism. Pediatrics, 113(5). PMID: 15121991
Ozonoff S, Young GS, Carter A, Messinger D, Yirmiya N, Zwaigenbaum L, Bryson S, Carver LJ, Constantino JN, Dobkins K.... (2011) Recurrence Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Baby Siblings Research Consortium Study. Pediatrics. PMID: 21844053
Tager-Flusberg H. (2010) The origins of social impairments in autism spectrum disorder: studies of infants at risk. Neural networks : the official journal of the International Neural Network Society, 23(8-9), 1072-6. PMID: 20800990
Yoder P, Stone WL, Walden T, & Malesa E. (2009) Predicting social impairment and ASD diagnosis in younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 39(10), 1381-91. PMID: 19449096
by Stephen Dougherty, MS in Brain Blogger
Remove your opinion about that which appears to give you pain and you stand painless. — Marcus Aurelius Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. — Dalai Lama The insight of Marcus Aurelius and the Dalai Lama about the nature of pain alludes to the practical knowledge that physical pain can be managed effectively through proper [...]... Read more »
Salomons TV, & Kucyi A. (2011) Does Meditation Reduce Pain through a Unique Neural Mechanism?. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 31(36), 12705-7. PMID: 21900549
Zeidan F, Martucci KT, Kraft RA, Gordon NS, McHaffie JG, & Coghill RC. (2011) Brain mechanisms supporting the modulation of pain by mindfulness meditation. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 31(14), 5540-8. PMID: 21471390
by Jennifer Gibson, PharmD in Brain Blogger
The smell of coffee can rouse you out of bed; the taste of coffee can warm your soul. And, the caffeine in coffee can lower the risk of depression. In fact, a new study reports that the more coffee one drinks, the lower the risk. The study, conducted by Harvard University nutritionists and epidemiologists, was [...]... Read more »
Benko CR, Farias AC, Farias LG, Pereira EF, Louzada FM, & Cordeiro ML. (2011) Potential link between caffeine consumption and pediatric depression: A case-control study. BMC pediatrics, 73. PMID: 21867528
Dawkins L, Shahzad FZ, Ahmed SS, & Edmonds CJ. (2011) Expectation of having consumed caffeine can improve performance and mood. Appetite, 57(3), 597-600. PMID: 21824504
Lara DR. (2010) Caffeine, mental health, and psychiatric disorders. Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD. PMID: 20164571
Lucas M, Mirzaei F, Pan A, Okereke OI, Willett WC, O'Reilly EJ, Koenen K, & Ascherio A. (2011) Coffee, caffeine, and risk of depression among women. Archives of internal medicine, 171(17), 1571-8. PMID: 21949167
Luebbe AM, & Bell DJ. (2009) Mountain Dew or mountain don't?: a pilot investigation of caffeine use parameters and relations to depression and anxiety symptoms in 5th- and 10th-grade students. The Journal of school health, 79(8), 380-7. PMID: 19630872
by Veronica Pamoukaghlian, MA in Brain Blogger
Although procrastination is conceived as a problem by the scientific community, there is not much consensus regarding the nature of this issue. Scholars have been arguing for decades whether procrastination is a rather uncontrollable phenomenon that happens merely on a whim or if it can be classified as arousal, avoidant, or decisional, for example. In [...]... Read more »
Rice, K., Neimeyer, G., & Taylor, J. (2011) Efficacy of Coherence Therapy in the Treatment of Procrastination and Perfectionism. Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation. DOI: 10.1177/2150137811417975
Steel, P. (2010) Arousal, avoidant and decisional procrastinators: Do they exist?. Personality and Individual Differences, 48(8), 926-934. DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2010.02.025
Harriott, Jesse, & Ferrari, Joseph R. (1996) Prevalence of procrastination among samples of adults. Psychological Reports, 78(2), 611-616. info:/
by Jennifer Gibson, PharmD in Brain Blogger
Pet ownership confers a sense of belonging and acceptance. Many studies have hypothesized that owning and caring for a pet has qualitative psychological and physical benefits, but recent studies are quantifying these advantages. Pet owners have long reported better overall well-being compared to peers without pets, including greater self-esteem, greater conscientiousness, less stress, less negativity, [...]... Read more »
Arhant-Sudhir K, Arhant-Sudhir R, & Sudhir K. (2011) Pet ownership and cardiovascular risk reduction: Supporting evidence, conflicting data, and underlying mechanisms. Clinical and experimental pharmacology . PMID: 21824172
Friedmann E, Thomas SA, & Son H. (2011) Pets, depression and long term survival in community living patients following myocardial infarction. Anthrozoos, 24(3), 273-285. PMID: 21857770
McConnell AR, Brown CM, Shoda TM, Stayton LE, & Martin CE. (2011) Friends with benefits: On the positive consequences of pet ownership. Journal of personality and social psychology. PMID: 21728449
Reeves MJ, Rafferty AP, Miller CE, & Lyon-Callo SK. (2011) The impact of dog walking on leisure-time physical activity: results from a population-based survey of Michigan adults. Journal of physical activity , 8(3), 436-44. PMID: 21487144
Sirard JR, Patnode CD, Hearst MO, & Laska MN. (2011) Dog ownership and adolescent physical activity. American journal of preventive medicine, 40(3), 334-7. PMID: 21335266
by Radhika Takru, MA in Brain Blogger
It was only last month that we learned how shared negative opinions and attitudes can result in the formation of speedy and genuine relationships between people. Now there’s research to show that a pessimistic outlook might be better for mental health overall. Before you take this as your cue to walk around with a frown [...]... Read more »
O'Mara EM, McNulty JK, & Karney BR. (2011) Positively biased appraisals in everyday life: when do they benefit mental health and when do they harm it?. Journal of personality and social psychology, 101(3), 415-32. PMID: 21500926
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