Szalavitz's latest book is Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential — and Endangered. It is co-written with Dr. Bruce Perry, a leading expert in the neuroscience of child trauma and recovery.
Differences in the way the media have covered Trayvon Martin and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s cannabis use are a troubling reminder of the racism that still largely prevents us from seeing drugs as a health issue
We’ve known the brain produces its own heroin-like substances since the 1970s. But what about Valium? Although researchers have searched for such anti-anxiety chemicals for decades, it’s only now that they may finally have found one.
Taking medication for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a child does not increase — or decrease — the risk for later addiction or alcoholism, according to a new review of the research.
Exposure to crack cocaine in the womb does not increase the risk of later criminal behavior or school dropout — although the drug may have some lasting effects on behavior and development, according to a new review of the research.
(UPDATED) Under stress, we all tend to seek comfort — sometimes in not-so-healthy ways — but a new study suggests that challenging experiences are as likely to promote good habits as they are to support bad ones.
In the past, women who lacked sexual desire were stigmatized as “frigid” — today, psychiatry’s diagnostic manual labels them with hypoactive-sexual-desire disorder. Big Pharma is betting that many such women will want to …
Taking your first drink in your early teens may put you at greater risk of developing alcohol problems later on, according to new research.
A new study suggests that intelligence is more about what the brain chooses to ignore than simply its ability to process information rapidly.
The largest study to date confirms that ketamine — a “club drug” that is also legally used as an anesthetic — could be a quick and effective way to relieve depression.
Toking up may help marijuana users to stay slim and lower their risk of developing diabetes, according to the latest study, which suggests that cannabis compounds may help in controlling blood sugar.
There are many roads to greatness, but logging 10,000 hours of practice to help you perfect a skill may not be sufficient.
Over the course of my life, I have been given no fewer than five different diagnoses for mental illnesses, under the diagnostic system laid out in psychiatry’s “bible,” the DSM. But it was a sixth diagnosis— one that …
Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, was one of the first autistic people to chronicle her life with the condition— and is now a bestselling author and well known for her innovative …
