Does your mind go blank every time the boss calls your name in a big meeting? Ever bombed a test you spent weeks studying for, or botched a simple play that cost your team the game? If so, University of Chicago psychologist Sian …
Mental Health
The Tau of Alzheimer’s Disease Prevention
Following a series of disappointments in Alzheimer’s drug research, scientists report they may have found a clue to predicting a more aggressive form of the disease.
Lindsay Lohan’s Relapse and Court-Mandated AA
Imagine that you had cancer and a judge mandated that you receive a treatment first introduced in the 1930s — one that had been described, by the world’s leading medical evidence–review group, as having “no experimental …
The Addiction Files: How Do We Define Recovery?
America’s most visible portraits of recovery from addiction are not pretty. There’s the spoiled, out-of-control celebrity entering rehab to get a career boost (see Lohan, Lindsay), or to atone for bad behavior (see Gibson, Mel), …
A New Study Shows How We Can Prevent Some Cases of PTSD
We barely know how to treat mental illnesses, so it’s difficult to figure out how to prevent them in the first place. But as I wrote at some length last year, research into stopping breakdowns before they occur has advanced …
Profiling Student Cheaters: Are They Psychopaths?
There are lots of reasons students cheat — lack of preparation, lack of academic aptitude, sheer laziness. Now a new study suggests another explanation: it’s coded in their personality.
How Do You Wreck the Mind of a Child? One Word: War
As yet another round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks crank up, here’s something that the intractable parties on both sides might consider: Neither country is going to have much of a future if they persist in driving their kids crazy.
Is Drug Use Really on the Rise?
Each year when the federal government releases new statistics on drug use, the bad news always gets reported first. That’s partly because bad news is always a better story than good news. It’s also partly because government …
Does Big Beer Fear Big Bud?
The California Beer and Beverage Distributors association, which describes itself on its website as “a nonprofit trade association representing over 100 beer distributors and brewer/vendor members,” has donated $10,000 to a group …
Parsing the Link Between Acne and Depression
Teenagers with severe acne are two to three times more likely to suffer from depression than their clear-skinned peers, according to a new study in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
Pharmageddon Deferred: New Measures to Stop Opioid Abuse
There’s a party going on and the entire country is invited. The problem is, it’s an opioid party—and too many Americans have been accepting the invitation.
A Severe Migraine Could Give You a New Accent
After Kay Russell had a severe migraine attack in January, friends noticed a difference in her right away. The Gloucestershire native began to speak with what sounded like a French accent instead of her native southwestern …
Study: An Earlier ‘Last Call’ May Reduce Assaults
It may seem like a drag when the bartender rings that bell and shouts, “Last call for alcohol!” But in addition to a legion of weary bartenders, everyone else may benefit from an earlier closing time, according to a new study in …