Psychologists and psychiatrists tend to hate each other. The reasons are historical: beginning even before Freud, psychologists held enormous power over the cultural imagination. The whole idea of psychiatry — an explicitly …
Mental Health
CommittedWomen's Health
The Complicated Link Between Abortion and Mental Health
After, say, arcane changes in the tax code, abortion is the least fun topic of public conversation in America today. The opposing sides of the reproductive-rights debate are like estranged in-laws after a few too many drinks at …
Diagnosing Postpartum Depression with a Brain Scan
Postpartum depression strikes about 15% of mothers in the first months after delivery, but it’s not clear yet which women are at risk. Now researchers at University of Pittsburgh report on a brain-imaging test that may identify …
How Parental Smoking Affects Kids
There’s plenty of data showing how harmful smoking can be, and that goes for both smokers and the people around them. Two studies published in Pediatrics point out how indirect the effects can be. A study of paternal smoking in Hong Kong finds that children whose fathers smoke are heavier at seven and 11 years old than their …
Internet Net Plus for Social Life, Doesn’t Increase Isolation
The internet and cell phones are bringing people together, not tearing us apart—at least, according to a new survey released today by the Pew Internet and American Life project. The research followed up a shocking 2006 study, which found that American social networks were rapidly contracting and that 25% of Americans reported that …
Playing too many video games may be bad for you too, grown ups
In the past, research into the negative health impact of spending too many hours each day glued to a TV set, video game console or computer screen has focused on “tweens” and adolescents, generally between the ages of 8-18. While this age group certainly earns their reputation as gamers—with 59–73% manning the controller on an
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Neurological clues to how alcoholics process emotion
Alcoholics’ brains may process emotion differently than those of people who don’t have a history of alcohol abuse, according to a study published in the November issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. There is ample research analyzing how alcoholics tend to process emotion distinctly and with a range of …