Brain Blogger

Supersize Your Status

Jennifer Gibson, PharmD — Sat, 26 May 2012 11:44:41 +0000

Americans tend to have a bigger-is-better attitude about nearly everything. (What stay-at-home mom needs a Humvee? And don’t even get me started on the McMansions taking over suburbia.) Anyone who has seen the documentary “Supersize Me” (or eaten in a restaurant in the last decade) knows that the bigger-is-better attitude is taking over the food industry and, arguably, causing the obesity epidemic that is plaguing this country. New research identifies the cause: people are buying giant servings of food because it makes them feel more powerful.

Currently, 32% of Americans are obese. By 2015, that percentage is expected to climb to 41%. One reason: portion size. Serving sizes in America have increased dramatically in the last 20 years: 52% for soft drinks, 27% for Mexican food, and 23% for hamburgers. We aren’t hungrier than we were a generation ago and it isn’t all due to bargain-hunting, though those factors could play a part. Researchers at Northwestern University recently reported in the Journal of Consumer Research that people choose larger portion sizes because it makes them feel important.

The authors conducted several experiments that evaluated selection of portion size of a variety of drinks and snacks. Under controlled lab experiments and field experiments that manipulated container size, hunger, and even beliefs about obesity, the authors concluded that consumers recognize a size-to-status relationship when making food choices. Almost invariably, the study participants viewed others as having a higher status when observing them choose the largest item in a set of choices, and people who felt less powerful were more likely to choose larger items than people who already felt powerful. Price was not a factor in participants’ decisions, but knowing that other people were watching their choice did enhance the need to choose a larger item.

Portion size offers cues, not only to status, but to satiety, food appeal, and food choice. Visual presentation of food alters palatability and desire for food, and these cues may be stronger among overweight individuals, thus perpetuating the obesity problem.

An interesting dichotomy exists, however, in our culture: we value size as an indicator of status, but we also value waif-like fashion models. Food disorders are rampant on both ends of the spectrum. The obesity epidemic, in particular, crosses all ethnic, income, and educational levels. And many factors contribute to the unhealthy eating habits of Americans. But, marketers know that we love a value meal. And, if supersizing makes us feel better about ourselves, it’s a win-win for the food industry. Still a lose-lose for consumers, though.

References

Burger KS, Cornier MA, Ingebrigtsen J, & Johnson SL (2011). Assessing food appeal and desire to eat: the effects of portion size & energy density. The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 8 PMID: 21943082

Dubois, D., Rucker, D., & Galinsky, A. (2012). Super Size Me: Product Size as a Signal of Status Journal of Consumer Research, 38 (6), 1047-1062 DOI: 10.1086/661890

van Kleef E, Shimizu M, & Wansink B (2012). Serving bowl selection biases the amount of food served. Journal of nutrition education and behavior, 44 (1), 66-70 PMID: 21982579

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Thinking Fast Equals Risky Business

Jennifer Gibson, PharmD — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:47:56 +0000

Connections between the speed of thought and feelings of euphoria have been reported in cases of clinical mania. New research now links racing thoughts with risk-taking among the general population.

The speed of modern life has increased dramatically in recent decades, and faster is almost always better. But, is that true when it comes to your own thoughts? In two experiments, reported in Psychological Science, scientists manipulated participants’ thought speeds and assessed their appetites for risk. In the first experiment, three dozen students read aloud at different speeds — twice their normal speed or half their normal speed. Then, each student played a computer-simulated game that required them to blow air into a balloon without popping it. Students were rewarded with five cents each time he or she pumped air into the balloon, but lost money each time the balloon popped. The students who had read quickly were more willing to take risks with the balloon (and the money), attempting and achieving more pumps, but also popping more balloons than the students who had read slowly.

In a second experiment, 52 students watched fast-, medium-, or slow-paced movie clips that contained similar content. The students who watched the fast-paced clips reported a greater intention to engage in real-world risky behaviors, including unprotected sex and illegal drug use. Those students were also more likely to minimize the danger associated with each risky behavior.

Previous studies have shown a link between life in the fast-thinking lane and mood. Experimentally accelerated thought is achieved through instructions to brainstorm freely, exposure to multiple ideas, encouragement to plagiarize others’ ideas, performance of easy cognitive tasks, narration of a silent video in fast-forward, and controlled reading speed. Regardless of the types of thoughts that were induced (money-making schemes, word choice, or feelings of depression or elation), individuals demonstrated an increased positive affect after thinking quickly. Increased speed of thought also amplified feelings of power, creativity, and energy, and inflated self-esteem.

Researchers attribute these findings to the subjective experience of thought speed and the joy-enhancing effects of fast thinking. Likewise, thinking slowly is, apparently, a killjoy.

The need for speed is undeniable today’s fast and furious world. But, at what cost? Are we riskier because we are always thinking faster? Or are we happier? Will letting the brain stop and smell the roses decrease our desire to take risks, or will we just become depressed? Human thought is the product of an integrated, sophisticated network that involves neurons, sensory input, and the brain. Speed is fundamental to the thought process, but it is not the only determinant of effectiveness. Efficiency, timing, and appropriateness must be balanced with speed to keep us safe and running smoothly in whatever lane of life’s highway we choose.

References

Chandler JJ, & Pronin E (2012). Fast thought speed induces risk taking. Psychological science, 23 (4), 370-4 PMID: 22395129

Pronin E, Jacobs E, & Wegner DM (2008). Psychological effects of thought acceleration. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 8 (5), 597-612 PMID: 18837610

Pronin E, & Wegner DM (2006). Manic thinking: independent effects of thought speed and thought content on mood. Psychological science, 17 (9), 807-13 PMID: 16984299

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A Gateway to Weight Loss?

Robert A. Yourell, MA — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:44:20 +0000

Judging from those hoaky commercials, some products will transform you from a jellyfish into a superhero in a jiffy. But what about the mantra we’re hearing that aggressive weight loss is hopeless, because it results in rebound weight gain? Our brain’s reward centers, our hormones, and our psyches simply can’t resist the evolutionary forces unleashed by artificial famine conditions, they say.

Some research is telling us that people can lose weight fast and that this speedy start bodes well for sustained improvement: More weight loss, and no more rebound than slower dieters that lose less weight. This has been a recurring outcome, even recently. Posts online make the claim more boldly than the researchers. A look past the headlines tells us a more nuanced story.

In a study by Nackers and colleagues, three groups were identified: fast, medium, and slow. The fast group lost more weigh up front, and kept it off just as successfully as the other groups. But this does not mean that an aggressive calory restriction diet is the answer. Here are some points to consider.

The fast group did not consume a drastically lower number of calories than the slow one (1,366.4 vs 1,486.8).

The fast group did not lose a drastic amount of weight, compared to the slow group (13.5 vs. 5.1 kg). Yes, it’s more than double, but it’s over six months.

We should ask what distinguished the slow group from the rest. The slow group attended less meetings, exercised less, and ate more calories. Were they more stressed? Was there a higher rate of depression? Where there other conditions that made them less active? Something was going on. Since the slow group was not as successful at maintaining weight loss, it’s a good guess that the conditions continued throughout the study period. The fast group was 5.1 times more likely to have maintained at least a 10% weight loss at 18 months than the slow group.

There are countless factors that might interfere. One is ADD. There is speculation that people with ADD have higher rates of obesity because their reward system is especially in need of a dopamine fix, and because of less consistent self-discipline. Medication appears to remedy this for many folks.

If there’s a take away, it seems that it would be for us to ask ourselves what might keep us from fully participating in a weight loss program. Those factors are probably the gateway to significant, sustained weight loss.

References

Odent, M. (2010). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obesity: Two facets of the same disease? Medical Hypotheses, 74 (1), 139-141 DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2009.07.020

Nackers, L., Ross, K., & Perri, M. (2010). The Association Between Rate of Initial Weight Loss and Long-Term Success in Obesity Treatment: Does Slow and Steady Win the Race? International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 17 (3), 161-167 DOI: 10.1007/s12529-010-9092-y

Neiberg, R., Wing, R., Bray, G., Reboussin, D., Rickman, A., Johnson, K., Kitabchi, A., Faulconbridge, L., Kitzman, D., & Espeland, M. (2012). Patterns of Weight Change Associated With Long-Term Weight Change and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in the Look AHEAD Study Obesity DOI: 10.1038/oby.2012.33

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Intelligence – Do You Need it to be Successful?

Veronica Pamoukaghlian, MA — Sun, 13 May 2012 12:00:46 +0000

As early as 1976, the Carnegie Institute of Technology presented a study that attributed 85% of financial success to human engineering skills, namely, self-management and relationship-management, rather than intrinsic or hereditary qualities such as IQ and analytical abilities. Over the last decade, popular culture has embraced the notion of emotional intelligence as a set of skills central to achieving happiness and attaining personal goals. However, popular belief seldom associates emotional intelligence with success in business; it is most often assumed to be connected to success in interpersonal relationships and thought to be more relevant to succeeding in the home than at the office.

According to Sternberg, the conventional notions of intelligence tend to favor people who are strong in memory and analytical abilities, while they disfavor those who aren´t. Sternberg concludes that,

The result is that individuals who may have the talents to succeed in life may be labeled as unintelligent, whereas some of those labeled as intelligent may be less endowed with such talents.

For the purposes of his own research, Sternberg has defined intelligence as the ability to adapt to the environment and to learn from experience and successful intelligence as,

the ability to achieve one’s goals in life, given one’s sociocultural context;
by capitalizing on strengths and correcting or compensating for weaknesses;
in order to adapt to, shape, and select environments; and,
through a combination of analytical, creative, and practical abilities.

In this context, the assessment of intelligence should rely on whether an individual´s chosen goals are coherent with the methods selected to achieve them and the skills demonstrated in that process.

Naturally, a person who desires to become a successful banker will not need the same set of skills as someone wishing to become the world´s most famous violinist. However, Sternberg´s vision of intelligence would encompass both of these goals. In other words, it would take an intelligent person, in the Sternbergian sense, to achieve either of these goals, which do not necessarily require the individuals to excel at analytical skills or possess a superior memory, as the traditional notion of intelligence would have it.

The Gift of Basic Abilities

A 2011 article by Hambrick and Meinz presents evidence from the field of music training that basic abilities — the kind people are endowed with from birth — can predict success in a wide range of extremely complex tasks. In a study designed to assess whether deliberate practice might overcome the decisive effect of working-memory capacity in sight-reading for pianists (i.e., the ability to play a piece without any prior preparation), their findings indicated that working-memory capacity was “a positive predictor of performance above and beyond deliberate practice” and that there was no substantial evidence that more deliberate practice could reduce the effect that working-memory capacity had on performance.

In other words, according to Hambrick and Meinz, practice can’t make perfect, without a little help from mother nature.

Intution vs. Cognition

Best known for being the founding father of modern behavioral economics, Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman believes that humans resort to two different modes of reasoning, which he has labelled as intuitive (System 1) and deliberative (System 2). Kahneman’s research has lead him to conclude that individuals most often allow their fast intuitions, or the first ideas and solutions that come to mind, to supersede deliberation. Even in situations that seem to call for deliberate thinking and careful assessment, we seem to be letting everything that is heuristic and affective rule over our more rational side.

Presenting a very simple mathematical problem to the likes fo Princeton University students, Kahneman found an astoundingly elevated rate of errors, where even the slightest deliberation would have shed light on the right solution, even among people with only basic education and mathematical skills. According to Kahneman, this goes to show just how little we monitor the results of careless and effortless associative thinking, and how often we appear “content to trust a plausible judgment that quickly comes to mind.

In the light of Kahneman´s proposed theoretical framework and empirical findings, and drawing from Sternberg’s concept of intelligence, it would seem that the ability to set goals, find coherent ways to achieve them, and monitor intutitive reasoning enough along the way, can lay the true foundations of personal success. Naturally, as Hambrick and Meinz have shown, a little help from mother nature might not hurt at all.

References

Neale, S., Spencer-Arnell, L., Wilson, L. (2009). Emotional intelligence coaching: Improving performance for leaders, coaches and the individual. London: Kogan Page.

Sternberg, R., & Grigorenko, E. (2002). The theory of successful intelligence as a basis for instruction and assessment in higher education New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2002 (89), 45-53 DOI: 10.1002/tl.46

Kahneman, D. (2011) Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Hambrick, D., & Meinz, E. (2011). Limits on the Predictive Power of Domain-Specific Experience and Knowledge in Skilled Performance Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20 (5), 275-279 DOI: 10.1177/0963721411422061

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A Trip for Terminal Patients

Jennifer Gibson, PharmD — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:00:31 +0000

For patients diagnosed with a terminal illness, the end of their physical days can be wrought with anxiety, depression, and fear. Now, these patients may have more options for relieving this emotional stress, and it falls somewhere in between Nancy Reagan (“Just Say No!”) and Timothy Leary (“the most dangerous man in America” per Richard Nixon).

Sixty years ago, research into the effects of psychedelic drugs was accepted — and, dare I say, frequent — among certain institutions and researchers. But, with the rise in the recreational use of drugs and the growth of the anti-drug campaigns, all that was brought to an end by the 1970s. Now, a generation later, scientists are slowly re-opening those doors to find new ways to treat terminally ill patients, who often have paralyzing, debilitating fears about their own mortality.

A study in the Archives of General Psychiatry reported, in 2011, that psilocybin — the active component of magic mushrooms — was safe and effective at reducing anxiety and depression about death when given to terminally ill cancer patients. The psilocybin lead to decreased anxiety and depression for months after the treatment, though it is not clear how the effects lasted so long.

The research is all part of a larger effort to study the effects of psychedelic drugs under rigorous controlled, scientific processes. MDMA (also known as Ecstasy) has been shown to be effective for severe post traumatic stress disorder and LSD can reduce symptoms of chronic cluster headaches. Psychedelic drugs have also been evaluated in treating addictions, including alcoholism.

Scientists have not identified the precise mechanism of action of psychedelics in anxiety and depression yet, but the effects are probably related to an “unrestrained consciousness” that allows patients to be introspective and a disassociation of sensation and perception. Also, the drugs may deactivate the parts of the brain that are overactive in anxiety and depression, according to functional MRI studies. Further, since the treatments are all administered in a controlled, safe environment, and patients know the expectations and desired outcomes ahead of time, the patients are able to balance experiencing emotions that they would otherwise be unable to face.

Anecdotally, the small numbers of patients who have taken these psychedelic trips report positive outcomes. But, a handful of patients does not make a sufficient scientific sample, especially when it comes to illegal and illicit drugs. While most people — healthcare providers and the lay public – would argue that more can be done to ease end-of-life suffering, both physical and emotional, many would stop short of advocating psychedelic drugs. Arguably, the risk of causing long-term health effects or producing a new drug addict is negligible under these circumstances. And, under these circumstances, there is no risk of contaminated street drugs or pushy drug dealers that terminally ill patients have to contend with. But, that does not mean the drugs should appear in our mainstream armamentarium of anti-anxiety and antidepressant drugs.

Currently, psychedelic and hallucination-inspiring drugs are classified as Schedule I controlled substances by the FDA, meaning that they have no medicinal use and cannot be prescribed or dispensed in the United States. If this were to change, it could open the door to the misuse and abuse of very dangerous drugs. More research into how and why these drugs produce their effects could help scientists develop similar, safer compounds to treat patients with serious conditions refractory to other therapies, but we’re a long way from the Brave New World that Aldous Huxley wanted in which psychedelic experiences are part of our mainstream culture.

References

Bouso JC, Doblin R, Farré M, Alcázar MA, & Gómez-Jarabo G (2008). MDMA-assisted psychotherapy using low doses in a small sample of women with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of psychoactive drugs, 40 (3), 225-36 PMID: 19004414

Carhart-Harris RL, Erritzoe D, Williams T, Stone JM, Reed LJ, Colasanti A, Tyacke RJ, Leech R, Malizia AL, Murphy K, Hobden P, Evans J, Feilding A, Wise RG, & Nutt DJ (2012). Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109 (6), 2138-43 PMID: 22308440

Grob CS, Danforth AL, Chopra GS, Hagerty M, McKay CR, Halberstadt AL, & Greer GR (2011). Pilot study of psilocybin treatment for anxiety in patients with advanced-stage cancer. Archives of general psychiatry, 68 (1), 71-8 PMID: 20819978

Johansen PØ, & Krebs TS (2009). How could MDMA (ecstasy) help anxiety disorders? A neurobiological rationale. Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 23 (4), 389-91 PMID: 19273493

Mithoefer MC, Wagner MT, Mithoefer AT, Jerome L, & Doblin R (2011). The safety and efficacy of {+/-}3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with chronic, treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorder: the first randomized controlled pilot study. Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 25 (4), 439-52 PMID: 20643699

Slater L. How psychedelic drugs can help patients face death. NY Times. April 20, 2012.

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Memory Ain’t What It Used to Be – And That’s Good for Psychotherapy

Robert A. Yourell, MA — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:59:58 +0000

New insights into memory are helping to explain treatments for serious problems, and guide us to making them better. Many psychotherapies use the one-two punch of targeting (focusing on a memory or other source of anxiety, flash backs, or related symptoms) and state change (the best-known being relaxation, as in systematic desensitization, and bilateral stimulation in EMDR). Now, researchers are exploring other ways to accomplish this, and they are being guided by new insights into how memory works.

The theory in play is that memories are more vulnerable to change when they are brought to mind, and they can be connected with different feelings most readily at that time. There is a window of time, perhaps 10 hours, for this, but in psychotherapy, the work is done at the same time. Thus, if a veteran’s flashbacks are depriving them of sleep, the understanding is that those flashbacks are encoded with intense emotion that can be changed. The memories can go from stormy and tormentous to significant and meaningful. For trauma therapists, this is a very familiar process, and they are very intuitive about doing this work.

There hasn’t been a popular word for this experience, so I coined the term “shimmering” for it. I teach people a version of this targeting/state change under that generic term. The professional terms related to this include desensitization and reprocessing, and memory reconsolidation.

It’s becoming more obvious why there are so many variations of this process, and why they can be found in numerous approaches to therapy, and countless processes and rituals found in cults, personal growth programs, and religions. The difference is that, instead of intuitively stumbling into it, we can continue to improve upon this through research and application. Joseph Wolpe, MD, really got the ball rolling in 1955, and now, 57 years later, this is headed for a new level.

Essentially, we’re talking about altering memories while they are volatile so they can be reconsolidated in long-term memory without disturbing emotions or destructive unconscious beliefs attached. There is reason to believe that matching the stimulus with the main sense modality that is disturbing will be an improvement on existing protocols. So, if the person has intrusive visual memories, using a visual stimulus while the person recalls the memory would be more effective than a sound.

I think it’s sad that, with such a great need for continued improvement in PTSD treatment, there are studies with veterans being published that still use longer, more arduous treatments such as prolonged exposure (where there is no sophistication regarding using state change such as relaxation in order to make the treatment less traumatic and prolonged — they even use the word prolonged in the name of the therapy. How’s that for being stuck in a paradigm?)

Now, researchers are even exploring Tetris as a stimulus.

Reference

Holmes EA, James EL, Kilford EJ, & Deeprose C (2010). Key steps in developing a cognitive vaccine against traumatic flashbacks: visuospatial Tetris versus verbal Pub Quiz. PloS one, 5 (11) PMID: 21085661

Below are the citations form that article that appear to be the most interesting, if you would like to learn more about this subject:

Andrade J, Kavanagh D, & Baddeley A (1997). Eye-movements and visual imagery: a working memory approach to the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. The British journal of clinical psychology / the British Psychological Society, 36 ( Pt 2), 209-23 PMID: 9167862

Kavanagh, D., Freese, S., Andrade, J., & May, J. (2001). Effects of visuospatial tasks on desensitization to emotive memories British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 40 (3), 267-280 DOI: 10.1348/014466501163689

van den Hout M, Muris P, Salemink E, & Kindt M (2001). Autobiographical memories become less vivid and emotional after eye movements. The British journal of clinical psychology / the British Psychological Society, 40 (Pt 2), 121-30 PMID: 11446234

Walker MP, Brakefield T, Hobson JA, & Stickgold R (2003). Dissociable stages of human memory consolidation and reconsolidation. Nature, 425 (6958), 616-20 PMID: 14534587

Bourne C, Frasquilho F, Roth AD, & Holmes EA (2010). Is it mere distraction? Peri-traumatic verbal tasks can increase analogue flashbacks but reduce voluntary memory performance. Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 41 (3), 316-24 PMID: 20359691

Vallar, G., & Baddeley, A. (1982). Short-term forgetting and the articulatory loop The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A, 34 (1), 53-60 DOI: 10.1080/14640748208400857

Gunter RW, & Bodner GE (2008). How eye movements affect unpleasant memories: support for a working-memory account. Behaviour research and therapy, 46 (8), 913-31 PMID: 18565493

Kemps E, & Tiggemann M (2007). Reducing the vividness and emotional impact of distressing autobiographical memories: the importance of modality-specific interference. Memory (Hove, England), 15 (4), 412-22 PMID: 17469020

Kemps, E., Tiggemann, M., Woods, D., & Soekov, B. (2004). Reduction of food cravings through concurrent visuospatial processing International Journal of Eating Disorders, 36 (1), 31-40 DOI: 10.1002/eat.20005

Engelhard IM, van den Hout MA, Janssen WC, & van der Beek J (2010). Eye movements reduce vividness and emotionality of “flashforwards”. Behaviour research and therapy, 48 (5), 442-7 PMID: 20129601

Krans J, Naring G, & Becker ES (2009). Count out your intrusions: effects of verbal encoding on intrusive memories. Memory (Hove, England), 17 (8), 809-15 PMID: 19657961

May, J., Andrade, J., Panabokke, N., & Kavanagh, D. (2010). Visuospatial tasks suppress craving for cigarettes Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48 (6), 476-485 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2010.02.001

Hagenaars MA, Brewin CR, van Minnen A, Holmes EA, & Hoogduin KA (2010). Intrusive images and intrusive thoughts as different phenomena: two experimental studies. Memory (Hove, England), 18 (1), 76-84 PMID: 20391178

Pearson, D., & Sawyer, T. (2011). Effects of Dual Task Interference on Memory Intrusions for Affective Images International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 4 (2), 122-133 DOI: 10.1521/ijct.2011.4.2.122

Kindt M, Soeter M, & Vervliet B (2009). Beyond extinction: erasing human fear responses and preventing the return of fear. Nature neuroscience, 12 (3), 256-8 PMID: 19219038

Schiller D, Monfils MH, Raio CM, Johnson DC, Ledoux JE, & Phelps EA (2010). Preventing the return of fear in humans using reconsolidation update mechanisms. Nature, 463 (7277), 49-53 PMID: 20010606

Pitman RK, Sanders KM, Zusman RM, Healy AR, Cheema F, Lasko NB, Cahill L, & Orr SP (2002). Pilot study of secondary prevention of posttraumatic stress disorder with propranolol. Biological psychiatry, 51 (2), 189-92 PMID: 11822998

Liao, S., & Sandberg, A. (2008). The Normativity of Memory Modification Neuroethics, 1 (2), 85-99 DOI: 10.1007/s12152-008-9009-5

Henry M, Fishman JR, & Youngner SJ (2007). Response to open commentaries for “Propranolol and the prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder: is it wrong to erase the ‘sting’ of bad memories?”. The American journal of bioethics : AJOB, 7 (9) PMID: 17849329

Depue, B., Curran, T., & Banich, M. (2007). Prefrontal Regions Orchestrate Suppression of Emotional Memories via a Two-Phase Process Science, 317 (5835), 215-219 DOI: 10.1126/science.1139560

Anderson MC, & Green C (2001). Suppressing unwanted memories by executive control. Nature, 410 (6826), 366-9 PMID: 11268212

Anderson MC, Ochsner KN, Kuhl B, Cooper J, Robertson E, Gabrieli SW, Glover GH, & Gabrieli JD (2004). Neural systems underlying the suppression of unwanted memories. Science (New York, N.Y.), 303 (5655), 232-5 PMID: 14716015

Anderson, M., & Levy, B. (2009). Suppressing Unwanted Memories Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18 (4), 189-194 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01634.x

Holmes, E., Moulds, M., Kavanagh;, D., Depue, B., Curran, T., & Banich, M. (2007). Memory Suppression in PTSD Treatment? Science, 318 (5857), 1722-1722 DOI: 10.1126/science.318.5857.1722a

Bolger, N., Davis, A., & Rafaeli, E. (2003). Diary Methods: Capturing Life as it is Lived Annual Review of Psychology, 54 (1), 579-616 DOI: 10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145030

Dalgleish, T. (2004). Cognitive Approaches to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The Evolution of Multirepresentational Theorizing. Psychological Bulletin, 130 (2), 228-260 DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.130.2.228

Dewar, M., Cowan, N., & Sala, S. (2007). Forgetting Due to Retroactive Interference: A Fusion of Müller and Pilzecker’s (1900) Early Insights into Everyday Forgetting and Recent Research on Anterograde Amnesia Cortex, 43 (5), 616-634 DOI: 10.1016/S0010-9452(08)70492-1

Wixted, J. (2005). A Theory About Why We Forget What We Once Knew Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14 (1), 6-9 DOI: 10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00324.x

Foa EB (1995) The posttraumatic diagnostic scale (PDS) manual. Minneapolis, MN: National Computer Systems.

Lee, J. (2009). Reconsolidation: maintaining memory relevance Trends in Neurosciences, 32 (8), 413-420 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2009.05.002

Riccio, D., Millin, P., & Bogart, A. (2006). Reconsolidation: A brief history, a retrieval view, and some recent issues Learning & Memory, 13 (5), 536-544 DOI: 10.1101/lm.290706

Stuart, A., Holmes, E., & Brewin, C. (2006). The influence of a visuospatial grounding task on intrusive images of a traumatic film Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44 (4), 611-619 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2005.04.004

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The Science of Stuttering

Jake Cunningham, BA — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:00:38 +0000

A holistic examination of the condition of stuttering, particularly in young children, lends itself naturally to the science of psychology rather than biology. Stuttering is increasingly becoming recognised not as an isolated condition specific to those with an unfortunate genetic heritage but a deep psychological response to an increasingly alienated world. Stuttering affects 68 million people worldwide, with children between 3 and 8 years of age accounting for over 80% of these people. A child is incredibly sensitive and receptive to social stimulus, particularly from birth and during infancy. It is during this time as the child is adjusting to modern human life that it will often encounter an environment in which it is overwhelmed or variously adjusting to inconsistencies or abnormalities to what it expects. It is this avalanche of learning and stimulus and adjusting that is occurring that can lead to a certain level of internally generated subconscious insecurity and anxiety. This self-doubt that develops can manifest in many physical forms, with the main verbal expression being to stutter when attempting to begin speaking.

Stuttering is essentially a verbal expression of a child’s insecure and uncertain reaction to an overwhelming world. Science has spent years and years and endless reports and research on the complex mechanism of brain function and/or the physiology of jaw and facial muscles but it is more biopsychosocial approach that provides the most insight. Despite the obvious logic that there are psychological elements that contribute to stuttering in children it doesn’t stop a wave of scientific studies somehow concluding that “there is no reason to believe that emotional trauma causes stuttering.” These studies seem to focus too much on the physiological symptoms of stuttering and how to address them rather than going to the root cause of the problem which is why do the children contort and retard their normal speech in the first place. It’s no good focusing on the external effects without looking at what’s causing them (i.e. the internal/psychological state of the child).

Once a child starts to stutter, it is a compounding situation as the child begins to feel the anxiety due to failure of speech and deepening sense of frustration and depression may develop as a result. However, over time as the child matures, the stutter inevitably disappears with recent scientific studies showing that between 75% and 80% of all children who begin stuttering will stop within 12 to 24 months without speech therapy.

The latest blockbuster film about King George VI, The King’s Speech, is a modern popular example of someone struggling with a stutter. As portrayed in the film it is a psychological derived problem that King George suffered from, not a physical condition. Interestingly for a film with no action, violence or nudity it has proven to be a huge success, particularly with young audiences.

I was a stutterer during my early years, I would struggle particularly with the letter “g” and “r” and had to slow down and remind myself to breath when saying these words, particularly if I was speaking to or in front of more than one person. Even today, in my adult years, if I am flustered and tired I will stumble on certain words and letters. In my experience it was a comforting hand from an adult or some natural urging from a friend that would be the most beneficial, basically any action from the world that implied that everything was any acceptable person and I wasn’t a freak. Interestingly, I never stuttered when talking to myself or to any of the three dogs we had as pets.

Thankfully, scientific inquiry is beginning to take a more holistic view towards stuttering. Recent work by Nickok and colleagues suggests that it is quite common for brain function of schizophrenics to show similar characteristics to those of stutterers. “One would not have expected a connection between disorders as apparently varied as conduction aphasia, stuttering, and schizophrenia, yet they all seem to involve, in part, dysfunction of the same region and functional circuit.” They also postulate that the two main arms of mechanistic inquiry into stuttering, namely motor sensory perception and auditory feedback control, can be integrated to help form a more balanced and insightful direction of inquiry. I would suggest that these recent studies are not holistic enough and that there is an enormous psychological aspect that is being totally ignored. It’s all very well to discover the micro-biomechanics of what happens when people stutter but will this actually stop people stuttering? I suppose time will tell.

Having a stutter does not make one a “basket case” nor does not having a stutter make one a stable, confident individual — it is just certain childrens’ overwhelmed responses to their particular environment. Science can only take us so far in understanding why children stutter and what to do about it — however, psychological science (i.e. getting an idea of the psychological and emotional state of young stutterers) will provide the most insightful analysis. The bottom line is that stuttering does not indicate an inadequacy on behalf of the child but is merely an outward expression of some internal psychological adjustment as the child grows up in today’s fast-paced modern world.

References

Griffith J 2011, What is Science? The Book of Real Answers to Everything [online], pp. 13-33.

Ludlow, C. (2000). Stuttering: dysfunction in a complex and dynamic system Brain, 123 (10), 1983-1984 DOI: 10.1093/brain/123.10.1983

Miller, S. and Watson, B. (1992): The relationship between communication attitude, anxiety and depression in stutters and non-stutters. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 35, 789-798

Hickok, G., Houde, J., & Rong, F. (2011). Sensorimotor Integration in Speech Processing: Computational Basis and Neural Organization Neuron, 69 (3), 407-422 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.01.019

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Are Your Friends Making You Fat?

Jennifer Gibson, PharmD — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:00:06 +0000

Many factors contribute to the epidemic of overweight and obesity, but new research suggests that other people’s eating habits could be influencing your food intake more than you realize.

The study, published online by PLoS One, examined the eating habits of 70 pairs of female strangers sharing dinner in a lab setting made to look like a restaurant. The authors observed the meal and assigned codes to each bite taken, noting whether it was within 5 seconds of the other woman’s bite. (“Mimicked bites” were those that were taken within 5 seconds of each other, and “nonmimicked bites” were those taken outside of the 5-second window.) Overall, both women mimicked each other, meaning they were more likely to take a bite along with their eating companion, rather than eat at their own pace. However, the mimicry was more prominent at the beginning of the meal than at the end. The authors hypothesize that the women were trying to be agreeable and make a good first impression, and eating at the same pace puts people at ease.

The authors claim that this type of behavioral mimicry accounts for social modeling associated with food intake. Taken one step further, they hypothesize that surrounding yourself with people who eat a lot will lead you to eat more, and surrounding yourself with people who limit food intake will influence you to eat less. But, the experiment involved only a small sample of a limited demographic. And, it was conducted in a lab setting and involved pairs of strangers. It is impossible to say if these findings translate at all to the real world. Do friends and family have the same influence on eating? Maybe the women were just hungry, so they kept eating. Or, maybe, since they were strangers, they didn’t have anything to talk about at the beginning of the meal.

Social settings and cultural beliefs certainly influence food intake and overall dietary habits, and overweight and obesity does appear to occur within families and social networks. Unhealthy eating habits and low levels of physical activity are influence by friends, as early as childhood, and it makes sense to surround yourself with people who have the same lifestyle habits and interests as you. But, plenty more factors influence our decisions about eating than just the people we eat with.

Is it better to under-eat and be disagreeable or over-eat and make a good first impression? Decide for yourself how much you want to eat and eat that much. If your eating companion doesn’t find you agreeable, so be it.

References

Hermans RC, Larsen JK, Herman CP, & Engels RC (2012). How much should I eat? Situational norms affect young women’s food intake during meal time. The British journal of nutrition, 107 (4), 588-94 PMID: 21733296

Hermans RC, Lichtwarck-Aschoff A, Bevelander KE, Herman CP, Larsen JK, & Engels RC (2012). Mimicry of food intake: the dynamic interplay between eating companions. PloS one, 7 (2) PMID: 22312438

Salvy SJ, de la Haye K, Bowker JC, & Hermans RC (2012). Influence of peers and friends on children’s and adolescents’ eating and activity behaviors. Physiology & behavior PMID: 22480733

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Beer – The Smarter Drink

Jennifer Gibson, PharmD — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:00:30 +0000

According to a misquoted Ben Franklin, beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. New research proves He wants us to be smarter, too.

A new study, published in Consciousness and Cognition, claims that moderate alcohol consumption improves problem-solving abilities. The authors of the study evaluated the problem solving skills of 40 men: 20 who has been given enough beer to reach a blood alcohol level of 0.075 and 20 who had received no alcohol prior to the test. The problem-solving skills were tested using the Remote Associates Test, in which participants are provided 3 words and asked to think of a fourth that fits the pattern. (“Memory” goes with “elephant-lapse-vivid”; “Book” goes with “shelf-end-read.”)

Surprisingly, the men who drank beer first solved 40% more problems than their sober counterparts. They also finished the tests faster (12 seconds vs. 15.5 seconds).

At the blood alcohol levels reached in this study, working memory is impaired, as is reaction time, judgment, balance, speech, and vision. However, creativity and innovation may be improved. The authors claim that “thinking outside the box” might occur more easily when people are slightly distracted and not focused, like when they’ve had a few drinks. Sometimes, the most creative juices flow when people stop over-thinking and they are relaxed and unfocused.

This study does not claim that people with problems to solve should head to the pub; heavy alcohol consumption does impose serious long-term social, physical, and psychological consequences. But, moderate alcohol consumption might actually have some benefits. Several studies have recently evaluated the protective effects of alcohol on cognition, especially in the elderly. Though the mechanisms are unclear, low to moderate alcohol consumption over the course of one’s life appears to protect against cognitive decline and dementia and provide cardiovascular benefits. (Listen up, teetotalers!)

Research has yet to conclude that imbibing an alcoholic beverage makes you funnier, better looking, and a superior dancer. (Your friends will have to be the judge.)

References

Bartley PC, & Rezvani AH (2012). Alcohol and Cognition – Consideration of Age of Initiation, Usage Patterns and Gender: A Brief Review. Current drug abuse reviews PMID: 22455507

Jarosz AF, Colflesh GJ, & Wiley J (2012). Uncorking the muse: alcohol intoxication facilitates creative problem solving. Consciousness and cognition, 21 (1), 487-93 PMID: 22285424

Kim JW, Lee DY, Lee BC, Jung MH, Kim H, Choi YS, & Choi IG (2012). Alcohol and cognition in the elderly: a review. Psychiatry investigation, 9 (1), 8-16 PMID: 22396679

Panza F, Frisardi V, Seripa D, Logroscino G, Santamato A, Imbimbo BP, Scafato E, Pilotto A, & Solfrizzi V (2012). Alcohol consumption in mild cognitive impairment and dementia: harmful or neuroprotective? International journal of geriatric psychiatry PMID: 22396249

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Macroeconomics and Suicide

Jennifer Gibson, PharmD — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:00:01 +0000

There are rumors that Wall Street tycoons, and other newly-poor people, committed suicide in droves following the stock market crash of 1929. Many newspapers at the time investigated countless reports of suicide-on-the-street, but most rumors were proved false. But, the rumor was and is easily believable (and people suddenly on the brink of the Great Depression wanted to believe it was true), and throughout history, changes in macroeconomics have been attributed to population mental health, specifically fluctuating rates of suicide.

A new study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, evaluates the economic conditions and suicide rates in New York City over the last 3 decades. The authors evaluated levels of economic activity and the volatility of the New York Stock Exchange, as well as all suicides among New York City residents, between 1990 and 2006. Overall, during the study period, there were nearly 8100 suicides. The rate of suicide declined from 8.1 per 100,000 residents in 1990 to 4.8 per 100,000 in 1999; it remained relatively stable through 2006.

There was a negative association between economic activity and rates of suicide, and suicides were highest when economic activity was at its lowest. Suicide rates varied according to gender, age, race, and sociodemographic status, and most of the association with economic activity was attributed to suicides of older, white males. This group accounted for more suicides during economic downturns than other demographic groups. Stock market volatility was not associated with changes in suicide rates, but, the authors report that this may be due to the small sample size of people invested in the stock market.

Every year, around the world, approximately 1 million people take their own lives. Nearly all of these people have pre-existing psychiatric morbidity, but other factors influence the decision to commit suicide: genetics, stressful life events, access to means of committing suicide, and poor health. Suicide rates are highly variable, however, at population and individual levels. From a broader, population-based perspective, changes in suicide rates have been attributed to stressors that occur within populations, including economic instability. The term “econocide” has recently been coined by psychologists to explain this phenomenon.

Economic recessions and financial troubles are associated with decreased physical and psychological health and increased mortality, and, throughout history, suicides have increased during recessions and economic downturns. (Suicide rates during the Great Depression peaked when the gross domestic product in the United States was at its lowest point.) And, suicide rates are historically highest among impoverished and unemployed people. However, there is a lack of data showing low rates of suicide at times of economic prosperity.

The new study concludes that macroeconomic forces influence mental health, but a causative factor is not identified. Perhaps, economic struggles limit the resources available for mental health services or individuals with underlying conditions might be more likely to experience job loss or unemployment during these periods. Ultimately, the decision to commit suicide is multifaceted and one measure of economic activity in one city cannot explain the choice entirely.

The current study does not include data from the most recent economic recession, and it does not include individual economic status as a confounder of the suicide rate. (Were the older, white males failed Wall Street tycoons or elderly men living on a fixed income?) A bad economy likely brings out the worst in people – physically, mentally, and emotionally – and no one is immune to its strain. Disgraced financial executives might not be killing themselves in the streets today – they have congressional hearings and country club prisons to go to – but suicide prevention services should be directed toward those at highest risk, even at the worst of economic times.

References

Hawton K, Harriss L, Hodder K, Simkin S, & Gunnell D (2001). The influence of the economic and social environment on deliberate self-harm and suicide: an ecological and person-based study. Psychological medicine, 31 (5), 827-36 PMID: 11459380

Nandi A, Prescott MR, Cerdá M, Vlahov D, Tardiff KJ, & Galea S (2012). Economic conditions and suicide rates in New York City. American journal of epidemiology, 175 (6), 527-35 PMID: 22362583

Rehkopf DH, & Buka SL (2006). The association between suicide and the socio-economic characteristics of geographical areas: a systematic review. Psychological medicine, 36 (2), 145-57 PMID: 16420711

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From Nymphomania to Hypersexuality

Veronica Pamoukaghlian, MA — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:00:04 +0000

The concept of nymphomania dates back to Victorian times. It was then described as a ”female pathology of over-stimulated genitals” and an “illness of sexual energy levels gone awry, as well as the loss of control of the mind over the body.” Some of the behaviors that lead to this classification, such as women taking of their clothes in public or grabbing at the first man who came into sight, are consistent with the manic states of bipolar disorder, among many other pathologies. In fact, in those days, women run the risk of being treated for nymphomania if they bore children out of wedlock or were discovered masturbating. Historians and medical researchers today argue that the concept of nymphomania was largely derived from the tension of Victorian gender oppression, and it might have had little to do with an actual medical condition.

Popular culture has embraced the concept of nymphomania, and the description of the symptoms in the collective consciousness today doesn’t much differ from that of Victorian times: a nymphomaniac is a woman who constantly wants to have sex with any man that crosses her path, more or less. Many films and books in popular culture have helped maintain this tradition; for example, the best-selling novel “Diary of a nymphomaniac,” the autobiography of a rather contented prostitute.

From Sex Addiction to Hypersexual Disorder

Reality is much more complex than both Victorian diagnoses and popular belief. Even today, there is much argument as to what constitutes pathological sexual behavior, namely, where to draw the line between personal preferences and habits and an illness that truly affects the individual’s well-being. There is also an issue of comorbidity; namely, research has shown a clear tendency for hindering sexual compulsive behaviors to coexist with bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression and substance abuse, among a variety of other problems and pathologies. This makes sexual compulsions even harder to pin down.

While the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition DSM IV describes sex addiction as “distress about a pattern of repeated sexual relationships involving a succession of lovers who are experienced by the individual only as things to be used,” the proposed revision for DSM V includes the creation of a new category called hypersexual disorder.

The traits of hypersexual disorder are much broader and encompassing than the descriptions in the current DSM. First of all, the proposed category establishes that the symptoms must have been observed consistently for at least six months. These symptoms include experiencing, ”recurrent and intense sexual fantasies, sexual urges, and sexual behavior,” where excessive time is consumed in both fantasies and sexual activity, sometimes in response to stressful life events, and both the physical and emotional risks of such activities for oneself or other are consistently disregarded. It is also established that these sexual behaviors shouldn’t have been caused by substance abuse or a manic episode.

The behaviors and practices used in this category definition include masturbation, pornography, sexual behavior with consenting adults, cybersex, telephone sex, and frequenting strip clubs. Interestingly enough, some of those wouldn’t have made one qualify as a nymphomaniac during Victorian times, but, alas, times have indeed changed.

In the Virtual World

An educational set of guidelines for assessment of sexual addiction presented during the 2011 US Psychiatric Health Congress focuses largely on some of the behavioral patterns mentioned in the proposed DSM V categorization. Actually, the protocole largely addresses a masculine population who conceal their use of Internet pornography, prostitutes, cybersex and the like from their female partners. Again, it points to the instant gratification of orgasm, appearing in a vicious cycle in moments of distress, and consequentially begetting more distress.

The internet has created a whole new arena for people to express their unfulfilled urges and desires, sometimes with dramatically negative consequences for their daily lives, creating a dissociation that further estranges them from their partners.

The Death of the Myth

Current research on hypersexual disorder focus largely on men. It would seem that, for all the talk about nymphomania, contemporary men are doing much more to fit the description than women.

Although conclusive research has not yet been published, regarding the nature, diagnosis and treatment of hypersexual disorder, and in spite of the fact that the “sexual addiction” term has been rejected by the scientific community, there is no doubt that several complex stand-alone and comorbid disorders exist, involving compulsive behaviors associated with both actual and simulated or imaginary sexuality, which can greatly hinder an individual’s psychological and even physical well-being. As of the present moment, the diagnosis of some of these elusive conditions remains at the discretion of the therapist, while their prevalence seems to be perpetually on the rise.

References

Goldberg, A. Sex, Religion, and the Making of Modern Madness. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Grant JE, Potenza MN. The Oxford Handbook of Impulse Control Disorders. Oxford University Press; 2011.

DSM V Proposed revisions section

Kingston, D., & Firestone, P. (2008). Problematic Hypersexuality: A Review of Conceptualization and Diagnosis Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 15 (4), 284-310 DOI: 10.1080/10720160802289249

Levine, S. Sexual Excess Syndromes or Sexual Addiction. Presentation from the US PSYCHIATRIC AND MENTAL HEALTH CONGRESS 2011.

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Commitment – It’s the new Love

Radhika Takru, MA — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:16:18 +0000

Picture this — you’re at a bar with your significant other and you leave him or her for a few moments to collect your drinks. You’re only gone a few minutes but when you return, you find an attractive stranger in your place, whispering sweet nothings into your partner’s ear. How would you react towards your partner?

This is the situation that Slotter and fellow researchers had ninety-nine undergraduates immerse themselves in. At the time subjects were all in dating relationships and the researchers were aiming to understand the basis of aggression towards one’s partner. Appended to the above situation were three scenarios demonstrating three different responses on the part of the subject’s partner:

In the first case, the partner politely wards off the stranger’s advances, displaying a clear lack of interest. In the second case, they express some doubts about the state of your relationship and shows clear interest in this mysterious stranger. In the third case they openly flirt with the stranger and confess outright that they are unhappy in their relationship with you.

The participants responses were analysed to gauge the degree of aggression in their responses. Unsurprisingly, the third situation incited the most aggressive behaviour in the subject and the first the least. However, the purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between relationship-commitment and aggression with the researchers hypothesising that the degree of aggression would be lower in those couples who judged themselves to be more committed to their partner. Sure enough, on taking measures of relationship commitment, affection towards the partner and aggression towards the partner, the researchers found that the subjects who claimed to be more committed to their relationship displayed less aggression than their not-so committed counterparts. Interestingly, the measures of anger and affection towards the significant other were unhelpful when it came to predicting aggressive behaviour in the given circumstances.

To further validate their findings, the researchers conducted another, similarly entertaining experiment. This time forty-three couples were brought in and measured on their levels of commitment and satisfaction with regards to their relationship separately from their respective partners. Then, they were given a set of color pencils and told that the experimenters wanted to evaluate their creative abilities. On completing this task the finished drawings were gathered up and the subjects were informed that their partners would be assessing their creative abilities. To spice things up further, the subjects were told they’d receive monetary compensation proportional to how highly their partner rated their artwork.

Needless to say, the ‘assessment’ the subjects received was completely random and not from their partners at all. The experimenter supplemented the false ratings with corresponding comments that the partner was supposed to have made. Then, the experimenter gave the subjects a voodoo doll that was meant to represent their partner, and a box of pins. Telling the participants to vent any aggression they might feel towards their partner by sticking pins in the voodoo doll provided experiments with an effective and ethical means of measuring behavioral aggression in the participants.

Again, it came as no surprise that the subjects who received the poor rating, less money and harsher comments from their partner (or so they thought) were the most aggressive towards the voodoo doll while the ones with more flattering feedback were the least.

And again, it seemed that the more committed the individual was to the relationship the more reduced his or her aggression towards the partner. And again, the degree of commitment could be used to predict subsequent levels of aggression while level of satisfaction seemed to have little bearing on the value.

The experimenters went on to examine the relationship between commitment and partner provocation with two further studies and their hypothesis was consistently verified. The less committed the individual was to the relationship, the more likely he or she was to lash out at his or her partner when provoked. While this in itself is not surprising, it is interesting to note that variables such as affection towards one’s partner and satisfaction with the relationship do not exhibit similar propensities. Could “I’m committed to you” mean more to a partner than the classic “I love you”?

References

Slotter EB, Finkel EJ, Dewall CN, Pond RS, Lambert NM, Bodenhausen GV, & Fincham FD (2012). Putting the brakes on aggression toward a romantic partner: the inhibitory influence of relationship commitment. Journal of personality and social psychology, 102 (2), 291-305 PMID: 21823802

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Religion and Depression – Cause or Effect?

Jennifer Gibson, PharmD — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:00:19 +0000

With the season of Easter and Passover upon us (significant celebrations in the lives of Christians and Jews, respectively), people who are not normally involved in religious activities seem to find their way back to sunrise services and family seders. Many studies have extolled the benefits of religious involvement on mental health and overall well-being, but a new study questions the associations and claims that depression and religious attendance may exhibit more cause-and-effect than previously believed.

The authors of a new study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, evaluated the religious involvement and mental health of three separate cohorts of individuals, totaling more than 2000 people, living in Rhode Island. The average age was 37 years old; most of the study participants were Caucasian and had a Catholic upbringing. More than 90% of the participants reported religious involvement as a child, but only half reported the same as adults. Slightly more than one-quarter of the participants received a diagnosis of major depression at some point in their life, with one-third of these receiving the diagnosis during childhood or adolescence.

Overall, women with a diagnosis of major depression before 18 years of age were significantly more likely to stop attending religious services as an adult than women with no diagnosis of major depression or a diagnosis after the age of 18. There were no significant associations between religious involvement and men.

Religious involvement changes over the course of one’s lifetime, but most data still points to any religious involvement as protective against depression and other mental illnesses across both genders and all age groups.

The authors of the current study believe that the robust claims of a protective effect between religion and depression may be owed to the fact that people with depression drop out of religious involvement, thus skewing the data of those that remain involved. Two potential cause-and-effect scenarios are presented that might explain the results. First, religious involvement leads to positive social support and healthy behaviors, which leads to a decreased risk of depression. Alternatively, at the onset of depression, people begin to experience negative emotions and interactions with religious activities and feelings of alienation and guilt, which leads to a decreased involvement in religious activities altogether. (Dropping out of previously positive and pleasurable activities — religious or not — is an independent indicator of depression.) This selection out of religion, the authors believe, contributes to the previously reported correlations between religion and mental health.

The authors end the manuscript with a discussion of the limitations of the study and a call for future long-term research into this issue. My question is, Why? Do they want depressed people to stay in church so the association between religion and mental health is proved false? Do they want non-depressed people to stop attending church, since there are no supposed health benefits? Neither is plausible or realistic, and the results of any future study will not contribute to changing patterns of religious attendance.

People don’t attend church because of the health benefits. If you feel good about your spiritual life, you probably feel good about your physical life, but there are plenty of church-goers with mental and physical health issues. And, just as many non-goers who are pictures of health. Religious involvement is a personal decision and reducing its explanation to a single measurement of depression is dangerous from a statistical and spiritual point of view.

References

Jacobs M, Miller L, Wickramaratne P, Gameroff M, & Weissman MM (2012). Family religion and psychopathology in children of depressed mothers: ten-year follow-up. Journal of affective disorders, 136 (3), 320-7 PMID: 22177740

Maselko J, & Buka S (2008). Religious activity and lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorder. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 43 (1), 18-24 PMID: 17960316

Maselko J, Gilman SE, & Buka S (2009). Religious service attendance and spiritual well-being are differentially associated with risk of major depression. Psychological medicine, 39 (6), 1009-17 PMID: 18834554

Maselko J, Hayward RD, Hanlon A, Buka S, & Meador K (2012). Religious service attendance and major depression: a case of reverse causality? American journal of epidemiology, 175 (6), 576-83 PMID: 22350581

Miller L, Wickramaratne P, Gameroff MJ, Sage M, Tenke CE, & Weissman MM (2012). Religiosity and major depression in adults at high risk: a ten-year prospective study. The American journal of psychiatry, 169 (1), 89-94 PMID: 21865527

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The Company you Keep – Social and Associative Stigmas

Radhika Takru, MA — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:00:36 +0000

You can’t choose your family, say the metaphorical “they,” but you can choose your friends. Choose wisely, but bear in mind that regardless of whether or not the decision is yours, you are going to be judged on it.

The credit for some of the most seminal work on social stigma goes to Erving Goffman who worked on defining what is meant by social stigma and delineating its variants. According to Goffman, social stigmas may be physical “abominations” such as deformities or handicaps, “tribal stigmas” such as race or religion, and character flaws, such as a criminal record or drug abuse. Goffman believed that such stigmas applied not just to the person with the perceived defect, but also extended to those individuals who onlookers associated with the stigmatized person. This sort of secondary stigma came to be called associative stigma.

Associative stigmas are more insidious than they initially appear. They are not only formed through the identification of “meaningful relationships” between two people, such as familial relationships or friendship, but they may also be the outcome of unintended or incidental associations. The latter are called “simple associations” and may be the result of such coincidental circumstances as simply being in the same room as a stigmatized individual.

There may be one of two processes at work when a stigma is formed. Spontaneous or reflexive processes are responsible for the rapid, often emotionally motivated reactions to any of the perceived stigmas mentioned above. That they are based on instinctive reactions makes them all the more difficult to control and moderate. In contrast, deliberative reactions to stigma, as the name suggests, involve more voluntarism on the part of the individual and are consequently more difficult to bring on. Deliberative processes require the individual to actively think about the situation prior to arriving at a judgment. In the case of deliberation, the perception of control plays a great part. Individuals are less likely to react negatively to an individual they perceive to have no control over his or her situation (such as one who is visually impaired) than one they believe is under a controllable stigma (such as a drug user).

Reflexive and deliberative reactions are two separate processes, but they may operate on the same situation. Reflexive reactions are likely to be behind one’s immediate reaction to a stigma. Deliberative processes come into play after a bit of a delay. They are more effortful and time-consuming, consciously applying certain rules to the situation in addition to taking into account the initial reaction to it. Changes in one’s reaction to the same stigma after a period can thus be traced to this mental process.

How do these primary judgments carry over to individuals who do not appear to possess the stigmatized trait themselves? There are some theories that attempt to explain stigma by association. The idea of evaluative conditioning puts it down to a simple case of evaluative conditioning where a neutral target becomes the recipient of an onlooker’s negativity simply because they are in the physical presence of a negatively judged target. Another more conscious theory puts it down to the simple application of the adage “birds of a feather flock together.” This is especially true when a relationship appears to be voluntary as in the case of friends and partners. An individual in the company of a stigmatized person is judged on his or her decision to be in the company of that person. Heider reasons that this tendency may be due to a need to eliminate cognitive dissonance. The assumption two people in the company of one another share similar characteristics is easier on the mind than having to reconcile the ideas that they might be markedly different yet opt for each other’s company.

Social and associative stigmas often appear irrational. We do our best to believe we are unbiased and non-judgmental, and many societies work to eliminate (or at least decrease) the prevalence of such stigmas within their populations. Nonetheless, the generation of stigma seems to be wired into the human brain and there are few who are immune. After all, even the most pious among us might be prone to stigmatizing those who stigmatize others.

References

Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Heider, E. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York, NY: Wiley.

Mehta, S., & Farina, A. (1988). Associative Stigma: Perceptions of the Difficulties of College-Aged Children of Stigmatized Fathers Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 7 (2-3), 192-202 DOI: 10.1521/jscp.1988.7.2-3.192

Pryor JB, Reeder GD, & Monroe AE (2012). The infection of bad company: stigma by association. Journal of personality and social psychology, 102 (2), 224-41 PMID: 22082057

Pryor, J., Reeder, G., Yeadon, C., & Hesson-Mclnnis, M. (2004). A Dual-Process Model of Reactions to Perceived Stigma. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87 (4), 436-452 DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.87.4.436

Walther, E. (2002). Guilty by mere association: Evaluative conditioning and the spreading attitude effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82 (6), 919-934 DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.82.6.919

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Smells Like Parkinson’s Disease

Emily Haines, MSc, PhD student — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 10:59:45 +0000

Parkinson’s disease has always been primarily seen as a movement disorder resulting in symptoms of shaking, tremors, rigidity, and trouble walking. Interestingly, however, at least 90% of patients with Parkinson’s experience either loss or decreases in the sense of smell. Studies have shown that problems with olfaction actually generally precede the onset of other motor symptoms. Most people are not personally aware of changes in their olfactory acuity, but the increasing range and prevalence of smell tests offer a quick, easy, cheap, and non-invasive diagnostic test, as well as a measure of disease progression. In addition, the shift of focus for researchers from Parkinson’s as a motor disorder to a more global neurodegenerative disorder allows consideration of new paradigms about the causes and disease progression.

The cellular basis of olfactory dysfunction in Parkinson’s remains an enigma. Post-mortem studies have confirmed shrinkage of the olfactory bulb, but this fails to shed light onto the root causes as it only demonstrates the end effect. Experimental models of Parkinson’s have demonstrated various results such as protein aggregation in the olfactory bulb, changes in levels of neurotransmitters, microglial activation, and loss of cells in the olfactory bulb. However, as all of these effects are inter-related, none of these clarify the actual initial cause of damage.
Many of the hypotheses as to why olfactory dysfunction occurs and precedes other symptoms remain grounded in the long-held paradigm of Parkinson’s as a motor disease caused by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. For example, in some experimental models an increase in dopamine was found in the olfactory bulb. The researchers suggested this occurs as a compensatory mechanism in response to the loss of dopamine in the substantia nigra. As it has also been shown that sense of smell is particularly vulnerable to changes in dopamine, excess dopamine in the olfactory bulb would, thus, lead to olfactory dysfunction.

However, a number of other theories have been proposed suggesting that perhaps the olfactory bulb is the first brain structure to exhibit signs of damage because Parkinson’s could be caused by respiratory viruses or inhaled toxins that enter the brain through the nose. The cause of Parkinson’s has not been conclusively determined. And while a genetic component has been uncovered, the causes are clearly much more complex with various environmental factors involved. A number of studies have been performed demonstrating Parkinson’s-like symptoms following exposure to viruses, heavy metals, and pesticides in experimental models. Epidemiological studies have also linked pesticides exposure to an increased risk of Parkinson’s. It is certainly an interesting hypothesis that inhaled toxins could cross the blood brain barrier, and that the damage in Parkinson’s could begin first in the olfactory bulb and then spread from there to the substantia nigra. In addition, as the olfactory bulb is heavily involved in adult neurogenesis, any damage to this structure could severely limit the brain’s ability to repair itself by replenishing damaged neurons with new ones. Perhaps, then, Parkinson’s disease does not depend on a single source of damage, but rather multiple insults occurring. For example, genetically induced damage to the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra combined with inhaled toxins damaging the olfactory bulb could, together, cause Parkinson’s, while one or the other would be insufficient.

References

Prediger, R., Aguiar, A., Matheus, F., Walz, R., Antoury, L., Raisman-Vozari, R., & Doty, R. (2011). Intranasal Administration of Neurotoxicants in Animals: Support for the Olfactory Vector Hypothesis of Parkinson’s Disease Neurotoxicity Research, 21 (1), 90-116 DOI: 10.1007/s12640-011-9281-8

Doty, R. (2011). Olfaction in Parkinson’s disease and related disorders Neurobiology of Disease DOI: 10.1016/j.nbd.2011.10.026

Ubeda-Bañon, I., Saiz-Sanchez, D., Rosa-Prieto, C., & Martinez-Marcos, A. (2011). ?-Synuclein in the olfactory system of a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease: correlation with olfactory projections Brain Structure and Function DOI: 10.1007/s00429-011-0347-4

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