Psychology news

• Puerto Rico Ends Its Defense of Same-Sex Marriage Ban

  26-03-2015 22:36 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  Source: Reuters - World NewsThe Puerto Rican government will no longer defend a law that bans same-sex couples from marrying and does not recognize the validity of such marriages performed in other jurisdictions, the U.S. commonwealth's attorney general announced on Friday.
  
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• Dialectical Behavior Therapy Reduces Suicide Risk

  26-03-2015 22:36 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  Source: ScienceDailyA variety of dialectical behavior therapy interventions helped to reduce suicide attempts and nonsuicidal self-injury acts in a randomized clinical trial of women with borderline personality disorder who were highly suicidal.
  
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• Could Smoggy Air Raise Your Anxiety Level?

  26-03-2015 22:36 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  Source: Google News - HealthAir pollution may take a toll not only on physical health, but mental well-being as well, two new studies suggest. In one, researchers confirmed a long-studied connection between air pollution and
  
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• Brains of Those with Anorexia React Differently to Hunger Signals

  26-03-2015 22:36 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  Source: U.S. News and World ReportStudy also finds changes in areas that regulate self-control.
  
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• Airlines Largely Rely on Pilot's "Self-Monitoring" Mental Health

  26-03-2015 22:36 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  
  Source: USA Today - U.S. NewsThere are regular formal physical exams, but not mental ones.            .
  
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• Stereotypes lower math performance in women, but effects go unrecognized

  26-03-2015 21:26
  A new study suggests that gender stereotypes about women's ability in mathematics negatively impact their performance. And in a significant twist, both men and women wrongly believe those stereotypes will not undermine women's math performance -- but instead motivate them to perform better.
  
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• Researchers identify timeline for HIV replication in the brain

  26-03-2015 20:22
  HIV can begin replicating in the brain as early as four months after initial infection, researchers have discovered. One-third of people not taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) to control their HIV will eventually develop HIV-associated dementia. The study's results in these newly infected people stress the importance of routine HIV testing to catch the infection as early as possible to allow the prompt initiation antiretroviral therapy, investigators note.
  
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• Crossing fingers can reduce feelings of pain

  26-03-2015 18:08
  
  How you feel pain is affected by where sources of pain are in relation to each other, and so crossing your fingers can change what you feel on a single finger, finds new research. "Many people suffer from chronic pain, and the level of pain experienced can be higher than would be expected from actual tissue damage. Our research is basic laboratory science, but it raises the interesting possibility that pain levels could be manipulated by applying additional stimuli, and by moving one part of the
  
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• How the brain 'remembers' pain

  26-03-2015 18:07
  A mechanism that is responsible for the chronification of pain in the brain has been discovered by researchers, possibly pointing to new strategies for the medical treatment of chronic pain, the investigators say.
  
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• Sea slug provides new way of analyzing brain data

  26-03-2015 18:07
  
  Scientists say our brains may not be as complicated as we once thought -- and they're using sea slugs to prove it. “This research introduces new methods for pulling apart neural circuits to expose their inner building blocks. Our methods could be used to help understand how brain networks change in disease states and how drugs act to restore normal brain function,” authors say.
  
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• Veterans' avoidant coping interfers with transition to university life

  26-03-2015 17:21
  A study of 165 veterans currently enrolled at three Texas universities shows that those who use problem-focused coping strategies for anxiety and depression instead of avoidant coping have more successful transitions from military life to college student life.
  
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• Testosterone Needs Estrogen's Help to Inhibit Depression

  26-03-2015 17:19
  
  In popular culture, the phrase “battle of the sexes” seems to pit the male hormone (testosterone) against the female (estrogen). Now a researcher has documented a way in which the two hormones work together to protect low-testosterone males from the effects of anxiety and depression.
  
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• Thin air, high altitudes cause depression in female rats

  26-03-2015 16:10
  Oxygen intake contributes to depression, scientists have surmised after a study shows that thin air and high altitudes causes depression in female rats. "The significance of this animal study is that it can isolate hypoxia as a distinct risk factor for depression in those living at altitude (hypobaric hypoxia) or with other chronic hypoxic conditions such as COPD, asthma or smoking, independent of other risk factors," says the lead author on the study.
  
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• Discovering age-specific brain changes in autism

  26-03-2015 16:10
  Individuals with autism spectrum disorder exhibit different patterns of brain connectivity when compared to typically developing individuals, scientists report, and those patterns adjust as the individual ages, research shows.
  
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• High-fat diet alters behavior and produces signs of brain inflammation

  26-03-2015 16:09
  
  Can the consumption of fatty foods change your behavior and your brain? High-fat diets have long been known to increase the risk for medical problems, including heart disease and stroke, but there is growing concern that diets high in fat might also increase the risk for depression and other psychiatric disorders. A new study raises the possibility that a high-fat diet produces changes in health and behavior, in part, by changing the mix of bacteria in the gut, also known as the gut microbiome.
  
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• Blood test may shed new light on Fragile X related disorders

  26-03-2015 16:08
  A blood test may shed new light on Fragile X syndrome related disorders in women, according to a new study. Fragile X is the most common inherited form of intellectual disability and the most frequent genetic cause of autism.
  
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• How important is the name of a disease? Do names influence treatment?

  26-03-2015 16:00
  Does the name given to a disease affect how it is treated? We look at a number of examples from around the world and attempt to gauge the impact of a recommended name change.
  
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• Can parental training improve the course of autism?

  26-03-2015 14:11
  
  A new study is the first rigorous test of a controversial idea: that the everyday interactions between caregiver and child can change the way autism developsThis story was originally published on 23 March on sfari.org, an editorially independent division of SimonsFoundation.orgOne afternoon in October 2012, a communication therapist from Manchester visited the home of Laura and her three children. Laura sat down at a small white table in a dimly lit room to feed her 10-month-old daughter, Bethan
  
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• Education may not improve our life chances of happiness

  26-03-2015 11:00
  Getting a good education may not improve your life chances of happiness, according to new mental health research from the University of Warwick.
  
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• Personality test finds Great Britain's most extroverted, agreeable and emotionally stable regions

  26-03-2015 10:00
  A survey of almost 400,000 British residents has highlighted significant differences in personalities between regions.
  
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• Looking for happiness in all the wrong places

  26-03-2015 10:00
  Everyone knows that money can't buy happiness - but what might make rich people happier is revealed in the current issue of The Journal of Positive Psychology.James A.
  
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• Boredom can be good for you

  26-03-2015 10:00
  Boredom can make us more creative. That is the conclusion of one of the experts interviewed in a feature on the condition by Ella Rhodes in the April issue of The Psychologist.
  
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• Mental health report finds staffing problems linked to ward suicides

  26-03-2015 08:00
  Suicidal patients who are under observation may be put at risk by relying on inexperienced staff and agency nurses, according to a new report.
  
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• Evidence many young children with autism show gut symptoms

  26-03-2015 08:00
  Gastrointestinal symptoms of constipation, diarrhea and food allergy/intolerance up to 3 years of age were more likely to be seen by mothers of infants with autism in study.
  
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• Most Alzheimer's patients not given diagnosis by their doctors

  26-03-2015 05:59 via cnn.com
  
  Advocates say truthful diagnosis is critical to quality of life and future planning.
  
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