July 2007 Archives

I love US newspapers - they are so serious and learned. An article in the New York Times looks at the latest evidence on the power of the subconscious mind. In a recent experiment people who had recently been handed an iced cup of iced coffee by researchers felt far more negative about an imaginary person they had been asked to describe than those given a hot cup of coffee.

Scientists are trying to find new medication that relieves the symptoms of depression within hours rather than weeks.

Horse tranquiliser and dance drug for the seriously under-informed, ketamine, can relieve the symptoms of depression within hours, researchers have found. While ketamine probably can't be used itself because of its side effects it has given scientists clues in the search for better depression medicines.

Even one puff of a cannabis joint can lead to psychosis, according to research by doctors from two British universities.

I have two interesting items of drugs news for you today. After 35 years in a hippy wilderness LSD is back under medical examination and TB drugs may help with obsessive compulsive disorder.

Freud would be turning in his grave. 65% of trainee psychiatrists are too bashful to talk to their patients about their sex lives, says the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Here's a shocking story about people who are hardly a credit to their profession.

Two US psychologists, identified by Vanity Fair, who helped the CIA design its "coercive interrogation methods" to break down detainees in the war on terror.

Ok, lists are among the top 5 things I like best about the internet. The others are... I'll come back to that some other time.
Anyway, here are 10 "virtually instant ways to improve your life" apparently.

This is very strange news, but scientists have invented a nasal spray that makes you less shy.

Troubling memories can be suppressed, researchers have found, and they’ve discovered how the brain does it.
The breakthrough may prove useful in treating depression, OCD and post-traumatic stress disorder, although researchers believe it won’t be easy to suppress the most powerful and emotional memories. They suggest drugs may eventually be designed that help the process though.

For those who think all our mental health services or indeed social care services should be run by the “efficient” private sector here’s an interesting tale from the US.
In Arizona, where the awarding of the £1.5bn contract to run the state’s mental health services has caused a feud between rival providers, there have been allegations that the tendering process was not fair. One company has threatened to turn clinics inot “pizza parlors and flower shops” rather than turn them over to a rival, says the Arizona Republic.

Here’s an interesting follow up to my post yesterday about the US campaign for a right to fresh air for psychiatric patients.
Research, originally published in the journal Biology Letters has found further evidence of the benefits of the great outdoors. According to a World of Psychology blog:

“It’s not just access to green space but the species richness of those places that boosts feelings of wellness…”

It continues:

“Next time you’re seeking some stress relief or choosing a picnic spot, perhaps this research will lead you to green spaces with more biodiversity…”

In the US, campaigners are pushing for a “fresh air bill” to give people in psychiatric hospitals daily access to the outdoors. Even though this a right “long enjoyed by prison inmates” many US private medical centres are against it because they won’t be able to “guarantee safety”. Unbelievable really. What kind of care can people be receiving if they can’t even go outside in safety?

So the final curtain has fallen in the UK on the Mental Health Bill . There may be discussions ahead over the code of practice but the bill will soon be an act and nine years of controversy, debate and subterfuge will be over.

There is a link between traumatic experiences during war and the risk of mental health problems was the not at all surprising finding of a Canadian study.

Welcome to another Mad World week. All the stuff from the web you didn’t realise you wanted to know.

Almost as many men as women get postnatal depression as women, according to a new study, suggesting the cause of the illness might not necessarily be hormonal as has traditionally been thought.