Make the most of New Year's Eve alone

If you’re spending the last night of the year alone, Ella Fitzgerald’s romantic query, “What are you doing New Year’s Eve?” might seem more like mockery. The great news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. Being alone on New Year’s Eve can be as enjoyable as being at the best of parties. Here are some ideas for making the most of your night alone.
1. Serve yourself your favorite dinner, whether you cook it or order out. Eat by candlelight. Use the good china. Play your favorite music. In short, make a dinner date with yourself.
2. Do you have friends or family who are too far away to share the evening with you? Call them on a group call, or set up a private online chat room.
3. Use the evening to treat yourself to your favorite pursuits. An all-night movie marathon for film buffs, for instance.
4. Go online and join a chat. Being able to connect with others, even if not in person, can fulfill your social yearnings.
5. If you’re in the mood for contemplation, use part of your evening to reflect on the outgoing year and what you hope to achieve in the coming one. Make notes and list goals.
Finally, whatever you do on New Year’s Eve, make the most of it because midnight will be here and gone before you know it!
PHOTO: Zsuzsanna Kilián
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Ten steps to successful New Year’s resolutions

As 2009 approaches, many of us will make New Year's resolutions and hope we can stick with them past January 2. If you are making a resolution this year, here are some of my tips for making the process a successful rather than frustrating one.

1. Pick one thing to change. Making too many resolutions will set you up for failure.
   
2. Avoid making previously failed resolutions, if at all possible.
   
3. Decide to do something that you feel is important. Thinking you should make a change won't give you the necessary commitment.
   
4. Make your resolution realistic. Trying to lose 50 pounds in the next two months is probably not going to happen. Aiming to lose 50 pounds in 2009 and breaking it down into smaller goals on a calendar can set you up for success.
   
5. Write your resolutions on paper. Committing your resolution to print can increase your determination.
   
6. Tell everyone in your support network. Enlist their aid in meeting your goals. You could even write a check to a loved one they can cash if you fail to keep your resolution.
   
7. Post your goal online at a site like Pledgehammer.com for extra support.
   
8. Plan for problems. What will you do when obstacles arise, as they surely will. Have a plan of action in place for these moments.
   
9. Visualize success. Each night before going to bed, imagine achieving your goal in as much detail as possible. If you want to lose weight, imagine how that would fee, what you would look like and so forth.
   
10. Reward yourself for each tiny step forward. If you're trying to quit smoking, reward yourself each time you resist temptation.
    

Using these 10 steps, you should be well on your way to a happy new year!

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Your popularity may be in your genes

News item
A news study of popularity by a Michigan State University scientist has found that genes elicit not only specific behaviors but also the social consequences of those behaviors.
According to the investigation by behavioral geneticist S. Alexandra Burt, male college students who had a gene associated with rule-breaking behavior were rated most popular by a group of previously unacquainted peers.
It’s not unusual for adolescent rule-breakers to be well-liked – previous research has made that link – but Burt is the first to provide meaningful evidence for the role of a specific gene in this process. The study will appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, which is published by the American Psychological Association.
“The idea is that your genes predispose you to certain behaviors and those behaviors elicit different kinds of social reactions from others,” said Burt, assistant professor of psychology. “And so what’s happening is, your genes are to some extent driving your social experiences.”
The concept – which researchers call “evocative gene-environment correlation” – had been discussed in scientific literature but only in theory. This study is the first to really flesh out the process, establishing clear connections between a specific gene, particular behaviors and actual social situations, she said.
Burt collected DNA from more than 200 male college students in two separate samples. After interacting in a lab setting for about an hour, the students filled out a questionnaire about whom they most liked in their group. In both samples, the most popular students turned out to be the ones with a particular form of a serotonin gene that was also associated with rule-breaking behavior.
“So the gene predisposed them to rule-breaking behavior and their rule-breaking behavior made them more popular,” Burt said.
Burt is working on similar studies with female college students, as well as mixed-gender social groups. She also plans to explore associations with other social behaviors and other genes in larger samples.

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Is your dog chasing its tail? Might be OCD

Dogs suffer depression and anxiety, so why not OCD? Reporter Paula Ebben of WBZ in Boston posted on December 24 about those quirky dog behaviors, like tail-chasing or compulsive biting. According to Dr. Nick Dodman of Tufts University, these kinds of behaviors are the canine version of OCD.
Some breeds are even predisposed to OCD, most notably German Shpeherds and Doberman Pinschers.
The treatment? Antidepressants such as Zoloft and Prozac.

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A smashing solution to stress

In Tokyo, Katsuya Hara and a group of chiropractor colleagues are offering stress relief from the back of a truck they call "The Venting Place." Inspired by the financial crisis on seemingly everyone's minds these days, these entrepreneurial doctors allow people to smash crockery in the back of their truck, for a fee of course. About $2 USD will buy you the right to throw a small cup and $11 USD will bring you a big plate. Protective gear is provided. You can read more about this in a story from Reuters on MSNBC.
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Reasons to stick to your resolutions

With the new year approaching, millions of people are expected to ring in 2009 by making resolutions to improve their lives. A Duke University researcher says the consequences of some personal decisions provide important reasons to stick to those vows in the coming year.
New research conducted by Ralph L. Keeney of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, concludes that personal decisions lead to more than one million premature deaths annually in the U.S.
Keeney’s work, published in the current issue of the INFORMS journal Operations Research, shows that personal decisions are the leading cause of death in the U.S. if one takes into account the role of obesity and smoking in creating heart disease and cancer, the primary causes of death in the U.S.
"Previous researchers have identified the main causes of heart disease and cancer as smoking and being overweight, each of which results in over 400,000 deaths annually," Keeney said.
With the number of personal choices made in a given day, many individuals don’t take a step back to look at the long-term implications of those choices, Keeney said. From having unprotected sex to not buckling the seatbelt before driving, many of these decisions can eventually result in death. Other personal decisions that lead to significant premature deaths include overconsumption of alcohol, reckless driving, homicide and suicide.
Keeney’s results showed that more than 55 percent of all deaths for individuals aged 15 to 64 can be attributed to personal decisions that have readily available alternatives.
"Given that the impacts of smoking and being overweight start taking a heavy toll in the mid-30s, I wasn't surprised with this result for people over 35," Keeney said. "However, I was surprised that more than 55 percent of the deaths to individuals 15 to 24 years old could be avoided with different easy-to-make personal decisions. For many of these individuals, more than 40 years of potential productive life is lost."
Keeney said individuals have a great deal of control over their own mortality. His research also shows that individuals don’t always need to rely on others, including government, hospitals and nonprofit organizations, to make their lives safer, because they can easily take effective action to make their own lives and those of their families safer.
Common sense lifesaving choices include: avoiding smoking, drinking alcohol in moderation, exercising regularly, driving sober and abiding by the speed limit, not using illicit drugs and practicing safe sex.
Artwork: Svilen Mushkatov

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Brain food: Chocolate, wine and tea

All that chocolate might actually help finish the bumper Christmas crossword over the seasonal period. According to Oxford researchers working with colleagues in Norway, chocolate, wine and tea enhance cognitive performance.
The team from Oxford’s Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics and Norway examined the relation between cognitive performance and the intake of three common foodstuffs that contain flavonoids (chocolate, wine, and tea) in 2,031 older people (aged between 70 and 74).
Participants filled in information about their habitual food intake and underwent a battery of cognitive tests.Those who consumed chocolate, wine, or tea had significantly better mean test scores and lower prevalence of poor cognitive performance than those who did not. The team reported their findings in the Journal of Nutrition.
The role of micronutrients in age-related cognitive decline is being increasingly studied. Fruits and beverages such as tea, red wine, cocoa, and coffee are major dietary sources of polyphenols, micronutrients found in plant-derived foods. The largest subclass of dietary polyphenols is flavonoids, and it has been reported in the past that those who consume lots of flavonoids have a lower incidence of dementia.
The latest findings seem to support the theory, although the researchers caution that more research would be needed to prove that it was flavonoids, rather than some other aspect of the foods studied, that made the difference.The effect was most pronounced for wine.
However, say the researchers, those overdoing it at Christmas should note that while moderate alcohol consumption is associated with better cognitive function and reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, heavy alcohol intake could be one of many causes of dementia – as well as a host of other health problems.
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A matter of give and take

It has often been said that we humans tend to cling to one negative experience, even in the face of a hundred positive ones, and new research is bearing out this old axiom. According to scientists at the University of Chicago, feeling slighted has a significantly greater impact tha feeling you've been treated well.
"Negative reciprocity, or taking, escalates," said Boaz Keysar, Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago and lead author of the paper "Reciprocity is Not Give and Take: Asymmetric Reciprocity to Positive and Negative Acts," published in the December issue of Psychological Science. The study was based on giving-and-taking games conducted on students and people in downtown Chicago.
The games provided data on how people respond to give-and-take social exchanges.
"For instance in driving, if you are kind and let someone go in front of you, that driver may be considerate in response. But if you cut someone off, that person may react very aggressively, and this could escalate to road rage," Keysar said.
The situation can escalate when the person doing the slighting doesn't appreciate how strongly the slight is being experienced, Keysar said. "The one receiving the slight cannot imagine that the slighter lacks that appreciation. And so it goes, because of such differential perception, they respond more and more strongly. Small slights could escalate to unbelievable, irrational feuds," he explained.
Nicholas Epley, Professor in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and University graduate students Benjamin Converse and Jiunwen Wang joined Keysar in the research. To examine how people respond to situations involving reciprocity, researchers conducted experiments on campus as well as in downtown Chicago with people on the street.
One such experiment tested 40 college students. The students were divided into two groups and asked to conduct experiments that began in two different ways using money. In the first group, one player learned that another player had $100 and was going to share it. In each situation, the player with the money gave the other player $50. When the roles were reversed, the players who received the $50 received $100 which they could share with the other players. In that exchange, those players gave their partners on average $49.50.
In a companion experiment, the scholars found that the act of taking had a far bigger impact on people's responses than did the act of sharing. A player received $100 from which another player was able to take as much as desired. That player took $50, leaving the first player with $50 just like in the sharing experiment. But when the roles were reversed, the first players took back much more, leaving the partners with an average of $42.
Another experiment confirmed the pattern, showing that taking quickly escalated as players became increasingly greedy over repeated exchanges. In the college experiments, the players did not keep the money, but the results were the same in an experiment in downtown Chicago, where $10 was exchanged and players kept their money.
The study, which was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute for Mental Health, and the Templeton Foundation, shows various social exchanges differ from those in the marketplace, where goods are bought and sold, Keysar said. "Acts of giving are perceived as more generous in social exchanges than objectively identical acts of taking," Keysar said. "Taking tends to escalate. Reciprocity appears to operate on an exchange rate that assigns value to the meaning of events, in a fashion that encourages pro-social exchanges."
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A follow-up on laughter yoga

Over the weekend, I received an informative book, aptly titled Latterkursus , the Laughter Ebook in English, from Peter Froberg in Copenhagen, Denmark in response to my post last week about laughter yoga. Mr. Froberg's expose is quite informative and, just reading it induced a few much-needed belly laughs. It's a quick read and free, too. Thank you, Mr. Froberg!

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God and science: Can they just get along?

University of Illinois psychology professor Jesse Preston wondered if God and science can really coexist within an individual's belief system. What she found is that the two fundamentally conflict and may have little hope for resolution.
“When God isn’t being used to explain much," Dr. Preston said, "people have a positive attitude toward science. But when God is being used to account for many events – especially the things that they list, which are life, the universe, free will, these big questions – then somehow science loses its value.”
“On the other hand, people may have a generally positive view of science until it fails to explain the important questions. Then belief in God may be boosted to fill in the gap,” she said.
Read more about this study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign website.

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Thankfully, you can be happy

Cultivating an attitude of gratitude, as they say in 12-step circles, is a key to recovery from addiction. Beyond that, reserchers have found that being thankful produces a treasure trove of benefits, from increasing your viral resistance to reducing your stress hormones. Grateful people, they say, live longer, feel happier, and have more successful lives. According to Dr. Robert Emmons, author of Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier, any of us can develop gratitude. Some of the ways we can do this:

Keep a daily gratitude journal in which you make note of all the good things and the gifts that have come your way that day.

Promise yourself to practice gratitude regularly.

Focus on the good things that others have done for you. This makes us realize how interdependent we are and makes us realize that we are loved.

Learn to develop a language of gratitude rather than a language of complaint. Ask your friends and family to help you. It's often hard to see for ourselves how much we're complaining.

Use your senses to come into the present and appreciate the small gifts in the moment – the smile of a child, the smell of your first cup of coffee in the morning, the beauty of a sunset.

Take grateful actions. Smile, perform random acts of kindness, help a stranger.


I might add to the list that we give thanks for the challenges we face every day, too, for in them we can learn how to improve our lives.
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Laughter yoga will bring a smile to your face

When times are tough, try some laughter yoga. This technique combines yogic breathing, belly laughs, waddling around like a penguin, or dancing in a conga line. This is hardly downward facing dog, is it?
This particular form of yoga, developed in 1995 by Indian physician Dr. Madan Kataria, relies on our ability to act our way to new feelings. Combining yogic breathing and simulated laughter, participants eventually experience genuine, joyful laughter. And it's contagious, too: Dr. Kataria's first group had five participants and there are now 6,000 laughter clubs in 60 countries around the world. For more information on this delightful practice, visit Laughter Yoga International.
PHOTO: William Vermeulen

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Puzzles and games may reduce anxiety

If you suffer from anxiety, working out Sudoku puzzles or a good game of chess may be just what the doctor ordered. According to research published in the journal Nature Neuroscience online December 14, people with anxiety need stimulation, not sedation. In an anxious state, people may have difficulties staying focused on less challenging tasks such as wathing TV, but can get relief through engaging activities like crossword puzzles. Read more about this in today's San Francisco Chronicle. For the complete study, visit Nature Neuroscience online.
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The link between IQ and mental illness explored by researchers

Researchers have hypothesized that people with lower IQs may have a higher risk of adult mental disorders, but few studies have looked at the relationship between low childhood IQ and psychiatric disorders later in life. In a new, long-term study covering more than three decades, researchers at Harvard School of Public Health ( HSPH ) found that children with lower IQs showed an increased risk of developing psychiatric disorders as adults, including schizophrenia, depression and generalized anxiety disorder. Lower IQ was also associated with psychiatric disorders that were more persistent and an increased risk of having two or more diagnoses at age 32.
The results showed that lower childhood IQ predicted an increased risk of a variety of adult mental disorders. “Lower childhood IQ predicted increased risk of schizophrenia, depression, and generalized anxiety disorder. Individuals with lower childhood IQ also had more persistent depression and anxiety and were more likely to be diagnosed with two or more disorders in adulthood,” said lead author Karestan Koenen, assistant professor of society, human development, and health at HSPH.
No association was found between lower childhood IQ and substance dependence disorders, simple phobia, panic disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The mechanism through which lower childhood IQ might lead to increased risk of adult anxiety disorders is not known, but the authors suggest some possible explanations. They write that lower childhood IQ might reveal a difference in brain health that makes an individual more vulnerable to certain mental disorders. Another possible mechanism is stress--individuals with lower childhood IQs are less equipped to deal with complex challenges of modern daily life, which may make them more vulnerable to developing mental disorders.
The findings may be helpful in treating individuals with mental health disorders. “Lower childhood IQ was associated with greater severity of mental disorders including persistence over time and having two or more diagnoses at age 32,” said Koenen. “Since individuals with persistent and multiple mental disorders are more likely to seek services, cognitive ability may be an important factor for clinicians to consider in treatment planning. For example, individuals with lower cognitive ability may find it harder to follow instructions and comply with treatment regimens. By taking clients’ cognitive ability into account, clinicians may improve treatment outcome,” she said.
The results may also be helpful in prevention planning. “Educators and pediatricians should be aware that children with lower cognitive ability may be at greater risk of developing psychiatric disorders. Early detection and intervention aimed at ameliorating mental health problems in these children may prevent these problems from carrying over into adulthood,” said Koenen.
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Low carb diets reduce cognitive skills, study finds

A new study from the psychology department at Tufts University shows that when dieters eliminate carbohydrates from their meals, they performed more poorly on memory-based tasks than when they reduce calories, but maintain carbohydrates. When carbohydrates were reintroduced, cognition skills returned to normal.
"This study demonstrates that the food you eat can have an immediate impact on cognitive behavior," explains Holly A. Taylor, professor of psychology at Tufts and corresponding author of the study. "The popular low-carb, no-carb diets have the strongest potential for negative impact on thinking and cognition."
Taylor collaborated with Professor Robin Kanarek, former undergraduate Kara Watts and research associate Kristen D'Anci. The study, "Low-carbohydrate weight-loss diets. Effects on cognition and mood," appears in the February 2009 edition of the journal Appetite.
While the brain uses glucose as its primary fuel, it has no way of storing it. Rather, the body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose, which is carried to the brain through the blood stream and used immediately by nerve cells for energy. Reduced carbohydrate intake should thus reduce the brain’s source of energy. Therefore, researchers hypothesized that diets low in carbohydrates would affect cognitive skills.
Study participants included 19 women ages 22 to 55 who were allowed to select the diet plan they preferred -- either a low-carbohydrate diet or a low-calorie, macronutrient balanced diet recommended by the American Dietetic Association. Nine women chose a low-carbohydrate diet and 10 selected the low-calorie diet.
"Although the study had a modest sample size, the results showed a clear difference in cognitive performance as a function of diet," says Taylor.
The 19 dieters completed five testing sessions that assessed cognitive skills, including attention, long-term and short-term memory, and visual attention, and spatial memory. The first session was held before participants began their diets, the next two sessions occurred during the first week of the diet, which corresponded to the week when low-carb dieters eliminated carbohydrates. The final two sessions occurred in week two and week three of the diets, after carbohydrates had been reintroduced for those on the low-carb diet.
"The data suggest that after a week of severe carbohydrate restriction, memory performance, particularly on difficult tasks, is impaired," Taylor explains.
Low-carb dieters showed a gradual decrease on the memory-related tasks compared with the low-calorie dieters. Reaction time for those on the low-carb diet was slower and their visuospatial memory was not as good as those on the low-calorie diet. However, low-carb dieters actually responded better than low-calorie dieters during the attention vigilance task. Researchers note that past studies have shown that diets high in protein or fat can improve a person's attention in the short-term, which is consistent with the results in this study.
Participants were also asked about their hunger levels and mood during each session. The hunger-rating did not vary between participants on a low-carb diet and those on a low-calorie diet. The only mood difference between dieters was confusion, which was higher for low-calorie dieters during the middle of the study.
"Although this study only tracked dieting participants for three weeks, the data suggest that diets can affect more than just weight," says Taylor. "The brain needs glucose for energy and diets low in carbohydrates can be detrimental to learning, memory, and thinking."
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Caffeine can't replace a nap for memory enhancement

Hoping to improve your tennis serve? It's probably better to catch a few winks than load up on java after a lesson, results of a NIMH-supported study suggest. Caffeine impaired such motor learning and verbal memory, while an afternoon nap benefited all three types of learning tested by Sara Mednick, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego. The researchers report on their findings in the November issue of Behavioural Brain Research.

Background
Ninety percent of Americans use caffeine daily, some substituting it for sleep. While the stimulant enhances alertness and concentration, it's been unclear whether it also helps learning and memory. By contrast, daytime naps, like nighttime sleep, benefit both alertness and memory, Mednick and colleagues have shown in a series of studies.
In this first head-to-head day-time comparison, 61 participants trained in the morning on verbal memory, motor, and perceptual learning tasks. After lunch, one group napped (60-90 min), while two other groups listened to a book on tape and received a pill containing either the caffeine equivalent of a little less than a Tall Starbucks brewed coffee (200mg) or a placebo. Later in the afternoon, the three groups were tested to see how well they had learned the tasks.

Findings of This Study
The nap group performed significantly better on a finger tapping motor task and in recalling words, than the caffeine group. The nap group also trumped the other groups on a texture discrimination task of perceptual learning. The placebo group performed better than the caffeine group on all three tasks. Curiously, just thinking that the pill might contain caffeine — the placebo effect — helped as much as a nap on the motor task.

Significance
Evidence suggests that caffeine interferes with tasks that require processing explicit, as opposed to implicit, information - like recalling a specific word, versus remembering how to type or ride a bike. Studies show that consolidation of such explicit verbal memory during sleep depends on lowered levels of the chemical messenger acetylcholine in the brain's memory hub. Yet, by blocking activity of a natural sedative chemical, caffeine boosts acetylcholine in this hub.

"This increase in acetylcholine by caffeine may impair the consolidation process by blocking replay of new memories," proposes Mednick. "Consistent with this, we found that the greater the explicit component of each task, the worse the caffeine group performed."

What's Next?
"Such an impairment of performance runs counter to society's assumption that caffeine typically benefits cognitive performance," she notes. "Apparent improvements with caffeine might actually reflect a relief from withdrawal symptoms. Just as no medicinal alternative to a good night's rest has been discovered, so too caffeine, the most common pharmacological intervention for sleepiness, may not be an adequate substitute for the memory enhancements of daytime sleep, either."
Mednick and colleagues are using new pharmacological agents found to selectively enhance particular stages of nighttime sleep to see if they can enhance memory consolidation during daytime naps. Brain imaging will pinpoint effects on neural circuits. These studies of pharmacologically enhanced naps could lead to improved treatments for memory impairment in mental disorders, based on manipulations of sleep, say the researchers.
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Therapy helps teens avoid relapse into depression

Adolescents with major depression who received cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) after responding to an antidepressant were less likely to experience a relapse or recurrence of symptoms compared to teens who did not receive CBT, according to a small, NIMH-funded pilot study published in the December 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Studies have found that adults with depression who have responded to medication treatment are less likely to have a relapse if they receive CBT during the follow-up treatment phase, according to researchers Betsy Kennard, Psy.D., of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and colleagues. Scientists theorize that initial antidepressant treatment may help improve symptoms enough so that a patient becomes more receptive to CBT or other psychosocial component. Kennard and colleagues aimed to determine if a similar sequential treatment strategy would be effective with depressed adolescents.
In this pilot study, 46 depressed youths ages 11 to 18 who had responded to 12 weeks of treatment with the antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac) were randomly assigned to either six months of continued medication management (MM), or to medication management plus cognitive behavioral therapy (MM+CBT) designed to prevent relapse.
Kennard and colleagues found that the youths who received only MM were significantly more likely to relapse than the youths who received MM+CBT. The researchers estimated that 37 percent of those in the MM group were likely to relapse, while 15 percent of those in the MM+CBT group were likely to relapse. Patients getting MM+CBT also reported higher rates of satisfaction compared to those getting MM only.
This pilot study demonstrates that, as in adult studies, introducing CBT in follow-up treatment after a patient responds to antidepressant treatment may be a promising strategy in preventing relapse among depressed adolescents.
The researchers currently are conducting a larger trial of MM+CBT to further evaluate the effectiveness of this treatment strategy in youths with depression.
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Tobacco smoke linked to behavioral problems in boys with asthma

Boys with asthma who are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke have higher degrees of hyperactivity, aggression, depression and other behavioral problems, according to researchers. The researchers said behavioral problems increase along with higher exposure levels, but they added even low levels of tobacco smoke may be detrimental to behavior. ... > read full article

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How stress affects memory

Researchers using functional MRI (fMRI) have determined that the circuitry in the area of the brain responsible for suppressing memory is dysfunctional in patients suffering from stress-related psychiatric disorders. Results of the study will be presented December 3 at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
"For patients with major depression and other stress-related disorders, traumatic memories are a source of anxiety," said Nivedita Agarwal, M.D., radiology resident at the University of Udine in Italy, where the study is being conducted, and research fellow at the Brain Imaging Center of McLean Hospital, Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "Because traumatic memories are not adequately suppressed by the brain, they continue to interfere with the patient's life."
Dr. Agarwal and colleagues used brain fMRI to explore alterations in the neural circuitry that links the prefrontal cortex to the hippocampus, while study participants performed a memory task. Participants included 11 patients with major depression, 13 with generalized anxiety disorder, nine with panic attack disorders, five with borderline personality disorder and 21 healthy individuals. All patients reported suffering varying degrees of stressful traumatic events, such as sexual or physical abuse, difficult relationships or "mobbing" – a type of bullying or harassment – at some point in their lives.
After reviewing a list of neutral word pairs, each participant underwent fMRI. During imaging, they were presented with one of the words and asked to either recall or to suppress the memory of its associated word.
The fMRI images revealed that the prefrontal cortex, which controls the suppression and retrieval of memories processed by the hippocampus, showed abnormal activation in the patients with stress-related disorders compared to the healthy controls. During the memory suppression phase of the test, patients with stress-related disorders showed greater activation in the hippocampus, suggesting that insufficient activation of the prefrontal cortex could be the basis for inadequate suppression of unwanted traumatic memories stored in the hippocampus.
"These data suggest that the mechanism for memory suppression is dysfunctional in patients with stress-related disorders primarily because of an alteration of the prefrontal cortex," Dr. Agarwal said. "These patients often complain of poor memory, which might in part be attributed to this altered circuitry," she added.
According to Dr. Agarwal, fMRI is an important tool in understanding the neurobiological basis of psychiatric disorders and in identifying imaging markers to psychiatric disease, helping clinicians target specific parts of the brain for treatment.
The study's principal investigator is Paolo Brambilla, M.D., Ph.D. Co-authors are Monica Baiano, M.D., Ph.D., Massimo Bazzocchi, M.D., Giuseppe Como, M.D., and Marta Maieron, Ph.D.

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Depression and abdominal fat linked

Older adults with symptoms of depression appear more likely to gain abdominal fat, but not overall fat, over a five-year period, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
About 10 percent to 15 percent of older adults have symptoms of depression, according to background information in the article. "Depression has been associated with the onset of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cardiac mortality [death]," the authors write. "To better prevent occurrence of these major disabling and life-threatening diseases, more insight into underlying mechanisms relating depression to these disorders is needed."
Nicole Vogelzangs, M.Sc., of VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues studied 2,088 adults age 70 to 79 years. Participants were screened for depression at the beginning of the study and their overall and abdominal obesity was recorded then and again after five years. Measures of overall obesity included body mass index and body fat percentage, while abdominal obesity was assessed using waist circumference, sagittal diameter (distance between the back and the highest point of the abdomen) and visceral fat (fat between the internal organs) measured by computed tomography.
At the beginning of the study, 4 percent of participants had depression. After adjusting for sociodemographic and other characteristics associated with weight changes, depression was associated with an increase in sagittal diameter and visceral fat over five years. "Such an association was not found for an increase in overall obesity and also appeared to be independent of changes in overall obesity, suggesting that depressive symptoms are rather specifically associated with fat gain in the visceral region," the authors write.
There are several mechanisms by which depression might increase abdominal fat, they note. Chronic stress and depression may activate certain brain areas and lead to increased levels of the hormone cortisol, which promotes the accumulation of visceral fat. Individuals with depression may have unhealthier lifestyles, including a poor diet, that could interact with other physiological factors to produce an increase in abdominal obesity.
"Our longitudinal results suggest that clinically relevant depressive symptoms give rise to an increase in abdominal obesity, in particular visceral fat, which seems to be stronger than and independent of overall obesity," the authors conclude. "This could also help explain why depression is often followed by diabetes or cardiovascular disease. Future research should further disentangle these mechanisms because this will yield important information for prevention or treatment of depression-related health consequences."
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The best way to teach kids

It's a question that confronts parents and teachers everywhere- what is the best method of teaching kids new skills? Is it better for children to learn gradually, starting with easy examples and slowly progressing to more challenging problems? Or is it more effective to just dive-in head first with difficult problems, and then move on to easier examples? Although conventional wisdom suggests that the best way to learn a difficult skill is to progress from easier problems to more difficult ones, research examining this issue has resulted in mixed outcomes.
University of California, Santa Barbara psychologists Brain J. Spiering and F. Gregory Ashby wanted to pinpoint the best strategies for learning new information. In their study, a group of volunteers were taught a new task in which they had to categorize items. The volunteers were trained to complete the task by one of three methods—starting with easy problems, starting with harder problems then moving on to easier examples or being shown examples in random order.
The results, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, showed that the effects of the different training methods depended on the type of categories that the participants were learning. When the categories could be easily described (i.e. was the line horizontal or vertical?), all three of the training procedures were equally effective. However, when the categories could not be described easily, starting with the harder problems then moving to easier ones produced the best results. The volunteers in the easy-to-hard group were able to come up with simple rules and category descriptions which worked for the easy problems, but were not applicable to more complicated problems.
As a result, these participants ended up doing poorly on the task because they were unable to think abstractly to solve the problem. On the other hand, the participants who began with harder problems very quickly stopped trying to come up ways to describe the categories and thought about the problems in a more abstract way; this strategy helped them to perform well throughout the task.
These findings have important implications for teachers and educators and suggest that materials should be presented to students in a specific order, depending on what is being taught.
Source: Association for Psychological Science
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Remember what you love about your job

Urging employees to simply rethink their jobs was enough to drop absenteeism by 60 per cent and turnover by 75 per cent, a new University of Alberta study shows.
A 'Spirit at Work' intervention program, designed to engage employees and give a sense of purpose, significantly boosted morale and job retention for a group of long-term health-care workers at the center of the study.
"We discovered that people who are able to find meaning and purpose in their work, and can see how they make a difference through that work, are healthier, happier and more productive employees," said Val Kinjerski, a University of Alberta PhD graduate who co-authored the study and now works with organizations to cultivate productive workplaces.
The results were published recently in the Journal of Gerontological Nursing.
The study focused on two groups of long-term health-care workers from two different care facilities in Canada. One group of 24 employees attended a Spirit at Work one-day workshop, followed by eight weekly booster sessions offered at shift changes. The workers were led through a variety of exercises designed to help staff create personal action plans to enhance spirit at work. They were asked to consider concepts like the deeper purpose of their work, being of service, appreciation of themselves and others, sense of community and self-care.
The second group of 34 workers was offered no support program.
The result for the intervention group was a 23 per cent increase in teamwork, a 10 per cent hike in job satisfaction and a 17 per cent jump in workplace morale. In addition, employer costs related to absenteeism were almost $12,000 less for the five months following the workshop than for the same period in the previous year. The employees also showed an increased interest in and focus on their patients, Kinjerski said.
"They really had a sense of what they were there to do, to be of service to their clients. This notion of being of service is important in all work, but in the field of long-term health care, it is of utmost importance."
Ultimately, the findings will aid employers in retaining and fostering a happier, more motivated workforce, said Berna Skrypnek, a human ecology professor at the U of A and co-author of the study. "This has become a leading concern in the long-term health-care field and for that matter, in any field, as labour markets become tighter and employees are demanding meaning and fulfillment from their work."
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Self-help groups work for addictions

New data indicate that 2.3 million people who participate in self-help groups for alcohol or illicit drug use currently abstain from use of these substances. Based on a nationwide survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the report offers other data highlighting the use and benefits of these groups.
Among the report’s notable findings:
• An annual average of 5 million persons aged 12 or older attended a self-help group in the past year because of their use of alcohol or illicit drugs
• 45.3 percent attended a group because of their alcohol use only and 21.8 percent attended a group because of their illicit drug use only, while 33.0 percent attended a group because of their use of both alcohol and illicit drugs
• 45.1 percent of past year self-help group participants did not use alcohol or illicit drugs in the past month
• Almost one third (32.7 percent) of individuals who attended a self-help group for their substance use during the past year also received specialty treatment for substance abuse in the past year. Specialty treatment refers to substance abuse treatment received at a hospital as an inpatient, at a rehabilitation facility (either inpatient or outpatient), or at a mental health center.
“This report adds to the substantial body of research indicating that participation in self-help groups can help support people battling substance abuse problems,” said SAMHSA Acting Administrator Eric Broderick, D.D.S., M.P.H. “Self-help groups often are used in conjunction with specialty treatment and to support individuals seeking help or sustaining their recovery.”
Findings for Participation in Self-Help Groups for Alcohol and Illicit Drug Use: 2006 and 2007, are drawn from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), a nationwide survey of 67,500 respondents each year. This report focused on questions asked of persons aged 12 and older about their participation in a self-help group for substance use (i.e., alcohol use, illicit drug use, or both).
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Brain determines personality?

Have you got the new iPhone yet? Do you like changing jobs now and again because you get bored otherwise? Do you go on holiday to different places every year? Then maybe your neural connection between ventral striatum and hippocampus is particularly well developed. Both of them are centres in the brain. The reward system which urges us to take action is located in the striatum, whereas the hippocampus is responsible for specific memory functions.
In innovation-oriented people, both of these centres apparently interact particularly well. At least this is the supposition of the scientists from Bonn, Michael X. Cohen and Dr. Bernd Weber. If the hippocampus identifies an experience as new, it then sends the correspond-ing feedback to the striatum. There certain neurotransmitters are then released which lead to positive feelings. With people who constantly seek new experiences, striatum and hippocampus are evidently wired particularly well. The two researchers were able to show this in the survey now being published.
Up to now, it has been extremely difficult to make the individual 'wiring' of the brain visible. 'In principle this was only possible using cross sections of the brain of deceased people, which in addition had to be stained in a complex process,' Dr. Weber explains. Thanks to a new method this is now a lot easier. With modern MRI you can actually determine in which directions the water in the tissue diffuses. Nerve fibres are an impenetrable obstacle for tissue fluid. It can only flow along them. These 'directional' streams of water are visible in the tomography image. 'With this hazard-free method we can work on completely new issues related to the function of the brain,' Cohen says enthusiastically.
In the current study the Bonn scientists focused on the 'wiring' of the striatum. Moreover, the test candidates had to choose descriptions that characterised their personality best from a questionnaire, e.g. 'I like to try out new things just for fun or because it's a challenge' or alternatively 'I prefer to stay at home rather than travelling or investigating new things.'
By contrast, descriptions such as 'I want to please other people as much as possible' or 'I don't care whether other people like me or the way I do things', were about social accept-ance. Here too the researchers noticed a link. 'The stronger the connection between frontal lobe and ventral striatum, the more distinctive the desire for recognition by that person's environment,' Weber says. That is not quite unexpected. For example, it is known that people with defects of the frontal lobe violate social norms more frequently.
The Bonn scientists wish to confirm their results even more. In experiments they would like to investigate whether people actually behave differently depending on the 'wiring' of their brain.
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Cause of problem-solving deficit in schizophrenia found?

New research has traced elevated levels of a specific compound in the brain to problem-solving deficits in patients with schizophrenia.
The finding suggests that drugs used to suppress the compound, called kynurenic acid, might be an important supplement to antipsychotic medicines, as these adjuncts could be used to treat the disorder's most resistant symptoms – cognitive impairments.
Though schizophrenia is commonly characterized by hallucinations and delusions, patients also have problems with what is known as cognitive flexibility or executive decision-making. Many patients can set a goal and plan one way to achieve it, but cannot adjust their thinking if circumstances force them to consider alternative strategies.
"We've got this core cluster of symptoms that is the Achilles heel for these individuals, and we're not really doing a good job of treating them," said John P. Bruno, professor of psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience at Ohio State University and principal investigator of the research.
Bruno and colleagues have combined advanced animal modeling of schizophrenia-related chemical changes in the brain with the observation that the production of too much kynurenic acid is linked to troubled thinking that affects the research animals' behavior.
The compound is present in all human brains and has some useful functions. But in excessive amounts, the researchers found, kynurenic acid interferes with other chemical processes that govern the ability to pay attention and think strategically under changing conditions.
"If we try to make predictions about how disabled patients with schizophrenia will be and how likely are they to be integrated into the social fabric, it's the severity of the cognitive deficits that are most predictive," Bruno said. "Antipsychotics are particularly good at what we call positive symptoms, but these same drugs are very poor at treating the cognitive deficits.
"There are a lot of therapeutic strategies for dealing with schizophrenia, but one which has not been explored, and which we think has a great deal of promise, has to do with regulating production of kynurenic acid," Bruno said.
He described the research Tuesday (11/18) at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, D.C.
Bruno and colleagues tested kynurenic acid's effects on cognitive abilities in rats. Seven rats were given a compound that stimulated excess production of the molecule in their brains, while a control group of rats received no such stimulation. All of the rats were subjected to a test gauging their ability to make what is called an extra-dimensional set shift, requiring them to change response strategies based on changing contingencies – in this case, in a quest to find food.
Only 28 percent of the rats with elevated kynurenic acid were able to solve problems to receive a food reward, compared to 100 percent of the control animals. Before the intervention, all of the animals were equally able to find the food under changing circumstances.
The kynurenic acid essentially exacerbates a phenomenon already observed in patients with schizophrenia – the fact that two neurotransmitters in their brains are not as active as they need to be to allow for normal problem-solving capabilities.
These two neurotransmitters critical to normal cognition are acetylcholine and glutamate. Their activity is partially regulated by what are called alpha-7 receptors, a class of proteins involved in the brain's chemical communication system. In the case of schizophrenia, these neurotransmitters are already at abnormally low levels, most likely because of genetic mutations.
Excess levels of kynurenic acid inhibit the work of the alpha-7 receptors, meaning they suppress the release of these neurotransmitters even more.
"So we've already got problems with these neurotransmitters, and then to make matters worse, we've got all this extra kynurenic acid antagonizing the alpha-7 receptors, which just throws gasoline onto the fire," Bruno said. "If we can design drugs that are able to inhibit the enzymes that are responsible for overproducing kynurenic acid, we may improve cognitive performance in these patients."
Antipsychotic agents used to control hallucinations and delusions act on different neurotransmitters. Agents targeting kynurenic acid production could be part of a medication cocktail that could restore additional neurochemistry responsible for cognition, Bruno said.
Bruno's research group is able to precisely gauge the effects of the compound on neurotransmitters in the brain because of the animal model used for the research. Schizophrenia was once considered too complex a disorder to model in an animal brain, but Bruno and colleagues have developed a rat model to focus on specific cognitive deficits traced to the part of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex.
An element of the modeling is the painless use of microelectrodes in the animals' brains to measure neurotransmitter levels before and after introduction of the agent that elevates kyurenic acid. The real-time measurements allow the scientists to prove the causal relationship between the elevated compound and the reduced presence of the neurotransmitters.
"No one is claiming that we're producing rats with schizophrenia. What we can do is model the neural side pathologies and see if those pathologies lead to behavioral impairments that look like what see on the clinical side. When we get both of those to line up as we have in this model, we have a valid model to ask questions about developing novel therapeutics," Bruno said. "This has allowed us to move from molecules to neurotransmitters to cognitive behavior all in one fell swoop. These findings set the foundation for several years of research that we hope will have some very big implications."
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Gingko biloba does nothing for memory, researchers say

One of the most widely used herbal supplements for improving memory and cognition has no impact on the development of dementia or Alzheimer's disease, according to new results from a $30 million, multi-center study.
The Ginkgo biloba for the Evaluation of Memory (GEM) Study was the largest clinical trial ever to evaluate the effects of the dietary supplement ginkgo biloba (ginkgo) on the occurrence of dementia. The study tested the effectiveness of 120 milligrams (mg) of ginkgo twice daily versus placebo in lowering the incidence of dementia and Alzheimer's in normal, elderly people and those with mild cognitive impairment.
Results from the study show that 240 mg of ginkgo daily has no effect on the onset of dementia or development of Alzheimer's. The study appears in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Many people today use ginkgo leaf extracts hoping to improve memory, to treat or help prevent Alzheimer's and other types of dementia, to decrease intermittent claudication (leg pain caused by narrowing arteries) and to treat sexual dysfunction, multiple sclerosis, tinnitus, and other health conditions. In Europe and the United States, ginkgo supplements are among the best-selling herbal medications and it consistently ranks as a top medicine prescribed in France and Germany.
"Alzheimer's disease is a devastating disease affecting large numbers of older adults," said Gregory Burke, M.D., M.Sc., the lead investigator for the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center clinical site. "Our best strategy is to prevent dementia before it begins."
The study was conducted primarily to determine if ginkgo would decrease the incidence of all types of dementia and, more specifically, reduce the incidence of Alzheimer's. The study also aimed to evaluate ginkgo for its effects on overall cognitive decline, functional disability, incidence of cardiovascular disease and stroke, and total mortality.
The results were disappointing and surprising, said Burke and Jeff Williamson, M.D., M.H.S., principal investigator for the GEM Study Clinical Coordinating Center at Wake Forest Baptist.
"In addition to its widespread use based on the belief that it helps memory function," Williamson said, "Ginkgo biloba had enough promising circumstantial evidence from laboratory and animal studies and enough safety information to warrant a full-scale test in humans."
Dementia is a form of brain disease that can seriously affect a person's ability to carry out daily activities. It is caused by many conditions, some of which are reversible. Alzheimer's is one of the most common forms of dementia in older people, affecting nearly 4.5 million Americans, according to the National Institute on Aging. It is an incurable disease with a slow progression beginning with mild memory loss and ending with severe brain damage and death.
The GEM Study was conducted at four clinical sites: Wake Forest Baptist, the University of Pittsburgh, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of California-Davis.
Investigators followed a total of 3,069 participants age 75 or older, who had either normal cognition or mild cognitive impairment. Participants were randomized to receive twice-daily doses of either 120 mg of ginkgo extract or placebo. The dose of ginkgo was selected based on prior clinical study results that found 120 mg twice daily to be the most effective dose. The gingko product used in the study was supplied by Schwabe Pharmaceuticals and is sold in the United States as Ginkgold MaxTM, under the Nature's Way label.
Patients were followed for an average of about six years, with a maximum of just over seven years. During the study, 523 participants were diagnosed with dementia, 246 in the placebo group and 277 in the ginkgo group, leading researchers to declare that ginkgo showed no overall effect for reducing all types of dementia or Alzheimer's.
"It is very unlikely that ginkgo biloba is effective at any dose over a five-year period and in anyone over 75 years old," Williamson said. "It is also ineffective in people with signs of early memory loss. What is not known yet is whether the effect of ginkgo biloba might require taking the drug for many, many years, say 15 years, before there is even a sign of memory loss."
For the millions of people spending their money on over-the-counter ginkgo for the perceived promise of protection from dementia and Alzheimer's, Williamson suggests they spend their money elsewhere, while remaining mentally and physically active.
And though ginkgo failed to perform as hoped, Williamson explained that the trial was valuable in many ways to the scientific community. The study experience itself demonstrates the feasibility of conducting large dementia prevention trials in older adults, the researchers said.
"One of the most important findings from this study is that we can recruit and follow adequate numbers of volunteers for this purpose, even in the rapidly growing population of people over age 75," he said. "This will be critical for the most cost-effective use of scarce Medicare dollars in the future.
"Secondly, we are already learning a lot of new information from the GEMS volunteers about how dementia develops and how not all memory change is a sign of impending dementia," Williamson added.
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Suicide hotline logs 1 million calls

Today the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network has answered its one millionth call since the hotline was launched on Jan. 1, 2005.
“The Lifeline reached this significant milestone because more people in emotional distress or suicidal crisis are becoming aware that help is available just by picking up the telephone and dialing 1-800-273-TALK,” said the Substance Abuse and Mental Health ServicesAdministration’s acting administrator, Eric Broderick, D.D.S, M.P.H.
Using state-of-the-art technology and a network of 133 local crisis centers across the country, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Lifeline) can immediately link a caller seeking help to a trained counselor closest to the caller’s location, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Calls to the toll-free Lifeline are confidential.
“People who feel hopeless, who don’t see a way out of their problems and their pain, need to know that there is somewhere they can turn for support and assistance. You are not alone,” Dr. Broderick said.
SAMHSA, which established the Lifeline in 2005 with a grant to Link2Health Solutions, Inc., has been working with organizations such as the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors and the American Association of Suicidology to focus public attention on the nationwide impact of suicide and to highlight ways to prevent it. In 2005, suicides accounted for 32,637 deaths in the United States. The suicide estimate is for the latest year for which data is available. The total is almost twice the number of homicides.
Within the past 15 months, the Lifeline has become linked with the Veterans Suicide Prevention Hotline - a partnership between SAMHSA and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Hotline provides national, around-the-clock access to crisis counseling for veterans and their families. Veterans seeking help or concerned family members can call 800-273-TALK (8255) and press “1” to be connected to a specialized call center run by the Department of Veterans Affairs and staffed by mental health professionals.
Currently, calls to the Lifeline average 47,500 per month, with more than 1,580 people calling daily.
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Government sets up funding to reduce suicide among college students

A new grant funded by the National Institutes of Menal Health (NIMH) will test an intervention designed to prevent or reduce suicide among college students.
Suicidal thinking and behavior among college students can result from a wide variety of problems including drug and alcohol abuse, mood disorders, problems in social relationships and physical health problems. Some research has suggested that a tendency to avoid unwanted emotions and negative thoughts can contribute to the problems that lead to suicide. Yet many college students who die by suicide never seek help within their institutions.
Steven Hayes, Ph.D. and Jacqueline Pistorello, Ph.D., of the University of Nevada Reno, will test an intervention called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which is based on the notion that acceptance and awareness of difficult emotions can help students reduce avoidance behavior and improve their psychological flexibility, which may reduce the frequency of problems that often precede suicide attempts. About 720 college freshmen will be randomized to receive either ACT or a brief educational course on adjusting to the challenges of college life.
For up to three years, the students will be assessed on a range of psychological, behavioral, health and academic aspects that are known to be associated with suicidal thinking and behavior, including self-injury and risky behaviors. If found to be successful in reducing suicide attempts and thinking, ACT could be readily disseminated within the college experience, and may be incorporated into a classroom-based approach that could have broad public health implications, according to the researchers.
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Cognitive-behavioral therapy fund effective for traumatized kids

Individual and group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) were the only interventions found effective in an evaluation of seven commonly-used approaches to reduce the psychological harm to youth who experience trauma.
Evidence for the five other interventions evaluated—play therapy, art therapy, psychodynamic therapy, pharmacologic therapy, and psychological debriefing—was found insufficient to judge effectiveness. The evaluation is one of a series of reviews of community health interventions carried out by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, an independent, nonfederal group convened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Task Force recommendations based on the reviews are incorporated in the Guide to Community Preventive Services, which summarizes what is known about the effectiveness, economic efficiency, and feasibility of interventions to promote community health and prevent disease.
The number of children and adolescents in the U.S. exposed to trauma each year is substantial. National survey data from 2002 to 2003 on children ages 12 to 17 indicate that one in eight children experienced a form of child maltreatment, such as abuse or neglect; one in 12 experienced sexual victimization; and one in three witnessed or indirectly experienced violence or victimization, including rioting, assault, and theft. The psychological harm that can result from exposure of children to trauma includes post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and thoughts of suicide, risk-taking and aggressive behavior, and substance abuse.
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Addicted To Tanning Beds? 'Tanorexia' Common Among University Students

A new study, reported today by Science Daily, conducted at a large university finds more than 25 percent of those surveyed reported symptoms of tanning dependence, including symptoms similar to alcohol and drug-addicted individuals. Suggestively, the study also found those with a tanning dependence tend to be more likely to be thin and smoke cigarettes than others. The study by researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center is published in the September/October issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior.
Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer, according to the American Cancer Society, accounting for half of all human cancers with over a million new cases diagnosed yearly in the United States. It is reported that up to 90 percent of all skin cancers are associated with ultraviolet radiation.
For the study, Heckman and her colleagues set out to understand what proportion of college students report problems with tanning dependence and whether there are shared behaviors among those considered to be tanning dependent and those with other forms of addiction.
"Adolescents and young adults tend to put themselves at risk for later skin cancer by exposing themselves to high levels of ultraviolet radiation, so by understanding some possible reasons why, we hope to develop innovative interventions to help prevent these risky behaviors," explains Carolyn Heckman, Ph.D., an associate member at Fox Chase Cancer Center.
Heckman and her colleagues recruited 400 students and other volunteers at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia during the spring semester of 2006. Participants took part in an online survey utilizing items adapted from questionnaires used to measure traditional substance abuse and dependence. The measures assess tolerance to tanning (the need to tan increasingly frequently), withdrawal from tanning (discomfort when not having tanned recently), and difficulty controlling the behavior despite awareness of its negative impact such as freckles, wrinkles, pre-cancerous lesions, etc.
The survey included questions such as "Do you think you need to spend more and more time in the sun to maintain your perfect tan?", "Do you continue tanning so your tan will not fade?" and "Does this [your belief that tanning can cause skin cancer] keep you from spending time in the sun or going to tanning beds?" Participants were queried about their level of intentional and incidental sun exposure, tanning booth use, and chemical sunless tanner use. The survey also asked about health-related behaviors such as body mass index, smoking, and exercise.
"The media and lay public may know tanning dependence as 'tanorexia,' alluding to similarities to both substance addictions and body image disorders like anorexia," Heckman says. "There is some evidence that UV tanning dependence may have biological underpinnings like other addictions such as the production of endorphins as in the 'runner's high.'"
Heckman adds: "We were surprised to find that 27 percent of those we surveyed were classified as tanning dependent. The finding that almost 40 percent of those surveyed had used tanning booths and that the mean age when tanning booths were first used was 17 is also alarming."
Interestingly, sun tanning appeared to be more closely related to tanning dependence than indoor tanning, though use of indoor tanning during warm weather also signaled tanning dependence.
Finally, the researchers say that those addicted to tanning were more likely to be thin and smoke cigarettes than others, suggesting meaningful avenues for further research into possible links among risky behaviors.
"Our ultimate goal is to find out more about the motivations for tanning so that we can develop interventions that would reduce tanning and hopefully skin cancer," Heckman concludes.
This study was funding by the National Cancer Institute. In addition to Heckman, other authors include Brian L. Egleston, PhD, of Fox Chase Cancer Center; Diane B. Wilson, EdD, MS, RD, of Virginia Commonwealth University; and Karen S. Ingersoll, PhD, of the University of Virginia. The authors report no disclosures.

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Animal model holds the key to understanding bipolar disorder

Bipolar Disorder (BPD or manic-depressive illness) is one of the most serious of all mental disorders, affecting millions of individuals worldwide. Affected individuals alternate between states of deep depression and mania. Now, a mouse model of the disease has been developed. Researchers found that the glutamate receptor 6 (GluR6) gene is associated with bipolar disorder. Mice that were missing the GluR6 gene underwent a series of tests designed to approximate the symptoms of mania. These mice showed many of the symptoms of mania, including hyperactivity, aggressiveness, driven or increased goal-directed pursuits, risk-taking, and super-sensitivity to amphetamine. The researchers also found that treating the mice with lithium -- the classic treatment for bipolar disorder -- reduced these symptoms. ... > read full article

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You Can't Go Home Again

Q: I moved out of my parents' house last year. It's been okay, but everything is so expensive I don't know if I want to continue like this. I can pay my bills, but that's it. If I moved back home I could save about $800 a month. Problem is I really don't get along with my parents or my sister. I'm torn about what to do.
Saver not a spender

A: I think you answered your own question when you said that none of you get along in your family. I know you feel the general sense of anxiety about finances, but it sounds like you have the means to live on your own. What price tag can you put on your sanity?

There's something to be said for being on your own. I don't know how old you are, but moving back home can be a reversion to childhood. This can mean you're treated like a child again, and it can also mean that unconsciously you want to retreat to the safety of childhood, no matter how uncomfortable it was. I know that for some the end result of moving back can be an unexpected crushing blow to their sense of self-esteem. I would advise you to carefully weigh the options. You could give the old tried and true method of listing all the pros and cons of each. But most importantly, the decision has to come from your feelings. After all, they will be your constant companion no matter what you do.

Be Well
Michael

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Memories Lead Nowhere

Q: I've been in therapy every week for the last two years. Recently I've started remembering things that happened when I was very young (2 or 3 years old). I thought this would help me get to the root of the problems I have, but instead it seems I'm getting worse. I feel stuck in a rut. I really have two questions. One, how do I go further in remembering traumas that happened, even as an infant? Second, is it normal to be getting worse instead of better?
Losing my patience

A: Great question. Recovered memory may be imaginary, not reality. If you're seriously trying to recollect events prior to five, it's probably not going to happen. Your brain is still developing in childhood. At two or three, you don't have any verbal memories. If you do, there might be an accurate snippet, but it's primarily projection.

Some folks say that therapy has made them worse, and that is often true. I can offer at least a hundred reasons for this, but here are two:
1.Generally, people get worse before they get better in therapy. If they stop prematurely, they can walk away in worse shape.
2. But more likely, when clients or therapists begin digging into the past too soon, the hunt for memories becomes a subclinical, or even clinical, obsession. Depth therapy does more harm than good if someone is given to obsessions.

Here's the reality: Your past is useful only as part of the story you tell about your life. Go to therapy every week with a therapist who uses an interpersonal approach to the therapeutic dialogue. You'll see your past come to life in the present through your relationship with the therapist. Only then can you have the "corrective emotional experience." Otherwise you're stuck saying, "I will not change until (my parents, my brother, my dog, whoever) treats me differently when I was three."
Be well.
Michael

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