Favorites » His Blog
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Apr 17, 2007 10:09am
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"Having Trust in the Doctor's Love for Man"
e-psyche will be away for the following year, doing his service
in the medical department of the Greek Army.
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Apr 7, 2007 10:22am
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Christ is Risen!
Now after the sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Mag'dalene and the other Mary went to see the sepulchre.
And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.
His appearance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow.
And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here; for He has risen, as He said.
Come, see the place where he lay.
Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. Lo, I have told you."
So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them and said, "Hail!" And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.
Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me."
While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place.
And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sum of money to the soldiers and said, "Tell people, `His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.'
And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble."
So they took the money and did as they were directed; and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him; but some doubted.
And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."
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Depression? - World of Psychology
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Apr 3, 2007 10:41am
1 review
mental-health, psychiatry, psychology, depression
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/04/03/depression/
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Depression?
by Greg Rogers
This New York Times article, entitled "Many Diagnoses of Depression May Be Misguided, Study Says" brings up a valid point about diagnosis. As I've said before, since we base "diagnosis" in the mental health field on self reports from clients, often checking off boxes on a form, the term "diagnosis" is misleading. In the medical field, the word generally has some physical, empirical basis. An observable bacteria, a lesion, specific physical symptoms. Of course we even misuse the term "empirical" in the field of psychology, using this word when the "empirical" data we are referencing are really subjective self report survey data.
So this article discusses the idea that depression may be over-diagnosed because recent life events that could make someone temporarily sad are not taken into account. The opposing view says that the diagnostic criteria clearly differentiate between short term depression and long term depression. And of course the DSM does have such distinctions.
The key is, however, "What difference does it make?" If those with the appropriate credentials prescribe anti-depressants for either condition (which they do) what difference do the DSM categories make?
I was working with a recovering addict who was withdrawing from Oxycontin, pot, and who knows what else. He was in a long term residential treatment program. He saw a psychiatrist at one point within the first 30 days of recovery, who saw him for 10 minutes and prescribed Effexor. For someone in their first 30 days of withdrawal from drugs, being a bit blue (to put it mildly) is normal. Anti-depressants might be a valid treatment at some point, but don't you think we should allow some time to find out what life is like without drugs first?
Have we tried an exercise program? A meditation program? A proper diet? Can we charge money for these things? No. Have they been shown to be as effective as medication? Yes. How many people who are prescribed anti-anxiety drugs have been asked by the prescriber how much caffeine they consume on a daily basis? Is it on the check list? No. Does the check list ask about exercise, diet, vitamin supplements, sleep patterns, relationships, major life events, etc.? No.
What is the point of "diagnosing" in these situations? Why are we not doing thorough assessments? Well, maybe some of us are doing these types of assessments. But my impression, based on the drugs being sold, and based on the time constraints of those who have the prescription pads, is that we are getting more 10 minute prescriptions than we are thorough life assessments.
I don't think the question is whether we are "over-diagnosing" or not. I think the question is "Why are we diagnosing, instead of assessing, talking, and helping?"
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The New York Times & Log In
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Apr 3, 2007 6:38am
1 review
global-warming, climate-change
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/science/earth/03clim.html?th&emc=th
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From the page:"
The Climate Divide.
Reports From Four Fronts in the War on Warming.
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: April 3, 2007
Over the last few decades, as scientists have intensified their study of the human effects on climate and of the effects of climate change on humans, a common theme has emerged: in both respects, the world is a very unequal place.
In almost every instance, the people most at risk from climate change live in countries that have contributed the least to the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases linked to the recent warming of the planet.
Those most vulnerable countries also tend to be the poorest. And the countries that face the least harm - and that are best equipped to deal with the harm they do face - tend to be the richest.
To advocates of unified action to curb greenhouse gases, this growing realization is not welcome news.
"The original idea was that we were all in this together, and that was an easier idea to sell," said Robert O. Mendelsohn, an economist at Yale. "But the research is not supporting that. We're not in it together."
The large, industrialized countries are more resilient partly because of geography; they are mostly in midlatitude regions with Goldilocks climates - neither too hot nor too cold.
Many enjoy gifts like the thick, rich soil and generous growing season of the American corn belt or the forgiving weather of France and New Zealand.
But a bigger factor is their wealth - wealth built at least partly on a century or more of burning coal, oil and the other fossil fuels that underlie their mobile, industrial, climate-controlled way of life.
The United States, where agriculture represents just 4 percent of the economy, can endure a climatic setback far more easily than a country like Malawi, where 90 percent of the population lives in rural areas and about 40 percent of the economy is driven by rain-fed agriculture.
As big developing countries like China and India climb out of poverty, they emit their own volumes of greenhouse gases; China is about to surpass the United States in annual emissions of carbon dioxide.
But they remain a small fraction of the total human contribution to the atmosphere's natural heat-holding greenhouse effect, which is cumulative because of..."
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Can you beat 5-minute Su Doku winner?-Arts &Entertainment-Games &Puzzles-Su Doku…
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Apr 3, 2007 6:30am
1 review
puzzles, sudoku
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/games_and_p...
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Can you beat 5-minute Su Doku winner?
Michael Harvey in Prague
 A molecular chemist from Harvard has been crowned the new Su Doku world champion.
Thomas Snyder, 27, runner-up in the first world championships last year, left spectators gasping at his solving speed.
Mr Snyder, whose day job involves investigating the sub straights of DNA molecules, put his success down to his ability to scan a puzzle as a whole and visualise which cells to fill in first. He started solving puzzles aged four and always carries a selection to solve in spare moments.
He told The Times that he completed most Su Dokus in about five minutes, but the fastest was finished in under two minutes - less than two seconds per cell. "I write down a number at the same time as solving the next cell to fill in."
Describing himself as a "chronic multi-tasker", he said that he liked to solve puzzles while watching films or cooking dinner.
Mr Snyder, who only took up competitive puzzling a couple of years ago, trained for this event by creating a new type of puzzle. He practised on a few hundred in the months before the world championships at the Top Hotel in Prague, attended by the Czech president.
Second in the event was Yuhei Kusui of Japan, third Peter Hudák of Slovakia, and fourth was David McNeill from Belfast, easily the best placing by a Briton in any similar competition. The 43-year-old lecturer at Queen's University led the British team to a creditable 11th place out of 32 nations.
Mr McNeill, who carries out research in semi-conductor technology, said that the key to getting faster at Su Doku was always to use a timer.
"I use a Biro and try to limit myself to only two pencil marks when I am looking for numbers to fill in," he said. He said that he solved most of his puzzles after his family had gone to bed.
Mr Snyder said that puzzle-solvers may have traces of obsessive compulsive disorder but that "all brilliant people have a touch of craziness".
He is bringing out a book of new puzzles in America later this year but admitted that he was getting a little bored with the puzzle and did not want to be given any more Su Doku books as gifts.
Mr Snyder took five minutes to solve the Jigsaw Su Doku printed below. It is a simple variation of a classic Su Doku. See if you can beat his time - and remember that he did it on a podium with television cameras and 200 people watching him. (And he spent one minute checking his answer before handing it in.)
Amendment Tuesday, April 3
The online version of this story omitted the very important rules for solving this Jigsaw Su Doku. Our apologies.
The rule is: Fill in the numbers 1-9 in every column, row and every jigsaw shape. Any cell that has a round jigsaw border can contain only "round" numbers - that is, 3, 6, 8 or 9.
Under these rules this puzzle is correct and has only one solution as published. Again our apologies for the omission. If you don't believe me, believe Thomas Snyder whose comment is posted below.
Michael Harvey, T2 features editor"
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The New York Times & Log In
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Apr 3, 2007 6:01am
1 review
animals, psychology
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/science/03time.html?th&emc=th
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From the page:"
Time in the Animal Mind.
By CARL ZIMMER
Published: April 3, 2007
Humans are born time travelers. We may not be able to send our bodies into the past or the future, at least not yet, but we can send our minds. We can relive events that happened long ago or envision ourselves in the future.
New studies suggest that the two directions of temporal travel are intimately entwined in the human brain. A number of psychologists argue that re-experiencing the past evolved in our ancestors as a way to plan for the future and that the rise of mental time travel was crucial to our species' success. But some experts on animal behavior do not think we are unique in this respect. They point to several recent experiments suggesting that animals can visit the past and future as well.
The first clues about the twists and turns of mental time travel came from people with certain brain injuries that caused them to forget autobiographical details without forgetting the information they had picked up along the way. A man known in the scientific literature as K.C., for instance, could play chess with no memory of having ever played it. K.C. could remember sentences psychologists taught him without any memory of the lessons.
K.C. had lost what psychologists now call episodic memory. Endel Tulving, a Canadian psychologist, defined episodic memory as the ability to recall the details of personal experiences: what happened, where it happened, when it happened and so on.
Dr. Tulving argued that episodic memory was distinct from other kinds of memory that did not involve personal experience. People can remember how to get to a subway stop, for example, without recalling the first time they were there.
Episodic memory was also unique to our species, Dr. Tulving maintained. For one thing, he argued that episodic memory required self-awareness. You can't remember yourself if you don't know you exist. He also argued that there was no evidence animals could recollect experiences, even if those experiences left an impression on them.
Many animal behavior experts agreed with Dr. Tulving, even though they had not actually run experiments testing the idea. But when Nicola Clayton, a comparative psychologist, first heard about the claim, she had a different reaction. "I could feel my feathers ruffling," said Dr. Clayton, who is now at the University of Cambridge. "I thought, hang on, that doesn't make sense."
Dr. Clayton began to test western scrub jays to see if they met any of the criteria for episodic memory. The jays can hide several thousand pieces of food each year and remember the location of each one. Dr. Clayton wondered if scrub jays simply remembered locations, or if they remembered the experience of hiding the food.
She ran an experiment using two kinds of food: moth larvae and peanuts. Scrub jays prefer larvae to peanuts while the larvae are still fresh. When the larvae are dead for a few hours, the jays prefer peanuts. Dr. Clayton gave the birds a chance to hide both kinds of food and then put them in another cage. She later returned the birds to their caches, in some cases after four hours and in other cases after five days.
The time the scrub jays spent away from their caches had a big effect on the type of food they looked for. The birds that waited four hours tended to dig up larvae, and the birds that had to wait for..."
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Apr 3, 2007 6:01am
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"I believe I found the missing link between animal and civilized man. It is us."
Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)
Ethologist, Nobel laureate
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The formation of social memories
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Mar 30, 2007 11:21pm
1 review
psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/c-tfo033007.php
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The formation of social memories.
Is there a specific memory for events involving people? Researchers in the Vulnerability, Adaptation and Psychopathology Laboratory (CNRS/University Paris VI France ) and a Canadian team at Douglas Hospital, McGill University (Montreal), have identified the internal part of the prefrontal cortex as being the key structure for memorising social information. Published in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, February 2007
Social events such as a party with friends, a work meeting or an argument with a partner form an integral part of daily life. Our ability to remember these events, and more precisely to remember the people and the relationships we had with them, is essential to ensure satisfactory adaptation to our social existence. At a cerebral level, various regions of the brain, and particularly the hippocampus, are directly involved in learning and memory. Some of these regions are specialised in learning certain types of information, such as the amygdale and our memory for emotions.
The Canadian and French teams (the latter led by Philippe Fossati ) have recently identified a precise region in the frontal cortex which may be specialised in recording and learning social information. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging technique, the scientists measured cerebral activity in 17 volunteers while they accomplished a memory task involving pictures of social scenes (interacting individuals) and non-social scenes (landscapes with no people). They thus identified the internal part of the prefrontal cortex, called the medial prefrontal cortex, as being the key structure in memorising social information from a picture.
Previous studies performed by the same research teams had associated this prefrontal region with thinking processes about self and others. Their work suggested that in addition to emotions, the analysis of specifically human information could facilitate learning and memorisation, involving cerebral structures specialised in analysing mental states and empathy. This work opens important perspectives regarding our understanding of the mechanisms of human recollections and mental disorders (schizophrenia, autism) which affect social and relational skills.
###BIBLIOGRAPHY
Modulation of memory formation by stimulus content: specific role of the medial prefrontal cortex in the successful encoding of social pictures, Harvey, P.O., Fossati, P., Lepage, M. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, February 2007
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Think herbal supplements are safe? Think again, book by Saint Louis University d…
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Mar 28, 2007 12:55pm
4 reviews
medical-science, psychiatry
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/slu-ths032707.php
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From the page:"
Think herbal supplements are safe? Think again, book by Saint Louis University doctor says.
SLU psychiatrist details how herbs interact with drugs.
ST. LOUIS -- People are mixing supplements, herbs and over-the-counter medications and prescription drugs to cure themselves of ills, unaware that they could be making themselves sicker, says George Grossberg, M.D., director of the division of geriatric psychiatry at Saint Louis University.
Dr. Grossberg is about to change all that. He is the co-author of a new book, "The Essential Herb-Drug-Vitamin Interaction Guide," which is a comprehensive listing of what various herbs and supplements do, possible side effects and how they might interact with other medications and foods.
"People think if it doesn't require a prescription, it's got to be safe, and that's not true. There could be life-threatening effects."
Dr. Grossberg first became interested in the topic after a routine six-month visit with a patient he had successfully treated for depression. He had been seeing the patient for four or five years, and asked if the man was dealing with any new health problems.
The patient mentioned that he was scheduled to go in for cystoscopy in a couple weeks because there had been blood in his urine. The procedure involves inserting the pencil-thin tip of a probe through the urethra, up to the bladder to detect the cause of the problem.
The patient had undergone thousands of dollars of MRIs and CAT scans of his lower abdomen and pelvis, which had not revealed the reason for the bleeding, and the test was the next diagnostic step.
Dr. Grossberg asked if the patient had changed anything - perhaps had started taking a new medication.
No new medicine. Then the patient's wife pulled from her purse a vial containing a supplement she had purchased from the health food store to enhance memory. Both husband and wife had started taking the herbal memory enhancer, which largely contained ginkgo biloba
"One of the side effects of ginkgo biloba is an increased risk of bleeding. He had no awareness of this. I told him to stop taking the herb and get rechecked before having cystoscopy. The bleeding stopped, and he didn't need the test."
Dr. Grossberg ticks off other common herbs that people take without realizing their side effects or how they might interact with medications.
St. John's wort sometimes is taken for anxiety and depression. Those who also are taking antidepressants or anti-anxiety medications, such as Prozac, Zoloft or Paxil, should beware. Mixing St. John's wort with these medicines can cause serotonin syndrome -- with symptoms that may include agitation, rapid heart beat, flushing and heavy sweating -- that may be fatal.
Dong quai, which some women take for menstrual disorders and to ease symptoms of menopause, has been linked to cardiovascular problems, such as irregular heart rhythm and low blood pressure. If a patient takes the herb along with an antihypertensive drug, her blood pressure could plummet, putting her at risk of stroke.
Some people take echinacea, which enhances the immune system, for the common cold. However, those who also take Lipitor, Celebrex and Aleve face an increased risk of liver damage. Echinacea also can be harmful for those who have multiple sclerosis, diabetes, HIV infections or allergies.
Dr. Grossberg and his co-author Barry Fox make it clear that they're not anti-herb or anti-medicine.
"There just are a lot of things people can take that have a lot of bad interactions. And on some level it makes sense for them to think that what they're doing is safe. They associate natural remedies with nature and think if the supplement wasn't safe, they couldn't pick it up without a prescription.
"Hopefully this will get them to think more about it so they look..."
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Psychology Today: Great Expectations
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Mar 28, 2007 12:38pm
1 review
psychology, relationships
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20040301-000002.html
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Great Expectations.
Has the quest to find the perfect soul mate done more harm than good? Psychologists provide insight into how the never-ending search for ideal love can keep you from enjoying a marriage or a healthy relationship that you already have.
By:Polly Shulman
 Marriage is dead! The twin vises of church and law have relaxed their grip on matrimony. We've been liberated from the grim obligation to stay in a poisonous or abusive marriage for the sake of the kids or for appearances. The divorce rate has stayed constant at nearly 50 percent for the last two decades. The ease with which we enter and dissolve unions makes marriage seem like a prime-time spectator sport, whether it's Britney Spears in Vegas or bimbos chasing after the Bachelor.
Long live the new marriage! We once prized the institution for the practical pairing of a cash-producing father and a home-building mother. Now we want it all--a partner who reflects our taste and status, who sees us for who we are, who loves us for all the "right" reasons, who helps us become the person we want to be. We've done away with a rigid social order, adopting instead an even more onerous obligation: the mandate to find a perfect match. Anything short of this ideal prompts us to ask: Is this all there is? Am I as happy as I should be? Could there be somebody out there who's better for me? As often as not, we answer yes to that last question and fall victim to our own great expectations.
That somebody is, of course, our soul mate, the man or woman who will counter our weaknesses, amplify our strengths and provide the unflagging support and respect that is the essence of a contemporary relationship. The reality is that few marriages or partnerships consistently live up to this ideal. The result is a commitment limbo, in which we care deeply for our partner but keep one stealthy foot out the door of our hearts. In so doing, we subject the relationship to constant review: Would I be happier, smarter, a better person with someone else? It's a painful modern quandary. "Nothing has produced more unhappiness than the concept of the soul mate," says Atlanta psychiatrist Frank Pittman.
Consider Jeremy, a social worker who married a businesswoman in his early twenties. He met another woman, a psychologist, at age 29, and after two agonizing years, left his wife for her. But it didn't work out--after four years of cohabitation, and her escalating pleas to marry, he walked out on her, as well. Jeremy now realizes that the relationship with his wife was solid and workable but thinks he couldn't have seen that 10 years ago, when he left her. "There was always someone better around the corner--and the safety and security of marriage morphed into boredom and stasis. The allure of willing and exciting females was too hard to resist," he admits. Now 42 and still single, Jeremy acknowledges, "I hurt others, and I hurt myself."
Like Jeremy, many of us either dodge the decision to commit or commit without fully relinquishing the right to keep looking--opting for an arrangement psychotherapist Terrence Real terms "stable ambiguity." "You park on the border of the relationship, so you're in it but not of it," he says. There are a million ways to do that: You can be in a relationship but not be sure it's really the right one, have an eye open for a better deal or something on the side, choose someone impossible or far away.
Yet commitment and marriage offer real physical and financial rewards. Touting the benefits of marriage may sound like conservative policy rhetoric, but nonpartisan sociological research backs it up: Committed partners have it all over singles, at least on average. Married people are more financially stable, according to..."
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