Take a Deep Breath: Teaching Kids to Control Emotions
Although this article was written for children with ADHD (who often have trouble controlling their emotional outbursts), any parent who has a child who has difficulty controlling their emotions might be able to get some helpful tips from it. Click here to read full article.
New study suggests that breastfeeding may help prevent cognitive decline (in mothers)
Previous research has shown that breastfeeding has multiple benefits for the child and for mother-child bonding. This research looked at whether it had other benefits for the mother, specifically cognitive benefits for the mother after age 50. What they found was that mothers who breastfed had higher cognitive scores after 50, which is a benefit to women who experiencehigher levels of Alzheimer’s Disease than men. There is additional interesting data in the article. Click here to read full article.
Antidepressant for Mild COVID-19 Prevents Admissions
A research study using a relatively inexpensive antidepressant (Luvox) to treat mild COVID did as well as more pricey drugs in preventing hospital admissions. Click here to read full article.
I’m a Neurologist With Alzheimer’s
It is interesting to see how a neurologist, who understands fully what the future holds for him, deals with the awareness that he is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. The author is a 70-year-old retired neurologist who is obviously very bright and still medically very articulate, is dealing with his situation. I encourage you to read his article for the insights it can give us all. Click here to read full article.
Prayer’s Place in Treatment
Here is an unusual story, in several ways. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, this doctor openly shares that he asked for prayer when he developed a prostate cancer that is usually incurable. But also, because he has pioneered a treatment that only he knows how to do, he asked a Harvard colleague to do this medical surgery on him while he was conscious and he would guide his colleague step-by-step through the treatment. His colleague and his family had some quite predictable replies when he first proposed the idea. I’ll let you learn the outcome of the story by reading the article yourselves. Click here to read full article.
The 5 Myths of Self-Compassion: What Keeps Us from Being Kinder to Ourselves?
If you have clients who have difficulty being kind to themselves when they make a mistake (and we all make mistakes), this article from the Psychotherapy Networker has some really good ideas to consider. Click here to read full article.
10 Signs of Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar Disorder often goes undiagnosed, sometimes for several years after it first appears. Here is a brief list of symptoms which, if a person has, indicate they should have a psychiatric or psychological consultation. Click here to read full article.
‘I found God’: Jordan Peterson’s daughter Mikhaila talks finding peace in prayer, reading the Bible
Some of you are familiar with the psychologist Jordan Peterson. His daughter speaks in this article about her recent conversion to Christianity and the peace it has brought her. Click here to read full article.
9 Things People with ADHD Want You to Know
Sometimes family members or friends of people with ADHD become impatient with their loved one. Here’s a brief article from the Amen Clinic about 9 things about ADHD that may help them have more patience. Click here to read full article.
Antipsychotic Patch Quiets Schizophrenia-Related Hostility
Some persons with schizophrenia show serious levels of hostility which concern family members and may result in homicides when these patients interact with law enforcement. This new transdermal patch, which is still in clinical trials, showed significant decreases in hostility at two different dosage levels. So for families who have a loved one with schizophrenia, this is a promising improvement. Click here to read full article.
Phthalates in Fast Food
Phthalates (the ph is silent) have been implicated as cancer-causing agents. It appears that phthalates often bleed into the food they surround, and they are often found to surround fast food. I’ve read this finding in several reputable sources this week, so when you can avoid food that has been wrapped in materials which include phthalates, avoid those foods if you can.
New Study: Reading Fiction Really Will Make You Nicer and More Empathetic
Previous studies have come to differing conclusions about the impact of reading on one’s ability to understand and respond to interpersonal cues, sometimes referred to as E.Q., to distinguish it from I.Q. This meta-analysis of 14 studies did conclude that reading fiction can increase our ability to understand and be more empathic. As I’m learning since I retired, there is a wonderful world of inspirational fiction out there, that gives one glimpses into all sorts of people and situations that we might not understand otherwise. If you have a client with a low E.Q., it might be an interesting experiment to encourage them to read fiction in some areas where they are struggling. Click here to read full article.
A Definitive Answer to the Effect of Screen Time on Concussion Recovery
There has been differing research results on whether limiting screen time for children and teensafter concussion was helpful. This latest editorial conclusion was that screen time should be limited for the first 24 to 48 hours, and that doing so reduced the length of time for all concussive symptoms to disappear by 4 days. Click here to read full article.
How Often Do Covid Vaccines Cause Heart Problems in Kids?
Some parents don’t want their children and teens vaccinated for COVID because of fear of myocarditis developing afterward. I’ve sent out one article on myocarditis in children and teensbut here’s a second one. This research found that myocarditis from COVID vaccines in children and teens was very rare and mild and usually resolved by itself. In contrast, when children weren’t vaccinated and developed COVID, the myocarditis was much more severe. So the relative positive benefits versus problems from myocarditis in children suggest that parents have their children and teen vaccinated. Click here to read full article.
Is Earlier Use of Long-Acting Injectable Drugs for Schizophrenia Better?
This research study found that Medicaid beneficiaries (most people with schizophrenia are eligible for disability) found that early introduction of long-acting injectable antipsychotic medication resulted in fewer ER visits and fewer hospitalizations. At present many psychiatrists wait until there have been problems with people taking medication by mouth before prescribing injectables. This research encouraged starting with injectables first. Click here to read full article.
Intelligent Design without God?
It’s interesting the gymnastics scientists will go to try to explain the existence of the universe without God. Initially there were assertions of a “steady state” universe, but then the evidence became overwhelming that there was a big bang when everything in the universe came out of nothing. Then there was the theory of evolution, that said that all of life could have developed out of natural selection processes, but then all the finely-tuned processes necessary for life made this more and more unlikely. The latest theory is by a Harvard astronomer named Loeb who speculates that our universe was intelligently designed by a civilization of aliens through “quantum tunnelling.” But this just pushes the question back one more step: Who created the intelligent aliens?
And there are other problems trying to explain life based on evolution. The theory of evolution requires that there be gradual change that should be reflected in the fossil record. Yet there are large gaps in the fossil record that have never been found.
And how does evolution explain how birds develop the habit of migrating thousands of miles each year to escape frozen weather, and then return north to the same place the following spring? And how does evolution explain how bees learned the very complicated dance that allows them to tell other bees where nectar can be found? And how did blind termites learn to build large mounds that have ways of cooling those mounds that still astound modern architects?
I agree with Stephen Meyer that the most scientifically reasonable explanation for the universe and the fine-tuning we see in it is still the “God hypothesis.” Click here to read full article.
‘The Real Prodigal Son’: Alice Cooper Shares His Testimony
For those of you not familiar with him, Alice Cooper has been a rock star with a reportedly dissolute life, who has discovered that Jesus is what he really needed. His testimony is quite a story.
Dr. Aaron T. Beck, Developer of Cognitive Therapy, Dies at 100
Probably no one has had a greater impact on modern psychotherapy than Aaron Beck.
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5 TIMES YOUR SPOUSE NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT THE MOST
Those of you who subscribe to the Prepare-Enrich newsletter may already have read this, but for those of you who haven’t, here’s a good reminder for those of us who are married or are hoping to be. Click here to read full article.
Collaboration With People With Lived Experience of Mental Illness to Reduce Stigma and Improve Primary Care Services: A Pilot Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial
This was a pilot study over in India that I think could be interesting to try over here in the United States. They had people who had lived experience in mental illness be part of the training of primary care providers with a couple goals—would this reduce some of the stigma involved in that culture of having a mental illness, and would it help primary care providers be more accurate in their diagnoses? (This pilot study had good results in reducing stigma but fell short in improving diagnostic accuracy.) But accuracy of general practitioners of diagnoses of mental disorders here in the U.S. is also not high. I think the concept behind this pilot study has merit, and I hope someone will consider it here in the U.S. Click here to read full article.
Right-Based Mental Health Care—Advantages of Tax-Financed Universal Mental Health Care: Lessons From Denmark
An interesting summary of how mental health services are provided in Denmark, and patient as well as provider levels of satisfaction with that system. Click here to read full article.
A Call to Revise the Diagnosis of Oppositional Defiant Disorder—Diagnoses Are for Helping, Not Harming
The authors of this article make a compelling case for revising the DSM-5 diagnosis of ODD, and of the harms this diagnosis can sometimes make in a child’s life. If you work with children or teens who sometimes receive this diagnosis, you may be interested in reading this article. Click here to read full article.
Time to Support Extensive Implementation of Shared Decision Making in Psychiatry
I think most of us trained in counseling and psychology recognize the value of collaboration with our clients in making treatment decisions. Here’s an article encouraging the same thing for psychiatrists, and to even make shared decision a part of the educational training program for psychiatrists. Click here to read full article.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Henry Virkler