Face Time v. Depression
From Web MD, a study showing that, with or without meds, increased face-to-face time with health care staff can result in decreased depression.
About 30% of patients on placebo who were given one screening test per visit showed mood improvements on a commonly used scale known as the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. In contrast, about 42% of patients on placebo improved when given four assessments per visit.
Video Medicine
NYT on the rise of telemedicine: The Doctor Will See You Now. Please Log On.
“The technology has improved to the point where the experience of both the doctor and patient are close to the same as in-person visits, and in some cases better,” says Dr. Kaveh Safavi, head of global health care for Cisco Systems…
“Digital Pharma Stealth Economy”?
NYT on PatientsLikeMe.com and CureTogether.com: When Patients Meet Online, Are There Side Effects?
Some people share their health information for the sake of the greater good. Yet they typically have no way of knowing whether their health profiles contribute directly to the development of more effective treatments — or are simply mined to create more effective drug marketing.
Emotion Without Frown Lines
From the Los Angeles Times: A Botox gap in understanding emotion:
Not only do our facial expressions reflect our emotional ups and downs, they appear to send crucial feedback to our brain, suggests a growing body of research. Without that full feedback loop, our ability to understand — and be understood — might be constrained.
Having Hope for Sociopaths
From GoodTherapy.org: Empathy for Sociopaths?
[N]obody chooses sociopathy. One’s genetic and environmental inheritance as well as the family and culture one is born into predisposes and shapes each of us beyond our control. What a horrible misfortune to inherit sociopathy.
Taking on Gaming Addiction
NYT: South Korea Expands Aid for Internet Addiction.
Thanks partly to government counseling programs, the estimated number of teenagers with symptoms of Internet addiction has steadily declined, to 938,000 in 2009, from more than a million in 2007, the Ministry of Public Administration and Safety said in April. But the number of addicts in their 20s and 30s has been increasing, to 975,000 last year.
Empathy Endangered?
Headline: Shocker: Empathy Dropped 40% in College Students Since 2000.
Without unstructured free time with playmates, children simply don’t get to know each other very well. And you can’t learn to connect and care if you don’t practice these things. Free play declined by at least a third between 1981 and 2003–right when the kids who hit college in 2000 and later were growing up.
Re: Herpes
A series about herpes is underway at the NYT Consults blog. First posts:
Do Stress or Diet Cause Herpes Outbreaks?
Brain Weight Regained
PsychCentral again: Brain Changes with Anorexia Can Be Reversed.
[With anorexia,] the excessive weight loss occurs from all human tissues, including the brain. A new study discovers that with appropriate treatment, adult brain volume can be regained.
Kids See, Kids Do
A study at PsychCentral: Modeling Behavior for Children Has Long-Lasting Effects.
For the experiments, the children were shown how to open a box — but in a complicated way, with impractical actions thrown in. For example, the adult would drag a stick across a box, then use a stick to open the box by pulling on a knob — which is a lot easier if you just use your fingers…