“Does Psychotherapy Research with Trauma Survivors Underestimate the Patient-Therapist Relationship?”
Joan Cook, professor of Psychology at Yale, writes than in her work with military veterans she realized that her psychotherapy techniques mattered much less than her training had indicated. Instead, what mattered was “the bond forged over years of therapy,” known as “the therapeutic alliance.”
“The Guardian’s Bad Hair Day”
“No, cortisol in hair can’t ‘reveal future mental health risk’ in children.” HealthNewsReview gives a low rating to a recent story in the Guardian that reported that cortisol levels in children’s hair might be a useful mental health screening tool.
“Mental Illness and Gun Violence: Stigmatizing People Isn’t the Answer”
In an opinion piece for care2, Katie Medlock discusses how “mental illness” awareness campaigns have shifted, dangerously, “and ended up insinuating that people with mental illness could turn on ‘us’ at any time and should be feared.”
Psychotic Symptoms/Childhood Trauma Common in Primary as Well as Psychiatric Care
Researchers in Finland reviewed questionnaires filled out by 911 primary and psychiatric care patients over 16 years of age. They found that more than...
“Forensic Psychiatric Patients and Staff View the Effects of ‘Mental Illness’ Differently”
“Offenders sentenced to forensic psychiatric care do not consider their mental illness to be the main reason for their crime. Instead, they point to abuse, poverty or anger toward a particular person.”
Exposure to Violence Alters Children’s DNA, Life-Long Health
In a sample of 236 children recruited from the Environmental-Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, researchers from Duke University and King's College London found that children...
“Addressing Trauma as a Health Risk”
Edward Machtinger, MD, director of UCSF's Women's HIV Program, nearly 84 percent of patients with HIV/AIDS died from trauma, such as physical abuse, neglect, substance...
“Double Standard in Medication Compliance for Those Diagnosed with Mental Illness”
PsychCentral offers a take on noncompliance: "The moment we decide for others why they experience something as they do is the moment at which...
“Protect California Foster Youth from Dangerous Psychiatric Drugs”
The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports on legislation being passed in California to go after physicians who overprescribe psychiatric drugs to foster youth. The proposed legislation also targets government agencies that fail to offer nondrug alternative therapies to help foster youth recover from traumatic childhoods.
“Cortisol Levels in Children’s Hair May Reveal Future Mental Health Risk”
The Guardian covers research out of Australia that found that levels of the “stress hormone” cortisol in the hair of 70 nine-year-old children corresponded to the number of traumatic events experienced by the child. “Childhood is an imperative and sensitive period of development, and when things go wrong it can have lifelong consequences, not just on mental health, but also on general health.”
Alaskan Indigenous Peoples Experiencing High Rates of Trauma
-Two reports found Alaskans of aboriginal descent experiencing very high rates of many different types of trauma.
Antenatal Depression Associated w/Mom’s Childhood Maltreatment
Maternal antenatal depression is highly correlated with a history of the mother having been mistreated in childhood, and these two facts significantly increase the...
“Does Sexual Aggression Alter the Female Brain?”
In a recent rodent study out of Rutgers University, researchers found elevated stress hormones and reduced learning and maternal behaviors in female rodents who...
Childhood Adversity Promotes Neuroimmune Inflammation and Depression
Researchers in Canada and the U.S. found that in a group of 147 female adolescents at risk for depression, actual transition to depression was...
Training the Brain for Well-Being
Experience shapes the brain, for better or worse. Richard Davidson & Bruce McEwen review the ways that adverse early experience create measurable changes in...
Fear in Infants Predicts Guilt in Toddlers, Later Psychopathology
Researchers at Cardiff University in Wales find that fear in infants is a predictor of guilt in later life, and write in Development and...
Obstetric Complication, Cannabis Use: Strongest Predictors of Early Psychosis
According to data drawn from 608 patients of an early intervention program in Dublin, presented at the 3rd Biennial Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS)...
