Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairment of social communication, repetitive behavior and restrictive interest. The risk of ASD is strongly associated with the prenatal period – studies have found that the administration of valproic acid (VPA) to pregnant mothers increases risk of developing an Autism spectrum disorder in the child. Patients with ASD […]
What’s the difference between clinical depression and just having ‘sad mood’ (sadness) or ‘feeling blue’? This often-asked question is often asked and sometimes, it may indeed be hard to tell whether there are already signs of depression if someone has been feeling depressed for some time. To try clarify this question to some extent, feel […]
Viagra, the popular anti-impotence drug, may stop working for many patients after 2 years, the results of a study suggest. Dr. Rizk El-Galley of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and colleagues interviewed 151 men who had filled prescriptions for Viagra. Overall, 74% reported that 25 milligrams (mg) to 100 mg of the drug enabled […]
Interesting figures have recently been published by the British Home Office: statistics show that young men suffer just as much as women from ‘abuse’ by their partners – at least if forms of emotional violence like harassment or bullying are considered as forms of abuse as well. Probably because men are usually feeling less self-confident […]
Today, I stumbled upon an impressive and moving interview with the survivor of a suicide attempt that was published in a newspaper article in September 2000. In a state of presuicidal constriction / presuicidal syndrome, Kevin Hines jumped of the Golden Gate Bridge and survived this jump only by extremely fortunate circumstances . Today he […]
Many clients tell me of difficulties finding the right relationship partner. Of course such problems almost always have psychological reasons – in one way or another, these persons sabotaged themselves, they suffer from forms of social anxiety or (in my experience, this is the most common reason) have low self-esteem. The issues around dating, attraction […]
Women treated for severe psychiatric conditions including major depression shortly after giving birth were more likely to be diagnosed as bipolar later in life compared to those whose first psychiatric episode happened at any other time, in a new study from Denmark. Researchers said they didn’t know if some postpartum depression or schizophrenia-like episodes were […]
An interesting study conducted by researchers of the University of Wroclaw has found that people are able to guess a person’s type of personality to a reasonable extent, simply by smelling them, or their clothes. The team did some testing with volunteers, as they describe in their study published in the European Journal of Personality, […]
Adolescents who were abused and neglected have less gray matter in some areas of the brain than young people who have not been maltreated, a new Yale School of Medicine study shows. The brain areas impacted by maltreatment may differ between boys and girls, may depend on whether the youths had been exposed to abuse […]
That psychotropic drugs and other psychoactive drugs often have negative effects on behavior, is well-known to most. That their use can cause aggression, is known with antidepressants such as Prozac and Ritalin. However, there haven’t been any systematic examinations of these drugs and drug groups for their impact on violent behavior. Now, U.S. scientists from […]