Description: Ok a pop-quiz! Name 5 treatment options for people diagnosed with clinical depression and then rank order them in terms of effectiveness. For a few extra points explain the mechanism by which your top three treatment actually effect symptoms of depression. Given the number of people who deal with depression and related issues each… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Abnormal Psychology
Cerebellum, Brain Timing and Schizophrenia?
Description: Quick pop-quiz! What does the cerebellum do? It is involved in producing smooth motor movement right (balance, equilibrium etc.)? Yes, right, but what else is it involved in? Well, how about schizophrenia? As our understanding of the neurological factors involved in psychological functions and dysfunctions expands we are increasingly realizing more clearly something neuroscientists… Read more »
Politics These Days: Tips from Clinicians Who Treat Psychotic People
Description: Decades ago, psychiatrists used the term Schizophrenogenic Mothers to describe the mothers of individuals with schizophrenia and to then go on to talk about how the patient’s mother’s emotional ambivalence and related paradoxical behavior contributed to and perhaps even cause their offspring’s schizophrenia. Reflecting gender biased and even misogynistic attitudes, such hypotheses could simply… Read more »
Rorschach Redux
Description: A little while back I posted on an article that was looking at new ways to use the Rorschach “Inkblot” Test. In that post and in the accompanying article the discussion was somewhat skeptical about whether or not the Rorschach “Inkblot” Test has any valid place in current clinical, psychiatric or forensic practice. I… Read more »
Depression and Anxiety: Comorbidity or ?
Description: You have probably heard the term comorbidity. It is defined as the extent to which two conditions or sets of symptoms appear together in the same person. Fear and anxiety, for example, often occur together, though we could say that may be because they are versions of the same thing. Personality disorders are also… Read more »
Heart Disease <=> Mental Illness?
Description: Look at the title of the article featured in the link below. Based only on the title, what do you think the article is about? Is it suggesting that heart disease also causes mental illness?… or is it that mental illness caused heart disease (perhaps through heightened stress pathways)?? Think about what hypothesis you…
Description: Have you heard or did you already know from personal experience that spending time with one or more dog can be of psychological benefit? This is a good example of something that many people believe to be true (and it actually is true) but most people, if you ask them cannot provide a solid… Read more »Dogs and Psychology: How do they help?
An New Use for Old Inkblots?
Description: Rorschach inkblots were made by a psychoanalyst named Rorschach. What do you think you know about them? They were literally made by pouring ink on a piece of paper and smudging the ink be folding the paper in half. So each blot was a random event not intended or manipulated in any way to… Read more »
PTSD and Jury Duty?
Description: Consider this quote…“Be careful about the use of alcohol, or caffeine and tobacco or drugs to help you during this coping process,” Who, or rather, what sort of person makes this sort of statement, to whom, and it what context? Could it be a councilor speaking to military personally returning from duty in a… Read more »
Care for Caregivers: Helping those Helping the Terminally Ill
Description: Make a prediction. How are feelings of anxiety and depression related to caring for a terminally ill person or loved one? What proportion of people engaged in such care do you think show such symptoms? Once you have your hypotheses in mind have a read through the article linked below and see how your… Read more »
Books for Success!
