Mom Psych

When it's known that children have been exposed to family violence, it's important to provide opportunitiesfor them to learn appropriate behavior as early as possible.

Contrary to popular belief, genuine suicide attempts shouldn't be seen as a call for help or a manipulative act. Rather, the researchers found that "Of all motivations for suicide, the two found to be universal in all participants were hopelessness and overwhelming emotional pain."

I think it's time to bring this study up . . . the Amish do get autism. 

There seems to be fairly general agreement that the education system in the United States needs a major overhaul, but few of the ideas for fixing it seem to consider how the brain actually learns best. At least, that's what I thought before I read neuropsychotherapist Louis Cozolino's latest book. The approach Cozolino offers isn't a quick or easy fix, but it is fairly simple in principle: create classroom situations that come as close as possible to the early tribal social environments in which the human brain first learned to learn. 

In other words . . . long term use of antidepressants may interfere with psychotherapies that help in overcoming fears and anxieties.

"The researchers found that adopting those four lifestyle behaviors protected against coronary heart disease as well as the early buildup of calcium deposits in heart arteries, and reduced the chance of death from all causes by 80 percent over an eight-year period."

Selling a house? Looking for a new job? Study says . . . 

While friends of friends can't see your protected material, it's possible for them to surmise certain information based on the common friends you share with others. "Attackers" may sometimes connect with several mutual friends to convince you they're part of your social circle, increasing the chance you will respond to their friend requests too. Best practice: don't accept friends you can't remember, even if you see they share "mutual friends" with you. You can always ask one of these shared friends to refresh your memory.

This is an important social-development period for children, so it makes sense that the foundations laid down in grade school have serious implications for their self-view as teens.

This study is worth pulling up from the archives. My favorite line in this one: "Our minds may better take in, store, and bring forth information gained from online posts because they are in what the researchers call 'mind-ready' formats—i.e., they are spontaneous, unedited and closer to natural speech."

USC researchers have come up with a way to see what memory structures look like in the brain:

Probably not pushing it to say that when parents also collaborate with teachers . . . it can only contribute to student growth.

They've known meditation is helpful as a therapy for anxiety and depression (as well as for increasing compassion and empathy) but now they're working at identifying the specific brain changes that occur.

This paper is going to be presented on Tuesday at the 2013 Sleep Meetings. (Does it strike anyone else as a bad idea to use the word "sleep" in the title of a series of meetings?)

"Scientists are also interested to establish the critical window for exposure—whether in utero or postnatal, or both."

Imagine a circle of treadmills around a conference table instead of chairs . . . no more falling asleep at meetings!

They're referring to "TSPO ligands," (ligands of translocator proteins) which are currently used for some types of neuroimaging, such as to locate inflammation.) TSPO ligands are also thought to be candidates for anti-cancer drugs . . .