Anxiety and Depression

4/9/13. People who are anxious are often depressed; and people who are depressed are often anxious. In the DSM-IV manual and the IV to come in May, anxieties and mood disorders are categorized as distinct entities. Anxiety and mood disorders are not separate. Many people have both anxiety and depression.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/how-everyone-became-depressed/201304/depression-and-anxiety

Doing Great Science Does Not Require Great Math Skills

4/8/13. Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson tells the truth.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323611604578398943650327184.html

Reflections of a Medical Ex-Practitioner

4/8/13. A pediatrician speaks his mind about medical practise.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324789504578380382204116270.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Focus on Adults Living with ADHD

4/4/13. On NPR:

http://app1.kuhf.org/articles/npr1364927778-A-Focus-On-Adults-Living-With-Ch

Two Cheers for Ritalin

4/1/13. The use of stimulant medications such as Ritalin, Adderall, and Vyvanse to treat ADHD has been under attack by the New York Times, among others.

Ritalin was approved by the FDA in 1957.

The motivations for these attacks are multiple. The wealthy anti-psychiatry Scientologists have a long history of attacking the use of psychiatric medications; some groups claim that pharmaceutical companies are misleading the public to pump up their profits.  Others say that harried parents demand drugs from too-willing to prescribe physicians to improve their kids' academic records..

That ADHD is a diagnostic category with a long clinical and research history rarely gets mentioned.
The diagnosis  of more females and more adults with ADHD over the past decade accounts for much of the increase in medication for ADHD.

I repeat my article on ADHD written one year ago following another round of predictable media attacks:

http://notesofapsychologywatcher.blogspot.com/2012/01/ritalin-gone-wrong.html

ADHD in Adults

4/1/13. An accurate diagnosis and treatment of ADHD can be life-saving.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-best-strategies-managing-adult-adhd/201303/when-adult-adhd-goes-untreated

Responding to Suicidal Risk

3/26/13. Ken Pope, Ph.D., ABPP and Melba J.T. Vasquez, Ph.D., ABPP

Understanding suicidal risk and what to do about it:

http://kspope.com/suicide/index.php

Passover's Enduring Message of Freedom

3/22/13. Professor Ruth R. Wisse, Harvard University.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324557804578373050731998658.html?KEYWORDS=passover

Better than Good Taste

3/19/13. Supertasters

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324392804578362833147151480.html?KEYWORDS=supertasters

Revolution in Understanding Psychology: My Beliefs

3/19/13. What do you believe about a revolution in understanding our mind?


We will create a revolution in our understanding of human nature, when we can explain how the brain generates the mind.

We have no idea how the brain can produce a directive, willful “I,” how self-consciousness flows from brain tissue, and how we can go from tangibles such as neurotransmitters and molecules to intangibles such as thoughts, moods, and perceptions.

We don’t know how brain facts become mind facts. We do know that there is not a twisted thought for every twisted neuron.

Early in his career, Freud wrote a book about how the brain worked and was connected to the mind — but he abandoned his work because of the unbridgeable brain-mind discontinuity. He went on to propose his convenient “fictions” of id, ego, and superego.

For psychologists, this brain-mind gap creates obstructions to learning about human nature, leads to accumulating more information than knowledge, and keeps many clinicians trapped in denominational conflicts such as whether to assume a biological or psychodynamic orientation.

 It is not possible to imagine what the obliteration of the mind-brain problem will lead to in our conception of human nature. My hope is that we will come to a greater understanding of the role of freedom in a world we are not yet able to see.

Steven J. Ceresnie, Ph.D.

Michigan Psychologist 2006

Psychological Understanding

3/19/13. Too often muddle-headed or simple-minded = humility and openness.



http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/12/letters.aspx

Gifted Hands - Benjamin Carson

3/19/13...with a gifted mind and a generous heart and years of experience == wisdom


http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell031913.php3

To Tie the Knot or Not

3/17/13. Wise counsel from behavioral economist Dan Ariely.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323393304578360250954165418.html?KEYWORDS=dan+ariely

Barefoot Jock Keeps Gyms on Their Toes

3/16/13. Shoeless Al Adler.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323826704578356632609610700.html?KEYWORDS=shoeless+alan+adler

To Speak of Woe that is In Teen Pregnancy

3/12/13. On the backlash from Mayor Bloomberg's efforts to stem the tide of teenage pregnancy.

http://www.city-journal.org/2013/eon0311hm.html

Hank Greenberg: Designated Mensch

3/10/13.  ...Buy me some bagles and crackerjacks...

 

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324662404578332000366001758.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLESecondBucket

7 myths of happiness

3/10/13. Thinking clearly about happiness.

 

http://m.psychologytoday.com/blog/how-happiness/201303/7-myths-about-happiness

The Science of Sleeplessness

3/10/13. Up All Night.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/03/11/130311fa_fact_kolbert?currentPage=all

Bernard Cohn Memorial Lecture Series

3/7/13. My cousin, Steven Skurka, a prominent criminal defence attorney from Toronto, gave a passionate and thoughtful analysis of one of his most memorable and important cases held March 6, 2013 at the University of Windsor Law School. Steve is a seasoned lawyer who has been involved in a number of high profile cases in Canada including the landmark Dee Brown racial profiling case, the Maple Leaf Garden sex abuse scandal, and the Guy Paul Morin wrongful conviction inquiry.

He is the legal analyst of CTV national television network and News Talk 1010 CFRB. He has a unique weekly one hour legal radio show on Newstalk 1010 called Closing Argument.

The title of Steve's talk was "Racial Profiling: R vs Dee Brown A Landmark Canadian Decision and the Case of My Career"

http://www.uwindsor.ca/dailynews/2013-03-04/racial-profiling-case-subject-of-law-lecture

Professor Skurka's lecture:

http://www.uwindsor.ca/law/news/steven-skurka-bernard-cohen-lecture-2013

ADHD Remains a Problem for Adults

3/5/13. This is a brief article.  Don't miss the responses by readers. (article was suggested to me by my colleague and friend, Suzanne Haynes, psychologist.

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/research-a-d-h-d-remains-a-problem-for-adults/?src=rechp