Harvard Mental Health Letter articles from December 2004

Harvard Mental Health Letter archives from December 2004

Children's fears and anxieties.
December 1, 2004... A child's world is full of dangers, real and imaginary, that many adults forget they ever experienced. Most childhood fears are normal, temporary, and eventually outgrown, but studies still show that anxiety disorders are among the most common...

Treating opiate addiction, Part I: Detoxification and maintenance.
December 1, 2004... Opiates are outranked only by alcohol as humanity's oldest, most widespread, and most persistent drug problem. Although law enforcement, psychiatry, and pharmacological science have been seeking solutions for over a century, more than one...

Moods and markets.
December 1, 2004... An experiment published in the journal Psychological Science demonstrates a surprising effect of emotion on decisions about buying and selling. Economists are familiar with a phenomenon called the endowment effect: The price we demand to part...

In Brief; Children of schizophrenic mothers: Tracking their early lives.
December 1, 2004... A study based on records of the national Swedish baby-care program shows some signs of abnormal early development in the children of schizophrenic women. From birth to age four, researchers tracked 49 children of women with schizophrenia or...

Questions & Answers.
December 1, 2004... Q. My elderly friend has a serious clutter problem. She can't throw things away or organize them, and her apartment is so stuffed that it is hard to get around. She has tried herbs, hypnosis, and sessions with so-called experts, but nothing...