Harvard Mental Health Letter articles from May 2003

Harvard Mental Health Letter archives from May 2003

Confronting suicide Part I - Vulnerable people and perilous circumstances.
May 1, 2003... Suicide has been treated as a moral and legal dilemma and a topic of philosophical contemplation. It has been exalted as martyrdom, condemned as a sin, and proclaimed the ultimate existential choice. It is the climax of many great works of...

Can a troubled mind spell trouble for the heart? Part II.
May 1, 2003... In Part I, we reviewed the evidence that links depression to heart disease and explored some possible reasons for the connection. Here we discuss implications for treatment and research. In principle, successful treatment of depression in...

Alien abduction and recovered memory.
May 1, 2003... An experiment conducted by Harvard psychologists suggests that people who believe they have been abducted by extraterrestrials, when they try to recall a word list, make the same kinds of errors as people with recovered memories of childhood...

In Brief - Protecting battered women.
May 1, 2003... An analysis of 2,700 abuse incidents reported to the Seattle police in 1998 and 1999 reveals that court orders protecting battered women do prevent violence by their partners. The results contradict an earlier study that found these orders...

In Brief - The sadness of Alzheimer's.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... In its earliest stages, Alzheimer's disease often looks and feels like depression. One view is simply that the two disorders have symptoms in common - apathy, apparent memory disturbances, and a loss of interest and pleasure in most...

In Brief - Seeing the face of anger.(child abuse victims are more aware to anger in facial expressions)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... An experiment conducted at the University of Wisconsin shows that abused children are extraordinarily sensitive to signs of anger in facial expressions. Psychologists observed child abuse victims and controls while they watched faces on a...