Harvard Mental Health Letter articles from September 2005

Harvard Mental Health Letter archives from September 2005

Atypical depression.
September 1, 2005... A woman in her 30s comes to a clinic and says that for several months she has been feeling sad and hopeless and too anxious to concentrate on her work. She is afraid she may lose her job and occasionally has thoughts of suicide. She has gained...

Dropping out of psychotherapy.
September 1, 2005... It's a big problem. Surveys show that nearly half of people who begin psychotherapy -- individual, group, or couples -- quit, dissatisfied, against the therapist's recommendation. An article in the Harvard Medical School Psychiatry Department's...

In Brief; Anorexia treatment: When less is more.
September 1, 2005... Young women with anorexia nervosa, determined to starve themselves, are often reluctant to undertake psychotherapy. A clinical trial suggests that some of them, at least, might be better off without it. Anorexic women were divided into...

In Brief; The resilience of international adoptees.
September 1, 2005... More than 40,000 children each year are adopted across national lines, coming mostly to the United States (23,000) and Western Europe (nearly 16,000). These children may have been separated from their parents by thousands of miles and sometimes...

In Brief; Opiate maintenance alternatives: Two studies.
September 1, 2005... Two studies compare the standard methadone maintenance treatment for opiate addiction with alternatives, old and new. The results suggest that at least for some addicts, an older drug may be better, and the new approach is not methadone's...

In Brief; Traumatized elephants.
September 1, 2005... A report in the British journal Nature provides vivid evidence that other animal species suffer from the psychological symptoms of traumatic stress that we like to think of as human disorders. Elephants, like humans, are a highly...

In Brief; Death and the candidates.(how attitudes on death affect leadership choices)
September 1, 2005... An ingenious experiment suggests that people reminded of their own deaths are attracted to visionary, charismatic leaders who promise them a form of symbolic immortality. About 200 students were divided into two groups. In the first group,...

Questions & Answers: What are caffeine's effects?
September 1, 2005... Q. What are caffeine's psychological benefits and risks? A. Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive drug in the world. Up to 90% of Americans take it regularly, usually in the form of coffee, tea, or soft drinks, sometimes in a tablet...