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Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT en-us http://medicineworld.org/images/psychology-news.jpg http://medicineworld.org/news/psychology-news.html 107 77 http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/having-less-power-impairs-the-mind.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/having-less-power-impairs-the-mind.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT New research appearing in the recent issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that being put in a low-power role may impair a person's basic cognitive functioning and thus, their ability to get ahead. In their article, Pamela Smith of Radboud University Nijmegen, and his colleagues Nils B. Jostmann of VU University Amsterdam, Adam Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and Wilco W. van Dijk of VU University Amsterdam, focus on a set of cognitive processes called executive functions. Executive functions help people maintain and pursue their goals in difficult, distracting situations. The scientists observed that lacking power impaired people's ability to keep track of ever-changing information, to parse out irrelevant information, and to successfully plan ahead to achieve their goals........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/middle-class-relaxing-with-marijuana.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/middle-class-relaxing-with-marijuana.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT A variety of middle-class people are making a conscious but careful choice to use marijuana to enhance their leisure activities, a University of Alberta study shows. A qualitative study of 41 Canadians surveyed in 2005-06 by U of A scientists showed that there is no such thing as a typical marijuana user, but that people of all ages are selectively lighting up the drug as a way to enhance activities ranging from watching television and playing sports to having sex, painting or writing........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/mothers-depression-young-childrens-injuries.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/mothers-depression-young-childrens-injuries.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT Infants and toddlers whose mothers are severely depressed are almost three times more likely to suffer accidental injuries than other children in the same age group, as per a new study. The study's findings, published recently in the Advanced Access edition of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, suggest that proper therapy for depression would improve not only the mothers' health, but the health of young children as well........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/is-divorce-bad-for-the-parents.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/is-divorce-bad-for-the-parents.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT The elderly are cared for by their adult children regardless of their marital status. In a unique study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, scientists found British adult children help their elderly parents as per current need (i.e. health) rather than past behaviour. This contrasts with other countries such as the US, where parents with a history of divorce see less of their children and receive less help from them........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/do-antidepressants-enhance-immune-function.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/do-antidepressants-enhance-immune-function.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT Infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which leads to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), is an epidemic of global concern. As per the most recent estimates, released in November 2007, by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 33.2 million worldwide are living with HIV infection currently. Eventhough the rates of infection appear to be decreasing, there are obviously immense implications for achieving improvements in HIV/AIDS therapy........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/mental-fitness-and-multi-lingualism.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/mental-fitness-and-multi-lingualism.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT Children who speak a second or third language may have an unexpected advantage during the later part of life, a new Tel Aviv University study has observed. Knowing and speaking a number of languages may protect the brain against the effects of aging. Dr. Gitit Kave, a clinical neuro-psychology expert from the Herczeg Institute on Aging at Tel Aviv University, together with her colleagues Nitza Eyal, Aviva Shorek, and Jiska Cohen-Manfield, discovered recently that senior citizens who speak more languages test for better cognitive functioning. The results of her study were reported in the journal Psychology and Aging........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/youths-in-towns-with-smoke-free-restaurant-laws.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/youths-in-towns-with-smoke-free-restaurant-laws.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT Young people who live in towns where regulations ban smoking in restaurants may be less likely to become established smokers, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. A number of studies have examined the risk factors that lead young people to try their first cigarette, as per background information in the article. However, fewer scientists have differentiated these factors from those that cause children and teens to progress to established smoking, or having smoked 100 or more cigarettes. Yet understanding this difference is critical, the authors write. It would allow us to determine the age and stage at which youths are most sensitive to various types of interventions, thus enabling the more specific tailoring and more effective delivery of smoking prevention interventions........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/salk-study-links-diabetes-and-alzheimers-disease.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/salk-study-links-diabetes-and-alzheimers-disease.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT Diabetic individuals have a significantly higher risk of developing Alzheimers disease but the molecular correlation between the two remains unexplained. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies identified the probable molecular basis for the diabetes Alzheimers interaction. As per a research findings reported in the current online issue of Neurobiology of Aging, researchers led by David R. Schubert, Ph.D., professor in the Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory, report that the blood vessels in the brain of young diabetic mice are damaged by the interaction of elevated blood glucose levels characteristic of diabetes and low levels of beta amyloid, a peptide that clumps to form the senile plaques that riddle the brains of Alzheimers patients........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/every-fifth-adolescent-smokes.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/every-fifth-adolescent-smokes.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT As a number of as 20% of adolescents from 11 to 17 years of age smoke. This was the result of the nationwide German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS), performed by the Robert Koch Institute and presented by the sociologist Thomas Lampert in the current edition of Deutsches rzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2008; 105[15]: 265-71)........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/environment-influences-when-drinking-begins.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/environment-influences-when-drinking-begins.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT The influence of genetics increases as young women transition from taking their first drink to becoming alcoholics. A team of scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis observed that eventhough environment is most influential in determining when girls begin to drink, genes play a larger role if they advance to problem drinking and alcohol dependence........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/coke-or-pepsi.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/coke-or-pepsi.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT A can of Coke next to the word awesome; a can of Pepsi next to a picture of a happy couple. Seem too basic to be effective advertising" Previous research has shown that reported attitudes towards brands are not affected by such simple juxtapositions. However, a new paper in the June 2008 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research examines our implicit opinions and finds that we may actually be more susceptible than we think........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/why-teens-get-hooked-on-cocaine-more-easily.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/why-teens-get-hooked-on-cocaine-more-easily.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT New drug research suggests that teens may get addicted and relapse more easily than adults because developing brains are more powerfully motivated by drug-related cues. This conclusion has been reached by scientists who observed that adolescent rats given cocaine a powerfully addicting stimulant were more likely than adults to prefer the place where they got it. That learned association endured: Even after experimenters extinguished the drug-linked preference, a small reinstating dose of cocaine appeared to rekindle that preference but only in the adolescent rats........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/fairness-as-it-does-to-money-and-chocolate.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/fairness-as-it-does-to-money-and-chocolate.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT The human brain responds to being treated fairly the same way it responds to winning money and eating chocolate, UCLA researchers report. Being treated fairly turns on the brain's reward circuitry. "We may be hard-wired to treat fairness as a reward," said co-author of study Matthew D. Lieberman, UCLA associate professor of psychology and a founder of social cognitive neuroscience........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/counseling-trauma-victims-causes.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/counseling-trauma-victims-causes.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT Hearing repeated stories of suffering from trauma victims causes serious psychological stress in clinical social workers, a new Geisinger-led study suggests. In a study appearing in the May edition of Research on Social Work Practice, Geisinger Senior Investigator Joseph Boscarino, PhD, MPH and his co-scientists examined psychological stress, job burnout and secondary trauma among 236 New York City social workers following the Sept. 11 terror attacks........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/parents-stricter-with-older-kids-to-set-example.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/parents-stricter-with-older-kids-to-set-example.html Fri, 16 May 2008 02:33:10 GMT Parents are more likely to punish their teen's risky behavior when there are younger kids in the family, driven by a desire to set a strict example for these siblings, says new game theory research from the University of Maryland, Duke University and The Johns Hopkins University. The research team used economic game theory to predict levels of parental discipline. Parental concern for their reputation as a disciplinarian with the younger children would be a powerful motivator, they predicted........ ]]>