Tag: mental health

Did the “Benadryl Challenge” Kill an Oklahoma Teen?

Did a dangerous new TikTok "challenge" result in the death of a 15-year-old teenager from Oklahoma? Probably not, but Benadryl is still a bad drug and parents should discuss the dangers of social media with their young children.

/ September 4, 2020
Teenagers

Teenager? Anxious? Yes, there’s a supplement for that, too.

Health Canada has criticized the marketing of an "anxiety supplement" for teens, without recognizing the larger problem involved; the poor regulations and lack of safety and efficacy data for this, and many other supplements sold.

/ October 3, 2019

Zapping Antipsychiatry ECT Nonsense

These days people's perceptions of electroconvulsive therapy have a fictionalized understanding of what it is, and its harms. The reality is quite different.

/ July 25, 2019

Exercise and Memory

There is no escaping the evidence that regular moderate exercise is associated with a host of medical benefits. Among those benefits are perhaps improved memory and cognition, and questionably a decreased risk of developing dementia. The latest study to show this correlation involved younger and older adults who wore a step-monitor. The number of steps they took during the study interval was...

/ November 25, 2015

“Postnatal depression blood test breakthrough” or Churnalism?

“Postnatal depression blood test breakthrough” proclaimed the headline. The UK Guardian article then declared: British doctors reveal ‘extremely important’ research that could help tens of thousands of women at risk. Here it comes. Readers were going to be fed a press release generated by the study’s authors and forwarded undigested by the media but disguised as writings of a journalist.  If only...

/ August 2, 2013

Frightening Breast Cancer Patients with Bad Science

No Time to Waste: Avoidant Coping Style Scrambles Circadian Rhythms in Breast Cancer Patients, warned the headline of an article in Clinical Psychiatry News. The article went on to claim Even in the earliest days following a diagnosis of breast cancer, maladaptive coping styles are associated with a disruption in circadian rhythms –which are proven in metastatic disease to be a prognostic...

/ September 28, 2012

The Mind in Cancer: Low Quality Evidence from a High-Impact Journal

My science writing covers diverse topics but increasingly concerns two intertwined themes in cancer and psychology. First, I bring evidence to bear against an exaggerated role for psychological factors in cancer, as well as against claims that the cancer experience is a mental health issue for which many patients require specialty mental health interventions. Second, I explore unnoticed social and organizational influences...

/ August 3, 2012

Scientific American Mind Is Not So Scientific

When Scientific American first announced that they would publish Scientific American Mind, I hurried to subscribe, thinking it would keep me informed about new developments in a field I am passionately interested in. I have enjoyed the magazine, particularly the regular columns, the news items about research findings, the reviews that alert me to books I will want to read, the “Ask...

/ September 20, 2011