Monthly Archive for September, 2011
Music – The Medicine of the Mind
Music is the language of the soul. Where words end, music begins. Now, a review article suggests that where modern medicine ends, music begins.The review evaluated 30 trials that included almost 2,000 cancer patients who received music therapy in concert with traditional treatment. Overall, music had a beneficial effect on the patients’ anxiety levels and moods. Music also decreased the patients’ heart rates, respiratory rates, and blood pressures. Patients reported an increased quality of life after intervention with music therapy.
The NeuroSocial Network
Social neuroscience is a rapidly growing discipline that examines the relationship between the brain and social behavior. The “social brain hypothesis” posits that, over evolutionary time, living in large, social groups favored the physical growth of brain regions important for social behavior. In non-human primates, some evidence indicates that the size of the amygdala is related to social behavior. Little is known, however, about this relationship in humans. A provocative new study finds that the volume of a key component of the social brain, the amygdala, is directly related to the size and complexity of social networks in adult humans.
Antidepressants – Who’s Prescribing What
Antidepressant medications are among the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States – one of the top three, depending on who is counting -- owing to a dramatic rise in antidepressant use in the last 10 to 15 years. A new health policy report finds, however, that this increase in antidepressant use is driven by nonpsychiatrist healthcare providers, often without a diagnosis of depression.
Popular Posts
- Mind Games - Science's Attempts at Thought Control
- The Science of Stuttering
- Intelligence - Are You Holding Back Your Brain?
- Risks of Personalized Medicine
- Is Grief a Mental Illness?
- The Brain's Buying Power
- The Cost of a Good Night's Sleep
- Risk Factors for Recurrence of Depression
- Salvia Divinorum - DEA Control over Magic in the Mint
- The Many Emerging Roles of Astrocytes
Future Posts
Latest Posts
- Thinking Fast Equals Risky Business
- A Gateway to Weight Loss?
- Intelligence – Do You Need it to be Successful?
- A Trip for Terminal Patients
- Memory Ain’t What It Used to Be – And That’s Good for Psychotherapy
- The Science of Stuttering
- Are Your Friends Making You Fat?
- Beer – The Smarter Drink
- Macroeconomics and Suicide
- From Nymphomania to Hypersexuality
Comments
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- Robert A. Yourell, MA: Hi Stephanie...OR they tried a
- Stephnie: Based on the facts in the arti
- Sammy: I was a test subject for one o
- Veronica Pamoukaghlian, MA: Thank you for your insightful
