Less than seven hours of sleep each night is leading to a host of sleep-related problems including drowsy driving and difficulty concentrating at work, according to two new studies released on Thursday.
Roughly one-third of adults in 12 states reported getting less than seven hours of sleep each night with about the same number saying they’ve unintentionally dozed off during the day, according to one of the studies on sleep-related behavior from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (more…)
Alcoholism is a tough addiction to kick. Eventually, most people return to drinking. But some Dutch and German psychological scientists have tested a short-term regime that promises to help alcoholics stay sober. Their study is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association of Psychological Science.
Heavy drinkers tend to behave impulsively in response to temptation. Meanwhile, their “reflective,” or controlled, responses—the thoughts that would help them resist drinking—are often weak. Most therapies, including Cognitive Behavior Therapy, primarily address the reflective responses. “They deal with the reasons and strategies” for sobriety, said University of Amsterdam experimental psychologist Reinout W. Wiers, the study’s lead author. To boost treatment success, his team developed cognitive-bias modification, or CBM, which, for the first time, “tries to turn around those impulsive responses.” (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— A non-invasive brain imaging technique gives new hope to patients with Parkinson’s disease in finding new and better treatment plans and tracking the disease progression, a new University of Michigan study shows.
The technique uses an MRI to measure resting state brain activity oscillations, said Rachael Seidler, associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and the Department of Psychology, and study author. (more…)
Heart patients with an optimistic outlook are more likely to be healthier down the road and survive longer than those with less rosy views, new research suggests.(more…)
A new University of Colorado Boulder study indicates an ancient form of complementary medicine may be effective in helping to treat people with mild traumatic brain injury, a finding that may have implications for some U.S. war veterans returning home.
The study involved a treatment known as acupressure in which one’s fingertips are used to stimulate particular points on a person’s body — points similar to those stimulated with needles in standard acupuncture treatments, said CU-Boulder Professor Theresa Hernandez, lead study author. The results indicate a link between the acupressure treatments and enhanced cognitive function in study subjects with mild traumatic brain injury, or TBI. (more…)
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – New findings by a University of Maryland-led team of scientists indicate that a genetically engineered fungus carrying genes for a human anti-malarial antibody or a scorpion anti-malarial toxin could be a highly effective, specific and environmentally friendly tool for combating malaria, at a time when the effectiveness of current pesticides against malaria mosquitoes is declining.(more…)
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The federal anti-drug campaign “Above the Influence” appears to have effectively reduced marijuana use by teenagers, new research shows.(more…)
*Findings show sites could increase risky sex, also serve as tool for interventions*
A new UCLA AIDS Institute study suggests that the use of social networking websites by homeless youth can lead to an increase in risky sexual behaviors. But interestingly, homeless kids who used these sites were also more likely to have been tested for sexually transmitted infections and to be better informed about preventing such infections and HIV.(more…)
