Armchair Musings
j7uy5 | February 28, 2007Note: this post involves a very small amount of self-disclosure.
That is a bit unusual.
My father is also a psychiatrist. He told me once about his
education in psychopharmacology. A guy got up to lecture,
identified himself as the "drug doctor," and gave a lecture on
psychopharmacology. In fact, he gave a series
of
lectures...about five, total.
That was in the early to mid 1950's. What did we have back
then? Basically two things: uppers and downers.
By the mid 1980's things had changed. We knew about
neurotransmitters and receptors. I distinctly recall a
lecture
in which the…
j7uy5 | February 26, 2007There is a whole field of
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology">evolutionary
psychology. Let me get this out of the way: I
remain
skeptical of the entire endeavor, even though there is now a
href="http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/">Center for
Evolutionary
Psychology.
But when it makes it into the mass media, it deserves some
comment. The LA Times reported a few days ago on how the
formulation of psychiatric disorders is changing, in part because of
evolutionary theory.
href="http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-evpsych12feb12,0,3649492.…
j7uy5 | February 24, 2007I won't rehash the distinction between faith-based and reality-based
reasoning, figuring that most blog readers -- at least the progressive
ones -- know the meaning and context.
However, I would like to make one point. Reasoning that is
not
reality-based can come in different flavors; not all are linking
specifically to faith. Some are linked to ideology.
This is
an insidious kind of cognitive error to which we all are susceptible.
Here's an example from a recent Washington Post article:
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701334.html">…
j7uy5 | February 9, 2007This is a nice little study that deserve a brief comment. It's
from Am J Psychiatry this month. What is shows is that
participation in psychotherapy can alter the rate of reported adverse
effects from medication, and decrease the rate at which patients stop
their medication because of adverse effects.
Note that this study was done with patients with panic disorder.
It may not be generalizable to other patient populations.
Usage note: I always use the term "adverse effects" rather than "side
effects," because it is more precise. Some side effects are good,
some bad, some neutral. So if…
j7uy5 | February 4, 2007Yesterday, both
href="http://scienceblogs.com/terrasig/2007/02/lavender_and_tea_tree_oils_may.php">Abel
and I posted about the unexpected effects of lavender and tea-tree
oils: they've been implicated as causing gynecomastia in boys.
href="http://www.blogpulse.com/search?query=gynecomastia&image22.x=20&image22.y=18">Blogpulse
indicates that the Blogosphere has reacted quite a bit to this: the
blog at
href="http://blog.wired.com/biotech/2007/02/lavender_oils_f.html">Wired
News picked it up, as did
href="http://skepchick.org/blog/?p=377">Skepchick,
href="http://…
j7uy5 | January 24, 2007Two different news organizations chose two different photos to
illustrate the same event:
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_carter" rel="tag">Jimmy
Carter speaking at
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandeis_University"
rel="tag">Brandeis University, in response to
criticism of his boook:
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Peace_Not_Apartheid"
rel="tag">Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.
The top photo is from the New York Times,
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/us/24carter.html">At
Brandeis, Carter Responds to Critics. The bottom is
from Fox…
j7uy5 | January 8, 2007You might think that developing a system for EMR would be fairly
straightforward. After all, some of the things that computers
are
really good for, are the storing, retrieval, and display of
information. But somehow, developing a system that actually
works AND
is easy to use in a hospital environment, has proven to be rather
challenging.
Reading a post on the blog,
href="http://infoisfree.blogspot.com/2006/12/it-in-hospital-main-hospital-i-work-at.html">Information
is Free (so help yourself.) I was reminded of a few thoughts
I've been meaning to disseminate. This is on the topic of…
j7uy5 | December 27, 2006I have a confession to make. I once voted for a Republican
Presidential candidate. That candidate was Gerald Ford.
Why? Several reasons. For one, it was my
first time voting, so I was not very good at it yet. Two,
even though I was upset about the pardon of Nixon, and unimpressed by
his handling of the economy, I thought he was sincere and honest.
Three, I thought he had been chosen deliberately to be a
noncontroversial "placeholder" president; not someone who was
interested in a power grab.
One of the areas where some liberals and some conservatives agree is
this: concentration…
j7uy5 | December 16, 2006Ambidextrous More Likely To Be Bisexual; Why Do We Care, Anyway?
A new study coming from the
href="http://www.uoguelph.ca/" rel="tag">University
of Guelph.
href="http://www.psychology.uoguelph.ca/d_faculty/peters.html">Dr.
Michael Peters, a neuropsychologist, analyzed a survey of
about 255,000 people, and come up with some interesting findings about
human sexuality. Among them, is the observation that
bisexuality was significantly more common in ambidextrous
persons:
href="http://www.uoguelph.ca/atguelph/06-12-06/featureshand.shtml">On
the Other Hand
Study refutes…
j7uy5 | November 21, 2006The big news on the USA culture front: Rupert Murdoch has personally
intervened, and
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/us/21simp.html?ex=1321765200&en=8a7b71ce038300ee&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">canned
the OJ Simpson deal. He actually
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nora-ephron/say-it-aint-so-rupe_b_34547.html">apologized.
So, maybe we have found the outer limit of decency.
In other news, a court rejected the argument of a person who sued a
city over its logo. He argued that the logo, which depicts
crosses, was an unconstitutional governmental…
j7uy5 | November 18, 2006
href="http://www.beliefnet.com/story/204/story_20419_1.html">Philanthropy
Expert: Conservatives Are More Generous
By Frank Brieaddy
Religion News Service
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks is
about to become the darling of the religious right in America -- and
it's making him nervous.
The child of academics, raised in a liberal household and educated in
the liberal arts, Brooks has written a book that concludes religious
conservatives donate far more money than secular liberals to all sorts
of charitable activities, irrespective of income.
In the…
j7uy5 | November 16, 2006The Blogosphere has had a bit of a twitter over the issue of the
impeachment of President Bush. The most assertive progressive
href="http://alterx.blogspot.com/2006/11/nancy-its-your-duty-to-impeach-bush.html">
are upset that the issue is "
href="http://www.democrats.com/Why-Conyers-Changed-Tune-On-Impeachment">off
the table," in the words of Nancy Pelosi and John Conyers.
Conservatives are
href="http://slagblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/yes-mama-sheehan-back-in-saddle.html">skeptical,
imagining that the Democratic leadership is just as vicious as the
Republicans leadership. …
j7uy5 | November 15, 2006First there was Alternative Medicine, then there was Complimentary and
Alternative Medicine, and now there is Integrative, Complimentary and
Alternative Medicine.
I guess the natural cynic in me becomes suspicious when I see acronyms
undergoing hypertrophy.
So is this growing collection of concepts worthwhile? Do we
really need to create a terminology? Or does the acronym
creep indicate that the concepts are to vague, too ill-defined, to
merit the creation of a term?
href="http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2006/11/the_future_of_american_medicine_woo_1.php">Orac,
href="http://…
j7uy5 | November 10, 2006A good site to sample world media outlets, and to see what they have to
say about the USA, is
href="http://www.watchingamerica.com/index.shtml">Watching
America.
href="http://www.watchingamerica.com/diewelt000010.shtml">
src="http://blogster.com/host/images/65751436601.jpg" alt=""
align="top" border="0" height="219" hspace="0"
vspace="0" width="279">
Die Welt, Germany
Right-Wing
Extremist Viciousness Punished
I actually don't agree with the anaylsis published in Die Welt
(The World).
They think that the fall of the Republican Party began with the Terri
Schaivo matter. …
j7uy5 | November 2, 2006 It's discouraging
seeing so many people go so wrong
all at once. It makes you question the idea that each of us has
unlimited potential for good.
Who
said that? And what was the subject?
The
quote comes from an editorial by
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrison_Keillor" rel="tag">Garrison
Keillor, host of "
href="http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/" rel="tag">A
Prairie Home Companion." He was brought up a member
of the Plymouth
Brethren, but went through a Lutheran phase, and now is an
Episcopalian. None of that is pertinent, at the moment, but I
thought it was…
j7uy5 | October 24, 2006Nature News reports on a preliminary study
href="http://www.chestnet.org/about/press/chest2006/briefing.php">presented
at the annual
meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians.
The study indicates that the cholesterol-lowering drugs in
the statin family may protect against lung damage caused by cigarette
smoking.
The study, presented by Walid G. Younis, MD, consisted of data analysis
of results from a survey done on 485 smokers and ex-smokers.
They found that those who took statins had much
less lung damage.
They compared medical tests of the patients' lung
health with those…
j7uy5 | October 22, 2006Here are two headlines about the same subject:
href="http://psychcentral.com/news/2006/10/17/meds-help-preschoolers-with-adhd/">Meds
Help Preschoolers with ADHD
Psych Central News Editor
Tuesday, Oct, 17, 2006
href="http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/15805876.htm">Study
warns of risks of preschool Ritalin
Associated Press
Posted on Fri, Oct. 20, 2006
Both articles were written about the same journal article, an
NIMH-sponsored study published in the Journal of the American Academy
of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Both headlines are accurate. The…
j7uy5 | October 13, 2006I ran across a press release (
href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/uoa-ltf100606.php">1
href="http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/26739/LSD_treatment_for_alcoholism_gets_new_look.html">2)
pertaining to a journal article (‘Hitting Highs at
Rock Bottom’: LSD Treatment for Alcoholism,
1950–1970)
on the use of LSD for treatment of alcoholism. When I saw it,
I
thought I'd blog about it. As it happens, several people beat
me
to it.
Anyway, the topic is sufficiently compelling that I am going to post it
anyway, and try to add a little to what has already been said…
j7uy5 | September 22, 2006Funny how sometimes things fall into place. Yesterday, I
wrote a post about DeVos' promotion of the teaching of Intelligent
Design/Creationism. I also heard that
href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060922/wr_nm/chavez_dc_1">Hugo
Chavez' mention of Noam Chomsky's book,
href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?pwb=1&ean=9780805076882">Hegemony
or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance,
resulted in instant promotion of the book to bestseller status.
That brought to mind the recent
href="http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2006/09/…
j7uy5 | September 21, 2006If you decry the practice of "legislating from the bench," then why is it OK to legislate from the corporate boardroom?