Fashion Bullying - You Aren't What You Wear...

...But try telling that to a 'tween or teen girl today. A recent Wall Street Journal article, Fashion Bullies Attack - In Middle School, focused on a dimension of adolescent bullying that is becoming more widespread. I have heard of it, but didn't realize how serious and pervasive it is. The article describes a fashion-aware mother who purchased items from high-end designers Dolce & Gabanna, Juicy Couture and Seven for All Mankind for her sixth-grade daughter. Unfortunately, girls in her daughter's class informed her that she was not wearing the "right" clothes. So what is driving this new heightened awareness of designer labels in such a young crowd?

The Journal article cites designers targeting the child and teen market in the last few years, creating lines for kids and including more affordable pieces and accessories for this market. Teen magazines and TV have also increased designer-brand recognition. My teen niece regularly quotes Stacy London on the TV show What Not To Wear: when I was her age, it was Glamour magazine and their infamous fashion Dos and Don'ts. Both underscore the importance of getting it right and elevating a fashion misstep to a critical life decision.

Cheryl Dellasega, Ph.D., Professor of Humanities and Women's Studies at Penn State University wrote the ground-breaking book Surviving Ophelia, which explored issues of development in teen girls. Dellasega is credited with labeling girl bullying as "relational aggression" and her book, Girl Wars: 12 Strategies That Will End Female Bullying targets this troubling trend. In November's issue of her e-zine, Club Ophelia, Dellasega addresses fashion bullying and includes a revealing story shared by teen who was both a participant and victim of fashion bullying. Here's an excerpt from her story:

At lunchtime, my friends would talk about where they shopped and what outfits they liked. They would make fun of girls who didn't wear the same clothing they did. I would join in the taunts and conversations even though, secretly, I was one of those girls. My parents didn't have much money, unlike my friends. My mom and dad could not afford to buy me expensive clothing and shoes.

Although I didn't witness acts of fashion bullying at the small high school where I worked, I often heard about it from girls who talked with me about stressful situations. I assured them they were not unique, that many other girls could not afford to dress in designer-wear. To see if you have been bullied, take the following quiz, Are You Being Bullied? Or take this quiz if you suspect you have bullied others, Are You a Bully?

I asked guidance counselor Tammy Breymaier (grades 4-6th) how girls might handle fashion bullying. She shared a recent conversation with a 'tween,

Today, I had a girl who was wearing her brother’s basketball shoes because
she couldn’t find her shoes this morning. When questioned about it, she
responded with the explanation and 'Is that a problem for you?' She
exhibited confidence and an attitude that would make someone think twice as to
whether they would place judgment on her again.

Back when I was a teen, I remember feeling so sorry for those girls in parochial school who had to wear school uniforms - the long, (below their knees!!) pleated, navy skirts and "boring" cardigans. Private school attendees today tell me they like the ease of the uniforms - no big struggle figuring out what to wear each day. Now, I can see the rationale - the uniformity of dress allows the person to shine through.

Calm yourself with Music

Music has long been used to heal, soothe and uplift. Lovers use music to set a romantic mood, movie producers use music to add drama and excitement to scenes and mothers croon lullabies to help their children relax and fall asleep. So, it’s no wonder researchers have investigated the healing power of music and found it to be helpful for pain management, stress relief, depression, anxiety and much much more.

A couple of days ago I received a review copy of the CD Relax: A Liquid Mind Experience which is billed as “over an hour of the most deeply relaxing music on the planet”. Those are pretty big boots to fill, so I gave it a whirl. The label warned me to use care when operating vehicles as the CD may cause drowsiness, but being a natural born rule breaker I popped it straight into the car player and set off.

Much to my surprise the music did have a slight soporific effect. That's pretty unusual for me. I'm a very poor candidate for hypnosis or other audio designed to sedate or help me fall asleep. While I often find music calming it's rare for it to have a sedating effect on me, so I give the CD kudos for achieving that.

Liquid Mind is the name used by Chuck Wild for his New Age music creations. The ‘Relax’ CD is one of several CDs aimed at helping people relax and improve their well-being. After a period of panic attacks and agoraphobia Chuck searched for music that would help him achieve feelings of serenity while being melodic and uplifting. When he was unable to find any, a counsellor suggested he compose his own and Liquid Mind was born.

Liquid Mind is a form of New Age music, although Chuck says he draws on influences from nature, such as the sound of the Ocean, as well as from classical composers such as Beethoven and Brahms.
According to Chuck

Liquid Mind albums seem to have an immediate "slowing down" effect on the listener, and may also help some people get to sleep, and relax deeply after a tension-filled day.

I received emails by the hundreds from grateful people using my music to go to sleep, to relax, to calm hyperactive children and adults, to heal from surgery

Chuck's Liquid Mind Music is proving popular. In November 2005, Chuck presented at the American Music Therapy Conference regarding the use of slow music in treating anxiety. Liquid Mind VII: Reflection won the Coalition of Visionary Resources Award for Best Meditation/Healing Music album of 2005.

The CD Relax: A Liquid Mind Experience is currently #1 on the Canadian iTunes New Age chart, and #4 on the US iTunes New Age chart. I'm more gobsmacked that there is a New Age iTunes chart, than I am at the success of Chuck's Liquid Music.

Verdict:
I’m on the fence with this one. The music is sedating, so if you’re looking for a way to calm down or a tool to aid in meditation Liquid Music could be for you. However, New Age music isn’t for me. Given the choice I prefer the sound of Tuis in the garden (click here to hear Tuis) or a CD of Mozart or Haydn. While I found the music sedating I also found it vaguely annoying. The music does what it’s supposed to, but if it isn’t to your taste, then like me you’ll probably only want to use it in short bursts. I could never imagine using it as background music as the creator suggests but I could envisage putting on a single track to give me something to focus on while sitting quietly for a few minutes.

The New "Third Base" and We're Not Talking Baseball...

As a therapist who has worked with adolescents, parents and families for 17 years, I was especially interested to read Logan Levkoff's new book on teen sexuality, Third Base Ain't What it Used to Be: What Your Kids Are Learning About Sex Today-and How to Teach Them to Become Sexually Healthy Adults. It's been my experience that most parents would rather hear their teen had a psychiatric or substance abuse diagnosis than deal with a sexual issue!

Since I'm a clinician and not an educator, I'm not familiar with the current literature on adolescent sexuality. But I do remember the dry material and no-nonsense (although often giggle-producing) graphic depictions of reproductive organs that were presented to me in health class in school. This book definitely does NOT fall in that category. The book is geared towards parents, with the tone and writing style helping to present the material in a very non-threatening way.

Credentials

Levkoff has been a sexuality educator for more than ten years. She lectures around the country and designs and implements sexuality programs for students of all ages. She has a Masters of Science degreee in Human Sexuality Education and is a doctoral candidate. She writes regularly for national magazines and has written Q&A columns for Ellegirl and Marie Claire.

I tended to give her more credibility because she is degreed in her area of expertise, unlike many so-called media "experts." But beyond her obvious knowledge-base on the topic and experience in the classroom, it is her philosophical approach that won me over. It is very evident from her book that she truly values her demographic - she really listens to and respects the children and adolescents she teaches and interviews! And it's apparent in their willingness to be so open and honest that they respect and trust her.

Philosophy

Levkoff's sites a federal program as a similar foundation for her educational philosophy, the SIECUS (Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States) Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education (2004). Several tenets listed seem to best exemplify her philosophy:

Sexuality is a natural and healthy part of living and all persons are sexual.

Sexuality includes physical, ethical, social, spiritual, psychological, and emotional dimensions.

Parents should be the primary sexuality educators of their children.

Families provide children's first education about sexuality and share their values about sexuality with their children.

If you agree that a person's sexuality is an inherent part of who they are and not just sexual organs or the act of "having sex," it makes discussion of the topic much clearer and less scary for parents and other adults. Levkoff also approaches sexuality with a developmental emphasis, starting with babies, which should underscore to parents that waiting until your child is a pre-teen is late in the game to begin their education.

Topics

The chapters cover the following topics: Anatomy and Puberty, Masturbation, Sexual Orientation, Sex: Oral, Anal, Vaginal and None at All, Sexual Health: What You Need to Know Now, Pregnancy, Techno-Sex: Pornography and the Media, Talking About Sex: Why It's So Tough. There are also helpful appendices and resources included. Admittedly, there wasn't any earth-shatteringly new material here. But one aspect that I found particularly helpful and very readable was in the kids' questions that she presents in almost every chapter of the book. It's clear that the students in her classes feel comfortable asking any questions without embarrassment or fear of criticism. There really are no "stupid" questions from her audience. Some examples:

• Do gay men want to be women? Do lesbians really want to be men?
• Do most people have threesomes?
• Why are girls called sluts if they like to be sexual, but boys get props from their friends?
• How long do people have sex for?

Highly Readable

I found this book to be highly readable and informative and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it parents, grandparents, teachers and any adults who spend time with adolescents and younger children.




Read Logan Levkoff's Blog

Sleep Deprivation Causes Emotional Instability

Anyone who has experienced sleep deprivation knows the impact that it can have on your mind and body. Now researchers from UC Berkeley and Harvard Medical School have found a neural link between lack of sleep and emotional instability.

Using brain imaging in the first neural investigation into what happens to the emotional brain without sleep, results suggest that:

• a good night's rest can regulate our mood and help us cope with the next day's emotional challenges
• sleep deprivation excessively boosts the part of the brain most closely connected to depression, anxiety and other psychiatric disorders

"It's almost as though, without sleep, the brain had reverted back to more primitive patterns of activity, in that it was unable to put emotional experiences into context and produce controlled, appropriate responses," said Matthew Walker, director of UC Berkeley's Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory and senior author of the study, which will be published Oct. 22 in the journal Current Biology.

"Emotionally, you're not on a level playing field," Walker added.

That's because the amygdala, the region of the brain that alerts the body to protect itself in times of danger, goes into overdrive on no sleep, according to the study. This consequently shuts down the prefrontal cortex, which commands logical reasoning, and thus prevents the release of chemicals needed to calm down the fight-or-flight reflex.

"The emotional centers of the brain were over 60 percent more reactive under conditions of sleep deprivation than in subjects who had obtained a normal night of sleep," Walker said.

The study's findings lay the groundwork for further investigation into the relationship between sleep and psychiatric illnesses. Clinical evidence has shown that some form of sleep disruption is present in almost all psychiatric disorders. The next step for researchers is to use brain imaging as a tool to identify whether the root problem is a sleep disorder or a mental health disorder.

Left or Right Brained?

This is great. Check out the image and tell us whether it is rotating clockwise or anticlockwise then click here to find out if you are left or right-brained.



When I first looked at the image I was convinced it was going clockwise. I stopped to read the text, looked back and it was going anti-clockwise. Checked a third time and it was going clockwise! I just checked again - definitely clockwise.

Thanks to Nancy for the link.

Emotional Eating Carnival October 2007

In this month's Emotional Eating Carnival we have some great submissions on the links between food and mood and how our beliefs can sabotage our eating habits!

Curtis Penner presents How I Used Food To Beat Depression saying, "Sitting in the waiting room of my family doctor - waiting for a routine check-up, a poster on the wall scared me half to death." Curtis found out he had depression and didn't want to take antidepressants so he decided to eat more healthily and exercise.

FitBuff presents What Do Chocolate Cravings Say About You? saying, "Do you find yourself craving certain foods during times of anger or depression, particularly chocolate? Scientists in
this study think they know why..." Of course everyone has their theories on chocolate craving - the most obvious being that it tastes good! Yesterday we posted a different theory on chocolate cravings. The bottom line is that at this stage we have some good leads but not the full story on chocolate cravings.

Isabella Mori presents addiction, shame and secrets which includes a therapists thoughts on the shame that often accompanies emotional eating.

Becky Gillaspy presents Common Thought Traps which explains typical thinking errors or cognitive distortions that can interfere with weight loss. Becky also asks Do Weekends Mean Overeating? and suggests you explore your thinking patterns and beliefs around weekend eating. Finally she addresses the age-old question Is Food Addictive? One theory suggests that dopamine may play a role in food craving and possibly lead to addiction.

Marie Drennan presents Bad Buddhist vs. The Sixth Precept posted at Diary of a Bad Buddhist, where she discusses her efforts to eat better using Buddhist concepts and mindfulness.

Sara Grace presents Wellness Tip #191: Recognize Patterns. This is a quick list of tips for recognising emotional eating - possibly a little too brief!

S Palmer presents Overweight? Go on a mental diet

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of emotional eating using our carnival submission form.

Why you want that chocolate

Have you ever wondered why some people like chocolate, and others can take it or leave it? According to a new study chocolate lovers have a different metabolic profile.

Scientists working on a project funded by chocolate giant, Nestlé, think they have discovered chemical reactions in people’s bodies that correlate to a strong desire for chocolate. Nestlé scientists developed a new methodology called nutrimetabonomics to make associations between individual metabolic phenotypes and nutritional preferences.

Researchers discovered that people who like chocolate, have lower levels of the ‘bad’ cholesterol LDL, higher levels of a beneficial protein, albumin, and also have different activities of the gut microbes involved in digestion. This occurs, even when they are not consuming chocolate suggesting a strong link between our metabolic profile and the foods we desire.

"Our study shows that food preferences, including chocolate, might be programmed or imprinted into our metabolic system in such a way that the body becomes attuned to a particular diet," says Sunil Kochhar of the Nestlé Research Centre.

"We know that some people can eat a diet that is high in steak and carbs and generally remain healthy, while the same food in others is unhealthy," he explains.

The study was conducted on men, as the researchers were concerned that metabolic changes during women’s menstrual cycle may influence the results. I guess they had visions of PMS women suddenly discovering a hankering for chocolate!

Gaming Can Be Good for You

My husband and I recently acquired a high cool-quotient when we bought a Nintendo Wii. Our nephews and younger friends are in awe. The Wii is still hard to find and when he stumbled on one at a Big Box store, my husband didn't even hesitate to buy it. Our rationale was it would get us off the couch and out from behind computer screens. The game software that comes with the console includes bowling, baseball, tennis, golf and boxing. You use the controller/remote as you would the sports equipment - swinging the tennis racket, etc. I actually was sore and stiff after my first foray into bowling.

We've all heard about the evils of virtual gaming. I wrote a cautionary post, Is Second Life the Ultimate Cyber Addiction? about the addictive potential of online gaming. I still believe that any activity that interferes with your normal life functioning is unhealthy, but it's also a matter of degree. As a response to a regular Second Life player who criticized my post for admonishing something I hadn't tried, I signed on to Second Life to give it a try. Unfortunately, some software incompatibility has prevented me from playing. But in looking into the site again, I found an interesting article, "Big Avatar on Campus." In the video, QUEST's Community Science blog producer Sheraz Sadiq visits Second Life to check out a virtual classroom on San Jose State University's Second Life campus. To reproduce the actual campus, the university purchased "real estate" from Second Life. This is distance learning taken to the next level. Sadiq interviews a professor in the School of Library & Information Science who hasn't taught a class in a physical classroom for six years. Sadiq's avatar joins the students' avatars in the virtual classroom. Amazing!

In researching the positive benefits of casual gaming, I was directed to some research by Aimee O. Jacobs of Frank PR, a London marketing and PR firm. One their clients is PopCaps, the leading developer and publisher of casual games. In a survey of over 7,000 white collar workers who play casual games, they found that nearly a quarter (24%) play casual games at work.

Even more surprisingly is that 35% of CEO’s and Senior Executives also play…at work!

Of those who play at work, the results showed that:

• 1 in 7 (14%) has played casual
  video games during a business meeting or conference call.
  
• With a massive two thirds (65%)
  claiming to do so at least once a month!
  
• 61% play during lunch or on other
  official breaks.
  
• 52% play during the workday, when
  they need a short break.
  
• 79% play at work several times a
  week or more.
  
• 53% play at work at least once a
  day.

The main reason for playing at work was the belief that casual games offer physical or mental health benefits (79%). Even the CEO’s and Senior Executives are in agreement, showing that over half (48%) of respondents who occupy a Senior or Supervisory role are actually encouraging mental breaks during the workday.

Now, all bosses and coworkers might not agree that hearing you cheer yourself on in a virtual game at work is a productive use of company time. But again, the key is moderation - not playing games to the exclusion of your work.

So I will keep working on my Nintendo Wii bowling average. So far, my highest game is a 248. Believe me, I've never bowled that well in REAL life!

Bottled Up Feelings

I always enjoy cartoons that give another take on common psychological or therapeutic sayings. Have a nice weekend everyone!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

October 11th US Depression Screening Day

The United States has a free screening day to help people who suspect they may be depressed.

National Depression Screening Day was created to raise awareness of anxiety and mood disorders, such as Depression. It operates throughout the United States to help people get assessed for mental health disorders and to provide resources for people seeking help.

If you would like to visit a screening centre, you can find a map of locations here

A separate initiative by a research institute offers free treatment. If you are based in New York you could be eligible to participate in research and receive free outpatient treatment. Check out the current studies on depression and bipolar for more details.

~~~~~~

If you think you or a loved one may have depression, but live outside the US or are unable to attend a screening session you can complete an online depression screening test.

We also have a directory of telephone numbers in most places if you would like to contact a support agency in your country.

5 Life Lessons from TV Shows

We probably watch too much TV at our house; we watch many shows live and also DVR (Tivo) hours more to watch later. And it isn't the high-brow PBS fare that most people who eschew TV will admit to watching. We're not embarrassed about our fondness for Reno 911 .

In addition to the admittedly low-brow stuff, I watch several shows that are indicators of the increasing quality of TV - the content has become more complex and goes beyond entertainment. The following aren't meant to be reviews of the shows, but rather an examination of some that explore important life issues of interest:

1. Mother-Daughter Relationships

A show that I'm still mourning is Gilmore Girls - it ended its 7-year run last spring. Set in a small, New England town, it's the story of a young single mom and her teenage daughter. I started watching it as a way to connect with my non-verbal adolescent patients. I kept watching it because it was so good. Lorelai, the mom and Rory, her daughter talked on more than a superficial level and respected each other as people. They didn't always get along - they didn't speak for most of one season. But they always managed to resolve differences and demonstrate that they cared about each other.

2. Small-Town Life

Gilmore Girls also did a nice job of exploring the realities of small-town life. But a current show really nails it. Friday Night Lights is only in its second season. I admit I passed on it initially because I'm not a high-school football fan. But the critics raved, I gave it a try and it's a wonderful examination of small towns. I grew up in a tiny college town so I know it's accurate. The show avoids the typical "everybody-in-your-business" shtick that is usually portrayed. What stands out is the care and support people in small towns offer each other.

3. Marriage

Of course marriage is fodder for comedy shows. But underneath the laughs, Everybody Loves Raymond portrayed many aspects of real marriages - relationships with in-laws, kids, etc. And although it often didn't seem so, Raymond and Deborah had a mutual respect. Roseanne, the '80s sit-com nicely portrayed an American blue-collar family. The marriage was stressed with worries about money and kids, but maintained a tight bond. Another older show that I feel accurately depicted marriage, family and divorce was Once and Again. The main characters were able to carve out a deep relationship in the midst of negotiating divorce, child custody and remarriage.

4. Work

Doesn't The Office come immediately to mind? Both American and British versions are hysterical. Who doesn't relate to the clueless boss and irritating co-workers? But behind that we see camaraderie and caring relationships that go beyond plotting against the boss. I like the practical jokes that Pam and Jim play on the rest of the staff. It shows us the need to blow off steam and de-stress while at work.

5. Mind Your Manners!

This category is inspired by countless reality TV shows. One in particular, Bridezillas, defines it for me. This show follows brides-to-be through their wedding prep. OK, I know reality TV shows are exaggerated for the benefit of ratings and viewership, but the majority of these women are an embarrassment to the gender! Their behavior is atrocious. I often think, "Your families, co-workers and friends are watching this!" The competition-style shows seem to showcase bad behavior also - back-stabbing, lying, cheating and tantrum-throwing. My grandmother would say, "mind your manners!" and I would agree.

So I guess I've justified all those hours wasted watching TV, right? Now go turn on your set and see some content that relates to your life. Share your insights - what shows deal with life lessons that speak to you?

Healthy Restaurants Trigger Overeating

Think that you're eating healthily? Think again.

The "health halos" of healthy restaurants often prompt consumers to treat themselves to higher-calorie side dishes, drinks or desserts than when they eat at fast-food restaurants that make no health claims, according to a series of new Cornell studies.

The research, published in the October online version of the Journal of Consumer Research, found that many people also tend to underestimate by 35 percent just how many calories those so-called healthy restaurant foods contain.

The example that the authors give is the Subway restaurant, where the advertised subs are healthy, but exclude the mayonnaise and other calorie-laden extras that most people add to their order. I remember hearing something similar once on an Oprah show where a heart disease prevention expert commented that many women order salads thinking they're healthy and then end up with a higher fat content and calorie count by the time they've ladled their full-fat dressing over the lettuce leaves.

"We found that when people go to restaurants claiming to be healthy, such as Subway, they choose additional side items containing up to 131 percent more calories than when they go to restaurants like McDonald's, that don't make this claim,"

says Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think and the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and of Applied Economics and director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.

Wansink and co-author Pierre Chandon, a marketing professor at INSEAD, an international business school in France, also report that by simply asking people to reconsider restaurants' health claims prompts them to better estimate calories and not to order as many side dishes.

"In estimating a 1,000 calorie meal, I've found that people on average underestimate by 159 calories if the meal was bought at Subway than at McDonald's," says Wansink. Since it takes an energy imbalance of 3,500 calories to put on one pound, that extra 159 calories could lead to almost a 5-pound weight gain over a year for people eating at Subway twice a week compared with choosing a comparable meal at McDonald's with the same frequency, he says.

These studies, he says, help explain why lower-calorie menus at fast-food restaurants have not led to the expected reduction in total calorie intake and in obesity rates.

A Fat Mum and Too Much TV Linked to Obesity

If you want your children to be healthy weight, new research suggests that you need to cut the time the spend in front of the television, and being a boy helps, too.

Children are at greater risk of obesity if they watch a lot of television, have an overweight mother, or are female according to recent research from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

The research shows that sedentary activity, such as watching a lot of television has a far greater impact on the percentage of body fat than expected. Interestingly, high levels of exercise or physical activity did not appear to protect against the risk of gaining weight. More importantly, children that showed higher a body fat percentage at age 3½ continued to be overweight at age 7 years suggesting that the children would grow up to be overweight adults.

The study published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, monitored the weight of 571 New Zealand children of European heritage from birth to age 7. The research found having a mother who was overweight or obese, being a girl, and spending a lot of time in front of the TV were all independently associated with the chances of becoming obese.

Other factors include rapidly gaining weight in early childhood and having rapid growth spurts.

Professor Ed Mitchell of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences believes obesity is set early in life and that studying childhood weight and body fat percentages will provide clues to preventing children from growing into overweight adults.

Mouse experiments reveal 'flight or fight' hormone's role

Both extensive psychological research and personal experiences confirm that events that happen during heightened states of emotion such as fear, anger and joy are far more memorable than less dramatic occurrences.

In a report this week in Cell, Johns Hopkins researchers and their collaborators at Cold Spring Harbor and New York University have identified the likely biological basis for this:

a hormone released during emotional arousal “primes” nerve cells to remember events by increasing their chemical sensitivity at sites where nerves rewire to form new memory circuits.

Describing the brain as a big circuit board in which each new experience creates a new circuit, Hopkins neuroscience professor Richard Huganir, Ph.D. says that he and his team found that during emotional peaks, the hormone norepinephrine dramatically sensitizes synapses – the site where nerve cells make an electro-chemical connection – to enhance the sculpting of a memory into the big board.

Norepinephrine, more widely known as a “fight or flight” hormone, energizes the process by adding phosphate molecules to a nerve cell receptor called GluR1. The phosphates help guide the receptors to insert themselves adjacent to a synapse. “Now when the brain needs to form a memory, the nerves have plenty of available receptors to quickly adjust the strength of the connection and lock that memory into place,” Huganir says.

Huganir and his team suspected that GluR1 might be a target of norepinephrine since disruptions in this receptor cause spatial memory defects in mice. They tested the idea by either injecting healthy mice with adrenaline or exposing them to fox urine, both of which increase norepinephrine levels in brain. Analyzing brain slices of the mice, the researchers saw increased phosphates on the GluR1 receptors and an increased ability of these receptors to be recruited to synapses.

When the researchers put mice in a cage, gave a mild shock, took them out of that cage and put them back in it the next day, mice who had received adrenaline or fox urine tended to “freeze” in fear – an indicator they associated the cage as the site of a shock – more frequently, suggestive of enhanced memory.

However, in a similar experiment with mice genetically engineered to have a defective GluR1 receptor that phosphates cannot attach to, adrenaline injections had no effect on mouse memory, further evidence of the “priming” effect of the receptor in response to norepinephrine.

The researchers plan on continuing their work by going in the opposite direction and engineering another mouse strain that has a permanently phosphorylated or “primed” receptor. “We’re curious to see how these mice will behave,” Huganir says. “We suspect that they’ll be pretty smart, but at the same time constantly anxious.”

Negativity is contagious

Though we may not care to admit it, what other people think about something can affect what we think about it. This is how critics become influential and why our parents’ opinions about our life choices continue to matter, long after we’ve moved out. But what kind of opinions have the most effect? An important new study in the Journal of Consumer Research reveals that negative opinions cause the greatest attitude shifts, not just from good to bad, but also from bad to worse.

“Consumer attitudes toward products and services are frequently influenced by others around them. Social networks, such as those found on Myspace and Facebook suggest that these influences will continue to be significant drivers of individual consumer attitudes as society becomes more inter-connected,” explain Adam Duhachek, Shuoyang Zhang, and Shanker Krishnan (all of Indiana University). “Our research seeks to understand the conditions where group influence is strongest.”

Consumers were presented with information about a new product and allowed to independently form their evaluations. As would be normally expected with many products, some of these evaluations were positive and others negative. The researchers then revealed to participants whether their peers evaluated the product negatively or positively. They found that the opinions of others exert especially strong influence on individual attitudes when these opinions are negative. Additionally, consumers that privately held positive attitudes toward the product were more susceptible to influence from group opinion than those who initially held negative opinions.

Furthermore, the researchers also found that those with negative opinions of the product were likely to become even more negative if asked to participate in a group discussion: “When consumers expect to interact with other consumers through these forums, learning the views of these other consumers may reinforce and even polarize their opinions, making them more negative,” the researchers reveal.

“This research has several interesting implications. First, given the strong influence of negative information, marketers may need to expend extra resources to counter-act the effects of negative word of mouth in online chatrooms, blogs and in offline media. Conversely, companies could damage the reputations of competitors by disseminating negative information online,” the researchers explain. “Consumers should be aware that these social influence biases exist and are capable of significantly impacting their perceptions.”

Source: Adam Duhachek, Shuoyang Zhang, and Shanker Krishnan, “Anticipated Group Interaction: Coping with Valence Asymmetries in Attitude Shift.” Journal of Consumer Research: October 2007

Balancing Work & Family Life - Is it Possible?

I may not be my most objective on this topic as I've just returned from my first real vacation in over three years. The current state I call "Post-Vacation Re-Entry Syndrome" - going from watching sunsets on the beach to shuffling through stacks of bills and returning work phone calls. But while away, my husband and I vowed to try harder to achieve a similar disconnect from work while back to the realities of everyday life.


There are masses of information out there on the topic. When I Googled "balance in work and family life," I got over 44 million hits! With so much written about it, why is it so hard for us to implement that balance? Here are some helpful ideas to address the issue.

A very comprehensive book on the topic is Robert W. Drago's Striking a Balance: Work, Family, Life This is not the usual bullet-ted, self-help easy read. Drago is a professor of Labor Studies and Women's Studies at Penn State University. Although a more scholarly treatment, with much exploration of various theories, it is very readable. Washington Post.com's Leslie Morgan Steiner has an excellent work-life blog. Every Tuesday, she invites a guest to write about their experiences trying to achieve life balance.

Another good resource is the newspaper Web site The Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal.com. A recent article by Jonathan Clements focused on achieving happiness.

Much of the literature addresses childcare topics. How do parents achieve a balance in their work and parenting lives? Personally, I become a little frustrated when most of the focus seems to fall on mothers achieving this balance or more often failing to achieve this balance, which has a very blaming feel. I wish there was more focus on how fathers are affected. An interesting exploration of the topic is this piece from Inc.com, "Working Moms and Dads Clash on Work-Life Balance".

Take some time to examine your own work-life-family relationships. If they feel out of whack, begin to take steps to achieve that balance. If your situation feels particularly overwhelming or if you are experiencing burnout or other stress-related responses, professional help may be indicated. Fortunately, many companies now offer EAPs, Employee Assistance Programs. Through these programs you can access professionals who can help, most often at no charge.

Related posts:
Life Balance Journal

Genetic Test for Suicide?

Relief could be on the way for those concerned that taking antidepressants could increase the risk of suicide.

NeuroMark announced today the immediate availability of a genetic test to identify people at risk of suicidal ideation — thoughts of committing suicide — when prescribed an antidepressant drug. The test, called the Mark-C™ test, is expected to help restore public confidence in antidepressant medication and help to reduce a recently announced spike in suicide rates among U.S. youth.

In September 2007, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), announced that in 2004 there was a 8% rise in suicide rates among 10-19 year olds, the year that the FDA issued public health warnings linking antidepressant drugs with suicidal ideation and behavior. “The largest percentage increase in rates from 2003 to 2004 was among females aged 10—14 (75.9%), followed by females aged 15—19 years (32.3%) and males aged 15—19 years (9%),” according to the CDC.

“Before the NeuroMark test, we couldn’t differentiate between the subset of patients who were at risk of suicidal ideation and those who could more safely take an antidepressant drug,” stated NeuroMark president Dr. Peter Tolias. “The Mark-C test is highly predictive and identifies citalopram-treated patients (also known as Celexa or Cipramil) who are at high risk for suicidal ideation. The test also identifies people at low risk, giving the physician more confidence in prescribing citalopram,” he added.

A Nation-Wide Confirmatory Study
The company is inviting physicians and patients across the country to participate in prospectively collecting data to confirm and extend the predicted risk of the Mark-C test. The data will be compiled in the Mark-C Outcomes Database and participating physicians and patients will be notified as new data they submit confirms and extends the predictive value and clinical utility of the test.

Patients can participate by filling out a short QUIDS-SR "self-described" inventory at each appointment with their doctor. The inventory is submitted by their doctor to the database where scientists will study the results and extended information. In this way each patient is contributing to further developing the test for other patients. The patient's identity is not disclosed and each patient will be advised when the database is updated and expanded. This is the first nationwide prospective gathering of data conducted in partnership with patients and families and their physicians.

The test is being made available in accordance with the requirements and standards of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA). An FDA-approved version of the test is expected to be available within a year.

Importance of Identifying Those at Risk by Examining Genes
Antidepressant use as as whole decreases the risk of suicide, but for a small number of people the risk increases. This test aims to identify those at risk, although at this stage the test is limited to the antidepressant drug citalopram.

In a discovery announced today in the American Journal of Psychiatry, scientists at the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) have identified the first set of genes associated with the risk for treatment emergent suicidal ideation when a patient is prescribed the widely used antidepressant drug citalopram, which is available under the brand name Celexa® and various generic versions. NeuroMark’s Mark-C test, a first-in-class test, includes the genetic markers announced today by the NIMH and the American Journal of Psychiatry, and additional markers chosen to increase the predictive power of the test. Authors of the study, “Genetic Markers of Suicidal Ideation Emerging During Citalopram Treatment of Major Depression,” stated that patients found at risk for suicidal ideation “may benefit from closer monitoring, alternative treatments and/or specialty care.”

FDA Black Box Warning Cited as Possible Cause of Rise
The public health warning linking antidepressant medications with suicidal thinking and behavior in young adults was issued by the FDA and European regulatory agencies in 2003 and 2004. “Black box” labeling is the highest level of warning and was mandated to be placed on all classes of antidepressant drugs by the agency. A decrease in the use of antidepressant drugs began in that year. The decrease in prescribing is linked to the significant rise in U.S. suicide rates that began in the same year, according to a recently published paper by Gibbons et al. in the September issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

According to the CDC, suicides account for more than 32,000 deaths annually in the U.S. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill reports that suicide deaths consistently outnumber homicide deaths by a margin of three to two.

There was broad news coverage in 2004 of the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior associated with antidepress- ant drugs and the action taken by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The U.S. agency recently expanded the warning label to include people up to the age of 24.

Genes Identified in the NIMH STAR*D Trial
A study, called the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression Study (STAR*D), sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Human Genome Research Institute, the NIH and the Swedish Research Council, enrolled 4,000 patients over four years. The study was the largest trial of its kind ever undertaken. Participating patients were diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and ranged in age from 18 to 75. Patients submitting DNA numbered 1,915. The scientists chose 768 genetic markers to screen in the 68 genes that sampled five broad signaling pathways of potential importance in antidepressant drugs.

Suicidal ideation emerged during treatment in 120 out of 1742 patients sampled in the study. Suicidal ideation occurred very early in the course of treatment, 69% by the 21st day and 92% by the 28th day. It also occurred upon change in medication dose. After the end of the 14 week treatment period the authors studied, suicidal ideation persisted in 37% of patients and fluctuated in 15%, or a total of 52% of patients. Twenty-four percent of patients carrying the genetic markers went into remission compared to 42.8% of controls.

How the Mark-C Test Works
The Mark-C test requires a cotton swab to be brushed inside of the patient’s cheek to obtain a sample of DNA. Test results are reported to the physician Test results are reported to the physician within 2-4 days from receipt of the sample. Two of the markers probed by the Mark-C test reside in genes that encode receptors for the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. These are the genes GRIK2 and GRIA3, both of which encode ionotropic glutamate receptors, the most prominent neuronal membrane receptors in the mammalian brain activated by normal neurophysiologic processes.

Research may explain higher anxiety rates in women

A new study finds that young girls and women are more likely to believe that negative past events predict future events, compared to boys and men.

Researchers believe this may help explain why females have more frequent and intense worries, perceive more risk, have greater intolerance for uncertainty, and experience higher rates of anxiety than males. The findings, from studies conducted at the University of California, Davis, are published in the September/October 2007 issue of the journal Child Development.

In two studies involving 128 people, a researcher investigated 3- to 6-year-olds’ as well as adults’ knowledge that worry and preventative behaviors can be caused by thinking that a negative event from the past will or might reoccur in the future. The ability to explain emotions and behaviors in relation to past events is considered a fundamental part of adult social understanding that is important for processing past trauma, assessing risk, and making decisions.

In the first study, participants listened to six stories featuring characters that experienced negative events and then, many days later, felt worried or changed their behaviors when they saw the person or animal that had caused them prior harm. Children and adults were asked to explain the cause of the character’s worry or behavior and then to predict how a naïve friend would react to the same situation. The second study was the same as the first, except that the person or animal in the final scene only looked similar to the one that had caused harm in the past. In addition, for some trials, participants were asked to predict how the character was likely to respond to seeing this new person or animal.

Although there were no gender differences in the frequency with which participants provided past-to-future explanations, in both studies, female children and adults more frequently explained characters’ reactions as motivated by possible versus certain harm (that is, what might happen versus what will happen). Moreover, female children and adults more frequently predicted that characters who encountered “similar perpetrators” would feel worried because they thought the new person or animal might cause the same harm as the one from the past.

The studies also found that children and adults believe negative past events forecast negative future events, even when the person or animal only resembles the past perpetrator of harm. Between 3 and 6 years of age, children increasingly understand that people’s worry and behavior can be caused by allowing memories about past negative events to influence their anticipation of the future, and they are more aware that others who didn’t experience or know about the negative past would feel differently and make different decisions.

“These results are significant because they reveal that knowledge about the impact of past-to-future thinking on emotions and behaviors develops during the preschool years,” according to Kristin Hansen Lagattuta, assistant professor of psychology, a researcher at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, and the author of the study.