This is a very long video but it addresses some useful tips and tricks how to make nice slides in powerpoint. It starts with a ballroom presentation or a presentation without bullet points. This will get you updated on death with powerpoint and how to create slides for different audiences. The biggest part is on how to create those slides. This topic is usually not covered in the books on presentations.
Now this will be in my link book. Done with no further information needed about this topic, ready, end of story
There are two general approaches to subverting science-based medicine (SBM): anti-science and pseudoscience. Anti-scientific approaches are any that seek to undermine science as the determinant of the standard...
Blind people can hallucinate on LSD, although this seems largely to be the case in blind people who had several years of sight to begin with, but who later lost their vision.
I've just found a remarkable 1963 study [pdf] from the Archives of Opthalmology in which 24 blind participants took LSD to see if they could experience visual hallucinations.
It turns out, they can, although...
The findings suggest that bringing loved ones’ photographs to painful procedures may be beneficial, particularly if those individuals cannot be there. In fact, because loved ones vary in their ability to provide support, photographs may, in some cases, be more effective than in-person support.
Since the Fort Hood shooting I've been hearing and reading a lot in the media about 'compassion fatigue' and 'vicarious trauma'. I feel compelled to blog after reading yesterday's New York Times article on the...
Adolescents are the most truthful about school and their life on blogs, whereas they are the least truthful about intimate topics such as family life and partnership. Adolescents present their personal information on blogs very truthfully. A girls of fourteen is really a girl of fourteen.
During adolescence forming an identity is a key developmental task in this period. Identity in the sense of a coherent sense of the self. This developmental phase is crucial to questions such as who am i and it’s the phase in which adolescents experiment with different social roles. A blog is an extraordinary place to experiment with identity and social roles and to experiment with relationships online.
Fifty percent of adolescents show their photograph on their blogs11; 54% present personal data, such as age, name, or domicile; and 61% present contact information, such as e-mail address, instant messaging username, and phone number.
From the popular press it’s usually reported that adolescents do not use their true identity online. In a recent published research the authors approached 120 adolescents with blogs, adolescents between 13 and 17 years old with at least 3 months of active blogging were sent a survey via e-mail, instant messages, or blogs. The data were collected in 2 steps, first an online questionnaire with questions about real-life identity and questions about the frequency of lying about important aspects and questions about the usual topics on their blog.
Next the participants real life identity was verified by a competition when they participated. 12 of them would be selected and given a price. Their real identity was checked for the price winning and they were informed that when they lied about their identity they would not receive the price. Therefore, adolescents knew that if they wanted to win a prize, they had to fill in the questionnaire truthfully, regardless of whether or not they lie on their blog.
From 120, 112 questionnaires were returned, 90% (101) were female, 9,8% (9) were male. Adolescents reported minimal lying on their blogs. Significantly more lying on their blog was done by the younger adolescents (13-14) compared to the older adolescents (15-17).
The adolescents admitted lying on their blogs the most in the questionnaire about their sexual experience. Interviews were conducted with 10 randomly selected participants whose answers were then verified. None of them had lied about their identity. Only one of 10 at random selected participants came to the meeting on her own and that she was in the upper age range (17 years old). Adolescents are not necessarily irresponsible as far as the relationship between the online and offline world is concerned.
From this and other research it can be concluded that:
For adolescents, the Internet tends to serve as an extension of the real-life identity rather than as a place where special identities are created. ……..blogs are not perceived as personal diaries but more as an instrument for communication, and thereby an extension of the blogger’s real-life identity
Do you lie on your blog?
Blinka, L., & Smahel, D. (2009). Fourteen Is Fourteen and a Girl Is a Girl: Validating the Identity of Adolescent Bloggers CyberPsychology & Behavior DOI: 10.1089/cpb.2009.0044
With the Internet many patients visit the GP after extensive searches on the Internet. They usually have an idea about what’s wrong with them. In a recent publication in the British Medical Journal I found a recent article on this subject. In visits to a GP patients the self diagnosis (also called self labelling) was responsible for initiating a diagnosis in 18% of consultations.
Few studies have been done on the accuracy of self diagnosis. These studies suggest that recurrent urinary tract infection, recurrent anterior uveitis, schistosomiasis, and head lice can all be self diagnosed correctly.
There are also studies suggesting that certain conditions are often misdiagnosed by patients. Examples from the literature search include pregnancy, vaginal candidiasis, and scabies.
Patients with recurrent conditions and chronic diseases are often experts about their illness. A collaborative approach within a traditional diagnostic framework with these patients yield the most satisfying results for all.
Prevalence, previous episodes, general awareness of condition, and patient education affect the accuracy of self diagnosis. Self diagnosis should always undergo subsequent refinement and challenge.
Excellent article, should have been free access.
Goyder, C., McPherson, A., & Glasziou, P. (2009). Self diagnosis BMJ, 339 (nov11 1) DOI: 10.1136/bmj.b4418
Research suggests that up to 97% of women and 68% of men experience food cravings. Chocolate is the most common one of the craved foods, typically high calorie.
A number of situations have been shown to experimentally increase cravings of chocolate consumption. For example,chocolate abstinence, stress and exposure to chocolate cues increase urges to eat chocolate.
A 15 min bout of brisk walking, equivalent to ‘fairly light’ intensity exercise, reduces chocolate cravings, with moderate effect sizes, during and for at least 10 min following exercise cessation.
Higher intensity or longer bouts of physical activity may lead to compensatory dietary behavior and/or chocolate cravings.
Cravings are generally more prevalent in women than men and decrease somewhat with age, with 100% of young women and 70% of young men craving any food or drink, compared to 66% of older women and 62% of older men.
In American women, about half of cravings for chocolate occur perimenstrually with a marked increase in craving beginning a few days before and extending into the first few days of menses.
Chocolate craving is not uniquely associated with the menstrual cycle, compared to a range of other sweet and savory foods.
There is no significant link between levels of estradiol and the number, frequency, or types of cravings.
Exogenous administration of progesterone does not significantly reduce perimenstrual cravings.
Reduction of chocolate craving when chocolate is ingested results from the sensory experience of chocolate, and not of pharmacological origine.
From these observations it can be concluded that instead of it’s sensory characteristics responsible for chocolate craving, the hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle could possibly play an important role in chocolate craving.
A recent study investigated the chocolate craving in women post menopause to assess the presence, prevalence, temporal patterns, and perceived triggers for chocolate craving. Previous research has shown that there is no direct link between perimenstrual hormone levels and chocolate craving in women. Another factor linking chocolate craving and menstruation could be the stress during this period or an:
a socially sanctioned ‘‘excuse’’ to indulge in a highly calorically dense food, and thus comes to be used by women as a plausible and acceptable reason to consume chocolate.
The researchers randomly selected alumnae from the University of Pennsylvania from three cohorts (’46/’47, ‘62/’63, and ‘84/’85). They were sent anonymous questionnaires of which 35% were returned (n=280). The participants provided demographic information, regularity of periods, menopause status, use of hormonal birth control or hormone replacement therapy, liking for chocolate, craving for chocolate and it’s temporal pattern.
Pre-menopausal women reported a significant but small decrease in prevalence of chocolate cravings compared to postmenopausal women. The decrease is only 13.4% and thereby much smaller than a 38% drop predicted by a purely hormonal explanation. Of post-menopausal women very few reported of prior, pre-menopause chocolate cravings that were thought to be related to the menstrual cycle. This could be due to a lack of recall of any perimenstrual cravings premenopausally.
The latter assumption is supported by the fact that reports of past perimenstrual cravings are low in the 65-year-old women but absent entirely in the 80-year-old women.
Since hormonal changes don’t explain a minor drop in chocolate craving in women over the life cycle the authors sugest another explantion for the perimenstrual chocolate craving:
a major effect of low perimenstrual hormone levels may be to produce mood changes or dysphoria, which may prompt chocolate consumption as a reward or a means of coping.
What do you think?
Hormes, J., & Rozin, P. (2009). Perimenstrual chocolate craving. What happens after menopause? Appetite, 53 (2), 256-259 DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2009.07.003
When feeling down good music can cheer you up. But when depressed, I mean clinically depressed, can you enjoy music? How is music enjoyment processed by the brain and how is this influenced by depression?
All participants of this study enjoyed their favorite music more than the neutral music and depressed patients didn’t differ from the healthy subjects in scores for enjoyment of favorite music nor on the difference between the favorite and neutral music. On the fMRI the depressed patients showed less activation of parts of the brain: the medial orbital frontal cortex, the nucleus accumbens and the ventral striatum. In the pictures above you can see the areas more active in healthy controls compared to depressed patients.
These brain regions are known to be involved in reward processing in healthy controls. In depression the medial orbital frontal cortex shows dysfunction mainly hyperactivity. The lower difference in activation in depressed patients between neutral and favorite music listening can be explained by tonic hyperactivation of this region with consequent lack of signal change between the two conditions.
The nucleus accumbens and the ventral striatum also areas of reward processing are known to be affected during depression. Since the subjective rating of enjoyment of their favorite music was not significantly different the depressed patients differ in the processing of rewarding stimuli.
How was this study done?
investigated the use of an fMRI, passive musiclistening paradigm to evaluate the neurophysiological response to enjoying participant-specific, instrumental ‘favorite music’ versus ‘neutral music’ in healthy (n=15) and depressed patients (n=16). This paradigm took 10–12 min in the scanner and was not confounded by active decision making once scanning began.
Conclusion
From this research it’s concluded that in depressed patients the neurophysiological reward response is different from healthy subjects. depressed patients showed significant deficits in activation of the most important reward areas of the brain.
Can’t explain the fact that depressed patients scored their subjective liking of there favorite music comparable to healthy subjects. Remains a mystery to me since one of the characteristics of depression is the lack of experiencing pleasure at large and often also from music. Any suggestions?
Osuch, E., Bluhm, R., Williamson, P., Théberge, J., Densmore, M., & Neufeld, R. (2009). Brain activation to favorite music in healthy controls and depressed patients NeuroReport, 20 (13), 1204-1208 DOI: 10.1097/WNR.0b013e32832f4da3
The findings suggest that bringing loved ones’ photographs to painful procedures may be beneficial, particularly if those individuals cannot be there. In fact, because loved ones vary in their ability to provide support, photographs may, in some cases, be more effective than in-person support.
Since the Fort Hood shooting I've been hearing and reading a lot in the media about 'compassion fatigue' and 'vicarious trauma'. I feel compelled to blog after reading yesterday's New York Times article on the...
The article I am discussing in
this post is the 2008 Heinz Lehmann Award paper, published in the
open-access Canadian journal, Journal of Psychiatry
Neuroscience. It really covers two topics: translational
r...
German physicians at the University Clinics of Bonn and Cologne have treated ten patients with deep brain stimulation. This involved implanting electrodes in the patients' nucleus accumbens. This centre has a key role in as the brains reward system, whose function may be impaired in depressive people. Subsequent to this treatment, the patients' depression improved significantly in half of the patients.
Thanks to a new method there is a reason for hope for patients with very severe depression. German physicians at the University Clinics of Bonn and Cologne have treated ten patients with deep brain stimulation...
Doctors and patients shouldn’t be discussing patient-specific issues in the social space.
Bryan Vartabedian, MD, a Baylor physician, has a great post on 33 Charts today about doctor-patient conversations on social media. His conclusion: Doctors and patients shouldn’t be discussing patient-specifi...
My opinion on rTMS in depression has been discussed in several posts on my blog. Had to update some of the information regularly.Rapid Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) to the left prefrontal cortex is not more effective than sham rTMS for depression. This was the result of a recent published randomized controlled trial with 4 month follow-up.
Apparently, the FDA will approve just about anything as an antidepressant. Despite patients indicating that they don't perceive Abilify to work as an antidepressant, the FDA approved it, likely leading to ten...
Empathy, de Waal explains, is the social glue that holds communities together, and if humans are empathetic animals it is because we have "the backing of a long evolutionary history". "Bonding... is what makes us happiest," he writes, and rapidly accumulating evidence from the behavioural and neural sciences supports the claim.
Evidence continues to show that animals (including humans) are naturally cooperative - so why do we cling to the idea that nature is "red in tooth and claw"?
Twitter Searches You Didn’t Think Were Possible: Search By Profession
Twitter Searches You Didn’t Think Were Possible: Search By Profession http://is.gd/20GoNSearch By Profession on Twitter by using TweepSearch - example: http://bit.ly/129ATEHospitalists on Twitter: http://bit...
The mural tells the story of a horrible day back in the spring. Fred was being transferred to a new hospital and Regina needed records of Fred’s many tests and treatments from the old hospital.
“I had gone down to medical records,” Holliday says, “and they said, ‘That’ll be 73 cents a page and a 21-day wait.’ I said, ‘My husband is upstairs with Stage IV kidney cancer in your hospital and you’re telling me I have to wait 21 days? Everything’s on the computer. All you got to do is print it out and you’re going to make me wait 21 days?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, that’s just the way it is.’ I was floored.”
But there is more, to her it was a wonderful therapy and relief to get to paint. While painting discussions with passers by ensued, Regina’s mural got more political, more about health care reform.
Art and psychiatry is always an interesting combination to me. It has so many perspectives. Does being an artist combine with psychiatric illness, how do they influence each other? To name just a few perspectives. On this blog I regularly post about artists and psychiatry and painters and psychiatry in a broad sense.
Can depression as one important psychiatric illness enhance creativity despite depressed mood, loss of interest not to mention a lack of concentration and all other symptoms? Art can be comforting or even a form of medication. Klaas Koopmans (1920-2006) a Dutch artist who during his admissions as an inpatient for depression drew his fellow patients in psychiatric hospitals on the back of his cigar boxes and note paper. Department rules didn’t permit him drawing or painting. He made these secretly. He had bipolar disorder. His last admission to a psychiatric hospital was in 1963.
With his keen eye and highly personal approach, he lays bare the hidden feelings and thoughts of his subjects. The aim is not to achieve any superficial or flattering likeness, but to reveal the essence of the subject’s inner being. The results are impressive and extremely private portraits of vulnerable individuals.
Tales of a Borderline is an exhibition of artwork by artists with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). This disorder affects a persons emotions, causing emotional instability. Tamar Whyte one of the artists has her own website with galleries and a lot of more information also on borderline personality disorder.
Wasily Kandinsky didn’t suffer from mental illness but he had synaesthesia. Kandinsky in whom musical tones elicited specific colours, was a tone-colour synaesthete. Kandinsky used his synaesthesia to inform the artisitic process – he tried to capture on canvass the visual equivalent of a symphony. An aerial view shows the market square of the southern Bavarian town of Weilheim, Germany painted with a copy of Russian-born French Expressionist Wasily Kandinsky’s painting ‘Weilheim-Maria’s square’. 500 mostly students have been working on it for three weeks.
