Comorbid depressive symptomatology or diagnosed depression is not more prevalent in early, mild or severe Alzheimer's disease. This is an important conclusion from a recent systematic review. Before theories existed about the relationship between Alzheimer's and depression. These theories said that the prevalence of depression either decreases or increases with the increasing severity of Alzheimer's disease.This is comparable to the relationship between depression and personality, does personality predispose to depression or is personality affected by going through depression.Previous reviews stated that no conclusions could be drawn due to large differences between studies. This review tried to overcome this problem.They made .....read more »

Online game players score higher in openness, conscientiousness and extraversion compared to non players. They are eager to learn and master new challenges, they are motivated by competition and they enjoy social activities which can all be provided by online game playing. The online game playing provides them with initial experiences of success and then provide them with more complex challenges creating a flow of immersed experience further satisfying their needs. This creates a positive spiral enhancing their online game experience.Chin-I Teng the author of this articles says:"I also believe that skill of players matters in player intention to continuously .....read more »

Patients often improve more with computer based cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy than with conditions such as waiting list control or care as usual, says a recent review. This is coupled with an over 50% cut in usual therapist time. This review is published in a book: Hands-on Help Computer-aided Psychotherapy. A book review in the Am. J. PsychiatryHands-on Help is a narrative review of the mushrooming field of computer-aided psychotherapy for mental health problems as a whole, from the time it began in the 1960's through to the present day. The many types of computer-aided psychotherapy and how each might be .....read more »

Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, progressive relaxation, and guided imagery help in improving the quality of sleep.Behavior therapy includes cognitive therapy, stimulus control, and sleep hygiene, which helps in improving sleep.Of these I think sleep hygiene is the most important:Maintaining sleep routine, that is sleep and wake up times should be same every day, engaging in regular exercise workout, avoiding naps in daytime, preventing nicotine and caffeine 3 to 4 hours before bed time and keeping worries out of your bedroom before going to sleep are necessary for getting quality sleep.Exercise, a sleep aid, not only helps you to .....read more »

Regularly I write posts about medical education.Medical education is not alway fun. Female students suffer sexual harassment, during clerkship they sometimes have to stay late, which isn't always such a good idea.In my time most students dropped out at the first years. Don't know if that is still the case. But how do you prepare your self for choosing med school?MedSchool Hell has: 101 Things You Wish You Knew Before Starting Medical School.Some examples:You won’t be a medical student on the surgery service. You’ll be the retractor bitch.Residents will probably ask you to retrieve some type of nourishment for them.Most .....read more »

This is a serious blog but so is soccer. Man United draws 0-0 at Barcelona. Barcelona, looking for its second Champions League title in three seasons both Lionel Messi and Samuel Eto’o had good chances. This is a video of Lionel Messi, one of the best players today according to Dr Shock. An artist.This rush is often compared with the rush by Maradonna.Related posts: The EFFECT in Barcelona Messidona ..read more »

Novelist Amy Tan digs deep into the creative process, journeying through her childhood and family history and into the worlds of physics and chance, looking for hints of where her own creativity comes from. It's a wild ride with a surprise ending. There is even some neuroscience in this excellent talk.Related posts: John Cleese on Creativity Love is Great for Creativity, Sex for Analytical Thinking ..read more »

This new portable device brings a shocking experience to your playfull-life. Enjoy this game with your friends, be quick and you won’t be the one who suffers from a tiny electric shock wave.Each of the four players keep their hands on the base of the device. You push the center button and the music starts to play accompanied with red light flashes. Suddenly, the music stops and the light turns green, and if you’re not quick enough to hit your button you’ll be the one that will receive the electric shock.Thanks GizmodoFor English please read hereRelated posts: Games with Electroshocks Soccer Star .....read more »

The quality of information on cocaine addiction on the web is generally poor, confirming previous studies on other health issues. Furthermore, universities seem to be poorly active in proposing websites (8.2%), while commercial organizations hold 55.7% of the studied websites.This seems a little of topic but for depression the quality of websites for information about depression and it's treatment is also poor. Wouldn't it be nice to have a quality scale for health websites? The authors used quality indicators. They looked at: quality of content, design and aesthetics of the site, readability, dating of information, authority of source, ease of .....read more »

Vermont, USA (With an interview of Anne Donahue)Vermont hospitals bring back ECT therapy to treat depressionUSAInfraPsychECT in the elderly, a cochrane reviewECT for Schizophrenia, a cochrane reviewAUSTRALIAAustralia, the black dog instituteSANE, AustraliaBetter Health Channel, AustraliaGREAT BRITTAINECT Online, Great BrittainSEAN, the latest information on ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) in Scotland.THE NETHERLANDSHulp Gids, The NetherlandsPatienten voorlichtingRelated posts on this blog:9 Videos on ECTVideo lecture on ECTRelated posts: Off to Edinburgh Scotland 10 Video’s on Electroconvulsive Therapy Hands On Experience with ECT ..read more »