Top 100 Mental Health and Psychology Blogs

A valuable link to the source about blogging on metal health topics. Some important bloggers, among them researchers and patients are listed there.

Over 60 per cent of Afghans suffer mental health problems

"This is a major problem," Suraya Dalil, Afghanistan’s acting public health minister, told a ceremony in Kabul on World Mental Health Day. "More than 60 percent of Afghans are suffering from stress disorders and mental problems."
The picture is particularly grim in parts of the country where government healthcare workers are unable to provide basic services because of Taliban insurgency, she said.
"Extreme poverty, insecurity, violence and gender disparities are the major factors contributing to worsening mental health in Afghanistan."
[...]

"There are only 200 beds for psychiatric services in the country, with only two psychiatrists in the country covering the entire population," said WHO representative Peter Graaff.
(AFP)

 view the article at globalnews

Ig Nobel Prize for asthma research

'UvA psychologist Simon Rietveld has won the Ig Nobel Prize for medicine, together with Ilya van Beest, professor of Psychology at the University of Tilburg. Their research showed that a rollercoaster ride may be helpful in fighting symptoms of asthma. The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded for research ‘that makes people laugh and then think.'

read the statement of the Universiteit van Amsterdam

 Abstract
'The current study assessed how negative and positive stress is related to dyspnea perception. The participants were 25 young women with a medical diagnosis of severe asthma, and 15 matched controls. Stress was induced during repeated rollercoaster rides. Results showed that negative emotional stress and blood pressure peaked just before, and positive emotional stress and heart beat peaked immediately after rollercoaster rides. Dyspnea in women with asthma was higher just before than immediately after rollercoaster rides, even in women with asthma with a rollercoaster-evoked reduction in lung function. These results suggest that stressed and highly aroused individuals with chronic asthma tend to perceive dyspnea in terms of acquired, familiar associations between dyspnea and positive versus negative feeling states, favoring either underperception or overperception of dyspnea, depending on the emotional valence of a situation.'
Simon Rietveld and Ilja van Beest, Behaviour Research and Therapy, vol. 45, 2006, pp. 977–87

An article by telegraph.co.uk about the lg Nobel awards

A bad joke

What is the indication that you are an evil experimental psychologist? - Only the guys from the control group love you.

by Philipp

Toxoplasmosis and psychology

Toxoplasma can cause behavioral changes in animals and people. There is now a neurological proof that the parasite increases risky behaviour. Therefore the host animal takes more impulsive risky actions, die soon and can be eaten by other animlas, which then transport the parasite. A little bit creepy...

Economist´s audio report:

Dutch clinic helps alcoholics by 'binding them with beer'

'Open since last October, Centrum (Centre) Maliebaan in the central Dutch city of Amersfoort allows its residents to drink up to five litres of beer on the premises every day, with an hour between each 500 ml (half-quart) serving. It goes through nearly 4,000 half-litre cans every month, bought at wholesale prices and sold with no mark-up.
"Our main goal is to stop binge drinking: it is better for the individual and for his environment," the centre's psychiatrist Eugene Schouten told AFP on a recent visit to the centre, which he believes to be a first for Europe.'
view the AFP article

The idea sounds rational. Some psychiatrists mention that being guilty is a very important part of the alcoholic´s 'social role'. If drinking is allowed it´s much harder to feel guilty. "Here I can drink a beer in the morning without anyone laughing at me or calling me names," a patient says.

Anton Chekhov´s study of Sakhalin

Chekhov was not only an extraordinarily gifted writer, he was also one of the first 'self-made' Russian sociologists. His book 'The Island of Sakhalin' (1894) was a documentation of his extended journey to the far East of the Russian Empire. Sakhalin was a penal colony, dominated by prisons and settlements for 'free peasants' (those who already served their sentences).

Chekhov describes the alarming state of the penal system in the XIXth century Russia, the ways of living in penal colonies and a total moral degradation of  the settlers. He masterly analyses the economic system of the island where illegal activities can only help settlers to survive if there is no harvest. Total prostitution by women is a norm.

In order to collect personal impressions Chekhov was looking for a direct access to simple people and  so he arranged an impromptu population census. He tried to visit every house in every community. For the census he invented small cards to note basic demographic data for each person. Chekhov collected over 10000 of such personal cards and  so he have interviewed almost every person at Sakhalin.

The influence of the civilisation on indigenous people - the Ainu and the Nivkhs, is among the highlights of  the study. The birth rates of natives has been dramatically decreasing since the Russians settled down at the island of Sakhalin. Although the aborigines were healthier than the Russians and were not suffering from epidemics or wars, and though the local authorities were friendly or at least indifferent to them, the natives died out. The fact of the decreasing birth rates by indigenous peoples was also mentioned by Darwin in his 'Descent of Man'.
There migth be a psychosocial explanation for the extinction of natives. Even if the contact with the civilization increases the living standard and the medical care it often destroys traditional social structures and cause social stress. The fertility seems to be very sensitive toward it.

An Ainu man (about 1890) 

link to `The Island of Sakhalin´ (in Russian)

Let´s start...

I´m going to post here facts, statistics and links from the psychological research. The interaction between social factors and physical and mental health would be the main focus.