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