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Psychology Today Blogs

Bartonella: It infects sheep, now humansToday

I thought I would pass this on direct from North Carolina State University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The first link between a species of bacteria most commonly found in sheep and human illness. Dr. Edward Breitschwerdt, professor of internal medicine at NC State's College of Veterinary Medicine, and NC State colleague Dr. Ricardo Maggi isolated the bacterium Bartonella melophagi from samples of human blood.

This is particularly relevant to psychologists because of the neuropsychiatric symptoms bartonella can induce --everything from increased anxiety and moodiness to trouble with cognition.

Bartonella is already known to be spread by cats --and is often called Cat Scratch disease. Many believe there is strong evidence that it is spread, as well, by the same ticks that transmit Lyme disease.

The bartonella reported in North Carolina -- B. melophagi--is such a newly discovered member of the genus Bartonella it is considered a "Candidatus" species, meaning that its name has yet to be formally accepted. In nature, sheep are the most likely hosts for B. melophagi and transmission among sheep is thought to occur via a wingless fly known as a ked.

The route of transmission to humans remains unknown.

Their results are published in the January edition of the CDC journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The blood samples Breitschwerdt and Maggi tested came from previously healthy women who were

Addiction IS a treatable diseaseToday

Unfortunately the biggest and most damaging lie from Stanton Peele's post is the one he announces in his title. The idea that addiction is not "treatable" is, at best, simply untrue and at worst will mislead sufferers of addiction into thinking that modern medicine can do nothing for them. For people to believe this lie would be a tragedy.

Naltrexone (ReviaTM) and acamprosate (Campral TM) are both medications that are prescribed to addicts to will help reduce their symptoms, most notably craving. Both are indicated for the treatment of alcoholism.

Any actual "addiction expert" will freely admit that neither drug works especially well and that their effects are moderate, but they do work. A recent, very large study, called the "Combining Medications and Behavioral Interventions for Alcoholism" (or COMBINE) study attempted to fully address whether naltrexone works in the treatment of alcoholism. They found that it did. So in fact, does behavioral therapy. The findings were published, by Anton and colleagues, in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The moderate overall effect of medications like naltrexone may be explained by them working for some people and not others, so that the averaged effect appears small. This variation in individual responses to naltrexone has long been thought to have a genetic explanation and follow-up analysis of subjects in the

Attachment vs. Detachment: Finding the Psychological Golden Mean (Part 1)Today

If in the past we've felt taken advantage of, rejected or betrayed, we may erect stiff (even impenetrable) interpersonal boundaries to protect ourselves. As a result of all our adverse experiences--which frequently take place early in life, when we're most sensitive to them--we may harbor anxiety or cynical beliefs about getting too close to others. And we may have decided that it's also not very prudent to allow others to get very close to us.

In such cases, we'll tend to relate to others on a generally impersonal level, and share our deepest, most private feelings not at all. Such a life stratagem, though extreme, does at least minimize threats of disillusionment or deception. By restraining ourselves from getting emotionally invested in a relationship, we render ourselves relatively invulnerable to others' disapproval--or even abandonment. Whether or not we're consciously aware of our self-protective proclivities, we yet maintain a certain distance from others, constantly safeguarding ourselves from disappointment. And cultivating emotional self-reliance to avoid such hurt, we may actually come to view our very strength in relationships as synonymous with our detachment.

But protecting our ego in this way has its own hazards. For it can lead us to forfeit the opportunity to partic

New Natural Approaches to Depression Every DayToday

I just finished The UltraMind Solution, a wonderful, ground breaking book that gives new and eminently practical insight into the causes and treatment of mood, behavior, and cognitive disorders. It's a book I recommend to all of you without reservation.

The UltraMind Solution is by Mark Hyman, MD, a highly skilled, integrated Family physician who is a Center for Mind-Body Medicine Board Member, and a core faculty person in our Food As Medicine training. In The UltraMind Solution , Mark suggests that the most effective and, indeed, scientific way to address the epidemic of psychiatric disorders (affecting 1.1 billion people worldwide) is not with psychotropic drugs that treat postulated alterations in neurotransmitters, but with nutritional therapies that address the underlying biological imbalances that ultimately may disturb neurotransmitter functioning.

The UltraMind Solution is based on the principles of "functional medicine," a systems approach to chronic disease and to the physical and emotional problems that beset our population. It is a road map for both patients and practitioners, a clear, thoughtful, guide to the ways the body can become imbalanced, and to the simple, natural methods-largely food and s

Exploring the Items Used to Measure Benevolent Sexism.Today

First, I owe kudos to Sassy Cindy for her "eloquent" comment in my previous post. Cindy has certainly shattered a few gender stereotypes with her "manly" talk. I thought that only drunken male sailors spoke with such a rich vernacular. I stand corrected.

I dug up the original and highly cited scale for measuring benevolent sexism [BS] (Glick & Fiske, 1996). As of January 8, 2009 (12:40 am), Google Scholar reports that it was cited 448 times, demonstrating that it is the definitive scale for measuring BS. The scale is known as the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory and it contains items that measure both hostile sexism and BS (participants enter "0" to "5" ranging from "disagree strongly" to "agree strongly"). Since our discussion is restricted to BS, I shall only reproduce those items here. Let's deconstruct us some BS.

1. No matter how accomplished he is, a man is not truly complete as a person unless he has the love of a woman.

Let us suppose that I am a very romantic man. I love the idea of sharing my life with a woman (my wife), which incidentally is rather unsurprising given that we are a sexually reproducing species. I am going to strongly agree with this statement. Oh, oh. I am demonstrating signs of BS. I suppose that if