“Insomnia identity” – misbelieving you’ve got sleep problems can be more harmful than actual lack of sleep
By Alex Fradera
“In the dark, in the quiet, in the lonely stillness, the aggrieved struggle to rescue sleep from vigilance.” This arresting sentence introduces a new review of insomnia in Behaviour Research and Therapy that addresses a troubling fact observed in sleep labs across the world: poor sleep is not sufficient to make people consider themselves to have the condition… and poor sleep may not even be necessary. The paper, by Kenneth Lichstein at the University of Alabama, explores the implications of “Insomnia Identity”: how it contributes to health problems, and may be an obstacle to recovery.
The hallma...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - October 26, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Mental health Sleep and dreaming Source Type: blogs
Next: Brain scans to identify children at high risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) before symptoms appear
Conclusions: We describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes of children with incidental MRI findings highly suggestive of CNS demyelination. Children with RIS had a substantial risk of subsequent clinical symptoms and/or radiologic evolution. The presence of oligoclonal bands in CSF and spinal cord lesions on MRI were associated with an increased risk of a first clinical event.
News in Context
Next: Harnessing brain scans to personalize autism-related behavioral interventions
Can brain scans identify ADHD and help predict treatment response?
Brain waves help predict stress-related sleep problems
Cognitive therapy ...
Source: SharpBrains - October 18, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Health & Wellness Technology brain changes brain-scans clinical headache MRI MS multiple-sclerosis radiologic radiologically isolated syndrome RIS Source Type: blogs
Trial By Error: NICE Rejects Current Guidance, Plans “ Full Update ”
By David Tuller, DrPH
Let’s give credit where it’s due. Apparently someone with decision-making authority at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has a grasp on reality and is willing to challenge the claims of the biopsychosocial ideological brigades. That’s the only logical explanation for last Wednesday’s welcome but unexpected announcement that the agency would pursue a “full update” of the guidance for the illness it calls CFS/ME. From what I gather, that means NICE will essentially start the whole guidance development process from scratch.
In announcing the decision, NICE noted the...
Source: virology blog - September 25, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: David Tuller Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Study shows how online mindfulness interventions can reduce work-related rumination and fatigue, and improve sleep quality
This study aimed to extend our theoretical understanding of how mindfulness-based interventions exert their positive influence on measures of occupational health. Employing a randomized waitlist control study design, we sought to (a) assess an Internet-based instructor-led mindfulness intervention for its effect on key factors associated with “recovery from work,” specifically, work-related rumination, fatigue, and sleep quality; (b) assess different facets of mindfulness (acting with awareness, describing, nonjudging, and nonreacting) as mechanisms of change; and (c) assess whether the effect of the intervention was m...
Source: SharpBrains - September 14, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greater Good Magazine Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Health & Wellness Technology cognitive-functioning depression fatigue Internet-based mental energy Mental Health Foundation Mental-Health mindfulness occupational health psychological well-being rumination Source Type: blogs
Will bots replace docs?
In days of yore, people in distress usually turned to family, friends and occasionally the clergy for help but for many years now, much of the burden of dealing with human misery has been transferred to medical professionals. Going forward and given that the iPhone and social media are ubiquitous in the daily lives of most of us, it is probably no surprise that the latest psychological support system comes in the form of a chatbot.
For a modest fee and the use of Facebook messenger, individuals with anxiety or depression can now access the wonderfully named Woebot — a chatbot “you can tell anything to” that uses text...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 29, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/david-kerr" rel="tag" > David Kerr, MD < /a > Tags: Tech Primary Care Psychiatry Source Type: blogs
Trial by Error: My E-Mail Exchange With NICE Chief Executive
By David Tuller, DrPH
On Friday, I had an e-mail exchange with Sir Andrew Dillon, chief executive of the NICE Guidance Executive. The other seven Guidance Executive members are various directors within the NICE hierarchy, including the communications director. This group will make the final decision about whether to accept the provisional decision of a NICE surveillance review team to leave as is CG53, the guidance for CFS/ME released in 2007. (I have written about the NICE review process on CG53 here, here and here.)
That ten-year-old CFS/ME guidance recommends treatment with graded exercise therapy and cognitive behavio...
Source: virology blog - August 14, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: David Tuller Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Trial by Error: Retired PACE Investigator Peter White and Swiss Re
By David Tuller, DrPH
On November 17, 2015, a few weeks after publication of my 15,000-word investigation of the PACE trial, I posted a blog about a talk Peter White gave to Swiss Re employees on the findings from his bogus study. Professor White, of course, was the lead PACE investigator and also served–and apparently still serves–as “chief medical officer” for the insurance company.
Swiss Re has released information about its 2017 “insurance medicine summit,” to be held this coming November. Not surprisingly, Professor White is on the schedule. Although he has retired from his academic position, he a...
Source: virology blog - August 7, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: David Tuller Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Trial by Error: NICE Rejects My FOI Request
By David Tuller, DrPH
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the U.K. organization that develops clinical guidelines for medical conditions, has rejected my freedom-of-information request for the names of the experts involved in the reassessment of the guidance for the illness it calls CFS/ME. This isn’t surprising, since the agency also recently rejected similar requests from the Countess of Mar and the ME Association. However, NICE’s response to the FOI request, which I received on Friday, contains some useful information and clarifies the decision-making process. I have included the NICE response bel...
Source: virology blog - July 31, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: David Tuller Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Trial by Error: The NICE guidelines, and more on the CDC
This study exemplifies some of the problems common in this field of research, as I described on Virology Blog months ago. (Professor Esther Crawley of Bristol University, the trial’s lead investigator, subsequently referred to that blog post as “libelous” in a slide she showed during at least two speeches. She has not documented her charge.)
The consultation document also notes that only study abstracts, not the studies themselves, were reviewed. This is a surprising methodological choice given the significance of the issue. Abstracts can be seriously misleading and incomplete; studies themselves obviously provide a ...
Source: virology blog - July 17, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: David Tuller Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
How to Make a Decision When You ’ re Depressed
Paper or plastic?
For here or to go?
Cash or credit?
These are simple questions that most people don’t think twice about. But to a person in the midst of a depressive episode, answering any one of these queries can be utter torture. I’ve sat there looking at a grocery cashier like a deer in the headlights, tormented by the choice between a paper bag and a plastic bag — as though the rest of my life depended on the decision between which kind of material would transport my eggs and granola to my car.
The inability to make a decision is one of the most infuriating symptoms of depression.
According to a 2011 st...
Source: World of Psychology - July 11, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Therese J. Borchard Tags: Bipolar Depression Mental Health and Wellness Personal Self-Esteem Self-Help Depressive Episode goals Mood Disorder Sadness Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Treatment Resistant Depression Source Type: blogs
Trial by Error, Guest Post: Questions About Professor Sharpe ’ s ‘ Special Ethics Seminar ’
by Steven Lubet
On 1 June 2017, Professor Michael Sharpe presented the “Special Ethics Seminar” at Oxford University’s St Cross College. In his posted abstract, he asserted that “some areas of scholarship are politicised (U.K. spelling in original),” including “the role of psychiatric or psychological approaches in the treatment” of ME/CFS patients. Sharpe also likened ME/CFS patients to climate change deniers, claiming:
The use of such co-ordinated pressure group action against science was prominently seen in the field of climate change research but is now emerging in other areas.
Chronic fatigue syndr...
Source: virology blog - July 3, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: David Tuller Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Trial by Error, Continued: Is PACE a Case of Research Misconduct?
by David Tuller, DrPH
I have tip-toed around the question of research misconduct since I started my PACE investigation. In my long Virology Blog series in October 2015, I decided to document the trial’s extensive list of flaws—or as many as I could fit into 15,000 words, which wasn’t all of them—without arguing that this constituted research misconduct. My goal was simply to make the strongest possible case that this was very bad science and that the evidence did not support the claims that cognitive behavior therapy and graded exercise therapy were effective treatments for the illness.
Since then, I have referred ...
Source: virology blog - June 24, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: David Tuller Tags: Commentary Source Type: blogs
Researchers are figuring out how sense of self develops differently in autistic teens
By guest blogger Dan Carney
Our autobiographical memory is fundamental to the development of our sense of self. However, according to past research, it may be compromised in autism, together with other skills that are also vital for self understanding, such as introspection and the ability to attribute mental states to others (known as mentalising).
For example, experiments involving autistic children have highlighted retrieval difficulties, “impoverished narratives”, and a greater need for prompting, while also suggesting that semantic recall (facts from the past) may be impaired in younger individuals.
Now a UK resea...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - June 23, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Autism guest blogger Memory Thought Source Type: blogs
False economy? Half of “low intensity” CBT clients relapse within 12 months
Low-intensity CBT can include group-guided self-help, computerised CBT and telephone support
By Christian Jarrett
Heralded as a revolution in mental health care – a cost-effective way to deliver evidence-based psychological help to large numbers – low-intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is recommended by NICE, the independent health advisory body in England and Wales, for mild to moderate depression and anxiety and is a key part of the “Improving Access to Psychological Therapies” programme in those countries. Prior studies into its effectiveness have been promising. However, little research has ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - June 13, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: BPS Research Digest Tags: Mental health Therapy Source Type: blogs
Trial By Error, Continued: Julie Rehmeyer ’ s Journey “ Through the Shadowlands ”
By David Tuller, DrPH
In February, 2011, I wrote a bad article about the PACE trial. At that time, I was reporting on the XMRV situation and had never heard about this piece of crap. As happens at news organizations, my editor at The New York Times sent me the Lancet paper and asked me to write it up for publication later that day. I did the best I could. Not knowing any of the background, I took the study at face value and reported the bogus findings—that cognitive behavior therapy and graded exercise therapy appeared to be effective treatments. I did include a few caveats—that the authors had links to disability insu...
Source: virology blog - June 7, 2017 Category: Virology Authors: David Tuller Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
