Stand-outs this morning from around the web…
ScienceDaily: Combining sex and drugs reduces rock and roll
WebMD: Getting Pregnant: Easy Ways To Encourage Fertility
PsychCentral: Therapist Competency Important for Treatment Success
ScienceDaily: Antidepressants make shrimps see the light
Results from a giant Consumer Reports mental health survey, reported earlier, have been posted. Here are the bullet points they came up with:
Talk therapy helps
Some drugs have an edge
Anxiety rises [is on the rise, that is, since 2004]
Side effects shift
Type of therapist doesn’t matter
Details on the site.
PsychCentral looks at ways to get the most out of depression treatment during tough economic times. Suggestions include:
Ordered the couch yesterday for new therapy offices in Los Feliz. I’ll post pictures once it’s all set up. In the meantime, help with anxiety, depression, relationships, stress-related chronic pain, and addiction recovery ongoing at offices in Los Feliz, Silver Lake, and Beverly Hills. Call me at (323) 610-0112 to talk about what you’re going through and arrange a first appointment.
In case you missed it: Ron Artest Thanks Psychiatrist After Lakers Win.
“Breathing, talking to yourself, and having key words – some word you train your mind and body to stay under control,” [says Dr. Nicole Miller.] ”Athletes come to us to increase performance. It’s one of the last legal drugs.”
UPDATE: She’s a psychologist.
British people hate clowns, get help: UK Circus Offers Therapy for Clown-Fearing Adults.
A circus touring Britain has launched a unique “clownselling” service aimed at overcoming peoples’ fears associated with its show’s starring duo, a spokesperson told NewsCore on Wednesday.
The free workshops allow those suffering from Coulrophobia — the fear of clowns, rated as Britain’s third biggest phobia behind spiders and needles in a recent poll — to confront their feelings and even access their own “inner clown.”
Another study showing that depression declines with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This one with longer-term treatment–35 sessions.
“On completion of therapy, patients reported significantly fewer symptoms than on commencement,” Schindler summarizes the results of a before/after comparison. Whether patients were also concomitantly taking psychotropic drugs or not evidently had no effect on the outcome.
Headlines (same survey) tell a story: Talk therapy as good as antidepressants. But Americans prefer drugs for depression. Go figure.
From NPR: Mental Health Apps: Like A ‘Therapist In Your Pocket’.
[On one app,] [t]hroughout the day at random times, a “mood map” pops up on a user’s cell phone screen. “People drag a little red dot around that screen with their finger to indicate their current mood”…Users also can chart their energy levels, sleep patterns, activities, foods eaten and more, she says.
Couples’ lit spotlight: Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love and Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships, by sex/relationship therapist, David Schnarch. The book samples actual sex therapy sessions to make its case.
Don’t care to read 400 pages about how differentiation? Try the six-point plan linked from Schnarch’s website, posted here minus the explanations:
Also via PassionateMarriage.com, here’s a Sex in Relationships Survey, which pretty much communicates what Schnarch is aiming at while rating your sex life on a 11 – 55 scale.
