Category: Studies

  • Smoking Depressed

    Reported in the Los Angeles Times, a study showing 43% of smokers over twenty are depressed. A chicken-egg study–which came first? Depressed people were more likely to smoke within five minutes of awakening and to smoke more than one pack of cigarettes a day. Twenty-eight percent of adult smokers with depression smoked more than a pack…

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  • Happiness Research

    John Grohol sums up the positive psychology basics in 5 Reliable Findings from Happiness Research.  Here they are, minus the explanations, which await you at PsychCentral: 1. You control about half your happiness level. 2. Money doesn’t buy happiness. 3. Lottery winnings create only temporary, short-term happiness. 4. Relationships are a key factor in long-term…

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  • Depression and PMDD

    A study looks at the difference between depression and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD): “We found the greatest weight of evidence that PMDD and major depression are really two distinct entities in terms of biological response to stress and with respect to pain sensitivity and pain mechanisms.” More, including a description of PMDD’s intensity, in the…

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  • Abstraction and Self-Control

    PsyBlog profiles a study about increasing self-control by thinking abstractly–thinking about the why of a goal, instead of the how. [I]t seems you can bolster resistance to temptation by thinking abstractly about the goal you want to obtain because it causes your mind to automatically associate temptations with negativity. Hey presto, more self-control and thank…

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  • The Stress-Depression-Anxiety Connection

    A study finds the molecular connection between stress, anxiety, and depression.  It’s the corticotropin releasing factor receptors!  Should’ve known.  

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