The Complete Writing Guide to NIH Behavioral Science Grants provides simple and clear explanations into the reasons that some grants get funded, and a step-by-step guide to writing those grants. This volume is edited by Lawrence M. Scheier, President of LARS Research Institute, Inc., and an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at Washington Univeristy, and William L. Dewey, a Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the School of Medicine and former Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. In the excerpt below some grant writing essentials are explained.
There are a few tried and true methods that will help you learn scholarship along the way. People working at think tanks or nonprofit groups can hire outside consultants with extensive grant-writing expertise, using this as an avenue to model writing skills. Individuals residing at academic centers can seek consultation from faculty with well-funded laboratories regardless of their substantive focus (good writing is good writing whether in chemistry or in anthropology). (more…)
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Earlier today, Mary Ann Cohen, co-editor of the Comprehensive Textbook of AIDS Psychiatry helped us better understand the AIDS epidemic in young American men. Cohen’s book (with Jack M. Gorman), navigates the ample evidence supporting the fact that psychiatric treatment can decrease transmission, diminish suffering, improve adherence, and decrease morbidity and mortality in AIDS patients. In the excerpt below, Jimmie Holland, MD the Wayne E. Chapman Chair in Psychiatric Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a Professor of Psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University provides a forward which puts the Comprehensive Textbook of AIDS Psychiatry into historical perspective.
The publication of the Comprehensive Textbook of AIDS Psychiatry, edited by two psychiatrists who have ‘‘been there’’ since the beginning of the epidemic, is a benchmark for the field —it has come of age. (more…)
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A little while back someone in the office pointed out this interesting piece about the rise of AIDS among young men in NYC. I started wondering what could be done and I took my query to Mary Ann Cohen a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and the co-editor of the Comprehensive Textbook of AIDS Psychiatry. Cohen wrote me back with the following illuminating response.
During a century when rapid advances in medicine led to near eradication of infectious diseases throughout much of the world, the emergence of HIV infection in 1981 led to an unexpected crisis in health care that has not yet resolved. (more…)
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Earlier today we posted an excerpt from Fibromyalgia: An Essential Guide for Patients and Their Families by Daniel J. Wallace, M.D. and Janice Brock Wallace. In this second excerpt, we look at the correspondence between depression and fibromyalgia. Are sufferers more likely to be depressed? Are depressed people more like to have fibromyalgia?
Do I Hurt Because I’m Depressed Or Am I Depressed Because I Hurt?
Is fibromyalgia a manifestation of depression or the reverse? Well-designed studies have addressed this issue, but many used different methods, populations, ethnic groupings, referral sources, and geographical distributions. (more…)
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When I was in high school my father had the unpleasant task of waking me in the morning. He would cajole me out of bed with promises of a freshly cooked breakfast, orange juice and the New York Times. Most days these bribes were successful because as hard as I tried to stay in bed, he was persistent. Below is some advice excerpted from Getting Your Child to Say “Yes” To School: A Guide For Parents of Youth with School Refusal Behavior by Christopher A. Kearney.
Some teenagers miss school because they have great trouble getting out of bed in the morning. If your client has this problem, then be sure she is getting plenty of sleep. The following will help: (more…)
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For parents back to school season can be quite stressful. If your child consistently pleads with you to stay home from school, skips school, or has anxiety related to attending school then they may have “school refusal behavior.” Christopher A. Kearney, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Director of the UNLV Child School Refusal and Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His new book, Getting Your Child to Say “Yes” To School: A Guide for Parents With School Refusal Behavior is filled with concrete strategies and step-by-step instructions to make painful morning more routine. Below are some guidelines excerpted from the book about when you should allow your child to stay home.
Parents often ask which somatic complaints should keep a child home from school. We recommend a child go to school except when there is: (more…)
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In Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification by Christopher Peterson Ph.D and Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D the authors examine good character across history and culture. To read Peterson’s original piece click here. In the excerpt below, which is from the beginning of Character Strengths and Virtues, the authors look at how the traditions of China valued character. By taking in account many cultures and traditions Peterson and Seligman were able to identify the core attributes of character from a global perspective.
China
The two indigenous traditions of China arose contemporaneously in the sixth century B.C.E., and there is argument as to whether they best represent a philosophical, social, or religious system of beliefs. Confucianism, with its emphasis on social criticism and education of the young, became the official state religion by the second century B.C.E. Likewise, early Taoism, though more mystical and esoteric, was a religious-philosophical tradition with its own political exhortations. (more…)
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Christopher Peterson, Ph.D., is professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, where he has been the director of clinical training and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, an award given to honor his contributions to teaching. Together with Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., Peterson wrote Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. The book looks at twenty-four specific strengths under six broad virtues that consistently emerge across history and culture: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. In the article below Peterson gives us some insight to the resistance he received while researching this book. Be sure to check back later today for an excerpt from the book.
I embarked with hesitation on the projection that resulted in Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. Its goals—to identify consensually recognized strengths of character and to devise ways of measuring these positive traits—had little precedent within recent psychology. Many psychologists today endorse extreme cultural relativism and may further doubt that “character” exists except in the eye of the beholder. (more…)
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Earlier today we posted a Q & A with Allan V. Horwitz, co-author with Jerome C. Wakefield, of The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow Into Depressive Disorder. Below is an excerpt from the book which uses Willy Loman from Death of A Salesman to show how our perceptions of sadness have changed over time.
The Concept of Depression
The poet W. H. Auden famously deemed the period after World War II the “age of anxiety.” For Auden, the intense anxiety of that era was a normal human response to extraordinary circumstances, such as the devastation of modern warfare, the horrors of the concentration camps, the development of nuclear weapons, and the tensions of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Were Auden still alive, he might conclude that the era around the turn of the twenty-first century is the “age of depression.” (more…)
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Amid claims that one out of ten Americans suffer from Depression, and that 25% succumb at some point in their lives, Allan V. Horwitz and Jerome C. Wakefield argue in their new book, The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder that, while depressive disorder certainly exists, the apparent epidemic in fact reflects the way the psychiatric profession has understood and reclassified normal human sadness as largely an abnormal experience. Allan V. Horwitz, PhD, is a Professor of Sociology and Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Rutgers University and has been kind enough to answer a few questions about his new book for us. Check back later today for an excerpt.
OUP: In your introduction you mention that you work in the sociology of stress. Can you explain what it is and how it led you to work on this particular book with Dr. Wakefield? (more…)
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Earlier today we introduced you to The Bedside Dysmorphologist: Classic Clinical Signs in Human Malformation Syndromes and their Diagnostic Significance, by William Reardon. Dysmorphology is the study of congenital malformations. This afternoon we have another helpful excerpt, about persistent drooling.
Recognizing the Sign This hardly requires any clinical expertise, but a good history can inform the examination and investigation. The neonatal feeding history will often be of a poor feeding pattern, perhaps requiring nasogastric supplementation. Establish whether there was macroglossia at birth, cleft palate, or micrognathia. Was there any suggestion of velopharygeal incompetence on feeding, often represented by nasal regurgitation of milk during feeding? Gauge the progress of the child with respect to perceptive and expressive speech. (more…)
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Earlier today we posted an article about Deep Brain Stimulation inspired by a 38-year old patient that regained consciousness. Below is an excerpt from Plum and Posner’s Diagnosis of Stupor and Coma 4th edition, to help you further understand how miraculous Deep Brain Stimulation is.
Consciousness is the state of full awareness of the self and one’s relationship to the environment. Clinically, the level of consciousness of a patient is defined operationally at the bedside by the responses of the patient to the examiner. It is clear from this definition that it is possible for a patient to be conscious yet not responsive to the examiner, for example, if the patient lacks sensory inputs, is paralyzed, or for psychologic reason decides not to respond. Thus, the determination of the state of consciousness can be a technically challenging exercise. In the definitions that follow, we assume that the patient is not unresponsive due to sensory or motor impairment or psychiatric disease. (more…)
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Everyone has anxiety, it is a normal response to stressful situations, and in moderation it helps us perform better. But when anxiety begins to rule your life, to keep you from the people you love and the things you enjoy doing, you have to seek help. The Treatments That Work series explains the most effective interventions for a particular problem in user-friendly language. In Mastery of Your Anxiety and Panic users learn concrete strategies and techniques to deal with their fear. Below is an excerpt that explains a breathing exercise that will help you face fear calmly. Remember though that this an excerpt from a complete program that is only proven to work when practiced from beginning to end with a physician’s help.
Step One
The first step is to concentrate on taking breaths right down to your stomach (or, more accurately, to your diaphragm muscles). (more…)
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Earlier today we excerpted from the Handbook for Mortals: Guidance for People Facing Serious Illness by Joanne Lynn and Joan Harrold. The next excerpt focuses on something we all will experience someday, the approach of death. While I hope this is something you won’t have to worry about for many years, knowledge may ease your anxiety.
“How will I know when death is getting close?”
Just as doctors usually cannot pinpoint the day when a baby will be born, they cannot predict the exact day or hour when you or your loved one will die. You might need reassurance that it is simply not always possible to know when death is near. Some illnesses make prediction difficult. (more…)
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There is no easy way to face death and their are no easy answers for how to prepare. Yet, Drs. Joanne Lynn and Joan Harrold, in their book Handbook for Mortals: Guidance for People Facing Serious Illness provide equal measures of practical information and gentle insight. Their book prepares readers for the decisions they will need to face, where to look for help, how to ease pain and other symptoms, what to expect with specific diseases, and how the health-care system operates. It also provides advice on how to come to terms with dying. In the passage below the authors reflect on a common mistake, forcing your loved ones to eat. Be sure to check back later today for another excerpt. (more…)
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Robert Klitzman, author of the upcoming book When Doctors Become Patients is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Columbia University. He was recently interviewed about the personal injury lawyer out of Atlanta, Andrew Speaker, who traveled to Europe after being diagnosed with a drug resistant form of tuberculosis. Here the podcast here.
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Rebecca OUP-US
Earlier today we had a post from the other side of the ocean about their new smoking ban. In keeping with the smoking theme, we have Mitch Earleywine author of Pot Politics, Mind-Altering Drugs and Understanding Marijuana writing for us today. While we don’t endorse the use of illegal substances we do think Earleywine’s point is important, that there are ways less harmful than smoking to use marijuana. Earleywine, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York has also worked for 14 years on the faculty at the University of Southern California. He is a leading researcher in psychology and addictions. To learn more keep reading.
Arguments about recreational and medical use of marijuana often turn to discussions about the health of the lungs. Inhaling particles, toxic gases, and heat is never a great idea, but people who smoke marijuana (but not cigarettes) rarely experience serious lung problems. Theoretically, however, the potential for marijuana-induced pulmonary troubles seems high. As public service announcements consistently remind Americans, the smoke from the tobacco and marijuana plants are very comparable. Some carcinogens and irritants are more concentrated in marijuana smoke than tobacco smoke. In addition, many marijuana users inhale the smoke deeply and hold their hits for long durations, giving tars and other toxins a greater chance to deposit on lung tissue (For reviews, see Earleywine, 2005; Iversen, 2000). (more…)
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Rebecca OUP-US
The Weeping Willow: Encounters With Grief collects real-life stories which teach lessons about coping with grief, I have excerpted one of the stories below. Lynne Dale Halamish and Doron Hermoni the authors of this volume, share how they work with a person to get at the truth of their grief.
What Is The Gain?: Cost Versus Benefit
It had been months since Shai’s disease first showed itself. This disease would kill this small boy. By the lost look of his father, Benjamin, it appeared that it might kill him too.
This illness was vicious, taking any small gains Shai had managed in his four years of life and slowly reversing them, until this child who had run and played with all his friends was now bedridden. He had only power to slightly move the ends of his fingers. He couldn’t even breathe unassisted. It was as if all his muscles had melted away. His life would probably be over within the year. In the meantime, the struggle was with the pain and with his father’s hopelessness. Shai somehow managed to enjoy every small attention. Could it be that he didn’t remember that less than half a year ago, he had been running with his friends?
Benjamin and I met, as we did weekly, to talk about setbacks, frustrations, and how to plan your life, your week, your day . . . or only your hour, when your only child was living in the deep shadow of death.
After about twenty minutes the words ran out, as often happened in these meetings. There was not always a way to mold pain into syllables. We sat in silence for a while. Then Benjamin turned and looked at me without speaking.
‘‘Benjamin,’’ I began, ‘‘What have you gained from Shai’s illness?’’
‘‘What?!’’ he whispered hoarsely. ‘‘What could I have possibly gained?’’
I waited a moment before continuing. ‘‘Benjamin, for everything in life—everything—there is a price and a possibility of profit. Everything.’’
‘‘I don’t understand.’’
‘‘Every situation, however horrible, carries with it a possibility of a gift, a gain, a benefit. The price and the benefit are not usually equal. Sometimes, as with Shai, the price is unspeakable and the gain may be small. Sometimes, the price is small and the gain large or any combination in between.
‘‘The difference between the price and the benefit is that the price is fixed. You cannot change it. You cannot avoid it. The benefit is optional. You usually have to look hard just to find it. It is frequently hard to agree to take the gain because it seems somehow profane to benefit from, for example, Shai’s pain or illness.’’
He continued to look at me silently, waiting for me to continue.
‘‘There is always the possibility of a gain. It is an option—you can take it or leave it. Whichever you choose, it doesn’t affect the price in any way.’’
‘‘So what should I do?’’ Benjamin asked helplessly.
‘‘First look for the benefit. Then decide.’’
‘‘What possible benefit could there be?’’
‘‘It could be anything. Changes you have had to make to accommodate your son’s illness—changes that could be good.’’
He thought for a few moments.
‘‘All my life, I’ve been shy, afraid, really, of any confrontation. I made sure I was always in the background, or I would agree with everyone. Anything to avoid confrontation.’’ He looked down at the floor for a moment and then looked up.
‘‘And?’’
He paused. ‘‘I have had to fight with everyone. It took a long time to figure out what was happening to Shai. I knew something was wrong, but everyone insisted I was being hysterical. I insisted on a second opinion, then a third opinion. I brought him to the best doctors in the country, insisted on medical coverage. I had to fight for him. I learned to fight! I learned to fight. ‘‘ He began to cry. ‘‘I learned to fight . . . ’’ he murmured.
I waited until Benjamin’s tears subsided and his eyes met mine.
‘‘Benjamin,’’ I said, ‘‘This is a gift from Shai. Don’t lose it.’’
Conclusions
_ With every situation comes a price and the possibility of a benefit.
_ The price is fixed, and the benefit is optional.
_ If you are already paying the price, it is wise to take the benefit.
_ Whether you take or leave the benefit, the price remains the same.
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