Positive Psychology Archive

A new study supports the use of noninvasive brain stimulation in people with severe depression who haven't responded to medication.

If medication isn't helping to ease severe depression, nonsurgical brain stimulation may be an effective alternative to consider, according to a study published online March 27 by The BMJ. Specifically, the study found that evidence seems to back the use of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) over other, newer brain stimulation therapies.

"Many psychiatrists are unaware of these techniques, or at least don't think to recommend them for their patients," says Dr. Daniel Press, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and the clinical director for the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "So, studies like this are helpful in raising the banner and reminding people that these are very effective options for a large percentage of people."

The is the second part of "Treating opiate addiction". Click here to read Part I: Detoxification and maintenance.

Naltrexone

A different kind of drug treatment for opioid use disorder is the long-acting opiate antagonist naltrexone, usually taken once per day after detoxification. It neutralizes or reverses the effects of opiates, and triggers a withdrawal reaction in anyone who is physically dependent on opiates. A person who takes naltrexone faithfully will never relapse, but most people simply stop using it, or refuse to take it in the first place. A newer slow-release naltrexone injection is now available. However, it is too soon to know if it will have a better success rate than the oral form.

Dozens of opiates and related drugs (sometimes called opioids) have been extracted from the seeds of the opium poppy or synthesized in laboratories. The poppy seed contains morphine and codeine, among other drugs. Synthetic derivatives include hydrocodone (Vicodin), oxycodone (Percodan, OxyContin), hydromorphone (Dilaudid), and heroin (diacetylmorphine). Some synthetic opiates or opioids with a different chemical structure but similar effects on the body and brain are propoxyphene (Darvon), meperidine (Demerol), and methadone. Physicians use many of these drugs to treat pain.

Opiates suppress pain, reduce anxiety, and at sufficiently high doses produce euphoria. Most can be taken by mouth, smoked, or snorted, although addicts often prefer intravenous injection, which gives the strongest, quickest pleasure. The use of intravenous needles can lead to infectious disease, and an overdose, especially taken intravenously, often causes respiratory arrest and death.

Most people experience some degree of decreased memory as they get older, but memory performance is also affected by mood and sleep quality, and these are factors that can be controlled and improved.

Most people experience some degree of decreased memory as they get older, but memory performance is also affected by mood and sleep quality, and these are factors that can be controlled and improved.

While Father’s Day gets less sentimental build up than Mother’s Day, it may still bring out intense emotions for many men even if they are not parents themselves.

The increasing availability of cannabis-containing edibles has fueled debate about their safety. As emergency visits rise for treatment related to edibles, some common-sense thinking about how these products are packaged and sold is needed.

Lost your self-confidence? These five strategies can help you find it.

As you become older, it's common to lose some confidence as your body changes and you face life-altering events, like retirement, health issues, and loss of loved ones.

"Yet many men don't recognize the impact that lack of confidence can have on their lives," says Fred Silverstone, a licensed mental health counselor and founder of the SAGE (Successful Aging through Group Engagement) program at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital. "It can make men more withdrawn, less active, and more fearful about everyday events like driving and handling technology. They begin to believe they can't live like they once did."

In the journals

Listening to music can be relaxing, but it may interfere with your ability to create, suggests a study published online Feb. 2, 2019, by Applied Cognitive Psychology. Researchers recruited 30 people and tested their creativity through a series of exercises. Participants were shown three words at a time and then asked to add another word to create a new word or phrase. For example, "sun" could be joined to words like "dress," "dial," and "flower." The creativity exercises had three levels of difficulty: easy, moderate, and hard.

The group also did the exercises in different noise environments — silence; music with Spanish and English lyrics; instrumental music; and normal background library sounds like distant speech, typing, and paper rustling. They found that every kind of music significantly impaired the ability to complete the creativity tasks, while silence and library noises had no effect.