Mindfully Healing

Antidepressants side-effects: in the US one in ten are prescribed antidepressants each year, but are they told about ALL the side-effects? A new survey of antidepressants side-effects has found higher than expected levels of emotional numbness, sexual problems and even suicidal thoughts associated with the medication (Read et al., 2014). The study, published in the journal Psychiatry Research, found that as many as half the people they surveyed had psychological problems due to their medication. The authors again question whether antidepressants are being over-prescribed. The paper’s lead author, Professor John

What message are your shoes sending to the world about your personality? People make surprisingly accurate guesses about other people’s personalities from relatively little information. Shoes are often said to be a good indicator of a person’s personality — and psychological research agrees. A study of 208 people looking only at pictures of shoes has found people could pick out some personality traits of their owners. The shoes in the pictures were the ones the owner wore most often. So, here is your guide to reading someone’s personality just by

How detectives and intelligence officers can tell if someone is lying. Deceptive people generally want to say as little as they can, psychological research into lying finds. Instead of trying to tell an elaborate story, they actually clam up, on the basis that lies should be kept as simple as possible. Psychologists recommend that detectives and intelligence officers encourage their suspects to talk. This is just one of the findings of a review of 60 studies on deception carried out by Professor R. Edward Geiselman and colleagues. Professor Geiselman has

A particular part of the brain is one of the first to be affected by dementia. Losing your sense of smell is an early sign of dementia, new research finds. Almost all the people in the research who could not identify any of five common smells went on to develop dementia within five years. Those who could not name four out of five common smells, had twice the risk of developing dementia in the next five years. Professor Jayant M. Pinto, who led the research, said: “These results show that

Many colouring in books advertise themselves as ‘art therapy’, but do they make people feel better? Colouring in books do help to improve people’s mood, new research finds. However, ‘real’ art therapy has other advantages on top, the authors argue. Dr Girija Kaimal, who led the study, said: “The main takeaway is that coloring has some limited benefits like reducing stress and negative mental states. But it does not shift anything else of substance, develop relationships, nor result in any personal development.” Art therapists argue that therapy is about more

Our environment may change the brain’s structure and function in a positive way. Living near a forest keeps the brain healthier, new research finds. Even city dwellers who lived closer to a forest had a healthier amygdala, an area of the brain where emotion and stress are processed. This suggests a link between living near trees and being able to cope with stress. Ms Simone Kühn, the study’s first author, said: “Research on brain plasticity supports the assumption that the environment can shape brain structure and function. That is why

The talk therapy that is quicker (and cheaper) than cognitive-behavioural therapy. Depression can be more simply treated by behavioural activation therapy, a new study concludes. Behavioural activation therapy is a more straightforward alternative to cognitive-behavioural therapy — the gold standard of depression treatment. Clinical depression affects around 350 million people around the world, but only a fraction receive the best care. Behavioural activation therapy could be a good alternative that provides access to therapy for more people. The therapy itself focuses on encouraging people to take part in meaningful activities

…or try the supplement that contains the same critical pigment. Yellow and red skin pigments are perceived as 50% more attractive in Caucasian people, new research finds. Although these pigments in the skin are supposed to be signals of good health, they can be faked. Taking beta-carotene supplement, for example, will have the same effect. Beta-carotene is the pigment that gives carrots — and other fruits and vegetables — a strong red/yellow colour. For this research 43 Caucasian men were given a beta-carotene supplements for 12 weeks. Below you can

Around 40% of US adults say they have trouble falling asleep. Writing a to-do list for the next day before bedtime helps people fall asleep faster, new research finds. The more specific the list, the faster people fall asleep. Dr Michael K. Scullin, who led the study, said: “We live in a 24/7 culture in which our to-do lists seem to be constantly growing and causing us to worry about unfinished tasks at bedtime. Most people just cycle through their to-do lists in their heads, and so we wanted to

It benefits women but surprisingly had a slightly negative effect on men’s attractiveness. Being nice makes women more attractive to men, research finds. Men who think that women are more ‘responsive’ find them more feminine. Femininity is linked to greater sexual arousal and so to increased attraction for most men. However, for men, being nice did not make them more attractive to women. If anything, being nice had a slightly negative effect on the attractiveness of a man to a woman. Professor Gurit Birnbaum, the study’s first author, explained that: