Mindfully Healing

Risks of spanking children confirmed by 50 years of research. The more children are spanked, the more aggressive and anti-social they are. What is termed ‘spanking’ has similar effects on children as physical abuse. The conclusions come from studies conducted over 50 years which included more than 160,000 children. The researchers also found that being spanked was linked to more mental health problems and cognitive difficulties later on. Dr Elizabeth Gershoff, the study’s first author, said: “Our analysis focuses on what most Americans would recognize as spanking and not on

The psychological factor that affects colds. People who have strong social networks have less severe colds than those who are lonely, new research finds. Lonely people, though, were no more or less likely to get a cold than socially connected people. Loneliness has already been linked to other physical problems, said Ms Angie LeRoy, the study’s first author: “Loneliness puts people at risk for premature mortality and all kinds of other physical illnesses. Previous research has shown that different psycho-social factors like feeling rejected or feeling left out or not

Why people with the most severe personality disorder find it difficult to have romantic relationships and friendships. People with borderline personality disorder have deficits in brain regions related to empathy, new research finds. The finding helps explain why people with borderline personality disorder have unstable moods. They also often have trouble maintaining relationships with others. Dr Brian Haas, the study’s lead authors, said: “Our results showed that people with BPD traits had reduced activity in brain regions that support empathy. This reduced activation may suggest that people with more BPD