Recent research: five papers on overweight - mortality, cardiovascular risk, diets, and schools
9th April 2009
Here are five papers mostly looking at aspects of overweight. The first, published recently in the Lancet, is a huge study on the effects of body-mass index (BMI) on subsequent mortality in nearly 900,000 adults. It shows progressive excess mortality above the BMI range 22.5-25 kg/m2. (To calculate your BMI …
Handouts & questionnaires for assessment of depression
6th April 2009
Depression assessment scales come in two basic forms - interviewer/clinician rated and sufferer/patient rated. As stated in the background information on the IDS/QIDS questionnaires (see below) "There are several accepted clinician rated and patient self report measures of depressive symptoms. The most commonly used clinician rated scales are the 17, …
Alcohol: know your limits and increase the price
5th April 2009
A recent article in the British Medical Journal (Kmietowicz 2009) reports that "The chief medical officer for England has called for a minimum price of 50 pence (0.54; $0.70) to be charged for a unit of alcohol to reduce excessive drinking and its associated harms. Liam Donaldson said that antisocial …
Recent research: five papers on depression, stigma, biology, & extending the reach of psychotherapy
2nd April 2009
This set of five papers documents, in part, our mixed viewpoints on depression. Worryingly, Mehta & colleagues show deteriorating public attitudes towards mental illness in England (and to a lesser extent Scotland) between 1994 and 2003. Meanwhile Blumner et al demonstrate a shift towards a more biological view on causes …
Holiday, friendship and “meditation retreat” (eleventh post)
31st March 2009
This is the eleventh and final post about the Moroccan trip - a reflection once I was back in Scotland. So it's before breakfast on Tuesday morning in Edinburgh. We got back about 36 hours ago. I'm now mostly into the swing of "normal, everyday life" again. 150 plus emails, …
Holiday, friendship and “meditation retreat” (tenth post)
28th March 2009
A brief tenth post - back in Marrakech and reflecting on the trip. Back in the city - so woken by the Marrakech muezzin long before 5.00am. Lying in the dark and then coming downstairs to read and write. Yesterday we started in Hotel Irocha a bit north of Ourzazate. …
Holiday, friendship and “meditation retreat” (ninth post)
27th March 2009
Here's a ninth Moroccan post - coming out of the desert - dancing, cold beer, mindfulness & consciousness Here in the civilisation of Hotel Irocha, I woke early and then got up with the first tentative muezzin call from the local village. It's now a bit before 5.00am. I've been …
Holiday, friendship and “meditation retreat” (eighth post)
26th March 2009
Eighth Moroccan post - last night in the desert. Last breakfast here in the desert - this one at an encampment at Erg Cheggaga. We arrived last night after one of our longest day's walks (they haven't been very long). I've not been wearing a watch since the first afternoon …
Holiday, friendship and “meditation retreat” (seventh post)
25th March 2009
And here's a briefer seventh Moroccan post looking a little at the internal "meditative methods" being used by various of us in the desert. So at the lunch siesta today I asked our group what they had been doing in their heads while they were walking. One person talked about …
Holiday, friendship and “meditation retreat” (sixth post)
24th March 2009
This is the sixth - and a rather longer - Moroccan post. It looks a little at mindfulness and interpersonal conflict. And after the siesta yesterday, we walked (again without the camels) up to the top of the highest "singing dune" (so-called because of the noise it sometimes makes in …