"Medical knowledge is a social process: The conversations that occur around artifactual data are always more important than the data themselves. "


Posts tagged with 'adverse effects'

New meta-analysis tells it like it is: television viewing damages our health

14th July 2011

A new meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association tells it like it is: television viewing damages our health. The paper's title is "Television viewing and risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality" and its abstract reads: "Context: Prolonged television (TV) viewing is the most …

Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - possible adverse effects

22nd June 2011

(this blog post is downloadable as either a Word doc or a PDF handout). Over the last few days I've written two blog posts on the very many benefits of good self-control - see "Self-control, conscientiousness, grit, emotion regulation, willpower - whatever word you use, it's sure important to have …

Conflict: not too much, not too little - the importance of assertiveness in close relationships

4th June 2011

(this post is downloadable as both a Word doc and as a PDF file). I've recently written a couple of posts on conflict - "Conflict: not too much, not too little - some research suggestions" and "Conflict: not too much, not too little - how to make it constructive". Today …

Exercise 3: US Department of Health & Human Services, resources for assessment & advice

18th January 2010

Last week I wrote about the helpful GPPAQ exercise screening questionnaire in "Exercise 2: UK Department of Health, resources for assessment & advice". This week I'd like to go "over the pond" to visit the excellent advice on exercise provided by the US government. One of the most useful resources …

Exercise 2: UK Department of Health, resources for assessment & advice

11th January 2010

Last week I wrote a blog post "Exercise 1: checking it's safe to start". In today's post I talk about resources provided by the Department of Health (for England & Wales). They have an excellent webpage on Physical Activity with links to a series of important initiatives including its publication …

Exercise 1: checking it's safe to start

4th January 2010

I've talked a lot on this blog about the tremendously worthwhile gains we can make for our physical health by exercising regularly. See for example the posts "Does healthy lifestyle really make a difference?" and "Common sense isn't common". Now the recent national depression guidelines "Updated NICE guidelines on treating …

Handouts & questionnaires for outcome tracking: depression, mania, side-effects, anxiety, worry, alcohol, sleep, gambling & more

21st December 2009

Well, well, well ... what a lot of amazing information there is out there on the internet. I was trawling to try to find the copyright position of the Panic Disorder Severity Scale (more on this soon in a future post) when I tumbled into Mark Zimmerman's "Outcome Tracker" website. …

Updated NICE guidelines on treating depression

5th November 2009

NICE - the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence - recently published guidance on "Depression in adults (update)" and on "Depression with a chronic physical health problem". The "Depression in adults (update)" replaces guidance originally published in 2004 and amended in 2007. The 28 page Quick reference guide …

Recent research: six studies on depression – pregnancy, young children, antidepressant side effects, SAD & CBT, and suicide risk

29th October 2009

Here are half a dozen recent research papers on depression (all details & abstracts to these studies are given further down this blog posting). Yonkers et al's publication is a very welcome one - "The management of depression during pregnancy: a report from the American Psychiatric Association and the American …

Recent research: two papers on mindfulness, two on insomnia & two on antidepressants in pregnancy

25th June 2009

Here are six recently published research papers. Barnhofer and colleagues report on encouraging results using mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for sufferers from chronic-recurrent depression while they are still depressed. The three major studies published already have used MBCT for recurrent depression while the sufferers are reasonably well. The next step …