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Dogs: Current trends in clinical psychology
Currently in the field of clinical psychology, there are a lot more dogs showing up in the clinic. Sometimes the dogs are there to help humans feel better, and sometimes the humans are trying to make the dogs feel better. Whether it is animal-assisted therapy or animals in therapy, there are some interesting findings and…
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The “Side Effects” of Big Pharma as Examined by Hollywood
The following article contains major spoilers of the film Side Effects. If you have not seen the film and do not wish to have key plot points (including the ending) revealed, do not read further.
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ADHD Medication and Risk for Later Alcohol and Drug Use
Many parents have to make difficult choices about how to help their children with an ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) diagnosis. Two treatments have been proven in well-designed and carefully controlled research studies to be effective: behavioral management (also known as parent training) and medication (typically Ritatin or Adderall). Medication treatment has raised concerns about…
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Even when you know it’s fake: The strength of the placebo effect
Almost everyone has heard about the placebo effect – the finding that treatment that have no particularly relevant effect (like a sugar or vitamin pill, or a behavioral equivalent) can make patients feel better. The placebo effect is actually the reason that all FDA approved drugs have to go through a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial…
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Helping Addicts with medications for cravings
If we could make it so drug addicts could stop craving the substances that have brought them to their knees, would relapse rates drop and addiction-treatment success rates soar? I sure hope so! Medications that stop cravings? I’ve already written about a study by the renowned addiction researcher Barry Everitt showing that medications could be…
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Correlation, causation, or association – What does it all mean???
From allaboutaddiction.com: A comment posted by a reader on a recent post reprimanded me for suggesting that marijuana caused relationships to go bad. While in that instance the reader was mistaken, as I had specifically used the word associated, the comment made me think that maybe I should explain the differences here. I’m a scientist…