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• Learning Baby’s Sex Before Birth May Say More About Mom…

  Parents’ choice to find out baby’s sex before birth reveals more than the gender of their offspring. According to a recent study from Ohio State University, a woman’s decision to learn her baby’s sex before birth may be an indicator of her child-rearing beliefs. According to the researchers, mothers who are more open to new experiences, have higher levels of conscientiousness, and have more egalitarian views about the roles of men and women in society tend to wait until delivery to learn their baby’s sex. Mothers who scored higher on a test of parenting perfectionism, meaning they had unrealistically high expectations, were slightly more likely to learn their baby’s sex in utero. Furthermore, mothers who reported higher levels of curiosity and independence were less likely to learn their baby’s sex before birth. The research focused on 182 expectant mothers in Columbus, Ohio who participated in a study to track behaviors across the transition to parenthood. The research team administered a variety of tests to pregnant women to measure personality, gender role beliefs, and expectations regarding parenting perfectionism. Approximately two out of ...

• More Than Baby Blues

  According to new research, new mothers are far more likely than others to report mild-to-moderate symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) after childbirth. The study, published in the March/April issue of the Journal of Reproductive Medicine, found that 11 percent of women reported significant obsessive-compulsive symptoms at two weeks and six months after delivery, compared to the 2 to 3 percent of individuals in the general population diagnosed with OCD. This, the first large-scale study of post-partum OCD, found that affected mothers reported classic signs of the disease – intrusive thoughts, compulsive behaviors, and fears and rituals related to the baby. Though the survey used self-reported data from 461 moms (329 of which provided information six-months after childbirth), none were clinically diagnosed with OCD. In more than half of the mothers, symptoms of OCD went away after six months. Researchers posit that being obsessive and compulsive when caring for a newborn may actually be an appropriate psychological development, saying that problems only develop when the symptoms start interfering with the mother’s daily life. About 70 percent of the women who had OCD symptoms ...

• Individuals With Mental Illness More Likely to Smoke Than General Population

  Despite a downward trend in the number of Americans who smoke, individuals with mental illness are still as likely to smoke today as they were in 2004, according to data from the federal Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. The study looked at the time period of 2004 to 2011, when smoking rates in the general population fell 14%, though the rate of smokers with mental illness remained unchanged. In 2011, about 25% of individuals with mental illnesses reported being smokers, while only about 16.5% of the general population reported smoking. Individuals with mental illnesses who were undergoing treatment, however, showed greater quit rates than those who were not receiving treatment (37% versus 33%). The full report appears in the January 8 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

• “Sleeping on It” May Not Be Best After Traumatic Experience

  Getting a good night’s sleep is a typical recommendation during times of stress, especially after a unsettling or traumatic experience. A new study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, questions this standard thinking. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst showed 106 participants unsettling images, then showed them again 12 hours later. Subjects who stayed awake during those 12 hours had less emotional reactivity to the same stimuli than did subjects who went to sleep—particularly those who had more time in REM sleep. The same pattern was noted for recognition accuracy 12 hours later—it was better in participants who slept than in those who didn’t.  The study concludes that “sleep enhances emotional memory while preserving emotional reactivity.” “It is common to be sleep-deprived after witnessing a traumatic scene, almost as if your brain doesn't want to sleep on it," said Rebecca Spencer, one of the authors of the study. In fact, going to sleep may “lock in” the negative emotions associated with the traumatic event. Have you found this to be true in your practice? Do patients who get more rest ...

• Individuals with Disabilities 286% More Likely to be a Victim of Violence

  Adults with disabilities, particularly mental illness, have been found to be at an increased risk of being a victim of violence, according to a study funded by the World Health Organization’s Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability. This finding, a meta-analysis of 21 studies, found that one in four people with a mental illness experience some type of violence in a given year – a much higher rate than that experienced by the general population. The chance that a person with a mental illness will experience physical, sexual, or domestic violence was found to be 3.86-fold higher than the odds of an adult without any disabilities at all. However, violence against individuals with other disabilities was common – it was found that individuals reporting any disability were 50 percent more likely to experience physical, sexual, or intimate partner violence in the prior 12 months than those individuals without a disability, and 60 percent higher for people with intellectual impairments. Researchers believe that their inclusion criteria probably underestimated the prevalence of violence against people with disabilities because many of the ...

• PAR | Psychological Effects of Reality TV

  The genre known as reality TV became popular in the early 2000s; however, it actually began in 1948 with Candid Camera. The Dating Game followed in 1965, That’s Incredible in 1980, and Cops in 1989. The 2000s gave us action reality shows like Survivor, Fear Factor, and The Amazing Race, and dating shows like The Bachelor and Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire. Talent competition shows later emerged, with shows like American Idol and Dancing With the Stars. Finally, an abundance of celebrity reality shows began, featuring people like Donald Trump, Tyra Banks, and the Kardashians. Psychologists Steven Reiss and James Wiltz conducted a study called “Why People Watch Reality TV.” They asked 239 adults to rate how much they watched and enjoyed reality shows. They also had participants rate themselves on 16 basic motivations, which influence what people pay attention to and what they choose to do. However, basic motivations must continually be satisfied: once a person has eaten, hunger re-emerges; a person who enjoys arguing might pick a fight after a few days of no conflict. This theory ...