Health & Well-being

• Even A Bit of Lead Is Bad For Kids' Psychological Development

  Superman couldn't see through lead, but doctors and psychologists did, exposing lead's damaging effects on children's psychological development.

• Lessening PKU's Damaging Effects on Children

  Much of the neurological havoc wreaked by the rare genetic disorder phenylketonuria (PKU) can be prevented through early, thorough, and continuous care.

• Massage Therapy May Heal What's Ailing You--and Your Preemie

  A caregivers' touch can put preemies on the road to normal development and also relieve adults' suffering.

• Risky Business: Curbing Adolescent Sexual Behaviors with Interventions

  Behavioral intervention programs reduce high-risk sexual behavior in adolescents.

• The Role of Psychology in End-of-Life Decisions and Quality of Care

  Psychologists can contribute to end-of-life care before illness strikes, after illness is diagnosed and treatments begin, during advanced illness and the dying process, and after the death of the patient, with bereaved survivors.

• Understanding How People Change is First Step in Changing Unhealthy Behavior

  Stages-of-change research has been used to develop dozens of behavior change programs, including HIV prevention, to help people live longer, healthier lives.

• Men: A Different Depression

  Psychologists try to help men get help, open up.

• Breakups aren't all bad: Coping strategies to promote positive outcomes

  Writing about the positive aspects of a relationship's end can build empowerment and fend off negative emotions.

• Being Gay Is Just as Healthy as Being Straight

  Evelyn Hooker's pioneering research debunked the popular myth that homosexuals are inherently less mentally healthy than heterosexuals, leading to significant changes in how psychology views and treats people who are gay.

• Bright Lights, Big Relief

  Seasonal Affective Disorder, a mood disorder that brings episodes of depression associated with seasonal variations of light, is treated using very bright lights.

• The Effects of Trauma Do Not Have to Last a Lifetime

  Most people will experience a trauma at some point in their lives, and as a result, some will experience debilitating symptoms that interfere with daily life. The good news is that psychological interventions are effective in preventing many long-term effects.

• Exercise Helps Keep Your Psyche Fit

  Exercise is an effective, cost-effective treatment for depression and may help in the treatment of other mental disorders.

• Exposure Therapy Helps PTSD Victims Overcome Trauma's Debilitating Effects

  War veterans, crime victims, accident survivors and others exposed to trauma are finding help through therapy that mentally takes them back to the trauma in a controlled environment.

• Facilitated Communication: Sifting the Psychological Wheat from the Chaff

  If psychological research does not always give us hoped-for answers, it does help us sift potent reality from wishful thinking, and focus our energy on real solutions.

• School-Based Program Teaches Skills That Stave Off Depression

  Roll over Prozac! Nipping depression in the bud by teaching thinking and problem-solving skills to children may be the wave of the future.

• Turning Lemons into Lemonade: Hardiness Helps People Turn Stressful Circumstances into Opportunities

  Research shows hardiness is the key to the resiliency for not only surviving, but also thriving, under stress. Hardiness enhances performance, leadership, conduct, stamina, mood and both physical and mental health.

• Emotional Fitness in Aging: Older is Happier

  Older adults accentuate the positive.

• Getting in Touch with Your Inner Brainwaves through Biofeedback

  Biofeedback helps treat some illness, may boost performance, helps people relax and is even used to help children with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder.

• Hypnosis for the Relief and Control of Pain

  Hypnosis is likely to be effective for most people suffering from diverse forms of pain, with the possible exception of a minority of patients who are resistant to hypnotic interventions.

• Pain, Pain, Go Away

  Psychological approaches help people cope with chronic pain.

• Want Better Health? Use Your Head!

  Research suggests that psychoeducational techniques like guided imagery can reduce pain and promote healing after surgery.

• Behavioral Training and Oven Mitts Become a Recipe for Recovery

  Research on how animals respond to injuries leads to an effective new therapy for stroke victims.

• Cochlear Implants: For Many an End to Silence

  Many formerly deaf people can now hear, in part, because of psychology.

• Getting in Touch with Your Inner Brainwaves through Biofeedback

  Biofeedback helps treat some illness, may boost performance, helps people relax and is even used to help children with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder.

• The High Costs of Caregiving

  Especially with dementia, caregiving takes health toll.

• Occupational Stress and Employee Control

  Employee control over work can reduce stress and enhance motivation and growth. Several key findings have prompted employers to search for ways to give workers a greater sense of control, to improve health, productivity and morale.

• Open Up! Writing About Trauma Reduces Stress, Aids Immunity

  Writing about difficult, even traumatic, experiences appears to be good for health on several levels - raising immunity and other health measures and improving life functioning.

• Stress Weakens the Immune System

  Friends, relaxation strengthen health.

• Accentuate the Positive: Vouchers Help Drug Abusers Stay in Treatment

  Whether it's a pay raise for exceptional job performance or boosting a child's allowance for helping out more around the house, we respond to positive reinforcement. Psychological research shows that positive reinforcement can also be highly effective in drug abuse treatment.

• Have Your Children Had Their Anti-Smoking Shots?

  Attitude Inoculation dramatically reduces teenage smoking rates.

• Inmate Drug Abuse Treatment Slows Prison’s Revolving Door

  Psychological research shows treating prisoner's drug problems while in and after prison helps keep them off drugs, out of prison and employed.

• Understanding How People Change is First Step in Changing Unhealthy Behavior

  Stages-of-change research has been used to develop dozens of behavior change programs, including HIV prevention, to help people live longer, healthier lives.

• Danger Ahead: Risk Communication Leads to Healthier Living

  Psychological research shows efforts to change people's judgments about the risks associated with health-related behaviors can successfully change those behaviors.

• Getting A Good Night's Sleep With the Help of Psychology

  Cognitive behavioral therapy is becoming the "treatment of choice" for many people with insomnia.

• Stereotype Threat Widens Achievement Gap

  Reminders of stereotyped inferiority hurt test scores.

• Marital Education Programs Help Keep Couples Together

  In the United States, couples marrying for the first time have approximately a fifty percent chance of divorcing. Psychologists are helping couples' "I do" last a lifetime through development and application of scientifically tested relationship education programs.

• Scanning the Brain

  New technologies shed light on anatomy, activity.

• To Motivate Healthy Behavior, It's Often Not What You Say, But How You Say It

  Psychologists find that framing health messages a certain way makes a difference in cancer prevention efforts.

• If I Were A Rich Man...

  Psychologists show how pursuit of material wealth and pursuit of happiness are not the same.

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