Direct Current Stumulation Study

Researchers:

Associate Professor Colleen Loo (UNSW / Black Dog Institute)

Organisation:

School of Psychiatry, UNSW; Black Dog Institute, Randwick NSW

Details:

Researchers are investigating direct current stimulation (DCS) as a treatment for depression and potential alternative to medication and other brain stimulation techniques such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Very weak currents are used to stimulate the brain. The stimulation is painless with no known serious side effects, and the person is fully awake and alert during the treatment sessions. Participants will be required to attend the Black Dog Institute from Monday to Friday for 4 to 8 weeks usually for 45 minutes per visit.

Participants required:

Participants must be at least 18 years old and experiencing feelings of depression for at least 4 weeks prior to study entry.

Contact:

If you would like more information or are interested in participating, please call Angelo Alonzo on (02) 9382 3720 or Donel Martin on (02) 9382 9261 or email TMSandDCS@unsw.edu.au

Direct current stimulation study

Title:
Direct Current Stimulation as a non-medication treatment for depression

Researchers:
Associate Professor Colleen Loo (UNSW / Black Dog Institute)

Organisation:
School of Psychiatry, UNSW; Black Dog Institute, Randwick NSW

Details:
Researchers are investigating direct current stimulation (DCS) as a treatment for depression and potential alternative to medication and electroconvulsive therapy. Very weak currents are used to stimulate the brain. The stimulation is painless with no known serious side effects, and the person is fully awake and alert during the 20 minute treatment sessions. Participants will be required to attend the Black Dog Institute from Monday to Friday for 3 to 6 weeks usually for 30 minutes per visit.

Participants required:
Participants must be at least 18 years old and experiencing feelings of depression for at least 4 weeks prior to study entry.

Contact:
If you would like more information or are interested in participating, please call Angelo Alonzo on (02) 9382 3720 or Donel Martin on (02) 9382 9261 or email TMSandDCS@unsw.edu.au

Research study, participants needed

This will explain why I have been absent from the blog.

Rumination and Informational Preferences in Psychological and Behavioural Outcomes in Illness: Reliability and validity testing of the Multidimensional Rumination in Illness Scale (MRIS)

This project is part of a research program that examines the role of ruminative thinking in psychological and behavioural outcomes in illness. In looking at the way in which thinking style influences a person’s emotional and behavioural response to illness, it is hoped to provide a way of identifying individuals who may experience difficulties in adjusting to illness and also guide the development of appropriate interventions.

This stage of the project involves validation and reliability testing of the newly-developed Multidimensional Rumination in Illness Scale (MRIS).

For this project, I am seeking English-speaking people who are over 18. Participation involves the completion of an on-line questionnaire, which will take approximately 30 minutes.

This study has been approved by the Macquarie University Ethics Review Committee (Human Subjects).

If this project is of interest to you, please go to the following website to start the questionnaire:

Thinking Style in Illness

Psychotherapy and schizophrenia

A pilot study at the University of Sydney is evaluating the use of intensive psychotherapy in young people diagnosed with schizophrenia. Extensively used in the treatment of anxiety and depression, CBT is being used in Dr. Antony Kidman's study to help schizophrenia patients counter delusional thinking patterns, improve stress management and social skills.

I tried to locate more details of the study but haven't been able to. My understanding is that the project will build on an earlier British study that has shown good results from such a CBT approach used in conjunction with medication, and the link may provide more detail for those interested. There has been a considerable amount of research in this area and you can read a review, available in full, here.

Source:

Schizophrenia therapy hope

Bad vibrations

Remember this?

A whole smorgasbord of awful sounds awaits you at Bad Vibes.The classic fingernails on a board? Bone crunching? Roll up and have a play.

Bad Vibes results from a Salford University psychology experiment into what makes a sound unpleasant. The research is done but you can still inflict pain on your nearest and dearest.

I had to quit after sound number 5. The nerves were getting a little frayed.....

Sign me up!

Here's one study I wouldn't mind participating in.

Researchers at the University of East Anglia in the U. K. are recruiting women to eat a bar of chocolate a day for a year. Mounds of Yorkie Bars (a particular favourite of HP but sadly unavailable in Australia) comes to mind. Sounds like heaven, no?

The aim of the study is to examine whether eating chocolate can reduce the risk of heart disease.

Unfortunately, I'm not eligible. Participants must be post-menopausal and have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

The second sting, the chocolate provided is not your standard Dairy Milk/Hersheys/Lindt/ insert your own particular favourite here. The chocolate has been loaded with extra flavonoids by the addition of soy. Flavonoids are a compound found in cocoa, which is suspected to be beneficial to the heart.

An important study as the researchers state that deaths due to heart disease among women increase rapidly after the menopause and having type 2 diabetes increases this risk by a further three-and-a-half times.

Don't take this as a carte-blanche to eat chocolate though. The researchers point out chocolate is still high in sugar and fat.

Why do scientists have to be such spoilsports?

Writing and mood

Another day, another study and one that you can participate in regardless of where you are geographically located.

I thought this one might be of particular interest to my fellow bloggers, people who obviously enjoy the written word.

From the Black Dog Institute:

Over the centuries, many people have been naturally drawn to writing about their life and their experiences, through journals, creative writing, and other forms of written expression. Day to day life can be stressful as people strive for balance between family, friends and work. We are interested in whether certain kinds of expressive writing can be helpful for people in managing their moods, stress levels and general health. The ‘Writing and Mood’ study is investigating whether particular ways of writing about our lives and our experiences can offer benefits for our moods, emotional and physical health. We are also interested in whether people with certain personality styles find writing in certain ways to be more helpful than others.

If you are interested in finding out more or even taking part, you can read more about the study or register here.

Psychological research online

I just wanted to bring the Psychological Research on the Net site to your attention. Hosted by Hanover University in the U. S., this site provides links to all manner of psychological studies being conducted online. It's a great resource for psychologists, allowing access to a far greater number of potential subjects than otherwise might be possible.

Of course, it's not applicable for all kinds of research and it does come with certain risks. The internet provides anonymity, people can say whatever they want.

Nonetheless, there's some really interesting studies in progress. I often (when in procrastination mode) wander over to see if there's any studies of interest that I can contribute to.

I used this site to recruit subjects for both my undergraduate (cybercondria) and postgraduate (rumination) research (in addition to more traditional methods) and I was very appreciative of the people who took the time to complete my studies in this manner.

So, if you have time to spare, why not make a cup of tea or coffee and wander on over. You could be contributing to the next big breakthrough in psychology!

237 reasons

Browsing the research databases, this study certainly caught my eye. "Why humans have sex" is written by Cindy Meston and David Buss and published in the August edition of Archives of Sexual Behavior.

The study's importance lies in understanding the cognitions and emotions underlying the behaviour and it is an area that has received relatively little attention. Reasons for engaging in sexual behaviour had been thought to be relatively few, mainly related to the desire to reproduce, experience pleasure and relieve sexual tension. However, the 444 participants in this study managed to come up with a heady 237 reasons, including those anticipated but also reflecting a whole range of psychological motivations, including spiritual ("I wanted to feel closer to God", reason 7), vengeful ("I wanted to hurt/humiliate my partner", reason 78), a sense of obligation ("I felt like it was my duty", reason 48) and coercion ("The person demanded I have sex with him/her") among others.

Some of the more unusual reasons include "The person was a good dancer (Reason 201)" and "The person was famous and I wanted to be able to say I had sex with him/her (Reason 23)".

Good enough reason to stop Practical Man watching 'Dancing with the Stars' I'd say.

On a more serious note, the study revealed four major factors underlying a decision to have sex: physical reasons (stress reduction, pleasure, physical desirability and experience seeking; goal attainment (resources, social status, revenge, and utilitarian); emotional (love, commitment, expression); insecurity (self-esteem boost, duty/pressure, mate guarding).

When, in a further study, respondents were asked to rate the importance of each factor in respect of their own experiences, significant differences were found according to gender (which probably comes as no surprise to most of us) and personality type.

If you'd like to read more about this study or the 237 reasons, the link above provides full access to a text version of the journal or you can source it via the reference provided below. Meanwhile I'm off to conduct a counter study. "Reasons why humans don't have sex."

Reference

Meston, C. C., & Buss, D. M. (2007). Why humans have sex. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36, 477-507.