Young people say sex, paychecks come in second to self-esteem

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Young people may crave boosts to their self-esteem a little too much, new research suggests.

Researchers found that college students valued boosts to their self-esteem more than any other pleasant activity they were asked about, including sex, favorite foods, drinking alcohol, seeing a best friend or receiving a paycheck.

"It is somewhat surprising how this desire to feel worthy and valuable trumps almost any other pleasant activity you can imagine," said Brad Bushman, lead author of the research and professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State University.

Bushman conducted the research with Scott Moeller of Brookhaven National Laboratory and Jennifer Crocker, professor of psychology at Ohio State. The study appears online in the Journal of Personality and will be published in a future print edition.

In two separate studies, the researchers asked college students how much they wanted and liked various pleasant activities, such as their favorite food or seeing a best friend. They were asked to rate how much they wanted and liked each activity on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely).

One of the items they were asked about was self-esteem building experiences, such as receiving a good grade or receiving a compliment.

"We found that self-esteem trumped all other rewards in the minds of these college students," Bushman said.

Those students who indicated they highly valued self-esteem also showed it in the laboratory Continuing Education for Counselors

In one study, the participants took a test which purportedly measured their intellectual ability. Afterwards, the students were told if they waited another ten minutes, they could have their test re-scored using a new scoring algorithm that usually yields higher test results.

Students who highly valued self-esteem were more likely to stay to get the new scores.

"They were willing to spend their own precious time just to get a small boost in their self-esteem," Bushman said.

Bushman said there is nothing wrong with a healthy sense of self-esteem. But the results of this study suggest many young people may be a little too focused on pumping up their self-esteem.

Here's why: for all the pleasant activities examined in this study, participants were asked to rate both how much they liked the activity and how much they wanted it. Both questions were asked because addiction research suggests that addicts tend to report they "want" the object of their addiction (drugs, alcohol, gambling) more than they actually "like" it, Bushman said.

"The liking-wanting distinction has occupied an important place in addiction research for nearly two decades," Moeller said. "But we believe it has great potential to inform other areas of psychology as well."

In this study, participants liked all the pleasant activities more than they wanted them, which is healthy, Bushman said. But the difference between liking and wanting was smallest when it came to self-esteem.

"It wouldn't be correct to say that the study participants were addicted to self-esteem," Bushman said. "But they were closer to being addicted to self-esteem than they were to being addicted to any other activity we studied."

Findings showed that people with a strong sense of entitlement were the ones who were most likely to "want" the good things in life – including boosts to their self-esteem – even more than they actually "like" them.

Entitlement was measured as part of a narcissism scale which participants completed. In the scale, participants had to choose which of two statements they most agreed with. For example, people who scored high on entitlement were more likely to agree with "If I ruled the world, it would be a much better place" rather than "The thought of ruling the world frightens the hell out of me."

"Entitled people want all the good things in life, even if they don't particularly like them," Bushman said. "Of course, there's no problem with enjoying good things, but it is not healthy to want them more than you like them."

Bushman said he sees danger in this obsession with self-esteem. Research has shown that levels of self-esteem have been increasing, at least among college students in the United States, since the mid-1960s.

"American society seems to believe that self-esteem is the cure all for every social ill, from bad grades to teen pregnancies to violence," he said. "But there has been no evidence that boosting self-esteem actually helps with these problems. We may be too focused on increasing self-esteem."

Study co-author Crocker added, "The problem isn't with having high self-esteem; it's how much people are driven to boost their self-esteem. When people highly value self-esteem, they may avoid doing things such as acknowledging a wrong they did. Admitting you were wrong may be uncomfortable for self-esteem at the moment, but ultimately it could lead to better learning, relationships, growth, and even future self-esteem."

The study was partially supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Psychologists Stress the Importance of Memory in Preventing Relapse after Therapy

Addictions, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder—such painful and harmful problems are recalcitrant to treatment. In the clinic, a person may suppress the association between the stimulus and the response—say, a bar with ashtrays and smoking—by learning to pair the stimulus with a new memory not involving smoking. But once out in the world, faced with bars and ashtrays aplenty, he relapses into the old behavior. Some treatment aims at helping the patient avoid locations and stimuli that trigger the harmful behavior LPC Continuing Education

A new article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, says this is not the most effective route. “The therapist really has little control over the context in which the patient finds himself,” says Ralph R. Miller, distinguished professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Binghamton, who wrote the article with SUNY colleague Mario A. Laborda. A more promising method, then, is: “Make the treatment memory stronger.”

Experimentalists like the authors use the term “extinction” for the process, as Miller puts it, of “teaching the subject new memories that oppose the old memories.” Clinicians call it “exposure therapy.”

The article reviews the psychological literature supporting four ways to make the extinction memory stronger and therefore more enduring: Give more therapy (or in the experimental context, more trials). Conduct the therapy in different locations and contexts—for instance, different rooms rather than always the same office. Space the extinction exercises—or in the lab, the experimental trials—over the therapeutic session. And finally, provide the treatment sessions separated by more time. These methods exploit established principles of learning: that increased practice enhances learning, and “spaced practice results in better memory than when the learning trials are massed,” says Miller.

Miller stresses the importance of animal laboratory research in finding new treatment methods. “We are developing excellent means in the animal lab to model human psychopathology, not just for screening drugs but for screening behavioral treatments. We additionally now have models of the treatment and the limitations of the treatments,” he says. Determining how to reduce those limitations using rats rather than humans is faster and requires fewer subjects, he says. Numerous clinical studies, moreover, “certify that our findings with rats also apply to humans.”

The research cited in Miller and Laborda’s paper is suggestive of a powerful theory: “It appears that memories are forever,” says Miller. It then ratifies those proven facts about learning. “We are providing alternate memories that compete with the deleterious memory”—say, a new, automatic mental image of having a drink and a conversation in a bar without picking up a cigarette, perhaps accompanied by a feeling of relaxation. “The trick is that the newer memory when it is retrieved will be stronger than the deleterious memory.”

Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, publishes concise reviews on the latest advances in theory and research spanning all of scientific psychology and its applications. For a copy of "Preventing Recovery From Extinction and Relapse: A Product of Current Retrieval Cues and Memory Strengths"

Advice to divorcees: Go easy on yourself

Divorce is tough, for just about everyone. But some people move through a breakup without overwhelming distress, even if they're sad or worried about money, while others get stuck in the bad feelings and can't seem to climb out. What accounts for the difference? LPC CEUs

Self-compassion, says an upcoming study in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science. Self-compassion—a combination of kindness toward oneself, recognition of common humanity, and the ability to let painful emotions pass—"can promote resilience and positive outcomes in the face of divorce," says psychologist David A. Sbarra, who conducted the study with University of Arizona colleagues Hillary L. Smith and Matthias R. Mehl. Independent of other personality traits, that one capacity predicts better adjustment shortly after divorce and up to nine months later.

The findings have implications for helping people learn to weather breakups in better health and better spirits.

"We're not interested in the basic statement, 'People who are coping better today do better nine months from now.' That doesn't help anybody," says Sbarra. "The surprising part here is that when we look at a bunch of positive characteristics"—such as self-esteem, resistance to depression, optimism, or ease with relationships—"this one characteristic—self-compassion— uniquely predicts good outcomes."

The study involved 105 people, 38 men and 67 women, whose mean age was about 40; they'd been married over 13 years and divorced an average of three to four months. On the first visit, participants were asked to think about their former partner for 30 seconds, then talk for four minutes about their feelings and thoughts related to the separation.

Four trained coders listened to the audio files and rated the participants' levels of self-compassion, using a standard measure of the construct. The participants also were assessed for other psychological traits, such as depression and their "relationship style." At the initial visit, three months later, and then after either six or nine months participants reported on their adjustment to the divorce, including the frequency with which they experienced intrusive thoughts and emotions about the separation and their ex-partner.

As expected, the people with high levels of self-compassion at the start both recovered faster and were doing better after a period of months.

How can these data help people going through divorce? Sbarra's friends, knowing what he studies, often ask for such advice.

"It's not easy to say, 'Be less anxious.' You can't change your personality so easily. We also know that women do better than men. But you can't change your sex. What you can change is your stance with respect to your experience." Understanding your loss as part of bigger human experience helps assuage feelings of isolation, he says. Mindfulness—noting jealousy or anger without judgment or rumination—lets you turn your mind to life in the present without getting stuck in the past.

Can all this be taught? The researchers are unsure but optimistic. Says Sbarra: "This study opens a window for how we can potentially cultivate self-compassion among recently separated adults" and help smooth the journey through one of life's most difficult experiences.


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For more information about this study, please contact: David A. Sbarra at sbarra@email.arizona.edu.

The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "When Leaving Your Ex, Love Yourself: Observational Ratings of Self-compassion Predict the Course of Emotional Recovery Following Marital Separation" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Lucy Hyde at 202-293-9300 or lhyde@psychologicalscience.org.

Our brains are made of the same stuff, despite DNA differences

Gene expression databases reveal “consistent molecular architecture”

Despite vast differences in the genetic code across individuals and ethnicities, the human brain shows a “consistent molecular architecture,” say researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health. The finding is from a pair of studies that have created databases revealing when and where genes turn on and off in multiple brain regions through development counselor ceus

“Our study shows how 650,000 common genetic variations that make each of us a unique person may influence the ebb and flow of 24,000 genes in the most distinctly human part of our brain as we grow and age,” explained Joel Kleinman, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Clinical Brain Disorders Branch.

Kleinman and NIMH grantee Nenad Sestan, M.D., Ph.D. of Yale University, New Haven, Conn., led the sister studies in the Oct. 27, 2011 issue of the journal Nature.

“Having at our fingertips detailed information about when and where specific gene products are expressed in the brain brings new hope for understanding how this process can go awry in schizophrenia, autism and other brain disorders,” said NIMH Director Thomas R. Insel, M.D.

Both studies measured messenger RNAs or transcripts. These intermediate products carry the message from DNA, the genetic blueprint, to create proteins and differentiated brain tissue. Each gene can make several transcripts, which are expressed in patterns influenced by a subset of the approximately 1.5 million DNA variations unique to each of us. This unique set of transcripts is called our transcriptome – a molecular signature that is unique to every individual. The transcriptome is a measure of the diverse functional potential that exists in the brain.

Both studies found that rapid gene expression during fetal development abruptly switches to much slower rates after birth that gradually decline and eventually level off in middle age. These rates surge again as the brain ages in the last decades, mirroring rates seen in childhood and adolescence, according to one of the studies. The databases hold secrets to how the brain’s ever-changing messenger chemical systems, cells and development processes are related to gene expression patterns through development.

For example, if a particular version of a gene is implicated in a disorder, the new resources might reveal how that variation affects the gene’s expression over time and by brain region. By identifying even distant genes that may be turning on and off in-sync, the databases may help researchers discover whole modules of genes involved in the illness. They can also reveal how variation in one gene influences another’s expression.

Prefrontal cortex

Kleinman’s team focused on how genetic variations are linked to the expression of transcripts in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, the area that controls insight, planning and judgment, across the lifespan. They studied 269 postmortem, healthy human brains, ranging in age from two weeks after conception to 80 years old, using 49,000 genetic probes. The database on prefrontal cortex gene expression alone totals more than 1 trillion pieces of information, according to Kleinman.

Among key findings in the prefrontal cortex:
Individual genetic variations are profoundly linked to expression patterns. The most similarity across individuals is detected early in development and again as we approach the end of life.

Different types of related genes are expressed during prenatal development, infancy, and childhood, so that each of these stages shows a relatively distinct transcriptional identity. Three-fourths of genes reverse their direction of expression after birth, with most switching from on to off.

Expression of genes involved in cell division declines prenatally and in infancy, while expression of genes important for making synapses, or connections between brain cells, increases. In contrast, genes required for neuronal projections decline after birth – likely as unused connections are pruned.

By the time we reach our 50s, overall gene expression begins to increase, mirroring the sharp reversal of fetal expression changes that occur in infancy.

Genetic variation in the genome as a whole showed no effect on variation in the transcriptome as a whole, despite how genetically distant individuals might be. Hence, human cortexes have a consistent molecular architecture, despite our diversity.


In previous studies, Kleinman and colleagues have found that all genetic variations implicated to date in schizophrenia are associated with transcripts that are preferentially expressed in the fetal brain. This adds to evidence that the disorder originates in prenatal development. By contrast, he and his colleagues are examining evidence that genetic variation implicated in affective disorders may be associated with transcripts expressed later in life. They are also extending their database to include all transcripts of all the genes in the human genome, examining 1000 post-mortem brains, including many of people who had schizophrenia or other brain disorders.

Multiple brain regions

Sestan and colleagues characterized gene expression in 16 brain regions, including 11 areas of the neocortex, from both hemispheres of 57 human brains that spanned from 40 days post-conception to 82 years – analyzing the transcriptomes of 1,340 samples. Using 1.4 million probes, the researchers measured the expression of exons, which combine to form a gene’s protein product. This allowed them to pinpoint changes in these combinations that make up a protein, as well as to chart the gene’s overall expression.

Among key findings:
Over 90 percent of the genes expressed in the brain are differentially regulated across brain regions and/or over developmental time periods. There are also widespread differences across region and time periods in the combination of a gene’s exons that are expressed.

Timing and location are far more influential in regulating gene expression than gender, ethnicity or individual variation.

Among 29 modules of co-expressed genes identified, each had distinct expression patterns and represented different biological processes. Genetic variation in some of the most well-connected genes in these modules, called hub genes, has previously been linked to mental disorders, including schizophrenia and depression.

Telltale similarities in expression profiles with genes previously implicated in schizophrenia and autism are providing leads to discovery of other genes potentially involved in those disorders.

Sex differences in the risk for certain mental disorders may be traceable to transcriptional mechanisms. More than three-fourths of 159 genes expressed differentially between the sexes were male-biased, most prenatally. Some genes found to have such sex-biased expression had previously been associated with disorders that affect males more than females, such as schizophrenia, Williams syndrome, and autism.


The Sestan study was also funded by NIH’s National Institute on Child Health and Human Development, National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and National Institute on Drug Abuse. Data for the Sestan study are posted at www.humanbraintranscriptome.org and at http://www.developinghumanbrain.org, as part of a larger ongoing study, BrainSpan, funded by NIMH under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to create an Atlas of Human Brain Development.

The Kleinman study data on genetic variability are accessible to qualified researchers at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/gap/cgi-bin/study.cgi?study_id=phs000417.v1.p1, while the gene expression data can be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc5GSE30272. In addition, BrainCloud, a web browser application developed by NIMH to interrogate the Kleinman study data, can be downloaded at http://www.libd.org/braincloud.


Our brains are all made of the same stuff. Despite individual and ethnic genetic diversity, our prefrontal cortex shows a consistent molecular architecture. For example, overall differences in the genetic code (“genetic distance”) between African -Americans (AA) and caucasians (cauc) showed no effect on their overall difference in expressed transcripts (“transcriptional distance”). The vertical span of color-coded areas is about the same, indicating that our brains all share the same tissue at a molecular level, despite distinct DNA differences on the horizontal axis. Each dot represents a comparison between two individuals. The AA::AA comparisons (blue) generally show more genetic diversity than cauc::cauc comparisons (yellow), because caucasians are descended from a relatively small subset of ancestors who migrated from Africa, while African Americans are descended from a more diverse gene pool among the much larger population that remained in Africa. AA::cauc comparisons (green) differed most across their genomes as a whole, but this had no effect on their transcriptomes as a whole.
Source: Joel Kleinman, M.D., Ph.D., NIMH Clinical Brain Disorders Branch


Individual genetic variation likely affects the expression of genes. For example, across all ages and ethnicities studied, expression of a gene called ZSWIM7 stays low, medium or high in the prefrontal cortex, depending on which of three versions (A/A, A/G, G/G) is inherited. The versions are created by a tiny variation in the letters of the genetic code (DNA) at a location in the gene called rs1045599.
Source: Joel Kleinman, M.D., Ph.D., NIMH Clinical Brain Disorders Branch


Overall gene expression plummets 5-fold in infancy and 90-fold in childhood from its prenatal peak. The decline levels-off during the middle years, but expression surges again in the last decades of life, as the brain ages. Note: The fetal/infant graph at left is based on a different scale than the lifespan graph at right, so the two are not visually comparable.
Source: Joel Kleinman, M.D., Ph.D., NIMH Clinical Brain Disorders Branch


Males show more sex-biased gene expression. More genes differentially expressed (DEX) between the sexes were found in males than females, especially prenatally. Some genes found to have such sex-biased expression had previously been associated with disorders that affect males more than females, such as schizophrenia, Williams syndrome, and autism. Eleven of the brain areas shown are in the neocortex (NCX), or outer mantle.
Source: Nenad Sestan, M.D., Ph.D., Yale University Department of Neurobiology and Kavli Institute for Neuroscience


Profiling developmental processes. The expression data can be used to create trajectories for the expression of genes involved in particular processes, such as the development of synapses (structures that underlie communication between neurons). These expression trajectories can be compared for different regions, such as the NCX and cerebellar cortex (CBC).
Source: Nenad Sestan, M.D., Ph.D., Yale University Department of Neurobiology and Kavli Institute for Neuroscience

References

Colantuoni c, Lipska BK, Ye T, Hyde TM, Tao R, Leek JT, Colantuoni EA, Elkahloun AG, Herman MM, Weinberger DR, Kleinman JE. Temporal Dynamics and Genetic Control of Transcription in the human prefrontal cortex. Nature 2011. Oct 27

Kang HJ, Kawasawa1YI, Cheng F, Zhu Y, Xu X, Li M, Sousa1 AMM, Pletikos M, Meyer KA, Sedmak G, Guennel G, Shin Y, Johnson MB, Krsnik Z, Fertuzinhos MS, Umlauf S, Lisgo SN, Vortmeyer A, Weinberger DR, Mane S, Hyde TM, Huttner A, Reimers M, Kleinman JE, Šestan N. Spatiotemporal transcriptome of the human brain. Nature 2011. Oct 27.

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The mission of the NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery and cure. For more information, visit the NIMH website.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world's research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy and improve practice. Fact sheets on the health effects of drugs of abuse and information on NIDA research and other activities can be found on the NIDA home page at www.drugabuse.gov. To order publications in English or Spanish, call NIDA's new DrugPubs research dissemination center at 1-877-NIDA-NIH or 240-645-0228 (TDD) or fax or email requests to 240-645-0227 or drugpubs@nida.nih.gov. Online ordering is available at http://drugpubs.drugabuse.gov. NIDA's new media guide can be found at http://drugabuse.gov/mediaguide/.

NINDS is the nation's leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system. The NINDS mission is to reduce the burden of neurological disease — a burden borne by every age group, by every segment of society, by people all over the world.

About the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. For more information, visit the Institute’s Web site at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit the NIH website.

The activities described in this release are funded in part through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. More information about NIH's Recovery Act grant funding opportunities can be found at http://grants.nih.gov/recovery/. To track the progress of HHS activities funded through the Recovery Act, visit www.hhs.gov/recovery. To track all federal funds provided through the Recovery Act, visit www.recovery.gov.

Perinatal antidepressant stunts brain development in rats

Miswired brain circuitry traced to early exposure – NIH-funded study

Rats exposed to an antidepressant just before and after birth showed substantial brain abnormalities and behaviors, in a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

After receiving citalopram, a serotonin-selective reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), during this critical period, long-distance connections between the two hemispheres of the brain showed stunted growth and degeneration. The animals also became excessively fearful when faced with new situations and failed to play normally with peers – behaviors reminiscent of novelty avoidance and social impairments seen in autism. The abnormalities were more pronounced in male than female rats, just as autism affects 3-4 times more boys than girls.

“Our findings underscore the importance of balanced serotonin levels – not too high or low -- for proper brain maturation,” explained Rick Lin, Ph.D., of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, a Eureka Award grantee of the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health.

Lin and colleagues report on their discovery online during the week of Oct. 24, 2011, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Last July, a study reported an association between mothers taking antidepressants and increased autism risk in their children. It found that children of mothers who took SSRI’s during the year prior to giving birth ran twice the normal risk of developing autism – with treatment during the first trimester of pregnancy showing the strongest effect. A study published last month linked the duration of a pregnant mother’s exposure to SSRIs to modest lags in coordination of movement – but within the normal range – in their newborns counselor ceus

“While one must always be cautious extrapolating from medication effects in rats to medication effects in people, these new results suggest an opportunity to study the mechanisms by which antidepressants influence brain and behavioral development,” said NIMH Director Thomas R. Insel, M.D. “These studies will help to balance the mental health needs of pregnant mothers with possible increased risk to their offspring.”

Earlier studies had hinted that serotonin plays an important role in shaping the still-forming brain in the days just after a rat is born, which corresponds to the end of the third trimester of fetal development in humans. Experimental manipulations of the chemical messenger during this period interfered with formation of sensory-processing regions of the cortex, or outer mantle, and triggered aggressive and anxiety-related behaviors in rodents.

There is also recent evidence in humans that serotonin from the placenta helps shape development of the fetal brain early in pregnancy. Disrupted serotonin has been linked to mood and anxiety disorders. SSRIs, the mainstay medication treatment for these disorders, boost serotonin activity.

Lin and colleagues gave citalopram to male and female rat pups prenatally and postnatally and examined their brains and behavior as they grew up. Male, but not female, SSRI exposed rat pups abnormally froze when they heard an unfamiliar tone and balked at exploring their environment in the presence of unfamiliar objects or scents. These behaviors persisted into adulthood. The male pups especially also shunned normal juvenile play behavior – mimicking traits often seen in children with autism.

A key brain serotonin circuit, the raphe system, known to shape the developing brain during the critical period when the animals were exposed to the drug, showed dramatic reductions in density of neuronal fibers. Evidence of stunted development in the circuit coursed through much of the cortex and other regions important for thinking and emotion, such as the hippocampus.

The researchers also discovered miswiring in the structure responsible for communications between the brain’s left and right hemispheres, called the corpus collosum. Extensions of neurons, called axons, through which such long-distance communications are conducted, were deformed. A protective sheath, called myelin, that normally wraps and boosts axons’ efficiency-- like insulation on an electrical wire – was reduced by one-third in the treated animals. This damage was three times worse in male than in female pups and would likely result in abnormal communication between the two hemispheres, say the researchers.

Moreover, the perinatally exposed animals showed evidence of neurons firing out of sync and other electrophysiological abnormalities, suggesting faulty organization of neuronal networks in the cortex.

The research also was supported by the NIH’s National Center for Research Resources, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.


Cross-sections of the part of the rat brain that connects the left and right hemisphere (corpus collosum) show stunted development of neuronal wiring, called axons, in an animal that received an antidepressant (right) during a critical period around the time of birth. A protective sheath, called myelin (visible in normal animal at left), that normally wraps the axons and boosts their efficiency, failed to develop normally in the treated animal. The resultant inefficient neuronal communications could underlie the pattern of deficits seen in autism.
Source: Rick C.S. Lin, Ph.D., University of Mississippi Medical Center

Reference

Perinatal antidepressant exposure alters cortical network function in rodents. Simpson KL, Weaver KJ, de Villers-Sidani E, Lu JY-F, Cai Z, Pang Y, Rodriguez-Porcel F, Paul IA, Merzenich M, Lin RCS. 2011, Oct. 24, PNAS.

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The mission of the NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery and cure. For more information, visit the NIMH website.

The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a part of NIH, provides laboratory scientists and clinical researchers with the resources and training they need to understand, detect, treat and prevent a wide range of diseases. NCRR supports all aspects of translational and clinical research, connecting researchers, patients and communities across the nation. For more information, visit www.ncrr.nih.gov. NINDS is the nation's leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system. The NINDS mission is to reduce the burden of neurological disease — a burden borne by every age group, by every segment of society, by people all over the world.

About the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. For more information, visit the Institute’s Web site at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit the NIH website.

White House Names NIMH a “Champion of Change” for its Suicide Prevention Efforts

Source: White House

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) was named by the White House as a “Champion of Change” on August 25, 2011, for its efforts in supporting research on suicide prevention. Jane Pearson, Ph.D., and Kevin Quinn, Ph.D., of NIMH accepted the award at a ceremony and roundtable event at the White House, where they joined White House policy officials and others for a discussion of suicide prevention best practices. In addition to NIMH, the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC); Suicide Prevention Action Network; SAVE Foundation; the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention; National Suicide Prevention Lifeline; Blue Star Families; the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN); the Creative Coalition; and the Trevor Project, all of whom are dedicated to preventing suicide, were honored.

The White House Champions of Change initiative celebrates individuals and organizations from all walks of life who are making an impact in communities and helping the country rise to the challenges of the 21st century.

The roundtable discussion was moderated by Pamela J. Hyde, Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); Andrea Palm, Senior Advisor for Health at the White House Domestic Policy Council; and Deborah Temkin, Research and Policy Coordinator for Bullying Prevention Initiatives at the Department of Education. The discussion focused on numerous issues important to suicide prevention including:
Media influences: how the media—including social media—has encouraged people to show their support of individuals in crisis ceus for counselors

Best practices: how the SPRC, which acts as a clearinghouse of evidence-based information related to suicide prevention, helps spread the word. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline also continues to improve counseling services by using best practices.
Working Together: how each organization learns from the others. For instance, NIMH funds research associated with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, including research on the training of crisis counselors in an effort to improve counselors’ assessment and referral skills.
Prioritizing Next Steps: including identifying technological opportunities to help reduce suicide,(e.g., developing and testing phone apps for helping someone in crisis).
Early intervention: all agreed that for children, early intervention programs aimed at decreasing aggression and improving problem-solving skills are vital to ensuring children do not become bullies or reach a suicidal crisis.

NIMH is deeply honored to be identified as a Champion of Change. If you or someone you know is in crisis or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), a free, 24-hour hotline that seamlessly connects anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress with their nearest crisis center.

National Survey Dispels Notion that Social Phobia is the Same as Shyness

Source: NIMH

Normal human shyness is not being confused with the psychiatric anxiety disorder known as social phobia, according to an NIMH survey comparing the prevalence rates of the two among U.S. youth. The study was published online ahead of print October 17, 2011, in the journal Pediatrics.

Background

Social phobia is a disabling anxiety disorder characterized by overwhelming anxiety and excessive self-consciousness in everyday social or performance situations. Critics of the diagnosis have suggested that psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies publicize social phobia, also known as social anxiety disorder, in order to increase sales of psychotropic medications, especially among youth. In addition, some have debated whether social phobia is just a “medicalization” of a normal variation in human temperament.

In response, Marcy Burstein, Ph.D., and colleagues at NIMH examined the rate of normal shyness among youth and its overlap with social phobia using data from the National Comorbidity Survey-Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A), a nationally representative, face-to-face survey of more than 10,000 teens aged 13-18 sponsored by NIMH. Social phobia was assessed using standard diagnostic criteria set by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV). To assess shyness, teens were asked to rate how shy they felt around peers that they did not know well.

Results of the Study

The authors found that while about half of youth identified themselves as shy, only 12 percent of shy youth also met criteria for social phobia in their lifetime. Moreover, among youth who did not identify themselves as shy, about 5 percent met criteria for social phobia, suggesting that social phobia and shyness are not necessarily directly related. Rather, the presence of social phobia may be independent of shyness in some instances.

In addition, those with social phobia were consistently more likely to also have another psychiatric disorder in their lifetime, like depression or a behavior or drug use disorder, compared to those who identified themselves as shy. Those with social phobia also showed higher levels of impairment in work or school, or among family or peers, though they were no more likely to be receiving professional treatment than those who were shy.

Finally, rates of prescribed medication use were low for all groups. Only about 2.3 percent of those with social phobia were taking the antidepressant paroxetine (commonly used to treat anxiety disorders), while 0.9 percent who described themselves as shy were taking it. In addition, those with social phobia were no more likely to be taking any prescribed psychiatric medication compared to the other groups.

Significance

The results suggest that social phobia is not simply shyness that has been inappropriately medicalized. Rather, social phobia affects a minority of youth and only a fraction of those who consider themselves to be shy. In addition, despite the greater disability that youth with social phobia experience and the greater likelihood that they will have another disorder, they are not more likely to be getting treatment compared to their peers, questioning the notion that these youth are being unnecessarily medicated continuing education for counselors

Citation

Burstein M, Ameli-Grillon L, Merikangas M. Shyness versus social phobia in U.S. youth. Pediatrics. Online ahead of print Oct 17, 2011.