Modafinil Improves Memory In Patients Recovering From Depression

Modafinil can improve memory in patients recovering from depression, suggests new research from the University of Cambridge. The findings offer hope of a treatment for some of the cognitive symptoms of depression. The results come from a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study looking at the potential of modafinil to treat cognitive dysfunction in depression. Modafinil is…

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Electroconvulsive Therapy History: Controversy But Also Helpfulness

Carrie Fisher’s ashes are in an urn designed to look like a Prozac pill. It’s fitting that in death she continues to be both brash and wryly funny about a treatment for depression. The public grief over Carrie Fisher’s death was not only for an actress who played one of the most iconic roles in…

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How Misinformation Can Enhance Memory Recall

Getting inaccurate information about an event usually makes it harder for people to remember the original details. But new research suggests that there may be times when misinformation actually boosts memory. The study shows that people who actually notice that the misinformation is inconsistent with the original event have better memory for the event compared…

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Why Do People Become More Forgetful With Age?

How is it that we are able to remember some events in great detail whereas other memories seem to fade away over time? Our memory changes with age, so that we may have a memory slip on a trip to fetch something from the next room, but we’re still able to recall important events from…

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How The Brain Retunes To Extract Language From Garbled Speech

When you are suddenly able to understand someone despite a thick accent, or finally make out the lyrics of a song, your brain seems to be re-tuning to pick out words that were previously incomprehensible. Now, neuroscientists at University of California, Berkeley have observed this re-tuning in action by recording directly from the surface of…

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How Simple Pleasures Help Us Achieve Our Goals

A new study links simple pleasures with making better progress toward personal goals. Enough simple pleasures can even counter the negative effects of a bad day. The results have implications for workplace productivity and stress management, says lead author Nicole Mead, associate professor at the University of Melbourne. There are even implications for advertising, which…

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Depression, Suicide Rates Run High In Medical School Globally

Over one quarter of medical school students report symptoms of depression, and roughly one out of 10 experience suicidal thoughts, a new study says. The meta-analysis of almost 200 studies, involving 129,000 medical students in 47 countries, found that only around 16 percent of students who screened positive for depression sought treatment. Previous studies have…

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Four Depression Subtypes Defined By Neurophysiological Biomarkers

Individuals diagnosed with depression can be categorized into four subtypes defined by distinct patterns of abnormal connectivity in the brain, suggests new research from Cornell University. Dr. Conor Liston, an assistant professor of neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Institute and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine, has identified biomarkers…

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What Is Exposure Therapy?

Most of us experience a level of social anxiety at some point in our lives. We worry about what people think of us, about being excluded, about being judged or humiliated. Social anxiety is characterised by an excessive fear of negative evaluation or judgement, triggered by social or performance situations. For social anxiety to be…

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