Ohio Psychologist Blogger on Psychology Today

Check out The Older Dad Blog on Psychology Today, written by Ohio Psychologist Kevin Arnold, Ph.D., ABPP! Dr Arnold is the director of the Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy in Columbus, Ohio, and a licensed psychologist. Kevin is a clinical faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at Ohio State University, as well as serving a number of leadership roles at the state and national level in cognitive-behavioral therapy and professional psychology. He will be a guest blogger for us in the near future, stay tuned!

Mind Over Morphine

Cheer up: Negative view of pain treatment actually affects outcome, researchers find.

Whether you perceive the glass as half-full or half-empty could impact the way you react to pain and other medical treatments, according to a new study into the effects of negative thinking.

In the most sophisticated study on the subject to date, British and German researchers from Oxford University and University Medical Center in Hamburg subjected 22 healthy volunteers to heat pain, and then treated that pain with a fast-metabolizing, morphine-based painkiller, all the while scanning the volunteers' brains as they described their levels of pain.

The researchers discovered that by lying to the volunteers--for example, telling them that the painkiller was about to wear off and that they should expect pain to increase, even though the painkiller never actually stopped working--they could affect their perceived level of pain, according to the Associated Press. The brain scans confirmed increased activity in certain pain- and stress-related areas of the brain during these lies, suggesting that a patient's outlook has actual therapy-negating effects.

Although this is a small study, researchers suspect the findings could hold true in a broad range of areas, particularly the treatment of chronic illnesses. Chronic disease patients, the vast majority of whom are elderly, are generally conditioned to expect their treatments to fail, according to the AP. By studying the effects of negative thinking on therapy, researchers could find ways to overcome pessimistic patient views to enhance medical therapies, experts believe.

PsycAdvocates Day

PsycAdvocatesDay
August 4, 2011
9:00 am-4:00 pm

The APA Education and Public Interest Government Relations Offices invite you to join us for the 2011 PsycAdvocates Day, which provides members with an exciting opportunity to serve as federal policy advocates for psychology. This day-long event, which will end in time for Opening Session of the APA convention, will begin with a morning federal advocacy training that will include an overview of the federal legislative process, strategies for effectively informing and influencing policymakers, and a briefing on current legislative issues on APA's advocacy agenda.

The day will culminate with early afternoon visits to Capitol Hill to meet with Members of Congress or their staff to advocate on pressing issues facing the psychology community. The congressional visits are a requirement for participation in the workshop. No prior advocacy experience or preparation is required to participate.

CE Credits: 3
Enrollment Limit: 75
Fee: Member $75
Nonmember $100
(Breakfast and lunch will be provided as part of your enrollment fee.)
Enrollment opens April 15, 2011. Enroll online at http://www.apa.org/convention or call the CEP Office at 800-374-2721, ext. 5991.

For more information or questions about this workshop, please contact Ben Vonachen at (202) 336-6097 or bvonachen@apa.org or visit the PsycAdvocates website at http://www.apa.org/news/events/2011/psycadvocates-day.aspx

APA Science Showcase

Please spread the news about the APA Science Showcase, a research demonstration program that will take place at the APA Convention in Washington DC, August 4 - 7. We hope the Science Showcase will feature some of the most intriguing and engaging science from our discipline. Please consider submitting a demonstration for this program.

The Showcase will take place in the Convention Center in an informal learning situation - this will not be set up like a regular session - with up to six different demonstrations on the program over the course of two days. Please identify engaging, stimulating demonstrations that you think will attract and keep an audience. These demonstrations should be only about 15 minutes long, with some additional time for discussion.

The benefits are substantial - not only will you help inform those in attendance about research in our field, you might be singled out as the best of the demonstrations, resulting in a prize of $3,000. In addition, all selected programs will receive support for expenses associated with mounting the demonstrations.

Please visit http://www.apa.org/science/programs/science-showcase.aspx for the full program description and application form. The deadline date for submissions is April 15, so please don't delay discussing this with your colleagues. Contact the Science Directorate (science@apa.org; 202-336-6000) if you have questions.

Awards for High School Teachers

Know a High School Psychology Teacher who makes a difference? Want them to be able to get funding for education or professional development? Please pass this information on!


NEW: APF Professional Development Awards for High School Psychology Teachers

The purpose of these awards is to help high school psychology teachers travel to and attend regional or national teaching and/or psychology conferences. Applicants may be awarded up to $250. Funds can be used to offset costs of travel, conference registration, and housing accommodations. Applications to attend the APA Convention (August 4-7, 2011, Washington, DC) are encouraged. $2,500 is available for funding. These grants are made possible through a generous gift from Dr. Lee Gurel.

The application deadline is April 15, 2011; for details on how to apply, visit http://www.apa.org/apf/funding/professional-topss.aspx.


NEW: APF High School Psychology Teacher Network Grants

The purpose of the these grants is to support the development of local and regional networks of psychology teachers and to support a local or regional teaching workshop or conference for high school psychology teachers. APF is particularly interested in proposals for professional development opportunities for teachers that could lead to the formation of a new regional network of psychology teachers. APF will award $1,500 in grants in 2011. These grants are made possible through a generous gift from Dr. Lee Gurel.

The application deadline is May 1, 2011; for details on how to apply, visit http://www.apa.org/apf/funding/psychology-teacher-network.aspx.

Students Hosting Fashion Show This Saturday

Columbus Academy's eighth annual Fashion Show and Silent Auction, a student-run event that raises funds for the National Eating Disorders Association, will be held this Saturday, March 5, from 7-10 p.m. at the Franklin Park Conservatory. You can reserve seats by purchasing tickets for
$25 by March 4. Tickets at the door do not guarantee seats. VIP packages for$75 per ticket include front row seats and an event t-shirt.

Superheroes send wrong images to boys .

Today's superheroes send wrong image to boys, say researchers

SAN DIEGO — Watching superheroes beat up villains may not be the best image for boys to see if society wants to promote kinder, less stereotypical male behaviors, according to psychologists who spoke Sunday at the 118th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.

"Resistance to Ideals of Masculinity in Middle School Boys," Carlos Santos, PhD, Arizona State University"Superheroes and Slackers: Limited Media Representations of Masculinity for Boys," Sharon Lamb, EdD, University of Massachusetts-Boston; Lyn Mikel Brown, EdD, and Mark Tappan, EdD, Colby College

Take a Love Test ?

How Deep Is Your Love? Quiz

Based upon the Passionate Love Scale (1986),
by Elaine Hatfield and Susan Sprecher
February 2008

Take this quiz and more at http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/deeplove.htm

Meditation Can Improve Brain Function

By RICK NAUERT PHD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 19, 2010

A new research study suggests learning a meditation technique can improve brain connectivity.

The technique — integrative body-mind training (IBMT) — has been the focus of intense scrutiny by a team of Chinese researchers led by Yi-Yuan Tang in collaboration with University of Oregon psychologist Michael I. Posner.

IBMT was adapted in the 1990s from traditional Chinese medicine and is practiced by thousands of Chinese people.

It is now being taught to undergraduates involved in research on the method at the University of Oregon.

The new research — published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – involved 45 UO students (28 males and 17 females). Twenty-two subjects received IBMT while 23 participants were in a control group that received the same amount of relaxation training.

The experiments involved the use of brain-imaging equipment in the UO’s Robert and Beverly Lewis Center for Neuroimaging.

A type of magnetic resonance called diffusion tensor imaging allowed researchers to examine fibers connecting brain regions before and after training. The changes were strongest in connections involving the anterior cingulate, a brain area related to the ability to regulate emotions and behavior.

The changes were observed only in those who practiced meditation and not in the control group. The changes in connectivity began after six hours of training and became clear by 11 hours of practice.

The researchers said it is possible the changes resulted from a reorganization of white-matter tracts or by an increase of myelin that surrounds the connections.

“The importance of our findings relates to the ability to make structural changes in a brain network related to self-regulation,” said Posner.

“The pathway that has the largest change due to IBMT is one that previously was shown to relate to individual differences in the person’s ability to regulate conflict.”

In 2007 in PNAS, Tang, a visiting scholar at the UO, and Posner documented that doing IBMT for five days prior to a mental math test led to low levels of the stress hormone cortisol among Chinese students. The experimental group also showed lower levels of anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue than students in a relaxation control group.

In 2009 in PNAS, Tang and Chinese colleagues, with assistance from Posner and UO psychology professor Mary K. Rothbart, found that IBMT subjects in China had increased blood flow in the right anterior cingulate cortex after receiving training for 20 minutes a day over five days.

Compared with the relaxation group, IBMT subjects also had lower heart rates and skin conductance responses, increased belly breathing amplitude and decreased chest respiration rates.

The latter findings suggested the possibility that additional training might trigger structural changes in the brain, leading to the new research, Tang and Posner said. The researchers currently are extending their evaluation to determine if longer exposure to IBMT will produce positive changes in the size of the anterior cingulate.

Deficits in activation of the anterior cingulate cortex have been associated with attention deficit disorder, dementia, depression,schizophrenia and many other disorders.

“We believe this new finding is of interest to the fields of education, health and neuroscience, as well as for the general public,” Tang said.

In their conclusion, the researchers wrote that the new findings suggest a use of IBMT as a vehicle for understanding how training influences brain plasticity.

IBMT is not yet available in the United States beyond the research being done at the UO.

The practice avoids struggles to control thought, relying instead on a state of restful alertness. It allows for a high degree of body-mind awareness while receiving instructions from a coach, who provides breath-adjustment guidance and mental imagery and other techniques while soothing music plays in the background.

Thought control is achieved gradually through posture, relaxation, body-mind harmony and balanced breathing. A good coach is critical, Tang said.

Source: University of Oregon

Soldiers being misdiagnosed ?

Hundreds of PTSD soldiers likely misdiagnosed

August 15, 2010, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - At the height of the Iraq war, the Army routinely fired hundreds of soldiers for having a personality disorder when they were more likely suffering from the traumatic stresses of war, discharge data suggests.

Under pressure from Congress and the public, the Army later acknowledged the problem and drastically cut the number of soldiers given the designation. But advocates for veterans say an unknown number of troops still unfairly bear the stigma of a personality disorder, making them ineligible for military health care and other benefits.

"We really have an obligation to go back and make sure troops weren't misdiagnosed," said Dr. Barbara Van Dahlen, a clinical psychologist whose nonprofit "Give an Hour" connects troops with volunteer mental health professionals.

The Army denies that any soldier was misdiagnosed before 2008, when it drastically cut the number of discharges due to personality disorders and diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorders skyrocketed.

Unlike PTSD, which the Army regards as a treatable mental disability caused by the acute stresses of war, the military designation of a personality disorder can have devastating consequences for soldiers.

Defined as a "deeply ingrained maladaptive pattern of behavior," a personality disorder is considered a "pre-existing condition" that relieves the military of its duty to pay for the person's health care or combat-related disability pay.

According to figures provided by the Army, the service discharged about a 1,000 soldiers a year between 2005 and 2007 for having a personality disorder.

But after an article in The Nation magazine exposed the practice, the Defense Department changed its policy and began requiring a top-level review of each case to ensure post-traumatic stress or a brain injury wasn't the underlying cause.

After that, the annual number of personality disorder cases dropped by 75 percent. Only 260 soldiers were discharged on those grounds in 2009.

At the same time, the number of post-traumatic stress disorder cases has soared. By 2008, more than 14,000 soldiers had been diagnosed with PTSD - twice as many as two years before.

The Army attributes the sudden and sharp reduction in personality disorders to its policy change. Yet Army officials deny that soldiers were discharged unfairly, saying they reviewed the paperwork of all deployed soldiers dismissed with a personality disorder between 2001 and 2006.

"We did not find evidence that soldiers with PTSD had been inappropriately discharged with personality disorder," wrote Maria Tolleson, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Army Medical Command, which oversees the health care of soldiers, in an e-mail.

Command officials declined to be interviewed.

Advocates for veterans are skeptical of the Army's claim that it didn't make any mistakes. They say symptoms of PTSD - anger, irritability, anxiety and depression - can easily be confused for the Army's description of a personality disorder.

They also point out that during its review of past cases, the Army never interviewed soldiers or their families, who can often provide evidence of a shift in behavior that occurred after someone was sent into a war zone.

"There's no reason to believe personality discharges would go down so quickly" unless the Army had misdiagnosed hundreds of soldiers each year in the first place, said Bart Stichman, co-director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program.

Stichman's organization is working through a backlog of 130 individual cases of wounded service members who feel they were wrongly denied benefits.

Among those cases is Chuck Luther, who decided to rejoin the Army after the Sept. 11 attacks. He had previously served eight years before being honorably discharged.

"I knew what combat was going to take," he said.

Luther, who lives near Fort Hood, Texas, said throughout his time in the Army, he received eight mental health evaluations from the Army, each clearing him as "fit for duty."

Luther was seven months into his deployment as a reconnaissance scout in Iraq's violent Sunni Triangle in 2007 when he says a mortar shell slammed him to the ground. He later complained of stabbing eye pain and crippling migraines, but was told by a military doctor that he was faking his symptoms to avoid combat duty.

Luther says that he was confined for a month in a 6-by-8 foot room without treatment. At one point, Luther acknowledges, he snapped - biting a guard and spitting in the face of a military chaplain.

After that episode, Luther says, the Army told him he could return home and keep his benefits if he signed papers admitting he had a personality disorder. If he didn't sign, he said, he was told he would be kicked out eventually anyway.

Luther, whose account was first detailed by The Nation, signed the papers.

His case highlights the irony in many personality discharges. A person is screened mentally and physically before joining the military. But upon returning from combat, that same person is told he or she had a serious mental disorder that predated military service.

As in the civilian world, where many insurance companies deny coverage for illnesses that develop before a policy is issued, the government can deny a service member veteran health care benefits and combat-related disability pay for pre-existing ailments.

Despite the Defense Department's reforms, groups such as the National Veterans Legal Services Program say they don't have enough manpower to help all the veterans who believe they were wrongly denied benefits.

Stichman says his organization has more than 60 law firms across the country willing to take on the legal cases of wounded veterans for free. But even with that help, the group doesn't know when it would be able to take on even one new case.

A congressional inquiry is under way to determine whether the Army is relying on a different designation - referred to as an "adjustment disorder" - to dismiss soldiers.

Sen. Kit Bond, a Missouri Republican, wants the Pentagon to explain why the number of these discharges doubled between 2006 and 2009 and how many of those qualified to retain their benefits.

As for Luther, he got lucky. After about a year, he says the Veterans Administration agreed to reevaluate him and decided that he suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome coupled by traumatic brain injury. The ruling gives him access to a psychologist and psychiatrist every two weeks, despite his discharge status, he said.

But Luther acknowledges that he still struggles. In June, he received word that the Army had turned down his appeal to correct his record, which means he could never return to the service or retire with full benefits.

A week later, he says, he lost his job delivering potato chips because a superior felt threatened by him. Luther says he misses the Army.

"When I was in uniform, that defined me," he said. "It's what made me, me."

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Online:

U.S. Army Medical Command: http://www.armymedicine.army.mil

Department of Veterans Affairs: http://www.va.gov/

"Give an Hour": http://www.giveanhour.org

National Veterans Legal Services Program: http://www.nvlsp.org/