Scientific American

Is Ketamine the Next Big Depression Drug? (preview)

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:00:00 EST

For 20 years Joan * quietly suffered from an unrelenting desire to commit suicide. She held down a job as a special-education teacher and helped care for her family in the northeastern U.S. Yet day after day she struggled through a crushing depression and felt neither joy nor pleasure. Except for the stream of psychiatrists recommending different antidepression treatments--all of which failed to provide relief--Joan kept her condition private. She says it was the fear of hurting her students or abandoning her father that kept her alive. “I really don't know how I survived,” she says.

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How to Enjoy Your Decision

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:08 EST

Decisions can be hard. We may be haunted by the path not taken.

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Inside the Mind of a Psychopath

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:08 EST

Psychopaths are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime. These people are primarily identified by an extreme lack of empathy. Now a study finds that when psychopaths see images of people in pain, there’s a pattern of activity in their brains that is quite different from brain activity in non-psychopaths.

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Why Doctors Prescribe Off-Label Drugs

Mon, 13 May 2013 08:00:00 EST

Every prescription drug available in the U.S. has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration via a lengthy, expensive process of clinical trials. These trials show that the drug is safe and effective at treating a particular condition. But doctors often prescribe drugs off-label, for conditions they are not approved to treat. Here's why.

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Money Is Valued Differently Depending on How It's Earned

Wed, 08 May 2013 00:00:08 EST

Is every dollar bill worth the same? Or does a dollar earned honestly have a different value than a dollar with a sketchy history?

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Crowdsourcing in Manhunts Can Work

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:00:00 EST

The social news website Reddit was left red-faced last week after misidentifying suspects in the bombings at the Boston Marathon in Massachusetts, raising questions about whether crowdsourcing might do more harm than good in during a manhunt. But work by an international team of scientists suggests that crowdsourcing is a powerful tool in such situations, if used carefully.

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Is the World's Top Neuroscience Group Quashing Dissent on the U.S. BRAIN Initiative?

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:45:00 EST

Fresh from attending President Barack Obama’s announcement of the BRAIN Initiative at the White House on April 2nd, Society for Neuroscience president Larry Swanson, a neurobiologist at the University of Southern California , composed this letter to SFN’s nearly 42,000 members.

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Memory Improves with Sleep

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:08 EST

Want to remember something? Sleep on it.

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Social Therapies for Schizophrenia Show Promise (preview)

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 07:07:00 EST

Emil Kraepelin, a German psychiatrist, wrote in 1913 that the causes of schizophrenia were “wrapped in impenetrable darkness.” He outlined the symptoms that still characterize the disorder, including delusions, hallucinations and disorganized thinking. Kraepelin used a different term--“dementia praecox”--that reflected his belief in the disease's unremitting downward course (dementia) and its early onset (praecox).

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Scientists Decipher the Healing Powers of Placebos (preview)

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 08:00:00 EST

Back in the 18th century, German physician Franz Mesmer peddled a concept called animal magnetism. Creatures contain a universal fluid, he asserted, that when blocked in flow, caused sickness. Mesmer used magnetized objects to redirect that flow in patients, initiating unusual body sensations, fainting, vomiting or violent convulsions that ended in profound salubrious effects.

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Psychiatry Tries to Aid Traumatized Chimps in Captivity

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:00:00 EST

As our closest relatives, chimpanzees have played a role in science for nearly 80 years. Because they can contract infections such as HIV and hepatitis, they have proved valuable for biomedical research. This research has revealed another trait, however, that chimpanzees share with humans: vulnerability to psychological damage. Concerned by mounting evidence of lasting trauma in great apes, the European Union banned their use in research in 2010. And in January 2013, a National Institutes of Health report recommended that all but 50 of the nearly 700 chimps in NIH-supported labs be retired to sanctuaries. In 2010 the Scientific American Board of Editors published an editorial calling for a ban on the use of apes in invasive biomedical research.

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Unhealthy Eating Leaves You in a Bad Mood

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:08 EST

The Easter bunny’s gifts of chocolate may taste sweet, but they leave your attitude sour. Because a study finds that if you’re in a crummy mood to begin with, unhealthy eating can leave you feeling even worse.

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Psychiatry's New Bible

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 10:00:00 EST

The month of May marks the release of the DSM-5 , the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's best-selling Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . Because most insurance providers require a DSM diagnosis as a prerequisite for paying for treatment, the changes in the manual will affect health care for millions of Americans. Here are a few of the major revisions.

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Is Divorce Bad for Children?

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 07:30:00 EST

Many of the 1.5 million children in the U.S. whose parents divorce every year feel as if their worlds are falling apart. Divorcing parents are usually very concerned about the welfare of their children during this troublesome process. Some parents are so worried that they remain in unhappy marriages, believing it will protect their offspring from the trauma of divorce.

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Sexting Habits of Teens

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 00:00:08 EST

Sending digital, sexually explicit material--otherwise know as sexting--is on the rise. Some general data exist on sexting among teens. But little was known about subgroups within the teen population.

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Studying Languages Can Grow the Brain

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:00:08 EST