The Great Mystery: World of Dreams, The
The prefrontal cortex is deactivated during REM sleep so all the cognitive functions are impaired. But the limbic system is turned on so emotions are strong. The most common emotion in dreams is fear, followed by elation, then anger. But how t...
Harm Avoidance (Part Two)
Dean Hamer, Director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute, expands on his discussion of harm avoidance, which he explains refers to a group of personality traits that includes depression, anxiety, feeling bad ab...
Society's Response to Suicide
Professor of psychiatry and author Kay Redfield Jamison explains that, "...society has a vested interest in keeping people from killing themselves." Dr. Jamison adds that it's important to "...make it easier for people to talk about depression, abou...
Recognizing Depression
Dr. Andrew Leuchter, Director of Adult Psychiatry at UCLA, talks about the differences between what he calls, "...normal ups and downs," and depression. Dr. Leuchter says that when someone is down for weeks at a time, "...that's when we start to thi...
Fitting In: Socialization in Non-Intact Families
There are many aspects of family life that play an important role in a child's socialization experience. The stability of the family unit is one of the most crucial.
Depression and Medication (Part One)
Dr. Andrew Leuchter, Director of Adult Psychiatry at UCLA, explains that it often takes time for a patient to realize he or she is doing better after beginning medication. "Commonly, the first things to improve are symptoms, such as sleep anxiety (a...