What is conservation psychology?

Conservation psychology might sometimes be called "ecopsychology". For more on ecopsychology click here.


 

Narcotic Painkiller Use Tied to Higher Risk for Depression

From Health Day on 02/20/15:

FRIDAY, Feb. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- High doses of powerful narcotic painkillers appear to be linked to a higher risk of depression in patients, new research finds.

The study focuses on a class of prescription narcotic painkillers called opioids, which include drugs such as Oxycontin and Vicodin. While most people use the medicines to ease pain, widespread abuse of narcotic painkillers is also a growing concern.

The new study involved 355 patients in Texas who reported low back pain at an initial medical visit and still had the pain one and two years later.

Although the study couldn't prove cause-and-effect, people who used higher doses of narcotic painkillers to manage their pain were more likely to have an increase in depression, the researchers found.

For more click here.

Suicide rates in US in 2015 female and male

For more click here.

To drive slower, listen to slower music

What's wrong with America's drug enforcement policies?

 From the Pacific Standard, MARIA STRESHINSKY, March/April, 2015 

 And for the past century, our policymakers have responded to the challenge of managing public drug use in a manner that is, alas, riddled with contradictions: We have enforced strict bans on some intoxicants (cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana) and allowed the legal sale of other addictive substances (nicotine, alcohol, caffeine). Some legal substances are quite dangerous to public health; some illegal ones appear safe by comparison. Along the way, the United States has spent more than a trillion dollars enforcing anti-drug laws, and has imprisoned millions of people.

For more click here.

Editor's note: 
While health care providers are increasingly held to "evidence based practices" and/or "scientific based practices" unfortunately, politicians, policy makers, and the public are not held to the same standards. Is it time that they were?

Autism myths - "I saw it on the internets."

Mindfulness meditation practices help with insomnia

From Science Daily on 02/16/15:

Mindfulness meditation practices resulted in improved sleep quality for older adults with moderate sleep disturbance in a clinical trial comparing meditation to a more structured program focusing on changing poor sleep habits and establishing a bedtime routine, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.
...

In a related commentary, Adam P. Spira, Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, writes: "As the authors explain, effective nonpharmacological interventions that are both 'scalable' and 'community accessible' are needed to improve disturbed sleep and prevent clinical levels of insomnia. This is imperative given links between insomnia and poor health outcomes, risks of sleep medication use and the limited availability of health care professionals trained in effective nondrug treatments such as behavior therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. This context makes the positive results of this RCT [randomized clinical trial] compelling."

For more information click here.