In one of my previous blog posts, I discussed the issue of children and adolescents using online social media and the associated risks of cyberbullying. To further explore these issues, I met with Louise Arseneault, Professor in Developmental Psychology, to discuss the impact that bullying can have on young people…
If you’ve ever suffered from problems with your emotions or behaviour, you might have struggled with disturbed sleep, too. But are emotional or behavioural difficulties always associated with poor sleep? Are some types of people with difficulties actually better sleepers than your average person? New research from our team suggests…
Data are perceived by some as a kind of currency, a source of boundless knowledge, with the potential to prevent suffering and death. However, taking a closer look at the etymology of the word prompts careful reconsideration of our assumptions about – and uses of – data in the context of psychiatry.
When you first think of taxonomy, you might consider biology lessons and branches of the evolutionary tree: a hierarchy from a seaweed to a rose, 18th century botanical drawings, colorful wings of different species of butterflies filed away in museum cabinets. Psychiatry is unlikely to come to your mind, yet…
Not surprisingly the first time I showed any interest in procrastination as a topic was somewhere in the middle of my PhD (Coincidence? I don’t think so). I found back then a review article on procrastination, but like the proper procrastination pro that I am, I never actually got around…
It can often feel as if the weather dictates our moods. London has begun to come alive in the spring weather as people head outside to enjoy the warmth and the light. Yet can the sun truly make us feel happier? To answer this question, researchers have investigated whether sunlight is connected with…
An ever-expanding methodological toolbox is one of the privileges of 21st century science. For most of us, the pace of Moore’s law-driven technological advancement is now so familiar as to be almost taken for granted. However, the mere availability of technologically-advanced new methods is not a guaranteed solution to any…
When it first emerged just over a decade ago, D-cycloserine (DCS) enhanced cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for anxiety was hailed as one of the best examples of translational research in psychiatry. But does this apparent wonder drug really enhance the effects of exposure-based CBT? A recently published meta-analysis attempts to…
The relationship between the body and the mind is probably one of the most elusive aspects of medicine. Although topics such as placebo effect and medically unexplained symptoms capture our imagination, it is the co-occurrence of common physical and mental health problems that impacts the most on patients’ well-being and…
The American Journal of Medical Genetics has dedicated its March issue to the study of anxiety, including a contribution from our own lab! Here, I summarise some of the exciting developments it describes.
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