Photo: A scene from the Netflix series Orange is the New Black. This primer offers both statistics about the use of solitary confinement and the psychological and emotional harm it can cause. There may be as many as 80,000 American...
We live in the only country in the world where a child can be sentenced to be in prison until they die. What's worse is that it's not even rare — more than 2,500 people who were sentenced as kids will spend the rest of their lives in...
A new book, "Total Recovery: Solving the Mystery of Chronic Pain and Depression," looks at how trauma affects the body and how alternative therapies can alleviate psychological and physical suffering. Integrative medicine is a hot topic in health care...
Understanding the basis of psychiatric disorders has been extremely challenging because there are many genetic variants that may increase risk but are insufficient to cause disease. Now investigators reporting in the July 3rd issue of the Cell Press...
Photo Source: WikiMedia Commons Finding creative ways to engage parents is critical for the academic success that can lift children out of adverse experiences. If we had a road map to what parental involvement in schools should be, what would it...
Not surprising to those familiar with the ACE study, one of the predictors of binge drinking at 16 is exposure to several stressful life events. Neuroscientists leading the largest longitudinal adolescent brain imaging study to date have learned that...
Suicide and homicide are among the top causes of death for individuals between the ages of one and 30. The depression and violence that lead to these are often associated with ACEs outcomes. A new report on unintentional injury and violence in...
Photo source: WikiMedia Commons Exposure to ACEs can lead to depression. New research suggests how we can better treat children suffering from this. Cognitive behavioral therapy in addition to medication improves the long-term success of...
Photo source: WikiMedia Commons New research suggest more links between adversity and negative health outcomes. Previous research has established a link between lower socioeconomic status and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. In a new...
Psychologist James Garbarino, PhD, once interviewed a murderer so violent, six correctional officers were needed to control him when he appeared in court. The offender had killed two inmates while in prison. But when Garbarino asked the man to...
Mindfulness meditation has become an increasingly popular way for people to improve their mental and physical health, yet most research supporting its benefits has focused on lengthy, weeks-long training programs. New research from Carnegie Mellon...
Photo source: WikiMedia Commons Although we typically think of child abuse coming from adults, new research points out that abuse is also all too common coming from teens dating partners. Of adolescents visiting the emergency department for any...
Substance use is sometimes used as a dysfunctional coping mechanism for dealing with ACEs. However, an article from Substance.com suggest that the way we use and treat substances in the US may be different than in other countries. We Americans like to...
Are boys having more difficulty dealing with trauma due to the expectations our society has for them? Boys don't cry, or at least they're not supposed to. Yes, the old, unreconstructed machismo that was once all too synonymous with being a man has...
Dr. Daniel J. Siegel uses his “hand model” of the brain to show schools kids, and the rest of us, how we need all three of the brain’s main parts to be working, and to work together. Say the wrist is the spinal cord. Then...