Search

Byline: Karen Patterson HONOLULU _ Some pretty smart people are trying to figure out just what wisdom is. One definition of wisdom, for instance, focuses on its practical side _ […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ A newer class of anti-depressants _ controversial because of fear they may fuel suicidal behavior _ might not be any riskier than older drugs, a […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ A monthly injection to treat alcoholism can lengthen drinkers' periods of abstinence and reduce the number of days they imbibe, a new study says. The […]

Byline: Karen Patterson While experts have much to learn about women's sexual problems, they do know of many things that can help. A variety of drugs, creams, supplements and other […]

Byline: Karen Patterson NEW YORK _ Doctors' arsenal for treating depression, long dominated by Prozac and its chemical cousins, may soon expand in novel directions. Some of the possibilities are […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ Most people know what compulsive hoarding looks like on the outside. Piles of periodicals, clothes or other clutter are so abundant a person can hardly […]

Byline: Karen Patterson NEW YORK _ Hoping to prevent violence great and small, psychiatrists are probing not just the minds of individual terrorists, but the psychology of the cultures that […]

Byline: Karen Patterson NEW YORK _ Doctors treating substance abuse are looking to expand their impact. Abuse of opiate painkillers, such as Vicodin and OxyContin, has risen substantially in the […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ Scientists who monitor television and other entertainment research say one message is clearly being broadcast _ media violence can foster aggression in youngsters. Decades of […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ A patch of greenery isn't just another pretty space. A growing body of research is showing that natural settings provide tangible mental health benefits. Children […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ Patients taking certain anti-depressant medicines should be carefully monitored for suicidal thinking, increased depression and other symptoms such as hostility and agitation, the federal government […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ Hollywood could build suspense with this topic, as movie audiences wondered whether in the end the protagonist would be a hero or a villain. The […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ Four decades later, time hasn't healed this wound. The killing of John F. Kennedy left a deep and stunning gash in the national psyche. Who […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ Chronically depressed adults who suffered trauma as children may warrant different treatment strategies from other depression patients, a new study shows. The research, released online […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ A U.S. Supreme Court decision about the death penalty is reverberating not only in legal circles, but also at psychological conferences. The 2002 decision, known […]

Byline: Karen Patterson TORONTO _ Psychologists want to know more about how to help those who help themselves. Many thousands of self-help groups exist worldwide. But little is known about […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ The wage gap may not be for women only _ but also for managers who work with women. Research has long found that women overall […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ The nation's mental health system, too rickety for simple repairs, must be reconstructed from the ground up, a presidential commission has concluded. In a report […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ It's as if psychiatric sickness weren't enough of a medical problem. A liver-threatening virus known as hepatitis C particularly plagues the mentally ill. And the […]

Byline: Karen Patterson SAN FRANCISCO _ The 1860s painting by Edgar Degas, titled Melancholy, is in fact about psychological pain. But it intrigued Dr. Michael Detke because of its ambiguity. […]

Byline: Karen Patterson SAN FRANCISCO _ She shops alone. She buys clothing, probably. Or shoes, or makeup. Jewelry, maybe, or other items. Often it's nothing too expensive, but the compulsive […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ Arizona State researcher Sanford Braver offers these thoughts to divorced parents who are considering a move: "I would advise the parents to really think twice […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ Children of divorce whose parents don't live near each other may be at risk for long-term problems, among them poorer health, greater hostility and less […]

Byline: Karen Patterson Take the population of Texas: almost 22 million. Throw in Oklahoma and Louisiana. Add Arkansas and New Mexico and you have around 34 million people in all, […]

Byline: Karen Patterson Even in the Army, leadership is not just about giving orders and getting soldiers to follow them. No, sir. A supervisory style that focuses on people and […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ U.S. doctors soon will be able to treat heroin addiction much the same way they treat other chronic diseases _ during office visits. A long-awaited […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ Science hasn't yet documented whether it is more blessed to give than to receive. But it could be more healthful, new data show. A study […]

Byline: Karen Patterson DALLAS _ Like an insidious virus, a mother's depression can reach the most vulnerable of victims _ her child. Even in the womb, a cocktail of melancholy […]

Psychologists have been thinking about how someone with insomnia thinks about sleep. Their efforts suggest that an insomniac's thinking is part of the problem. And, research indicates, changing that thinking […]

DALLAS _ The experts had their theories. The sniper, they said, would be one man. Or two. He would be white. Some professional observers applied different serial killer "typologies." Others […]

DALLAS _ The serial shooter has seemed as smooth and cold as the steel in his rifle. His aim has been sure _ like someone with police or military training. […]

When disaster strikes, some rescuers swoop in to care for physical wounds. Others tend to emotional wounds. Prompt psychological care is a key part of modern emergency response plans. Yet […]

Life deals significant blows to almost everyone. Sometimes the blows seem shocking enough to make a person go mad. Yet it may not be the blows that cause madness. It […]

CHICAGO _ Some authors really know how to get inside their characters' heads. These authors, like their characters, are psychologists. And the characters are solving not just mysteries of the […]

DALLAS _ Catastrophe united these states _ and exposed the nation's fault lines. Scientific research emerging from the rubble of Sept. 11 describes a nation bonded by tragedy, yet fractured […]

From: me To: everyone Subject: please help ___ Fat chance. Although addressing e-mail to more than one person would seem to maximize the chances of getting help, the opposite may […]

Another motoring maniac is tailgating you, gesticulating madly. You can't help but wonder when he'll get a ticket _ or have a wreck. Chances are, he already has. And then, […]

Just as crags and canyons can testify to the forces that shape the Earth, the geology of the skull could help reveal what molds the mind. Much like geologists, some […]

The headlines capture the horror: A 6-year-old boy is suffocated and fatally stabbed; his big sister and brother seem to be the killers. But headlines don't wrestle with the murder […]

Fido and Fluffy, this is your socially constructed reality. It's a reality that humans and their society have built, one that puts you at the top of the American animal […]

The physical harm of sexual abuse may extend far beyond the actual maltreatment, a growing body of research shows. Among the most recent findings: Women who had been raped or […]

DALLAS _ The more time youths spend watching television, the more likely they are to commit aggressive acts in the future, a new study concludes. Teens who watched three or […]

DALLAS _ The more time youths spend watching television, the more likely they are to commit aggressive acts in the future, a new study concludes. Teens who watched three or […]

Psychiatrists have long been working on how to mend a broken heart. Cardiologists have, too. These days they're comparing notes. So are a host of other specialists. That's because the […]

Careful _ your personal space may betray you. There's the ski-lift tickets from Vail, tucked in a corner of your bedroom mirror. Or the range of books on your shelves […]

DALLAS_A good mother swaddles her child in a sturdy weave of love and care. But mothers with severe mental illness might offer only a threadbare cover. Frayed by psychosis or […]

Peering inside depressed people's heads, California scientists got a new glimpse of the power of a pill. Actually, three pills: two types of antidepressant, plus a "dummy" pill, or placebo. […]

Americans, be vigilant _ and put the fear of terrorism out of your minds. Or, as a psychologist might say: Employ problem-focused coping and its counterpart, emotion-focused coping. Problem-focused coping […]