Over the course of the pandemic, experts have voiced concerns over rising alcohol use. A study published in the journal Psychiatry Research suggests those fears may have merit. These are people that are having problems in their social life, their work, their health. It s really impacting their life, said lead author William Killgore, director of the Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab at the University of Arizona.
Based on a standard screening test completed by nearly 6,000 people from April through September, those not under lockdown saw little change.
But results for people stuck at home worsened month by month, with a 200% increase in harmful alcohol use, a 300% increase in borderline alcoholism and a 400% increase in likely alcoholism.
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Mindfulness Benefits Hinge on Who’s Around
When it comes to the success of mindfulness-based meditation programs, the instructor and the group are often more significant than the type or amount of meditation practiced.
For people who feel stressed, anxious, or depressed, meditation can offer a way to find some emotional peace. Structured mindfulness-based meditation programs, in which a trained instructor leads regular group sessions featuring meditation, have proved effective in improving psychological well-being.
Study provides detailed insight into neural mechanisms underlying placebo effects
A large proportion of the benefit that a person gets from taking a real drug or receiving a treatment to alleviate pain is due to an individual s mindset, not to the drug itself.
Understanding the neural mechanisms driving this placebo effect has been a longstanding question. A meta-analysis published in
Nature Communications finds that placebo treatments to reduce pain, known as placebo analgesia, reduce pain-related activity in multiple areas of the brain.
Previous studies of this kind have relied on small-scale studies, so until now, researchers did not know if the neural mechanisms underlying placebo effects observed to date would hold up across larger samples. This study represents the first large-scale mega-analysis, which looks at individual participants whole brain images.
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IMAGE: fMRI activity during pain is reduced in the areas shown in blue. Many of these are involved in constructing the experience of pain, including the feeling of suffering, and motivating. view more
Credit: Image provided by M.Zunhammer et al.
A large proportion of the benefit that a person gets from taking a real drug or receiving a treatment to alleviate pain is due to an individual s mindset, not to the drug itself. Understanding the neural mechanisms driving this placebo effect has been a longstanding question. A meta-analysis published in
Nature Communications finds that placebo treatments to reduce pain, known as placebo analgesia, reduce pain-related activity in multiple areas of the brain.