How many times have you, after a particularly hard day, reached for some chocolate or ice cream? It’s common for many people, but for those trying to lose weight, it can be detrimental to their long term success, and most weight-loss programs never even address it.

They focus on choosing healthier foods and exercising more, but they never answer a key question: how can people who have eaten to cope with emotions change their eating habits, when they haven’t learned other ways of coping with emotions?

Researchers at Temple’s Center for Obesity Research are trying to figure out the answer as part of a new, NIH-funded weight loss study. The new treatment incorporates skills that directly address the emotional eating, and essentially adds those skills to a state-of-the art behavioral weight loss treatment.

“The problem that we’re trying to address is that the success rates for long-term weight loss are not as good as we would like them to be,” said Edie Goldbacher, a postdoctoral fellow at CORE. “Emotional eating may be one reason why people don’t do as well in behavioral weight loss groups, because these groups don’t address emotional eating or any of its contributing factors.”

The study has already had one wave of participants come through, and many participants have seen some success in the short term, but have also learned the skills to help them achieve long term success.

Janet Williams, part of that first cohort, said she lost about 17 pounds over 22 weeks, and still uses some of the techniques she learned in the study to help maintain her weight, which has not fluctuated.

“The program doesn’t just help you identify when you eat,” said Williams. “It helps you recognize triggers that make you eat, to help you break that cycle of reaching for food every time you feel bored, or frustrated, or sad.”

Williams said that the program teaches various techniques to help break that cycle, such as the “conveyor belt,” in which participants, when overcome with a specific emotion, can recognize it and take a step back, before reaching for chips or cookies, and put those feelings on their mental “conveyor belt” and watch them go away.

“I still use the skills I learned in the study,” she said. “I’ve learned to say, ‘I will not allow this emotional episode to control my eating habits.’”

Researchers in the US found that people caring for a spouse with dementia were six times more likely to develop it themselves compared to similar older married adults whose spouse never develops it.

A paper on the study, led by Dr Maria Norton of Utah State University, is about to be published in a May issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, which is available online.

Norton and colleagues also found that husbands looking after wives with dementia were at higher risk of developing it themselves than wives looking after husbands with the condition.

The authors wrote that while many studies have shown dementia caregivers are at higher risk of poor physical and mental health, none has looked at the specific risk of dementia in caregivers.

Looking after someone with dementia is physically and mentally demanding, and caregivers in this situation tend to report more personal sacrifices and stress than those caring for physically impaired elderly people who do not have dementia.

For the study, Norton and colleagues recruited 2,442 participants (1,221 married couples) aged 65 and over living in Northern Utah. None of the participants had dementia at the start of the study, and they were followed for 12 years.

During follow up, 30 cases (60 individuals) of dementia were diagnosed in both spouses, plus 125 where only the husband developed it, and 70 where only the wife developed the condition.

After adjusting for socioeconomic status (a factor that is known to significantly affect dementia risk and other health outcomes), the researchers found that:

* Incident dementia was not only significantly linked to older age, but also to having a spouse with dementia.

* After adjusting for age, gender, genetic factors (APOE genotype), in addition to socioeconomic status, having a spouse with dementia was linked to a six times higher risk of developing dementia.

* For men caring for a spouse with dementia, the risk was 11.9 times higher, while for women it was 3.7 times.

Norton told the media that more research is needed to find out how much of this risk is due to caregiver stress and how much is due to a shared environment.

She also stressed that on the positive side, most of the participants whose spouses developed dementia did not themselves develop the condition, and therefore “more research is needed to explore which factors distinguish those who are more vulnerable”.

“Given the significant public health concern of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, and the upcoming shift in population age composition, continued research into the causes of dementia is urgent,” she added.

Sexual abuse in childhood increases the chances of high-risk pregnancy, shows a new study conducted by Prof. Rachel Lev-Wiesel, Head of the Graduate School of Creative Arts Therapies at the University of Haifa, Lee Yampolsky and Dr. Tzachi Ben Zion, Deputy Director of Soroka Hospital. “Even when a woman willingly and happily commences a pregnancy, it seems that the body relates the sexual act that created the pregnancy with the abuse trauma, evoking negative feelings which can then be expressed in physical and gynecological problems,” Prof. Lev-Wiesel explains.

The current study examined the possibility of sexual abuse experienced in childhood triggering retraumatization during wanted pregnancy. A group of 1,830 pregnant women participating in the study were divided into high- and low-risk groups, which were further divided into three subgroups: those who were victims of child sexual abuse, those who experienced other types of trauma in childhood, and those who had experienced no notable trauma. Compared with women who had not endured any notable trauma before, those who had been sexually abused in childhood, the study shows, suffered higher levels of depression and more post-traumatic symptoms.

According to Prof. Lev-Wiesel, the main post-traumatic symptoms that these women reported were detachment and avoidance. The study also found that the more severe the child sexual abuse, the stronger the correlation between the PTS symptoms and poor physical health during pregnancy. “Gynecological problems might be the body’s manifestation of the child sexual abuse trauma,” Prof. Lev-Wiesel explains.

“The current study’s findings have important practical implications for health care providers, practitioners and obstetrical gynecologists. There is a need to to recognize and address the psychological state of pregnant child sexual abuse survivors,” Prof. Lev-Wiesel says. “It is also important to remember that since the screening process itself may serve as a trigger to retraumatization, a specially trained team should provide a safe environment and psychological assistance.”

As all parents know, children often want to do exactly what their parents don’t want them to do. In three areas that children often consider parts of their personal domain – clothing, friendship, and leisure activities – having a degree of choice over decisions is important for children’s sense of identity and mental health. A new study that considered connections between control over issues within children’s personal domain, identity, and emotional well-being has found that children make important distinctions between different kinds of rules.

The study was carried out by researchers at the University of California, Davis, the University of Illinois, Chicago, and Brock University in Ontario, Canada. It is published in the March/April 2010 issue of the journal Child Development.

The researchers looked at the beliefs of 60 4- to 7-year-olds about how child characters in role-playing situations would act and feel when a parent forbids them from engaging in a desired activity. At times, the parent’s rule intruded on the child’s personal domain (as in, you shouldn’t play with a particular friend, take part in a certain activity, or wear certain clothes), while in others, the parent’s rule fell within the moral domain (as in, you shouldn’t hit or steal).

From ages 4 to 7, children’s predictions that the characters would comply with moral rules (such as prohibitions against stealing) and feel good about doing so rose significantly, suggesting that between these ages, children become increasingly aware of the limits to legitimate disobedience. In stark contrast, children of all ages predicted that the characters would frequently break parents’ rules when those rules intruded on the personal domain and that this disobedience would feel good, particularly when the desired activities were described as essential to the character’s sense of identity.

“The findings suggest that children make important distinctions between different kinds of rules when reasoning about decisions and emotions,” notes Kristin Hansen Lagattuta, associate professor of psychology and the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, who led the study. Previous research has shown that “although the particulars of what gets defined as the personal domain can vary across cultural settings, the establishment of a zone of personal choice and privacy appears to be culturally universal,” she adds.

“These results have practical implications for parents and educators,” Lagattuta suggests. “Foremost, they argue for balance in promoting morality in young children – not only restricting actions that they shouldn’t do, but helping them identify situations where they can assert personal control.”

The quality of the relationship between children and their parents is important to children’s development, but past research on the link between attachment and development has been inconsistent. Now a new analysis concludes that children, especially boys, who are insecurely attached to their mothers in the early years have more behavior problems later in childhood.

The meta-analysis of 69 studies involving almost 6,000 children ages 12 and younger was conducted by researchers at the University of Reading (in the United Kingdom), the University of Leiden (in the Netherlands), the Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health National Health Service Trust (also in the U.K.), and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is published in the March/April 2010 issue of the journal Child Development.

According to attachment theory, children with secure attachments have repeated experiences with caregivers who are responsive to their needs and thus expect their caregivers to be available and comforting when called upon. In contrast, children with insecure attachments have experiences in which requests are discouraged, rejected, or responded to inconsistently, which is thought to make them vulnerable to developing behavioral problems.

The researchers sought to clarify the extent to which bonds between children and their moms early in life affect children’s later behavioral problems, such as aggression or hostility; behavior problems were measured up to age 12. The studies included in their review used a range of methods for assessing children’s behavior problems, including parent and teacher questionnaires and direct observations.

“The results suggest that the effects of attachment are reliable and relatively persistent over time,” notes Pasco Fearon, associate professor of psychology at the University of Reading, who was the study’s lead author. “More specifically, children who seem unable to maintain a coherent strategy for coping with separation are at greatest risk for later behavior problems and aggression.”

Fast food is not only bad for your body, but may also harm your bank account.

Eating habits have shifted dramatically over the last few decades – fast food has become a multibillion dollar industry that has widespread influence on what and how we eat. The original idea behind fast food is to increase efficiency, allowing people to quickly finish a meal so they can move on to other matters. Researchers at the Rotman School of Management, however, have found that the mere exposure to fast food and related symbols can make people impatient, increasing preference for time saving products, and reducing willingness to save.

“Fast food represents a culture of time efficiency and instant gratification,” says Chen-Bo Zhong, who co-wrote the paper with colleague Sanford DeVoe to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science. “The problem is that the goal of saving time gets activated upon exposure to fast food regardless of whether time is a relevant factor in the context. For example, walking faster is time efficient when one is trying to make a meeting, but it’s a sign of impatience when one is going for a stroll in the park. We’re finding that the mere exposure to fast food is promoting a general sense of haste and impatience regardless of the context.”

In one experiment, the researchers flashed fast food symbols, such as the golden arch of McDonald’s, on a computer screen for a few milliseconds, so quick that participants couldn’t consciously identify what they saw. They found that this unconscious exposure increased participants’ reading speed in a subsequent task compared to those in a control condition, even when there was no advantage to finishing sooner. In another study, participants who recalled a time when they eat at a food restaurant subsequently preferred time-saving products – such as two-in-one shampoo – over regular products. A final experiment found people exposed to fast food logos exhibited greater reluctance for saving – choose a smaller immediate payment rather than opting for a much larger delayed payment.

“Fast food is one of many technologies that allow us to save time,” says Sanford DeVoe, “But the ironic thing is that by constantly reminding us of time efficiency, these technologies can lead us to feel much more impatience. A fast food culture that extols saving time doesn’t just change the way we eat but it can also fundamentally alter the way they experience our time. For example, leisure activities that are supposed to be relaxing can come to be experienced through the color glasses of impatience.”

The researchers point out that it’s impossible to know whether fast food in part caused the value for time efficiency in our culture or is merely a consequence of it – but it’s clear from their findings that exposure to fast food reinforces an emphasis on impatience and instant gratification. “Given the role that financial impatience played in the current economic crisis,” says Chen-Bo Zhong, “we need to move beyond counting calories when we examine the consequences of fast food as it is also influencing our everyday psychology and behavior in a wider set of domains than has been previously thought.”

It will be harder to lie about your age or your poker hand after new research by the University of Melbourne, Australia has revealed that our eye position betrays the numbers we are thinking about.

In the study, participants were asked to state a series of random numbers. By measuring their vertical and horizontal eye position, researchers were able to predict with reliable confidence the next chosen number – before it was spoken.

Specifically, a leftward and downward change in eye position announced that the next number would be smaller than the last. Correspondingly, if the eyes changed position to the right and upward, it forecast that the next number would be larger. The degree of eye movement reflected the size of the numerical shift.

The paper was published online in the prestigious journal Current Biology.

First author, Dr Tobias Loetscher of the University of Melbourne’s School of Behavioural Sciences and previously of the Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland says the research demonstrates how the eyes and their position give insight into the nature of the systematic choices made by the brain’s random number generator.

“When we think of numbers we automatically code them in space, with smaller number falling to the left and larger numbers to the right. That is, we think of them along a left-to-right oriented mental number line – often without even noticing this number-space association ourselves.”

“This study shows that shifts along the mental number line are accompanied by systematic eye movements. We suggest that when we navigate through mental representations – as for example numbers – we re-use brain processes that primarily evolved for interacting and navigating in the outside world.”

Dr Michael Nicholls also of the School of Behavioural Sciences adds, “Clearly, the eyes not only allow us to see the world around us, but they also present a window to the working of our mind, as this study shows.”

“This study will hopefully provide a template to investigate how the human mind works via a connection with the space and world around us,” he says.

The study involved asking twelve right-handed men to select from a set of random numbers. Paced by an electronic metronome they named 40 numbers between 1 and 30 in a sequence as random as possible. For each number, the researchers measured the average eye position during the 500 millisecond interval before the numbers were stated.

In 2009, approximately 40 percent of adults were single, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In a new study, “I’m a Loser, I’m Not Married, Let’s Just All Look at Me,” a University of Missouri researcher examined the familial and societal messages given to women who are not married by their mid-30′s. Although the number of single women has increased, the stigma associated with being single at that age has not diminished, according to the women in this study.

“We found that never-married women’s social environments are characterized by pressure to conform to the conventional life pathway,” said Larry Ganong, co-chair of Human Development and Family Studies in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. “This pressure was manifested in women feeling highly visible and invisible. Heightened visibility came from feelings of exposure and invisibility came from assumptions made by others.”

Ganong and Elizabeth Sharp, associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Texas Tech University, conducted 32 interviews with middle-class, never-married women who felt that considerable attention was directed at them because of their age and single status. They felt heightened visibility in situations such as bouquet tosses at weddings. These events brought about unwanted, intrusive questions. Feeling invisible, on the other hand, was likely when others made assumptions that they were married and had children or when they had to justify their singlehood. These interactions made them feel that their actual lives weren’t important or went unnoticed.

Specifically, single women’s social worlds include:
Awareness of shifting reality as they become older; for example, the shrinking pool of eligible men and increased pregnancy risks.

Reminders that they are on different life paths than most women when others inquire about their single status and during events, including social gatherings and weddings.

Feelings of insecurity and displacement in their families of origin when parents and siblings remark about their singlehood and make jokes or rude comments.
The visibility and invisibility factors were impacted by age, according to Ganong. The mid-20′s through mid-30′s is a time of intense contemplation and concern for single women regarding their future family trajectories. Women older than 35 tend to be content with being single and don’t express as much dissatisfaction as do younger women. Women ages 25-35 felt the most stigma, which may be attributed to the fact that being single is more acceptable before age 25. After reaching that age, they feel more scrutinized by friends, family members and others.

“Mainstream media also enforce these ideas,” Ganong said. “For example, shows like ‘Sex and the City,’ which portray female protagonists who are hyper-focused on finding men, and end with the majority of those characters getting married, are popular.”

Feeling better about the future might help you feel better for real. In a new study, psychological scientists Suzanne Segerstrom of the University of Kentucky and Sandra Sephton of the University of Louisville studied how law students’ expectations about the future affected their immune response. Their conclusions: Optimism may be good for your health.

Other studies have found that people who are optimistic about their health tend to do better. For example, people who are optimistic about heart transplant surgery recover better from that grueling operation. But it’s not clear how optimism affects your health -or whether pessimism makes you less healthy.

For this study, reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, the researchers recruited first-year law students by sending them a packet during the summer before classes started. The 124 students that participated in the research were studied at five times over six months. Each time, they answered questions about how optimistic they felt about law school. Then they were injected with material that should summon an immune response and two days later, they came back to have the injection site measured. A larger bump in the skin means a stronger immune response. Immune systems are many-faceted; this test only measures the strength of the part that is responsible for fighting viral infections and some bacterial infections.

The students’ general outlook on life – whether they had an optimistic disposition – didn’t account for the differences in immune responses between students. But as each student’s expectations about law school waxed and waned, their immune response followed along. At more optimistic times, they’d have bigger immune responses; at a more pessimistic time, a more sluggish immune response. So, being optimistic about success in a specific, important domain may promote better immunity against some infections.

Of course, the law students often have good reason to be optimistic or pessimistic; by a few months into the first semester, they’ve gotten some grades back and started to figure out if they’re good or bad at law school. “I don’t think that I would advise people that they should revise their expectations to be unrealistic,” says Segerstrom. “But if people have slightly more positive views of the future than is actually true, that’s adaptive.”

Obtaining therapy via teleconference is just as effective as face-to-face sessions, according to a new research by Stephane Guay, a psychiatry professor at the Universite de Montreal.

“Previous studies have shown that phobia therapy via teleconferencing was just as efficient as face to face contact,” says Dr. Guay, who is also director of the Trauma Studies Centre at the Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital’s Fernand-Seguin Research Centre. “We wanted to see if the process could also be used for post-traumatic stress treatment.”

Until recently, telemedicine was limited to doctors using the technology to communicate with peers who would weigh-in on x-rays results or supervise a surgery. With teletherapy, patients could theoretically consult experts from the other side of the globe.

As part of this study, 17 post-traumatic stress victims from the Outaouais region underwent 16 to 25 sessions via teleconference with Montreal therapists. A control group consisted of patients receiving face-to-face therapy.

The teletherapy participants, however, still needed to visit a hospital equipped with the necessary equipment and supervised by medical personnel. “It would be ethically indefensible for them to stay home,” says Dr. Guay. “Post-traumatic stress therapies require that a patient relive certain traumatic events and should they become uncomfortable it is mandatory that someone be there to intervene.”

The teletherapy group and the control group equally benefited from their therapy. “The same number of patients in both groups saw a significant decrease in their post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety symptoms,” says Dr. Guay. “In fact, 75 to 80 percent overcame their chronic post-traumatic stress.”

Patients were later evaluated and none were affected by distance to their therapist and none expressed discomfort about the technological aspects of the procedure. “In fact, comments were more in favor of tele-therapy,” says Dr. Guay. “It seems patients appreciate a certain distance from their therapist.”

Teletherapy could be increasingly used to provide access to treatments requiring specialists who are unavailable in remote regions. While Dr. Guay says teletherapy can’t be used for all types of rehabilitation, it would lend itself well to the treatment of depression, phobias and eating disorders.