Sarcasm boosts creativity in the workplace

Sarcasm boosts creativity at the office (like that’s gonna happen) - thestar.com

While both anger and sarcasm improved an observer’s attention to
detail, focus and speed in solving simple analytic problems, being
exposed to anger limited their ability to deal with more complex
problems that involved mental creativity, the team found. Sarcasm on the
other hand boosted their creative juices.

“When they were exposed to anger, it created ‘prevention motivation,’
or the motivation to avoid unpleasant situations or pain,”
Miron-Spektor told the Star. “It demonstrated that if you are
exposed to your boss yelling at your colleague, you will try to avoid
similar situations by working harder.”

Prevention motivation forces the brain to narrow the scope of its
attention, focusing only on relevant information and exclude unrelated
and distracting issues, according to the paper.

Because of its humorous tone, sarcasm elicits less fear in listeners
while stimulating the brain by forcing it to decipher the literal
meaning of what the speaker is saying along with the underlying
hostility of the message.

“I would like to stress that (the positive creative result) is
compared to anger. It is not that sarcasm is a good thing, period. It is
good compared to anger, but too much sarcasm and can be problematic,”
Miron-Spektor told the Star.

What makes antidepressants work

At last scientists finally understand what makes antidepressants work
Excerpt:

Most antidepressants don't show an immediate effect - instead, they
take about three weeks to kick in. For the longest time, scientists
couldn't actually explain this delay. They knew the antidepressants had
to somehow "adapt" themselves to the neural pathways, but what that
actually meant was anyone's guess. Now a team of French researchers have
figured it out: antidepressants need three weeks to shut down a
particular chemical regulator of microRNA.

This particular microRNA, designated miR-16, is in charge of making
the serotonin transporter, and is generally found in the serotonergic
neurons that produce serotonin. However, miR-16 is also found in neurons
responsible for making the neurotransmitter noradrenaline. Here, miR-16
has precisely the opposite purpose - it completely blocks the
production of serotonin in these neurons.

When drugs like Prozac go to work, they cause the serotonergic
neurons to release signals. These signals cause the miR-16 to die off,
which frees up the noradrenaline neurons to start making the serotonin
transporter as well. Thus, Prozac both directly boosts the production of
serotonin in the serotonergic neurons and indirectly causes the
noradrenaline neurons to start making it as well.

The secret history of psychedelic psychiatry

The secret history of psychedelic psychiatry : Neurophilosophy

ON August 15th, 1951, an outbreak of hallucinations, panic attacks and psychotic episodes swept through the town of Saint-Pont-Esprit
in southern France, hospitalizing dozens of its inhabitants and leaving
five people dead. Doctors concluded that the incident occurred because
bread in one of the town's bakeries had been contaminated with ergot, a
toxic fungus that grows on rye. But according to investigative
journalist Hank Albarelli, the
CIA had actually dosed the bread with d-lysergic acid diethylamide-25
(LSD), an extremely potent hallucinogenic drug derived from ergot, as
part of a mind control research project.

Although we may never learn the truth behind the
events at Saint-Pont-Esprit, it is now well known that the United States
Army experimented with LSD on willing and unwilling military personnel
and civilians. Less well known is the work of a group of psychiatrists
working in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, who pioneered the use
of LSD as a treatment for alcoholism, and claimed that it produced
unprecedented rates of recovery. Their findings were soon brushed under
the carpet, however, and research into the potential therapeutic effects
of psychedelics was abruptly halted in the late 1960s, leaving a
promising avenue of research unexplored for some 40 years.

...

Continue reading at the link above.

Psychedelic Drugs Show Promise as Anti-Depressants: Scientific American

Psychedelic Drugs Show Promise as Anti-Depressants: Scientific American
...


The August 18 review, by psychiatrist Franz Vollenweider and
neuropsychologist Michael Kometer of the University Hospital of
Psychiatry in Zurich, proposes that various psychedelics' interaction
with the receptors for the neurotransmitter serotonin
may prove key to understanding their beneficial—and
mind-bending—effects. "Psychedelics activate neuronal networks and the
glutamate system that are implicated in the regulation of emotion,"
Vollenweider says, noting that their hallucinogenic effects can be
impeded by blocking specific serotonin receptors in the brain (known as
5-HT2A). Psychedelics typically boost serotonin and may also boost the
release of glutamate, according to the review authors, another
neurotransmitter that has been linked to short-term but long-lasting
brain functions such as learning and memory. More glutamate also has an
impact on synapses. "This might result in an increased number and
function of spine synapses in the prefrontal cortex," Vollenweider says.
...

Mental Illness in America - the numbers

Mental Illness in America
infographic

New studies into hallucinogens and mental health

Two new scientific studies reveal hallucinogens are good for your mental health


LSD and ketamine, two powerful hallucinogens, are also potential cures
for depression, OCD, and anxiety. Two studies published this week, in Science and Nature, confirm that hallucinogenic drugs stimulate healthy brain activity, even promoting the growth of neurons.

Mental Health Benefits of LSD

Scientists study possible health benefits of LSD and ecstacy | Science | The Guardian

A growing number of people are taking LSD and other psychedelic drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy to help them cope with a variety of conditions including anorexia nervosa, cluster headaches and chronic anxiety attacks.

The emergence of a community that passes the drugs between users on the basis of friendship, support and need – with money rarely involved – comes amid a resurgence of research into the possible therapeutic benefits of psychedelics. This is leading to a growing optimism among those using the drugs that soon they may be able to obtain medicines based on psychedelics from their doctor, rather than risk jail for taking illicit drugs.
...

Finally, some relief from the annoyingly cheerful

YouTube - FDA Approves Depressant Drug For The Annoyingly Cheerful
(thanks Cindi!)

Children seriously affected when parent suffers from depression

Children Seriously Affected When Parent Suffers From Depression

Excerpt:
The results show how the family’s daily life changes and becomes more complicated when a parent is suffering from depression. Uncertainty about what is happening has an effect on the daily life of the entire family. Depression also means that the parent becomes tired and exhausted, which then affects and weighs heavily on the children’s daily life. Depression changes the relationship between a parent and his/her children, since they no longer communicate with each other as they used to. Family interplay and reciprocity decrease. The depressed parent withdraws from the family, and the children feel that they have been left to themselves.

Illegal marketing by Eli Lilly led to deaths

Eli Lilly and the Case for a Corporate Death Penalty | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet <read for details

On January 15, 2009, Lilly pled guilty to charges that it had illegally marketed its blockbuster drug Zyprexa for unapproved uses to children and the elderly, two populations especially vulnerable to its dangerous side effect. Lilly plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge and agreed to pay $1.42 billion, which included $615 million to end the criminal investigation and approximately $800 million to settle the civil case.

One of the eight whistle-blowers in this case, former Lilly sales representative Robert Rudolph, says the settlement will not completely change Lilly's business practices, and he wants jail time for executives. "You have to remember, with Zyprexa," said Rudolph, "people lost their lives."

Rudolph is not exaggerating. Zyprexa, marketed as an "atypical" antipsychotic drug, has been promoted as having less dangerous adverse effects than "typical" antipsychotic drugs such as Thorazine and Haldol. However, on February 25, 2009, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the rate of sudden cardiac death in patients taking either typical or atypical antipsychotic drugs is double the death rate of a control group of patients not taking these drugs.