Therapist Unlimited Blog

 

A recent medical study has shown that the keys to a healthy body and a productive life rests just below the neck.
The thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland below the larynx that produces thyroid hormones; chemicals that affect the function of many of the body’s organs including the heart, brain, liver, kidneys, bones and skin.
It’s a good rule that if your thyroid is not working properly, neither are you.
The American College of Endocrinology (ACE) is conducting a national campaign targeted towards helping the millions of Americans living with a thyroid condition.
The campaign’s focus is to help people understand the effects of the thyroid throughout all aspects of life: conception, birth, adolescence and throughout adulthood.
"Many people with thyroid disease are often undiagnosed for years," AACE President and Chief of Endocrinology at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, Dr. Jeffrey Garber said.
"The ill consequences resulting from a thyroid disorder could be prevented by a simple visit to their doctor."

 

 

A recent medical study has shown that evolution is important in understanding and treating disease.
If recent recommendations are implemented, future physicians may soon be tested on evolution in medical entrance and licensing exams, says an international group of doctors and researchers.
The research has shown recent progress in applying evolutionary theory to a range of questions in medicine and public health, from why some people age slower and live longer than others, to why humans suffer from mental illnesses like autism and schizophrenia, to why we have higher rates of cancer than other species.
"There are many ways you can use evolution to improve medical care and medical research," said psychiatrist Randolph Nesse of the University of Michigan.
Nesse is one of a growing number of scientists who since the mid-1990s have been urging medical doctors and researchers to consider human health from an evolutionary perspective. Evolutionary training may benefit researchers in the lab, skeptics argue, but what use is evolution for everyday medical care in the clinic?
"In terms of immediate payoffs, right up at the top of the list are antibiotic resistance and cancer," said Stephen Stearns, a biologist at Yale University. Because of their rapid rates of reproduction, both bacteria and cancer cells quickly evolve resistance to the drugs we use to fight them. "Some develop resistance in just one or two years after drug release," explained Diddahally Govindaraju of the Boston University School of Medicine. "Antibiotic resistance and resistance to chemotherapy are problems that cause enormous suffering and death and also sky-high costs," added Stearns. "We can alleviate these problems if we manage the way we use chemotherapy drugs and antibiotics so as to slow or prevent the evolution of resistance."
Meanwhile in the world of infectious disease, techniques developed by evolutionary biologists - such as methods for reconstructing genetic relationships, or family trees - have been used to trace the origins of pathogens like flu, SARS, and HIV. By uncovering where these diseases came from and how they spread, public health officials can better prepare for outbreaks in the future.
Evolutionary thinking can also yield surprising medical therapies, the authors explain.
Throughout much of our history, for example, humans coexisted with beneficial bacteria and intestinal worms. Reduced exposure to these bugs due to improved hygiene leaves many with immune systems that don’t respond appropriately, scientists say. Research suggests we may be able to reduce our susceptibility to allergies, asthma, and many auto-immune diseases - from inflammatory bowel disease to multiple sclerosis - by giving patients "cocktails" of parasite eggs. "There are now 4000 people in a clinical trial to test the efficacy of worm eggs," said Stearns.
"It’s an insight that comes right out of left field," Stearns added. "Unless you were thinking about co-evolution of humans and their gut flora, you never would have thought you could treat an autoimmune disease by making the immune system think the body is inhabited by parasites."
Given the numerous ways evolutionary concepts can inform medical practice, the authors argue, it’s time to transmit those lessons to those best positioned to put them to use - future physicians. Though anatomy, physiology and biochemistry have long been mainstays of medical education, evolutionary biology is largely absent from the medical school curriculum, studies find. "No medical school in the United States offers evolutionary biology as a medical science, and most have no evolution at all in the curriculum," said Nesse.
In the final paper, Nesse, Stearns, Govindaraju, and 10 other physicians and researchers - including Jeffry Flier, the Dean of the Harvard Medical School - call for greater evolution education both before and during medical school. "We’re urging that evolutionary biology be recognized as something that all entering medical students should have a good grasp of," said co-author Peter Ellison of Harvard University.
"It’s a basic science like embryology and biochemistry and all the rest," added Nesse.
"We insist on students learning many of these basic sciences not because doctors need embryology everyday in the clinic, but because we want them to understand what’s going on in normal functioning and disease."
Their ideas may be gaining ground. This past summer, the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) published a joint report, titled Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians. The report calls for ambitious changes in the science content in the premedical curriculum and on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), including increased emphasis on evolution. "For the first time, the AAMC and HHMI are recommending that evolution be one of the basic sciences students learn before they come to medical school," Nesse explained.
If the recommendations take hold, future physicians may soon be tested on evolution in the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). "The MCATs are currently under review, and changes will be made in the next two years," said Stearns.
"Those recommendations will affect thousands of colleges and universities across the country," Stearns added.
"Pre-med students often say: ‘What on earth does this have to do with me? Fossils aren’t going to help me get into medical school,’" said biologist Jay Labov of the National Academy of Sciences. "But without an evolutionary perspective, a doctor’s tools are somewhat limited."

 

 

 

 

The International School Psychology Association (ISPA) has been proud to promote the work of school psychologists world-wide since the early 1970s.
The organization provide training, resources, and a global community to school psychologists or those interested in the field.
In the early 1970s a group of school psychologists from different parts of the world, under the leadership of the late Calvin D. Catterall, came together to form an International School Psychology Committee in order to promote worldwide cooperation amongst school and educational psychologists.
The number of psychologists committed to this aim grew steadily until in 1982 the International School Psychology Association was founded with Anders Poulsen as its first President.
Since that time, membership of ISPA has spread to all corners of the earth and the Association has become recognized by the United Nations as an important Non-Governmental Organization speaking on behalf of children and young people and their families.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The major aims of this Association are to:

 

 

   1. Promote the use of sound psychological principles within the context of education all over the world;
   2. Promote communication between professionals who are committed to the improvement of the mental health of children in the world’s schools;
   3. Encourage the use of School Psychologists in countries where they are not currently being used;
   4. Promote the psychological rights of all children all over the world;
   5. Initiate and promote cooperation with other organizations working for purposes similar to those of ISPA in order to help children and families.

 

 

The ISPA constitution also condemns any discrimination of racial, religious, sexual nature and recommends its members to conduct their professional life in conformity with this non-discriminatory principle.

 

 

 

 

 

To learn more about the organization just visit their official website at http://www.ispaweb.org/.

 

 

 

 

 

The International Union of Psychological Science works to promote "the development, representation and advancement of psychology as a basic and applied science nationally, regionally, and internationally" (Article 5, IUPsyS Statutes).
It represents psychology in its full breadth as a science and as a profession.

 

The aims of the Union (Article 6, IUPsyS Statutes) are:

 

 

   1. To enhance and promote the development of the science and profession of psychology.
   2. To exchange ideas and scientific information between psychologists of different countries.
   3. To organize the International Congresses of Psychology and other meetings on subjects of general or special interest in psychology.
   4. To contribute to psychological knowledge through publishing activities.
   5. To foster the exchange of publications and other communications among different countries.
   6. To foster excellence in standards for education, training, research and the applications of psychology.
   7. To enable the development of psychological scientists and national associations through capacity building activities.
   8. To foster international exchange, especially among students and young researchers.
   9. To collaborate with other international, regional, and national organizations in matters of mutual interest.

Other, more specialized organizations, represent either particular fields of psychology or psychology in particular regions of the world; examples of such organizations are found in the list of organizations affiliated with IUPsyS.
The IUPsyS operates on the basis of a strategic plan.

 

 

 

History of the IUPsyS

 

 

Almost from the beginning of psychology as a modern science, international meetings of psychologists were organized to facilitate the exchange of ideas.
The first International Congress of Psychology was held in Paris in 1889, the second in London in 1892, the third in Munich in 1896, and the fourth in Paris in 1900.
A continuing committee called the International Congress of Psychology was established to organize the successive congresses of psychology, and the Union grew out of this committee.
Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, there was a growing sentiment that psychology should have an international organization with broader activities than arranging for the international congresses.
After 1945 this coincided with an initiative of UNESCO to encourage the formation of international unions by sciences that did not already have one.
At the first International Congress of Psychology to be held after the second World War (Edinburgh, 1948), it was decided to organize an International Union of Psychological Science with statutes similar to those of international unions in the other sciences.
Statutes were prepared, and they were adopted officially at the XIII International Congress of Psychology at Stockholm in 1951.
At the same time, the International Congress committee turned over its functions to the Union.
The last Secretary-General of the International Congress of Psychology committee, Prof. H. S. Langfeld, became the first Secretary-General of the Union, and some of the members of the International Congress committee were among the first officers and members of the Executive Committee of the Union.
The Union is thus the direct successor to the International Congress committee, although its functions have and continue to expand.
Eleven charter member organizations founded IUPsyS on July 17, 1951 at the Stockholm International congress committee . Nine other National Members joined later that year. The subsequent steady growth in membership testifies to the success of the Union. As of 2009, there are 71 National Members. Their number will continue to grow; as applications are in various stages of preparation from candidate organizations in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America.

 

 

 

 

Get to know more the organization by visiting its official website at http://www.iupsys.net/.

 

 

 

 

 

Those who regularly partake antioxidants better be careful since these type of nutrients could also sometimes impair muscle function.
Based on the studies by the Kansas State University it was discovered that antioxidants can also cause harm.
Researchers in K-State’s Cardiorespiratory Exercise Laboratory have been studying how to improve oxygen delivery to the skeletal muscle during physical activity by using antioxidants, which are nutrients in foods that can prevent or slow the oxidative damage to the body. Their findings show that sometimes antioxidants can impair muscle function.
"Antioxidant is one of those buzz words right now," said Steven Copp, a doctoral student in anatomy and physiology from Manhattan and a researcher in the lab.
"Walking around grocery stores you see things advertised that are loaded with antioxidants.
I think what a lot of people don’t realize is that the antioxidant and pro-oxidant balance is really delicate.
One of the things we’ve seen in our research is that you can’t just give a larger dose of antioxidants and presume that there will be some sort of beneficial effect. In fact, you can actually make a problem worse."
David C. Poole and Timothy I.Musch, K-State professors from both the departments of kinesiology and anatomy and physiology, direct the Cardiorespiratory Exercise Laboratory, located in the College of Veterinary Medicine complex. Researchers in the lab study the physiology of physical activity in health and disease through animal models. Copp and Daniel Hirai, an anatomy and physiology doctoral student from Manhattan working in the lab, have conducted various studies associated with how muscles control blood flow and the effects of different doses and types of antioxidants.
Abnormalities in the circulatory system, such as those that result from aging or a disease like chronic heart failure, can impair oxygen delivery to the skeletal muscle and increase fatigability during physical activity, Copp said. The researchers are studying the effects antioxidants could have in the process.
"If you have a person trying to recover from a heart attack and you put them in cardiac rehab, when they walk on a treadmill they might say it’s difficult," Poole said. "Their muscles get sore and stiff. We try to understand why the blood cells aren’t flowing properly and why they can’t get oxygen to the muscles, as happens in healthy individuals."
Copp said there is a potential for antioxidants to reverse or partially reverse some of those changes that result from aging or disease.
However, K-State’s studies have shown that some of the oxidants in our body, such as hydrogen peroxide, are helpful to increase blood flow.
"We’re now learning that if antioxidant therapy takes away hydrogen peroxide - or other naturally occurring vasodilators, which are compounds that help open blood vessels - you impair the body’s ability to deliver oxygen to the muscle so that it doesn’t work properly," Poole said.

Poole said antioxidants are largely thought to produce better health, but their studies have shown that antioxidants can actually suppress key signaling mechanisms that are necessary for muscle to function effectively.
"It’s really a cautionary note that before we start recommending people get more antioxidants, we need to understand more about how they function in physiological systems and circumstances like exercise," Poole said.
Hirai said the researchers will continue to explore antioxidants and the effects of exercise training.
Their studies are looking at how these can help individuals combat the decreased mobility and muscle function that comes with advancing age and diseases like heart failure.
"The research we do here is very mechanistic in nature, and down the road our aim is to take our findings and make recommendations for diseased and aging populations," Copp said.
The researchers have published their recent findings in several journals, including the Journal of Applied Physiology, Respiratory Physiology and Neurobiology, Microvascular Research, The American Journal of Physiology and Experimental Physiology.
The Cardiorespiratory Exercise Laboratory has been funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association and intramural awards from the College of Veterinary Medicine.

 

 

The International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) is the world’s primary accrediting and regulatory body for psychoanalysis.
Our mission is to assure the continued vigour and development of psychoanalysis for the benefit of psychoanalytic patients.
We work in partnership with our 70 constituent organizations in 33 countries to support our over 12,000 members.
Our aims include creating new psychoanalytic groups, stimulating debate, conducting research, developing training policies and establishing links with other bodies.
We organize a large biennial Congress which is open to all.
Membership of the IPA is normally open only to psychoanalysts who trained at one of the IPA’s Constituent Organizations.
Completing training successfully at such an organization normally gives you automatic membership of the IPA.
If you are considering applying to become an IPA psychoanalyst, please contact your local IPA Constituent Organization.
Annual membership fee rates may be obtained from the Constituent Organization.
 

 

 

 

What are the benefits of membership?

 

*The IPA currently offers the following direct services to its Members:
*a certificate of membership of the Association.
*copies of International Psychoanalysis – the IPA’s News Magazine and other electronic bulletins.
*a copy of the Membership Handbook and Roster.
*access to IPA-published books at a reduced rate.
*access to the website and its services, including to the password-protected,member-only areas.
*access to the biennial IPA Congress at reduced rates.

 

 

 

 

To further learn about the organization just visit their official website at http://www.ipa.org.uk/Public/?language=eng.

 

 

 

A recent research has shown that women taking commonly used forms of antidepressant drugs may experience delayed lactation after giving birth and may need additional support to achieve their breastfeeding goals.
Breastfeeding benefits both infants and mothers in many ways as breast milk is easy to digest and contains antibodies that can protect infants from bacterial and viral infections.
The World Health Organization recommends that infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life.
This new study shows that certain common antidepressant drugs may be linked to a common difficulty experienced by new mothers known as delayed secretory activation, defined as a delay in the initiation of full milk secretion.
"The breasts are serotonin-regulated glands, meaning the breasts’ ability to secrete milk at the right time is closely related to the body’s production and regulation of the hormone serotonin," said Nelson Horseman, PhD, of the University of Cincinnati and co-author of the study. "Common antidepressant drugs like fluoxetine, sertraline and paroxetine are known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drugs and while they can affect mood, emotion and sleep they may also impact serotonin regulation in the breast, placing new mothers at greater risk of a delay in the establishment of a full milk supply."

In this study, researchers examined the effects of SSRI drugs on lactation using laboratory studies of human and animal cell lines and genetically modified mice.
Furthermore, an observational study evaluated the impact of SSRI drugs on the onset of milk production in postpartum women. In this study of 431 postpartum women, median onset of lactation was 85.8 hours postpartum for the SSRI-treated mothers and 69.1 hours for mothers not treated with SSRI drugs. Researchers commonly define delayed secretory activation as occurring later than 72 hours postpartum.
"SSRI drugs are very helpful medications for many moms, so understanding and ameliorating difficulties moms experience can help them achieve their goals for breastfeeding their babies," said Horseman. "More human research is needed before we can make specific recommendations regarding SSRI use during breastfeeding."
Other researchers working on the study include: Aaron Marshall, Laura Hernandez and Karen Gregerson of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio; Laurie Nommsen-Rivers of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio; Kathryn Dewey of the University of California at Davis; and Caroline Chantry of the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

 

 

 

A latest study has shown that as early as seven years of age, being obese may raise a child’s risk of future heart disease and stroke, even in the absence of other cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure.
"This new study demonstrates that the unhealthy consequences of excess body fat start very early," said Nelly Mauras, MD, of Nemours Children’s Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida and senior author of the study.
"Our study shows that obesity alone is linked to certain abnormalities in the blood that can predispose individuals to developing cardiovascular disease early in adulthood.
These findings suggest that we need more aggressive interventions for weight control in obese children, even those who do not have the co-morbidities of the metabolic syndrome."
The metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors that raise the risk of developing heart disease, stroke and diabetes. It is being increasingly diagnosed in children as being overweight becomes a greater problem. Although debate exists as to its exact definition, to receive a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome, one must have at least three of the following characteristics: increased waist circumference (abdominal fat), low HDL ("good") cholesterol, high triglycerides (fats in the blood), high blood pressure and high blood glucose (blood sugar).
Mauras and her colleagues wanted to know if obesity could raise cardiovascular disease risk prior to the onset of the metabolic syndrome. Researchers therefore screened more than 300 individuals ages 7 to 18 years and included only those without features of the metabolic syndrome. They included 202 participants in the study: 115 obese children and 87 lean children as controls. Half of the children were prepubertal and the other half were in late puberty. Obese children had a body mass index (a measure of body fat) above the 95th percentile for their sex, age and height.
To be eligible to participate in the study, the children and adolescents had to have normal fasting blood sugar levels, normal blood pressure and normal cholesterol and triglycerides. Lean controls also could not have a close relative with type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure or obesity. The latter group proved very difficult to find.

All study participants underwent blood testing for known markers for predicting the development of cardiovascular disease. These included elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation, and abnormally high fibrinogen, a clotting factor, among others. Obese children had a 10 fold higher CRP and significantly higher fibrinogen concentrations, compared with age- and sex-matched lean children, the authors reported. These abnormalities occurred in obese children as young as age 7, long before the onset of puberty.
The results were striking Mauras stated, as the children were entirely healthy otherwise. Although it is not yet known whether early therapeutic interventions can reverse high CRP and fibrinogen, she said it would be prudent for health care providers to advise more aggressive interventions to limit calories and increase activity in "healthy" overweight children, even before the onset of puberty.
"Doctors often do not treat obesity in children now unless they have other features of the metabolic syndrome," Mauras said. "This practice should be reconsidered. Further studies are needed to offer more insight into the effects of therapeutic interventions in these children.
Other researchers working on the study include: Charles DelGiorno, Keisha Bird, Melissa Morgan, Shawn Sweeten, Prabhakaran Balagopal and Ligeia Damaso of Nemours Children’s Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla; and Craig Kollman of the Jaeb Center for Health Research in Tampa, Fla.

 

 

 

 

The Experimental Psychology Society (EPS) represents psychologists who work in academia, industry and the health service.
The EPS supports research efforts directed towards finding new treatments for psychiatric disorders such as depression, schizophrenia and dementia.
Research using animals has made, and continues to make, a vital contribution to this research.
Psychological research makes use of a wide range of techniques, including computer modelling and experiments involving humans, in order to understand mental processes and the functioning of the brain in the context of the whole behaving organism.
In addition and only where appropriate, experiments using non-human animals make an essential and unavoidable contribution to our understanding of cognitive processes such as learning, memory, perception and attention, of the failure of these processes in mental illness, and of potential strategies for remediation.
Research in the UK involving the use of animals is regulated by the Home Office, in line with the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.
All such research requires the authorisation of a Project Licence, granted by the Home Secretary.
Project Licences are required for each and every specific programme of research and, in line with the 3Rs, are awarded only when:

  

 

1. the research objectives cannot be achieved using alternative techniques (e.g. computational modelling) or human participants;
   2. explicit assurance is provided that the research will use only the minimum number of animals needed to reach a valid conclusion;
   3. every effort is made to minimise any distress experienced by the animals.

 

 

In addition, the potential benefits of the research must justify the use of animals, taking into account the likely experiences of the animals concerned, and research scientists are licensed to carry out experiments on animals only when they have provided evidence that they are aware of their responsibility to optimise animal welfare in their research and when they have received appropriate training approved by the Home Office.
As part of the process for the granting of a Project Licence, all applications are scrutinised by a local ethical review panel that includes lay members, researchers and named animal care and welfare officers.
The EPS supports the use of animals in psychological research in the UK where it is essential and unavoidable, and the thorough scrutiny of this research by the UK Government Home Office.
The activities of the EPS supports its members’ commitment to the development of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) and a culture of respect and care for animals throughout their lives.

 

 

 

The Experimental Psychology Society is for the furtherance of scientific enquiry within the field of Psychology and cognate subjects.
It holds periodical meetings at which papers are read and discussions held.
The Society also disseminates information and educational material made available as a consequence of psychological research, including the publication of the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
The Society does not engage in any activity intended to affect the professional status of its members or of psychologists generally.

 

 

 

 

To know more about the organization just visit their official website at http://www.eps.ac.uk/.
 

 

 

 

The European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology: the European representative body for the discipline.
The Academy is a registered charity under English law (registered charity number 1115640) that exists to support research, education, and professional practice across Europe.
This is achieved through a biennial conference, academic and practitioner-oriented publications, and the provision of small grants to individuals and groups. 
Individuals with an interest in the application of scientific psychological principles and practices to occupational health issues are invited to join the Academy.
Membership attracts a host of benefits including a free personal subscription to the Academy’s affiliated journal, Work & Stress, as well as discounts on attendance at events.

Benefits of membership are:
 
 

    * Personal subscription to the quarterly international journal Work & Stress
    * Discounts on attendance at Academy events
    * eNewsletter (three issues per annum)
    * Access to an international network of educators, researchers and practitioners
    * Voting rights to shape the Academy’s development (full members only)
    * Eligibility to apply for funding to support regional events and activities

 
There are five levels of membership:
 

   *Full Member  €80 per annum: Applicants should possess i) a degree in psychology or closely related subject and ii) at least three years active involvement in occupational health psychology.
   *Associate Member €80 per annum: Applicants should possess at least one requirement of Full Membership. Upon being an  Associate Member for a period of no less than two years, an application may be made to upgrade to Full Member.
   *Student Member €50 per annum: Applicants should currently be engaged in the study of psychology or a closely related subject.
   *International Affiliate Member €50 per annum: This is a discounted rate for current members of the Society for Occupational Health Psychology who also wish to become members of the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology.
   *International Affiliate Student Member €35 per annum: This is a discounted rate for current student members of the Society for Occupational Health Psychology who also wish to become members of the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology.

 

To learn more about the group just visit their official website at http://eaohp.org/default.aspx.