Psychology Around the Net: February 4, 2017

Happy Saturday, my sweet readers!

This week’s Psychology Around the Net covers recent moves regarding gun rights for people with mental disabilities, why schizophrenia patients tend to smoke heavily, resetting your sleep cycle by camping during winter months, and more.

House Votes to Strike Rule Banning Guns for Some Deemed Mentally Impaired: The House of Representatives has approved overturning gun regulations that can bar some people the Social Security Administration has deemed “mentally impaired” from owning guns. Some republicans argue these gun regulations “unfairly stigmatize people with disabilities”; some democrats agree the government must not stigmatize individuals with disabilities but also state the passage “puts others at risk.”

This Japanese Stress Trick Turns You Into A Human Burrito: Initially as a way to reduce postpartum pain, “Otonamaki” — a practice involving tightly wrapping yourself in fabric — was created by a midwife based in Kyoto and might have stress-reducing benefits; however, note that Otonamaki isn’t supported by science and some experts warn against practicing it at all.

Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key to Schizophrenia: New research finds that a “steady stream of nicotine normalizes the genetically-induced impairments of brain activity associated with schizophrenia,” and because the nicotine is making up for the genetic impairment, researchers believe smoking is a type of self-medication for schizophrenia patients. The study authors believe these findings have the potential to bring about new nicotine-based treatments that are non-addictive for the millions of people suffering from schizophrenia; in fact, research to create drugs that act on nicotine receptors is currently underway.

Does the Sound of Noisy Eating Drive You Mad? Here’s Why: Ever heard of misophonia? It’s a “genuine brain abnormality” that was first named as a condition in 2001 and people who suffer from it absolutely cannot stand the sound of other people doing things such as chewing or breathing loudly. Skeptical of misophonia? Well, researchers from the U.K.’s Newcastle University say their research shows that people who suffer from misophonia have a difference in the frontal lobe of their brains as compared to those of people who aren’t triggered by these sounds.

Not Getting Enough Sleep? Camping In February Might Help: Kenneth Wright, a University of Colorado professor who specializes in integrative physiology and is the senior author of a study on resetting sleep cycles, says shutting down artificial lights (think computers and smartphones) to help promote sleep. Well, we all know that already, don’t we? However, Wright takes it a bit further, recommending doing this for an entire weekend during a camping trip in the winter.

When Kids with Mental Illness Can’t Live at Home: For some parents, turning to a residential treatment program and school for children with severe mental illnesses is their last — and many believe their most successful — resort. However, even though they see the positive impact these programs have on their children, they still face judgment. Says Christine Walker, a mother whose 16-year-old son has lived in a residential program for seven years and who believes this decision has allowed her and her husband to better parent their son, “If Schuyler had cancer, I would never think of myself as a failure if I didn’t do chemo in my living room […] I would never think of myself as giving up. This is a brain disorder.”

from World of Psychology https://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2017/02/04/psychology-around-the-net-february-4-2017/