Debate: Are depression and dementia two sides of the same coin? And, if they are, how to best approach treatment?

Every sev­en sec­onds, some­one in the world is diag­nosed with demen­tia. A typ­i­cal case that I often see in my prac­tice is as fol­lows: A 76-year-old woman has a two-year his­to­ry of pro­gres­sive wors­en­ing of short-term mem­o­ry and cog­ni­tive decline. She can’t recall the names of her grand­chil­dren and is dev­as­tat­ed by her dete­ri­o­rat­ing abilities.…

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To harness our best selves, “Temper your empathy, train your compassion, and avoid the news”

In the nov­el Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys are ship­wrecked on an island and even­tu­al­ly turn sav­age­ly against each oth­er. The book is a cau­tion­ary tale about humanity’s under­ly­ing cru­el­ty and the need for civ­i­liza­tion to tame our dark­er impulses—a mes­sage that res­onates with many peo­ple today. But that’s not what happened…

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Study: Meditation practice, both formal and informal, helps develop equanimity over time

We are liv­ing through a time of uncer­tain­ty, a sky-high pile of ques­tion marks. It has become increas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult to make plans because the state of our world today is so volatile due to the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic. Some peo­ple are adapt­ing to their homes becom­ing their offices indef­i­nite­ly, or in dan­ger of los­ing their jobs,…

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REACH2: Six tips to help regulate stress levels in our organizations

Recent­ly, an employ­ee at a major Ohio com­pa­ny lost his moth­er to coro­n­avirus. Under nor­mal cir­cum­stances, his col­leagues would have offered expres­sions of sup­port and sym­pa­thy in per­son. They would have attend­ed a funer­al or memo­r­i­al ser­vice. They would have made a meal for his fam­i­ly. But, since the state was under stay-at-home orders, none…

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Survey finds ischaemic stroke and altered mental status as most common neurological complications in severe COVID-19 cases

Brain dam­age, psy­chi­atric prob­lems report­ed in severe coro­n­avirus cas­es, study says (Mia­mi Her­ald): A new study shows that severe cas­es of the coro­n­avirus can cause strokes and oth­er neu­ro­log­i­cal issues, or an “altered men­tal state” for patients. The research, pub­lished in the British med­ical jour­nal Lancet Psy­chi­a­try, looked at a small pool of severe COVID-19…

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Q&A with Rick Hanson on Neurodharma, brain science, personal practice and well-being

Psy­chol­o­gist and neu­ro­science expert Rick Han­son stud­ies the men­tal resources that pro­mote resilience, from calm and grat­i­tude to con­fi­dence and courage. Accord­ing to Han­son, the coro­n­avirus cri­sis is expos­ing some of our psy­cho­log­i­cal vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, and remind­ing us how impor­tant it is to nur­ture our social and emo­tion­al strengths. In his new book, Neu­rod­har­ma, Han­son writes about how we can…

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