The BBC News features extracts from the controversial comedy performed by John Ryan at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre
How can you make jokes about people wanting to take their own lives?
This was comedian John Ryan’s challenge in “Cracking Up”, a comedy show about mental health.
John was asked by Surrey NHS Primary Care Trust if he would be interested in bringing some stand-up to a production they were developing about suicide, depression and anxiety. link to read more
Doctors should pay more attention to the link between common mental illness and obesity in patients because the two health problems are closely linked, according to researchers at the University of Adelaide.
In an editorial published today in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), the Adelaide researchers add support to claims of a two-way risk between obesity and common mental disorders. [continue reading…]
Teenagers whose mothers have mental health impairments are likely to suffer behavioural problems, UQ research has found.
Using data from the Mater-University Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), recent PhD graduate Belinda Lloyd studied maternal mental health and its impact on children.
The MUSP is a longitudinal study of more than 7000 mothers and their children born at Brisbane’s Mater Hospital between 1981-83.
“Children whose mothers experienced mental health problems as their children grew older (during adolescence) had substantially elevated rates of the behavioural and mental health problems measured in the study,” Dr Lloyd said.
“Also, children whose mothers experienced recurrent mental health problems were significantly more likely to display behavioural and mental health problems.
Yesterday I posted a link to the New York Times article on the controversy surrounding the internet publication of the Rorschach Ink Blots on Wikepedia.
One of the most well-known psychological tools is the Rorschach Inkblot Test. However, does the inkblot really reveal all? According to the current report, despite its popularity, the Rorschach may not be the best diagnostic tool and practitioners need to be cautious in how they use this technique.
A viewer looks at ten inkblots, one at a time, and describes what they see. The rationale behind this test is the idea that certain aspects of the subject’s personality will be exposed as they are interpreting the images, allowing for the possible diagnosis of various psychological disorders. However, does the inkblot really reveal all? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, published an exhaustive review of all data on the Rorschach (and other similar “projective” tests) in 2000. Such meta-analyses are major undertakings, so although this report is a few years old, it remains the most definitive word on the Rorschach. [continue reading…]
