The May/June issue of the Psychotherapy Networker reports that a study by researcher Karen Allen of State University of New York, Buffalo, has shown that pets reduce stress in some of the most stressed out people: stockbrokers who live alone, who describe their jobs as extremely stressful, and who were scheduled to begin taking medicine for high blood pressure. After the test group settled in with either a cat or dog as a pet, the study showed that the blood pressure of the test group rose only half as much during a stress test than the control group who didn't have pets.

For other stress busting techniques, contact me to receive a copy of 9 Tips for Decreasing Stress.

A February 2004 report by the American Psychological Association (APA) recommends reducing a child's exposure to TV advertising. Although the research on the causal effects of TV advertising are limited (predicting an increase in behaviors through middle school, for example, but not into adulthood), the report cites some disturbing facts.

First, the average American child sees 40,000 commercials a year, and advertisers spend more than $12 billion a year annually to market to them, which is double the amount spent ten years ago. Second, according to the best developmental science we have available at this time, children are not able to cognitively filter and process advertisements the way that adults can; the result is that children cannot conceive of a reason for television messages as being "separate" from the entertainment they are watching. The result is that children tend to believe what they see and hear indiscriminately.

You can read the full report by clicking here (pops up a new window): http://www.apa.org/releases/childrenads.pdf.

David Lykken, who is a behavioral geneticist with the University of Minnesota noted recently that it's not so much nature versus nurture, but "nature via nurture." In the November issue of Psychological Science, a study by Eric Turkheimer refutes the findings published in The Bell Curve and finds that environment has a tremendous effect in twin studies when performed on children of low socioeconomic status. "In impoverished families, 60% of the variance in IQ is accounted for by the shared environment and the contribution of genes is close to zero." The point, says Turkheimer, isn't that genes do not influence IQ in poor families, but rather that it takes an adequate environment for people's genetic potential to be expressed.

In another related study that showed that biology is not destiny, Jerome Kagan tracked the level of "high-reactivity temperaments" in newborns through ages 4 and 5. By the time children where 4, Kagan found that 87% of the high-reactive children had become less fearful. These children are likely to become shy introverts, but not all will. They also have a high risk—Kagan estimates it at 1 in 10—of developing an anxiety disorder. Whether they do depends largely on the environment in which they are raised in and the events they experience.

Increasingly, mainstream mental health is moving closer toward the coaching model: it's not that people have a biological condition that needs treatement; it's more helpful to provide an environment in which people can minimize their genetic shortcomings and maximize their strengths, learning to work with what they have.

Social worker Janice Genevro's examination of 500 studies on grief and bereavement has resulted in a report published by the Center for the Advancement for Health; it concludes that—similar to recent findings concerning trauma debriefing—counseling someone who has lost a loved one may do more harm than good. The report states that—contrary to mainstream counseling approaches in recent decades that have attempted to apply Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' research on the dying to those who are grieving—there is no single approach that can be applied to everyone, grief therapy doesn't shorten grieving, and such therapy doesn't significantly alleviate the intensity or side effects of grieving.

The report did state that counseling is helpful for complicated grief: such grief involves a deterioration in health, an inability to recognize that the deceased is really dead, intrusive thoughts about the deceased, a near compulsive over activity, extreme or prolonged guilt, and feelings of self-blame and worthlessness that do not abate 6 to 8 months after the death of the loved one.

Findings such as this reinforce how important it is to work with a personal coach who can tailor counseling techniques for the individual needs of clients. Some clients need not to talk about it, and the counselor needs to be skilled enough to understand this need.

The May issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter provided intriguing information about a shift in drug and alcohol education for children. The report indicates that there is currently a shift away from "Drug Abuse Resistance Education" (DARE) and toward programs that stress harm prevention instead of abstinence. Such harm-reduction programs use cognitive-behavioral techniques; their goals are to reduce anticipation of positive drug effects, explain the negative effects, promote self-esteem and social skills, teach young people to resist peer pressure, and focus on the pleasures that come from choosing a healthy lifestyle. Controlled studies show a lowering in the rate of alcohol-related problems. In an Australian study, the graduates of the harm-reduction program—one and a half years after completion—still reported 23% less harm than the comparison group.

The May issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter published a review of current knowledge about women and depression. Here are some highlights:

• In the United States, the ratio of men to women diagnosed as depressed is two to one, and depression is the main cause of disability in women.
• A survey of 30,000 people in 30 countries has found that, in similar circumstances, women are more likely than men to say they are under stress. Other studies have shown that women are three times more likely to report that their depression started as a result of a stressful event.
• Single mothers with young children have a particularly high rate of depression.
• Women are more likely than men to cite physical symptoms when depressed. If physical symptoms are discounted, the rate of depression would be the same in both genders.
• Poverty, single motherhood, having other children, and having an unwanted pregnancy are high risk factors for postpartum depression.
• The latest research indicates that all antidepressant drugs are probably equally effective in both genders.
• When counseling depressed women, it is highly recommended to work on interpersonal issues, such as building skills in effectively managing and communicating within important relationships.