Most of us know it’s important to be satisfied in a romantic relationship and yet, at some point in our lives, many of us have continued to engage in a relationship of which we were unhappy. So, what’s the big deal with staying in a romantic relationship which no longer fulfills us?
It’s tough to keep up with the “latest and greatest” interventions for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It seems like there’s constantly a new “breakthrough” that never fully delivers. As a scientist-practitioner, I don’t pay much attention until I see a strong research base. So until recently, I’ve all but ignored claims that psychedelic drugs (MDMA, psilocybin, etc.) could bolster recovery from PTSD. However, it’s tough to ignore the successes reported in a recent Phase 3 trial.
I recently received some feedback on training materials I put together, about how PTSD develops after a combat trauma. I had mentioned that classical conditioning explains how stimuli that occur in close proximity can become associated, resulting in conditioned responses. Of course, I mentioned Pavlov, because, dogs! Right? I might also have mentioned that our family dog salivates and does a little happy dance right on cue every morning when I grind the coffee, just before I walk over and scoop her food into the dish.
Since 2001, more than 2.6 million U.S. military personnel have been deployed in support of Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and New Dawn. Between 2001 and 2016, more than 350,000 cases of traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been diagnosed in active duty Service members, most of which are concussive TBI (cTBI), also known as mild TBI.
The much-anticipated movie “Concussion” was released on Christmas Day, and already there is Oscar Award talk for Will Smith, who plays the role of Dr. Bennet Omalu. It was Dr. Omalu who discovered the tragic progressive degenerative effects of years of multiple concussions in NFL players, which he named CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). The film highlights the NFL’s initial response of anger and denial. Indeed, since Dr. Omalu’s discovery in 2002, the NFL has experienced lawsuits, exposés, and finger-pointing in general.