Many Explanations for Why Patients Overreport Their Symptoms

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Many Explanations for Why Patients Overreport Their Symptoms

Some mental health patients report more symptoms than they actually experience and this is often attributed to malingering, when people intentionally inflate their symptoms for some benefit. The assumption that such patients are malingering tends to overshadow alternative explanations, even though research indicates that there are actually multiple pathways that could lead to overreporting. Researcher Harald Merckelbach of Maastricht University and colleagues review the available data and detail some of these alternative explanations in Current Directions in Psychological Science. More

How to Harness Your Anxiety

Anxiety has long been one of the most feared enemies in our emotional canon. We fear its arrival, feel helpless and trapped under its spell, and grant it power to overtake us in new, exciting and challenging situations. But what if we’ve been going about it all wrong? Research shows More

What’s Life Like After Depression? Surprisingly, Little Is Known

A generation ago, depression was viewed as an unwanted guest: a gloomy presence that might appear in the wake of a loss or a grave disappointment and was slow to find the door. The people it haunted could acknowledge the poor company — I’ve been a little depressed since my More

Myth: People With Mental Illness Are More Prone to Violence

Instructors should be prepared to listen for —and challenge — belief perseverance, and can use this myth to highlight how automatic and difficult belief perseverance can be to overcome. More

Treating Teen Depression Might Improve Mental Health Of Parents, Too

An estimated 12.8 percent of adolescents in the U.S. experience at least one episode of major depression, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. According to previous studies, many of those teens’ mental health is linked to depression in their parents. But new research suggests there’s a flipside to More

Suicides Have Increased. Is This an Existential Crisis?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released startling new statistics on the rise of deaths by suicide in the United States, which are up 25 percent since 1999 across most ethnic and age groups. These numbers clearly point to a crisis — but of what kind? Many argue More