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Behavioral Health
How to fix a toxic workplace
Is the workplace really any more toxic than it once was? Despite improvements in equality and discrimination, greater awareness of calling out toxic environments is having an impact. So what are employees, and businesses, doing about it?
How self-harm images on Instagram affect viewers
A new study at the Annenberg Public Policy Center investigates the relationship between exposure to self-harm on Instagram and subsequent self-harm and suicidal ideations.
Trauma linked to earlier puberty, premature brain development, and mental illness
A Penn study details the effects of poverty and trauma on brain and behavior in youths.
Children who nap midday are happier, excel academically, and have fewer behavioral problems
A Penn study of nearly 3,000 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders in China revealed strong connections between 30 to 60 minutes of shuteye at least three days a week and positive outcomes in a handful of areas.
Names prompt distinct brain activity in preschoolers
A study from Penn and CHOP found that when preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder hear their name, their neural patterns match those of their typically developing peers. The finding held regardless of whether the child’s mom or a stranger called the name.
Training physician-scholars to see patients as people, not categories
The anthropology M.D.-Ph.D. program, recently graduating its first two students, combines clinical and ethnographic skills aimed at working with and caring for society’s marginalized.
Survey examines emergency department management of deliberate self-harm
SP2’s Steven Marcus’ new study examines how routinely emergency room staff members properly provide help to individuals who present for self-harm, and how to improve emergency care for high-risk patients.
For Kennett Square’s mushroom farmworkers, healthy interventions come directly to the workplace
With the President’s Engagement Prize, seniors José Maciel and Antonio Renteria plan to bring subjects like nutrition and sleep to the workers, reinforcing preventive screenings already provided by a local, federally qualified health center.
Childhood trauma has lasting effect on brain connectivity in patients with depression
A study led by Penn Medicine researchers found that childhood trauma is linked to abnormal connectivity in the brain in adults with major depressive disorder.
The placebo cure
Drug researchers use control groups to measure the efficacy of their drug tests. What happens when the control group responds? Science proves the placebo effect is indeed medicine itself.
In the News
Americans are sleeping more than ever. See how you compare
Mathias Basner of the Perelman School of Medicine says that work and traveling are the major sleep killers, with the majority of traveling being commuting to and from work.
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How does fat leave the body? Experts explain the weight loss process
Colleen Tewksbury of the School of Nursing and Perelman School of Medicine says that waist circumference is a more accessible and potentially more helpful measure for fat loss than stepping on a scale.
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When it’s time for an aging driver to hit the brakes
Lauren Massimo of the School of Nursing says that losing the ability to drive is a major and dehumanizing loss for older adults.
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Many parents give their children melatonin at night. Here’s why you may not want to
Ilene Rosen of the Perelman School of Medicine supports practicing proven-bedtime-routine behaviors and avoiding bright lights and electronics in the bedroom to encourage the body’s natural production of melatonin.
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Why are older Americans drinking so much?
David Oslin of the Perelman School of Medicine says that alcohol use can have much more disastrous consequences for older adults, whose bodies cannot process it as quickly.
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Best CPAP alternatives
Richard Schwab of the Perelman School of Medicine says that obstructive sleep apnea causes breathing to pause during sleep when something like the tongue or relaxed throat muscles blocks the airway.
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