depression

Voice Analysis Software Could Detect Depression Over the Phone


Psychiatrists have long observed that clinically depressed people speak in a certain slow, halting monotone pattern. Now voice-analysis software could pick up on those cues over the phone and alert nurses to possible depression in existing patients.

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Nine Overhyped and Misleading Health Headlines Debunked

Does red wine make you live longer? Do bras cause cancer? Is sugar as addictive as cocaine and heroin? We uncover what headline-grabbing scientific studies really mean for your health

It takes researchers years, sometimes decades, to pin down subtle, important findings about your health, but it takes bumbling journalists (or their editors) just a few seconds to screw it all up. Here, a selection of the most misleading headlines, and a few tips to help you spot the hype early.

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Cheer Up!

We're no happier, but we are more equally unhappy

Overall, how would you say things are these days? Would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?

This is the question participants in the University of Chicago's General Social Survey have been answering since 1972. Recently, University of Pennsylvania economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers took this survey's data from 1972 through 2006 to see if people had gotten happier since the decade of bell bottoms and disco.

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The Doctor Is In

Shock Your Way to Happiness

The Doctor unveils the workings behind shock treatment


I was feeling sick I was losing my mind I heard about these treatments
From a good friend of mine he was always happy smile on his face
He said he had a great time at the place...
Gimme gimme shock treatment Gimme gimme shock treatment
Gimme gimme shock treatment I wanna, wanna shock treatment....
Peace and love is here to stay
and now I can wake up and face the day
Happy happy happy all the time shock treatment, I'm doing fine

- The Ramones

Don't stick you finger in the electrical socket! That's one of the first things you learn as a kid, right? Otherwise, as all proper cartoons show, you'll end up with singed eyebrows and a wild poufy Einstein-style 'do. But all joking aside, electrocution is a serious business. People die from electrical burns, whether they have been hit by lightening or deliberately executed in the electric chair. (If you're worried about the former, and you find yourself the tallest object in an open field during an electrical storm, LIE DOWN. If you are worried about the latter...stay out of trouble. Or write to your congress person.) Bottom line, most people prefer not to be zapped with electricity...except when it can cure disease.

Psychiatrists currently use electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for a variety of psychiatric disorders, but most commonly ECT is used for severe, treatment-resistant major depression, usually for inpatients who are too depressed to function outside the hospital.

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Moonlight Magic

A giant moonbeam reflector may shine away depression.

In Arizona´s Sonoran Desert,15 miles west of Tucson, the depressed and ailing come to bathe in the gentle blue-white beam of Richard Chapin´s 50-foot-tall moonlight collector.

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December 2009: Best of What's New

In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.

Check out the best of what's new here.

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