Treatment of Depression Is Often Ineffective The key to successful treatment of depression may be treating the insomnia that accompanies it. What New Research is Changing Attitudes? Rachel Manber at Stanford studied cognitive behavioral treatments for insomniac, depressed people. When their insomnia was fixed following CBT, depression treatment success doubled. Get them to sleep and they stopped being depressed. […]
Make It (Money) While You Fake It (11/11/13)
Herbal or Verbal? We’ve said it before but it’s more true than we knew – herbal medicines often don’t contain what they claim. New research looking at “DNA barcoding” found widespread fraud in herbal medicines. How Do We Know? Researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario did a blind DNA test on 44 herbal […]
To Sleep – Perchance to Drive (8/26/13)
Safe to Drive? The FDA has recently requested sleeping pill manufacturers conduct more “morning after” driving tests. Getting sleep is important, but remaining sleepy while operating a vehicle is another story. They should have spoken to the police in New Zealand. Recently police in Hamilton received an odd call. A woman called about her friend. […]
Amazing Ambien (3/19/12)
The Rock Star Drug Steve Tyler of Aeorosmith took it to sooth an aching foot. He fell off the stage. One Calgary man claimed it made him take a bottle of vodka out of the fridge, down it and drive directly into other cars – all while he was asleep! My patients have woken with […]
Speak, Memory (2/18/13)
Sleep’s Memory How do we remember? What do we try to forget? What do we forget without trying? As in many areas of consciousness, sleep is a key. Vladimir Nabokov was a formidable novelist, essayist and lepidopterist. He recognized evolutionary changes in butterflies decades before his colleagues. Yet he is better known as the author […]