Social anxiety

MycoMeditations Surveys Show Lasting Benefits of Psilocybin Therapy for Major Depression and Anxiety Disorders

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 20, 2024

TREASURE BEACH, Jamaica, Feb. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- MycoMeditations, a pioneer in legal psilocybin-assisted therapy retreats, today announced the results of two years of longitudinal (long-term) client surveys exploring the impact of its psilocybin retreats on individuals suffering with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). The findings complement MycoMeditations' previously released surveys focused on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Key Points: 
  • The findings complement MycoMeditations' previously released surveys focused on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
  • MycoMeditations employed the PHQ-9, GAD-7, and SM-SAD-Adult questionnaires to measure self-reported symptom severity and long-term outcomes across MDD, GAD, and SAD, respectively.
  • Clinically significant improvements were maintained for one year following retreat for each Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety, and Social Anxiety, suggesting possible long-term efficacy of psilocybin-assisted therapy.
  • The data suggests the viability of multiple psilocybin treatments in a short period of time when coupled with therapy, as MycoMeditations retreats are 7-nights with 3 psilocybin sessions on alternating days.

Truman Capote was ruined when he published his society friends’ secrets. Was Answered Prayers worth it?

Retrieved on: 
Friday, February 16, 2024

In November 1975, Truman Capote, the proudly gay author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood, unveiled the hotly anticipated second instalment of his unpublished novel, Answered Prayers.

Key Points: 
  • In November 1975, Truman Capote, the proudly gay author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood, unveiled the hotly anticipated second instalment of his unpublished novel, Answered Prayers.
  • Capote ended his days a social pariah in his former New York society circles, incapacitated by a lifetime of prodigious substance abuse.
  • The story to blame, La Côte Basque, 1965, takes its title from its setting: an achingly fashionable French restaurant in Manhattan.
  • However, Mrs. Hopkins was une autre chose: a sensation to unsettle the suavest Côte Basque client.
  • Mrs. Kennedy and her sister had elicited not a murmur, nor had the entrances of Lauren Bacall and Katharine Cornell and Clare Booth Luce.
  • However, Mrs. Hopkins was une autre chose: a sensation to unsettle the suavest Côte Basque client.

The real-life ‘Mrs. Bang-Bang’

  • There was talk of the spate of burglaries that had recently occurred in the area.
  • Ann, who suffered from insecurity and social anxiety, drank more than usual.
  • Returning home with her husband, she washed down some sleeping pills and went to bed, not long after midnight.
  • At two in the morning, Ann was woken by the sound of her dog growling.

‘What I’m writing is true’

  • Regardless of whether he truly appreciated this, it seems fair to say Capote’s encounter with Ann Woodward made quite the impression on him.
  • Capote’s conception of Answered Prayers, which he struggled with and talked about for decades, developed over time.
  • In his monumental novel-cycle Remembrance of Things Past, Proust scrutinised the social machinations of the Parisian upper classes at the turn of the 20th century.
  • Capote conceived of his project – which took shape as a roman à clef – in equivalent terms.
  • What I’m writing is true, it’s real and it’s done in the very best prose style that I think any American writer could possibly achieve.
  • […] If Proust were an American living now in New York, this is what he would be doing.
  • What I’m writing is true, it’s real and it’s done in the very best prose style that I think any American writer could possibly achieve.
  • as is generally conceded, a beautiful girl of twelve or twenty, while she may merit attention, does not deserve admiration.

Masturbation, misogyny, murder

  • At the start of January 1966, Capote signed a contract with Random House for a novel titled Answered Prayers.
  • However, by the time he actually sat down to write the book, he was already under a great deal of pressure.
  • Masturbation, menstruation, misogyny, murder.
  • Readers who thought they were getting a finely wrought piece of social critique were left scratching their heads in bemusement.
  • Read more:
    In Killers of the Flower Moon, true crime reveals the paradoxes of the past

Was the book any good?


With the benefit of hindsight, I think the overwhelming majority missed the memo when it came to Answered Prayers.

  • By the same token, it is clear Answered Prayers responds to (and even builds on) advances made in his earlier work.
  • Gossip can serve a positive, even joyous function: it is a “social activity which produces and maintains the filiations” of community.
  • To put this another way: if used in a strategic and appropriate fashion, gossip can bring people together.
  • It can help to build and sustain social groupings predicated on the basis of shared knowledge (of sexual matters).
  • Consider Unspoiled Monsters, the first chapter in the posthumously published book.
  • If he had been absolutely factual, it would have been less believable but […] it might have been better.

Settling scores

  • In part, he was looking to settle scores.
  • Try as he might, Capote, who claimed his intentions had been misunderstood, couldn’t win the swans back over.
  • As chance, or maybe fate would have it, he died at exactly the same age as Ann Woodward.
  • Given how much they despised each other, I can’t help but wonder what Capote and Woodward would have made of such dismal symmetries.


Alexander Howard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

AMERICAN GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF EVIDENCE-BASED GROUP TREATMENT WEBSITE

Retrieved on: 
Monday, February 12, 2024

NEW YORK, Feb. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Group Psychotherapy Association announced the launch of an Evidence-Based Group Treatment Website at https://evidencebasedgrouptherapy.org/.

Key Points: 
  • Group Therapy Will be Key for Mental Health Treatment Access and New Website Will Serve as a Resource for Effective, Disorder Specific Group Treatments Supported by Evidence
    This website has been developed by an international team of renowned mental health professionals and supported by the American Psychological Association's Society of Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy (Division 49), the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) with funding provided by the Group Foundation for Advancing Mental Health, and the German Health Ministry.
  • The use of group can address this issue, and this website can serve as a resource for treatment information and the basis of trainings to increase practitioner's comfort in providing group therapy.
  • Moreover, agencies who provide the highest percentage of group treatment in the US could extend their group treatment offerings by employing evidence-based protocols found on the website for the most common psychiatric disorders.
  • This website is a valuable resource in providing access to information on the most effective treatments for common mental health challenges."

Emoji Can't Hug, But Real Friends Can: New Study by Ingka Centres Unveils Gen Zs Still Believe in the Power of In-Person Connection

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 6, 2024

One of the many surprising findings is that 66% of Gen Zs prefer connecting with friends IRL (In Real Life), rather than meeting up and socialising online.

Key Points: 
  • One of the many surprising findings is that 66% of Gen Zs prefer connecting with friends IRL (In Real Life), rather than meeting up and socialising online.
  • Regardless of the digital savviness, they believe time spent together in person can help build trust (65%) and lead to more quality time (66%).
  • Top activities Gen Zs love out of home include board games (18%), DIY (15%) and arts & crafts (12%).
  • Whether they're hanging out with friends or making new ones, there's a real wish for spaces that are inclusive, welcoming and playful.

Emoji Can't Hug, But Real Friends Can: New Study by Ingka Centres Unveils Gen Zs Still Believe in the Power of In-Person Connection

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 6, 2024

One of the many surprising findings is that 66% of Gen Zs prefer connecting with friends IRL (In Real Life), rather than meeting up and socialising online.

Key Points: 
  • One of the many surprising findings is that 66% of Gen Zs prefer connecting with friends IRL (In Real Life), rather than meeting up and socialising online.
  • Regardless of the digital savviness, they believe time spent together in person can help build trust (65%) and lead to more quality time (66%).
  • Top activities Gen Zs love out of home include board games (18%), DIY (15%) and arts & crafts (12%).
  • Whether they're hanging out with friends or making new ones, there's a real wish for spaces that are inclusive, welcoming and playful.

Butler University, Nearpeer Announce "Belonging Before Arriving" Community of Practice to Improve Student Connection & Well-being

Retrieved on: 
Monday, February 5, 2024

INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearpeer, the leading peer-to-peer student platform for universities, today announced a new partnership with Butler University's Institute for Well-Being  to establish a working Community of Practice for higher education leaders to collaborate on data-driven approaches to creating a foundation for new student success with a focus on intentionally fostering a greater student sense of belonging early in their college journey. The Community of Practice comes at a pivotal time for the U.S. as it faces record levels of youth and young adults reporting anxiety, depression, isolation, and loneliness. 

Key Points: 
  • The collaboration will focus its efforts on "Belonging Before Arriving," to ensure incoming students feel a greater sense of community and connection before they matriculate.
  • This initiative is designed to support higher education leaders in enhancing the new student experience and promoting greater belonging, well-being and inclusion.
  • Through the ongoing work of Butler's Institute and Nearpeer's student impact studies , the partners will focus on the "ABCs" of student engagement, which include Authenticity, Belonging, and Connection.
  • The Community of Practice will build on the results Butler has achieved with Nearpeer for its own Fall 2023 entering students, who had more than 60 percent voluntary adoption of Nearpeer.

Lindus Health Introduces Bespoke "All-In-One CRO for Digital Therapeutics" Solution to Companies in the Space Streamline Clinical Trials

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 1, 2024

Lindus Health's new offering for the DTx market bundles the services of an experienced CRO in DTx.

Key Points: 
  • Lindus Health's new offering for the DTx market bundles the services of an experienced CRO in DTx.
  • This offering is intended to produce a true "one-stop-shop" experience for everything needed to run a DTx clinical trial.
  • Technology-driven recruitment services: Lindus Health employs a variety of different strategies to accelerate DTx trials.
  • Lindus Health's "All-In-One CRO" offering enables DTx companies to achieve study milestones faster through their tech-forward and patient-centric approach to executing clinical trials.

Brain Mechanism Teaches Mice to Avoid Bullies

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, January 24, 2024

NEW YORK, Jan. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Like humans, mice live in complex social groups, fight over territory and mates, and learn when it is safer to avoid certain opponents. After losing even a brief fight, the defeated animals will flee from the mice that hurt them for weeks afterward, a new study shows.

Key Points: 
  • After losing even a brief fight, the defeated animals will flee from the mice that hurt them for weeks afterward, a new study shows.
  • The team had previously found that this special region, called the anterior ventrolateral part of the ventromedial hypothalamus (aVMHvl), helps rodents defend themselves against bullies' attacks.
  • The study showed that when rival mice first meet, scent information about opponents is not strong enough to activate aVMHvl cells to prompt a retreat.
  • In addition, the findings revealed that pain prompted the immediate activation of oxytocin-releasing brain cells located right next to the aVMHvl.

1 in 3 people are lonely. Will AI help, or make things worse?

Retrieved on: 
Sunday, January 7, 2024

However, one area receiving less attention is the tool’s usefulness as a conversationalist and – dare we say – as a potential friend.

Key Points: 
  • However, one area receiving less attention is the tool’s usefulness as a conversationalist and – dare we say – as a potential friend.
  • Microsoft’s Bing chatbot alarmed users earlier this year when it threatened and attempted to blackmail them.
  • While generative AI itself is relatively new, the fields of belonging and human-computer interaction have been explored reasonably well, with results that may surprise you.

Can you make friends with a robot?

  • When social media became popular about a decade later, interest in this space exploded.
  • The 2021 Nobel Prize-winning book Klara and the Sun explores how humans and life-like machines might form meaningful relationships.
  • And with increasing interest came increasing concern, borne of evidence that belonging (and therefore loneliness) can be impacted by technology use.

The rise of robot companions


As researchers in the fields of technology, leadership and psychology, we wanted to investigate how ChatGPT might influence people’s feelings of loneliness and supportedness. Importantly, does it have a net positive benefit for users’ wellbeing and belonging? To study this, we asked 387 participants about their usage of AI, as well as their general experience of social connection and support. We found that:

Read more:
I tried the Replika AI companion and can see why users are falling hard. The app raises serious ethical questions

AI friends are okay, but you still need people

  • Overall our results indicate that social support can come from either humans or AI – and that working with AI can indeed help people.
  • So while making friends with AI may not combat loneliness, it can still help us feel connected, which is better than nothing.

The takeaway

  • When used in moderation, a relationship with an AI bot could provide positive functional and emotional benefits.
  • Acknowlegement: the authors would like to acknowledge Bianca Pani for her contributions to the research discussed in this article.


The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Bionomics Presents Detailed Data on the Validity and Reliability of the Subjective Units of Distress Scale at the 2023 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Annual Meeting

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, December 6, 2023

A psychometric analysis concluded that Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) is a psychometrically valid, sensitive, and reliable tool for evaluation of social anxiety.

Key Points: 
  • A psychometric analysis concluded that Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) is a psychometrically valid, sensitive, and reliable tool for evaluation of social anxiety.
  • SUDS will be used as the primary outcome in future Phase 3 social anxiety disorder (SAD) clinical trials.
  • Reliability: The reliability of the SUDS at 20- and 30-minutes post-challenge was very high for both the placebo and the full population.
  • Validity: Baseline SUDS scores demonstrated good convergent validity when compared with State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) scores.