‘Politics’ at Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life, Page 8

So, stress before and during pregnancy affects not only the gender of the baby but their future health and, so we are told, their intelligence. Not too much pressure, then!

Being diagnosed with a serious mental illness and being diagnosed with cancer are as bad as each other, according to just over half of British adults. A similar proportion describes people with mental illness as dangerous or scary.

It’s September 11th, and I’ve been wondering about that phrase ‘post-9/11’. Politicians use it often in referring to how the world changed following the terrorist attacks 6 years ago. I wonder whether they think we all share the same understanding; or do they just want us to think that they share ours? How DID the world change after 9/11? What does that phrase ‘post-9/11’ mean to you?

In response to the recent publication of World Health Organisation research into depression in The Lancet, the UK’s Mental Health Foundation calls attention to the cost to the economy of mental health problems: some 30 billion pounds in direct costs, and nearly 100 billion pounds when other social and health factors are included.

Headline writers are having a field day with the results of a meta-analysis to be published in The Lancet which found that cannabis users are 40% more likely than non-users to develop psychotic symptoms. Radio, print, and internet publications urge that more must be done to warn the public of the risks of cannabis use. But hold on, did the headline writers miss the lesson on correlation vs. causation in their Science for Journalists class?