The show on how we think, feel and behave. Claudia Hammond delves into the evidence on mental health, psychology and neuroscience.
Why does one child become rebellious and another not? Claudia Hammond talks to Mark McDermott from the University of East London about new research into parenting and rebelliousness. She also hears from another shortlisted entry to the All in the Mind mental health awards. Plus, a scheme to fast track mental health social workers. Will this improve the image of the profession? Claudia Hammond reports on the new Think Ahead proposals.
Are mental health services in crisis? Claudia Hammond talks to Sue Bailey, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, about her fears that mental health is at a tipping point and could be heading towards its own Stafford Hospital style scandal. Martin McShane from NHS England and Minister for Care and Support, Norman Lamb, respond. Claudia talks to historian, Jay Winter about why he believes shell shock in World War One was hugely underdiagnosed. And she hears from Mindout, a support group...
Claudia Hammond is joined by mental health campaigner, Marion Janner to discuss some of the entries to the All in the Mind mental health awards. She hears from one pair of finalists, Helen and Lin. Helen nominated her mental health nurse, Lin in the professional category. Helen explains the difference Lin's help made and how she believes she saved her life. Also in the programme in World War I the Craiglockhart hospital near Edinburgh was a military psychiatric hospital treating shell shocked so...
Claudia Hammond reports on a mental health triage scheme being run by Leicestershire police force, which has led to a decrease in the number of people with mental illness being detained under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act. Praising children with low self-esteem may seem like a good way to boost their confidence, but a new study by psychologist Eddie Brummelman of Utrecht University suggests that this can backfire and make them less likely to take on new challenges. Scott Stossel describes...
Claudia Hammond asks whether the use of physical restraint in mental health services should be eliminated. She's joined by Jimmy Noak, director of nursing at Broadmoor Hospital, and by service user consultant, Jane McGrath, to find out what restraint involves, when it's used, when it goes wrong and why some people even ask for restraint for themselves when they are in crisis. Also Claudia talks to Sophie Forster from Sussex University about her research into mind wandering and asks whether mind ...
Claudia Hammond finds out why your exercise regime could be hindered if you have been taxing your brain too much. She talks to Professor Samuele Marcora from the University of Kent about his research on why the chemical by products of being mentally exhausted can actually make physical exercise much harder. He discusses his new research with the Ministry of Defence where he is finding that soldiers can be trained to resist the overwhelming effects of cognitive fatigue. Also in the programme the ...
Claudia takes a musical journey inside the brain looking at the very latest neuroscientific research on everything from how we notice patterns in music to why the beat can be so powerful. We're not born with musical ability, but the brain is an efficient machine that lets us learn the rules. But what about the people who can't understand music? And how can our emotional responses to music be used therapeutically? When it comes to understanding the mind and the brain, the beauty of music is that ...
Why rituals like blowing out candles on a birthday cake table before eating it can improve the taste. Claudia Hammond talks to Michael Norton from Harvard University about his new research on the powerful effect of rituals on food and how it can work for chocolate and even carrots. Why people with an extraordinary ability to remember every details of their life and the events going on years ago are still susceptible to false memories. What does this reveal about how our memories work? More on th...
Claudia goes behind the scenes of the Science Museum's new psychology exhibition, Mind Maps. How do you change teenagers' negative body images? Psychological strategies can help young people defend themselves against unrealistic expectations and stop them "fat talking". Claudia Hammond reports on a new study by Dr Helen Sharpe of Kings College London Last week All in the Mind launched its 25th anniversary Awards scheme. This week clinical psychologist and All in the Mind Award judge Guy Holmes e...
For its 25th anniversary All in the Mind launches 3 new awards to recognise outstanding help, support or advice in the field of mental health. Claudia Hammond explains the categories and how to nominate. Also in the programme, a new look at one of the most famous and controversial psychology experiments ever. In 1961 Stanley Milgram ran a series of experiments where unwitting volunteers were ordered to give increasing electric shocks to a man they'd never met under the guise of research into mem...
In this special anniversary programme Claudia Hammond looks at developments in neuroscience and how our understanding of the brain has changed. In 1988 scientists predicted that new techniques of scanning the brain would lead to exciting innovative treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Researchers were enthusiastic about the possibilities of seeing what went on in the brain. Many had high hopes that this would help us understand how and why mental health problems d...
The first ever edition of All in the Mind was broadcast 25 years ago. In the second of three anniversary programmes Claudia Hammond and guests look back at archive editions of the programme to examine what impact psychology research has had on our lives over the last 25 years. How does evidence-based psychology affect policy decisions? Is psychology just 'proving the obvious' or has it offered insights into ourselves which we could never have guessed?
The first ever edition of All in the Mind was broadcast in October 1988. For its 25th anniversary, Claudia Hammond is joined by community psychiatrist, Graham Thornicroft, Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind and by the artist, Bobby Baker to look back at archive editions of the programme and explore how attitudes to mental health have changed in the last 25 years. Have campaigns to raise awareness of mental health been successful and how far is there still to go? More and more public figures ar...
The introduction of the equality act has focussed attention on mental health services for older people. Sixty five used to be the cut off point for adult services, after which people were referred to old age psychiatry departments. Now though there is a trend towards ageless psychiatry and a one size fits all service. As the Baby Boomers hit sixty five is this a welcome move or will it lead to a loss of expertise and worsening services? Understanding the structure of DNA has revolutionised how n...
The Case of the Bipolar Sufferer and her Legal Battle for an Abortion S.B. is a 37 year old woman with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. She wanted a baby but when she was pregnant, became ill, and was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. She then said she couldn't cope with having a baby and began requesting an abortion. Her husband, her mother and the psychiatrists treating her argued that the termination shouldn't go ahead, because S.B. wasn't of "sound mind". Deborah Bowman, Professor of Bi...
An ancient memory training technique is being used to help people with depression. When someone is depressed they can find it hard to remember happier times. Dr Tim Dalgleish's study used the method of loci, associating familiar places with positive memories. What is the best way to treat mental health problems around the world? Vikram Patel, a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Sangath Centre in Goa in India, and Professor Pat Bracken, P...
Education Neuromyths Many teachers are interested in the workings of the brain and how neuroscience might help their students to learn. But new research suggests that like the rest of the us, teachers have picked up many myths about the mind. Common neuromyths in wide circulation are that children have to be taught in their preferred learning styles in order to absorb information; that we only use 10% of our brains and that doing special co-ordination exercises helps the two hemispheres our our ...
In the US scientists are working out the details of President Obama's $100 million BRAIN initiative, and the EU is funding the billion euro Human Brain project. What will these expensive projects tell us, and are we even asking the right questions? Mind Hacker Vaughan Bell analyses the debate. Novelist Alex Peston talks about his essay on creativity and antidepressants, and Claudia Hammond asks Nooreen Akhtar of Aberdeen University about her analysis of how antidepressants are portrayed in the p...
Revision Techniques That Work Students up and down the UK are busy revising for exams. Claudia Hammond discovers which methods are effective from Professor John Dunlosky, and the results will send a shiver down the spine of those who've left their revision to the last minute. His review concludes that using a highlighter pen, underlining, reading and re-reading, and using mnemonics are the least effective techniques. Instead, students should do lots of practice tests and plan their revision sess...
The new edition of the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders will be launched later this month, Professor Simon Wessely discusses its potential impact in the UK. A new survey discovers that 72% of therapists have cried during a therapy session, Claudia Hammond asks should therapists cry? What is the link between sleep and mental illness? A study from Oxford University shows how chaotic sleep can be in people with schizophrenia.
Doomsday Prophets and the Nature of Belief How do you cope with believing you are very right, but finding out you that were very wrong ? Neuroscientist Dr Kris de Meyer from King's College, London, spent six weeks interviewing followers of evangelical Christian broadcaster, Harold Camping, as they waited for May 21st, 2011, the date the earth was supposed to end. The resulting film explores the psychology of belief and tracks the mental gymnastics that individuals resort to when their fundamenta...
New research shows that reading a baby's mind aids its development. Claudia Hammond reports on a new technique which helps mothers connect with their infants. Known as mind mindedness this method cuts across social groups and is being used successfully to help women with serious mental illness bond with their babies. And should people with mental illness be told the long term effects of their drugs? One listener thinks this is a message that should be handled with care. Plus, how a poem written ...
"Bob", the Armed Forces, the Police and PTSD A former member of the armed forces and a policeman, "Bob", suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD following the shocking death of a young woman that he was spending the evening with. He tells Claudia Hammond that he's only recently received the help he needed to get his life back on track and admits that he believes many people in the emergency services have, like him, untreated PTSD. The statistics confirm "Bob's" suspicions, which is why r...
Mild cognitive impairment is a condition which is often a precursor to Alzheimer's Disease, but not everyone will go on to develop the condition. If researchers could discover who does develop the disease and who doesn't it would have implications for therapy. Claudia talks to researchers about some of the latest research in this area and discovers how the loss of brain cells in a region of the brain known as the hippocampus leads to the characteristic symptoms of the disease. At the scene of a ...
Polygraph Testing for Sex Offenders Mandatory polygraph tests for sex offenders could be introduced by the end of 2013, following a pilot trial in the Midlands was judged to be a success. The controversial test is often called a "lie detector". It measures physiological arousal such as increased heart rate, respiration and sweating and the assumption is that these responses can be used to assess whether somebody's telling the truth or not. In the pilot study, convicted sex offenders who'd served...
New research by Professor Mary Cummings of MIT looks at the boredom threshold of drone operators. In a simulated study with volunteers she discovered that operators distracting themselves by playing games, or checking e-mails could help improve the performance of UAV operators, air traffic controllers and nuclear power plant operators. Author Sarah Wise talks to Claudia Hammond about the wealth of evidence she has uncovered about the rise, in 19th Century Britain, of the "mad doctor". This new g...
Sexuality and Faces - How does our "Gaydar" work ? Most of us think we're pretty good at guessing when somebody's gay or straight, but what signals are we using to make our decision, and how often are we right ? Psychologists at Queen Mary University of London are, for the first time, trying to isolate the individual signals and patterns in somebody's face, in order to work out exactly what motivates us to make a snap decision about sexuality. Using cutting edge computer imagery, researchers hav...
First CBT Psychosis Trial in the Absence of Medication Antipsychotic medication has long been seen as the first line of treatment for psychosis. In fact, prescriptions are increasing in the UK and around the world. But there's criticism that the effectiveness of these drugs has been over-estimated, and the serious side effects, underestimated. Now, in the first trial of its kind in the world, treating psychosis when people aren't taking antipsychotics using a talking therapy, Cognitive Behaviour...
In the first of a new series, presenter Claudia Hammond reports on the latest developments in neuroscience, mental health and psychology. Anna Freud was the daughter of Sigmund Freud who pioneered child psychotherapy. She set up the Hampstead War nurseries during the Second World War, which became the Anna Freud Centre after her death in 1982. The Centre is now celebrating its 60th anniversary and Claudia investigates how it has changed and asks what the founder would think of its many new proje...
Richard Mabey The man described as "Britain's greatest living nature writer", Richard Mabey, talks to Claudia Hammond about "the lost years" of his depressive illness. The author of Food for Free, Flora Britannica and Nature Cure admits that a symptom of his clinical depression was that he lost his connection with the natural world. Allotment "Young at Heart" The Young at Heart Project in Barking and Dagenham works to improve the mental and physical health of socially isolated men by bringing th...
