Category: Opinion

Low alcohol wine? You may just neck the whole bottle!

Why low alcohol messages may not be the answer…

Over the last few years a lot of the alcohol research I have been involved in has been looking at helping people make better decisions about their alcohol consumption. Drinking too much has massive implication for society – it contributes to a generally high prevalence of people being overweight (alcohol is highly calorific) and people consuming alcohol takes a toll on society – both in terms of long term health care costs (i.e. people being at increased risk of heart and liver disease) but also in terms of alcohol related violence. Public health campaigns encouraging us to drink responsibly have met with limited success, and it’s not a problem that will go away. One possible way we could be approach this is by making low alcohol wines and beers more widely available – giving people a choice of a less calorific, less intoxicating drink. But would this work? Me and some colleagues from LSBU’s Centre for Addictive Behaviours Research teamed up with Cambridge University’s Behaviour and Health Research Unit to start finding out out…

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Should big tobacco be involved in harm reduction?

Smoking amongst people with mental health problems

I recently attended a fascinating talk on the topic of smoking cessation amongst people with mental health problems.The argument the presentation made was (as I understood it) that for many people with mental health problems, nicotine is actually a fairly helpful psychoactive substance – in that it can allow people to experience a reduction in anxiety, increase cognitive focus and help them structure their lives. The presenter also argued that e-cigarettes appear to be a low harm way of delivering nicotine and, as such, we should consider ways of encouraging uptake amongst this population. What did I think of  the ideas?

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The downsides of positive thinking

Positive thinking

We think of positive thinking as a good thing right? Self-improving, make stuff happen, avoid doubt and feeling bad type stuff? An intriguing post I came across this week (retweeted by @amber_saying on twitter) suggests it is not quite so straight forward… Interesting and thought provoking read!

7 Brutal Truths about I learnt after I gave up positive thinking (ideapod blogpost)

 

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Brexit is still very much about how people feel

Way back before the Brexit vote I wrote a post on why I was going to vote to stay in the EU, and how I felt when the vote went the other way. As you imagine, a lot has happened since then – we have had a crazy general election, and we still have no idea what Brexit will look like. But what do people feel about it now?

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Is it time for a Nobel prize in Psychology?

Nobel Prize in Psyhcology

Thaler wins Nobel prize in Psychology Economics

In October 2017 one of the authors of the modern classic ‘Nudge’, economist Richard Thaler, won the Nobel Prize in Economics. But is Thaler really a social psychologist in disguise? And should the discipline get a ‘Nobel-esque’ prize of it’s own? Where is the Nobel prize in Psychology?

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