Diary-Writing Has Psychological Benefits - Journal of Happiness Studies

Writing has long been used as a coping strategy and has been applied to improve psychological well-being. One study found that suicidal poets used more first-person singular pronouns (I, me, my) than the control group of poets.

This study from Taiwan, published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, investigated the psychological displacement paradigm in diary-writing (PDPD) and its supposed psychological benefits.

Study participants were randomly assigned to write about their recent negative life experiences two times a week for 2 weeks in PDPD group (diary-writing), or comparison group (no diary-writing).

The diary-writing group (PDPD) showed a decrease in negative emotion and an increase in positive emotion immediately after each writing session (short term effect).

They also had an increase in psychological well-being for at least 2 weeks (long term effect).

References:

The Psychological Displacement Paradigm in Diary-Writing (PDPD) and its Psychological Benefits. Jen-Ho Chang, Chin-Lan Huang and Yi-Cheng Lin. JOURNAL OF HAPPINESS STUDIES 2012, DOI: 10.1007/s10902-012-9321-y

Comments from Google Plus and Twitter:

Lin W: I guess blog writing might have the same effect?

Ves Dimov, M.D.: It depends on the type of blogging you do, but yes, blogging can be a positive experience too.

Dr. Amal Hasan @DrFloona: Diary-Writing Has Psychological Benefits bit.ly/wwMDmr” Until someone else reads it

Dean Giustini @giustini: Diary-Writing Has Psychological Benefits bit.ly/wwMDmr [Isn't this why we blog Ves?]

@DrVes: Well, I'm not sure. I don't blog about "negative experiences". Blog = archive for me

Risks and Benefits for Physicians Who Use Social Media/Web 2.0

From the newsletter of the AMA, AmMed News: "Social media behavior could threaten your physician reputation and job prospects. Less is more." How do you expect doctors to use social media more when they are "bombarded" with headlines like this. There is little on the positive aspects of social media in this particular article although the AmMed News has published some better, more nuanced and balanced, reports on social media use in the past.

Practical benefits of social media for a physician practice

In addition to the obvious benefits for a physician practice to be open and social, there are some practical advantages of using social media. KevinMD shares the example of a patient who searches for "primary care doctor Nashua" (where he works) and Kevin is in the top search results due to his heavy use of social media - blog, Twitter, RSS, email subscriptions and Facebook. He also employs some "white hat" search engine optimization to ensure that his relevant pages are well-ranked by the search engines.

Benefits of social media in day-to-day clinical work

I use my own blogs as an useful archive of hand-picked and reviewed articles that is classified with appropriate labels (e.g. asthma, food allergy, etc.) and is fully searchable from any Internet-connected device: desktop PC, laptop, netbook, iPhone and even Kindle. All doctors may benefit if they use a similar resource created by them.

Let me give you a few real-life examples of social media use in clinical work:

- A patient needed instructions on dust mite control - I pulled my own mind map on the screen and discuss it with them http://bit.ly/cSxpQW

- A patient wanted to know about the new angioedema therapies - I pulled a different mind map and we discussed the different options http://bit.ly/caWmS7

- A colleague was unsure about "wine allergy" and its connection to wasp and bee venom - I searched my own blog on the cell phone: http://bit.ly/cykR2g and found a relevant article that I had read months ago which answered his clinical question http://bit.ly/bCdoeg

When working on the blog, I am often more like a "curator" of medical content (collecting the best articles and links) rather than a "producer" (creator of de novo content). Sometimes a doctor with a smartphone is more helpful than "a crowd" ("wisdom of crowds" or not) trying to recall an obscure fact, disease or complication from distant memory.

Benefits of social media for academic collaboration

The benefit of social media in academia is well-proven at this point if one is inclined to use such tools. For example, I have co-written more than 100 abstracts and 25 articles with the help of the online office suite Google Docs.

However, I don't think that a physician not using social media is at risk of becoming irrelevant (something mentioned recently). This is a limiting view.

I look forward to your feedback Please let me know what your think in the comment form embedded below this post.

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Benefits and Dangers as Doctors Start to Use Social Media

From Medscape:

"Dr. Choi has more than 3000 Facebook friends, many of whom are patients and colleagues.

But he draws the line at talking about cases with colleagues or sending diagnoses or test results to patients on networking sites. "I can't do any patient care using their messaging or using the site because it's not HIPAA-compliant," Dr. Choi says. "I'll pick up the phone to discuss a case."

Because doctors can be hesitant to share their e-mail addresses -- and regular e-mail is not secure to HIPAA standards -- it's not unheard of for people to find their doctors on Facebook. But the doctors interviewed generally say they avoid making diagnoses or communicating test results over the Internet."

References:

Doctors and Social Media: Benefits and Dangers. Medscape, 2010.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/711717

Bloggers, too much sitting can offset the benefits of regular exercise

Participation in sport is associated with a with a 20—40% reduction in all-cause mortality compared with non-participation. Exercise might also be considered as a fifth vital sign, according to the Lancet: http://goo.gl/gyxYf

From the NYTimes:

Wrong: Sitting at your cubicle. Better: Walking while clicking and talking.

Your chair is your enemy.

It doesn’t matter if you go running every morning, or you’re a regular at the gym. If you spend most of the rest of the day sitting — in your car, your office chair, on your sofa at home — you are putting yourself at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, a variety of cancers and an early death.

In other words, irrespective of whether you exercise vigorously, sitting for long periods is bad for you.

"Health Promotion" video: Benefits of exercise.

References:

Stand Up While You Read This! - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com
How to Exercise WHILE Blogging or Doing Other Computer Work

A NYTimes skeptic doubts that decreasing salt intake would have any benefits (it may even hurt)

From the NYtimes:

"The harder the experts try to save Americans, the fatter we get. Officials responded by advising Americans to shun fat, which became the official villain of the national dietary guidelines during the 1980s and 1990s. The anti-fat campaign definitely made an impact on the marketing of food, but as we gobbled up all the new low-fat products, we kept getting fatter. Eventually, in 2000, the experts revised the dietary guidelines and conceded that their anti-fat advice may have contributed to diabetes and obesity by unintentionally encouraging Americans to eat more calories.

“When you reduce salt, you reduce blood pressure, but there can also be other adverse and unintended consequences. As more data have accumulated, it’s less and less supportive of the case for salt reduction, but the advocates seem more determined than ever to change policy.”

References:

Findings - When It Comes to Salt, No Rights or Wrongs. Yet. - NYTimes.com.

3-gram reduction in daily salt intake would decrease coronary heart disease, stroke, and death
Sweat Bees prefer sweaty people because the human diet is so salty that their perspiration is saturated with that essential nutrient. WSJ, 2012.

Image source: Single-serving salt packets. Wikipedia, GNU Free Documentation License.

Health benefits of chocolate

The health benefits of chocolate may include:

- Reduction of blood pressure by eating 6 grams of dark chocolate per day. Probably due to the flavonol epicatechin
- Reduction of platelet and endothelial cell activation
- Reduction of inflammatory mediators
- It can also inhibit oral caries
- It can cross the blood brain barrier and increase cerebral blood flow in humans

From Writer's Almanac:

Ode to Chocolate by Barbara Crooker (excerpt)

I hate milk chocolate, don't want clouds
of cream diluting the dark night sky,
don't want pralines or raisins, rubble
in this smooth plateau. I like my coffee
black, my beer from Germany, wine
from Burgundy, the darker, the better.

References:
The Essence of Chocolate. Dr Shock MD PhD, 2010.
Chocolate could lower blood pressure but the required dose may be too much - BMJ http://goo.gl/uoBN
Chocolate linked to substantial reduction in risk of cardiometabolic disorders but evidence not of best quality. BMJ, 2011.

Photo Essay: Making Chocolate in Belize http://goo.gl/2DPi

Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.

Health Benefits of Pets - Mayo Clinic Video

May 10, 2010 — Health Benefits of Pets.

People will do a lot for their pets - see below:

- Somebody found a solution: Smokers are motivated to quit to protect their pets from secondhand smoke http://is.gd/iZ58

- "Do it for Fido: smokers may quit smoking because of their pet" http://is.gd/iZtQ

Why doctors should use social media: it benefits their patients enormously

Wendy Sue Swanson, who blogs as Seattle Mama Doc, is a pediatrician in Seattle who recently gave a keynote at the Swedish Medical Center as part of their 2010 Health Care Symposium. See for yourself why doctors must use social media to stay uptodate and educate the public:



Link via KevinMD