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Scientific American Mind Magazine (The Power to Persuade, March April 2010) volume 21 issue 1 PDF

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6 TOP MYTHS IN POP PSYCHOLOGY page 42 Are You MIND Mentally Healthy? Take Our Quiz page 58 • • BEHAVIOR BRAIN SCIENCE INSIGHTS March/April 2010 www.ScientificAmerican.com/Mind THE POWER TO PERSUADE How masters of “supersuasion” can change your mind page 24 Plus: SPECIAL REPORT Better Paths to Learning BRAIN CANCER UPDATE Taking Aim at Tumor Sources © 2010 Scientific American Unlimited online access for institutions Get online access to Scientifi c American and Scientifi c American Mind from every desktop in your school, campus or workplace. Ask your library about site license access from Nature Publishing Group. NOW www.nature.com/scientifi camerican 21606-06 SciAm filler ad for Scientific American.indd 1 10/11/09 12:21:14 (from the editor) MInd BEHAVIOR • BRAIN SCIENCE • INSIGHTS EdITOR IN cHIEf: Mariette DiChristina ISSuE EdITOR: John Rennie EdITORS: Karen Schrock, Ingrid Wickelgren ART dIREcTOR: Patricia Nemoto ISSuE pHOTOGRApHy EdITOR: Bridget Gerety Small cOpy dIREcTOR: Maria-Christina Keller EdITORIAl AdmINISTRATOR: Avonelle Wing SENIOR SEcRETARy: Maya Harty cONTRIBuTING EdITORS: Gareth Cook, David Dobbs, Robert Epstein, Jonah Lehrer cONTRIBuTING RESEARcHERS: S mitha Alampur, Kenneth Silber, Kevin Singer cOpy ANd pROducTION, NATuRE puBlISHING GROup: SENIOR cOpy EdITOR, NpG: Daniel C. Schlenoff mANAGING pROducTION EdITOR, NpG: Richard Hunt SENIOR pROducTION EdITOR, NpG: Convince Me Michelle Wright BOARd Of AdVISERS: HAl ARKOwITz: Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Arizona I didn’t need it, but it was the perfect thing for anyone who considered herself artis- STEpHEN J. cEcI: Professor of Developmental Psychology, Cornell University tic and liked to make detailed drawings, I had to agree. The art supplies salesperson R. dOuGlAS fIEldS: Chief, Nervous System smiled ingratiatingly at me as our conversation morphed into a pitch I literally felt I Development and Plasticity Section, National couldn’t refuse. We had struck up a chat about art, and he somehow found a way to Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development make an expensive pen-and-ink set seem indispensable by echoing back to me things S. AlExANdER HASlAm: Professor of Social and I had said I valued in my drawings and in my tools. When he would point out its vir- Organizational Psychology, University of Exeter cHRISTOf KOcH: Professor of Cognitive and tues, he’d say, “Don’t you agree?” Yes, I did. And at the end, I forked over $25—at Behavioral Biology, California Institute the time, more than I would spend for a week of groceries as an undergrad—and I of Technology could not figure out what he had done to make me buy that set. He literally had ScOTT O. lIlIENfEld: Professor of Psychology, Emory University changed my mind. STEpHEN l. mAcKNIK, Director, Laboratory of Now I know more about why that happened and even have some ideas about how Behavioral Neuropsychology, Barrow Neurological Institute to make it happen myself with other people—and so will you when you read the cov- E Ol SuSANNA mARTINEz-cONdE, Director, er story by psychologist Kevin Dutton, “The Power to Persuade.” Dutton provides TH c NLaebuorroalotogriyca ol fI Vnsitsiutault eNeuroscience, Barrow several simple secrets that confer surprising influence. I hope I’ve convinced you to E NN JOHN H. mORRISON: Chairman, Department turn to page 24. By KE Aofg Ninegu Lraobscoireantcoer,i easn, dM Doiurenctt Soirn, aNi eSucrhooboilo logy of Evidence is persuasive to me as a science journalist, and that is why I have always T of Medicine appreciated the work of Scott O. Lilienfeld, a psychologist, columnist and member uI S VIlAyANuR S. RAmAcHANdRAN: Director, of Mind’s board of advisers. Lilienfeld’s emphasis on evidence-based psychology has N; Center for the Brain and Cognition, University mA of California, San Diego, and Adjunct Professor, helped sort wheat from chaff in that field. Now we are gratified to present to readers Od Salk Institute for Biological Studies an article he has co-authored with Steven Jay Lynn, John Ruscio and the late Barry O G dIANE ROGERS-RAmAcHANdRAN: Research N Associate, Center for the Brain and Cognition, L. Beyerstein entitled “Busting Big Myths in Popular Psychology.” The feature holds O AR University of California, San Diego up six myths to evidence-based scrutiny. You may be surprised. The article begins y A STEpHEN d. REIcHER: Professor of Psychology, on page 42. B University of St. Andrews ATION Saorem aed oafp tthede afrrotimcl easr tiinc ltehsi so irsisguine a lly too Oguhi,l tayn tdo t dhoa ts poe bne-caanuds-ein okf sweht?a It’ ivte c noesvt.e Br uust etdh aitt,’ sa alt hsuobujgehc tI fsotirl la hnaovteh eitr. aArltwicaley.s felt R T appearing in Gehirn & Geist. S lu pROducTION mANAGER: Christina Hippeli l OI AdVERTISING pROducTION mANAGER: OT Carl Cherebin Mariette DiChristina H pREpRESS ANd QuAlITy mANAGER: p R Silvia De Santis Editor in Chief VE cuSTOm puBlISHING mANAGER: cO Madelyn Keyes-Milch [email protected] www.ScientificAmerican.com/Mind ScIENTIfIc AmERIcAN mINd 1 © 2010 Scientific American (contents) Mind Volume 21, Number 1, March/April 2010 F E A T U R E S 24 COVER STORY 24 >> The Power to Persuade How masters of “supersuasion” can change your mind. BY KEVIN DUTTON LEARNING—A SPECIAL SECTION 32 >> A Sensory Fix for Problems in School Certain learning disabilities are linked to problems of perception, but targeted exercises can help correct them. BY BURKHART FISCHER 38 >> T he Pluses of Getting It Wrong New research makes the case for difficult tests in schools and suggests an unusual technique that anyone can use to learn. BY HENRY L. ROEDIGER III AND BRIDGID FINN 42 >> B usting Big Myths in Popular Psychology Our experts shatter some widely held misconceptions about the mind and human behavior. BY SCOTT O. LILIENFELD, STEVEN JAY LYNN, 50 JOHN RUSCIO AND BARRY L. >> New Hope for BEYERSTEIN > Battling Brain Cancer > Studies suggest that stem cells sustain deadly tumors in the brain—and that aiming at these insidious culprits could lead to a cure. BY GREGORY FOLTZ 58 n >> Are You Mentally Healthy? ma d Here’s a new screening tool that might set your oo g mind at ease—or get you chatting with a therapist. n o BY ROBERT EPSTEIN r a a 62 y b >> The Brain and the Written Word n o Cognitive neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene ati r explains his quest to understand how reading st u works in the mind. ll INTERVIEW BY GARETH COOK toi o h p 2 scientific american mind march/april 2010 © 2010 Scientific American d E P A R T M E N T S 1 20 >> From the Editor >> I llusions 4 Using aftereffects to probe visual function >> Letters reveals how the eye and brain handle colors and contours. BY VILAYANUR S. RAMACHANDRAN AND DIANE ROGERS-RAMACHANDRAN 23 >> C alendar Exhibitions, movies, conferences, and more. 66 >> F acts and Fictions in Mental Health A diagnosis of schizophrenia is not always grounds for despair. BY SCOTT O. LILIENFELD AND HAL ARKOWITZ 68 >> W e’re Only Human We think of people with autism as having a deficit in cognitive processing—but their distractibility could come from enhanced perceptual capabilities. > BY WRAY HERBERT > > 6 > >> Head Lines >> G ene therapy shows promise. >> V iagra for women. >> P regnancy and antidepressants. >> L ove promotes creativity. >> N eurobiology of Stockholm syndrome. 70 >> L isten and learn while asleep. >> R eviews and Recommendations >> K ids listen to accents. >> B elief: religious vs. secular. The science of complexity. A biopic of Temple Grandin. Brain-altering books. And the mysterious nerves of the shaking woman. 72 Perspectives >> A sk the Brains 16 >> t he ethical dog When we feel heartache, what happens inside the body to cause the physical pain in the Looking for the roots of human morality in the chest? Why is talking along with gestures animal kingdom? Focus on canines, who know easier than trying to talk without gesturing? how to play fair. MARC BEKOFF AND JESSICA PIERCE 74 >> H ead Games 18 >> C onsciousness Redux Match wits with the Mensa puzzlers. A combination of genetics and optics gives brain 76 >> M ind in Pictures scientists an unprecedented ability to dissect the circuits of the mind. Time to think about circadian rhythms. BY CHRISTOF KOCH BY DWAYNE GODWIN AND JORGE CHAM Scientific American Mind (ISSN 1555-2284), Volume 21, Number 1, March/April 2010, published bimonthly by Scientific American, Inc., 75 Varick Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10013-1917. Copyright © 2010 by Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this issue may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for public or private use, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Canada Post International Publications Mail (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 40012504. Canadian BN No. 127387652RT; QST No. Q1015332537. Publication Mail Agreement #40012504. Canada Post: Return undeliverables to 2835 Kew Dr., Windsor, ON N8T 3B7. Subscription rates: one year (six issues), $19.95; elsewhere, $30 USD. Postmaster: Send address changes to Scientific American Mind, 75 Varick Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10013-1917. To purchase additional quantities: U.S., $10.95 each; elsewhere, $13.95 each. Send payment to SA Mind, PO Box 4002812, Des Moines, IA 50340. for subscription inquiries, call (888) 262-5144. to purchase back issues, call (800) 925-0788. Printed in U.S.A. www.scientificamerican.com/mind scientific american mind 3 © 2010 Scientific American (letters) november/december 2009 issue idea in Educating Intuition (University MInd of Chicago Press, 2001). “hfpsycho” adapted from a comment at www.ScientificAmerican.com/ BEHAVIOR • BRAIN SCIENCE • INSIGHTS Mind-and-Brain VIcE PRESIdENT ANd PUBLISHER: Bruce Brandfon mom WaS right VIcE PRESIdENT, mARkETING ANd SALES In regards to “Love the One You’re dEVELOPmENT: Michael Voss dIREcTOR, GLOBAL mEdIA SOLUTIONS: With,” by Nicholas A. Christakis and Jeremy A. Abbate James H. Fowler, my mother could have SALES dEVELOPmENT mANAGER: David Tirpack saved you a lot of ink. Back in the 1960s PROmOTION mANAGER: Diane Schube mARkETING RESEARcH dIREcTOR: Rick Simone when I was a teenager, she often told SALES REPRESENTATIVES: Jeffrey Crennan, me, “Who you love depends on who’s Stan Schmidt around.” VIcE PRESIdENT, fINANcE ANd BUSINESS “dracaena” dEVELOPmENT: Michael Florek BUSINESS mANAGER: Marie Maher adapted from a comment at www.ScientificAmerican.com/ mANAGING dIREcTOR, cONSUmER mARkETING: Christian Dorbandt Mind-and-Brain ASSOcIATE dIREcTOR, cONSUmER mARkETING: Anne Marie O’Keefe SmartS vS. SenSe Childhood anxiety SENIOR mARkETING mANAGER/RETENTION: Catherine Bussey Regarding “Rational and Irrational I found “Why We Worry,” by Victoria SENIOR mARkETING mANAGER/AcqUISITION: Thought: The Thinking That IQ Tests Stern, to be interesting and well written. Patricia Elliott Miss,” by Keith E. Stanovich: I have The article hit home with me because I dIREcTOR, ANcILLARY PROdUcTS: been teaching at the college level for suffered from that kind of extreme anxi- Diane McGarvey more than a dozen years, and I’ve often ety when I was six years old and my PRESIdENT: Steven Inchcoombe wondered why some of my best and grandmother died. No one would tell me VIcE PRESIdENT, OPERATIONS ANd AdmINISTRATION: Frances Newburg brightest students utterly fail in certain she was dead—they just kept saying she tasks that less “intellectual” students are “passed away.” HOw TO cONTAcT US able to excel in. This led me to believe my mother fOR AdVERTISING INqUIRIES: Thank you for the introduction to would “pass” and be gone forever. I took Scientific American Mind “dysrationalia,” a phenomenon that to following her everywhere, including 75 Varick Street, 9th Floor seems to explain a lot. I look forward to hiding under the couch when I was sup- New York, NY 10013 212-451-8893 more insightful articles like this one in posed to be in bed. I ended up on pheno- fax: 212-754-1138 your pages. barbital for several months, supposedly fOR SUBScRIPTION INqUIRIES: Ryan G. Van cleave to help me get over my night terrors—at U.S. and Canada: 888-262-5144 Sarasota, Fla. the age of six! Outside North America: I am heartened to see that serious Scientific American Mind PO Box 5715, Harlan, IA 51593 dysrationalia! Finally, there is a diag- and productive research continues to be 515-248-7684 nostic term to describe the all too preva- done for those who suffer from a disor- www.ScientificAmerican.com/Mind lent affliction that we commonly refer to der that can be crippling. Kudos! TO ORdER REPRINTS: as “lack of common sense.” “lillybeth” Reprint Department debra Grob adapted from a comment at Scientific American Mind 75 Varick Street, 9th Floor Belmar, N.J. www.ScientificAmerican.com/ New York, NY 10013 Mind-and-Brain 212-451-8877 fax: 212-451-8252 most of the research on decision [email protected] making and cognition in general has es- BaBy drama fOR PERmISSION TO cOPY OR sentially shown that we are not rational Thank you for “Dangerous Liaisons,” REUSE mATERIAL fROm ScIAmmINd: decision makers. The best option, there- by Ophelia Austin-Small. A childhood Permissions Department fore, is to work on honing our gut in- friend of mine recently became an un- Scientific American Mind 75 Varick Street, 9th Floor stinct to increase the probability that the bearable drama queen. I now believe her New York, NY 10013 outcome of a choice will be rational. behavior is actually a symptom of post- 212-451-8546 Business psychologist Robin Ho- partum depression, but simply knowing www.ScientificAmerican.com/permissions Please allow three to six weeks for processing. garth summarizes this counterintuitive the cause does not help me deal with her. 4 ScIENTIfIc AmERIcAN mINd march/April 2010 © 2010 Scientific American (letters) This article’s tips were very enlightening. there. I wonder if the Chinese—or peo- design fault in the user interface of the Thanks again! ple from other cultures for whom black card reader. The card reader should be “emeryannharris” and white are not so clearly related to designed to accept the card in either adapted from a comment at stain and purity—would behave differ- direction. www.ScientificAmerican.com/ ently on the psychological experiments “istaines” Mind-and-Brain described in this article. adapted from a comment at Suzanne Hillman www.ScientificAmerican.com/ via e-mail Mind-and-Brain groWing PainS Seeing in Stereo Obviously the body’s perception of it- Neuroscientist Terry Sejnowski’s ex- self must be plastic, as Frederik Joelving planation of mental calculations in Ask reports in “Evolving Mental Maps” the Brains got me thinking. A long time [Head Lines]. If it were not, we would be ago I noticed that if I watched a movie or in dire trouble when as teenagers we un- television with only one eye I would get dergo a growth spurt. more of a sensation of depth than when “eco-stave” watching with both eyes. This seemed to adapted from a comment at make sense to me because I figured that www.ScientificAmerican.com/ the brain uses many variables to deter- Mind-and-Brain mine depth (including size, occlusion, movement, and so on), but it probably Credit-Card error gives priority to stereo vision. michael manchester wrote to Ask Closing one eye removes stereo vi- the Brains to wonder why most of his sion from the equation, thereby reducing customers are confused by his instruc- the impact of seeing the flat two-dimen- tions to swipe their credit card with the sional screen and allowing the other magnetic stripe “toward me.” In the face depth cues in the moving images to come of repeated failure, can anyone explain to the fore. Try it sometime—especially Good guys wear white because our brain links the color black with filth and contagion. why he hasn’t simply changed his in- when there is a scene with a lot of rela- struction to something like “swipe the tive movement, such as a swimming card with the magnetic stripe facing school of fish. BlaCk and White away from you?” It is my gut feeling that “zselway” concerning “The Color of Sin,” by such an instruction would result in far adapted from a comment at Wray Herbert [We’re Only Human], I less confusion, which would not only re- www.ScientificAmerican.com/ believe the association between morality lieve Mr. Manchester’s stress at work Mind-and-Brain and whiteness (and evil and blackness) is but also poke a hole in the “phonologi- as clear as night and day. Night is a time cal loop” versus “intelligent interpreta- errata “Why We Worry,” by Victoria when human beings’ main survival tion of meaning” theory given in your Stern, incorrectly states that antianxiety sense—vision—is weakened or nullified. magazine. If, on the other hand, the drugs such as Valium and Xanax inhibit Other animals with a better sense of same customers who fail to intelligently the neurotransmitter GABA. In fact, smell or hearing have the advantage. interpret “stripe toward me” also misin- these drugs increase the activity of Darkness, therefore, equals danger. terpret “stripe away from you,” the fail- GABA, which itself acts as an inhibitor, “sirebral” ure rate would not change, and I would thereby quelling anxious arousal. adapted from a comment at be proved incorrect. “What Does a Smart Brain Look Like?” www.ScientificAmerican.com/ wayne keyser by Richard J. Haier, misstated the order Mind-and-Brain Eldersburg, Md. of the authors on one paper for the Fur- ther Reading. The correct citation is Herbert commented briefly on the why are people propos- “Brain Imaging Studies of concept of different races having differ- ing a variety of social solu- hoW to ContaCt uS Intelligence and Creativity: ent reactions to the colors black and tions, such as the store clerk For general inquiries or What Is the Picture for Edu- to send a letter to the editor: white, but he did not mention different giving the directions differ- Scientific American mind cation?” by Richard J. Hai- cultures. In China, for example, white is ently, to what is simply a 75 Varick Street, 9th floor er and Rex E. Jung, in New York, NY 10013 the color of death (or mourning) rather technical problem? This is- 212-451-8200 Roeper Review, Vol. 30, No. [email protected] than purity. Brides do not wear white sue is simply the result of a 3, pages 171–180; 2008. www.ScientificAmerican.com/mind ScIENTIfIc AmERIcAN mINd 5 © 2010 Scientific American s e n i L d a e >> medicine Gene Target Beats Oil Remedy Therapy shows promise in a deadly degenerative brain disease H The 1992 tearjerker Lorenzo’s Oil told the true leading to death before adolescence. The main story of one family’s struggle to save their son treatment is still bone marrow transplantation: a from X­linked adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), a risky procedure that relies on fi nding a suitable deadly degenerative brain disease. Unfortunate­ donor, explains Patrick Aubourg, a neurologist ly, over the ensuing years, the oil of the fi lm’s at France’s INSERM research institute. title, a dietary supplement, has not panned out Now Aubourg and his team have showed in as the cure many people hoped it would be. Now a preliminary trial that gene therapy stopped a paper in the November 2009 issue of Science ALD in two boys for whom they could not fi nd suggests that the long­sought cure may come matching bone marrow donors. After fi shing from gene therapy—a famously hyped approach stem cells from each individual’s own blood, to treatment that tragically caused the death of the researchers inserted a normal version of a teenage experimental subject in 1999. the ABCD1 gene into some of the cells and Since then, however, researchers have transplanted them back into the kids. continued to cautiously pursue gene therapy for The results were promising: ALD progression certain disorders with known genetic origins. halted within 14 to 16 months. A year later ALD, for instance, is caused by mutations in a neither child had further brain damage or k c gene called ABCD1, leading to unusually high leukemia (a side effect in some past gene o t s levels of a type of fatty acid that damages the therapy trials). The researchers have now treated o t material insulating some neurons. It affects a third individual and are preparing for larger fo e about one in 20,000 six­ to eight­year­old boys, trials in Europe and the U.S. —Andrea Anderson ag 6 march/april 2010 © 2010 Scientific American >> langUage >> perception Chimps Talk with Monkeys Get Their Hands the Creeps, Too Right­handed gesturing in Like humans, animals apes hints at the origins of do not care for realistic human language animations of themselves The origins of language have long been a The fl op of the 2004 animated fi lm The Polar mystery, but mounting evidence hints that Express is largely blamed on the “creepy” our unique linguistic abilities could have feeling people get when they look at very evolved from gestural communication in realistic-looking robots our ancestors. Such gesturing may also or human animations. explain why most people are right­handed. These too real facsimi- Researchers at the Yerkes National les fall into the so- Primate Research Center recently ex am­ called uncanny valley, ined captive chimpanzees and found that between acceptably most of them predominantly used their right hand when communicating with one fake-looking human another—for example, when greeting another chimp by extending an arm. The representations and animals did not show this hand preference for noncommunicative actions, such real, healthy humans. Psychologists have as wiping their noses. Such lateralized hand use suggests that chimpanzees have long wondered whether this aversion has a system in their left brain hemisphere that is coupled to the production of com­ an evolutionary basis, and new research on municative gestures, says study author William Hopkins. The same cerebral macaques suggests that it does. hemisphere is host to most language functions in humans, which hints that an Princeton University researchers ancestral gestural system could have been the precursor for language, he says. presented images of real monkey faces, That notion is supported by previous studies that have shown anatomical unrealistic animated faces and realistic asymmetries in chimpanzees’ brains in areas that are considered to be hom o­ animated faces to fi ve monkey subjects and logues of human language centers, such as Broca’s area, Hopkins says. “Chimps recorded how long they gazed at each. Similar that gesture with their right hand typically have a larger left Broca’s area, and to the human response to objects in the those that don’t show a [hand] bias typically don’t show any asymmetry in the uncanny valley, the monkeys avoided looking brain,” he notes. at the most realistic animated faces. The The idea that language emerged from an ancestral gestural system located in scientists, who published their results in the left brain hemisphere could explain why the vast majority of people are right­ the Proceedings of the National Academy handed, Hopkins says. If gesturing was strongly selected for in human evolution, of Sciences USA, speculate that realistic then the fact that most people are right­handed is a consequence of that. This animations might resemble sickly or diseased t/ hypothesis challenges the long­held view that the opposite scenario is true: that animals because they lack subtle cues of n me right­handedness emerged for motor skills such as tool use and that communi­ health such as normal skin texture and hue— ain cation built on the developed asymmetry in the motor system later. and that an aversion to such sights may have t r —Nicole Branan evolved to keep us healthy. —Melinda Wenner e t a engue) ln e rock/shangri-ostock (pill on to A >> FseeXmale Viagra? lt Women with low libido get a boost from a new drug to sf s (chimp); caxpress); age Wscloionominc eabnle t wraiahblolse ,s tsuocf ffii eexnr ttfhirsoetm sp rdcoehbtrleoernmmic iwanlieltyhd l aoth wpa iltle l.av Ifentle sar o2ref4 vs iweexewue aoklfs dt ohefrs etirreee ra metc­aeyn t agear e ment with the drug fl ibanserin, women reported signifi cantly more y/getty imon (the pol sdfaeriuxlegud aw lt aods ea islntieriteri a mallnyod od ade nvine i nltocrpiraeelads,s a erse isnae nsa aarctnihstiefdarescp tnoreorsyti scsaeendxtu i,ta a sl needne cmaolteuhdno ttueogr hbs. ei tT he nderslecollecti hebneraltpiirnien. lgAy lwcthloeomaure,g nhb uwmti otithr ei slo tkwrina solsew xan dr teroi vn aeelstee.d rHe todhw eb etlehfoveer delsr flu oigbf awsneosrroektsroi nins ic nno oiuntl dtyh eet kil dorling the koBa bdalee pmcrooombnelse tamrav atienild af ebtomle ta rcleeoasmt— mlobewyr cltiaibarildglyeo,t iiintn sgw htoohmwe esb nrpa—riontmh. e is me oasst t ch—oemE fim mrsiloty n dA rsnuetghx eus­ www.scientificamerican.com/mind scientific american mind 7 © 2010 Scientific American (head lines) >> drUgs Are Antidepressants Safe for Pregnant Women? Recent research shows a risk to fetuses and infants Americans take more antide­ pressants than they do any other type of prescription drug, and pregnant women are no excep­ tion. One out of every eight pregnant women in the U.S. takes selective serotonin re up­ take inhibitors (SSRIs) to treat depression or other mood disor­ ders. A handful of recent studies suggest that these drugs could have adverse effects on infant health: they may increase the risk for rare heart defects, pre­ mature delivery, low birth weight and withdrawal symp­ toms. Nevertheless, some doc­ tors argue that the benefits these drugs provide still outweigh the potential risks. Worries over the use of SSRIs during pregnancy first surfaced in journal articles published in the 1980s, but it was not until 2005 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration conceded that babies born of mothers who take paroxetine (sold as Paxil and Seroxa) during their first trimester are up to twice as like­ ly to exhibit fetal heart defects. A 2005 study published in the Lancet also found that some newborns born of mothers tak­ ing paroxetine suffer from with­ drawal symptoms such as con­ vulsions and abnormal crying for olescent Medicine suggests that women from those of underlying depression.” several days. taking SSRIs are twice as likely to have Sanz and Toh point out, however, More recently, pregnancy risks as­ preterm births as compared with the that many women who take SSRIs have sociated with other SSRIs have also general population and that their ba­ not been diagnosed with clinical depres­ come to light. A study published in the bies are more likely to spend time in the sion—some take the drugs for obsessive­ September 26 issue of the British Medi- neonatal intensive care unit. compulsive disorder, pain management cal Journal monitored nearly 500,000 So should women stop taking SSRIs or even severe premenstrual symptoms. Danish children from nationwide regis­ when they are pregnant? Not necessar­ For these kinds of conditions, there may tries and found that women who take ily, says Emilio Sanz, a clinical phar­ be other, potentially safer options. For sertraline (Zoloft), citalopram (Celexa) macologist at the University of La La­ instance, in September 2009 a report and fluoxetine (Prozac) are more likely guna in Tenerife, Canary Islands, and from the American Psychiatric Associa­ to give birth to babies with heart de­ co­author of the 2005 Lancet study. tion and the American College of Ob­ fects, although the overall risk is still He notes that untreated depression in­ stetricians and Gynecologists argued quite low. A study in press in the Jour- creases the risk of prematurity, low that psychotherapy is a suitable treat­ nal of Clinical Psychopharmacology birth weight and neonatal complica­ ment for some pregnant women suffer­ notes that women treated with SSRIs tions, too. Sengwee Darren Toh, an ep­ ing from mild forms of depression or s during late pregnancy are more likely idemiologist at the Harvard School of other mood disorders. Doctors have to e g to give birth to small and premature Public Health, points out that these “distinguish between real depression ma babies. A study published in the Octo­ similar outcomes make it “quite diffi­ and just blues, sadness, feeling down,” y i t t ber 2009 Archives of Pediatric and Ad- cult to tease out effects of the drugs Sanz says. —Melinda Wenner ge 8 scientific american mind march/april 2010 © 2010 Scientific American

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