SAN FRANCISCO, 5:55 AM, SAT JUL 19 | 26 POSTS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS | tips@io9.com | RSS
Posts Tagged “

Depression

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what to watch

A Virtual Sex Game That Makes You Crave Fresh Milk, Then Kills You

Don't panic! Yes, there's no new Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Doctor Who or Spectacular Spider-Man this week. (And UK viewers are without new Who as well.) But we'll get through this somehow. I promise. There are some science documentaries, some cool movies — including a super-weird thriller about a computer programmer who gets ensnared in a freaky conspiracy involving empty packages, a robot head, and a virtual reality sex game. Television hasn't abandoned you yet. More »

Feature

9:00 AM on Mon May 19 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
9,703 views, 24 comments

mad medicine

Ketamine Makes a Good Anti-Depressant

At first blush, you want to chuck this in the "no-kidding-that's-why-it's-abused" department. But the horse tranquilizer and hallucinogenic pleasure drug ketamine may have found a clinical home next to Prozac. A serious study by people smarter than most of us suggests ketamine ("Special K" to friends and close acquaintances) restores normal activity in an area of the brain that's usually in overdrive in people with diagnosed clinical depression. More »

9:30 AM on Mon May 5 2008
By Michael Reilly
1,234 views, 12 comments

mad neuroscience

The Data Is In: Brain Implants Can Make You Happy

For over a decade researchers have been treating many different ailments, including depression, with electrodes lodged deep in the brain. Devices like this Soletra brain implant deliver electrical impulses to a targeted brain region, essentially creating artificial activity in an area that the brain won't activate on its own. While there have been anecdotal reports that brain implants can help people with depression or OCD, now there is solid proof. A long-range study being presented at the upcoming meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons demonstrates how patients, over a 10-year period with brain implants, gained increasing control over their moods and obsessive behaviors. More »

11:34 AM on Tue Apr 29 2008
By Annalee Newitz
1,672 views, 27 comments

Latest by n/a: @Castle1914: IMO as one of the core drives of people is to minimize emotional and physical pain and seek pleasure, there is a moral urgency to the Abolition of volitional suffering. Please see http://www.abolitionist-society.com/forum for posts on the subject. A lot of good rebuttals on challenges posed more »

economic survivalism

12 Ways To Prepare For The Next Great Depression

Our economic future could be even bleaker than you expect — and last year was the moment to unleash your inner survivalist. If the financial system suffers any more crises of confidence, credit gets even tighter, and the fed falls into a liquidity trap, we could be in for several hardscrabbling dystopian years. Forget maintaining your current shiny standard of living — how will you feed and clothe yourself, in the worst case scenario? We've compiled a few suggestions for things you can do now to brace yourself. More »

Feature

9:10 AM on Fri Apr 11 2008
By Charlie Jane Anders
76,986 views, 96 comments

Latest by n/a: Kind of an old topic, but I felt I had to comment. I was talking with my friends the other day about a depression coming and we all thought about it for a bit to decide what we'd actually do. more »

mad science

Will We Drug Soldiers to Make Them Depressed?

Will soldiers of the future be given serotonin depressors to make them depressed and therefore fearless? A new study released Friday shows that people with a low level of serotonin do not "reflexively avoid" bad situations, and are more likely to explore risky and dangerous places. This is a sorry state in everyday life, but might be desirable if you're a soldier and need to venture into spots most people would steer clear of. It's very possible the next "super soldier" drug won't give you superstrength, but just a megadose of depression. More »

7:30 AM on Mon Feb 4 2008
By Annalee Newitz
2,121 views, 33 comments

Latest by Gann: We routinely drug our kids and ourselves to obtain a desired mental state, why not our soldiers? more »