Scientific American Comments

Tokyo psychiatrist, Dr. Douglas Berger, comments on “Depressed? Do What You Love” by Daisy Yuhas, October 1, 2016, Scientific American:


In “Depressed? What do you love” Yuhas writes that cognitive-behavioral therapy, and now behavioral-activation therapy, are rigorously studied methods that have success rates similar to medications. These therapies, however, are given unblinded by treaters to unblinded subjects so that there is no way to filter out potential bias of hope and expectation in subjects or researcher bias in...

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Tokyo psychiatrist, Dr. Douglas Berger, comments on “Research Casts Doubt on the Value of Acupuncture" Jeneen Interlandi, August 1, 2016, Scientific American:

“The Acupunture Myth” [August] reminded me of this letter I sent you last year:In “Mind of the Meditator” the authors cite research which has “documented” that mindfulness reduces relapse of depression, is superior to placebo, and is comparable to antidepressants. None of these studies...

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Tokyo psychiatrist, Dr. Douglas Berger, comments on “Why We Have Free Will” by Eddy Nahmias January 1, 2015, Scientific American:

In “Why we have free will”, Eddy Nahmias opines that brain-imaging technology does not prove there is no free will. He cites his study on the opinions of students that they had free will when they could deliberate on a choice. It seems obvious, however,...

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Tokyo psychiatrist, Dr. Douglas Berger, comments on “Of Flash Mobs and Four Loko” by Jason G. Goldman, November 1, 2011, Scientific American:

The November issue's "Of Flash Mobs and Four Loko" suggests that psychologist Shepard Siegel's opinion that the caffeine in the alcoholic drink Four Loko was not responsible for a series of hospitalizations of the drink, but the likely culprit was that alcohol is known to be more potent if taken in an unusual...

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Tokyo psychiatrist, Dr. Douglas Berger, comments on “How Babies Think” by Alison Gopink, July 1, 2010, Scientific American:

Gopnick's article on how babies think was good food for thought for anyone who has or teaches children. One point, however, was their conclusion that children could infer that a person taking a large number of a rare colore objects would "prefer" to be given an object of that color. It might more...

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Tokyo psychiatrist, Dr. Douglas Berger, comments on “Psychiatric Disorders from No Sleep” by Nikhil Swaminathan, January 1, 2008, Scientific American:

The January issue described research on 14 sleep-deprived subjects who developed “psychological disturbances” of rapidly changeable feelings of being upset, annoyed, and giddy, but titled the article, “Psychiatric Disorders from No Sleep?”. If you do not sleep or eat you will have normal psycho-physiologic...

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Stress and Eating Disorders

Doug Berger – Tokyo Psychiatrist Discusses How to Differentiate Between Stress and Eating Disorders

Dr. Douglas Berger, Tokyo-based psychiatrist, has written previously on the topic of how one can understand and recognize the difference between stress and its impact on eating habits and a legitimate eating disorder …

Electronics for Children

Doug Berger – Tokyo Psychiatrist on What’s a Healthy Use of Electronics for Children

Dr. Doug Berger, a psychiatrist in Tokyo, Japan, has written in the past on the topic of what’s healthy when it comes to children using electronics and how can parents know when their children are spending too much time in front of the computer, TV, video game console, etc …

Anger Management

Doug Berger – Tokyo Psychiatrist Discusses Anger Management

Dr. Doug Berger, a psychiatrist in Tokyo Japan discusses anger and anger management for us …