Daily Archive for November 29th, 2005

Happy BDay IDEA

Published on 29 November 2005 in News. 0 Comments

In an e-mail message, my colleague and friend Joel Mittler of Long Island University (NY, US) reminded me

[Today] is the 30th anniversary of IDEA. Most of us are probably too young to recall life before IDEA (or perhaps too old to remember). With all its flaws and problems, perhaps we should take a moment and in our own way remind out colleagues, students, and others of what it means to have a law that guarantees an education to all children, no matter what their disability. I like to note that we had compulsory education laws in this country in the 1850s but it took another 100+ years to include children with disabilities. While we continue to fight among ourselves as well as with those in power, it’s also not a bad time to thank those that made it all possible. I’ll start with Fred Weintraub and Ed Martin. Thanks, guys. Who else deserves a good hug?

Joel

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Dolphin therapy

Published on 29 November 2005 in Acting in, Depression, News and Research. 2 Comments

People with depression who spent an hour a day for two weeks in water with dolphins reported lower levels of depression than others who have spent comparable time in water without dolphins, according to a report by Christian Antonioli and Michael A. Reveley published in the British Mental Journal. The study, which was conducted in Honduras primarily with 40-year-old women, employed a single-blind design with random assignment to conditions.

Although this report will provide great encouragement to advocates of so-called holistic approaches to therapy, it will also provide multiple opportunities to discuss the potential for research to overlook the obvious. I’ll leave the detailed analysis for another day, but note in passing that factors such as (a) recruiting people for a given experience and then redirecting those in the control group to a different treatment, (b) using self-report data as the dependent variable when reporters know what therapy they are getting and even sought it, and (c) capitalizing on the temporary benefits of just about any therapy call these results into question. Furthermore, as the wonderful folks at Annals of Improbable Research have noted, this study illustrates the Gillinov Effect: Commenting on a different study, Marc Gillinov said, “I’m not surprised at all that something that makes people feel good also makes them feel less anxious, has measurable physiological effects.”

Link to an HTML version of the BMJ article by Mr. Antonioli and Mr. Reveley.

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