27/04/2011

Available for over a year

Thousands of people in Japan and New Zealand and other countries hit by earthquakes are living with the trauma of disaster compounded by the experiences of aftershocks. Claudia Hammond talks to the psychiatrist who has developed a method of mass psychological treatment for survivors of disasters like these, based on his research with 10,000 people who lived through the Turkish earthquake of 1999. Could a single session of this kind of therapy really make a difference? Metin Basoglu is Professor of Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry in London. The practice of wrapping babies up tightly in cloth or swaddling them is found all over the world. Many parents find it helps their babies to sleep better. But doctors are warning that it needs to be done the right way because over-tight swaddling which straightens the legs can increase the risk of babies developing hip problems. Claudia hears how the problems can develop and is told the right way to swaddle a baby to protect its hips. Psychological research and brain scanning studies show that for some aspects of brain function the brain in middle age is in peak condition. New York Times science writer Barbara Strauch has written a book about bringing together the latest findings and has found some interesting counter-intuitive results