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Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com

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Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#161

Post by bigfudge »

awesome_dude wrote: post #151
osn9363739 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they need to use a different word than associated. That's what's causing the confusion?

Personally I think that reporting of correlations should be dropped altogether - they're very prevalent (reports on correlations) in every day news, and I think that they're damaging because they imply, or outright claim, that the discovery is that some causative effect has been observed. It's really clickbait territory sometimes (IMO)

I mostly agree. Although for many years the only evidence for harm from smoking was correlational.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#162

Post by jncfhnb »

loa_in_ wrote: post #156
jncfhnb wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People forget that nature only optimizes for sexual reproduction and that’s pretty much it Common misunderstanding. Evolution optimizes for system success. Not individual gene propagation. Genomes are not agents with individual goals. Many species, but especially social animals, have numerous behaviors and traits designed to prompt communal success rather than individual survival and reproduction

Genomes have also no awareness, so they are perfectly selfish. It is closer to clockwork than an internet router.

They are not “selfish” with respect to the individual. They are selfish with respect to the system.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#163

Post by perlgeek »

> Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a core symptom of a number of common psychological disorders and may be a modifiable process shared by many psychological risk factors that contribute to the development of cognitive impairment.

The core assumption (or insight?) of Cognitive Therapy (and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) is that our thoughts shape the way we feel. In this model, repetitive negative thoughts are actually a main cause of depression, not a symptom.

If you're interested in this approach, I'd recommend the works of David Burns, for example his book "Feeling Great" or the Feeling Good Podcast.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#164

Post by jncfhnb »

ninetyninenine wrote: post #137
jncfhnb wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s not much evidence of rigorous differences in intelligence across racial groups that could not be explained by environmental and cultural differences. Statistical analysis generally suggests that if there is one, the effect size is small. The current observed gap is much smaller than gains than have been observed within racial communities over time as a result of environmental changes. So… no. You don’t have a…

not true. Evidence of rigorous differences exist. The "explanations" are not supported by rigorous evidence. They are just "explanations" for a correlation. One explanation is environment, another is genetics. Realistically Both are factors. >The current observed gap is much smaller than gains than have been observed within racial communities over time as a result of environmental changes. Yes environment is a factor…

> Yes environment is a factor but given a prime environment to foster intelligence, you can see that among races there are still differences in intelligence.

You cannot. And the smoking gun is, again, that we have seen massive rises in intelligence scores within racial subgroups over time correlating with environmental changes that are much larger than current spreads and still unevenly distributed.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#165

Post by moooo99 »

perlgeek wrote: post #163

> Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a core symptom of a number of common psychological disorders and may be a modifiable process shared by many psychological risk factors that contribute to the development of cognitive impairment. The core assumption (or insight?) of Cognitive Therapy (and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) is that our thoughts shape the way we feel. In this model, repetitive negative thoughts are act…

> In this model, repetitive negative thoughts are actually a main cause of depression, not a symptom.

Wouldn‘t it be both? While the repeated negative thoughts are the cause, they‘re also the symptom how it show up and the reason why people seek out a diagnosis

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#166

Post by jncfhnb »

yowlingcat wrote: post #145
jncfhnb wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s not much evidence of rigorous differences in intelligence across racial groups that could not be explained by environmental and cultural differences. Statistical analysis generally suggests that if there is one, the effect size is small. The current observed gap is much smaller than gains than have been observed within racial communities over time as a result of environmental changes. So… no. You don’t have a…

I know this is such a controversial livewire of a topic and borderline taboo, but the evidence is pretty substantial. That being said, the intra-group variation is also extremely substantial (IE the variation between genius/median in any particular group is simultaneously a) far more than median in one group and median in another group and b) far less than genius in one group vs genius in another group). All that bei…

I disagree. It strongly detracts from the GP’s claim.

If we see huge variation in intelligence scores intra group, that strongly suggests that there are social/cultural/environmental factors in play driving a large part of this.

It may be true that some racial backgrounds offer an advantage; but there is no evidence to suggest that this advantage is materially large relative to many of the social structural drivers that are obvious.

The subtext of the claim is not that a statistically significant effect exists. It’s that there is a big important difference in intelligence across races intrinsically derived from genetics. And there’s no compelling evidence to support that.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#167

Post by Amaury-El »

I saw this with a family member. In their 60s, they started getting stuck on small worries and always assumed the worst. At first it just seemed like anxiety, but over time their memory and focus started slipping too. It was like their mind got stuck in a loop.

What helped the most wasn’t medicine. It was little things, like going for walks together or having simple conversations. Just giving the brain something new to pay attention to seemed to make a real difference.

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#168

Post by moooo99 »

somenameforme wrote: post #147
nicce wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does someone have a medicine for negative thinking?

Have children. Hard not to endlessly smile when you see their smiles for you doing nothing more than being there for them. Then, uhh I guess the plan is to have more children once they enter their teen years? Weight lifting also helps with mentality in a million different ways.

> Weight lifting also helps with mentality in a million different ways.

This isn‘t really limited to weight lifting as to any kind of working out in general. Moving your body instead of only sitting at a desk constantly turns out to be healthy

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#169

Post by cenamus »

Jabrov wrote: post #66
kcoddington wrote: post #6

I'm not seeing where they are coming up with RNT as a cause, other than a lot of theory. Wouldn't it be a symptom of cognitive decline instead? Dementia patients, particularly those with Alzheimers, tend to become depressed because of confusion and memory loss. Wouldn't it be more likely that these depression symptoms are being caused by deteriotating brain function rather than the other way around?

No one’s saying anything about it being a cause though … association is not cause

Several comments already seem to assume that already though

Re: Repetitive negative thinking associated with cognitive decline in older adults

#170

Post by moooo99 »

growingkittens wrote: post #37
hliyan wrote: post #28

I have a personal theory (I'm sure it's not a novel one and it probably has a name) that human brains are naturally predisposed to negative thought than positive thought because our brains are essentially evolved prediction engines. And because it is often easier and faster to lose something than gain it (e.g. it is usually less urgent to act on the signs of deer you might want to hunt and eat, than the sign of a tig…

I know that traumatized human brains tend toward negativity. I don't believe it is a natural human condition, though. With trauma, the instincts you mentioned start applying to the wrong situations - trauma rewires the brain. "Minor" trauma, sustained trauma, traumatic events, can all contribute to this.

I don‘t think negativity necessarily has something to do with trauma. Negativity bias is very widespread, regardless of previous trauma. Basically everybody flies at negativity.

Bad and shocking headlines click way better than positive ones, negative feedback is occupying our attention more than positive feedback, we perceive losses way more important than gains, we perceive losses as way more impactful than gains of the same degree, etc.

I am 100% sure trauma can and does affect the negativity aspect of our thinking in a big way. But I do not think that negative thinking overtopping positive thinking is limited to trauma sufferers

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