 5 books to master your transition to college [reading list] As the days get cooler and autumn approaches, it’s the perfect time for a fresh start. Back to school is here. Whether your teen is heading off for another year at college or just beginning the transition, we’ve curated a selection of helpful guides to make the journey smoother. These titles are perfect companions for navigating this exciting new chapter. Mastering the Transition to College: The Ultimate Guidebook for Parents of Teens With ADHDSending a teen off to college is a thrilling milestone, but for parents and caregivers of teens with ADHD, it can also bring unique challenges. Mastering the Transition to College is designed to ease those concerns by offering expert advice, practical strategies, and proven tools to help teens thrive both academically and emotionally during this transition. Learn more about Mastering the Transition to College by Michael C. Meinzer College Mental Health 101: A Guide for Students, Parents, and Professionals College Mental Health 101 offers more answers, relief, resources, and research backed information for families, students, and staff already at college or beginning the application process. With simple charts and facts, informal self-assessments, quick tips for students and those who support them, the book includes hundreds of voices addressing common concerns. Learn more about College Mental Health 101 by Christopher Willard, Blaise Aguirre, and Chelsie Green Supporting Your Teen’s Mental Health: Science-Based Parenting Strategies for Repairing Relationships and Helping Young People ThriveTeen mental health issues are rising at an alarming rate, and many families are unsure of how to best help their children. Supporting Your Teen’s Mental Health is an essential resource for parents and caregivers looking to support teenagers who are struggling with mental health concerns. Written in a conversational tone by psychologist and fellow parent Andrea Temkin-Yu, the workbook is a thorough, evidence-based guide to essential parenting strategies that have been proven to help improve relationships and behavior. Learn more about Supporting Your Teen’s Mental Health by Andrea Temkin-Yu If Your Adolescent Has Autism: An Essential Resource for Parents While adolescence can be a tough time for parents and their teens, autistic teenagers may face specific challenges and need targeted support from the adults in their lives. The road ahead can be difficult for parents and caregivers, too, especially because the teenage years can involve surprising changes in their child and in society’s expectations of them. Learn more about If Your Adolescent Has Autism by Emily J. Willingham The Parents’ Guide to Psychological First Aid: Helping Children and Adolescents Cope With Predictable Life Crises Just as parents can expect their children to encounter physical bumps, bruises, and injuries along the road to adulthood, emotional distress is also an unavoidable part of growing up. The sources of this distress range from toddlerhood to young adulthood, from the frustration of toilet training to the uncertainty of leaving home for the first time. Learn more about The Parents’ Guide to Psychological First Aid edited by Gerald P. Koocher, Annette M. La Greca, Olivia Moorehead-Slaughter, and Nadja N. Lopez Check out these books and more on Bookshop and Amazon. Featured image by Tanja Tepavac via Unsplash. OUPblog - Academic insights for the thinking world. 
 Back to school for happy and healthy kids Every September, caregivers and kids alike prepare for one big change: the start of a new school year. As the weeks of summer draw to a close, families are cramming in the last moments of summer fun while simultaneously gearing up for school drops offs and new classroom schedules. While it can be an incredibly exciting time, filled with first day of school outfits and new school gear, it can also be incredibly stressful. This can be particularly true for teenagers who, compared to younger kids, are facing higher academic demands and social pressure while experiencing the major physical and developmental changes that come during adolescence. On top of that, a 2023 Center of Disease Control report showed that teens of today have higher rates of mental health concerns, such as anxiety and depression, and that suicidal thoughts and behaviors are increasing. This can make the return to school daunting for teens, as well as parents who are worried about how their child will manage the transition and demands of the year. Fortunately, there are several tools that parents and caregivers can use to prepare kids and teens for the first few weeks in September. This includes setting clear expectations, skills to encourage helpful behavior, and strategies that help kids feel supported by their parents. Setting expectations While many kids prefer to keep their heads in the sand when it comes to a new academic cycle, it can be incredibly helpful to set expectations for the school year a few weeks in advance. The most basic version of this includes outlining differences between summer versus school schedules, such as changes to sleep and wake times, limits to screens, or daily responsibilities. This preview can help kids’ brains prepare for the upcoming shifts in their daily lives and make the transition a little smoother. It’s also a great idea to talk to kids about how the upcoming school year might be different than the last one. This could include providing information on class size, the structure of the day, or increased expectations. The goal is not to scare your kids about everything coming their way, but rather to provide them with simple clear information in a manner that builds excitement. For example, “It’s so fun that you get to go to go off-campus for lunch this year. I bet it will make the day feel way more interesting!” Or, “I know high school is bigger than middle school. It may feel a little overwhelming, but it’s also such a great time for you to see how capable you are.” Encouraging positive behaviors Once expectations have been set, parents can also work to encourage brave or skillful behavior. This may include things like taking more responsibility (e.g., managing their own communication with teachers and coaches), growing outside of their comfort zone (e.g., joining a new club or social circle), or challenging themselves with new opportunities or roles (e.g., a first job or harder courseload). This most effective way to do this is through a skill called “labeled praise.” Labeled praise is when you show appreciation for a specific behavior or characteristic your child is demonstrating. When it comes to a new school year, parents can look for opportunities to praise preparation, flexibility, and bravery. For example, “I know you really loved your teachers last year, and I appreciate how openminded you are about your new schedule.” Another parent may say, “Great call on getting to bed a little earlier this week. It’ll make the start of school so much easier!” For teens who haven’t mastered brave or skillful choices, parents can offer cheerleading and encouragement. Phrases like “I know you’re going to do a beautiful job making friends because you’ve done it before!” or “10th grade is tough, and I have total confidence that you’re going to find a way to balance everything” send a message that they really believe in their kid. This can go a long way towards encouraging positive behaviors. Providing validation When you do notice your child having a hard time, whether it’s nerves, low mood, or difficulty organizing themselves for a new semester, it’s always a great idea to offer validation. Validation is a skill used to show somebody that you can see their perspective or understand where they are coming from. Validation can be a tricky skill to master for caregivers because it is sometimes hard to put yourself in your child’s shoes, or you are eager to get them to see a new perspective. For example, when your child complains about their new math teacher who they have heard is a hard grader, it’s tempting to say “Nah! I’m sure it’ll be fine!” This may work for some kids. However, it can come off as dismissive and hard to believe for a teen whose anxiety or stress is high. Instead, try validation: “It makes sense that you’re nervous based on what you’ve heard!” While you aren’t agreeing with your child’s worries, you are acknowledging them, and that can help increase a sense of connection and communication. Once your child feels understood, they’ll be better able to think clearly about the situation and problem solve as needed. As you navigate another year of permission slips, homework, and extracurricular activities, remember that you have a handful of tools in your pocket to help ease the way. With a little bit of preparation, encouragement, and support, you and child can start the school year off on a great foot. Feature image: Photo by Wajih Ghali on Unsplash. OUPblog - Academic insights for the thinking world. 
 The concept of emotional disorder In August 2024, a special report on ‘ecological medicine’ was published in Psychiatry Online. The authors of the report describe ecological medicine as “the structured and deliberate use of connectedness and interaction with plants, animals, and other species to generate a therapeutic effect for individuals.” While few would doubt the value of spending time in the natural world, the suggestion that we need medicine to mediate our connection to nature is a striking one. Surely nothing could be more direct and immediate than the sense of awe we feel when we gaze upon the vast night sky, or the sense of renewal we feel when wandering in a spring meadow? And surely, too, it is more than just our health that is affected by this engagement; we are affected. That the concept of ecological medicine seems to be pointing at something so familiar, and yet seems to be expressing it in such a striking and novel manner, gives us pause to reflect. How have we arrived at a point in our civilisation where it seems sensible to describe as a medical discovery the idea that “other species are worthy of respect”, and that the recognition of inter-species reciprocity that is enabled by participating in ecological medicine “serves to counteract some of the societal elements contributing to society’s epidemic of mental health problems”? This manner of approaching our sense of connection with nature is, arguably, emblematic of a sweeping cultural trend: We appear to be losing our grasp on ways of conceiving of human flourishing other than in medical terms. Today, we speak of ‘mental health’, often treating this as synonymous with the notion of flourishing itself. To accept the notions of ‘mental health’ and ‘flourishing’ as synonymous with each other involves a commitment to the conjunction of the following two claims: C1: To be mentally healthy is to flourish; and C2: To flourish is to be mentally healthy. C1 takes mental health to be sufficient for flourishing, whilst C2 takes it to be a necessary condition. C1 is the stronger of the two claims insofar as it asserts that nothing else—apart from being mentally healthy—is required for human flourishing. C2, unlike C1, allows for the possibility that there may be other conditions besides that of mental health that are also necessary for human flourishing—conditions pertaining to other domains of value such as ethics or aesthetics (domains that are of course salient in our connection with nature). But even the weaker claim, C2, imports a medical connotation into our conception of human flourishing that would have once seemed novel, perhaps even puzzling. Aristotle in the Eudaimian Ethics, for instance, takes health (like wealth or honour) to be a means by which we might come to flourish, rather than as tantamount to flourishing itself. How did this connotation appear, signalling the shift towards the medicalisation of our understanding of what it means to flourish? Here is one story of the origin of this connotation (told by Martin Seligman, a founding father of the positive psychology movement): if (severely) distressing emotional experiences are cast as states of pathology, as contemporary psychiatry does, then it isn’t a huge leap (although it is a substantive one) from this claim to the idea that being in a state opposite to this—that is, enjoying a preponderance of pleasant emotional experiences—amounts to a state of wellness, a state of wellbeing, indeed a state of flourishing. This chain of inference is one of the major paths we have taken that has led us towards the medicalisation of our conception of flourishing. If this is right, then recovering alternate, non-medicalised conceptions of human flourishing, conceptions that might well return to us the expressive power to capture (amongst other things) our immediate connection with nature that we intuit, will involve a dissection of the concept of emotional disorder. What, then, is the basis of the claim that (severely) distressing emotional states constitute states of pathology? From what general concept of disorder is this identification derived, and in light of what conception of our emotional lives might this identification be motivated? Surprising lines of inquiry emerge in the course of this exploration, all of which point to the pivotal role that our emotions play in the myriad ways we appraise our lives and make sense of ourselves. One particular line is worth mentioning here: it is often assumed that the medicalisation of our understanding of human flourishing signifies progress, at least in the sense that it yields an understanding that is informed by scientific knowledge. But this line of inquiry invites us to consider whether human flourishing is something we should seek to understand exclusively in scientific terms (as the invocation of the idea of progress implies). Indeed, is it something we should seek to understand in scientific terms at all? A systematic investigation of the value of emotions in human life suggests that there are visions of human flourishing that invite, indeed compel, not the detachment of the scientific gaze, but our immersion in life through the exercise of our rational agency. It is in appreciating the trade-offs between these alternative conceptions of human flourishing, and the appraisals they lead us to make of our emotional experiences, that we arrive at a clearer reflective understanding of our current predicament. It is in so doing that we may recover our power to express the immediate connection we feel with nature when we plant an acorn and tend its growth. My aim is not to argue in favour of any particular conception of flourishing—and so I do not, for instance, claim that it is a mistake to medicalise our sense of connection with nature. It is rather to display as perspicuously as possible some of the conceptual structures that guide our ongoing quest to live happier and more enlightened lives. This quest has, for the most part, taken a very distinctive shape over the past half century: we pour billions of dollars each year into the enterprise of improving our ‘mental health’. It is ultimately for us to decide, individually and collectively, whether thinking of our flourishing in terms of the notion of ‘mental health’ is a good thing to do—rather than being, merely, something we’ve simply ended up doing. Featured Image by Sébastien Bourguet on Unsplash. OUPblog - Academic insights for the thinking world. 
 In the spirit of Oswald It’s been more than 60 years since the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Those who remember where they were and what they were doing on that fateful day in 1963 are becoming smaller in number. Since that afternoon in Dallas, Lee Harvey Oswald has been viewed as a glory-seeking sociopath who, according to every official account, acted alone. No one offered him the adulation or hero worship he so desired. That is, perhaps, until now. For today’s potential assassins and mass shooters, there could not be a better role model than this isolated extremist seeking fame and achieving it, albeit the short-lived kind. Now, among certain young people, Oswald is achieving the admiration he sought. Thomas Matthew Crooks’ thinking may have been remarkably like Oswald’s when he took the shot at Donald Trump. Both were outcasts by all accounts—bullied, isolated, and in desperate need of validation. Oswald’s bullet hit his target; Crooks’ only grazed his. But while the distance from Oswald’s nest in the Texas Schoolbook Depository to Kennedy’s limousine was some 265 feet, Crooks’ bullet had to travel roughly 400 feet. Crooks’ shot was more difficult and surprisingly accurate in light of the fact that years earlier he had failed to make the high school rifle team because he was such a bad shot. Oswald’s name surfaced again in reference to rooftop shooter Robert Crimo III, who killed seven people and injured dozens of others during a Highland Park Fourth of July parade in 2022. A famous photo of Crimo features a newspaper announcing Oswald’s murder taped to an otherwise bare wall behind him. Mass shootings have become commonplace in the modern world. But as every incident and shooter is analyzed, new common denominators are emerging—a link between shooters of the past and those of the present. More often than not, these perpetrators are neither insane nor delusional. But they are political extremists, with their beliefs constantly reinforced by others of the same mind: their violent acts are in fact due to their extreme overvalued beliefs. An extreme belief “is one that is shared by others in a person’s cultural, religious, or subcultural group. The belief is often relished, amplified, and defended,” forensic scientist Tahir Rahman states. “An extreme belief may grow more dominant over time, more refined, and more resilient to challenge. Thinking becomes simplistic, binary, and absolute. The individual has an intense emotional commitment to the belief and may carry out violent behavior because of it.” Extreme Overvalued Beliefs include: - The 9/11 attacks;
- Unabomber (Ted Kaczynski);
- Oklahoma City bombing;
- Boston Marathon attack;
- Dylan Roof (hate crime);
- Thomas Matthew Crooks (attack on former president Trump).
The individual has an intense emotional commitment to the belief and may carry out violent behavior because of it. Crucial to Rahman’s discourse is the fact that the post 9/11 world set the stage for a breakthrough—the Terrorism Radicalization Assessment Protocol (TRAP-18), developed by psychologist and FBI consultant Dr. J. Reid Meloy. The TRAP-18 is a structured and scientifically tested approach for threat assessment that has undoubtedly saved numerous lives. Importantly, the TRAP-18 helps professionals identify potential attackers before the violence starts. Behaviors of potential assailants fall into two categories: distal characteristics (of which there are 10) and proximal warning signs (of which there are 8). Distal characteristics include personal grievances, failure to affiliate with a group (rejection from those with like beliefs), and criminal violence. Proximal warning signs include things like fixation, a sudden burst of energy in the perpetrator, or a directly communicated threat. Oswald was not unknown to the state department and other federal agencies of 1963. If FBI and Secret Service units had access to current threat assessment tools, he might never have made it as far as his sniper’s nest in the Texas School Book Depository. To thwart potential future offenders, TRAP-18 needs to be utilized to an even greater degree, Rahman feels. Threat AnalysisTo do this, Rahman has created a four-part threat analysis to identify facts and circumstances that would lead a reasonable person to believe that an individual is committing or is attempting to commit a criminal offense (poses a threat to self and/or others). This assessment tool takes away personal bias and instead focuses on actual behavioral signatures, in doing so avoiding profiling people based solely on their race, ethnicity, etc. 1. Threats due to psychotic delusions (fixed, false, idiosyncratic)“My neighbor is a space alien and is trying to kill me.” “Satan has instructed me to kill them.” Commonly seen in: Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder with psychosis, Depression with psychosis, Drug-induced psychosis. Treatment: Secure weapons with law enforcement, antipsychotic medications, emergency civil commitment to a mental health facility, case management. 2. Threats due to Extreme Overvalued Beliefs“I am going to be a professional school shooter.” “The West is at war with Islam.” “Black people are replacing White people.” Intervention: Secure weapons with law enforcement, treat co-occurring problems (e.g. mood, anxiety, drug use), crisis response teams, unique behavioral management (e.g. family, group, and individual therapy), case management. 3. Threats due to obsessions (intrusive, unwanted thoughts)Usually pose a low risk of harm to others. “I can’t stop thinking that I might hurt someone.” Treatment: OCD medication, talk therapy, OCD foundation. 4. Threats due to addictive/behavioral issues, alcohol/drugs, paraphilias, domestic violence, or personality disorder (e.g. Psychopathy)Treatment: Secure weapons with law enforcement, drug rehabilitation centers, medication- assisted treatment, (family, individual, and group) therapy. Sometimes jail or prison is the only answer. This assessment tool takes away personal bias and instead focuses on actual behavioral signatures Since 2014, the U.S. has witnessed more than 4,000 shootings involving multiple victims. More often than not, mental illness or delusional thinking is blamed. But in truth, what lies beyond these facades may be as diverse as the cultures from which they spring. Extreme Overvalued Beliefs lie at the heart of many incidents. Once that is recognized, the steps toward preventing radicalization may well be doable. Featured image by Dakota L. via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0. OUPblog - Academic insights for the thinking world. 
 Speech, AI, and the future of neurology Imagine what your life would be like if you did not know where you are or who you are with, and a young man told you, “We’re home and I’m your son.” Now imagine how you would feel if your body became still when you want to walk or shaky when you try to keep still. Do it. Take a moment and think about it. Those who do not need to imagine are the 55 million people living with Alzheimer’s and the 10 million living with Parkinson’s, respectively, as they experience similar challenges every day. While these figures raise concern, future projections are alarming: by 2050, the number of cases is expected to double in high-income countries and triple in low/middle-income countries. Things are particularly bleak in the latter, as they account for 60% of the cases but less than 25% of global investment in research, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. With growing patient-per-clinic ratios and soaring inequities across the globe, how will we detect these diseases early and massively enough for timely intervention? What solutions could balance the scales of brain health worldwide? An unsuspected answer involves combining natural speech and artificial intelligence. Yes, this sounds like another flight of imagination, but it all rests on solid science. Note that these diseases are incurable. Rapid and mass detection is our best alternative; and this is precisely where the need for innovation emerges. Tracking diseasesAlzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are neurodegenerative disorders, characterized by progressive atrophy of distinct brain regions. Alzheimer’s usually begins with neuron degeneration in the hippocampus and temporal lobe, affecting memory and several other abilities. In Parkinson’s, neuronal degradation begins in the basal ganglia, leading to motor and cognitive difficulties. Yet, this is just the tip of the iceberg. For patients, these diseases are disabling and often fatal. For families, they undermine emotional stability, financial solvency, and quality of life. For governments, they challenge health systems’ infrastructure and finances. Thus, these conditions project from the brain onto society, tracing a devastating trajectory. That is why timely detection is crucial. Early diagnosis can mitigate the impact of symptoms, reduce their emotional burden on patients and caregivers, increase time to plan neuroprotective habits, and reduce costs by favoring routine over emergency care. Note that these diseases are incurable. Rapid and mass detection is our best alternative; and this is precisely where the need for innovation emerges. Today, diagnosis rests on interviews with specialists, extensive paper-and-pencil tests, and, when conditions allow, brain MRI studies and biomarker assessments. These procedures are invaluable, but imperfect. Many countries lack enough qualified personnel and appropriate technology (and when these resources exist, their costs can be prohibitive). Furthermore, outcomes depend on the judgments of examiners, who vary in training and experience. Moreover, assessments are usually stressful and appointments take weeks or months. Worse yet, these limitations are exacerbated as patient numbers increase and socioeconomic disparities between countries deepen. An urgent need thus arises for new affordable, user-friendly, scalable, and immediate approaches. Red flags in speechThis is where digital speech biomarkers come into play. Suppose that Tom, who is pushing 70, has been showing signs of cognitive decline and you suspect he might be suffering from Alzheimer’s. What if you asked him to recount a memory and an app detected traces of the disease in his speech? This non-invasive, low-cost approach offers real-time results without the need to visit a clinic, sparking great enthusiasm. Yet, how exactly does it work? The key is that when we speak, we engage multiple brain regions that are affected by these diseases. Some, such as the hippocampus and the temporal lobe, are involved in accessing words as discourse unfolds; others, like the basal ganglia, coordinate the physical movements during speech production. So, if such regions were atrophied, one would expect alterations in the types of words used, their articulation, or other relevant aspects. By testing specific linguistic dimensions, we can uncover the integrity or dysfunction of those brain areas. The first step is to record the natural speech of individuals with and without a given disease (the more, the better). Subsequently, complex algorithms quantify multiple aspects of the recording (say, speech rhythm) and its transcription (say, word properties). These metrics are used to train computational models that learn the typical speech characteristics of diagnosed individuals and healthy ones. Once the model is trained, it is presented with acoustic and linguistic measures from Tom, and, essentially, queried with this question: “Model, based on what you’ve learned, does Tom have the disease or not?” In a recent study, our team identified Alzheimer’s disease with nearly 90% success via word property analysis. The model learned that patients, compared to their healthy peers, use words with higher frequency (‘doctor’ rather than ‘physician’), lower specificity (‘dog’ instead of ‘poodle’), and more common sound sequences (like ‘bat’, which resembles ‘cat’, ‘fat’, ‘mat’, ‘rat’, ‘bet’, ‘bit’, ‘bought’, ‘boot’, ‘bad’, ‘bag’, and ‘ban’; as opposed to ‘giraffe’, whose sound sequence is quite unique). Indeed, these lexical properties predicted the patients’ level of cognitive decline and brain atrophy. The reason is quite simple: word selection is a central function of semantic memory, which becomes impaired since the onset of temporo-hippocampal atrophy in Alzheimer’s. When navigating semantic memory, people with the disease prioritize the most accessible parts of their vocabulary, consisting of frequent, unspecific, and common-sounds words. And the more severe their disorder is, the simpler the words they favor. In another study, we detected Parkinson’s disease with over 90% accuracy by measuring motor aspects of speech. We found that patients, compared to healthy individuals, leave longer pauses between words and produce less recognizable sounds. These patterns even differentiated between disease variants. Once again, the finding is clear. Speech production requires coordinating movements of the tongue, lips, and vocal cords, among other organs. Since basal ganglia atrophy affects motor skills, these actions in people with Parkinson’s prove slow, shaky, and imprecise. The audio signal carries traces of these alterations. The breakthroughs do not stop there. These methods can anticipate who will develop specific conditions in the future. Some studies also suggest that they outperform standard tests in estimating disease severity and discriminating between syndromes. The approach has been validated with data acquired in hospitals and over the phone, incorporated in clinical trials, and harnessed by user-friendly apps. These are critical milestones towards rethinking clinical assessments. The breakthroughs do not stop there. These methods can anticipate who will develop specific conditions in the future. A story in the making For all its promise, this story is only beginning. The approach requires more validation, especially in large groups of patients. New studies should focus on vulnerable populations to balance the abundant data coming from high-income countries. More generally, a digital medical culture must be cultivated for clinicians to incorporate computational tools. Of course, these milestones demand concerted efforts of scientists, medical professionals, patients, family members, companies, and policymakers. None of this is easy or immediate. The path from science to clinical practice and public policy is long, crooked, and uphill. Fortunately, this is not an isolated endeavor. Various teams are working on other digital tools for disease detection, including eye-tracking devices, motion sensors, and gamified cognitive tests. Speech analysis is part of a vast movement pushing for clinical equity through technological innovations. To conclude, imagine that we can detect these diseases before Tom shows symptoms of decline. Imagine doing so by reducing the social gaps among world nations. And imagine a future where all this needs no longer be imagined. If such a day ever arrives, it will be through disruptions like this. Featured image by TungArt7 via Pixabay. OUPblog - Academic insights for the thinking world. 
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