John Ratey - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by John Ratey
revneuro, 2011
A growing body of literature suggests that physical activity beneficially influences brain functi... more A growing body of literature suggests that physical activity beneficially influences brain function during adulthood, particularly frontal lobe-mediated cognitive processes, such as planning, scheduling, inhibition, and working memory. For our hunter-gatherer ancestors, times of famine interspersed with times of feast necessitated bouts of intense physical activity balanced by periods of rest. However, the sedentary lifestyle that pervades modern society has overridden the necessity for a physically active lifestyle. The impact of inactivity on disease processes has been the focus of much attention; the growing understanding that physical activity also has the benefit of enhancing cognitive performance strengthens the imperative for interventions that are successful in increasing physical activity, with the outcomes of promoting health and productivity. Population health and performance programs that promote physical activity provide benefits for employees and employers through impr...
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Sep 1, 1987
We began open trials of beta-blockers, as adjunctive medication, in eight consecutive autistic ad... more We began open trials of beta-blockers, as adjunctive medication, in eight consecutive autistic adults. The immediate result across all patients was a rapid diminution in aggressivity (Ratey et al., 1987). As time on the drug increased, subtler changes in speech and socialization emerged. While results of open trials must be interpreted with caution, these changes were significant and lasting. We speculate that these effects may be the result of a lessening of the autistic individual's state of hyperarousal. As the individual becomes less anxious, defensive and dearousing behaviors are relinquished and more social and adaptive behaviors appear. There is a concomitant improvement in language, though it is unclear whether lost skills are recouped or new ones developed. Further research is indicated.
The authors discuss the growing evidence that strenuous physical activity is not only healthy for... more The authors discuss the growing evidence that strenuous physical activity is not only healthy for students but improves their academic performance. Based on such re - search, they argue that schools in the United States need to stop eliminating physical- education programs under the current political pressures to emphasize academics and instead to reform traditional physical education. Modern physical education
Issues in Children's and Families' Lives, 2012
We present a compelling evolutionary and scientific rationale for why movement (physical activity... more We present a compelling evolutionary and scientific rationale for why movement (physical activity) must be viewed as essential in promoting students’ physical and mental health, learning, and education. Because the human genome has encoded evolutionarily mandated cycling between periods of activity and rest, healthy gene expression and physiological function depend on regular movement. Yet our current culture, marked largely by sedentarism, has largely failed to heed the host of evidence that the mind and body require regular physical activity to function optimally. This disconcerting development has caused evolutionary cycles to stall, leading to metabolic derangement, epidemic chronic disease, and insidious patterns of mental disorders and addiction. Catalyzing change to combat this trend requires a global front in which every individual, community, and organization has a role. Schools, in particular, present a uniquely advantageous opportunity to acculturate future generations with the knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed for a lifetime of healthy activity.
PubMed, Feb 1, 1992
Background: Considerable evidence indicates that the lipophilic beta-blocker propranolol is usefu... more Background: Considerable evidence indicates that the lipophilic beta-blocker propranolol is useful in treating organically based aggression. This study looked at the efficacy of a more hydrophilic beta-blocker, nadolol, to treat aggression in chronic psychiatric inpatients. Method: Forty-one chronic psychiatric inpatients with an average of one aggressive outburst per week (defined by the Overt Aggression Scale [OAS]) were entered into a double-blind, placebo-controlled study lasting 17 weeks. The OAS was used to track aggression on a per-incident basis, while the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and the Clinical Global Impressions scale (CGI) were used to track clinical status. Results: Nadolol subjects showed a significant decline in frequency of aggression compared with controls (p = .026) and a significant decline in the BPRS total score (p = .007) and in the subfactors "hostility and suspicion," "negative symptoms," and "signs of hyperarousal/tension." There was no significant change in CGI "severity of illness" ratings between groups, although the nadolol group was significantly improved from baseline at every subsequent time period while the placebo group was unchanged throughout the study. Conclusion: Nadolol is of significant benefit in the treatment of aggression in chronic psychiatric inpatients. This drug does penetrate the brain over time, but the success of a drug whose primary locus of action is peripheral may implicate a bimodal mechanism of action, i.e., a role for the CNS and the soma in the maintenance of aggression.
American Journal of Psychotherapy, 1985
Psychiatry, 1986
"Noise" is a term we are using to describe a complex and distressing aspect of ... more "Noise" is a term we are using to describe a complex and distressing aspect of the bodily and cognitive experience of many very ill psychiatric patients. By "noise," we mean an internally experienced state of crowding and confusion created by a variety of stimuli, the quantity, intensity and unpredictability of which make it difficult for individuals so afflicted to tolerate and organize their experience. Attempts to do so may only add to confusion and psychotic phenomena.
Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 1992
*Data analyses of questionnaires returned revealed no significant differences between these two g... more *Data analyses of questionnaires returned revealed no significant differences between these two groups so that data was pooled for further analysis.
Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 1992
Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 1986
An enduring question in the psychodynamic study of depression is the relationship of a precipitan... more An enduring question in the psychodynamic study of depression is the relationship of a precipitant to a clinical episode. It remains unclear how the experience of an external event becomes transformed into feelings of dysphoria, hopelessness, and low self esteem. Historically, the connection between life events and depression has been described differently at different times by various theories. We are all familiar with the classic explanation of the predisposition to depression as residing in the childhood formation of a pathognomonic introject rep resenting the absorption into the ego of a lost love object (Freud, 1917). Later losses reactivated the experience of this early loss and the episode of depression was a manifestation of anger directed against the initial love object which had become part of one's self. The im portance of these self recriminations also featured largely in later views that explained depression as a helpless ego being punished by a strict superego and the depressive manifestations representing the ego's at tempt to win forgiveness for having forced a love object to abandon it (Rado, 1927). These early contributions, together with Abraham's (1924) careful delineation of regressive fixation points, all centered on object loss precipitating depression by reviving an earlier experience of dysphoric abandonment crystalized by Abraham by the term " primal parathy mia." The difficulties with these formulations are well known. Depression did not always follow object loss, self recriminations were not always clinically present, and equally absent were those symptoms signifying a regression to oral or anal modes of libidinal organization.
Psychiatry, 1988
Anorexia and hysteria seem to be expressions of age-specific conflicts intensified by constrictiv... more Anorexia and hysteria seem to be expressions of age-specific conflicts intensified by constrictive cultural ideas and certain kinds of familial constellations. The disorder that ensues appears to represent the individual's desperate attempt to escape the conflicts of adult life according to models offered by the prevailing cultural values.
American Journal of Psychiatry
ABSTRACT
The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 1993
After noting a dramatic reduction in aggression and agitation in five psychotic inpatients residi... more After noting a dramatic reduction in aggression and agitation in five psychotic inpatients residing on a specialized unit for the severely aggressive, the authors conducted a retrospective chart review to assess the possible role of clozapine treatment in this change. The authors culled 12 months of nursing data, including progress notes, orders for seclusion, and mechanical and chemical restraint, to tabulate the frequency of aggression before and after the initiation of clozapine treatment, and looked at ratings on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and periodic review reports to assess overall clinical change. The results of the review indicate that although psychotic symptoms were not greatly affected by the drug, the overall frequency of assaults, self-abuse, and the use of seclusion, mechanical restraint, and chemical restraint was reduced in the subjects. The authors conclude that because the reduction of aggression and agitation coincided with clozapine treatment, it is like...
Psychiatric Annals, 1997
ABSTRACT TW is a handsome, intelligent young man who nevertheless feels like a failure. As a teen... more ABSTRACT TW is a handsome, intelligent young man who nevertheless feels like a failure. As a teenager, he flunked out of a number of preparatory schools, unable to take any interest in class and incapable of paying attention to lectures. He has a history of substance abuse and is a veteran of several 12-step programs. He has a tendency to feel overwhelmed. He never seems able to direct his focus or his energy and feels this is due to being lazy. If he is able to see something through to the end, inevitably it comes up short of his and others' expectations, reinforcing his belief that he should not even try. He claims his biggest problem is his inability to cope with interpersonal relationships. Their multidimensional demands give him vertigo. To manage this, he says, he views others in black and white. He realizes that he does not let others be who they are and laments his inability to change.
Schizophrenia Research, 1990
American Journal of Psychiatry, 1988
revneuro, 2011
A growing body of literature suggests that physical activity beneficially influences brain functi... more A growing body of literature suggests that physical activity beneficially influences brain function during adulthood, particularly frontal lobe-mediated cognitive processes, such as planning, scheduling, inhibition, and working memory. For our hunter-gatherer ancestors, times of famine interspersed with times of feast necessitated bouts of intense physical activity balanced by periods of rest. However, the sedentary lifestyle that pervades modern society has overridden the necessity for a physically active lifestyle. The impact of inactivity on disease processes has been the focus of much attention; the growing understanding that physical activity also has the benefit of enhancing cognitive performance strengthens the imperative for interventions that are successful in increasing physical activity, with the outcomes of promoting health and productivity. Population health and performance programs that promote physical activity provide benefits for employees and employers through impr...
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Sep 1, 1987
We began open trials of beta-blockers, as adjunctive medication, in eight consecutive autistic ad... more We began open trials of beta-blockers, as adjunctive medication, in eight consecutive autistic adults. The immediate result across all patients was a rapid diminution in aggressivity (Ratey et al., 1987). As time on the drug increased, subtler changes in speech and socialization emerged. While results of open trials must be interpreted with caution, these changes were significant and lasting. We speculate that these effects may be the result of a lessening of the autistic individual's state of hyperarousal. As the individual becomes less anxious, defensive and dearousing behaviors are relinquished and more social and adaptive behaviors appear. There is a concomitant improvement in language, though it is unclear whether lost skills are recouped or new ones developed. Further research is indicated.
The authors discuss the growing evidence that strenuous physical activity is not only healthy for... more The authors discuss the growing evidence that strenuous physical activity is not only healthy for students but improves their academic performance. Based on such re - search, they argue that schools in the United States need to stop eliminating physical- education programs under the current political pressures to emphasize academics and instead to reform traditional physical education. Modern physical education
Issues in Children's and Families' Lives, 2012
We present a compelling evolutionary and scientific rationale for why movement (physical activity... more We present a compelling evolutionary and scientific rationale for why movement (physical activity) must be viewed as essential in promoting students’ physical and mental health, learning, and education. Because the human genome has encoded evolutionarily mandated cycling between periods of activity and rest, healthy gene expression and physiological function depend on regular movement. Yet our current culture, marked largely by sedentarism, has largely failed to heed the host of evidence that the mind and body require regular physical activity to function optimally. This disconcerting development has caused evolutionary cycles to stall, leading to metabolic derangement, epidemic chronic disease, and insidious patterns of mental disorders and addiction. Catalyzing change to combat this trend requires a global front in which every individual, community, and organization has a role. Schools, in particular, present a uniquely advantageous opportunity to acculturate future generations with the knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed for a lifetime of healthy activity.
PubMed, Feb 1, 1992
Background: Considerable evidence indicates that the lipophilic beta-blocker propranolol is usefu... more Background: Considerable evidence indicates that the lipophilic beta-blocker propranolol is useful in treating organically based aggression. This study looked at the efficacy of a more hydrophilic beta-blocker, nadolol, to treat aggression in chronic psychiatric inpatients. Method: Forty-one chronic psychiatric inpatients with an average of one aggressive outburst per week (defined by the Overt Aggression Scale [OAS]) were entered into a double-blind, placebo-controlled study lasting 17 weeks. The OAS was used to track aggression on a per-incident basis, while the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and the Clinical Global Impressions scale (CGI) were used to track clinical status. Results: Nadolol subjects showed a significant decline in frequency of aggression compared with controls (p = .026) and a significant decline in the BPRS total score (p = .007) and in the subfactors "hostility and suspicion," "negative symptoms," and "signs of hyperarousal/tension." There was no significant change in CGI "severity of illness" ratings between groups, although the nadolol group was significantly improved from baseline at every subsequent time period while the placebo group was unchanged throughout the study. Conclusion: Nadolol is of significant benefit in the treatment of aggression in chronic psychiatric inpatients. This drug does penetrate the brain over time, but the success of a drug whose primary locus of action is peripheral may implicate a bimodal mechanism of action, i.e., a role for the CNS and the soma in the maintenance of aggression.
American Journal of Psychotherapy, 1985
Psychiatry, 1986
"Noise" is a term we are using to describe a complex and distressing aspect of ... more "Noise" is a term we are using to describe a complex and distressing aspect of the bodily and cognitive experience of many very ill psychiatric patients. By "noise," we mean an internally experienced state of crowding and confusion created by a variety of stimuli, the quantity, intensity and unpredictability of which make it difficult for individuals so afflicted to tolerate and organize their experience. Attempts to do so may only add to confusion and psychotic phenomena.
Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 1992
*Data analyses of questionnaires returned revealed no significant differences between these two g... more *Data analyses of questionnaires returned revealed no significant differences between these two groups so that data was pooled for further analysis.
Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 1992
Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 1986
An enduring question in the psychodynamic study of depression is the relationship of a precipitan... more An enduring question in the psychodynamic study of depression is the relationship of a precipitant to a clinical episode. It remains unclear how the experience of an external event becomes transformed into feelings of dysphoria, hopelessness, and low self esteem. Historically, the connection between life events and depression has been described differently at different times by various theories. We are all familiar with the classic explanation of the predisposition to depression as residing in the childhood formation of a pathognomonic introject rep resenting the absorption into the ego of a lost love object (Freud, 1917). Later losses reactivated the experience of this early loss and the episode of depression was a manifestation of anger directed against the initial love object which had become part of one's self. The im portance of these self recriminations also featured largely in later views that explained depression as a helpless ego being punished by a strict superego and the depressive manifestations representing the ego's at tempt to win forgiveness for having forced a love object to abandon it (Rado, 1927). These early contributions, together with Abraham's (1924) careful delineation of regressive fixation points, all centered on object loss precipitating depression by reviving an earlier experience of dysphoric abandonment crystalized by Abraham by the term " primal parathy mia." The difficulties with these formulations are well known. Depression did not always follow object loss, self recriminations were not always clinically present, and equally absent were those symptoms signifying a regression to oral or anal modes of libidinal organization.
Psychiatry, 1988
Anorexia and hysteria seem to be expressions of age-specific conflicts intensified by constrictiv... more Anorexia and hysteria seem to be expressions of age-specific conflicts intensified by constrictive cultural ideas and certain kinds of familial constellations. The disorder that ensues appears to represent the individual's desperate attempt to escape the conflicts of adult life according to models offered by the prevailing cultural values.
American Journal of Psychiatry
ABSTRACT
The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 1993
After noting a dramatic reduction in aggression and agitation in five psychotic inpatients residi... more After noting a dramatic reduction in aggression and agitation in five psychotic inpatients residing on a specialized unit for the severely aggressive, the authors conducted a retrospective chart review to assess the possible role of clozapine treatment in this change. The authors culled 12 months of nursing data, including progress notes, orders for seclusion, and mechanical and chemical restraint, to tabulate the frequency of aggression before and after the initiation of clozapine treatment, and looked at ratings on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and periodic review reports to assess overall clinical change. The results of the review indicate that although psychotic symptoms were not greatly affected by the drug, the overall frequency of assaults, self-abuse, and the use of seclusion, mechanical restraint, and chemical restraint was reduced in the subjects. The authors conclude that because the reduction of aggression and agitation coincided with clozapine treatment, it is like...
Psychiatric Annals, 1997
ABSTRACT TW is a handsome, intelligent young man who nevertheless feels like a failure. As a teen... more ABSTRACT TW is a handsome, intelligent young man who nevertheless feels like a failure. As a teenager, he flunked out of a number of preparatory schools, unable to take any interest in class and incapable of paying attention to lectures. He has a history of substance abuse and is a veteran of several 12-step programs. He has a tendency to feel overwhelmed. He never seems able to direct his focus or his energy and feels this is due to being lazy. If he is able to see something through to the end, inevitably it comes up short of his and others' expectations, reinforcing his belief that he should not even try. He claims his biggest problem is his inability to cope with interpersonal relationships. Their multidimensional demands give him vertigo. To manage this, he says, he views others in black and white. He realizes that he does not let others be who they are and laments his inability to change.
Schizophrenia Research, 1990
American Journal of Psychiatry, 1988