On Monday night, the DtaS book club discussed Why Zebra’s Dont Get Ulcers by renowned stress expert and local science celebrity Robert Sapolsky. Robert does a great job of describing all the mechanisms and chemicals involved in our stress response, but his section on coping was a bit….ahem light. By his own admission, this is due to a lack of data surrounding the efficacy of some of the more popular treatments.

Our next speaker, Dr. Philippe Goldin, is trying to understand how meditation does impact stress, especially on those with social anxiety. Here’s an excerpt from Philippe’s Stanford website:

We are currently offering free treatment to people with social anxiety at Stanford University. The treatment study’s goal is to better understand the mechanisms of therapeutic change and its long-term impact in individuals who suffer from social anxiety.

We are seeking people with English fluency who are right handed, ages 21-55, and who are willing to discontinue use of mood or anxiety medications and concurrent therapy for the duration of their participation in the study.

Here is more information about the two social anxiety treatment studies we are running. Both of these programs are completely free.
1. Stress Reduction (SR)
2. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

You can find out more information on the CAAN site. And as a veteran of Philippe’s studies (here’s a KQED piece on fMRI as well), I must say the experience was somewhere between absolutely fascinating and riveting. It’s not often you get a high quality picture of your brain and be able to ask cutting edge researchers questions along the way.