Psychiatry / Psychology
Kenya doctor fights mental health stigma in ‘traumatized continent’
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As Kenya’s leading psychiatrist, Frank Njenga has been championing the cause of better mental health care on the east African country and the continent for more than three decades.
He’s been working tirelessly to bring quality mental health care in a country where mentally disabled people receive little help from the state and face massive stigma from society.
“It’s a horrible indictment on what we’ve done but the truth and reality is that very little has been done systematically and deliberately by government or by ourselves to bring up the level of mental health in this part of the world,” says Njenga.
Binge drinking by freshman women tied to sexual assault risk, according to new research
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Many young women who steer clear of alcohol while they’re in high school may change their ways once they go off to college. And those who take up binge drinking may be at relatively high risk of sexual assault, according to a University at Buffalo-led study in the January issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The college years are famously associated with drinking. But little has been known about how young women change their high school drinking habits once they start college.
So for the new study, the research team followed 437 young women from high school graduation through freshman year of college. They found that of women who had never drank heavily in high school (if at all), nearly half admitted to heavy episodic drinking—commonly called binge drinking - at least once by the end of their first college semester. Young women who were already engaging in binge drinking in high school continued drinking at similar levels in college.
What’s more, binge drinking was linked to students’ risk of sexual victimization - regardless of what their drinking habits had been in high school.
Fatal Crashes in the U.S.: Fewer Canadian Drivers Under The Influence
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A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy and Columbia University finds alcohol-related fatal motor vehicle crashes in the U.S. are much lower among drivers with Canadian licenses than drivers with U.S. or Mexican licenses. The prevalence of alcohol involvement in fatal crashes was 27 percent for both U.S. and Mexican drivers, and 11 percent for Canadian drivers. Similarly, alcohol impairment was found in 23 percent of U.S. and Mexican drivers and 8 percent of Canadian drivers involved in a fatal crash. Research from other countries finds foreign drivers are at greater risk of crashes than native drivers. In contrast, this study shows that drivers licensed in Mexico and Canada who were involved in fatal crashes in the U.S. had the same or less alcohol impairment than U.S.-licensed drivers. The report is published in the October issue of Injury Prevention and is available on the journal’s website.
“Our findings were unexpected, partly because the substantial cultural differences between the U.S. and Mexico led us to anticipate differences in alcohol-related crashes,” said lead study author Susan P. Baker, a professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “We also anticipated that Canadian drivers in U.S. crashes would be similar to U.S. drivers because the rate of alcohol-related fatal crashes is similar within the two countries.” Together, Mexican and Canadian drivers comprise more than 70 percent of all foreign-licensed drivers involved in fatal crashes in the U.S.
As a possible explanation, the researchers speculate that the less prominent role of alcohol in fatal crashes of Canadian-licensed drivers in the U.S. may suggest that a larger proportion of Canadians were traveling on vacation or business, situations that may be less likely to involve alcohol. Crashes at night (when alcohol is more likely to be involved) were also least common among Canadian-licensed drivers. And finally, it is also possible that Canadians are less likely to drive after drinking.
Risk of autism among younger siblings of a child with autism much greater than previously reported
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Autism Speaks, the world’s largest autism science and advocacy organization, joined in announcing significant findings from the largest known study of younger siblings of children who had a verified diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study, based on data from the Autism Speaks High Risk Baby Siblings Research Consortium (BSRC) and led by investigators from the UC Davis MIND Institute, was published online today in the journal Pediatrics and will appear in the September issue.
The “Recurrence Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Baby Siblings Research Consortium Study” found that 19 percent of younger siblings of children with ASD developed autism, a rate significantly higher than the general population. If there were two children with ASD in the family, the risk of the third sibling developing ASD increased to more than 32 percent. The study found that the risk of an ASD diagnosis for male infants who had an older sibling with ASD was almost three times greater than the risk for female infants (26 percent compared to 9 percent). The study did not find any increase in risk associated with the gender of the older sibling, severity of the older sibling’s symptoms, or other parent characteristics such as parental age, socio-economic status or race/ethnicity.
“By pulling together data from many investigators who are studying infant siblings of children with autism, these results offer a more accurate estimate of the recurrence rate for autism in siblings,” says Autism Speaks Chief Science Officer Geraldine Dawson, Ph.D. “Surprisingly, the rate is much higher than previous estimates. This points to the important need for closely monitoring and screening siblings so that they can be offered intervention as early as possible to ensure the best possible outcome.”
PBDEs can cause developmental malformations, changes in behavior and death
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A new study by Baylor University environmental health researchers found that zebra fish exposed to several different technical mixtures of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) - a common fire retardant - during early development can cause developmental malformations, changes in behavior and death.
The study will appear in the June issue of the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry and is the first to test multiple PBDE mixtures for changes in behavior, physical malformations and mortality on zebra fish.
PBDEs are found in many common household products from blankets to couches to food wrappers. Lab tests have shown that PBDEs have been found in human breast milk and cord blood. Previous studies have showed children with high levels of PBDEs in their umbilical cord at birth scored lower on tests between one and six years of age. In 2006, the state of California started prohibiting the use of PBDEs.
Alcohol consumption after age 75 associated with lower risk of developing dementia
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3202 German individuals (75+) attending general practitioners , who were free of dementia were studied at baseline, were followed up 1.5 years and 3 years later by means of structured clinical interviews including detailed assessment of current alcohol consumption and DSM-IV dementia diagnoses. Associations between alcohol consumption (in grams of ethanol), type of alcohol (wine, beer, mixed alcohol beverages) and incident dementia were examined using Cox proportional hazard models, controlling for several confounders.
There was good ascertainment of the development of dementia, even among subjects who died during follow up. Of 3,202 subjects free of dementia at baseline, 217 subjects met criteria for dementia during follow up. Subjects consuming alcohol had approximately 30% less overall dementia and 40% less Alzheimer dementia than did non-drinking subjects. No significant differences were seen according to the type of alcoholic beverage consumed. Overall, these results are similar to several previous studies in the very elderly and suggest that moderate drinking is associated with less dementia, even among individuals aged 75 years and older.
The authors conclusions suggests that light-to-moderate alcohol consumption is inversely related to incident dementia, also among individuals aged 75 years and older.
Common insecticide used in homes associated with delayed mental development of young children
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When the EPA phased out the widespread residential use of chlorpyrifos and other organophosphorus (OP) insecticides in 2000-2001 because of risks to child neurodevelopment, these compounds were largely replaced with pyrethroid insecticides. But the safety of these replacement insecticides remained unclear, as they had never been evaluated for long-term neurotoxic effects after low-level exposure. In the first study to examine the effects of these compounds on humans and the first evaluation of their potential toxicity to the developing fetal brain, scientists of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health found a significant association between piperonyl butoxide (PBO), a common additive in pyrethroid formulations, measured in personal air collected during the third trimester of pregnancy, and delayed mental development at 36 months. Findings from the study are online in the journal, Pediatrics.
The study was conducted with a subset of 725 pregnant women participating in a prospective longitudinal study of black and Dominican women living in upper Manhattan and the South Bronx underway at the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH). The insecticide permethrin was selected for the evaluation because it is one of the most common pyrethroid insecticides used in U.S. homes, as well as the most commonly sold pesticide, according to a nationally representative sample. PBO, a chemical that is added to insecticides to increase efficacy was also selected for evaluation. Any detection of PBO in air is a marker of a pyrethroid insecticide application.
In all, 342 women were studied for permethrin exposure in personal air during pregnancy; 272 for permethrin in maternal and umbilical cord plasma; and 230 were evaluated for exposure to PBO. To collect the air samples, mothers from the CCCEH Mothers and Newborns cohort wore a small backpack holding a personal ambient air monitor for 48 hours during the third trimester of pregnancy.
Childhood sexual abuse may be a risk factor for later psychotic illness
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An Australian study suggests that children who are sexually abused, especially if it involves penetration, appear to be at higher risk for developing schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Previous studies have established that abused children are more likely to develop depression, anxiety, substance abuse, borderline personality disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder and suicidal behavior, according to background information in the article. “The possibility of a link between childhood sexual abuse and later psychotic disorders, however, remains unresolved despite the claims of some that a causal link has been established to schizophrenia,” the authors write
Margaret C. Cutajar, D.Psych., M.A.P.S., of Monash University, Victoria, Australia, and colleagues linked data from police and medical examinations of sexual abuse cases to a statewide register of psychiatric cases. Rates of psychiatric disorders among 2,759 individuals who had been sexually abused when younger than age 16 were compared with those among 4,938 individuals in a comparison group drawn from electoral records.
Over a 30-year period, individuals who had experienced childhood sexual abuse had significantly higher rates than those in the comparison group of psychosis overall (2.8 percent vs. 1.4 percent) and schizophrenia disorders (1.9 percent vs. 0.7 percent).
Mount Sinai researchers develop mouse model to help find how a gene mutation leads to autism
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Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that when one copy of the SHANK3 gene in mice is missing, nerve cells do not effectively communicate and do not show cellular properties associated with normal learning. This discovery may explain how mutations affecting SHANK3 may lead to autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The research is currently published in Molecular Autism.
“We know that SHANK3 mutation plays a central, causative role in some forms of autism spectrum disorders, but wanted to learn more about how it does this,” said Joseph Buxbaum, PhD, Director of the Seaver Autism Center and Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Genetics and Genomic Sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “These data provide critical insight into the mechanism behind the development of the cognitive and social changes associated with autism.”
Previous research has shown that gene mutation in SHANK3 is associated with delayed language abilities, learning disability, and ASDs.
How is Dysthymia in Children Treated?
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Dysthymia is a mood disorder which is less severe than depression. Children diagnosed with dysthymia can be treated using medications, therapy, or both approaches together.
Introduction:
Dysthymia is considered a chronic mood disorder which falls under the category of depression. Like adults, children also suffer from this type of mood disorder. While chronic depression is a very serious condition, dysthymia in children is treatable. Treatments which are considered to be effective include medications and non-medicated therapy such as psychotherapeutic approaches. The main goals for treating this condition include decreasing symptoms of depression, decreasing risk of the development of other mood disorders, and reinforcement of psychosocial functioning.
Mental health a growing concern after Gulf spill
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Gulf Coast native Kindra Arnesen is so anxious about the effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill she is packing up her family and leaving town.
“Stress? Dude my clothes are falling off me (because of weight loss). The level of stress here is tremendous. My husband has aged 10 years in two months,” Arnesen said on Friday as she loaded possessions into a van outside her trailer home in Venice.
Fears are growing of an increase in stress-related illness and mental health problems from the BP spill. Anecdotal evidence abounds but mental health officials say they lack data about the scale and scope of suffering.
Significant Number of Fathers Experience Prenatal, Postpartum Depression
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About 10 percent of fathers experience prenatal or postpartum depression, with rates being highest in the 3 to 6 month postpartum period, according to an analysis of previous research appearing in the May 19 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on mental health.
James F. Paulson, Ph.D., of the Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Va., presented the findings of the study at a JAMA media briefing on mental health.
It is well established that maternal prenatal and postpartum depression is prevalent and has negative personal, family, and child developmental outcomes, but the prevalence, risk factors and effects of depression among new fathers is not well understood, and has received little attention from researchers and clinicians, according to background information in the article.
How Nutrition Can Help Avoid a Mood Disorder B
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Good diet is key to anticipate all sorts of bloom issues, about it plays a analytical role in preventing abounding affection disorders including depression. It absolutely did not abruptness me if I would accept an amaranthine bulk of E:mails from my admirers on radio administration their acquaintance of abasement traveling abroad in a abbreviate time afterwards getting on 1,000 mg. of Omega 3’s daily. Diet is key. If you eat awful candy foods, amoroso or alcohol too abundant caffeine, your physique as able-bodied as your academician gets ‘aggravated’ arch to affection disorders or depression. Read on for my account of foods that advice you anticipate this from accident in the aboriginal place.
1. Omega 3’s (fish oil) – is a abundant abode to alpha so accomplish abiding you attending for a acceptable superior Omega 3 angle oil supplement that says enteric coated on the label. This will accomplish it easier to abstract and you will not burp up a ambiguous taste. Of course, cover angle in your diet at atomic alert a week.
Why are there always such misinformation about panic disorder?
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Every time someone hears about my attacks, I get useless and banal “advice” on overcoming them. People with no real psychological education other than reading self help books and watching Dr. Phil. My favorite is “suck it up” and “be a man.” So anyone out there with panic disorder get this often or notice this? Does it bug you? How do you cope? It’s bad enough to have an illness that has you by the throat, but to endure constant ignorance is just salt in the wound.
10 years with panic disorder (agoraphobia on and off) Have been on Paxil, Lexapro, Celexa, Effexor, Xanax, Klonopin, Valium, etc.
Tested for bi-polar and manic depression..hade neither, but was given Depikote “just in case” and it reacted badly.
Panic Attacks Anxiety Mood Disorders
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A panic attack is usually an overpowering fear which occurs for no clear reason. Most people may have one episode or perhaps a couple in their whole lives other people can experience anxiety attacks on an ongoing basis. However frequently they occur they can be alarming plus the actual physical symptoms overwhelming and people have been known to telephone emergency medical services when the very first anxiety attack happens.
The signs and symptoms could seem like a heart attack or other life-threatening emergency with sweating excessively, prickling or pins and needles, along with other symptoms present. One of the toughest things about a panic attack is the fear of having to deal with another anxiety attack.
Previously, anxiety attacks were considered a ‘nervous’ dysfunction or simply stress but now repeated panic attacks are referred to as a medical condition called panic disorder. This is actually an inappropriate flight or fight response.
