Psychiatry / Psychology
Specialized Cognitive Behavioral Treatment Available for People with PTSD and Serious Mental Illness
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Sufferers of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are receiving specialized treatment from UMDNJ-University Behavioral HealthCare as a part of a National Institute of Mental Health study in collaboration with Dartmouth Medical School whose researchers adapted the treatment for people with serious mental illness.
Steven Silverstein, Ph.D., director and Stephanie Marcello, Ph.D., both of the Division of Schizophrenia Research, are implementing the new therapy, which is based on principles of cognitive behavior therapy. The treatment process includes relaxation training, helpful information about how stress causes the symptoms, and “cognitive restructuring” or techniques that people learn to help replace anxiety-arousing thoughts with more realistic appraisals about themselves and the level of danger in their environments. Treatment is closely coordinated with clients’ clinicians.
UMDNJ is the first institution outside of Dartmouth Medical School to offer this new treatment to mentally ill patients in a culturally diverse urban environment. All the patients in the study come from UMDNJ community mental health centers in New Brunswick, South Brunswick, Piscataway, and Newark.
Robot Playmates Monitor Emotional State of Children with ASD
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The day that robot playmates help children with autism learn the social skills that they naturally lack has come a step closer with the development of a system that allows a robot to monitor a child’s emotional state.
“There is a lot of research going on around the world today trying to use robots to treat children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It has shown that the children are attracted to robots, raising the promise that appropriately designed robots could play an important role in their treatment,” says Nilanjan Sarkar, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University. “However, the efforts so far have been quite limited because they haven’t had a way to monitor the emotional state of the children, which would allow the robot to respond automatically to their reactions.”
If these limitations can be overcome, the use of robots to treat children with ASD could have a significant social and financial impact. One baby in every 150 born today in the United States is diagnosed with ASD, making it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined. Currently, treatment of these children involves a combination of behavioral, educational, physical, occupational and speech therapies, sometimes accompanied by medication for co-occurring conditions such as anxiety, irritability, bi-polar and other disorders. The average cost of caring for one person with autism for life is $3.2 million. In total, autism currently costs the U.S. more than $90 billion per year, and that cost is projected to double by 2017 due to the growing population of those affected.
Youth mental illness costs U.S. billions
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Mental illness, substance abuse and behavioral problems among children and young adults, costs the United States $247 billion a year in treatment and lost productivity alone, an expert panel said on Friday.
The panel set up by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine which advise U.S. policymakers urged the White House to set prevention goals and coordinate government action to attack the problem.
The panel looked at the financial toll from mental illnesses including depression, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia, as well as drug and alcohol abuse and behavioral problems by people up to age 24.
Row brews over ecstasy downgrade call
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The government’s narcotics advisory body called on Wednesday for a cut in the penalties for using and selling the dance drug ecstasy, a recommendation the Home Office has already said it will ignore.
The 31-member Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) said in a report that ecstasy should be downgraded to a class B drug from the most serious class A category.
“After looking at all the evidence presented to us and considering the harmfulness to individuals and society alongside other drugs within the same classification, the ACMD concluded that (ecstasy) should be reclassified to a class B drug,” said the advisory council’s chairman David Nutt.
Tests may judge dementia patients’ driving safety
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A battery of cognitive tests may help predict which people with mild dementia can still drive safely, researchers reported Monday.
In a study of older drivers with and without early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers found that drivers’ scores on tests of memory, visual processing and motor skills were good predictors of their performance on road tests.
The findings, published in the journal Neurology, suggest that doctors can use such tests to help judge which patients with mild dementia can still get behind the wheel without endangering themselves or others.
One self-help session may reduce problem drinking
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Problem drinkers may be willing to curb their habits after only a single self-help session delivered over the email or Internet, a research review suggests.
The findings, say researchers, suggest a relatively simple, low-cost way to motivate heavy drinkers to cut back.
Their analysis of 14 previously published studies found that “personalized-feedback interventions” encouraged participants, many of whom were college students, to cut back their drinking after only one session.
Mood disorders common in polycystic ovary syndrome
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The prevalence of depression and anxiety among patients with polycystic ovary syndrome is high and warrants routine screening and aggressive treatment, investigators report in the journal Fertility and Sterility.
In a previous study, Dr. Anuja Dokras, at the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues identified high rates of depression (35 percent) among women with PCOS, substantially higher than the 10.7 percent rate among the comparison subjects. The current report is a follow-up to that study to determine the persistence of mood disorders and the incidence of new mood disorders.
Sixty of the original 103 women participated in the second survey, conducted an average of 22 months after the first survey.
Divorce, antidepressants, or weight gain/loss can add years to your face
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Your mother’s wrinkles — or lack there of, may not be the best predictor of how you’ll age. In fact, a new study claims just the opposite. The study, involving identical twins, suggests that despite genetic make-up, certain environmental factors can add years to a person’s perceived age. Results just published on the web-based version of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), reveal that factors like divorce or the use of antidepressants are the real culprits that can wreak havoc on one’s face.
“A person’s heritage may initially dictate how they age – but if you introduce certain factors into your life, you will certainly age faster. Likewise, if you avoid those factors you can slow down the hands of time,” said ASPS Member Surgeon and study author Bahaman Guyuron, MD, professor and chairman, department of plastic surgery, University Hospitals Case Medical Center. “In this study, we looked at identical twins because they are genetically programmed to age exactly the same, and in doing so we essentially discovered that, when it comes to your face, it is possible to cheat your biological clock.”
During the study, Dr. Guyuron and his colleagues obtained comprehensive questionnaires and digital images from 186 pairs of identical twins. The images were reviewed by an independent panel, which then recorded the perceived age difference between the siblings.
Hormone linked to depression after pregnancy
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Increased levels of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), which is produced by the placenta, identifies women who are at risk for developing depression after their pregnancy ends, according to a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
“The high incidence and severe consequences of postpartum depression make the identification of women at risk an important research goal,” Dr. Ilona S. Yim at the University of California, Irvine, and co-investigators write in their report. They point out that several lines of evidence link CRH, a key hormone involved in regulating many other hormones, to depressive symptoms following delivery.
To further investigate, the researchers conducted a study in which hormone levels in the blood were measured several times throughout pregnancy in 100 women, starting at week 15. Sixteen women developed postpartum depression.
In-home counseling and peer support keep postnatal depression in check
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In-home counseling by health visitors trained to identify depression in new mothers reduces the prevalence of postnatal depression at 12 months, according to a trial in the UK, while a Canadian study indicates that telephone-based peer support is also effective in preventing postnatal depression among women at risk.
Both studies are reported in the January 16 issue of BMJ Online First.
To determine the long-term effectiveness of an in-home psychological intervention for postnatal depression, Dr. C. Jane Morrell at the University of Huddersfield and colleagues conducted a prospective, cluster-randomized trial among 4084 women from 101 general practices near Trent, England.
“Health visitors are qualified nurses, with special experience in child health, health promotion and health education, employed as part of the NHS community health service,” Dr. Morrell told Reuters Health. “Part of a health visitor’s role is to visit families with new babies, in their home, as part of routine child health surveillance.”
Rare sleep disorder may be a harbinger of dementia
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More than half of people with a rare sleep disorder develop a neurodegenerative disease, such as Parkinson’s disease, within 12 years of being diagnosed, results of a Canadian study published Wednesday indicate.
So-called “REM sleep behaviour disorder” affects a small percentage of the population, Dr. Ronald B. Postuma, at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and colleagues explain in the journal Neurology. It is characterized by a loss of the normal muscle relaxation while dreaming and is seen most often in men aged 50 and older. REM sleep behaviour disorder should not be confused with insomnia, night terrors, or confusional arousals.
Small studies have identified REM sleep behavior disorder as a risk factor for Parkinson’s disease and dementia. To investigate further, Postuma’s team conducted a follow-up study of 93 patients diagnosed with unexplained REM sleep behavior disorder between 1989 and 2006. The average time from diagnosis to last evaluation was 5.2 years.
Child’s ADHD Diagnosis Is Tied to Mother’s Health Status
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The probability of having one’s child receive an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis involves a mother’s own medical conditions and her use of health services prior to having the child, a new study finds.
What is not clear, however, is whether the effects are due to biological, environmental or psychosocial factors — or some combination of these.
The new study implies “that the diagnoses and health care utilization that a mother receives prior to having her child is predictive of having a child who is diagnosed with ADHD,” said G. Thomas Ray, lead author. “Our study raises the possibility that certain types of mothers — those who get or seek diagnoses and who use more health services — may be more likely to seek ADHD diagnoses for their children.”
New approach successful for most eating disorders
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UK researchers have identified a type of treatment that can help most people with eating disorders, with lasting results.
“Now for the first time, we have a single treatment which can be effective at treating the majority of cases without the need for patients to be admitted into hospital,” lead researcher Dr. Christopher G. Fairburn of the University of Oxford commented in a press release.
“Eating disorder not specified,” in which a person has disordered eating patterns but doesn’t meet criteria for bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa, is the most common type of eating disorder, followed by bulimia nervosa, Fairburn and his team note in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Eighty percent of patients undergoing outpatient treatment for an eating disorder fit into one of these two categories, but the best treatment for patients with non-specified eating disorders has not been studied.
Nail biters to be treated in a special treatment centre in the Netherlands
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The world’s first treatment centre for nail biters is to open in the Netherlands next month.
Nail biters to be treated in a special treatment centre in the NetherlandsDirector of the new centre in Venlo, Alain-Raymond van Abbe of the Institute for Pathological Onychophagy (IPO) says he and his team have invented an aid to make nail-biting impossible.
“This is the first place ever to tackle this very serious problem,” he explained. “We are expecting clients from all over the world.”
Cancer patients’ depression tied to family woes
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Treating cancer patients’ depression may help their children stay mentally healthy too, new research in the Journal of Clinical Oncology suggests.
Dr. Florence Schmitt of the University Hospital of Turku in Finland and her colleagues conducted a study of 381 families in which a parent had cancer. They found that, overall, the families of cancer patients were doing well, but that an ill parent’s depression or physical impairment was linked to worse family function.
“Support systems need to be more family-oriented and child-centered in their approach to cancer psychosocial care,” Schmitt and her team write in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
