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Archive for January 20th, 2011

posted Tuesday, 19 May 2009

Sarah Hutcheon


Children entering first grade with signs of depression and anxiety or excessive aggression are at risk of being chronically victimized by their classmates by third grade. That’s the finding of a new longitudinal study that appears in the May/June 2009 issue of the journal Child Development.


The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Victoria, looked at more than 400 Canadian children beginning in the autumn of first grade. The children were asked about their experiences being bullied (such as being hit, pushed, and shoved, or being teased and excluded from play). Their teachers were asked to report on the children’s symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as on their displays of physical aggression. The researchers returned at the end of first, second, and third grades, at which time they asked the children and their teachers to report on the same issues.


Most children (73%) showed few symptoms of depression and anxiety over the three years. But 7 percent of the children showed continuously high levels. The remaining 20 percent showed moderate symptoms at first, but these increased over time. Victimization by depressed and anxious children wasn’t evident until third grade.


Children with more depressed and anxious symptoms in first and second grade were more likely to be victimized by third grade. Surprisingly, children who were more aggressive at the start of first grade also were prone to depression and anxiety by third grade. These children also were more likely to be victimized by their peers, perhaps in retaliation for their own acts of aggression.


Children’s early mental health problems can set the stage for abuse by their peers,” according to Bonnie J. Leadbeater, professor of psychology at the University of Victoria, who led the study. “Just as some children learn to read with greater difficulty than others and require extra assistance when they begin to lag behind their peers, young children with mental health problems show signs that they cannot manage the complex social world of elementary school. Treating children’s mental health problems may go a long way toward reducing bullying.


Leadbeater BJ, Hoglund WLG. The Effects of Peer Victimization and Physical Aggression on Changes in Internalizing From First to Third Grade. Child Dev. 2009;80(3):843-859   [Abstract]



posted Tuesday, 19 May 2009

Fear

Adriana Bobinchock


Researchers at McLean Hospital, the largest psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School, have identified a protein in the brain that serves as a trigger for the body’s innate fear response. This discovery suggests a new potential target for the development of new medications aimed at treating anxiety, particularly generalized anxiety disorder, a condition that afflicts millions.


In a paper published in the current issue of Cell, Vadim Bolshakov, PhD, director of the Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory at McLean and associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and his colleagues report mice lacking the transient receptor potential channel 5 (TRPC5) gene showed diminished fear levels in response to stimuli that they normally would fear innately, compared to normal mice.


This is the first demonstration that this protein is implicated in fear-related behaviors,” said lead author Bolshakov. “By identifying this trigger, we now have a greater likelihood of developing medications that will turn off the fear switch in the brain, and therefore significantly reduce anxiety.


The study is the collaborative effort of Bolshakov’s laboratory and that of David Clapham, MD, PhD, the Aldo R. Castenada Professor of Cardiovascular Research at Children’s Hospital Boston, and professor of Neurobiology and Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.


In the study, the researchers looked at the neurons in the amygdala of mice lacking the TRPC5 gene and discovered that they did not fire as well as those in the brains of normal mice. At the same time, neurons in the same region of the brain of the mice missing the TRPC5 gene were not as sensitive to the neuropeptide cholecystokinine, commonly released in the brain during situations of innate fear or anxiety, explained Bolshakov.


According to Clapham, while the identified protein is found throughout the brain, it is highly concentrated in the amygdala, the region of the brain implicated in emotional responses.


The amygdalae is where all of our emotions originate from, including learned and innate fear response,” said Clapham. “What we found with our work was that the mice who did not have the TRPC5 protein, no longer showed fear-related behaviors when faced with a situations that would typically cause them anxiety.


Bolshakov explained that the mice lacking the gene, for example, would show no fear in exploring places where they normally would fear to tread. The mice also were not as fearful of new social interactions with other mice.


This is the first time this gene has been implicated in anxiety-related behaviors,” he said. “We have learned something at the level of fundamental science, but, at a practical level, it suggests some new potential molecular targets for treatments, some new kinds of treatments.


These experiments provide genetic evidence that TRPC5…has an essential function in innate fear,” the paper concludes.


Perhaps a new drug could be developed to block the function of this protein or the pathway through which the protein travels in the brain cells, Bolshakov said.


This could give us a nice tool with which to treat anxiety,” he added.


Riccio A, Li Y, Moon J, et al. Essential Role for TRPC5 in Amygdala Function and Fear-Related Behavior. Cell 2009 May;doi:10.1016/j.cell.2009.03.039   [Abstract]



*Site Under Construction

posted Tuesday, 19 May 2009
  • Story Highlights
  • GAO report uncovers abuse of techniques used to restrain or discipline children
  • Some deaths of special-needs kids have been linked to the practices, report says
  • Investigators: Utah boy with autism left in cubicle for at least two and a half hours
  • Only five states keep track of incidents; many states have no regulations


From Abbie Boudreau and Steve Turnham
CNN Special Investigations Unit

(CNN) — Congressional auditors have uncovered widespread abuse of techniques use to restrain or discipline special-education students in U.S. schools, with some deaths linked to the practices, a top congressman says.

Investigators in Utah say a teacher left Garrett Peck in an isolation cubicle for at least two and a half hours.
Investigators in Utah say a teacher left Garrett Peck in an isolation cubicle for at least two and a half hours

The findings are among those expected from a Government Accountability Office report scheduled to be released Tuesday. The report documented serious problems with the way children with disabilities are being treated in public schools, including cases of children being held face-down on the ground.

The GAO report was prepared for the House Education and Labor Committee, which is considering new laws governing what actions teachers can take to rein in disruptive special-needs students.

“I think what we’re going to hear from the GAO is that very often, special-need children are subjected to the policies of seclusion and policies of restraint that have turned out to be lethal in a number of circumstances,” said Rep. George Miller, D-California, the committee’s chairman.

In other cases, children as young as 6 have been locked away “for hours at a time,” Miller said.

“What the GAO is telling us is that that policy is fairly widespread,” he said. “The state regulations about how to handle these incidents don’t exist in about half the states, and in other states you have kind of a patchwork of regulations.”

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, found that state laws governing the treatment of the more than 6 million children classified as having “special needs” — conditions including autism and Down syndrome — are patchy at best. Teachers and school staff frequently lack training in correct restraint methods, and in some cases, where improper restraints led to injuries, teachers often kept their jobs.

Only five states keep track of incidents where special-needs students are separated or restrained. Parents contacted by CNN commonly said they were not told their child was being disciplined until he or she began to behave badly at home — a sign of trouble at school.

When confronted with complaints, school systems sometimes sought to minimize or deny the allegations, even after public investigations found the charges to be true. And parents told CNN that when they got into a dispute with the teacher, their child was made to suffer as retribution.

Some of the most disturbing reports concerned the use of seclusion rooms. Experts have long recommended that children should only be isolated when they posed an immediate threat to themselves or others. But CNN found that isolation was often used as a punishment by teachers to compel the students to follow instructions.

State investigators in Utah found a teacher left 7-year-old Garrett Peck in an isolation cubicle for at least two and a half hours after the teacher said he told her to “shut up.”

While the boy was in the cubicle, the teacher taunted him by playing his favorite video and telling him what he was missing. His parents, Joshua and Becca Peck, said the child has an attention span of about 10 minutes, and they believe that after the first few minutes, he had no idea why he was in the cubicle.

“It was so sad. We felt it was a form of torture for him but he, being autistic, he had no way to express it,” Joshua Peck said. “He couldn’t tell.”

And Becca Peck said her son had been left in the cubicle with nothing but a magic marker — which he used to scrawl all over himself. When she came to school to pick him up, “He was covered in marker — on his eyelids, on his hair, face, clothes, arms, eyelids — everywhere.”

“I started thinking, ‘What was he thinking?’ Was he thinking, ‘Why is my mom letting this person do this to me? Why am I here? I trust no one now.’ “

In Garrett’s case, like others cited by the GAO, the teacher remains on the job. And what frustrates experts is that efforts to force unruly children to comply don’t actually work.

At one school in Pennsylvania, however, teachers appear to have better results using sharply different methods.

The Centennial School at Lehigh University serves severely emotionally disturbed children that have been passed from school to school, and even from juvenile justice centers. When school director Michael George came to Centennial in 1999, the school had documented more than 1,000 cases of restraint and seclusion that year. After the school revamped its approach, no such incidents were reported.

When they get to Centennial, students can be violent and aggressive. But instead of trying to force a change in behavior, the school teaches the children new skills to get what they need. Children who might be violent because they are desperate to escape an uncomfortable task or environment learn to communicate their discomfort in nonviolent ways.

Children who need to move frequently — a common trait with conditions such as autism — are permitted to do so, then re-directed to the task at hand. Staff are forbidden from saying anything negative about the children, parents or other teachers, even among themselves.

And when a child acts violently, the staff is trained to step aside, rather than immediately attempt a potentially dangerous restraint. On a recent visit to the school, all students appeared to be calm and receptive to teachers.

The school’s philosophy can be summed up in a question George likes to ask teachers interviewing for jobs there: Which teacher you remember most from your own childhood?

“No one ever mentions the person who yelled at them, who screamed at them, who told them to write a phrase a hundred times, who slammed them into closets, who was abrupt, who made them feel stupid. No one ever mentions those people,” said George.

“Our job is to teach. Sometimes the children we are teaching here present extraordinary challenges; it can be very, very difficult. But that’s the job we chose to do.”

Source:   http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/18/siu.schools.abuse/index.html

Related:



posted Tuesday, 19 May 2009

Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2009 Apr;63(3):365 – 373


Matsuda Y, Matsui T, Kataoka K, Fukada R, Fukuda S, Kuratsune H, Tajima S, Yamaguti K, Kato YH, Kiriike N.


Department of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Physiology, Department of Fatigue Clinical Center, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine; Department of Virology, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan


Aims: Chronic fatigue syndrome patients often have comorbid psychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorders and anxiety disorders. However, the outcomes of chronic fatigue syndrome and the comorbid psychiatric disorders and the interactions between them are unknown. Therefore, a two-year prospective follow-up study was carried out on chronic fatigue syndrome patients with comorbid psychiatric disorders.


Methods: A total of 155 patients who met the Japanese case definition of chronic fatigue syndrome were enrolled in this study. Comorbid psychiatric disorders were diagnosed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition criteria. Patients with comorbid psychiatric disorders received psychiatric treatment in addition to medical therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome. Seventy patients participated in a follow-up interview approximately 24 months later.


Results: Of the 70 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, 33 patients were diagnosed as having comorbid psychiatric disorders including 18 major depressive disorders. Sixteen patients with psychiatric disorders and eight patients with major depressive disorders did not fulfill the criteria of any psychiatric disorders at the follow up. As for chronic fatigue syndrome, nine out of the 70 patients had recovered at the follow up. There is no significant influence of comorbid psychiatric disorders on the outcome of chronic fatigue syndrome.


Conclusions: Chronic fatigue syndrome patients have a relatively high prevalence of comorbid psychiatric disorders, especially major depressive disorders. The outcomes of chronic fatigue syndrome and psychiatric disorders are independent. Therefore treatment of comorbid psychiatric disorders is necessary in addition to the medical treatment given for chronic fatigue syndrome.


Source…

© 2009 Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology




*Site Under Construction

posted Tuesday, 19 May 2009

Tom Perez

Hello,

I’m passing along the information below, with the additional bit of
information that Tom Perez is a good friend to the disability community and
someone willing to act on the persistent issues of abuse, neglect and lack
of respect for our civil rights that we continuously face. I hope you’ll
join me in communicating to the Senate Judiciary Committee the importance of
accepting this nomination.

Regards,
Ari Ne’eman
President
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network
1660 L Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC  20036
http://www.autisticadvocacy.org
732.763.5530

————————————————————–
Take a look at our innovative new Public Service Announcement produced with
the Dan Marino Foundation at http://www.nomyths.org

If you like what we do, help support the Autistic Self Advocacy Network by
making a donation at:
https://www.change.org/donation/create?charity_id=211198

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Civilrights.org <info@civilrights.org>
Date: Tue, May 19, 2009 at 4:51 PM
Subject: Call Senate Judiciary Committee Members: Confirm Tom Perez
To: Ari Ne’eman <aneeman@autisticadvocacy.org>

[image: Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights]<http://www.civilrights.org>

*Take Action Now:
*Call Senate Judiciary Committee members today at 202-224-3121 and urge them
to confirm Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights nominee Tom Perez.

As soon as Thursday, May 21, 2009, the Senate Judiciary Committee will
likely vote on the nomination of Tom Perez to be assistant attorney general
Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice.  After years of politicization
and placing personal agendas above the will of the people, the Division
needs strong and reliable leadership to restore its reputation as an office
that advances the civil rights of all Americans.  Tom Perez’s wealth of
experience in public service, civil rights, and management proves that he is
the right person to take on that challenge.

As deputy assistant attorney general under President Clinton, Tom Perez was
a vocal advocate for hate crimes legislation and fiercely promoted equal
opportunities in education.  Perez understands the issues he will face in
this important position, and is committed to securing and defending civil
rights for all Americans.

Call Senate Judiciary Committee members today at 202-224-3121 and tell them
to protect our civil rights by quickly confirming Assistant Attorney General
for Civil Rights nominee Tom Perez.

Senate Judiciary Committee Members:
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D. Vt.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R. Pa.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R. Utah
Sen. Herb Kohl, D. Wis.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R. Iowa
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D. Calif.
Sen. Jon Kyl, R. Ariz.
Sen. Russell Feingold, D. Wis.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R. Ala.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D. N.Y.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R. S.C.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D. Ill.
Sen. John Cornyn, R. Texas
Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D. Md.
Sen. Sam Brownback, R. Kan.



*Site Under Construction

First Published Wednesday, 20 May 2009

Issued by

AUTISTIC SELF ADVOCACY NETWORK

AUSTRALIA

20/5/09

A4 LOCKS OUT AUTISTIC MEMBERS

STATEMENT CONCERNING A4 – AUTISM ASPERGER ADVOCACY AUSTRALIA

ASAN AUSTRALIA understands from its members that as of today all Autistic
members have been exclude from the Steering Committee of A4 (Autism Asperger
Advocacy Australia) which has now been renamed the A4 Advisory Group.
Convener of the A4 Advisory Group Bob Buckley states in an email to all A4
members:

“A majority group decided to separate itself from a minority dissenting
group (formerly in A4 SC) who do not accept and object to long-standing
polices and practices of the A4 SC.”

This minority dissenting group just happens to contain all of the people
with a diagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorder that sat on the A4 Steering
Committee up until 18/5/09. This minority group has long been battling to be
part of the national voice that is A4 and now finds themselves excluded from
the very group that once claimed to represent them.

ASAN AUSTRALIA finds this situation unacceptable, reprehensible in fact. We
suggest that in light of this move A4 not be seen as a legitimate voice for
those on the autism spectrum who can speak for themselves.

An ASAN AUSTRALIA Convener can be contacted for comment via
autisticadvocacy@gmail.com <autisticadvocacy%40gmail.com>


Ari Ne’eman
President
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network
1660 L Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC  20036
http://www.autisticadvocacy.org
732.763.5530