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Archive for January, 2011

 

I’ve discovered H.G. Wells’ amazing short story The Moth about a scientific feud between two leading entymologists that ends with one’s premature death and the other being driven insane by an hallucinated moth.

It’s a deftly written piece because it captures the method of scientific grudge matches – devastating and savage critiques in scholarly journals – and is peppered with references to illusory scientific papers.

Pawkins, the target of the academic demolition job dies shortly after, only for Hapley, the scientific aggressor, to see a moth that is completely new to science but which seems strangely difficult to capture.

Read in Full:  http://mindhacks.com/2010/10/19/a-previously-unseen-species-of-hallucinated-moth/



ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2010) — John O’Sullivan had struggled with bipolar depression since he was a teen. He has tried numerous types of psychotherapy and medication but nothing seemed to help for long.

A salesman whose profession required the constant projection of a positive, upbeat image to be successful, O’Sullivan found that his condition frequently left him feeling listless and restless. He switched jobs often and had difficulties in his family life.

“When you’re in a maniacal state with bipolar, it’s not like you’re often happy. You’re irritable and hard to live with,” said O’Sullivan, a husband and father of five. “That’s been tough on the family.”

At age 50 and desperate, O’Sullivan was cautiously intrigued when his Loyola University Medical Center psychiatrist, Dr. Murali S. Rao, told him about a new high-tech, non-invasive therapy that uses magnetic waves to treat his condition.

“My first thought was, ‘What is this?'” said O’Sullivan, a resident of Downers Grove, Ill. “But, really, I was open-minded to it because I was desperate for anything that would work quicker and more effectively.”

Known as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), the treatment delivers a series of electrical pulses to the part of the brain associated with depression and other mood disorders. The pulses generate an electric current in the brain that stimulates neurons to increase the release of more mood-enhancing chemicals like serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine.

“The electrical pulses target the nerve cells in the region of the brain called the left prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain that regulates our moods,” said Rao, chairman of Loyola’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience Services.

Read in Full:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101018165836.htm

 Local entrepreneur Curtis Graves stands with his daughter Tammy VanDell, who is bipolar and has experienced severe depression. Since she began NeuroStar TMS therapy, her medicine dosage has been cut in half. Graves, who has served on the Advisory Board of the Psychiatric Department of Johns Hopkins for seven years, is working with West Tennessee Healthcare Foundation to bring this equipment to Jackson to Pathways.

Local entrepreneur Curtis Graves stands with his daughter Tammy VanDell, who is bipolar and has experienced severe depression. Since she began NeuroStar TMS therapy, her medicine dosage has been cut in half. Graves, who has served on the Advisory Board of the Psychiatric Department of Johns Hopkins for seven years, is working with West Tennessee Healthcare Foundation to bring this equipment to Jackson to Pathways. (Submitted photo)

Therapy relieves depression without medication

BY JACQUE HILLMAN
JHILLMAN@JACKSONSUN.COM
— Jacque Hillman, 425-9679

October 17, 2010 

What would you do if your child was severely depressed? If she was bipolar? And you had the knowledge to bring breakthrough technology to West Tennessee?

Jackson entrepreneur Curtis Graves, who has served on the Advisory Board of the Psychiatric Department of Johns Hopkins for seven years, is starting a fund to raise the money to purchase NeuroStar equipment for patients in West Tennessee. The equipment would be used at Pathways in Jackson.

His daughter Tammy VanDell is bipolar and suffers from severe depression.

“Her medicine for depression has been cut in half — in half — since she began treatment with NeuroStar TMS,” Graves said. “When I first heard of this technology and my daughter participated in it and had success, I knew that we had to get more of this technology available faster. I’m going to start right here in Jackson.”

NeuroStar is an alternative to medication to treat depression in some cases. It is transcranial magnetic stimulation, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of patients with major depression who have not benefited from prior antidepressant treatment. It does not involve surgery or anesthesia, is not taken by mouth and doesn’t circulate in the bloodstream.

TMS sends MRI-strength magnetic field pulses into the cortex of the brain, which creates electric currents in the brain. This stimulates the firing of nerve cells and the release of neurotransmitters.

“The problem with all medications is that they all have side effects,” Graves said. “And some are very severe. This is the answer to that — and it works. It has worked in my daughter.”

More than 373,000 people in the state of Tennessee have severe and persistent mental illness diagnosed, such as manic depressive disorder, schizophrenia or depression. That number includes about 92,000 children, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Of the patients who have been treated for depression with traditional medications, 30 percent don’t need their medications after having NeuroStar treatments.

Read in Full:  http://www.jacksonsun.com/article/20101017/NEWS01/10170323



 

By Jeremy Dean

We all live two mental lives. When we are awake it is mostly ordered, rational, linear and bounded by rules, both behavioral and physical. When we are asleep it is chaotic, nonlinear, without rules, often without sense.

According to some, dreams are nothing more than the byproduct of a brain disconnected from its normal sensory inputs, freewheeling its way through the night. To others, dreams denote night-time learning or problem-solving, even automatic sifting of the mind’s detritus – useless information to be skimmed off the surface and dumped like so much mental junk.

Amongst the general public, though, there are much stronger beliefs about the power of dreams. So strong that, according to recent research, people seem to believe that dreams can predict the future.

Freudians

To see how much meaning people ascribe to their dreams, Carey Morewedge and Michael Norton asked participants to compare four ways of thinking about dreams (Morewedge & Norton, 2009). Here are the options:

  • Freudian: dreams reveal buried truths about the self.
  • Problem-solving: dreams help us work through our problems while we sleep.
  • Learning theory: dreams are how we process and sort out the day’s events.
  • Random: dreams are vivid hallucinations that result from our brains trying to interpret random impulses.

Notice the last three theories all share the idea that, while dreaming may or may not have a psychological ‘purpose,’ the actual content of our dreams is still mental junk; sometimes entertaining, sometimes frightening, often weird, but with no real meaning in and of itself. The content only has a strong meaning in the Freudian approach.

Participants from the United States, South Korea and India were all more likely to endorse the Freudian view of dreams than the other three. In the US sample it was 56% Freudian, 8% problem-solving, 18% random and 18% learning.

Plane crash

Although 56% endorsing Freud might sound high, Morewedge and Norton thought it was still an underestimate of how much store people put by their dreams. So a second and third study asked both Freudians and non-Freudians to estimate the effect of their dreams on behavior.

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/10/18/why-dreaming-is-believing/



 

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on October 18, 2010 

Emerging scientific research suggests coping with adverse life events improves our ability to adapt and handle future events.

The finding lends support to the old adage of what does not kill us, makes us stronger.

The new national multi-year longitudinal study of the effects of adverse life events on mental health discovered that the experiences appear to foster adaptability and resilience.

As such, an individual is able to handle future mental health issues and possess a strong sense of well-being.

The new study examined a national sample of people who reported their lifetime history of adverse experiences and several measures of current mental health and well-being.

Mark Seery, senior author of the study, says previous research indicates that exposure to adverse life events typically predicts negative effects on mental health and well-being, such that more adversity predicts worse outcomes.

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/10/18/tough-times-build-mental-health-resiliency/19699.html



 

Psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents I: Prevalence and sex differences

Today is the first of a series of Brief posts about the results of the latest National Comorbidity Survey (NCS).

The NCS is a large nationally representative study of over 10,000 adolescents aged 13 to 18. The study aims to examine the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in youth across the United States by conducting a comprehensive face-to-face structured diagnostic assessment of every participant. Such diagnostic interview is currently the gold standard in diagnostic assessment, which arguably provides us with the most accurate picture of the true prevalence of these disorders in the population. The study included 4,945 boys and 5,170 girls. The racial/ethnicity breakdown was 65% non-Hispanic whites, 15.1% non-Hispanic black, 14.4% Hispanic, and 5% other.

Read in Full:  http://www.child-psych.org/2010/10/fifty-percent-50-of-teens-have-experienced-a-psychiatric-condition-by-their-18th-birthday.html



 

“Tyler Tassell, nine, from Headington, has Asperger’s Syndrome, which affects the way he socialises with people and forms friendships – but that doesn’t stop him caring for his autistic brother Connor, who was also born with crippling digestion problems, and his mum, Marie Gellatly, who has a heart condition.

Mrs Gellatly, 35, said: “Tyler is a very special little boy. Having Asperger’s means he gets anxious and often feels isolated, but the care he shows me and Connor and his other brother Joshua is above and beyond what you would expect from a child his age.”

10:40am Sunday 17th October 2010

By Debbie Waite »

EACH day in the county, 11,000 children leave for school or work having helped a parent or sibling in some way.

Children as young as four have made breakfast, put in a load of washing, maybe even helped bathe and dress a loved one.

Then after school the cycle begins again; preparing food and doing the shopping and housework, before they do their homework or have time for themselves.

More than 13,000 children in the UK care for over 50 hours per week, receiving no payment and often without their schools or neighbours even knowing they are carers.

Thankfully, in Oxfordshire they have a lifeline – a network of groups funded by Oxfordshire County Council. Here they can just be children, learn new skills and find someone to listen their worries.

But like all local government-funded services, the Young Carers groups’ funding is about the come under the scrutiny of the Government’s spending review.

On Wednesday, chancellor George Osborne will announce cash cuts and councils will find out in December how much they will get.

Daniel Blake, from Little Bury, Greater Leys, Oxford, is only five, but spends time every day caring for his brother Aidan, nine, who has cerebral palsy.

Daniel’s mother, Donna Blake, 42, said: “Daniel has watched his brothers and sisters caring for Aidan since he was a baby and now he just does the same. He will fetch and carry for Aidan, take off his leg splints and put them away, as well as helping around the house, and he also shares a room with Aidan, so he is always there to get what he needs.

“My husband Karl and I are amazed by our children’s bravery, care and compassion every day. Children get a bad press, but there are so many out there, like ours, who put others first.”

The Blake’s have seven children at home – Callum, 15, twins Kyle and Jade, 14, Keisha, 11, Aidan, nine, Daniel, five and Maya, three. Their three older children, Crystal, 25, Gavin, 24 and Darren, 23, have already left home.

Jade, 14, said: “We all love Aidan and want to help him. He is getting quite big, so lifting him is difficult now, but he is our brother and we all do what we can for him.”

Ask Riley Stokes, 12, from Witney, why he helps his sister Tillie and he’ll probably shrug and say: “Because she’s my sister.”

But Tillie, nine, has had more than 1,000 seizures since she was 18 months old and parents, Emma, 42 and Andrew, 40, say Riley is unfazed by her need for constant care. Mrs Stokes said: “We found out Tillie had a rare genetic disorder, with no permanent diagnosis. Riley has only really known Tillie as she is now – with epilepsy, incontinence and learning difficulties.

“He is amazing with her and an amazing help to us.”

Tyler Tassell, nine, from Headington, has Asperger’s Syndrome, which affects the way he socialises with people and forms friendships – but that doesn’t stop him caring for his autistic brother Connor, who was also born with crippling digestion problems, and his mum, Marie Gellatly, who has a heart condition.

Mrs Gellatly, 35, said: “Tyler is a very special little boy. Having Asperger’s means he gets anxious and often feels isolated, but the care he shows me and Connor and his other brother Joshua is above and beyond what you would expect from a child his age.”

Mrs Gellatly, who is a nursery nurse, underwent major heart surgery two years ago, after doctors discovered her heart was stopping without warning.

She said: “Tyler probably does more household chores than other children his age and he is also a great help playing with Connor, and feeding and reading to Joshua while I am busy with Connor.”

Tyler said: “I like to play with Connor and help my mummy and daddy. I get my mummy’s medicine when she is hurting and help her do housework.”

Along with the Blake children, Tyler attends Oxford Young Carers, based at Oxford Carers Centre in Cowley Road.

Here they get to play games, learn new skills and go away on trips.

Read in Full:  http://www.bicesteradvertiser.net/news/oxfordshire/8456590.Young_carers_need_care_too/

 



 

Article Date: 18 Oct 2010 – 6:00 PDT

Residents at Dower House, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust’s (SLaM) adult Self-harm service, have developed an animated short film. To watch via YouTube: click here.

Titled ‘The Perspex Human’, the short film was developed by patients and staff on the unit and in the Occupational Therapy department, under the guidance of experienced animator Assaf Hayut. The animation project asked participants the question ‘what is in a human?’ The theme provided residents with an enjoyable creative project which enabled them to explore both the literal interpretations as well as exploring deeper meanings and emotions such as anxiety and depression.

The four-and-a-half-minute animation was developed over a five-month period. Six residents from Dower House took part in the project, along with staff members from the Self-harm Service and members of Bethlem Royal Hospital’s Occupational Therapy department.

Residents were encouraged to make their own fictional or biographical stories, and to produce a storyboard. A great deal of time was devoted to the project, and residents displayed sensitivity and emotion as the animation was developed. More than 2000 images were produced over 16 sessions, and edited down into the final film.

Read in Full:  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/204937.php



 Predator and Prey

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on October 18, 2010

Laboratory research on a natural predator-prey relationship provides new insight on stress. The findings have implications for care provided to victims of terrorism or natural disasters.

Anxiety, or the reaction to a perceived danger, is a response that differs from one animal or human to another — or so scientists thought.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University believe the laboratory research challenges what we know about stress.

Prof. David Eilam and his research team are spearheading a study designed to investigate the anxieties experienced by an entire social group.

Using the natural predator-and-prey relationship between the barn owl and the vole, a small animal in the rodent family, researchers were able to test unified group responses to a common threat.

The results, which have been reported in the journals Behavioural Brain Research and Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, demonstrated that while anxiety levels can differ among individuals in normal circumstances, surprisingly, group members display the same level of anxiety when exposed to a common threat.

Prof. Eilam says that this explains human behavior in response to trauma or terror, such as the citizens of New York City in the days after the 9/11 terror attacks, or after natural disasters such as the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.

These are times when people stand together and accept a general code of conduct, explains Prof. Eilam.

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/10/18/new-insight-on-stress-and-anxiety/19704.html



 

The National Autistic Society has reacted in anger at the news that three men who attacked and tortured a young man with Asperger syndrome have been denied a custodial sentence.

The victim, who is 17 years old, was subjected to a three day ordeal during which he was brutally and maliciously tortured. However, his assailants – Jack Bolton, Andrew Griffin and Nathan Marshall – were handed a meagre 80 hours of community service for their crimes. The victim’s family described the ruling as a “joke”.

Mark Lever, Chief Executive of the National Autistic Society, was “sickened” by the news, and labelled the judgement insulting:

We are sickened and appalled, not only by the heinous acts of violence committed against a vulnerable young man with autism, but by the abhorrent leniency shown to the perpetrators. Their sentence is profoundly insulting to people with autism and their families and in no way reflects the lasting damage disability hate crime inflicts on victims’ lives.

We have kindly been offered a meeting with the Attorney General to discuss the matter further.

Read in Full:  http://www.autism.org.uk/en-gb/news-and-events/news-from-the-nas/torturers-of-young-man-with-asperger-syndrome-walk-free.aspx

 

A whirlwind of hatred against the disabled

Just how far are we, as a society, prepared to let violent crime against the disabled spiral upwards?

Ian Birrell

The Guardian,  Saturday 16 October 2010

The details are sickening. For three days a gang of 18-year-olds tortured a younger autistic boy. They kicked him, stamped on his head, scraped his skin with sandpaper, pelted him with dog shit, forced him to drink alcohol until he passed out and stuck tape to his genitals.

The thugs laughed as they filmed themselves abusing their terrified victim, who can be heard whimpering for mercy. The ordeal only ended when his aunt saw a trainer print on his face. And why did they carry out these vile assaults? Simply because they were bored, they told a court this week.

Apparently Jonathan Geake, the so-called judge in the case, sympathised with their predicament. The three assailants were given just 80 hours’ unpaid community work and a three-month curfew. No signing of the sex offenders register, despite the sexual overtones to the attack. No jail sentence. No justice.

Mencap is now leading a campaign to persuade the attorney general to review this shocking case. But tragically it is not an isolated event. It is just the latest horror story in an epidemic of hate crimes against people with disabilities.

The statistics should shame us all. Nine out of 10 people with learning difficulties have suffered bullying or harassment – indeed, even as the thugs from Eccles were being convicted this week, cases emerged of a disabled woman being bottled as she arrived at her home in Essex and a Yorkshire woman tipped from her wheelchair and mugged. And there is at least one trial going on over the killing of a disabled person, with another looming.

Three years ago there was outrage after the death of Fiona Pilkington, who killed herself and her disabled daughter after years of abuse. Politicians, police and council chiefs all said never again – then said it again after the death of David Askew earlier this year after similar harassment. Yet a recent report found evidence of 68 violent deaths of disabled people and more than 500 potential disability hate crimes over the past three years.

There is no official data on hate crimes against the disabled, since the government does not think it is worth publishing. One helpline has fielded a near-doubling in the number of calls from disabled victims this year, but there have been just 576 prosecutions over the last two years, compared with 11,264 for racial and religious crimes over the last year alone.

Read in Full:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/16/crime-against-the-disabled



 

Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. Updated: Oct 14th 2010

When we’re struggling with any myriad of life’s challenges such as stress, anxiety, depression, addiction, ADHD and trauma we can feel pretty isolated and alone. Stories hurl through our minds saying “I’m not good enough,” “Nobody understands me,” or “Nothing’s going to change.” What’s interesting is that the net result of these thoughts is feeling more isolated and alone.

In The Places That Scare You, Pema Chodron writes:

“A young woman wrote to me about finding herself in a small town in the Middle East surrounded by people jeering, yelling, and threatening to throw stones at her and her friends because they were Americans. Of course, she was terrified, and what happened to her is interesting. Suddenly she identified with every person throughout history who had ever been scorned and hated. She understood what it was like to be despised for any reason: ethnic group, racial background, sexual preference, gender. Something cracked wide open, and she stood in the shoes of millions of oppressed people and saw with a new perspective. She even understood her shared humanity with those who hated her.”

Read in Full:  http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=40662&cn=5