


Archive for January, 2011
 
By Diana Costello • dcostell@lohud.com • September 8, 2010
PLEASANTVILLE — Just days after a film based on her life story earned HBO five Emmy Awards, Temple Grandin took the stage at Pace University to impart her own words of wisdom to an enraptured crowd of roughly 3,000 students and fans.
And she had plenty to say.
In succinct bursts, the accomplished advocate for those with autism spoke out on a range of topics including her disdain for derivatives trading, the need for more science teachers in high school, the faults of modern health care
and the outsourcing of creative labor.
She even disparaged President Barack Obama’s Labor Day
call to upgrade the nation’s roads, rail lines and runways to help spur job creation, saying it should have been done two years ago.
One thing she didn’t do as the keynote speaker for the convocation event was boast.
“We need to get back into doing real stuff,” she said, railing against ideology.
As a woman who grew up with autism during a time when it was gravely misunderstood, Grandin today is one of the world’s most famous activists and successful professionals with the developmental disorder.
Drawing on her own abilities as an extremely visual learner — “Without a picture, I can’t think,” she said — Grandin has been a pioneer in the understanding of animals, designing humane handling systems that are used in half of the nation’s cattle-processing facilities.
This winter, HBO aired a feature-length film on her early years starring actress Claire Danes.
Titled “Temple Grandin,” the film received five awards at the Aug. 29 Emmys, including “Outstanding Made for Television Movie” and “Best Actress in a Drama.”
Grandin made no mention of winning the awards while speaking at Pace, though she did praise Danes and others involved for capturing her story so accurately.
“Temple Grandin is an inspiration to every single person in this room,” said Pace University President Stephen J. Fiedman. “Just imagine being born in a world of people who don’t think like you.”
Read in Full:Â http://www.lohud.com/article/20100908/NEWS02/9080323/Fresh-off-her-Emmy-Award-buzz-Temple-Grandin-speaks-at-Pace-University
 
The Australian Psychological Society (APS) congratulates Julia Gillard on her re-appointment as Prime Minister of Australia and looks forward to working productively with the Gillard government to address pressing community issues including health reform.
“This government is coming in at a time when the community is facing major challenges,” APS president Professor Bob Montgomery said. “The APS is calling on this new government to address those challenges including inclusive health reform, improving access to mental health care and addressing the impact of climate change on the community.”
He said that strong leadership would ensure that key issues were addressed including ensuring the delivery of treatment for common mental health disorders, providing schools and students with fully trained school psychologists, ensuring fair quality of life for those with a disability, as well as addressing issues such as the psychological wellbeing of asylum seekers, closing the gap in Indigenous health and managing the effects of climate change.
Professor Montgomery said that through their work with many Australians, from infants through to the elderly, psychologists and the APS were acutely aware of the need for major reforms, which could make a significant difference to improved health care, community wellbeing and national productivity.
There are over 24,000 psychologists in Australia. With over 19,000 members and 40 Branches across the country, the Australian Psychological Society (APS) is the largest of all the non-medical health professional associations in Australia and represents the largest mental health and psychological workforce.
He said the APS had access to a vast pool of psychological expertise from both academic and professional service delivery perspectives that could assist in the reforms across a range of policy areas.
“We hope to work productively with the government and the APS believes we can contribute expertise that will lead to a better healthier Australia,” Professor Montgomery said.
 
Using ultrasound and a minimally-invasive procedure, radiologists can identify and treat patients who engage in a disturbing self-injury behavior known as self-embedding, according to a new study published in the online edition and October print issue of the journal Radiology.
“This is a new way for radiologists to impact public and mental health,” said the study’s senior author, William E. Shiels II, D.O., chairman of the Department of Radiology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and president of The Children’s Radiological Institute. “Radiologists can be in a position to interrupt a cycle of self-harm with effective, early diagnosis and referral for appropriate behavioral health and foreign body removal.”
Self-injury, or self-harm, refers to a variety of behaviors in which a person intentionally inflicts harm to his or her body without suicidal intent. It is a disturbing trend among adolescents, particularly girls. Prevalence is unknown because many cases go unreported, but recent studies have reported that one in five high school students has practiced deliberate self-injury at least once. More common forms of self-injury include cutting of the skin, burning, bruising, hair pulling, breaking bones or swallowing toxic substances. In cases of self-embedding, objects are used to puncture the skin or are embedded into the wound after cutting.
Dr. Shiels and colleagues studied 21 episodes of self-embedding behavior in 11 teenagers, including nine girls and two boys, age 14 to 18. Objects had been present for time periods between 2 days and an unknown number of years. Using ultrasound and/or fluoroscopic guidance, interventional pediatric radiologists removed 68 of the 76 embedded foreign objects found in the patients. The embedded objects included metal, glass, wood, plastic, graphite, crayon and stone. The objects were embedded during injuries to the arms, ankles, feet, hands and neck. One 18-year-old patient with repetitive behavior had self-embedded 35 objects over two years, including staples, a comb tooth, a fork tine, a cotter pin and nail polish wands.
Ultrasound guidance allowed the researchers to detect the presence and location of wood, crayons and plastic objects, not detectable on x-ray examinations. Removal was performed through small incisions in the skin that left little or no scarring and was successful in all cases. There was one incident of fragmentation, but all fragments were removed.
“Early detection and removal of these foreign bodies are key steps for these teenagers to engage in effective therapy and interrupt their cycle of self-harm, so they can recover and grow as healthy and successful adults with good coping skills,” Dr. Shiels said.
“Self-embedding Behavior: Radiologic Management of Self-inserted Soft-Tissue Foreign Bodies.” Collaborating on this paper with Dr. Shiels were Adam S. Young, B.S., James W. Murakami, M.D., Brian D. Coley, M.D., and Mark J. Hogan, M.D.
 
 
I have found what is reportedly the first description of a hallucinogenic ‘magic mushroom’ trip in the Western medical literature. It is from a 1926 paper on different types of mushroom poisoning that was published in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and was written by William. W. Ford.
He lists various types of poisoning, including stomach upsets, cramps, vomiting and convulsions, but the final category is where he tackles the effects of what are now known as ‘magic mushrooms’ that contain the naturally occurring hallucinogenic drug psilocybin.
5. Mycetismus cerebralis. Here the patients show peculiar cerebral symptoms four or five hours after the fungi are eaten. They are greatly exhilarated, laugh immoderately on slight occasion, develop a staggering gait and show peculiar disturbances of vision. The symptoms are transient, the patients being restored to health in twenty-four to forty-eight hours, except for a peculiar sensation which they describe as a feeling “as if they were walking on air.†This subjective sensation may last several days.
The plants responsible for this peculiar poisoning are Panaeolus papilionaceus and Panaeolus campanulatus. They are of interest to us chiefly in that they grow on lawns together with the edible mushroom, Agaricus campestris, and also rarely in beds for the artificial propagation of this species.
Although leaders of the psychedelic movement have created back histories about Western use of hallucinogenic mushrooms – suggesting they were used for spiritual purposes by druids, the Ancient Greeks, and folk healers to the present day – historian Andy Letcher has noted that the effects of these fungi have, as far as we know, always been treated as accidental poisoning.
Read in Full:Â http://mindhacks.com/2010/09/07/peculiar-disturbances-of-vision/
 
Treating Nausea: 12 Common-Sense TipsÂ
Nausea isn’t inevitable. You can minimize the most common causes — motion sickness, medications, and tainted food. And if a bout of nausea strikes, you can takes steps to relieve it. Follow these 12 tips.
Avoiding nausea …
- Eat smaller, more frequent meals at a slower pace. This will allow your stomach to digest foods at a reasonable rate.
- Be careful what you eat, especially while traveling in foreign or tropical locales. Don’t eat raw or undercooked meat or seafood or food that appears to have been sitting out for a long time. In countries with poor sanitation, don’t drink tap water or consume any fruits or vegetables that you can’t peel or boil before eating.
- Wash your hands frequently to cleanse away any bacteria or viruses.
- Monitor your medication use closely, particularly when you first start taking a drug, to see if it causes stomach upset. Often the nausea will go away within a few days or weeks of taking the medication. If nausea doesn’t go away, talk with your doctor.
- Avoid nausea by sitting in the front seat of a car, if possible, and don’t read while riding.
- If you’re in a boat, focus on a stationary object on the horizon and stay in the midsection of the ship, where it’s most stable. On a train, sit facing the direction in which the train is moving.
- Over-the-counter nausea drugs such as dimenhydrinate (Dramamine) and meclizine (Bonine) or the prescription medication scopolamine, which is available as a patch (Transderm Scop) or pill (Scopace), should be taken 30 to 60 minutes before you get in the vehicle to avoid nausea.
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Treating Nausea ..
- Rest. Activity can make your nausea worse, so rest as much as possible. If you’re experiencing motion sickness, stay as still as possible and get out of the vehicle as soon as you can.
- Sip clear fluids to settle your stomach. Chamomile, lemon balm, or ginger tea as well as ginger ale are good choices for nausea. If you’re vomiting, suck on ice cubes and drink water, broth, or sports drinks like Gatorade to prevent dehydration.
- Avoid strong food odors. Many odors can worsen nausea, so avoid cooking, grocery shopping, or going to a restaurant.
- Eat bland foods, like crackers or dry toast, to absorb excess stomach acid. You should also avoid fatty, acidic, or spicy foods, which can upset the stomach further. Wait about six hours after the last time you vomited to eat solid food.
- Take antacids (Maalox, Rolaids, Tums) to neutralize stomach acid or bismuth subsalicylate (Kaopectate, Pepto-Bismol) to coat your stomach. Talk with your doctor if you’re taking prescription medications or aspirin; bismuth contains a drug similar to aspirin, so you could be taking a double dose without knowing it.
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A study on children has found further evidence that ME, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, could be caused by a virus.
Scientists at the University of Dundee study found abnormalities in the white blood cells of children with ME/CFS, suggesting they had been fighting off infection.
ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), causes debilitating tiredness.
About 150,000 people in the UK have ME/CFS, 15,000 of whom are children.
The condition is characterised by physical and mental exhaustion following normal activities. Symptoms can include muscle pain, sore throat, tender lymph nodes, multi-joint pain and headaches.
In the study, funded by ME Research UK and The Young ME Sufferers (Tymes) Trust, 25 children aged between seven and 14 with ME/CFS were assessed, along with 23 children of a similar age in a control group.
The report, published in the Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, said abnormalities were found in the blood of all the children with ME/CFS.
The results were similar to those previously identified in adults with the condition.
Samples taken from youngsters with ME/CFS contained higher than normal levels of free radicals – molecules that can damage cells, tissues and organs.
Virus debate
A much greater number of neutrophils, the most common type of white blood cells, were also found to be at the end of their lifecycle.
The report said the high turnover of neutrophils indicated the body’s need to fight infection.
There is a continuing debate among scientists over whether ME/CFS is caused by a virus.
Several studies in adults have found evidence of a virus in people with the condition, but so far research has not proved conclusive.
Some doctors have said that the idea that different types of chronic fatigue are all caused by a single virus is not plausible.
Professor Jill Belch, an expert in vascular medicine at Ninewells hospital in Dundee who led the latest research project, said: “What we’ve found are blood changes that suggest chronic inflammation.
“This is important because it’s showing an abnormality that we might be able to devise a treatment for, but it’s also important because some people do suggest that ME is a disease of the mind and here we are showing that it is a disease of the body.”
Dr Neil Abbot, of ME Research UK, said it was ” fascinating to discover evidence of a persistent or reactivating viral infection”.
“Although the cause of ME is unknown, more than half of all patients say their illness started with an infection,” he said.
“The study undoubtedly adds greater scientific weight to the existence of a condition which, sadly, many still fail to acknowledge in spite of its severity.”
According to Tymes Trust, children with ME can be treated with “scepticism” by the healthcare system.
‘School refuser’
Jozef Mackie, 14, from Fortrose, near Inverness, was a sporty child who loved skiing, until the symptoms of ME began when he was nine years old.
His mother, Donna, said: “He was the boy whose battery wasn’t working very well. He had to take more and more time off school.
“The other children were able to run around and do things after school and Joseph had to come home and lie on the settee.”
For two years Jozef was labelled a “school refuser” and told it was “all in his head”.
He was finally diagnosed with ME when he was 11.
“I haven’t been treated very well,” said Jozef. “I haven’t been believed. They just think I’m putting it on.
“It’s sore to get in and out of the car and I can’t walk long distances.”
Jane Colby, from Tymes Trust, added: “The medical profession must now take the consequences of ME in children seriously, and research into prevention and treatment must be given a high priority.”
Source(Includes Video):Â http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-11204884
 
Autism and Sensory Processing Disorder: The grocery store challenge
Bethany Sciortino
There are many conditions comorbid to autism, and Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), or Sensory Integration Dysfunction, is one of the most common. SPD describes the inability or difficulty to take in or process sensory input, causing interference in daily functioning which often results in problematic behavior, learning challenges or difficulty in developing and maintaining relationships. SPD affects all five senses, as well as the vestibular system (balance and spatial orientation) and proprioception (positional sense). Children with SPD vary in their characteristics and intensity. One child might be hypersensitive to sensory input, while another could be hyposensitive. And, it is quite common for a child to have characteristics of both making it extremely difficult for self regulation, ultimately interfering with simple tasks such as going to a mall or grocery store.
Autistic children with SPD often have difficulty processing more than one sensory input at a time. Over-stimulating environments are usually the culprits of temper tantrums, screaming fits or sensory shut-down. A perfect example of multiple distractions is a grocery store: overbearing fluorescent lights, temperature variances from food freezers to warm bakeries, high-pitched beeping cash registers, announcements over loud speakers and multiple coinciding conversations are too much for an autistic child with SPD to bear. In a world where sameness and routine bring comfort to autistic children, each turn into a new aisle is an unknown variable and has the potential to peak anxiety. Add to the equation an overwhelming urge for autistic children to touch all things within hands reach and the tendency for them to run (fight or flight reflex) when confused, you have a recipe for disaster, ensuing temper tantrums and frustrated parents.
Read in Full:Â http://www.examiner.com/autism-parenting-in-orlando/autism-and-sensory-processing-disorder-the-grocery-store-challenge
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Sensory processing disorder: Why it’s not just the diagnosis du jour for kids
For children with the disorder, normal clothing may feel like sandpaper and school lighting can feel like a burning laser beam. Expert Roya Ostovar explains how to help
Symptoms of SPD include picky eating, frequent meltdowns, clumsiness and difficulty getting to sleep without a parent. Isn’t this normal kid behaviour?
Yes. However, what distinguishes this disorder is that children with SPD really can’t live a normal life and [can’t] go about their day-to-day functioning without interference from these symptoms.
What causes sensory processing disorder?
It seems there are hereditary and genetic factors involved, and prenatal issues if the mother used drugs, alcohol or some prescription medications while pregnant. During birth, sometimes there are traumas that cause, for example, a lack of oxygen to the brain. Or once the child is born, there may be neurological or medical conditions and trauma such as falls, injuries, surgery or even chronic abuse and neglect.
Autistic children are known to have sensory issues. What makes SPD a standalone disorder?
Many children with SPD do not have other symptoms of autism – they have good adaptive skills, they can communicate well with their peers and they have good social skills. But they really have difficulty processing sensory information accurately and effectively.
How do these kids do in school?
We know for sure that 5 to 13 per cent of children entering school experience the symptoms of this disorder – and 73 to 75 per cent are boys. They walk into school already feeling there’s too much to deal with. Faced with the crowd at school, all the noises, all the tactile information and the various lights, their sense system feels quite overwhelmed. So it’s very difficult for students with SPD to function successfully in school without appropriate treatments.
Parents without special-needs kids may wonder if SPD is just an elaborate excuse for bad behaviour.
SPD is a real disorder. And there are ways that you can distinguish between SPD and a behavioural disorder. You can consider the child’s reaction and responses to sensory input, especially those to touch and movement. Children with SPD seem truly pained and uneasy when they’re experiencing sensory information that their bodies cannot process well.
If there is no standard diagnostic test for SPD, how do health professionals make sense of the cluster of symptoms?
Occupational therapists have the tools to test for this disorder and many psychologists and neurophysiologists can work with families to get the necessary diagnosis. Pediatricians are becoming informed about this disorder and referring children and their families to occupational therapists.
What kind of therapies help children with SPD?
The main form of treatment is occupational therapy that is focused on sensory integration and developing what is called a sensory diet. The child is given a prescription, a method to calm down and organize the senses. Activities and items are chosen by the therapist to be fun, enjoyable and encouraging to the child and meet the specific needs of the child. They may include listening to certain music or doing yoga, but the activities are not random or sudden the way day-to-day life is.
Why is there such a push to have SPD included in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, due out in 2012?
If it’s not included as a disorder, it’s more difficult for families to get services and coverage for treatments through their insurance.
Skeptics argue this is a vague disorder that represents a growth industry for occupational therapists, and that parents are paying upward of $10,000 a year for unproven therapies.
I can understand their position. This is a new disorder. However, this is a real disorder. If we go back and look at autism, Asperger’s syndrome and well-known disorders such as ADHD and schizophrenia, you can see that in most of these cases from the time the first cases were described in the literature to the time when they were officially recognized as a diagnosis it took 40 or 50 years.
What’s the best-case scenario for a child with SPD?
If a child begins to see an occupational therapist and has sensory integration therapy, you begin to see an improvement in all the areas of functioning: their attention, concentration, socialization and even their self-esteem. They start to participate more fully at home and at school – typically, between six months to a year.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
 
Abstract
Speech and prosody-voice profiles for 15 male speakers with High-Functioning Autism (HFA) and 15 male speakers with Asperger syndrome (AS) were compared to one another and to profiles for 53 typically developing male speakers in the same 10- to 50-years age range. Compared to the typically developing speakers, significantly more participants in both the HFA and AS groups had residual articulation distortion errors, uncodable utterances due to discourse constraints, and utterances coded as inappropriate in the domains of phrasing, stress, and resonance. Speakers with AS were significantly more voluble than speakers with HFA, but otherwise there were few statistically significant differences between the two groups of speakers with pervasive developmental disorders. Discussion focuses on perceptual-motor and social sources of differences in the prosody-voice findings for individuals with Pervasive Developmental Disorders as compared with findings for typical speakers, including comment on the grammatical, pragmatic, and affective aspects of prosody. 10.1044/1092-4388(2001/087)
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2010) — Employees who have control over the design and layout of their workspace are not only happier and healthier — they’re also up to 32% more productive, according to new research from the University of Exeter in the UK.
Studies by the University’s School of Psychology have revealed the potential for remarkable improvements in workers’ attitudes to their jobs by allowing them to personalise their offices.
The findings challenge the conventional approach taken by most companies, where managers often create a ‘lean’ working environment that reflects a standardized corporate identity.
Dr Craig Knight conducted the research as part of his PhD and is now Director of PRISM — a company that deals with space issues in the workplace. He said “Most contemporary offices are functional and offer very little user control, but our studies suggest this practice needs to be challenged.
“When people feel uncomfortable in their surroundings they are less engaged — not only with the space but also with what they do in it. If they can have some control, that all changes and people report being happier at work, identifying more with their employer, and are more efficient when doing their jobs.”
The research involved more than 2,000 office workers in a series of studies looking at attitudes to — and productivity within — working space. This included two surveys of workers’ attitudes carried out via online questionnaires, as well as two experiments which examined workers’ efficiency when carrying out tasks under different conditions.
The surveys assessed the level of control workers had over their space — ranging from none at all to being fully consulted over design changes. Workers were then asked a series of questions about how they felt about their workspace and their jobs.
Results consistently showed that the more control people had over their office spaces, the happier and more motivated they were in their jobs. They felt physically more comfortable at work, identified more with their employers, and felt more positive about their jobs in general.
Two further studies, one at the University and another in commercial offices saw participants take on a series of tasks in a workspace that was either lean (bare and functional), enriched (decorated with plants and pictures), empowered (allowing the individual to design the area) or disempowered (where the individual’s design was redesigned by a ‘manager’).
People working in enriched spaces were 17% more productive than those in lean spaces, but those sitting at empowered desks were even more efficient — being 32% more productive than their lean counterparts without any increase in errors.
Professor Alex Haslam, who co-authored the research, said it was time for managers to recognise the potential improvements that can be made by handing some control of space over to workers and thereby giving them an opportunity to realise their own identity in the workplace.
He said: “Not only does office design determine whether people’s backs ache, it has the potential to affect how much they accomplish, how much initiative they take, and their overall professional satisfaction. Further research that we and others have carried out also highlights strong links between a lack of control over workspace and sickness in the office.
“All this could have a huge impact for firms of any size, yet employers rarely consider the psychological ramifications of the way they manage space. By paying more attention to employees’ needs they can boost wellbeing and productivity at minimal cost.”
Source:Â http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100907104035.htm



