


Archive for January, 2011
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on July 27, 2010
A new study has determined that only some epilepsy drugs increase the risk for suicide. Currently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires a warning of an increased risk of suicide for all epilepsy drugs.
Newer drugs with a higher risk of causing depression than other epilepsy drugs, such as levetiracetam (Keppra), topiramate (Topamax) and vigabatrin (Sabril) were found to increase the risk of self-harm or suicidal behavior among people with epilepsy.
In contrast, newer drugs that have a low risk of causing depression and conventional epilepsy drugs did not have any increased risk of self-harm or suicidal behavior. These groups include drugs such as lamotrigine (Lamictal), gabapentin (Neurontin), carbamazepine (Tegretol), valproate (Depakote) and phenytoin (Dilantin).
“These results may be helpful for doctors and people with epilepsy as they decide which drugs to use,†said study author Frank Andersohn, MD, of Charité University Medical Center in Berlin, Germany.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/07/27/only-some-epilepsy-drugs-increase-risk-ofsuicide/16068.html
Related News Articles
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on July 27, 2010
The power of negative stereotypes should not be underestimated: Stigmatized individuals often exhibit diminished performance on exams and other skill-based activities.
Now, the effects of detrimental stereotypes are believed to inhibit learning, according to a new study by Indiana University researchers.
While the effect of negative performance stereotypes on test-taking and in other domains is well documented, the study by social psychologist Robert J. Rydell and his colleagues is the first to show that the effects might also be seen further upstream than once thought — when the skills are learned, not just performed.
“The effect on learning could be cumulative,†says Rydell, whose research focuses on stereotype threat involving women and mathematics.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/07/27/harmful-stereotypes-hinder-learning-and-performance/16062.html
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Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on July 27, 2010
The power of negative stereotypes should not be underestimated: Stigmatized individuals often exhibit diminished performance on exams and other skill-based activities.
Now, the effects of detrimental stereotypes are believed to inhibit learning, according to a new study by Indiana University researchers.
While the effect of negative performance stereotypes on test-taking and in other domains is well documented, the study by social psychologist Robert J. Rydell and his colleagues is the first to show that the effects might also be seen further upstream than once thought — when the skills are learned, not just performed.
“The effect on learning could be cumulative,†says Rydell, whose research focuses on stereotype threat involving women and mathematics.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/07/27/harmful-stereotypes-hinder-learning-and-performance/16062.html
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July 26, 2010
by Roseann Keegan
Once fearful of animals, 10-year-old Keegan Yaghlegian now runs to grab his cowboy boots and hat every Sunday when he gets to ride Violet at Kids & Horses in Minden.
Keegan, a special education student at Sierra House Elementary School, was diagnosed with mild autism a few months after his second birthday.
The signs of autism appeared when Keegan was 18-months-old. His speech began to regress and he made less eye contact with his parents, Dick and Lauren Yaghlegian, who go by the shortened last name of Yost.
Then the Yosts, who own the Village Board Shop in South Lake Tahoe, attended a fundraiser for Kids & Horses, a Carson Valley nonprofit that provides equine therapy to adults and children with special needs. Keegan was on the waiting list for three years. Then in 2007, just as the Yosts were about to give up on the program, a spot opened.
Lauren Yost said the change was instant. Keegan was making more eye contact. There was some unexpected speech when they got in the car after a lesson. Today, he’s no longer afraid of cats, dogs and other animals.
Read More …Â http://www.recordcourier.com/article/20100726/NEWS/100729903/1062&ParentProfile=1049
 
July 26, 2010
by Roseann Keegan
Once fearful of animals, 10-year-old Keegan Yaghlegian now runs to grab his cowboy boots and hat every Sunday when he gets to ride Violet at Kids & Horses in Minden.
Keegan, a special education student at Sierra House Elementary School, was diagnosed with mild autism a few months after his second birthday.
The signs of autism appeared when Keegan was 18-months-old. His speech began to regress and he made less eye contact with his parents, Dick and Lauren Yaghlegian, who go by the shortened last name of Yost.
Then the Yosts, who own the Village Board Shop in South Lake Tahoe, attended a fundraiser for Kids & Horses, a Carson Valley nonprofit that provides equine therapy to adults and children with special needs. Keegan was on the waiting list for three years. Then in 2007, just as the Yosts were about to give up on the program, a spot opened.
Lauren Yost said the change was instant. Keegan was making more eye contact. There was some unexpected speech when they got in the car after a lesson. Today, he’s no longer afraid of cats, dogs and other animals.
Read More …Â http://www.recordcourier.com/article/20100726/NEWS/100729903/1062&ParentProfile=1049
Jan
22
 
July 25, 8:58 PM
Shreveport Autism & Parenting Examiner
Mary Toso
History of the Word
No discussion of autism is complete without looking back historically at how it has been viewed and diagnosed. This is because autism and related conditions have fought a lingering effect of psychological and psychiatric diagnoses associated with the earliest observations of patients being called autistic. People need to be informed with so many more now dealing with this in their families, personally, or with someone they know.
Before Leo Kanner’s work in 1943, autism was viewed through the perspective first used by Swiss psychiatrist Eugene Bleuler in1912. Autism-Psychology Wiki informs that he used autism in an issue of The American Journal of Insanity, and that the word comes from the Greek word for ‘self’, autos. It was in the work of dealing with schizophenia, which he first named, that he went on to introduce the term autism. Kanner, however, saw a definable difference in a condition that he chose the word autism to describe. In doing so he separated it from schizophrenia, but the impact of the term already had greatly confused people about the condition of autism- schizophrenia being a major psychiatric illness. Associated with schizophrenia are symptoms such as losing touch with reality, hearing voices and even hallucinating. However, the onset is unusual in very young children. Still, autism originally was a severe to moderately severe condition compared with the possibly high functioning PDD (NOS) described in The mystery child of PDD (NOS), or high functioning others in the spectrum. It was of an extremely rare type which had traits that were more easily defined, and many feel the term needed to remain applicable only to this small minority of people. So what might the autistic child look like that autism first described?
The Severely Autistic Child
This child from early on appears out of touch. He does not connect with even his mother in ways expressing bonded relationship, to her disillusionment. For example, eye contact is rare if at all, and speech also. There is a chronically habitual fine motor motion that the child will do. He shows fixation in response to it. For example, he might flap his hand up and down while never even noticing anyone else in a room. Larger, rapid motor behaviors might also take place like repeated waving of arms, spinning and rocking.
Potential Implications:
Therefore, though great strides have been made to understand the condition, a stigma is still associated with the extreme of the original terms and their definitions. Both the mental illness associated with schizophrenia, and the images of one having more severe autism are lingering with the term autism. Many children today called autistic are so vastly different that the condition doesn’t even appear to be the same, and actually really in the obvious ways isn’t. Even more so it could impact this child to realize someone would associate him with the schizophrenic when he is of vastly healthier condition. Given this it seems wise to consider the opinions of those concerned, and see what they are suggesting when defining autism spectrum, and the range of conditions the term now refers to. Hopefully, each individual will be more appreciated this way.
Application:
Children here in the Shreveport, LA area need to be seen as the individuals they are. When they are diagnosed or appear to be in the autism spectrum please remember how diverse this group has become and be sensitive to the uniqueness they have. We need to be thoughtful not to box them into a preconception we may have of this term.
Â
Jan
22
 
July 25, 8:58 PM
Shreveport Autism & Parenting Examiner
Mary Toso
History of the Word
No discussion of autism is complete without looking back historically at how it has been viewed and diagnosed. This is because autism and related conditions have fought a lingering effect of psychological and psychiatric diagnoses associated with the earliest observations of patients being called autistic. People need to be informed with so many more now dealing with this in their families, personally, or with someone they know.
Before Leo Kanner’s work in 1943, autism was viewed through the perspective first used by Swiss psychiatrist Eugene Bleuler in1912. Autism-Psychology Wiki informs that he used autism in an issue of The American Journal of Insanity, and that the word comes from the Greek word for ‘self’, autos. It was in the work of dealing with schizophenia, which he first named, that he went on to introduce the term autism. Kanner, however, saw a definable difference in a condition that he chose the word autism to describe. In doing so he separated it from schizophrenia, but the impact of the term already had greatly confused people about the condition of autism- schizophrenia being a major psychiatric illness. Associated with schizophrenia are symptoms such as losing touch with reality, hearing voices and even hallucinating. However, the onset is unusual in very young children. Still, autism originally was a severe to moderately severe condition compared with the possibly high functioning PDD (NOS) described in The mystery child of PDD (NOS), or high functioning others in the spectrum. It was of an extremely rare type which had traits that were more easily defined, and many feel the term needed to remain applicable only to this small minority of people. So what might the autistic child look like that autism first described?
The Severely Autistic Child
This child from early on appears out of touch. He does not connect with even his mother in ways expressing bonded relationship, to her disillusionment. For example, eye contact is rare if at all, and speech also. There is a chronically habitual fine motor motion that the child will do. He shows fixation in response to it. For example, he might flap his hand up and down while never even noticing anyone else in a room. Larger, rapid motor behaviors might also take place like repeated waving of arms, spinning and rocking.
Potential Implications:
Therefore, though great strides have been made to understand the condition, a stigma is still associated with the extreme of the original terms and their definitions. Both the mental illness associated with schizophrenia, and the images of one having more severe autism are lingering with the term autism. Many children today called autistic are so vastly different that the condition doesn’t even appear to be the same, and actually really in the obvious ways isn’t. Even more so it could impact this child to realize someone would associate him with the schizophrenic when he is of vastly healthier condition. Given this it seems wise to consider the opinions of those concerned, and see what they are suggesting when defining autism spectrum, and the range of conditions the term now refers to. Hopefully, each individual will be more appreciated this way.
Application:
Children here in the Shreveport, LA area need to be seen as the individuals they are. When they are diagnosed or appear to be in the autism spectrum please remember how diverse this group has become and be sensitive to the uniqueness they have. We need to be thoughtful not to box them into a preconception we may have of this term.
Â
Jan
22
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on July 26, 2010Â
New research in psychological science supports what many of us have known for a long time — that being outdoors, enjoying nature, is beneficial for mental health and psychological development.
“Many people,†says Dr. Eeva Karjalainen, of the Finnish Forest Research Institute, Metla, “feel relaxed and good when they are out in nature. But not many of us know that there is also scientific evidence about the healing effects of nature.â€
Forests — and other natural, green settings — can reduce stress, improve moods, reduce anger and aggressiveness and increase overall happiness.
Forest visits may also strengthen our immune system by increasing the activity and number of natural killer cells that destroy cancer cells.
Many studies show that after stressful or concentration-demanding situations, people recover faster and better in natural environments than in urban settings.
Blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension and the level of “stress hormones†all decrease faster in natural settings.
Depression, anger and aggressiveness are reduced in green environments and ADHD symptoms in children reduce when they play in green settings.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/07/26/stressed-out-visit-a-forest/16011.html
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Jan
22
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on July 26, 2010Â
New research in psychological science supports what many of us have known for a long time — that being outdoors, enjoying nature, is beneficial for mental health and psychological development.
“Many people,†says Dr. Eeva Karjalainen, of the Finnish Forest Research Institute, Metla, “feel relaxed and good when they are out in nature. But not many of us know that there is also scientific evidence about the healing effects of nature.â€
Forests — and other natural, green settings — can reduce stress, improve moods, reduce anger and aggressiveness and increase overall happiness.
Forest visits may also strengthen our immune system by increasing the activity and number of natural killer cells that destroy cancer cells.
Many studies show that after stressful or concentration-demanding situations, people recover faster and better in natural environments than in urban settings.
Blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension and the level of “stress hormones†all decrease faster in natural settings.
Depression, anger and aggressiveness are reduced in green environments and ADHD symptoms in children reduce when they play in green settings.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/07/26/stressed-out-visit-a-forest/16011.html
Â
 
ELECTION 2010 – ANNOUNCEMENT
Minister For FAMILIES AND COMMUNITY SERVICES
PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY FOR DISABILITIES
INCLUDING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY IN COMMUNITY LIFE
The Gillard Labor Government today announced three new initiatives to support people with disability and their carers participate in community life.
People with disability and their carers deserve the same opportunities as other Australians to play a part in their local community and access local facilities and public spaces.
The new initiatives are:
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Accessible communities – infrastructure grants of up to $100,000 to local councils to make buildings and public spaces, such as playgrounds, swimming pools, public toilets, and town halls, more accessible for people with disability. These grants will be offered competitively and be based on a matched contribution from local governments, with the Gillard Labor Government providing total funding of $5 million.
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An additional $1 million will be provided for digital playback devices and improved access to digital content in public libraries around the country to increase the accessibility of print material, such as books and newspapers, for people with vision and physical impairments and learning disabilities that have difficulty reading traditional printed materials.
- Leaders for Tomorrow – a new national program to help people with disability to become leaders in business, the community and government through mentoring and leadership development. The new $3 million program will provide 12-month intensive leadership support for up to 200 people with disability, including matching them to  a mentor in their field of interest.
- ‘Attitudes’ website – a new disability website will be created in partnership with the ABC to raise awareness of people with disability and disability issues. It will be developed and edited by people with a disability and provide them with a national voice. The Gillard Labor Government will provide $500,000 to establish the website.
These initiatives are part of an $11 million accessibility package to support the Gillard Labor Government’s National Disability Strategy which is currently being finalised with the states and territories.
The National Disability Strategy will commit all governments to a nationwide approach to improving the lives of people with disability and create a more equal society. The strategy will set out a 10-year national plan for reform, focusing on better inclusion for people with disabilities.
These new initiatives are in addition to two recently announced Gillard Labor Government plans to improve access for people with disability:
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The Livable Housing Design initiative, developed with the residential building and construction industry, to promote new voluntary guidelines for housing built to meet the needs of older Australians and people with disability. The Gillard Labor Government is investing $1 million working with industry to promote liveable housing.
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A new plan agreed with Australia’s four major cinema groups to fast-track new audio description and captioning technology to improve cinema access for people who are deaf, blind, visually or hearing impaired. This will be funded in partnership between the Gillard Labor Government, through a $500,000 commitment, and cinema operators.
The Gillard Labor Government’s accessibility package to support the National Disability Strategy is fully provided for in the Budget. Costs have been met from within the Departments of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government.
MELBOURNE
24 JULY 2010
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COMMUNICATIONS UNIT: Phone: (02) 9384 2220 | Fax: (02) 9264 2213
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Read Bill Shorten’s speech at the announcement ![]()


