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Reno Williams (Special thanks to news-press.com)
A Cape Coral 12-year-old who educates local students and families about autism has a national platform to inspire many more.
Reno Williams is featured in the documentary, “Walking In The Dark: Finding The Light In Autism.”
The film follows seven families with autistic children and shows the different therapies and approaches they take to manage the developmental disability.
Reno was born legally blind — now he is just visually impaired — and was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. This condition includes symptoms such as social awkwardness, singular focus and high intelligence.
Reno, who attends Trafalgar Middle School, gives presentations to his peers at area schools so he can reduce the stigma associated with autism.
His goal is to teach other children how to be a good friend to kids with autism, Reno said.
Brian Dery, president of Triple Knot Productions and director of “Walking in the Dark,” found Reno’s story compelling.
“Reno Williams is someone with autism who gives back,” Brian said. “He does motivational speaking and he educates others about how to treat those with autism and Asperger’s. He brings it all home.”
Brian worked on the film for the past year and a half. It premiered June 6 at the University of South Florida. A Fort Myers screening takes place Saturday evening.
Read in Full:Â http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20108090306
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 9, 2010
A new study has found that psychiatrists can accurately assess a patient’s mental health by viewing web-based or e-mail files.
Specifically, University of California at Davis investigators found psychiatrists could diagnose and counsel individuals after viewing videotaped interviews that are sent via telecommunications lines.
The approach, called asynchronous telepsychiatry, uses store-and-forward technology, in which medical information is retrieved, stored and transmitted for later review using e-mail or Web applications.
It has been used extensively for specialties like dermatology, with photos of skin conditions sent to dermatologists, or X-rays sent to radiologists for assessment.
However, the current study is the first to examine store-and-forward technology for psychiatry, said Peter Yellowlees, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at UC-Davis and the study’s lead author.
“A Feasibility Study of the Use of Asynchronous Telepsychiatry for Psychiatric Consultations†is published in the August issue of the journal Psychiatric Services.
“We’ve demonstrated that this approach is feasible and very efficient,†said Yellowlees, who is an internationally recognized expert in telepsychiatry.
“Using store-and-forward technology allows us to provide opinions to primary-care doctors much more quickly than would usually be the case.â€
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/08/09/internet-counseling-aids-mental-health/16576.html
 
ScienceDaily (Aug. 10, 2010) — Scientists from the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King’s College London have developed a pioneering new method of diagnosing autism in adults. For the first time, a quick brain scan that takes just 15 minutes can identify adults with autism with over 90 per cent accuracy. The method could lead to the screening for autism spectrum disorders in children in the future.
The team used an MRI scanner to take pictures of the brain’s grey matter. A separate imaging technique was then used to reconstruct these scans into 3D images that could be assessed for structure, shape and thickness — all intricate measurements that reveal Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at its root. By studying the complex and subtle make-up of grey matter in the brain, the scientists can use biological markers, rather than personality traits, to assess whether or not a person has ASD.
ASD is a lifelong and disabling condition caused by abnormalities in brain development. It affects about one per cent of the UK population (half a million people), the majority of these being men (4:1 male to female). Until now, diagnosis has mainly relied on personal accounts from friends or relatives close to the patient — a long and drawn-out process hinged on the reliability of this account and requiring a team of experts to interpret the information.
Dr Christine Ecker, a Lecturer in the Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences from the IoP, who led the study, said: “The value of this rapid and accurate tool to diagnose ASD is immense. It could help to alleviate the need for the emotional, time consuming and expensive diagnosis process which ASD patients and families currently have to endure. We now look forward to testing if our methods can also help children.”
Professor Declan Murphy, Professor of Psychiatry and Brain Maturation at the IoP, who supervised the research, said: “Simply being diagnosed means patients can take the next steps to get help and improve their quality of life. People with autism are affected in different ways; some can lead relatively independent lives while others need specialist support or are so severely affected they cannot communicate their feelings and frustrations at all. Clearly the ethical implications of scanning people who may not suspect they have autism needs to be handled carefully and sensitively as this technique becomes part of clinical practice.”
Professor Christopher Kennard, Chair of the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) Neuroscience and Mental Health funding board, said: “Bringing together the knowledge gained from neuroscience in the laboratory and careful clinical and neuropsychological evaluation in the clinic has been key to the success of this new diagnostic tool. In fact, this approach to research is a crucial theme throughout the MRC’s strategy. We know that an investment like this can dramatically affect the quality of life for patients and their families. The more we understand about the biological basis of autism, the better equipped we will be to find new ways of treating those affected in the future.”
The research studied 20 healthy adults, 20 adults with ASD, and 19 adults with ADHD. All participants were males aged between 20 and 68 years. After first being diagnosed by traditional methods (an IQ test, psychiatric interview, physical examination and blood test), scientists used the newly-developed brain scanning technique as a comparison. The brain scan was highly effective in identifying individuals with autism and may therefore provide a rapid diagnostic instrument, using biological signposts, to detect autism in the future.
The research was undertaken using the A.I.M.S. (Autism Imaging Multicentre Study) Consortium, which is funded by the MRC. Support funding was also provided by the Wellcome Trust and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
The paper — “Describing the brain in autism in five dimensions — MRI-assisted diagnosis using a multi-parameter classification approach” — is published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Source:Â http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100810203505.htm
Some may recall an article posted back in May in regard a most remarkable woman whose life story is both poignant and powerful. It was entitled, Alice Ricciardi-von Platen: Against the Grain, courtesy of Vaughan over at MindHacks. MindHacks is currently undergoing a move to a new home and unable to accept comments temporarily. A reminder:
I’ve just discovered the powerful story of the German psychiatrist Alice Ricciardi-von Platen. She refused to take part in the growing eugenics movement in the 1930s Germany that targeted people with mental illness for sterilisation and euthanasia, resisted the Nazi party and wrote a book documenting Nazi medical abuses of psychiatric patients after being asked to observe the Doctors Trial at Nuremberg.
As a result, she was ostracised from the German medical community and her book was repressed. It wasn’t rediscovered by German historians until thirty years after it was published in 1948.
Afterwards she became highly respected for her work developing group therapy and worked in Britain and Italy right into her late nineties.
There is surprisingly little about her online or in the academic literature although she received two glowing obituaries in the British press when she died in 2008.
We like to think that each of us would stand up to human rights abuses even if everyone else around us was involved but we know from countless social psychology experiments that it is an incredibly difficult thing to do. Consequently, I always have immense admiration for people like Ricciardi-von Platen who did so in the most difficult of circumstances.
We also like to think that the Nuremberg trials put an end to the political abuse of psychiatry but a recent article Schizophrenia Bulletin tracked the history of these abusive practices noting that they have been regularly used throughout the 20th century and into the 21st.
From the Soviet use of sluggishly progressing schizophrenia to silence dissidents, to the Nazi’s incorporation of psychiatry into eugenics, to psychiatrists’ collaboration with torture during dictatorial regimes in Latin America, to China’s use of psychiatric hospitals to persecute Falun Gong members and to the collaboration with ‘war on terror’ torture in the US (albeit in the light of outright condemnation from the American Psychiatric Association).
Sadly, psychiatry has been co-opted many times over as a tool of oppression. Complacency is the enabler of these abuses and people like Alice Ricciardi-von Platen are a reminder that even the most powerful forces can be resisted.
Link to obituary from The Times.
Link to obituary from The Guardian.
https://www.aspie-editorial.com/2011/01/22/alice-ricciardi-von-platen-against-the-grain/
Ms Ricciardi von Platen’s daughter-in-law, Bernadine Grafin Platen Hallermu is currently seeking assistance in financing the very valuable project of having her mother-in-law’s biography published in both German and English. Ms Grafin Platen Hallermu wrote yesterday, “I have initiated the process of having a biography written, which is planned to be published by the Campus Publishing Company in the first half of 2012. Writers are expensive and I am currently looking for help in financing this project in the hope that the book will be released not only in the German but also in the English language and her fascinating story, spanning almost an entire Century, will finally be told.”
For anyone wishing to assist, please leave a comment either privately or publicly here. Thankyou.
Dear Bernadine Grafin Platen Hallermu, i write from the University of Bari. We published a book on Alice von Platen in the 2010. We would like to send you a copy of the book. If you want contact me, i give you this temporary email address. If you write to this address, i’ll give you my real address. Thanks. sample_2010@libero.it
2. Helen Tomkins left…
Dear Bernardine, I am a very old friend of Alice’s and last saw her in 2003 at Cortona. We kept in touch over many years from 1959 until her death. I would have liked to be at her funeral. I don’t know that I can help much with financing the biograph, though I would like to. There are other things I would like to ask – could you send me your email to my email above. I found the black background very difficult to read. Yours with my good wishes for 2011 Helen Tomkins (nee Caruana Galizia)
 
Article Date: 06 Aug 2010 – 4:00 PDT
Gender harassment verbal and nonverbal behaviors that convey insulting, hostile and degrading attitudes to women is just as distressing for women victims as sexual advances in the workplace. According to Emily Leskinen, Lilia Cortina, and Dana Kabat from the University of Michigan in the US, gender harassment leads to negative personal and professional outcomes too and, as such, is a serious form of sex discrimination. In their view, there is a case for interpreting existing legislation as including gender harassment, so that it is recognized as a legitimate and serious form of sex-based discrimination in the workplace. Their work1 is published online in Springer’s journal Law and Human Behavior.
The generally accepted view of sexual harassment sees unwanted sexual attention as an essential component. What Leskinen’s work shows is that nine out of ten harassed women in her sample had experienced gender harassment primarily in the absence of sexual advances in the workplace. And yet, within the current legal conception of sexual harassment, gender harassment involving no sexual advances routinely gets neglected by the law.
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/197016.php
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on August 6, 2010Â
Researchers report a breakthrough in the study of antisocial behavior — a finding that links the behavior to genetic and environmental factors.
University of Illinois scientists discovered children with one variant of a serotonin transporter gene are more likely to exhibit psychopathic traits if they also grow up poor.
The study, the first to identify a specific gene associated with psychopathic tendencies in youth, appears this month in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
People with psychopathic traits generally are more callous and unemotional than their peers, said University of Illinois psychology professor Edelyn Verona, whose graduate student Naomi Sadeh led the study.
“Those with psychopathic traits tend to be less attached to others, even if they have relationships with them,†Verona said.
“They are less reactive to emotional things in the lab. They are charming and grandiose at times. They’re better at conning and manipulating others, and they have low levels of empathy and remorse.â€
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/08/06/antisocial-behavior-linked-to-genes-and-environment/16513.html
 
Article Date: 06 Aug 2010 – 2:00 PDT
Today, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) is proud to announce the release of the new Parents’ Medication Guide for Bipolar Disorder in Children & Adolescents.
The guide was developed by AACAP to give reliable information about medication used to treat bipolar disorder in children and adolescents to parents whose children have been diagnosed with the illness.
“It is not yet clear how many children and adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder will continue to have the disorder as adults. What is very clear is that obtaining a careful clinical assessment is utmost and critical to diagnosing bipolar disorder,” advised Larry Greenhill, M.D., President, AACAP.
The guide reflects what medications child psychiatrists currently use when treating bipolar disorder during childhood and adolescence. It is intended to provide parents with the latest expert medical opinion about medications used to treat the symptoms of bipolar disorder.
“Medication decisions for children with bipolar disorder are complex and difficult for many parents,” said Susan Resko, Executive Director Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation. “AACAP’s Parents’ Medication Guide for Bipolar Disorder in Children & Adolescents compiles the very best information and helps parents decipher the daunting decision-making process. I consider it required reading for any parent of a child with bipolar disorder.”
For most children and adolescents with bipolar disorder, medication can be a helpful and important component of treatment. However, intervention is most effective when the signs and symptoms are recognized as early as possible, and when treatment is comprehensive, ongoing, and individualized to the needs of the child and his or her family.
For more information about the Parents’ Medication Guide series of publications, please visit www.parentsmedguide.org/.
Source: American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP)
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Article Date: 06 Aug 2010 – 2:00 PDT
Today, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) is proud to announce the release of the new Parents’ Medication Guide for Bipolar Disorder in Children & Adolescents.
The guide was developed by AACAP to give reliable information about medication used to treat bipolar disorder in children and adolescents to parents whose children have been diagnosed with the illness.
“It is not yet clear how many children and adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder will continue to have the disorder as adults. What is very clear is that obtaining a careful clinical assessment is utmost and critical to diagnosing bipolar disorder,” advised Larry Greenhill, M.D., President, AACAP.
The guide reflects what medications child psychiatrists currently use when treating bipolar disorder during childhood and adolescence. It is intended to provide parents with the latest expert medical opinion about medications used to treat the symptoms of bipolar disorder.
“Medication decisions for children with bipolar disorder are complex and difficult for many parents,” said Susan Resko, Executive Director Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation. “AACAP’s Parents’ Medication Guide for Bipolar Disorder in Children & Adolescents compiles the very best information and helps parents decipher the daunting decision-making process. I consider it required reading for any parent of a child with bipolar disorder.”
For most children and adolescents with bipolar disorder, medication can be a helpful and important component of treatment. However, intervention is most effective when the signs and symptoms are recognized as early as possible, and when treatment is comprehensive, ongoing, and individualized to the needs of the child and his or her family.
For more information about the Parents’ Medication Guide series of publications, please visit www.parentsmedguide.org/.
Source: American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP)
 
(Healing Together for Couples) – You don’t need to watch the movie Inception to gain tons of insight from this post. And it won’t give away the ending either. What it does is look at all of the destructive preconceived ideas we have about our partners and how it can potentially work to destroy our relationship. Read this and learn the tools you’ll need to work together instead of against one another. –
While the movie Inception has certainly invited discussion about dreams and even an interest and analysis of viewers’ own nightmares, you may recall that in the film, the motivation for entering the dream world is the recognition of the impact of a persistent idea. As Leonardo DiCaprio (Cobb) forebodes in the opening of the film, “What’s the most resilient parasite? An idea.â€
In the movie’s narrative, hidden beneath the scaffolding of dreams and driven by the confusion of dream and reality is an idea that ultimately destroys Cobb’s wife, his relationship with his children and possibly his ability to discern reality – depending on your take of the ending.
Recognizing that media both reflects culture and is shaped by it, this film raises the question, “Can a persistent negative idea threaten a relationship?â€Â Yes.
Drawing upon DiCaprio’s ( Cobb’s) depiction of an idea as a resilient parasite, there are in fact, some ideas that partners have about self, their partner and aspects of their life that feed on fear, misunderstanding, past trauma and human frailty. Left unquestioned, often acted upon, sometimes hidden, and usually unexamined, they can impede the growth and vitality of a relationship.
The First Impression
“Your mother never liked me.â€Â “This new house was a mistake.â€
Regardless of how good your â€bllink†of a situation, first impressions are still just that, an initial read made in a certain moment of time. Yes, your impression may be true at that time. The danger is that holding on to an impression as immutable fact forecloses on deeper understanding and can color years of dealing with a family or living in a home. Self-fulfilling prophesizes are fueled by first impressions and avoidance.
Consider that you co-create your experience in life by your response to it – you can look for evidence of a persisting idea or wonder what you haven’t noticed.
Even after a number of years, the more you move into a situation with curiosity instead of negative conviction the more freedom of emotional space you allow for you and your partner.
The Presumption of Knowing
Often persistent negative ideas color our perception of our partners in ways that are true, were once true, or never true. Some of the most relationship destructive ideas are what we “think†we know about our partner.
Over the years of working with couples, it very often happens that if I ask one partner a question, the other answers. While finishing each other’s sentences is something most partners are occasionally guilty of – there is a downside to this. The presumption of knowing a partner leaves little room for discussion and too much room for reaction based on misunderstanding, projection, and worst fear scenarios.
Consider these partner reactions to my questions:
- Therapist: “So Jack, what do you usually do to reduce stress?â€
- Michele: “He doesn’t reduce stress – he creates stress!â€
- Jack: “How can you say that- you have no idea what I handle every day.â€
- Therapist: “So Mary what can you tell me about the romance between you and Bob?â€
- Bob: “She can tell you that she hates sex.â€
- Mary: “I don’t hate sex – I hate your demand for sex.â€
What is so valuable in the disclaimers and the discussion that unfolds is the confrontation of the presumptions. When â€knowingâ€Â is left unspoken, partners act in accordance with it creating vicious cycles of confirmation.
Read in Full:Â http://blogs.psychcentral.com/healing-together/2010/08/inception-and-dangerous-ideas-in-relationships/