 
Article Date: 15 Apr 2010 – 3:00 PDT
An Army platoon in Iraq will run five kilometers (5K) in full body armor on April 17 to raise awareness about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the need to end stigma surrounding mental illness.
Forward Operating Base Echo in ad-Diwaniyah, Iraq will hold the event at the same time the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) affiliate in San Diego holds a NAMIWalk at a more leisurely pace.
NAMI San Diego will move out Saturday at 8:00 a.m. (PT) while 3rd Platoon, Baker Company of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team and others begin the 5K run at 19:00 hours (Iraq time).
“This is an incredible event,” said NAMI National Executive Director Mike Fitzpatrick. “NAMI is honored that Army soldiers in a war zone have synchronized their commitment to public education with our San Diego affiliate.”
“NAMIWalks across the country are about hope, recovery and community. They are fun events, but they support serious work.”
“As the U.S. Army has taught me, not all wounds are visible,” said Army specialist John Bell, who is organizing the Iraq event.
“As tough as a U.S. service member may be, many still suffer the effects of having endured life in a combat zone. The most prominent effect is PTSD. Not every combat-deployed soldier has been in a firefight, or had their vehicle struck by an IED, or even lost a friend by an enemy engagement. But the trauma they endure is nonetheless significant to them.”
– One in six veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan is affected by PTSD, depression or anxiety. Only about half seek treatment.
– One study has reported that 25 percent of Iraq veterans seen at veterans’ hospitals receive mental health diagnoses.
– Approximately 40 percent of homeless veterans have some form of mental illness.
For two years, NAMI San Diego development and events manager, Annie Dunlop told Bell, a friend, about NAMIWalks. Deployed in Iraq, he was unable to participate. This year he didn’t want to miss out. The 5K will honor NAMI San Diego’s work and NAMI efforts to help veterans nationwide through its on-line Veterans Resource Center and other programs.
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 15, 2010
A new study discovers certain anticonvulsant drugs may be associated with an increased risk of suicide, attempted suicide or violent death.
Researchers analyzed prescription and clinical claims data to come to their conclusions. The research is published in the current issue of JAMA.
According to background information in the article, anticonvulsant medications are a primary therapeutic approach for patients with epilepsy.
However, the medications are also indicated for bipolar disorder, mania, neuralgia (sudden occurrences of short, sharp pains along a nerve), migraine and neuropathic pain.
“The wide range of indications and common use of anticonvulsants in patients with or without psychiatric comorbidities make their safety an issue of great relevance,†the authors write.
“In 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration mandated warning labeling for anticonvulsant medications regarding the increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The decision was based on a meta-analysis not sufficiently large to investigate individual drugs.â€
Elisabetta Patorno, M.D., M.P.H., of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues evaluated whether there was an increased risk of attempted or completed suicide, and combined suicidal acts or violent death associated with a range of individual anticonvulsant medications and within patient subgroups.
The researchers analyzed data for 14 states from the HealthCore Integrated Research Database (includes information on filled prescriptions and clinical encounters) for patients 15 years and older who began taking an anticonvulsant between July 2001 and December 2006.
The study identified 827 suicidal acts (801 attempted suicides and 26 completed suicides) and an additional 41 violent deaths (868 combined suicidal acts or violent deaths) in 297,620 new episodes of treatment with an anticonvulsant.
The researchers found that the risk of suicidal acts was increased for gabapentin (Neurontin), lamotrigine (Lamictal), oxcarbazepine (Trileptal), tiagabine (Gabitril), and valproate (Depakote), compared with topiramate (Topamax).
“The analyses including violent death produced similar results. Gabapentin users had increased risk in subgroups of younger and older patients, patients with mood disorders, and patients with epilepsy or seizure when compared with carbamazepine (Tegretol),†the authors write.
“This exploratory analysis contributes to the understanding of the complex and little-understood relationship between anticonvulsant medication use and suicide risk.â€
Source: JAMA and Archives Journals
WHEC-TV
April 15, 2010
One week after a Victor boy with autism was put in jail for a violent outburst at school, the Victor school district is promising parents: changes are coming!
In a letter sent to parents on Wednesday, the Victor schools superintendent says she has launched a full investigation into what happened.
Last Wednesday, 19-year-old Jarred Crawford, who is autistic, had what his mother calls a “meltdown” at school. He became violent with the School Resource Officer, the situation escalated, and Jarred spent a night in jail.
Jamie Britt, Jarred’s mother, says the superintendent’s promises are a step forward.
Another Victor mother spoke with News 10 NBC about how important it is for children with autism to get the proper services.
“That letter really comes as quite a nice surprise and that does offer some hope,” Annette Adams said. “This is the kind of response and action from the district that we would expect from a quality district such as Victor.”
Adams has two children with autism– her daughter Tristan and son Leon-Ryan. Her son graduated from Victor schools years ago, but Jarred’s situation at Victor High School touched her heart.
“It hits home,” she said. “It hits home with my two children.”
Jarred was sent to Ontario County Jail after the Victor High School Resource Officer said he punched and kicked him and his mother said she couldn’t post bail.
His mother said there were four fire alarms at school that day and that Jarred, who is autistic, had a meltdown because of them.
On Wednesday, Victor Central Schools Superintendent Dawn Santiago-Marullo sent out a letter of response.
“I have launched a full investigation of our disciplinary process,” she wrote, “to ensure that a situation such as the one we just experienced never happens again.”
Further on in the letter, she writes, “I have also established a special disciplinary committee that will review and revise our disciplinary practices– across all five VCS buildings– including the role of our school resource officer.”
Adams says educating faculty and staff is essential.
“They also need to train individuals that are working within the building how to spot things so they don’t escalate,” she said. “Education is power.”
The superintendent also writes in the letter that the district will seek guidance from experts in the field of education, special education and autism.
She says she hopes to put the results of their review and investigation into a full report for the community by the end of the school year.
As for Jarred, his mother says he is trying to adjust back at school.
She says before this all happened they were planning to move to a new house in the Palmyra-Macedon school district, so she says they are looking forward to starting school there next month.
Clickhereto see the full letter from the Victor Central School Superintendent.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36536409/ns/local_news-rochester_ny/
 
 Ding Ziyin (left), a 16-year-old autistic girl, plays the piano with her mother Lan Li sitting by.[China Daily]
By Huang Zhiling (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-15 07:15
Fingers of disabled girl become her connection with outside world
CHENGDU – The heavy rain wasn’t going to keep them away.
Despite the stormy night, nearly 400 people packed into the Jinsha Theater in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, ready for one special performer who was about to capture their imagination.
Meeting Ding Ziyin for the first time, people may think the 16-year-old girl is as healthy, lively and beautiful as her peers.
So not surprisingly, they’re taken aback to learn she is autistic, a disorder that impairs a person’s ability to communicate with others.
But when she sits before a piano that barrier falls away, and the fingers of the young girl – who cannot read music – become her connection with the outside world.
Born into an intellectual’s family, Ding could recite over 100 poems from the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) at the age of 2. But her mother, Lan Li, discovered something wrong with her daughter after she started kindergarten.
“She was hyperactive and didn’t respond when people called her. I thought something was wrong with her hearing and took her to a hospital for a check-up,” Lan said.
Ding did not respond when the doctor repeatedly called her name. But she turned to him when he shook a bundle of keys.
Lan heaved a sigh of relief thinking her daughter was simply introverted. But Ding continued acting more and more strangely, scampering about and taking what she liked without permission.
As autism was unknown to the average Chinese in the 1990s, and Chengdu did not have any professionals majoring in the field, it was only when Ding was 5, when her mother took her to Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, that she was diagnosed as autistic.
Lan felt her life’s dream crumble. But she did not give up. She let Ding stay in kindergarten until she was 8 – two years longer than usual.
Then when Ding was 10, she introduced her to the piano, a decision that would eventually give the girl a new outlet on life.
To keep Ding at the piano, her mom prepared many toys, food and also a ruler.
“I made her know she had to sit down first before she could get what she liked. If she did not sit by the piano, I would threaten her with the ruler,” Lan said.
In order to teach Ding how to play the piano, Lan first had to learn how to read music herself, and then she would play along when Ding practiced.
“To Lan’s great pleasure, music calmed Ding down. She can sit by the piano for more than two hours. Although she cannot read music, she can memorize what piano teachers teach and can play some 200 piano works,” said Tang Lingzi, a senior in the Sichuan Conservatory of Music who taught Ding how to play piano for two years.
She was one of the hundreds who crowded into the theater that night to hear Ding’s performance, along with other teachers, doctors and university students.
In 40 minutes, Ding finished 16 pieces such as the modern Chinese works “Defend the Yellow River” and “Butterfly Lovers” as well as Chopin’s “Nocturne,” Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” and Beethoven’s “Fur Elise.”
The solo performance was held on the evening of April 1 to usher in the third World Autism Day.
“Ding’s performance was wonderful,” Tang told China Daily.
It was a fitting refrain for Ding, who won the gold medal at a piano competition held in Beijing for the handicapped in 2007.
But that was a success that nearly didn’t happen.
When it was Ding’s turn to play, she did not want to go onstage. She played only after her mother and teacher pushed her to the piano.
“I was worried about how to get Ding to understand the rules of society,” Lan said.
At that concert was a dance teacher from Chengdu, Wu Tong, who saw what happened offstage and decided to help Ding.
Returning to Chengdu, Wu tried to make friends with Ding, but at first she did not respond to him at all.
Eventually he kept making motions like he was kicking a ball in front of Ding without talking with her. Seeing his bizarre actions, Ding laughed.
“As she understood me, I thought we could communicate,” Wu said.
The two gradually became closer, and thanks to him she can now dance, ride a bicycle and use a skateboard.
Lan told China Daily that holding the solo piano performance was a way to let more people care for children suffering from autism and encourage their parents not to give up hope.
According to the China Disabled Persons Federation, there are some 500,000 autistic people in the country and the number is on the rise.
Shi Wanxiang contributed to the story.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-04/15/content_9730850.htm
| Â |
 
New Study: Spanking Promotes Aggression in Kids
A study recently came out that showed spanking as a strong predictor in influencing aggressive behavior in children later on. We’ve experienced these signs of aggression as arguing, bullying, meanness, destructive, fighting and/or threatening others.
Catherine Taylor, Ph.D., from Tulane University School of Public Health, co-authored this study which asked nearly 2500 mothers how often they spanked their 3 year old child in the last month. The study controlled for many confounding factors and found that those parents who frequently spanked their children (more than twice in a month) correlated with higher levels of aggression by age 5.
Spanking promotes fear
Now, that’s interesting, but what I thought was most interesting was a quote by Dr. Jayne Singer, clinical director of the child and parent program at Children’s Hospital Boston, who was not involved in the study. In a press release at Tulane she said that the reason spanking is not effective in the long run is because while it may stop the behavior in the moment, it doesn’t create understanding and promotes fear.
That made a lot of sense to me. Just because we spank a child doesn’t mean they understood what or why what they had did was wrong, they just create a stress reaction around the behavior and therefore may have an aversion to it. My hunch is that they may also get a sense that what they did was wrong, but why?
Even a time-out, which is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) doesn’t mean the child understands why what they did was wrong. There still needs to be a promotion of how to communicate with children to instill an understanding in them, this promotes a much deeper level of behavior change.
What is this research missing?
Children act out from fear, anger, confusion, or feeling a need for attention. What we want is to instill an internal compass inside our children for right and wrong. We also want to cultivate a sense of confidence and self-acceptance.
As parents and caregivers we can model this by attuning to the child, letting them know we understand what they’re feeling and why they might be feeling that way and what they’re doing is not Ok as it hurts others or whatever the negative outcome is. We can do this before or after the time-out depending on their emotional state.
So, my thoughts on this are for promoting understanding, self confidence and self acceptance through parental discipline. So, while this research is encouraging, we need to take it a bit further in helping parents learn ways to work with difficult children that promote resiliency.
Source:Â http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=36525&cn=82
 
Discovery Of Link Between Cumulative Hardships And Health In Low-Income Young Children
Article Date: 13 Apr 2010 – 5:00 PDT
Pediatric researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC), in partnership with other Children’s HealthWatch investigators in Minneapolis, Little Rock, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, have found that the cumulative effects of crowded and unstable housing and uncertain supplies of food and heat act together to decrease the chances of normal growth and development and good physical health among infants and toddlers. The findings, which appear in the April 12th online issue of the journal Pediatrics,
Poverty influences a child’s well-being through multiple environmental stressors, the report says, but research and interventions often fail to take into account the remediable “material hardships” that may have direct physiologic impacts on children. These hardships include food insecurity (lack of access to enough healthful food for an active healthy life) housing insecurity (unstable or overcrowded housing) and energy insecurity (inability of families to afford consistent home heating or cooling).
In order to test the cumulative effect of these multiple hardships, Children’s HealthWatch researchers evaluated more than 7,000 children between 4 and 36 months old who were waiting for care at one of five urban primary-care clinics or emergency departments. The researchers found that as scores on a cumulative index of the hardships increased in severity, the chances of young low- income children simultaneously experiencing normal growth, health, and development (which the investigators term “wellness”) decreased, even after controlling for multiple background factors.
According to the researchers, cumulative hardships–a diet of inadequate quality or quantity, temperature stress from lack of heat or cooling, and frequent moves or increased exposure to infectious disease and noise in crowded households–exert direct negative physiologic consequences on children.
“The current findings raise serious concerns about the future well-being of America’s young children, given rising poverty among families with young children and many households’ inadequate wages and benefits to meet fluctuating food, housing, and energy costs,” explained lead author Deborah Frank, MD, director of BMC’s Grow Clinic and a professor of pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. “We know that deprivations in early life can become biologically embedded, forcing children onto negative trajectories that jeopardize their health, their school readiness, and their ability to earn a living as adults. We also know that the remedies for many of these hardships are within reach if our society chooses to prescribe them.”
Major funding for this study was provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, with additional support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Anthony Spinazzola Foundation, Citizen’s Energy, the Claneil Foundation, the Eos Foundation, the Paul and Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation, the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving as directed by Jean and Vance Schiro-Zavela, General Mills, the Gryphon Fund, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the Krupp Family Foundation, the Larson Family Foundation, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Susan Davies and Richard Talkov, Susan Schiro, Peter Manus, and anonymous donors.
Source:
Gina DiGravio
Boston University Medical Center
bring attention to remediable conditions that influence the health, development and growth of America’s youngest children.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/185254.php
Where Are Concern, Empathy and Moral Thinking?
Moral Development:
“The process by which individuals internalize standards of right and wrong conduct.” This is also known as ethics. Ethics involves having Integrity.
1. A woman adopts a 7 year old orphan from Russia but puts him on an airplane back to Moscow because of his emotional problems. She sends him unescorted and complains that the adoption agency failed to inform her about his problems.
2. A fifteen year old female Irish immigrant commits suicide after months of being bullied and threatened by male and female classmates in her new school.
It seems as though there is a lack of moral thinking in this anonymous world of our’s today.
1. By now, most people are aware of the tragedy that occurred when a Tennessee woman adopted a 7 year old male child from Russia and then put him on an airplane back to Moscow claiming he is psychopathic and violent.
Adoption of an older child always brings with certain risks connected to the fact that these children have spent too many years in institutions. Attachment or bonding is critically important to the healthy growth and development of a child. Therefore, attachment can be a problem for those youngsters who were raised in foster care of adoptive institutions. The many other children in these institutions and the lack of staff interfere with the entire process of bonding. Renee Spitz did a now famous study of orphaned children in post World War II Europe. His results demonstrated the fact that many of these children were not able to thrive because of the absence of any parenting from birth and onward. Some literally stopped eating ans starved to death.
In this case, not only had this boy suffered terrible losses and rejection at the hands of his biological mother, a prostitute, but impersonal care in an institution for foster children and, finally, suffers an added rejection at the hands of an adoptive mother who makes it clear she does not want him. To repeat, this child is only 7 years old.
Whether people have children via natural childbirth or adoption, can anyone predict the nature,personality and temperament of the new member of the family? When problems arise, is it not the responsibility of parents to get medical and psychiatric help for their youngsters?
2. A young and attractive teenager moves from Ireland with her family and is faced with nothing but hostility and rejection of her classmates in her new school in a foreign land. Where was the compassion and understanding of both teachers and students in welcoming someone from a different culture?
Teachers claim they knew nothing about the bullying and the students, facing trial because they are accused of driving the young woman to suicide, claim that they are innocent. In other words, no one is guilty of at the very least, callous indifference in this tragedy? An American High School and its students are not supposed to welcome, embrace and help assimilate those who are different?
As a mental health worker what worries me is the fact that these and other stories reflect what appears to be a lack of concern about others. Recent research tells us that even the smallest babies have an inborn sense of altruism and that as early as two years old, they demonstrate a sense of caring about others. However, in these and other cases, something went wrong in the development of a higher moral conscience in people.
Lawrence Kohlberg developed a theory of moral development that parallelled that of Piaget in terms of cognitive development. A brief explanation of Kohlberg can be found at:
Â
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=7928&cn=28
He stated that the highest stage of moral thinking is Post Conventional because a person at this level makes decisions based on deeply held values rather than personal gain, avoidance of punishment or absently following the law or what others in the crowd are doing. There is great concern about the health, rights and well being of others as well as a deep consideration of the consequences for decisions.
According to Kohlberg, moral development is an ongoing process throughout life and people shift from one level of thinking to the next, depending on a given situation.
What are your views about cases like those discussed in this article? Are you an ethical thinker? Have we stopped encouraging the development of ethical ways of thinking?
Source:Â http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=36514&cn=462
 
Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated With Streptococcal Infections Affected by Stress
ScienceDaily (Apr. 12, 2010) — PANDAS is an abbreviation for Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections. This diagnosis was created when clinicians observed that following streptococcal infections, which include strep throat, scarlet fever, and impetigo, children developed tics and symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
In a new longitudinal study appearing in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier, researchers identified new infections in children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome (TS) and/or OCD, and compared them with healthy control subjects. They also measured the participants’ levels of emotional stress. Prior research has shown that stress is an important factor in developing depression, and that individuals with TS or OCD tend to be particularly sensitive to stress.
They then used this data to examine the power of the infections and measures of psychosocial stress to predict future tic, obsessive-compulsive, and depressive symptom severity.
Dr. James Leckman, senior author of this project, explains their findings: “We found that periods of tic and OC symptom worsening were independently associated with antecedent newly diagnosed strep infections as well as higher levels of antecedent psychosocial stress. When we looked at just the PANDAS, we also found similar results.”
In other words, stress may aggravate the impact of prior streptococcal infection in promoting symptoms of TS and OCD. There was no impact of prior streptococcal infections on depressive symptoms.
PANDAS remain a controversial topic for many Tourette’s experts. For example, another recently completed intensive longitudinal study that tracked a larger number of PANDAS cases found little evidence to support a link between newly diagnosed strep infections and a marked worsening of tic or obsessive-compulsive symptoms.
PANDAS is also frequently diagnosed in the community without the application of all the published diagnostic criteria. This has resulted in unwarranted use of antibiotic treatment for TS or OCD when there is no evidence of a recent strep infection.
However, some version of PANDAS likely does exist. The typical PANDAS case appears to have an abrupt sudden onset of separation anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, a loss of writing skills, and sleep problems. Tics are often present, but they can also confuse the picture, especially if they had been present in some form prior to PANDAS onset.
It is important to note that the number of PANDAS cases in this study was too small to allow firm conclusions, but it does indicate how important psychosocial stress is in TS and OCD, as well as depression.
Journal Reference:
- Lin et al. Streptococcal Upper Respiratory Tract Infections and Psychosocial Stress Predict Future Tic and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptom Severity in Children and Adolescents with Tourette Syndrome and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 2010; 67 (7): 684 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.08.020
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100409105359.htm
 
Cultural differences in childhood amnesia:
Childhood amnesia is the phenomenon where we are generally unable to remember the earliest years of childhood. This is often assumed to be purely because the brain is too underdeveloped to successfully store and organise memories but an interesting study from 2000 reported that the extent of childhood amnesia differs between cultures and sexes.
Cross-cultural and gender differences in childhood amnesia
Memory. 2000 Nov;8(6):365-76.
MacDonald S, Uesiliana K, Hayne H.
In two experiments, we examined cross-cultural and gender differences in adults’ earliest memories. To do this, we asked male and female adults from three cultural backgrounds (New Zealand European, New Zealand Maori, and Asian) to describe and date their earliest personal memory. Consistent with past research, Asian adults reported significantly later memories than European adults, however this effect was due exclusively to the extremely late memories reported by Asian females. Maori adults, whose traditional culture includes a strong emphasis on the past, reported significantly earlier memories than adults from the other two cultural groups. Across all three cultures, the memories reported by women contained more information than the memories reported by men. These findings support the view that the age and content of our earliest memories are influenced by a wide range of factors including our culture and our gender. These factors must be incorporated into any comprehensive theory of autobiographical memory.
This doesn’t mean that brain development plays no role, of course, but it raises the question of how many of the things we recall from childhood are influenced by culture.
For example, memories that seem genuinely to be from the early years may appear that way due to us being brought up with the retelling of family stories or from seeing photographs and subsequently absorbing them as our own memories thanks to source amnesia.
It could be that this form of social remembering differs between cultures or is influenced by the sex of the child which may encourage people to report earlier or later memories, or alternatively, may actually strengthen genuine memories as they are re-told during our early years.
pdf of full text of culture and childhood amnesia study.
Link to PubMed entry for same.
 
Children Of Combat-Deployed Parents Show Increased Worries, Even After Parent Returns
Article Date: 10 Apr 2010 – 0:00 PDT
The current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in extended and repeated combat-related deployments of U.S. military service members. While much has been reported about the problems, both physical and psychological, many bring back with them, new research out of UCLA shows that the family back home can have issues as well.
The suddenly single parents left at home and their children must quickly adjust to altered family roles and the stress of having a loved one in a distant and dangerous land, in addition to dealing with potential psychological or physical health problems the active-duty parent may have upon their return.
Reporting in the April edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, UCLA assistant professor of psychiatry Dr. Patricia Lester and her colleagues found that it is the number and length of repeated deployments that cause higher levels of anxiety in children and that this anxiety persists even after the deployed parent returns home.
Second, they found that the level of anxiety children experience can be predicted by the amount of psychological distress shown by both the active-duty parent and the at-home parent.
Lester and her colleagues studied 171 families in which either the mother or father was on active duty, currently deployed or recently returned from serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. Of the sample, the active-duty parent had, on average, been deployed more than twice and had been away from home for 16 months.
The researchers found that approximately one-third of the children in these families had increased symptoms of anxiety. Strikingly, the anxiety remained even after the deployed parent returned home.
“It’s known that, in general, a child’s level of distress is linked to parental distress,” Lester said. “Here, we found that approximately one-third of the at-home parents and almost 40 percent of the recently returned deployed parents showed elevations in anxiety and depression.
“We also found that the at-home parent showed higher levels of anxiety when their spouse was deployed. But the two key markers for anxiety in the child were the distress levels of both parents and the number of months a parent had been deployed during the child’s lifetime.”
Interestingly, the study suggests that school-aged boys and girls behave differently during and after a parent’s deployment. Girls showed an increase in acting out and disruptive behavior when the parent was deployed, while boys appeared to have more difficulties after the deployed parent returned.
“For the boys, this may be related to reduced autonomy and increased structure in the family life upon the return of the deployed parent,” Lester said.
Notably, the children also showed indices of resilience, and their experiences of other types of emotional and behavioral problems were comparable to what is seen normally within any general community of kids.
Lester noted that the military demographic in the U.S. has changed in the past several decades to include a much larger proportion of service members with families. She said planning is needed for extended military operations to take into account the impact on family members.
“These findings suggest that there is a cumulative wear and tear upon the military family from multiple deployments during wartime,” she said.
Lester and her colleagues have developed a program to help such military families. Called FOCUS (Families OverComing Under Stress), the program provides both parents and children customized training that addresses the impact of wartime deployment on families and helps them learn very specific communication and problem-solving skills to address these challenges.
Other authors on the study included Dorie Glover, Catherine Mogil, William Saltzman, Robert Pynoos and Katherine Wilt of UCLA; Kris Peterson and Larry Knauss of the Madigan Army Medical Center; James Reeves of the Naval Medical Center San Diego; Naihua Duan of Columbia University; and William Beardslee of Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School.
The study was supported by a grant from the National Institute for Child and Human Development. The authors express no conflicts of interest.
Source:
Mark Wheeler
University of California – Los Angeles Â
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/184970.php
One in 20 Adolescents With a Serious Respiratory Condition Has Used Potentially Deadly Inhalants in the Past Year
ScienceDaily (Apr. 9, 2010) — Approximately 143,000 young people aged 12 to 17 used inhalants in the past year while dealing with a condition like pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, or sinusitis, according to a new study sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The study determined that the rate of use was 4.4 percent among adolescents who had at least one of the aforementioned respiratory conditions, similar to the rate among adolescents overall (4.1 percent).
The use of inhalants can seriously impair the proper functioning of the respiratory system in otherwise healthy individuals resulting in unconsciousness, coma or death — so it may pose an even greater risk to those with serious underlying respiratory conditions. Under any circumstances, inhalant use, or “huffing” can cause severe permanent injury or death even after just one use. Inhalants take many forms, are easily accessible and can become very addictive.
“No one should engage in huffing. The consequences can be deadly,” said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde, J.D. “The fact that adolescents with respiratory problems are just as likely to engage in huffing as adolescents in general underscores the continued need to educate parents, teachers, service providers and young people about what they can do to prevent this misuse of common everyday products.”
The study also provides insight into the prevalence of adolescent inhalant use by various demographic factors. For example it shows that among the general population, American Indian or Alaskan Natives adolescents were more than twice as likely to engage in huffing than Black or African American adolescents (5.5 percent vs. 2.5 percent). In addition, the study examines other issues such as the types of inhalants most commonly used by adolescents with at least one of the selected respiratory conditions used in the survey (pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, or sinusitis).
The report, Adolescent Inhalant Use and Selected Respiratory Conditions is based on data collected during 2006 to 2008 from a nationally representative sample of 67,850 persons aged 12 to 17 who participated in SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
Story Source:
Adapted from materials provided by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA).
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100409163143.htm
 
New Guide For Parents Busts Myths About Teens
Created in partnership with an alliance of youth-serving professionals, The Teen Years Explained is science-based and accessible. The practical and colorful guide to healthy adolescent development is an essential resource for parents and all people who work with young people.
“Whether you have five minutes or five hours, you will find something useful in the guide,” said McNeely. “We want both adults and young people to understand the changes – what is happening and why – so everyone can enjoy this second decade of life.”
Popular Myths about Teenagers:
Myth: Teens are bigger risk-takers and thrill-seekers than adults. Fact: Teens perceive more risk than adults do in certain areas, such as the chance of getting into an accident if they drive with a drunk driver.
Myth: Young people only listen to their friends. Fact: Young people report that their parents or a caring adult are their greatest influence – especially when it comes to sexual behavior.
Myth: Adolescents live to push your buttons. Fact: Adolescents may view conflict as a way of expressing themselves, while adults take arguments personally.
Myth: When you’re a teenager, you can eat whatever you want and burn it off. Fact: Obesity rates have tripled for adolescents since 1980.
Myth: Teens don’t need sleep. Fact: Teens need as much sleep or more than they got as children – 9 to 10 hours is optimum.
Three years in the making, the guide came about initially at the request of two of the Center’s partners, the Maryland Mentoring Partnership and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, who felt there was a need in the community for an easily navigated and engaging look at adolescent development.
“Add The Teen Years Explained to the ‘must-read’ list,” said Karen Pittman, director of the Forum for Youth Investment. “In plain English, the book explains the science behind adolescent development and challenges and empowers adults to invest more attention and more time to young people.”
The Teen Years Explained: A Guide to Healthy Adolescent Development will be available for purchase on April 10 through Amazon.com. Electronic copies will also be available for download through the Center of Adolescent Health website at http://www.jhsph.edu/adolescenthealth. Discount rates for bulk purchase and non-profits are available.
The Center for Adolescent Health is a Prevention Research Center at the Bloomberg School of Public Health funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that is committed to assisting urban youth in becoming healthy and productive adults. Together with community partners, the Center conducts research to identify the needs and strengths of young people, and evaluates and assists programs to promote their health and well-being. The Center’s mission is to work in partnership with youth, people who work with youth, public policymakers and program administrators to help urban adolescents develop healthy adult lifestyles.
Source:
Tim Parsons
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health Â
The Importance Of Good Influences
 
 
No dark sarcasm in the classroom:
The Frontal Cortex reports on an interesting study that found that the personality characteristics teachers define as creative are the same ones that make their pupils least likeable in the classroom.
Eric Barker recently referred me to this interesting study, which looked at how elementary school teachers perceived creativity in their students. While the teachers said they wanted creative kids in their classroom, they actually didn’t. In fact, when they were asked to rate their students on a variety of personality measures – the list included everything from “individualistic” to “risk-seeking” to “accepting of authority” – the traits mostly closely aligned with creative thinking were also closely associated with their “least favorite” students. As the researchers note, “Judgments for the favorite student were negatively correlated with creativity; judgments for the least favorite student were positively correlated with creativity.”
This shouldn’t be too surprising: Would you really want a little Picasso in your class? How about a baby Gertrude Stein? Or a teenage Eminem? The point is that the classroom isn’t designed for impulsive expression – that’s called talking out of turn. Instead, it’s all about obeying group dynamics and exerting focused attention. Those are important life skills, of course, but decades of psychological research suggest that such skills have little to do with creativity.
This is a classic example of the conflict where an institution that imposes strict group standards of behaviour claims to promote individuality and self-expression.
A lovely study published last year in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology demonstrated how people who don’t go along with a task for justifiable moral reasons are typically rejected by the group, even when the individuals in the group might otherwise agree with their moral stand.
In other words, we like rebels as long as they are not bothering us.
Link to Frontal Cortex on ‘Classroom Creativity’.
 
Video Training Program Helps Teachers Handle Behavior Problems
Article Date: 09 Apr 2010 – 0:00 PDT
Behavior problems in the classroom can interfere with instruction, child development and academic achievement. Yet, many teachers do not have the training they need to deal with behavior problems. Now, University of Missouri researchers will use a $2.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to evaluate the effectiveness of a video training program designed to help teachers understand and react effectively to behavior issues.
“Although much is known about effective classroom behavior management strategies, many teachers are not adequately trained to deal with behavior problems in the classroom,” said Wendy Reinke, assistant professor in the Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology in the MU College of Education. “Many teachers have reported that student behavior is becoming more challenging, and more students with disabilities are integrated into regular classroom settings. Lack of training in classroom management is one of the biggest reasons teachers decide to leave the profession.”
MU researchers will evaluate the “Incredible Years” program that uses brief vignettes of actual teacher-child interactions to demonstrate how to manage classroom disturbances. Teachers are given an opportunity to role-play similar scenarios and to give and discuss effective classroom practices. The program promotes teachers’ knowledge and use of good classroom management practices, including effective praise, proactive teaching strategies, consistent consequences and effective reprimands.
For the project, MU researchers will examine 100 classrooms in 20 elementary schools in a large urban school district near St. Louis. They will split the classroom teachers into two groups. One group of teachers will be introduced to the Incredible Years program. The other group of teachers will continue the current training program offered by the school district.
The researchers will observe the classrooms and measure academic achievement, disruptive behaviors and prosocial behaviors, such as teachers’ ratings, to determine if there is a difference between the group that received the intervention and the group that didn’t. If the program makes a difference in classroom performance, part of the money will be awarded to expand and continue the program. Reinke hopes to sustain the program in the district by training teachers who can then share the information with colleagues.
“This unique approach for training classroom management skills hasn’t been tested as a stand-alone intervention,” Reinke said. “The grant will allow us to better understand how well the Incredible Years program works, and give school districts the opportunity to implement the program and improve student learning.”
Reinke, along with Keith Herman and Melissa Stormont, associate professors in the Department of Educational, School and Counseling Psychology, were awarded the grant, which is one of the largest research grants in the history of the MU College of Education. It also is the first grant ever awarded to a professor at MU from the IES under the Efficacy and Replication category of awards.
Carolyn Webster-Stratton, a professor at the University of Washington, developed the Incredible Years Series, which includes teacher, parent and child programs. The American Psychological Association Division 12 Task force has identified the IY Series as an effective treatment for children with conduct problems.
 
Shyness May Be Rooted in Brain Processing
Scans show sensitive and non-sensitive folks process input differently
(HealthDay News) — Because their brains process the world around them in a different way, introverted or shy people respond differently to physical and emotional stimuli than other people, according to a new study.
About 20 percent of people are “highly sensitive,” an inborn trait that can be seen in children who are reserved, need little disciplining, cry easily, ask unusual questions or have especially deep thoughts, explained Elaine and Arthur Aron and colleagues from Stony Brook University in New York and in China.
Adults who are highly sensitive tend to take longer to make decisions, are more conscientious, spend more time alone to reflect and are more easily bored by small talk, the study authors noted.
The researchers used functional MRI to scan the brains of sensitive and non-sensitive people as they tried to identify small changes in photographs. The changes that the study participants tried to identify were either obvious or subtle.
Compared to non-sensitive people, the sensitive participants looked at the photos that had the subtle changes for a longer time and had much greater activation in brain areas involved in associating visual input with other input to the brain, and with visual attention. These areas aren’t used simply for vision, but for a deeper processing of input.
The findings were recently published online in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
More information
The American Academy of Pediatrics has more about shy children.
— Robert Preidt
 
ScienceDaily (Apr. 13, 2010) — A new study, the first of its kind, combines two complementary analytical brain imaging techniques, to provide a more comprehensive and accurate picture of the neuroanatomy of the autistic brain. The study, published in the April issue of neuroimaging journal Human Brain Mapping, was conducted by researchers at The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital — The Neuro, McGill University and the Université de Montréal. The findings provide critical insight into autism and possible markers for the disease for use in early therapy and therapeutic strategies.
Autism is a complex spectrum disorder thought to affect 1 in 166 people. Autistic individuals have difficulties with social interaction, communication and repetitive behaviours, which can lead to isolation and emotional problems. They may also have enhanced abilities particularly in auditory and visual perception.
Although structural brain differences have been reported in autism, the reports are inconsistent. The Neuro research team’s objective therefore was to investigate neuroanatomical differences using a dual-analytic approach, combining cortical thickness analysis (CT) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) together for the first time in the same participants. The team studied a group of young adults with autism of average intelligence and similar language ability relative to closely matched typically developing controls.
“The findings are significant from a functional perspective because the anatomical differences are found in brain regions known to play a functional role in the core features of autism such as social communication and repetitive behaviours, says Dr. Krista Hyde, research fellow with Dr. Alan Evans at The Neuro, and lead investigator in the study. “This is the first step to looking for clues or markers that would help us correlate structural differences with functional and behavioural characteristics.”
The advantage in analyzing brain anatomy using CT and VBM is the complementary nature of the two methods, which in combination provide a direct measure of cortical grey matter, regions of the brain that consist primarily of nerve cell bodies. The combined method also provides a measure of subcortical grey matter as well as white matter, regions of the brain composed mainly of nerve cell fibres which have myelin sheaths, the protective covering that insulates and supports nerve cells. “The converging results found from CT and VBM analysis, allows us to make more confident interpretations about the structural brain differences found in autism,” adds Dr. Hyde.
Regional differences in grey matter were found in socially-relevant and communication-related brain areas, as well as in areas implicated in repetitive behaviours and those found to play a role in empathic behavior. The study also identifies grey matter increases in autism in the visual cortex and for the first time, in the primary auditory cortex. “We believe that the visual and auditory cortical thickness increases may be related to enhanced visual and auditory perception in autism.”
“These new results are extremely important because they offer a more accurate picture of the autistic brain, helping researchers improve early autism treatment strategies,” says Dr. Anthony Phillips, Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction. “Autism rates have been rising steadily in Canada, so CIHR is proud to support researchers who devote their time to look into this neurological condition.”
The study’s findings provide vital insight into autism by identifying structural differences in functionally relevant areas of the brain in a group of individuals with autism using a dual analytic approach for the first time.
The study was funded by The Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Journal Reference:
- Hyde et al. Neuroanatomical differences in brain areas implicated in perceptual and other core features of autism revealed by cortical thickness analysis and voxel-based morphometry. Human Brain Mapping, 2009; NA DOI: 10.1002/hbm.20887
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100413141546.htm
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on April 14, 2010 Â Â Â
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The predictive value of the genetic risk factors could be useful in screening before the disorder manifests itself clinically, and the implementation of interventions to lower stress, adjust regular sleep hours and other life style factors that could serve as an environmental deterrent for developing bipolar disorder.
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Closer follow-up and earlier therapeutic intervention may be useful for individuals who are at higher risk.
The research was funded by the Veterans Administration as well as the National Institute of Mental Health.
 
How Long is a Typical Bipolar Episode?
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Bipolar disorder is characterized by a cycling from depression to mania, and back again over time (hence the reason it used to be called manic depression, because it includes both mania and depression). One of the commonly asked questions we get here is, “How long does a typical bipolar episode last?â€
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Today I wanted to write about a study published recently in the journal Biological Psychiatry, which surprisingly didn’t get much press coverage. The study examined the way that rewards and consequences affect how kids with oppositional defiant disorder make decisions. Previous studies suggest that kids with ODD and conduct disorder have a reduced physiological response to aversive conditions, such as punishment. This is often used to explain why these kids don’t respond well to discipline styles that relay solely or mostly on punishment. But few studies have examined how different types of rewards and consequences actually affect the way these kids make decisions.
In this study a Dutch team used a modified version of a game called the Iowa Gambling Task. In this task, people are asked to choose a card from 4 decks.  Each card has a reward and a penalty. In some decks, the reward is large but the penalty also tends to be high. In other decks the reward is low, but the penalty is also low and often non-existing. In the long run, you earn more money by selecting cards from the low reward decks. Most people realize this quickly and begin to draw cards from the low reward decks more often than from the more risky decks.
In this study the authors examined the performance to a modified version of this task among 18 children with oppositional defiant disorder and 24 non-affected peers. The modified task included 3 conditions decks):
Choice 1 was the advantageous choice.  Cards from this choice included small rewards every trial and small penalties every 3rd trial. In the long run, you make money if you select this choice often.
Choice 2 was the seductive choice. Cards from this choice included large rewards in every trial but very large penalties every 3rd trial. In the long run, you lose money if you select this choice often.
Choice 3 was the disadvantageous choice. Cards from this choice included small rewards in every trial but very largerd trial. penalties every 3
Furthermore, as the game progress either the magnitude or the frequency of the penalties increased linearly. That is, in the magnitude condition, the size of the penalties increased. In the frequency condition, the penalty was provided progressively more often.
Below you can see the performance of the non-affected peers in the magnitude condition.
As you can see, by trial 18 the kids have increased the selection of the advantageous choice and have decreased the selection of the other two choices. Now see below the performance of kids with ODD in the magnitude condition.
Similarly to their non-affected peers, kids with ODD showed a decrease in preference for the disadvantageous choice by the 18th trial. However, they continued to select the seductive (but eventually disadvantageous) and the advantageous conditions equally. Furthermore, the ODD kids had a significantly greater preference for the seductive and disadvantageous condition when compared to their peers.
It is very interesting that the size of the penalties increased equally in the seductive and the disadvantageous conditions, yet the ODD kids seemed to prefer the advantageous and the seductive position equally. What does this mean? That in the face of increasing penalties, the child’s behavior doesn’t change if the reward is high!!! It is only in conditions of low reward, that increasing the magnitude (severity) of penalties led to a change in behavior. Here, by ‘reward’ I’m taking about the child’s gain obtained from their actions. So for example, a child that receives significant pleasure from engaging in one activity would not respond to increasing the intensity of penalties for engaging in such activities.
Now, see the performance of both groups of children in the frequency condition. Remember, in this condition the size of the penalty does not increase. Instead, the frequency of the penalty is what increases.
The results of this condition were actually the opposite! The ODD kids showed a greater preference for the advantageous condition as the frequency of penalties increased than their non-affected peers! In this case the size of the reward did not make a difference. Facing more frequent (as opposed to larger) penalties, the ODD kids rapidly desisted from picking the “high reward – high penalty†choice and instead increased their preference for the low reward-low penalty choice.
In sum, the results from the magnitude condition were a bit surprising. The fact that ODD children showed a decrease in preference for the disadvantageous choice shows that they in fact respond to negative consequences. However, the fact that they didn’t decrease the selection of the seductive choice, suggests that they do not respond to increasing the intensity of consequences if the benefits of their actions are high. On the other hand, the results from the frequency condition were very surprising. It is often believed that children with OOD have difficulty responding to consequences, even severe consequences. Yet these results suggest that they are as responsive to consequences as their non-affected peers if the consequences increase in frequency rather than intensity! Although generalizing these results to real life behavior management is not a simple process, this is the type of research that could have a major impact on the development of new interventions for children with conduct problems.