 
Mixed-handed children have a greater likelihood of having mental health, language and scholastic problems in childhood, compared to right- or left-handed children. In the study, “Mixed-Handedness is Linked to Mental Health Problems in Children and Adolescents,” published in the February issue of Pediatrics (appearing online Jan. 25), researchers studied 7,871 children (3,992 boys and 3,879 girls) at 7 to 8 years of age and again at 16 years of age. Teacher, parent and/or adolescent reports were used to assess language and educational difficulties, and mental health, including ADHD. Results indicate that mixed-handed 8-year old children, relative to right-handed, were twice as likely to have concurrent difficulties with language and scholastic performance, and 16-year old adolescents were at a considerably higher risk for probable psychiatric disturbance including ADHD symptoms.
This study supports evidence that mixed-handedness, rather than left-handedness, is associated with risk for language and behavioral problems both in childhood and adolescence. Mixed-handedness is used as a proxy for atypical cerebral lateralization. Authors suggest that future studies need to address brain circuitry underlying handedness to better understand its connection to behavior. Mixed-handedness, particularly in the presence of previous behavioral difficulties, could aid in the clinical recognition of children who are at risk for stable problems and early detection of children who are at risk.
 
ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2010) — Many pediatricians score high on screening their patients for developmental delays, but barely make a passing grade in referring children with suspected delays for further testing or treatment, according to a study from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and other institutions to appear in the February issue of Pediatrics.
Because screening is only effective if followed by referral and treatment, pediatricians need two separate formalized systems in their practices — one for screening and one for referral — the investigators write in their report available online Jan. 25.
The report also notes that pediatricians, and their patients, would fare better if the doctor’s office places the referral on a patient’s behalf instead of handing the family a phone number to do so on their own.
In 2006, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued guidelines that call for informal clinical evaluation of development of all children younger than 3 years during all well-child visits, and the use of a standard developmental screening test in all children at ages 9, 18 and 24 (or 30) months. The AAP recommends that children who fail a screening test be referred to a specialist for more testing and to an early intervention program.
The new study, launched as an AAP project to improve screening and referral, analyzed screening and referrals over nine months among 17 pediatric practices in 15 states, whose physicians and staff were trained on the new AAP guidelines.
Although screening rates improved from 68 percent of patients to 85 percent of patients after the training, referrals remained low, with only 61 percent of those with suspected delays sent for further testing and therapy.
Among pediatricians who referred patients for further testing and treatment, many failed to follow up with the family to check whether the family acted on the referral. The investigators say many families don’t follow up and some don’t understand the reason for the referral in the first place.
In addition, the investigators said, even when pediatricians did refer, their patterns were all over the map, with most pediatricians failing to refer children to both a specialist and an early intervention program, but choosing one or the other.
“The ultimate goal of screening is to improve outcomes for children with developmental delays, but in our study we found that many pediatricians did not act properly even when serious red flags were present,” said lead researcher Tracy King, M.D. M.P.H., a pediatrician at Hopkins Children’s. “This is where we should focus our efforts: making sure that more children with suspected delays get referred for testing and therapy.”
King and colleagues say referrals work best if they are placed by the pediatrician’s office on the patient’s behalf and tracked much like any other medical referral. Historically, referrals for developmental delays have not been treated as medical referrals but rather informally, by handing the parents a phone number and telling them to follow up with an early intervention program or a therapy provider.
Follow-up is critical because children with developmental delays who are treated promptly fare better than those who get delayed treatment or no treatment at all, King said. For example, a child with a speech problem who receives early speech-language therapy will improve faster and do better in the long run than a child who is either not identified until later or whose referrals are not acted upon.
To increase referral and follow-up, each practice should establish a separate referral log and tracking system that prompts staff, nurses and doctors not only to refer a patient, but to call and check with the family periodically to ensure action.
Other findings from the study include:
- While nine of the 17 practices reported conducting developmental screening prior to the training, none of the 17 practices were following AAP screening guidelines.
- After the training, all practices incorporated successfully AAP-recommended screening into their clinic routines.
- Fourteen percent of all screened children during the nine-month study failed a developmental screening, a red flag signaling possible developmental delays.
- Referrals ranged from 27 percent to 100 percent among the 17 practices, with an average of 61 percent.
- Unlike screening rates, referral rates did not increase over time. They dropped down even further during the second half of the nine-month study with just over half of the children who failed a screening test getting a referral.
- The most common deterrent to universal use of standard screening tools was fear that the time it takes might slow down patient flow.
Co-investigators include S. Darius Tandon, Ph.D., of Hopkins; Michelle Macias, M.D., of Medical University of South Carolina; Jill Healy, M.S., AAP; Paula Duncan, M.D., University of Vermont; Nancy Swigonski, M.D. M.P.H., Indiana University School of Medicine; Stephanie Skipper, M.P.H., AAP; and Paul Lipkin, M.D., Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Md.
The research was funded by in part by the AAP, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Commonwealth Fund, among others.
Source:Â http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100126175919.htm
Everyday our lives are touched by trauma either directly or through people we know. Trauma can be experienced individually as a rejection from a loved one, getting bit by a dog, to experiencing a panic attack or a depressive episode. Trauma can also be experienced on a social scale with examples like 9/11, Katrina, to our most recent tragedy in Haiti.
Here’s the most amazing thing about trauma for most of us, we never forget it.
Not only do we not forget it, but it’s as if it burns a memory in our brains that is easily triggered and brings up the trauma memory as if it is happening again causing intense recurring emotional distress.
There’s a conditioning that occurs that brings on and intensifies anxiety. Our minds become a bit warped seeing anything potentially associated with the trauma in a hypersensitive or negative light. As a result of this our emotions can seem out of control and in order to regulate them we reach for anything to distract us. Maybe we hide out in our houses or certain people, or turn to sex, drugs, or overeating.
While it’s important to cope, the problem with these strategies is that they do so but shutting down awareness, because, of course, we don’t want to be aware of this distress.
A path to moving through the trauma is the ability to slowly come in contact with the feelings associated with them and learn ways to tolerate and even love them again. This happens best in relationship with a skilled therapist. Mindfulness can be a great skill to add to this as it is all about cultivating a kind and compassionate awareness toward ourselves and others, especially in the midst of pain.
In the spirit of raising awareness, right now on this planet the Haitian people have recently been through a major trauma, socially and individually. This trauma is physical and psychological and will continue to live with them for weeks, months and years to come.
I was watching CNN and Anderson Cooper was with a little boy who had just his home and something like 10 family members including parents and siblings. The boy looked a bit shell shocked and Anderson kept referring to him as “shy.” Wow, what an understatement. This boy had just been though physical and emotional trauma and it was clearly living with him in the moment. He wasn’t just shy, he was completely traumatized and that is very different.
These people need a global effort and in that effort I have created the eBook A Mindful Dialogue: A Path to Work with Stress, Pain, and Difficult Emotions ($9.99). This 170 page eBook is full of interviews from leaders in mindfulness such as Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Daniel Siegel, and others talking about ways to work through stress, pain and difficult emotions. It also includes explorations of important quotes from leaders such as Thich Nhat Hanh, Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama and others.
100% of the proceeds will go to HOPE FOR HAITI NOW which has not backend costs and distributes it to The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, and Yele Haiti Foundation.
This is how we begin to turn Trauma into transformation. To help get much needed resources to the Haitians now, you can either get this great eBook and/or spread the word about it through email, Newsletter, Facebook, Twitter or any other avenue of communication. This could truly help these people move through this trauma and hopefully save a few lives.
Source:Â http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=35153&cn=109
 
I’ve just found this fascinating 2007 snippet from the European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience on Adolf Hitler’s mysteriously missing psychiatric file from the time he was admitted to hospital following First World War injuries.
The article mentions that he was reportedly diagnosed with hysterical or non-organic blindness, something that nowadays would be diagnosed as dissociative disorder or conversion disorder, which signifies that a seemingly ‘physical’ problem occurs without any detectable physical origin.
The traditional and still popular explanation is that the mind is converting trauma to a physical symptom to protect itself from distress, although there is not a great deal of evidence for this theory.
However, it seems his file from this hospital admission disappeared and everyone who had knowledge about the case was apparently killed by the SS.
The recent 60 years anniversary of the end of World War II and the Nazi regime may be reason for a short psychiatric-historical note to point out a frequently overlooked detail of Hitler’s life—his hidden psychiatric biography. Besides his extreme anti-semitism, mentally ill were among the most threatened individuals with some 200,000 being killed. This was made public during World War II by the Muenster cardinal Galen who most recently was beatified by pope Benedikt XVI. While Hitler’s late Parkinson disease has attracted some attention, his former functional ‘hysteric’ blindness is almost unknown.
In fact on 14th October 1918 Hitler, who served as a private in World War I, survived a mustard gas attack in Belgium near Ypern. There are some reports that he consecutively had a mild resultant conjunctivitis. He also suffered from nonorganic blindness. His further treatment is nearly unknown. Hitler was transferred to the military hospital in Pasewalk near Stettin/Baltic sea. Prof. Forster, chair at that psychiatric clinic, treated him by using hypnosis. Hitler was discharged on 19th November 1918 and never mentioned this period again.
His treatment is proven by eyewitness of Dr. Karl Kroner who later reported the facts to the US intelligence Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Hitlers’ file disappeared and all people who were closely involved or had special knowledge of this file were killed by the ‘Gestapo’, including Prof. Forster who probably was forced to commit suicide on 9th November 1933. Before that he succeeded in presenting these documents to exile writers in Paris where his brother was employed at the German embassy. The German Jewish writer Ernst Weiss, a physician himself, used the original documents in his novel ‘Der Augenzeuge’ (The Eyewitness) before he committed suicide during the German occupation of Paris on 6th May 1940.
The original file is lost but for all we know Hitler had a psychiatric history, which may not explain his savage ideas but throws an interesting light on his anti-psychiatric attitude.
Maybe it’s in the Albert Hall, along with that other important medical artefact from the Führer.
However, I note from the Wikipedia page on Hitler’s medical history that there have been many claims about Hitler’s health, many of them not well verified.
Nevertheless, he was subject to not one, but two, wartime Freudian character analyses commissioned by the OSS – the forerunner to the CIA. The first was completed by psychologist Henry Murray and the second by psychoanalyst Walter Langer.
The reports have many oddities and are largely opinion but they concluded that Hitler was a neurotic psychopath, probably had paranoid schizophrenia, was likely impotent, was a repressed homosexual and, most famously, would likely kill himself.
Although to be fair, the latter point did not describe dying a miserable death in a bunker but included various movie-style scenarios where he would blow himself up in a dynamite rigged mountain, use a single silver bullet or throw himself off a parapet as troops came to take him prisoner.
I’ve no idea how useful these reports ever were but they probably tell us more about the trends in psychology of the time than anything about the Nazi leader’s mind.
UPDATE: Grabbed from the comments… There’s an excellent post on the wartime character analysis reports over at the Providentia blog.
Link to short article on ‘Hitler’s missing psychiatric file’.
Source:Â http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2010/01/the_missing_psychiat.html
Jan
22
In the past there were a number of articles posted about the value of service dogs for those with a variety of disabilities including PTSD and Depression. However, this article will discuss the value of owning a pet, particularly a dog. This is based on the fact that not everyone is in need of a service dog. People can derive a lot of benefit from having a pet whether they suffer from depression and anxiety or they just wish to own a pet.
Some Matters to Consider Before Purchasing a Pet:
First, owning a pet is comforting and fun only for those who value animals. There is nothing intrinsic in pet ownership that yields good results. A good friend of mine is an excellent Clinical Psychologist. However, when it comes to my owning dogs (we own three Labrador Retrievers), he is completely baffled. There is nothing about pet ownership that makes any sense to him.
Second, before purchasing a pet, one must consider the expenses associated with it. In addition to food expenses, there are often expenses for grooming and veterinary bills when illness occurs.
Third, there are some animals owned by people but that are so large that there are boarding fees involved. I know several people who own horses, not an inexpensive hobby.
Fourth, the breed of the pet is enormously important. Not all dogs and cats are the correct breed for everyone. Breeds of pets vary according to temperament, aggressiveness and durability.
At the pound or humane society, there are many worthy dogs, cats, puppies and kittens to choose from. While these are not likely to be pure bread animals, it is important to select the less aggressive and more friendly types of breeds.
For example, among kittens, those with a Siamese mixture are more likely to become very friendly. Among puppies, those with Labrador and Golden Retriever backgrounds are most likely to have a good and friendly temperament.
Fifth, part of the selection process in selecting a pet is to see how they respond when you have the chance to be with them in the pen where both the humane society and pet shops allow prospective owners to interact. As a general rule, those cats and dogs who approach you and want to play will make friendly pets who are fun to interact with at home. Those who hide and are not approachable are not likely to make good companions at home.
My Preference for Dogs:
In my opinion, dogs have several advantages over other types of pets. Because dogs have to be walked several times per day, they force the owner to leave the house.
Once having left the house with the dog, it is impossible to avoid attention. There are always some people who will stop to pet a dog, ask questions and engage in conversation.
There are some people who manage to walk their cats and I have known some of them. Horses are natural outdoor animals that are also connected with socialization as they have to be boarded and that usually involves having to interact with other people.
However, dogs are in a category that lends itself naturally and easily to living at home with its owner and having to go out for walks with the connected need to socialize with people who have or do not have their own dogs.
Advantages and Benefits of Pet Ownership:
There is a myriad of research and anecdotal article describing how pet ownership has helped people.
1. Socialization and Depression: Depression often brings with it a tendency to self isolate. Dog ownership forces people to go out and walk.
2. Anxiety Reduction: The anxieties associated with going out for many people with anxiety and phobic disorders, are often reduced by having the companionship of a dog. This is a kind of comfort that builds self confidence for people who are anxious about going out into the world.
3. Love: The connection and bond that forms between an individual and dog is invaluable. This bonding is based on a mutual relationship in which pet and owner give and take warmth, love and nurturing.
4. Health: The tactile sensations of stroking a dog and cat helps reduce anxiety and, according to some reports, even blood pressure.
5. Family and Children: Pet ownership is good not only for people living alone but for whole family systems. Dogs, cats and other pets, become full members of a family in which lots of interaction swirls around children, parents and siblings as they compete to feed, love and care for the pet. Also, pet ownership can teach children the value of life in addition to providing them with some of the responsibility of care and feeding.
A vignette:
When our children were small we went out, as a family, to purchase a puppy. It was decided that we wanted a French Poodle. Once we saw “Buttons,” we all fell in love. Well, Buttons became a full fledged member of the family who set her own rules and regulations for proper behavior around the house. For example, if my wife and I had an argument, Buttons lets us know, in no uncertain terms, that conflict was unacceptable. Small as she was, she would directly intercede and bark until everyone realized that it was time for a truce. By comparison, I have known many people who told me how their much bigger dogs went and hid under the bed if there was a dispute.
So, Buttons became part of the family structure and lore. She became well known in the entire neighborhood, attracting attention of other youngsters, their parents and their dogs. Whether it was myself, my wife or one of our children who was out with Buttons, there were always people around to greet us. In fact, we used to joke that people greeted Buttons first, us second.
Read More …Â http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=35164&cn=5
 
In February 2010 the Government will publish its plan for improving the lives of adults with autism. We urgently need you to take action to make sure it is good enough.
Last year when we achieved the Autism Act 2009, it placed a new legal obligation on the Government to publish an Adult Autism Strategy that delivers real change.Â
During a public consultation last year, thousands of people told the Government what is needed to improve the lives of people affected by autism.
The National Autistic Society strongly believes that the establishment of specialist autism teams in every local area is crucial if the Government is going to meet the needs of adults with autism. The teams would be responsible for providing a range of services and measures aimed at improving access to support for adults with autism. These services would include diagnosis, building capacity to support adults with autism through training, and providing ‘low-level’ services such as social skills training.
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We also want to see Autism Planning Groups established around the country to identify gaps in provision for adults with autism and plan and commission services to meet everyone’s needs.
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This is our last chance to make sure that the Government gets the strategy right. Please take action now.
 
Related resources
Relevant documents for downloading
- A better future: consultation response from The National Autistic Society (PDF)
Download a PDF of this document.
- Supporting adults with autism: a good practice guide for NHS and local authorities (PDF)
Download a PDF of this document.
- 29 Apr: Government reaches first milestone towards a national adult autism strategy (DOC)
Source: http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=2251&a=19386
ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2010) — Chronic and severely stressful situations, like those connected to depression and posttraumatic stress disorder, have been associated with smaller volumes in “stress sensitive” brain regions, such as the cingulate region of the cerebral cortex and the hippocampus, a brain region involved in memory formation. A new study, published by Elsevier in Biological Psychiatry, suggests that chronic insomnia may be another condition associated with reduced cortical volume.
Using a specialized technique called voxel-based morphometry, Ellemarije Altena and Ysbrand van der Werf from the research group of Eus van Someren evaluated the brain volumes of persons with chronic insomnia who were otherwise psychiatrically healthy, and compared them to healthy persons without sleep problems. They found that insomnia patients had a smaller volume of gray matter in the left orbitofrontal cortex, which was strongly correlated with their subjective severity of insomnia.
“We show, for the first time, that insomnia patients have lower grey matter density in brain regions involved in the evaluation of the pleasantness of stimuli, as well as in regions related to the brain’s ‘resting state’. The more severe the sleeping problems of insomniacs, the less grey matter density they have in the region involved in pleasantness evaluation, which may also be important for the recognition of optimal comfort to fall asleep,” explained Altena. She added, “Our group previously showed that insomniacs have difficulties with recognizing optimal comfort. These findings urge further investigation into the definition of subtypes of insomnia and their causal factors, for which we have now initiated the Netherlands Sleep Registry.”
Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, commented, that “insomnia is a common feature of nearly every psychiatric condition associated with reduced cortical volume; in fact, it is a common symptom of psychiatric disorders or high levels of life stress, generally. The study by Altena and colleagues suggests that there are additional risks of not treating insomnia, such as detrimental effects on the microstructure of the brain.”
The article is authored by Ellemarije Altena, Hugo Vrenken, Ysbrand D. Van Der Werf, Odile A. van den Heuvel, and Eus J.W. Van Someren. The principal investigators Altena, Van Der Werf, and Van Someren are affiliated with the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. All authors are also affiliated with VU University Medical Center (VUMC), Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The article appears in Biological Psychiatry, Volume 67, Issue 2 (January 15, 2010), published by Elsevier.
Journal Reference:
- 1. Altena et al. Reduced Orbitofrontal and Parietal Gray Matter in Chronic Insomnia: A Voxel-Based Morphometric Study. Biological Psychiatry, 2010; 67 (2): 182 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.08.003
 
The New Yorker has a wonderful article on the psychology of death and dying which is carefully woven into the curious life story of psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, the originator of the ‘stage’ model of grief.
If you only read one popular article on grief, you’d do a lot worse than reading this carefully researched and sensitively written piece which journeys through both the social and cultural rituals of dying and how psychological theories have changed over the years.
It also tackles the fascinating life of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross who was responsible for the influential but now discredited ‘stage’ model that suggested that both dying and grieving people experience denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
Subsequent studies have not supported these stages but Kübler-Ross was a pioneer in encouraging clinicians to address death with their gravely ill patients and her first book, On Death and Dying, opened up the practice of bereavement counselling for people who feel they need help coming to terms with their own death or the loss of loved-ones.
Kübler-Ross later became interested in a range of, it must be said, fairly flaky practices, such as mediumship and ‘channelling’ the dead, and she fell out of favour with the medical mainstream.
Late in life, she was disabled by a stroke and had a great deal of trouble coming to terms with her own mortality although the experience helped her write her final and widely regarded book, On Grief and Grieving, where she reflects on her own death and her life’s work.
The New Yorker article looks at Kübler-Ross’ legacy, but much more than that, examines a great deal of what we know about the process and how it is being integrated into modern medicine. Highly recommended.
Link to New Yorker article ‘Good Grief’ (via @mocost).
Source:Â http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2010/01/the_evolution_of_dea.html
 
Article Date: 26 Jan 2010 – 5:00 PST
A team of scientists from The Scripps Research Institute has found that a specific stress hormone, the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), is key to the development and maintenance of alcohol dependence in animal models. Chemically blocking the stress factor also blocked the signs and symptoms of addiction, suggesting a potentially promising area for future drug development.
The article, the culmination of more than six years of research, will appear in an upcoming print edition of the journal Biological Psychiatry.
“I’m excited about this study,” said Associate Professor Marisa Roberto, who led the research. “It represents an important step in understanding how the brain changes when it moves from a normal to an alcohol-dependent state.”
The new study not only confirms the central role of CRF in alcohol addiction using a variety of different methods, but also shows that in rats the hormone can be blocked on a long-term basis to alleviate the symptoms of alcohol dependence.
Previous research had implicated CRF in alcohol dependence, but had shown the effectiveness of blocking CRF only in acute single doses of an antagonist (a substance that interferes the physiological action of another). The current study used three different types of CRF antagonists, all of which showed an anti-alcohol effect via the CRF system. In addition, the chronic administration of the antagonist for 23 days blocked the increased drinking associated with alcohol dependence.
Out of Control
Alcoholism, a chronic disease characterized by compulsive use of alcohol and loss of control over alcohol intake, is devastating both to individuals and their families and to society in general. About a third of the approximately 40,000 traffic fatalities every year involve drunk drivers, and direct and indirect public health costs are estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars yearly.
“Research to understand alcoholism is important for society,” said Roberto, a 2010 recipient of the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. “Our study explored what we call in the field ‘the dark side’ of alcohol addiction. That’s the compulsion to drink, not because it is pleasurable – which has been the focus of much previous research – but because it relieves the anxiety generated by abstinence and the stressful effects of withdrawal.”
CRF is a natural substance involved in the body’s stress response. Originally found only in the area of the brain known as the hypothalamus, it has now been localized in other brain regions, including the pituitary, where it stimulates the secretion of corticotropin and other biologically active substances, and the amygdala, an area that has been implicated in the elevated anxiety, withdrawal, and excessive drinking associated with alcohol dependence.
To confirm the role of CRF in the central amygdala for alcohol dependence, the research team used a multidisciplinary approach that included electrophysiological methods not previously applied to this problem.
The results from these cellular studies showed that CRF increased the strength of inhibitory synapses (junctions between two nerve cells) in neurons in a manner similar to alcohol. This change occurred through the increased release of the neurotransmitter GABA, which plays an important role in regulating neuronal excitability.
Blocking the Stress Response
Next, the team explored if the effects of CRF could be blocked through the administration of CRF antagonists. To do this, the scientists tested three different CRF1 antagonists (called antalarmin, NIH-3, and R121919) against alcohol in brain slices and injected R121919 for 23-days into the brains of rats that were exposed to conditions that would normally produce a dependence on alcohol.
Remarkably, the behavior of the “alcohol-dependent” rats receiving one of the CRF antagonists (R121919) mimicked their non-addicted (“naïve”) counterparts. Instead of seeking out large amounts of alcohol like untreated alcohol-dependent rats, both the treated rats and their non-addicted brethren self-administered alcohol in only moderate amounts.
“This critical observation suggests that increased activation of CRF systems mediates the excessive drinking associated with development of dependence,” said Roberto. “In other words, blocking CRF with prolonged CRF1 antagonist administration may prevent excessive alcohol consumption under a variety of behavioral and physiological conditions.”
Importantly, in the study the rats did not exhibit tolerance to the suppressive effects of R121919 on alcohol drinking. In fact, they may have become even more sensitive to its effects over time – a good sign for the efficacy of this type of compound as it might be used repeatedly in a clinical setting.
The scientists’ cellular studies also supported the promising effects of CRF1 antagonists. All of the CRF antagonists decreased basal GABAergic responses and abolished alcohol effects. Alcohol-dependent rats exhibited heightened sensitivity to CRF and the CRF1 antagonists on GABA release in the central amygdala region of the brain. CRF1 antagonist administration into the central amygdala reversed dependence – related elevations in extracellular GABA and blocked alcohol-induced increases in extracellular GABA in both dependent and naive rats. The levels of CRF and CRF1 mRNA in the central amygdala of dependent rats were also elevated.
Roberto notes that another intriguing aspect of the work is that it provides a possible physiological link between stress-related behaviors, emotional disorders (i.e. stress disorders, anxiety, depression), and the development of alcohol dependence.
In addition to Roberto, the paper, “CRF-induced Amygdala GABA Release Plays a Key Role in Alcohol Dependence,” was co-authored by Maureen T. Cruz, Nicholas W. Gilpin, Valentina Sabino, Paul Schweitzer, Michal Bajo, Pietro Cottone, Samuel G. Madamba, David G. Stouffer, Eric P. Zorrilla, George F. Koob, George R. Siggins, and Loren H. Parsons, all of Scripps Research. For more information, see Biological Psychiatry. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20060104?log$=activity
This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), as well as the Pearson Center for Alcoholism and Addiction Research and the Harold L. Dorris Neurological Research Institute, both at Scripps Research.
 
Article Date: 26 Jan 2010 – 0:00 PST
Mind and Men’s Health Forum are running a conference on how to meet the mental health needs of men. The event is free and open to anyone with an interest in this issue.
Tell us your views on how men’s mental health needs can be met.
Mind Week 2009 focused on men and mental health. As a result of our campaigning, the Department of Health has commissioned Mind, along with Men’s Health Forum, to write a guide on exactly how mental health services, employers and community gruops can improve the way in which they work with men.
To help write this paper, both charities want to consult with as many people as possible and this conference is a part of that process.
When: Tuesday 30 March
Where: University of Reading