25th October, 2009
Sandy Gautam
A mouse trap reader, using skribit, asked me to write a blog post about the history of madness
; that is a dauting task, as she herself mentioned that Foucault wrote an entire book on the subject; so though I promise to write that post, in the meantime here is a post about the history of Autism.  After this, the next in the series would be a brief history of Schizophrenia.
References to schizophrenia can be found since time immemorial, though the actual term and diagnosis is recent. It is believed that the people haunted by Furies of ancient Greek were actually schizophrenics suffering from delusions and hallucinations. As I contrast Autism and Schizophrenia it is apt that I start here; for similar to the rich historical tradition, Autism can be equated with the ‘blessed Fools’ of old Russia, “who were revered for their unworldliness. The apparent insensitivity to pain, bizarre behaviour, innocence, and lack of social awareness that these “Blessed Fools†showed, suggest that they may have had autism. †(Happe). Similarly in almost all cultures one can find anecdotes and folktales about foolish boys (note that it is a boy and not a girl as autism has always been more prevalent in boys) who take what their mother said too literally- word for word, rather than figuratively and metaphorically or idiomatically.
The modern diagnosis of autism starts with Leo Kanner. Kanner published his first paper about autistic children in 1943, the full text of which can be found here.  Some excerpts from the paper, which has many case studies , should help:
Since 1938, there have come to our attention a number of children whose condition differs so markedly and uniquely from anything reported so far, that each case merits – and, I hope, will eventually receive – a detailed consideration of its fascinating peculiarities.
…
The outstanding, “pathognomonic,†fundamental disorder is the children’s inability to relate themselves in the ordinary way to people and situations from the beginning of life. Their parents referred to them as having always been “self-sufficientâ€; “like in a shellâ€; “happiest when left aloneâ€;“acting as if people weren’t thereâ€; “perfectly oblivious to everything about himâ€; “giving the impression of silent wisdomâ€; “failing to develop the usual amount of social awarenessâ€;“acting almost as hypnotized.â€This is not, as in schizophrenic children or adults, a departure from an initially present relationship; it is not a “withdrawal†from formerly existing participation. There is from the start an extreme autistic aloneness that, whenever possible, disregards, ignores, shuts out anything that comes to the child from the outside. Direct physical contact or such motion or noise as threatens to disrupt the aloneness is either treated “as if it weren’t thereâ€or, if this is no longer sufficient, resented painfully as distressing interference.
…
Eight of the eleven children acquired the ability to speak either at the usual age or after some delay. Three (Richard, Herbert, Virginia) have so far remained “mute.â€In none of the eight “speaking†children has language over a period of years served to convey meaning to others. They were, with the exception of John F., capable of clear articulation and phonation. Naming of objects presented no difficulty; even long and unusual words were learned and retained with remarkable facility. Almost all the parents reported, usually with much pride, that the children had learned at an early age to repeat an inordinate number of nursery rhymes, prayers, lists of animals, the roster of presidents, the alphabet forward and backward, even foreign-language (French) lullabies. Aside from the recital of sentences contained in the ready-made poems or other remembered pieces, it took a long time before they began to put words together. Other than that, “languageâ€consisted mainly of “naming,â€of nouns identifying objects, adjectives indicating colors, and numbers indicating nothing specific.
Their excellent rote memory, coupled with the inability to use language in any other way, often led the parents to stuff them with more and more verses, zoologic and botanic names, titles and composers of Victrola record pieces, and the like. Thus, from the start, language-which the children did not use for the purpose of communication-was deflected in a considerable measure to a self-sufficient, semantically and conversationally valueless or grossly distorted memory exercise.
…
When sentences are finally formed, they are for a long time mostly parrot-like repetitions of heard word combinations. They are sometimes echoed immediately, but they are just as often “storedâ€by the child and uttered at a later date. One may, if one wishes, speak of delayed echolalia. Affirmation is indicated by literal repetition of a question. “Yes†is a concept that it takes the children many years to acquire. They are incapable of using it as a general symbol of assent. Donald learned to say “Yes†when his father told him that he would put him on his shoulders if he said “Yes.â€This word then came to “mean†only the desire to be put on his father’s shoulders. It took many months before he could detach the word “Yes†from this specific situation, and it took much longer before he was able to use it as a general term of affirmation.
The same type of literalness exists also with regard to prepositions. Alfred, when asked, “What is this picture about?â€replied:â€People are moving about.”
John F. corrected his father’s statement about pictures on the wall; the pictures were “near the wall.†Donald T., requested to put something down, promptly put it on the floor. Apparently the meaning of a word becomes inflexible and cannot be used with any but the originally acquired connotation.
But the child’s noises and motions and all of his performances are as monotonously repetitious as are his verbal utterances. There is a marked limitation in the variety of his spontaneous activites. The child’s behavior is governed by an anxiously obsessive desire for the maintenance of sameness that nobody but the child himself may disrupt on rare occasions. Changes of routine, of furniture arrangement, of a pattern, of the [form] in which every-day acts are carried out, can drive him to despair. When John’s parents got ready to move to a new home, the child was frantic when he saw the moving men roll up the rug in his room. He was acutely upset until the moment when, in the new home, he saw his furniture arranged in the manner as before. He looked pleased, all anxiety was suddenly gone, and he went around affectionately patting each piece. Once blocks, beads, sticks have been put together in a certain way, they are always regrouped in exactly the same way, even though there was no definite design. The children’s memory was phenomenal in this respect. after the lapse of several days, a multitude of blocks could be rearranged in precisely the same unorganized pattern, with the same color of each block turned up, with each picture or letter on the upper surface of each block facing in the same direction as before. The absence of a block or the presence of a supernumerary block was noticed immediately, and there was an imperative demand for the restoration of the missing piece. If someone removed a block, the child struggled to get it back, going into a panic tantrum until he regained it, and then promptly and with sudden calm after the storm returned to the design and replaced the block.
The children’s relation to people is altogether different. Every one of the children, upon entering the office, immediately went after blocks, toys, or other objects, without paying the least attention to the persons present. It would be wrong to say that they were not aware of the presence of persons. But the people, so long as they left the child alone, figured in about the same manner as did the desk, the bookshelf, or the filing cabinet. When the child was addressed, he was not bothered. He had the choice between not responding at all or, if a question was repeated too insistently, “getting it over with†and continuing with whatever he had been doing. Comings and goings, even of the mother, did not seem to register. Conversation going on in the room elicited no interest. If the adults did not try to enter the child’s domain, he would at times, while moving between them, gently touch a hand or a knee as on other occasions he patted the couch. But he never looked into anyone’s face. If an adult forcibly intruded himself by taking a block away or stepping on an object that child needed, the child struggled and became angry with the hand or the foot, and became angry with the hand or the foot, which was dealt with perse [?] and not as a part of a person. He never addressed a word or a look to the owner of the hand or foot. When the object was retrieved, the child’s mood changed abruptly to one of placidity. When pricked, he showed fear of the pin but not of the person who pricked him.
Note already that all the currently accepted DSM-IV characteristics of Autism like communicative difficulties, social difficulties and stereotyped or repetitive behavior are already well delineated by Kanner. Here one has to pause and note that autism and autistics were used from the social aloofness first observed and documented in schizophrenics by Kreplin and we seem to have come a full circle now by positing that Autism and schizophrenia are opposites on a continuum. It is also heartening to note that Kanner was also way ahead of his times by focusing on the deficit in ‘mentalizing’ in autistic kids.
Just a year after, Hans Asperger , published his paper on ASD kids, and it is remarkable that despite not knowing about each others papers they came with similar terminology (autistic) to describe the children and agreed on more points than they disagreed on.
Asperger published the first definition of Asperger Syndrome, in 1944. In four boys, he identified a pattern of behavior and abilities that he called “autistic psychopathyâ€, meaning autism (self) and psychopathy (personality disease). The pattern included “a lack of empathy, little ability to form friendships, one-sided conversation, intense absorption in a special interest, and clumsy movements.†Asperger called children with AS “little professors†because of their ability to talk about their favorite subject in great detail. It is commonly said that the paper was based on only four boys.
Asperger and Kanner agreed as well as disagreed on many things:
Hans Asperger deserves credit for some very striking insights into autism: some insights which Kanner (1943) lacked and which it has taken us many years of research to rediscover. Before considering these particular observations of Asperger’s, it is worth noting the many features on which the two physicians agreed.
Kanner’s and Asperger’s descriptions are surprisingly similar in many ways, especially when one remembers that each was unaware of the other’s ground-breaking paper. Their choice of the term “autistic†to label their patients is itself a striking coincidence. This choice reflects their common belief that the child’s social problems were the most important and characteristic feature of the disorder. The term “autistic†comes from Bleuler (1908), who used the word (from the Greek “autos†meaning “selfâ€) to describe the social withdrawal seen in adults with schizophrenia. Both Kanner and Asperger believed the social handicap in autism to be innate (in Kanner’s words) or constitutional (as Asperger put it), and to persist through life into adulthood. In addition, Kanner and Asperger both noted the children’s poor eye contact, their stereotypies of word and movement, and their marked resistance to change. The two authors report the common finding of isolated special interests, often in bizarre and idiosyncratic objects or topics. Both seem to have been struck by the attractive appearance of the children they saw. Kanner and Asperger make a point of distinguishing the disorder they describe from schizophrenia, on the basis of three features: the improvement rather than deterioration in their patients, the absence of hallucinations, and the fact that these children appeared to be abnormal from their earliest years, rather than showing a decline in ability after initially good functioning. Lastly, both Kanner and Asperger believed that they had observed similar traits—of social withdrawal or incompetence, obsessive delight in routine, and the pursuit of special interests to the exclusion of all else—in the parents of many of their patients.
There are three main areas in which Asperger’s and Kanner’s reports disagree, if we believe that they were describing the same sort of child. The first and most striking of these is the child’s language abilities. Kanner reported that three of his 11 patients never spoke at all, and that the other children did not use what language they had to communicate: “As far as the communicative functions of speech are concerned, there is no fundamental difference between the eight speaking and the three mute children†(Kanner 1943). While phonology (as demonstrated in accurate echolalia) and vocabulary were often excellent, Kanner concluded that of his 11 cases “In none …has language…served to convey meaningâ€. The picture in all is of a child with profound communicative difficulties and delay; in seven of the 11 cases so profound that deafness was initially suspected (but ruled out). Asperger, by contrast, reported that each of his four case study patients (and, by implication, most of the unspecified number of such children he treated) spoke fluently. Although two of his patients showed some delay, this was followed in both cases by a rapid mastery of language, and it is difficult to imagine any of his cases having been mistaken for deaf. All four cases, by the age of examination (between 6 and 9 years old), spoke “like little adultsâ€. Asperger notes their “freedom†and “originality†in language use, and reports that two of his four cases had a tendency to tell “fantastic storiesâ€.
Asperger’s description also conflicts with Kanner’s on the subject of motor abilities and co-ordination. Kanner (1943) reported clumsiness in only one case, and remarks on the dexterity of four of his patients. He concluded that “several of the children were somewhat clumsy in gait and gross motor performance, but all were very skilful in terms of finer muscle coordinationâ€â€”in line with their success on the Seguin form board (in which dexterity plays a part) and their ability to spin objects. Asperger, by contrast, described all four of his patients as clumsy, and recounted their problems not only with school sports (gross co-ordination), but also with fine motor skills such as writing. This feature is part of a larger contrast in Asperger’s and Kanner’s beliefs. Kanner believed the autistic child to have a specific impairment in social understanding, with better relations to objects than to people: while his children showed “excellent, purposeful and ‘intelligent’ relations to objects†their “relations to people [were] altogether differentâ€. Asperger, on the other hand, believed that his patients showed disturbances in both areas: “the essential abnormality in autism is a disturbance of the lively relationship with the whole environment†(Asperger 1944, translated in Frith 1991b).
The last area of disagreement in the clinical pictures painted by Asperger and Kanner is that of the child’s learning abilities. Kanner believed that his patients were best at learning rote fashion, but Asperger felt that his patients performed “best when the child can produce spontaneouslyâ€, and suggests that they are “abstract thinkersâ€. (Happe)
Read in Full: http://the-mouse-trap.com/2009/10/25/a-brief-history-of-autism/
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Friday, 23 October 2009
Last year, the psychologists Lawrence Williams and John Bargh gave participants a cup of coffee to hold and showedHans Ijzerman and Gun Semin have built on this work, showing not only that the ambient temperature of a room affects how socially close people feel to another, but also the type of language they use and the way they see relations between shapes.
Fifty-two participants were shown an animated film featuring chess pieces. Crucially, half the participants were seated in a cool room (15 to 18 degrees Celsius) whereas the others sat in a warm room (22 to 24 degrees Celsius). Afterwards participants in the warm room used more concrete, physical language to describe the film and reported feeling socially closer to the experimenter than did the participants in a cold room.
Another experiment looked at the effect of room temperature on the way participants perceived similarities between arrays of shapes – particularly whether they would focus on the way the shapes were arranged in relation to each other, as opposed to focusing on their actual shape. This time, participants in a warm room were more likely to recognise the “relational similarity” between objects. For example, when presented with three triangles arranged in a triangular formation, participants in a warm room were more likely to say this arrangement was similar to an array of squares arranged in a triangular formation, rather than to a square formation of triangles.
Taken altogether the findings support the idea that the way we think about relations, whether between people or shapes, is grounded in, and therefore affected by, temperature. It suggests that if you want to encourage a team of people to bond, you should make sure everyone is feeling warm.
These ideas about the embodiment of our thoughts and language have been most powerfully advocated by George Lakoff, the author of Metaphors We Live By. However, before we swallow these ideas hook, line and sinker, so to speak, it’s worth mentioning some reservations spelt out by Steve Pinker in The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature.
Pinker points out that whilst metaphors clearly play an important role in language and thought, they are based ultimately on a separate conceptual foundation. This is revealed graphically by our ability to “see through” metaphors (the source of wit as in Steven Wright’s “If the world’s a stage, where is the audience sitting”) and, in the case of the “time-as-space” metaphor, by the existence of brain damaged patients who no longer understand prepositions for space (as in “she’s at her desk”) but do still understand prepositions for time (as in “he daydreamed through the meeting”).
http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2009/10/warm-room-makes-people-feel-socially.html
 
 
 Seizure Meds May Up Risk Of Mental Disorders
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on October 23, 2009
Professionals acknowledge that a history of seizures during infancy increases the risk for development of schizophrenia later in life.
A new study among animal models reveals antiepilectic drug treatments (AED) administered when the brain is developing triggers schizophrenia-like behavior in animals.
The finding brings to question if the seizures, their treatment or perhaps both, increase the risk for schizophrenia in humans.
In research presented at the 39th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Georgetown University Medical Center researchers show that exposure to AEDs during critical periods of brain development in animal models increases schizophrenia-like behaviors.
“We know that early-life exposure to AEDs such as phenobarbital triggers cell death in many brain regions associated with the onset of schizophrenia,†explains Guillermo Palchik, a doctoral student in the department of pediatrics at GUMC.
“This study not only suggests a relationship between the drugs and schizophrenia, but it raises important questions regarding the side effects of a widely-used class of drugs.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/10/23/seizure-meds-may-up-risk-of-mental-disorders/9123.html
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 Mental Disorders Associated With Urinary Tract Disorders
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on October 22, 2009
A new study finds an association between depression, anxiety disorders, sexual trauma and lower urinary tract symptoms.
The medical disorders include incontinence and overactive bladder although the exact nature of the correlations is unknown.
In a study published online in The Journal of Urology, researchers from the Division of Urology, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and the Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Hospital, Richmond, Virginia, explored the possible association of LUTS with those factors.
Two questionnaires, the Urogenital Distress Inventory-6 and Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-7, were administered to 121 women referred to a specialized urology clinic for evaluation of lower urinary tract symptoms.
These data were then analyzed according to psychiatric comorbidities, history of sexual trauma, age, race and obstetric history. Baseline incidence of psychiatric comorbidity and sexual trauma was also compared to a control population of 1,298 women from the Veterans Affairs primary care clinic.
Women referred for evaluation of lower urinary tract symptoms had higher rates of psychiatric comorbidities (64.5 percent vs. 25.9 percent) and sexual trauma (49.6 percent vs. 20.1 percent) compared to those in the primary care clinic.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/10/22/mental-disorders-associated-with-urinary-tract-disorders/9110.html
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 2:23 PM on 23rd October 2009
Two teacher’s aides are accused of holding a 14-year-old autistic boy’s head under running water, forcing him to eat his own vomit and making him sit in his soiled clothes for hours.
Garrett Schilling, who cannot speak, attended Great Falls’ North Middle School, in Montana, from 2008 until April 2009.
He allegedly suffered abuse at the hands of Kristina Marie Kallies and Julie Ann Parish, who each deny charges of one felony count of assault and one misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of children.
The boy’s mother Tifonie Schilling says she learned of the alleged abuse after another staff member emailed her.
She said: ‘He was having water-boarding-like torture done to him on a frequent basis. They were holding his head under the water.’
Maria Bubb, who worked as a substitute teacher in Garrett’s classroom in October and November last year, said in court documents that staff were ‘mean and degrading’ to the teenager and that Kallies would ‘point her finger in his face and scream at him’
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Other teachers have also testified to say they saw Garrett’s head held under running water and described how he was forced to sit in his own faeces for hours.
Mrs Schilling said ‘He lives in a world now where he is constantly in fear that somebody is going to hurt him.’
If Kallies and Parish are convicted, they could face a maximum of five-and-a-half years in prison.
The parents of five other children at the school also claim their children were abused.
Molly Gillis says her daughter came home from the school ‘on numerous occasions with bite marks, bruises, burnt fingertips and missing hair.’
Read in Full:Â http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1222439/U-S-teachers-aides-accused-water-boarding-autistic-boy.html
Hair-pulling report prompted action
Knightsville Elementary School’s top three administrators were removed from their posts after failing to report to proper authorities an alleged incident in which a school employee pulled a child’s hair, forced him into his seat and grabbed his arm so tightly it left marks.
A person who was in a classroom for autistic students at the school reported seeing a teacher pull a kneeling 6-year-old boy from the floor by his hair and put him in his chair, according to a report Oct. 2 from the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office. The child then put his hand in his pants, the report said, and the teacher grabbed the boy’s arm so tightly it left marks.
The person who observed the alleged incident Aug. 20 told her psychologist that she reported it to the school’s administration but nothing was done about it. The psychologist then reported the allegations to the Sheriff’s Office, according to the report.
Dorchester District 2 officials, in a news release Tuesday, stated the incident involved a teaching assistant, not a teacher. The Sheriff’s Office is investigating the allegations. No charges have been filed.
Parents said Tuesday night they were confused and shocked by the administrative team’s abrupt departure, and the initial lack of information fed speculation about the trio’s removal. The Post and Courier tried to obtain the incident report Wednesday and the Sheriff’s Office provided it Thursday.
The district learned about the allegations from sheriff’s deputies who were following up on the psychologist’s report, said Pat Raynor, public information officer for District 2.
Read in Full:Â http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/oct/23/hair-pulling-report-prompted-action/
 
Amersham and Chesham MP’s Bill passed through House of Lords
6:10pm Thursday 22nd October 2009
By Andy Carswell
AUTISTIC people are guaranteed better care, it was said today, after a “groundbreaking†proposal by a Buckinghamshire MP were today made law.
The Autism Bill – put forward through a Private Members’ Bill by Chesham and Amersham MP Cheryl Gillan – passed its final stage after being voted through the House of Lords.
It means all local authorities and NHS trusts will be obliged to keep records of people with autism in order to provide better care for them.
Until today, this was not a legal requirement.
The Bill’s introduction also means health and social care services can face legal action if they fail to provide support for the 500,000 people in the UK affected by autism.
Mrs Gillan said: “I’d like to thank everyone for their support. It is extremely rare that a Private Members’ Bill goes on to become law, so this is a triumph for people with autism and their families.
“It’s a real testament to the overwhelming level of parliamentary support for this chronically excluded group.
“I hope it will make the crucial difference in their lives that people with autism need and deserve.â€
The National Autistic Society said the Autism Bill – set to become the Autism Act when it receives Royal Assent – was “groundbreakingâ€.
Chief Executive Mark Lever said: “We’d like to thank Cheryl Gillan MP and the thousands of autism campaigners, MPs and peers for their support – together we have made legal history.
“Thousands of adults with autism told us they were experiencing serious mental health difficulties due to a lack of support.
“After a year of lobbying, this is the watershed moment they have been waiting for – this law could literally transform lives.
“It will add serious weight to the forthcoming adult autism strategy so now we’ll be keeping the pressure up on Government to make sure they get it right and deliver lasting change for people with this serious, lifelong and disabling condition.â€
Source:Â http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/4698706.Gillan_s_Autism_Bill_made_law/
Autism Act 2009
The Autism Bill has made it through its final parliamentary stage and will now become the Autism Act. The Act is the first ever disability-specific law in England.
The Autism Act started out as a Private Members Bill, drafted by The National Autistic Society (NAS) and taken forward by Conservative MP Cheryl Gillan. The Bill was backed by a coalition of 16 autism organisations and had overwhelming parliamentary support, being backed by all the main political parties.Â
The adult autism strategy
The Autism Act will guarantee the introduction of the first-ever adult autism strategy, which will set out how local services should be improved to meet the needs of adults with autism.Â
The strategy will cover a range of issues including health, social care, employment and training and, crucially, will be accompanied by guidance which places a legal obligation on local authorities and NHS bodies to meet certain requirements.
The strategy will be published by April 2010 and the accompanying legal guidance no later than December 2010.
We continue to campaign
We want to make sure the adult autism strategy is as strong as it can be.Â
For this reason, we have launched our Don’t Write Me Off campaign, We want the Government – and the new autism strategy - to tackle the shocking proportion of adults with autism who are cut off from employment support or benefits.Â
Take action now while this opportunity for change exists. Email your MP today and ask them to support the Don’t Write Me Off campaign.
You can find out what the Autism Act 2009 means for you by reading the document Autism Act: frequently asked questions, at the bottom of this page.
Related resources
Relevant areas/articles elsewhere on this website
Relevant documents for downloading
- Autism Act: frequently asked questions (PDF)
- 22 Oct: Landmark autism law passed today (DOC)
- 23 Oct: NAS Scotland response to English Autism Act (DOC)
http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=2534&a=20803
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Vanilla ~ Universal Smell of Happiness
Communicating with children using smells
A school has started using scents as a clever way of communicating to children with multisensory impairments. Carol Midgley reports on an inspirational scheme
Sofia’s world is largely a dark and silent one. As a blind and deaf child of 9, her sense of smell is one of the few means by which she can interpret the landscape.And what she is smelling today, on a small, laminated square, is the seaside. The ozonic scent of salty air, wet sand, seaweed and ocean spray has been replicated and impregnated on to a scrap of paper.
Alongside her, Harrison, 4, is rolling his head back and smiling deliriously. The aroma infused on to his card is that of a farm yard. Horses, hay, manure, cows, green fields — incredibly all this has been distilled on to an inch of cardboard. Another smell that has been created in readiness for November 5 is the bouquet of Bonfire Night.
The children are among pupils aged between 2 and 19 at the Seashell Trust School, in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, formerly known as the Royal School for the Deaf, where a soap and shampoo firm has been enlisted to help severely disabled children to communicate for the first time via olfaction.
PZ Cussons, the company behind Imperial Leather and Carex, which has an innovation centre in nearby Salford, has seconded its creative perfumer Kate Williams to work with the school to help children with varying levels of multisensory impairment to make choices about what they eat and drink, the activities on offer and to help them to put the environment in context.
It may involve using smell to tell a carer whether they want chocolate or strawberry milkshake or it may be, as Anne Gough, who runs the school’s sensory unit, says, that the staff use smells simply for comfort, pleasure or to calm. A marshmallow scent is good for this. Vanilla is apparently the universal smell of happiness. Most children will respond positively to something that smells sweet.
The Seashell Trust is both a day and residential, co-educational, non-maintained special school, offering specialist provision for pupils who have severe and complex disabilities, combined with communication difficulties.
One boy, whenever he goes to the park, sniffs the metallic chains that hold the swings. Kate has therefore recreated that unique, ferrous smell and this is a way of telling him that he is about to go to the park. For most people it is almost impossible to imagine such levels of disability, such sensory limitations, but Anne, whose inspirational skills last year won her the Special Needs Teacher of the Year award, believes that we must not underestimate such children’s capabilities. “People will be amazed at what these children can achieve,†she says. “Some people have low expectations of them and I think this is wrong.”
Indeed, one of the hardest things for sensory-impaired people to understand is concept and representation. But by using the smell-card, one child with partial vision has learnt to recognise pictures and words — a remarkable achievement. A further development in progress to help children to recognise classmates or members of staff is to create unique scents for staff, and thus enable them to distinguish between teachers. Plug-in fragrances are already used to help children to understand days of the week. Monday smells of lemon, for instance, and Tuesday of lavender.
Sofia’s ability to read the world around her is limited even further by her physical handicap. Her hands make involuntary movements and thus she cannot even rely on her fingers to relay information and navigate her surroundings. “If Sofia was being taken to the farm, she would just arrive there and that would be it,†says Kate. “But if you have introduced the idea beforehand by smell it helps to put it in context.†Similarly, since she is fed by a gastric tube, presenting the smell of milk communicates to her what is about to happen.
“Eighty per cent of your learning is visual and 15 per cent is aural so that only leaves these children with 5 per cent. This is why it’s so important to give them a medium,†says Anne. “What Kate has done is incredible. These aren’t smells that you can buy in a shop; she has had to break down the smell into individual elements and recreate it in her lab.”
The Seashell Trust changed its name last year to emphasise working with students rather than providing things for them. Children who are deaf are usually educated within mainstream schools.
The Seashell thus offers facilities for pupils with multisensory impairment and with multiple learning difficulties, autistic spectrum disorders and physical and medical conditions. All children are taught on a one-to-one basis which makes it an expensive place to run.
… The 2009 UK Teaching Awards will be broadcast on Sunday October 25 at 6pm on BBCTwo.
Read in Full:Â http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article6884494.ece
 
Hello,
As we speak, the Senate Leadership is combining the two Senate health reform
bills into one bill that will drive health reform in the Senate. The Senate
Finance Committee approved two crucial provisions that will help keep people
with disabilities out of institutions and in the community. Right now, we
need your help IMMEDIATELY to tell the Senate that the Community First
Choice State Option and the CLASS Act belong in Health Reform because people
with disabilities should not be segregated in institutions as a precondition
for achieving support. This Action
Alert<http://www.change. org/autisticadvo cacy/actions/ view/keep_ the_cfc_option_ and_the_class_ act_in_health_ reform>will
help you do send a message straight to your Senator and can be found
at:
http://www.change. org/autisticadvo cacy/actions/ view/keep_ the_cfc_option_ and_the_class_ act_in_health_ reform.
Please use our action alert and write to your friends, colleagues and other
networks to help acquire support. This is a crucial period in health reform
and we need your assistance to make a difference. Thank you and please feel
free to distribute this message far and wide!
Regards,
Ari Ne’eman
President
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network
http://www.autistic advocacy. org
info@autisticadvoca cy.org
732.763.5530
———— ——— ——— ——— ———
Take a look at our innovative new Public Service Announcement produced with
the Dan Marino Foundation at http://www.nomyths. org
If you like what we do, help support the Autistic Self Advocacy Network by
making a donation at:
https://www. change.org/ donation/ create?charity_ id=211198
GOSHEN — Officer Brad Rogers will speak about law enforcement and safety for those on the autism spectrum at the Asperger/High Functioning Autism Support Group’s meeting from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Nov. 2 at the Eighth Street Mennonite Church, 602 S. Eighth St.
Rogers is corrections captain with the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department and parent of a teenage son with Asperger’s.
For information, contact Christine Guth at (574) 534-2718 or christine@adnetonline.org, or Kaylene Ediger at (574) 825-1460. or akediger@comcast.net.Â
We trawl the world’s journals so you don’t have to:
Burnout and Health (Stress and Health).
Baddeley Revisited: The Functional Approach to Autobiographical Memory (Applied Cognitive Psychology).
Interviewing Behaviour (Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling).
Cognitive Hearing Science: the view from hearing impairment and deafness (Scandinavian Journal of Psychology).
Evidentiality: A Window Into Language and Cognitive Development (New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development).Â
 http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2009/10/special-issue-spotter_21.html
7 Myths Of Depression
October 18, 2009
Depression is often viewed as the “common cold†of mental disorders, because it is so prevalent in our lives. The lifetime prevalence of depression suggests that more than 1 in 9 people could be diagnosed with the disorder at one point in their lives. And unlike some other mental disorders, depression affects virtually every aspect of what you do and how you interact with others. Every year, it wreaks havoc in millions of Americans’ lives, especially amongst those who believe it is something you should just “get over†on your own.
Here are seven common myths about depression, and the facts that answer them.
1. Depression means I’m really “crazy†or just weak.
While depression is indeed a serious mental disorder, it is no more serious than most other mental disorders. Having a mental disorder doesn’t mean you’re “crazy,†it just means you have a concern that is negatively impacting how you live your life. Left unaddressed, this concern can cause a person significant distress and problems in their relationships and life. Depression can strike anyone, at any time — whether you’re “weak†or strong, it knows no bounds. Some of the strongest people I’ve met are people who’ve coped with depression in their lives.
2. Depression is a medical disease, just like diabetes.
While some pharmaceutical-influenced marketing propaganda might simplify depression into a medical disease, depression is not — according to our knowledge and science at this time — simply a pure medical disease. It is a complex disorder (called a mental disorder or mental illness ) that reflects its basis in psychological, social, and biological roots. While it has neurobiological components, it is no more of a pure medical disease than ADHD or any other mental disorder. Treatment of depression that focuses solely on its medical or physical components — e.g., through medications alone — often results in failure. Get to know the risk factors for depression.
3. Depression is just an extreme form of sadness or grief.
In most cases, depression is not just ordinary sadness or grief over a loss. If it were ordinary sadness or grief, most people would feel better just over time. In depression, time alone doesn’t help, nor does willpower (â€Pull yourself up and stop feeling so sorry for yourself!â€). Depression is overwhelming feelings of sadness and hopelessness, every day, for no reason whatsoever. Most people with depression have little or no motivation, nor energy and have serious problems sleeping. And it’s just not for one day — it’s for weeks or months on end, with no end in sight.
4. Depression just affects old people, losers and women.
Depression — like all mental disorders — does not discriminate based upon age, gender, or personality. While generally more women than men are diagnosed with depression, men suffer for it all the more since many people in society believe that men shouldn’t show signs of weakness (even a man’s own upbringing may reinforce such messages). And while aging brings many changes in our life, depression is not a normal part of the aging process. In fact, teenagers and young adults grapple with depression just as much as seniors do. Some of the world’s most successful people have also had to deal with depression, people such as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, George Patton, Sir Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking, Charles Darwin, J.P. Morgan and Michelangelo. So being a loser is not a prerequisite to being depressed.
Read More:Â http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/10/18/7-myths-of-depression/
The birth of the ‘psychic energizer’:
With uncanny echoes of the modern interest in ‘cognitive enhancers’, a 1958 edition of Popular Science hails a new drug that “tunes up the brain” allowing us “to perform at peak efficiency all the time”.
The drug is iproniazid, marketed then as Marsilid. It was the first ever antidepressant, but the concept of an ‘antidepressant’ had yet to be created by the pharmaceutical companies and instead it is described as ‘psychic energizer’.
It was originally used a treatment for tuberculosis, as it stops the bacterial infection, but it was noticed that patients treated with iproniazid seemed to have a lift in mood at low doses and risked becoming confused and psychotic at higher doses.
At the time, the only widely used psychiatric drugs were tranquilisers, and the idea that a drug might be an ‘anti-tranquiliser’ was quite puzzling. It was trialled on some patients with diagnoses of mental illness patients and then marketed as a ‘psychic energizer’.
Read in Full:Â http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2009/10/the_birth_of_the_ps.html
Omega-3 supplements fail to improve antidepressant effectiveness in heart patients
Jim Dryden – JAMA
Contrary to the findings of some studies, new research indicates that augmenting antidepressant therapy with an omega-3 fatty acid supplement does not result in improvement in levels of depression in patients with coronary heart disease, according to a study in the October 21 issue of JAMA.
“Low dietary intake and low serum or red blood cell levels of omega-3 fatty acids are associated with depression in patients with and without coronary heart disease (CHD) and with an increased risk for cardiac mortality,” according to background information in the article. “In depressed psychiatric patients who are otherwise medically well, some studies have indicated that augmentation with omega-3 fatty acids dramatically improves the efficacy of antidepressants.“
Robert M. Carney, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, and colleagues conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled trial to examine whether omega-3 improves the efficacy of the antidepression medication sertraline for patients with CHD and major depression. The study included 122 patients, who received 50 mg/day of sertraline and were randomized to receive 2 g/day of omega-3 acid ethyl esters (eicosapentaenoic acid [EPA] and docosahexaenoic acid [DHA]) (n=62) or placebo capsules (n=60) for 10 weeks. Depression was gauged via scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D). Adherence to the medication regimen was at least 97 percent in both groups for both medications.
The researchers found that there was no difference in improvement between groups on the Beck Depression Inventory. In both groups, estimated weekly Beck Depression Inventory scores showed that depressive symptoms improved over time at comparable rates. The placebo and omega-3 groups did not differ at 10 weeks in regard to measurements of depression or anxiety. There was no significant difference in rates of remission or treatment response between the two groups.
“Whether higher doses of EPA, DHA, or sertraline, a longer duration of treatment, or the use of omega-3 as monotherapy can improve depression in patients with stable heart disease remains to be determined,” the authors conclude.
Carney RM, Freedland KE, Rubin EH, et al. Omega-3 Augmentation of Sertraline in Treatment of Depression in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease A Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA. 2009;302(15):1651-1657 Â [Abstract]
Rexahn Reports Positive Top-line Phase IIa Data For SerdaxinTM In Patients With Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
Article Date: 21 Oct 2009 – 1:00 PDT
Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE Amex: RNN), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing multi-indication therapeutics in CNS and oncology, announced top-line results from a Phase IIa clinical study of Serdaxinâ„¢, its major depressive disorder (MDD) drug candidate.
The randomized, double blind, placebo controlled and dose ranging study enrolled 77 patients and was conducted at multiple sites in the United States to assess the Serdaxin’s safety and preliminary efficacy. The study showed that patients ages 18-65 with MDD exhibited clinically meaningful improvement over baseline in symptoms of depression as measured by the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) total score. A marked clinical response was observed within two weeks in patients taking Serdaxin. Additionally, a significantly lower drop-out rate among patients taking Serdaxin compared with those patients taking a placebo was observed (<20% treatment groups vs. >50% placebo group).
Commenting on the findings, Dr. Robert A. Riesenberg, a nationally recognized psychiatrist and principal investigator at the Atlanta Center for Medical Research, said, “The wide range and consistency of Serdaxin’s effects in this study suggests a new treatment paradigm for patients suffering from depression.”
Dr. Riesenberg added, “Serdaxin exhibited an onset of action in fewer than two weeks, and was found to be safe and well tolerated with no appearance of serious side effects commonly linked to currently marketed antidepressant drugs.”
“Serdaxin clinical trials continue to demonstrate unprecedented efficacy, much faster onset of action compared to currently marketed drugs, and lifestyle benefits for patients with major depressive disorder,” said Dr. Chang Ahn, Rexahn’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “The continued strength of Serdaxin’s clinical trial data further solidifies Serdaxin as a potentially new and preferable therapy in the standard of care for this disease.”
Rexahn is currently in active discussions with multiple pharmaceutical companies with the goal of identifying a strategic partner to assist in the global development and planned commercialization of Serdaxin. Rexahn expects Phase IIb clinical development to be initiated in early 2010.
Read in Full:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/168065.php
Antidepressants on trial: How valid is the evidence?
Parker G.
Scientia Professor of Psychiatry, University of South Wales;
Executive Director, Black Dog Institute, Sydney
Clinicians and researchers have been trying for decades to determine if there are differences in efficacy among antidepressants. According to Dr Gordon Parker, the key problems leading to contradictory or inconclusive results stem from how we define “depression” and from randomized-controlled-trial (RCT) practices.
“If we examine meta-analyses from RCTs (and these represent the largest database that we have in psychiatry), then we see clear treatment equivalence in that all antidepressant classes have very similar responder rates,” says Dr Parker. “In fact, the rates compare with those derived from RCTs of cognitive behavior therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy. Of greater concern is that such RCT data generally demonstrate that the responder rates for these differing antidepressant classes do not differentiate very much from responder rates in those receiving placebo. For the evidence-based psychotherapies, a similar story is evident in the literature in that they also do not differ from credible placebos.“
© 2009 Psychiatry Weekly, LLC
A traumatic childhood may wipe decades off lifespan
By Patricia McAdams, HBNS Contributing Writer
Many U.S. children face a terrible burden of stressors that can harm the development of their brains and nervous systems. These stressors can lead to health problems and diseases throughout their lives, ultimately causing some to die prematurely, according to the lead author of a new study.
David W. Brown, DSc, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and colleagues found that children who were exposed to six or more “adverse childhood experiences” or ACEs were at double the risk of premature death compared to children who had not suffered these experiences.
On average, the children at highest risk eventually died at age 60, compared to low-risk children who lived to age 79.
The study appears in the November issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Conducted by Kaiser Permanente in San Diego and the CDC, the study looked at the long-term effects of these childhood experiences: undergoing verbal or physical abuse, having a battered mother and witnessing domestic violence, living in a household with substance abuse or mental illness, having an incarcerated household member or having parents who separated or divorced.
Data came from 17,337 adults who visited Kaiser Permanente from 1995 to 1997 and completed a standardized medical questionnaire that included questions about their childhood. Researchers followed participants through the end of 2006, using the National Death Index to discover who had died.
“Overall, 1,539 people died during follow-up,” Brown said. “People with six or more ACEs died nearly 20 years earlier on average than those without ACEs. It is also disturbing that two-thirds of study participants – persons who were relatively well off – had at least one of the ACEs.“
“The database of the Adverse Childhood Experiences study, utilized in this issue by Dr Brown and his colleagues to demonstrate the link between childhood adversity and premature death, may ultimately provide us with most important public health data ever compiled,” said Sandra L. Bloom, MD, an associate professor of health management and policy at Drexel University School of Public Health.
“Our hope is that, as a result of this research, child maltreatment and exposure to childhood traumatic stress in its various forms will be more widely recognized as a public health problem,” Brown said. “It is important to understand that consequences to childhood trauma can extend over an individual’s life.“
Brown DW, Anda RF, Tiemeier H, et al. Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Risk of Premature Mortality. Am J Prev Med 2009 Nov; 37(5):89-396 Â [Abstract]
New Discovery May Aid Depression Treatment
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on October 20, 2009
A new research studies illuminates how our body regulates neurotransmitters, the chemicals that relay, amplify, and modulate signals between nerve cells.
Neurotransmitters include norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine. Current drug treatments for depression target the regulatory process for neurotransmitters. While these are effective in some cases, they do not always work.
Recent findings suggest that synucleins, a family of small proteins in the brain, are key players in the management of neurotransmitters — specifically, alpha- and gamma-synuclein.
Additionally, researchers have found elevated levels of gamma-synuclein in the brains of both depressed animals and humans.
In a study presented at the 39th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Georgetown University Medical Center researchers observed increased depressive-like behavior in mice where gamma-synuclein acts alone to regulate neurotransmitters, confirming earlier studies by this group.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/10/20/new-discovery-may-aid-depression-treatment/9056.html
An ECG For Depression?
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on October 16, 2009
Everyone is aware of the tremendous value an electrocardiogram conveys by giving a snapshot of cardiac activity. What if a similar tool could be used to assess brain function and allow quick detection of mental and neurological illness?
According to a Monash University biomedical engineer, a device to detect and compare the brain’s normal electrical activity against the distinct electrical patterns found in depression, schizophrenia and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders is right around the corner.
Brian Lithgow has developed electrovestibulography which is something akin to an ‘ECG for the mind.’ Patterns of electrical activity in the brain’s vestibular (or balance) system are measured against distinct response patterns found in mental disorders.
Working with psychiatry researchers at Monash University’s Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc) in Melbourne, Australia, he tested volunteers and found distinct response patterns, or “biomarkers,†that distinguished different CNS diseases from each other and from regular electrovestibular activity.
Monash has teamed up with corporate partner Neural Diagnostics to develop and patent electrovestibulography, or EVestGâ„¢. It is hoped the simple, quick and inexpensive screening process for CNS diseases will eventually become standard practice in hospitals around the world.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/10/16/an-ecg-for-depression/9011.html
Tricyclic Antidepressant May Increase Suicidal Thoughts In Men
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on October 16, 2009
A new report states that nortriptyline, a second-generation tricyclic antidepressant has been found to cause a tenfold increase in suicidal thoughts in men when compared to an antidepressant that works as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI).
Nortriptyline is marketed as Pamelor, or Aventyl HCl . Researchers compared nortriptyline to escitalopram (Lexapro, or Cipralex) and discovered the increased risk of suicidal ideation.
These findings are published in the open access journal BMC Medicine.
The research was carried out by Dr. Nader Perroud from the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, who headed up GENDEP, an international team.
Dr. Perroud said “Suicidal thoughts and behaviors during antidepressant treatment have prompted warnings by regulatory bodies. The aim of our study was to investigate the emergence and worsening of suicidal thoughts during treatment with two different types of antidepressant.”
Both escitalopram and nortriptyline have their effect through the mood modulating neurotransmitter systems. The former is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), preventing serotonin from re-entering the cell and thereby prolonging its effect on nerve synapses.
The latter is a tricyclic antidepressant that inhibits the reuptake of noradrenaline, and to a lesser extent, that of serotonin.
The study was carried out on 811 individuals with moderate to severe unipolar depression.
For SAD Sufferers, Cognitive Behavior Better Than Light Therapy At Preventing Recurrence, Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (Oct. 17, 2009) — In the September issue of the journal Behavior Therapy, University of Vermont psychologist Kelly Rohan presents the first published research study of the long-term effects of different treatments for seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a form of severe depression that occurs annually in the fall and winter seasons. The first year Rohan randomized 69 people with SAD into one of four groups: light therapy treatment, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), a combination of the two or a wait-list control. She then surveyed participants on how they were doing the next winter – one year later.
Of those treated with CBT, only 7 percent had a recurrence compared to 36.7 percent of people treated with light therapy. The recurrence rate for the combination group was 5.5 percent. When Rohan looked at the severity of the depression that did occur, however, CBT was associated with less severe depression than those treated with either light therapy or a combination of both.
In a previous study that measured the acute affects of each treatment (immediately following six weeks of intervention), combination therapy was highly effective, with a nearly 80 percent remission rate compared to 50 percent for both CBT and light therapy alone and 20 percent on the wait-list.
Read in Full:Â http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091016163659.htm
First and foremost, I should offer a disclaimer for this post:
The scientific media briefing I watched this morning, “Feeding the Brain to Help Manage Depression: The Role of Medical Foods,†was presented by Rakesh Jain, M.D., M.P.H., the Director of Psychiatric Drug Research at R/D Clinical Research Center in Lake Jackson, TX and Teodoro Bottiglieri, Ph.D. of the Baylor Institute of Metabolic Disease, and sponsored by Pamlab, a pharmaceutical company specializing in prescription medical foods. Neither PsychCentral.com nor myself is affiliated with Pamlab or Deplin, the new medical food discussed during the briefing.
Now that that’s out of the way, on to the more interesting stuff.
“Can we feed the brain to regulate mood disorders?”
If you had no experience with or knowledge of medical foods (meant for nutritional or dietary management of specific diseases), you might’ve thought Jain and Bottiglieri were referring to feeding the brain – and our bodies – with actual food when you heard that question.
Instead, the men were referring to medical foods – more specifically, a new product called Deplin, a medical food that includes L-methylfolate, the only active form of folate that can cross the blood brain barrier and help with the synthesis of the neurotransmitters associated with mood and, consequently, mood disorders such as depression: serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine.
Research shows that people with depression and low folate levels are less likely to respond to treatments such as antidepressants and less likely to achieve remission.
(Unfortunately, a smorgasbord of factors can contribute to low folate levels – genetics, age, lifestyle choices like poor diets and smoking, certain medications like anticonvulsants, oral contraceptives, and lithium, and certain illnesses like Crohn’s disease, hypothyroidism, and diabetes, just to name a few.)
Green spaces ‘improve health’
There is more evidence that living near a ‘green space’ has health benefits.
Research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health says the impact is particularly noticeable in reducing rates of mental ill health.
The annual rates of 15 out of 24 major physical diseases were also significantly lower among those living closer to green spaces.
One environmental expert said the study confirmed that green spaces create ‘oases’ of improved health around them.
The researchers from the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam looked at the health records of 350,000 people registered with 195 family doctors across the Netherlands.
Only people who had been registered with their GP for longer than 12 months were included because the study assumed this was the minimum amount of time people would have to live in an environment before any effect of it would be noticeable.
Health impact
The percentages of green space within a one and three kilometre (0.62 and 1.86 miles) radius of their home were calculated using their postcode.
On average, green space accounted for 42% of the residential area within one kilometre (0.62 miles) radius and almost 61% within a three kilometre (1.86 miles) radius of people’s homes.
And the annual rates for 24 diseases in 7 different categories were calculated.
The health benefits for most of the diseases were only seen when the greenery was within a one kilometre ( 0.62 miles ) radius of the home.
The exceptions to this were anxiety disorders, infectious diseases of the digestive system and medically unexplained physical symptoms which were seen to benefit even when the green spaces were within three kilometres of the home.
The biggest impact was on anxiety disorders and depression.
Anxiety disorders
The annual prevalence of anxiety disorders for those living in a residential area containing 10% of green space within a one kilometre (0.62 miles) radius of their home was 26 per 1000 whereas for those living in an area containing 90% of green space it was 18 per 1000.
For depression the rates were 32 per 1000 for the people in the more built up areas and 24 per 1000 for those in the greener areas.
Read More:Â http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8307024.stm
Disposal by Flushing of Certain Unused Medicines: What You Should Know
Medicines play an important role in treating certain conditions and diseases, but they must be taken with care. Unused portions of these medicines must be disposed of properly to avoid harm. Almost all medicines can be thrown away in the household trash after mixing them with some unpalatable substance (e.g., coffee grounds) and sealing them in a container.
However, certain medicines may be especially harmful and, in some cases, fatal in a single dose if they are used by someone other than the person the medicine was prescribed for. For this reason, a few medicines have special disposal directions that indicate they should be flushed down the sink or toilet after the medicine is no longer needed. If you dispose of these medicines down the sink or toilet, they cannot be accidently used by children, pets, or anybody else.
You may have also received disposal directions for these medicines when you picked up your prescription. If your medicine is on this list, and you did not receive information on disposal with your prescription, you can find directions on how to dispose of the medicines at DailyMed. After you search on the drug name, the disposal information for these medicines can be found in one of the following sections of the prescribing information:
- *Information for Patients and Caregivers
- *Patient Information
- *Patient Counseling Information
- *Safety and Handling Instructions
- *Medication Guide
It is important to note that disposal by flushing is not recommended for the vast majority of medicines. Unused or expired medicines that do not have flushing directions in the label can be disposed of safely in the household trash by:
- 1. Mixing them with something that will hide the medicine or make it unappealing, such as kitty litter or used coffee grounds.
- 2. Placing the mixture in a container such as a sealed plastic bag.
- 3. Throwing the container in your household trash.
Below is some additional information about the disposal of medicine that is no longer needed. If you have additional questions about disposing of your medicine, please contact us at 1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332).
Read More(Includes FAQ & Meds Recommended For Disposal By Flushing):Â http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/BuyingUsingMedicineSafely/EnsuringSafeUseofMedicine/SafeDisposalofMedicines/ucm186187.htm
If Herbal Medicine is Medicine, Shouldn’t it be Treated as Such?
Recently, the UK Government announced a consultation on whether practitioners of acupuncture, herbal medicine and traditional Chinese medicine should become subject to statutory regulation. Unsurprisingly, the announcement has sparked some lively debate. Currently, most herbal remedies and dietary supplements are classified by regulatory authorities as “foods,†and therefore subject to far less stringent legal requirements than pharmaceutical products. However, if a herbal remedy offers some pharmacological effect over and above its nutritional value (and many undoubtedly do), then it becomes no longer a food but a medicine.
Medicines, including herbal medicines, make changes at a physiological level. Some of these changes are desirable and some are not. It would be irrational to imagine that any agent would have only positive benefits: if you believe an effect is real enough to do you good, you must also believe it could do you harm. The secret of good medicine is to balance the potential benefits of a drug with its known side effects.
There is a widespread perception that a herbal remedy is somehow more gentle or less ‘alien’ than a prescription drug. In fact, herbal medicines are generally no more than plant extracts containing an assortment chemicals whose actions are largely unknown. Is it really better to swallow a jumble of plant chemicals than a single, purified and identifiable one? With a prescription or over-the-counter drug, at least you know what you are getting; a herbal remedy, by contrast, can vary from one country to another, one manufacturer to another or even one bottle to another. In fact, analyses have revealed that the contents of many herbal products do not always match the ingredients listed on the labels, and some even contain dangerous poisons, including pesticides, lead or mercury. It is ironic that so many people who are so particular about what they consume are prepared to take tablets they so little about.
Despite the advances made in conventional medicines, many people live their lives in constant pain and discomfort, and are willing, or desperate, to give anything a try. It is these people more than most who must be protected from the false hopes and exaggerated claims that some herbal remedies offer.
Read in Full:Â http://brainblogger.com/2009/10/16/if-herbal-medicine-is-medicine-shouldnt-it-be-treated-as-such/
Your Patient Rights In Therapy
Before you go into psychotherapy, you should be informed of your rights as a patient ahead of time by the therapist. The therapist should, in addition, give you a printed copy of something that reads similar to the below, so that you can take it home with you. We’ve long had a version of these rights here on our website, but I thought it might be helpful to further describe or explain each right in a little more detail.
Therapists nowadays may also often offer you their guidelines for electronic and/or outside contact, (such as through Facebook, email, telephone, etc). This sets the ground rules for how you may contact the therapist outside of session, in event of an emergency, or in the event that you just want to share something with your therapist (or change your appointment or such).
You should know that these rights are not absolutes, and there may be exceptions based upon what kind of treatment you’re undertaking, under what conditions, and in what country or province you live in (even state laws vary that may alter some of these rights). If you have a specific concern with one of these rights, you should discuss it with your therapist during your next session.
Your Patient Rights in Psychotherapy
Every patient engaging in psychotherapy with a professional has the following rights:
- *You have a right to participate in developing an individual plan of treatment.
- Every client in psychotherapy should have a treatment plan that describes general goals of therapy, and specific objectives the client will work on in order to achieve their goals. Without such a plan, how would you know you’ve made progress?
- *You have a right to receive an explanation of services in accordance with the treatment plan.
- The therapist should describe the process of how they work with clients, in as much detail as you prefer and time allows.
- *You have a right to participate voluntarily in and to consent to treatment.
- You are there voluntarily and should understand and consent to all treatment provided you (unless you have been court-ordered or have other state-imposed restrictions).
- *You have a right to object to, or terminate, treatment.
- Don’t like therapy or a specific type of treatment? You can leave at any time without any kind of repercussions (unless you have been court-ordered to attend therapy).
- *You have a right to have access to one’s records.
- Yes, although many professionals don’t like it, you have a right to review the records they keep on you.
- *You have a right to receive clinically appropriate care and treatment that is suited to their needs and skillfully, safely, and humanely administered with full respect for their dignity and personal integrity.
- Your therapist should be skilled and trained to administer the treatment he or she said they would, and do so in a dignified and humane manner. You should never feel unsafe in your therapist’s presence.
I went straight to chapter thirteen, of course, and read “Overcoming Hopelessness: Escape from Darkness.†The authors argue that there are nine forms of hopelessness, each related to the disruption of one or more of the basic needs that comprise hope; attachment, mastery, or survival. The authors present three “pure forms†of hopelessness resulting from breakdowns in one of these three needs or “motive systems†(alienation, powerlessness, doom). There are also six “blended†forms of hopelessness which results when two needs are challenged. We can overcome hopelessness by first recognizing which of these nine types we are confronting. For each form of hopelessness, they present a mind-body-spirit treatment cocktail, involving a restructuring of thoughts, accessing the right kind of hope-sustaining relationship, and specific spiritual practices. Armed with these prescriptions we can summon the light back into our lives.
Here are the nine types of hopelessness and just some of the strategies recommended by Scioli and Biller. For the whole treatment package, consider getting your own copy of “Hope in the Age of Anxiety.“
1. Alienation (Attachment)
Alienated individuals believe that they are somehow different. Moreover, they feel as if they have been cut loose, no longer deemed worthy of love, care, or support. In turn, the alienated tend to close themselves off, fearing further pain and rejection.
2. Forsakenness (Attachment and Survival)
The word “forsaken†refers to an experience of total abandonment that leaves individuals feeling alone in their time of greatest need. Recall Job in the Old Testament, crumpled over and covered with sores, pleading with a seemingly indifferent God.
3. Uninspired (Attachment and Mastery)
Feeling uninspired can be especially difficult for members of underprivileged minorities, for whom opportunities for growth and positive role models within the group may be either lacking or undervalued.
4. Powerlessness (Mastery)
Individuals of every age need to believe that they can author the story of their life. When that need is thwarted, when one feels incapable of navigating one’s way toward desired goals, a feeling of powerlessness can set in.
5. Oppression (Mastery and Attachment)
Oppression involves the subjugation of a person or group…. The word “oppressed†comes from Latin, to “press down,†and its synonym, “down-trodden,†suggests a sense of being “crushed under†or “flattened.”
New Brain Stimulation Treatment May Offer Hope For Those With Treatment Resistant Depression
A new neurosurgical procedure may prove helpful for patients with treatment-resistant depression. Bilateral epidural prefrontal cortical stimulation (EpCS) was found generally safe and provided significant improvement of depressive symptoms in a small group of patients, according to lead researcher Ziad Nahas, M.D. at the Medical University of South Carolina. The data are reported in the on-line issue of Biological Psychiatry.
Treatment-resistant depression is a recurrent psychiatric illness and a leading cause of premature morality due to suicide and associated medical conditions. In the U.S., more than 3.2 million patients are diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression. Typically, patients have tried several medications and treatments without success or improvement.
Read More:Â http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/167236.php
New Program Helps Mental Health Patients Stop Smoking
Experts say that tobacco use among mental health patients account for nearly half of all cigarettes consumed in the United States.
A program developed by the division of addiction psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School to address this addiction has received national recognition by the American Psychiatric Association (APA).
The program, called CHOICES – Consumers Helping Others Improve Their Condition by Ending Smoking – utilizes peer counselors to promote smoking cessation in mentally ill patients.
The counselors, who receive 30 hours of intensive training, are nonsmokers or former smokers who are moderately impaired or disabled by mental illness.
Their goal is not to provide treatment, but to assist smoking patients who are in mental health centers, psychiatric hospitals, group homes and self-help centers, by linking them to treatment, referrals, advocacy and support for smoking cessation in New Jersey.
“Peers are less threatening than professionals,†said Jill Williams, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and co-founder and medical director of the program.
“CHOICES symbolizes empowerment and personal choice in recovery by involving persons with mental illness talking with peers with mental illness who smoke, and who may have low motivation to address their tobacco use.”
A salient feature of the CHOICES program is the unique peer-to-peer approach to promoting tobacco cessation.
In the October issue of its journal Psychiatric Services, the APA said, “The CHOICES program exemplifies many aspects of a successful wellness and recovery initiative. For example, it targets a group with a vital health care need; seeks to reduce tobacco’s harm in a vulnerable group; focuses its efforts in the community, which best accommodates the target population; employs peers to reduce educational and cultural barriers; and develops successful partnerships with key stakeholders for sustainability.”
According to Dr. Williams and co-founder Marie Verna, the program’s advocacy director and senior training and consultation specialist at UMDNJ-University Behavioral HealthCare’s Center for Excellence in Psychiatry, the CHOICES team has conducted more than 280 community visits, reaching more than 9,600 smokers with mental illness, since the program’s inception in 2005. The team also visits consumer conferences and health-related fairs.
An outcome study of the program showed success at reducing the number of cigarettes smoked by consumers each day and an increase in the number of quit attempts following individualized intervention.
Read More:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/10/12/new-program-helps-mental-health-patients-stop-smoking/8903.html
Teaching 9-year-olds about mental illness
Oliver Moore
People with symptoms of mental illness often wait years before seeking treatment. And by the time they do, some will have the odds stacked against them because of the related effects of their disorder: substance abuse, reduced employment options and broken relationships with friends and family.
It’s a vicious pattern that the Nova Scotia government is hoping to break by offering even the youngest students specific education in mental health.
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