 
As I was just in the process of researching some data on Personality Disorders and Bipolar Disorders, I came upon an article by Philippe Huguelet and Nader Perroud that was published in the journal Psychiatry in 2005. The article caught my attention, because it was about the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The authors were investigating whether, by today’s psychiatric classification system, Mozart could be diagnosed with a mental illness. Given that I am Austrian myself and hail from an area relatively near to where Mozart lived, I was intrigued.
The authors Huguelet and Perroud based their paper on a review of Mozart’s correspondence, several biographies, and several research papers published in medical journals. Since Mozart was born in 1756 and died in 1791, there are obvious limitations to the exactness and amount of information available, so that the conclusions have to be taken with a grain of salt.
That said, Hueguelet and Perroud conclude with certainty that Mozart suffered from depression in his last year of life. This conclusion is consistent with findings of other authors. In his letters, Mozart talked about experiencing a depressed mood, constant sadness and tearfulness, and a markedly diminished interest in composing. He also mentioned a diminished ability to concentrate, a loss of energy, and feelings of excessive guilt.  All these symptoms together meet the criteria for a Major Depressive Episode according to today’s diagnostic standards.
           In terms of a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, things seem not so clear. Some authors in the past have concluded that Mozart experienced episodes of hypomania, stating that Mozart typically got up at 6am and often worked until 2am, writing letters that at times use inappropriate humor and at other times seem to be incoherent. Hueguelet and Perroud find evidence that these symptoms did not last long enough to qualify for a bipolar disorder proper, though they cannot rule out with absolute certainty a milder form of some type of ‘bipolar spectrum disorder’.
           According to Huegelet and Perroud, there is some evidence in Mozart’s biography that point towards the presence of a personality disorder, that is by our contemporary definition â€an enduring pattern of inner experience or behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture.†For instance, Mozart had difficulties with money and relied on his father managing his money for him.
He demonstrated some traits of Dependent Personality Disorder: He always needed to be nurtured and supported by others, for instance, his wife or his father, frequently needed to be reassured that his friends really cared about him, and found it hard to tolerate to be alone.
Huegelet and Perroud also found some signs that Mozart had some traits of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD): In his letters, he mentions the feelings of emptiness often experienced by people with BPD. He had temper outbursst, and his over-spending, as well as his drinking can be viewed as a sign of impulsivity. His mood appeared to be shifting between low and upbeat in a very sensitive reaction to circumstances. The authors can only speculate about his sense of identity, and how stable or unstable it may have been – it is unclear whether he was negatively affected by the constant traveling he did during childhood and in light of being raised as a Wunderkind.
Overall, it looks like we can conclude from this paper that the ingenious composer suffered from Major Depressive Disorder (the presence of a bipolar-spectrum disorder seemed less clear) and had traits of Dependent and Borderline Personality Disorder, something we would nowadays likely diagnose as “Personality Disorder Not Otherwise Specified”.
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=29776&cn=8
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National Academy Urges Changes in Screening and Treatment of DepressionÂ
Stephen Barlas
A National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report urging a more coordinated approach to prevention and treatment of depression in parents-because of its impact on children-hit the streets just as Congress began considering legislation to reform the US health insurance system. The NAS report made a number of recommendations for changing the approach of both public and private health insurers toward depression, although the front-line troops expected to deal with the problem are primary care physicians, who already treat 70 percent of patients with depression.
© 1996 – 2009 CMPMedica LLC
Diminished cravings for pleasure linked to core depression symptom
Melanie Moran – Vanderbilt University
New research indicates that decreased cravings for pleasure may be at the root of a core symptom of major depressive disorder. The research is in contrast to the long-held notion that those suffering from depression lack the ability to enjoy rewards, rather than the desire to seek them.
The research, led by Vanderbilt psychologists Michael Treadway and David Zald, is published in the online journal PLoS One.
“This initial study shows that decreased reward processing, which is a core symptom of depression, is specifically related to a reduced willingness to work for a reward,” Treadway, a graduate student in psychology, said.
Decreased motivation to seek and experience pleasurable experiences, known as anhedonia, is a primary symptom of major depressive disorder. Anhedonia is less responsive to many antidepressants and often persists after other symptoms of depression subside. However, understanding the different components of anhedonia – the desire to obtain something pleasurable versus experiencing pleasure – has been difficult for researchers to determine in humans.
“In the last decade and a half, animal models have found that the neurotransmitter dopamine, long known to be involved in reward processing, is involved in craving or motivation, but not necessarily enjoyment,” Treadway said. “To date, research into reward processing in individuals with anhedonia has focused on enjoyment of rewards, rather than assessing the drive to work for them. We think this task is one of the first to do that.”
Treadway and his colleagues devised the Effort-Expenditure for Rewards Task, or EEfRT, to explore the role of reduced desire and motivation in individuals reporting symptoms of anhedonia. EEfRT involved having individuals play a simple video game that gave them a chance to choose between two different tasks, one hard, one difficult, to obtain monetary rewards. Participants were eligible but not guaranteed to receive money each time they completed a task successfully.
The “hard” task required pressing a button 100 times within 21 seconds using one’s non-dominant little finger and carried a potentially higher reward than the easy task, which required pressing a button 30 times in seven seconds using one’s dominant index finger. The subjects were told at the beginning of each trial whether they had a high, medium or low probability of winning a prize if they successfully completed the trial. The participants could choose which trials they completed and were given 20 minutes to perform as many tasks as possible.
The researchers found that subjects who reported symptoms consistent with anhedonia where less willing to make choices requiring greater effort in exchange for greater reward, particularly when the rewards were uncertain.
“Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that individuals with self-reported anhedonia made fewer hard-task choices,” the authors wrote. “These findings are consistent with theoretical models linking anhedonia to decreased (dopamine levels).”
“By addressing the motivational dimension of anhedonia, our findings suggest a plausible theoretical connection between dopamine deficiency and reward processing in depression, which may eventually help us better understand how anhedonia responds to treatment,” Treadway said.
The study was supported by funding from Vanderbilt University and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
 
Treadway MT, Buckholtz JW, Schwartzman AN, et al. Worth the ‘EEfRT’? The Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task as an Objective Measure of Motivation and Anhedonia. PLoS ONE 4(8):e6598 Â [Full text]
 
A study has found that young adults under the age of 25 have an increased risk of suicide or suicidal thoughts when they take antidepressants, The Independent reported. The newspaper continued, “the risk is greatest after they take the drugs for anxiety and other mental problems not connected with depression”.
More…  © Crown Copyright 2007
 
“I was about to give up my course, but the support that Prospects gave me enabled me to continue my studies.” PhD student, University of London
We offer support to students with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are in further or higher education. Our student support service is tailored to individual need, but commonly covers time management; organisational skills; personal management; communication skills; social skills; and dealing with the transition to university life.
We also provide ASD awareness training days for academic and support staff at universities and colleges across the UK. Download the flyer ‘Asperger syndrome awareness training’ at the bottom of this page for more details.
Our student support service aims to:
- make sure that staff working with students have an awareness of ASD
- identify realistic adaptations that can be put in place to support students
- identify areas where students may have social and communication difficulties and discuss ways of addressing these
- define the different areas of responsibility that staff have, so that students know who they can approach about different issues
- identify a mentor who we can give awareness training to
- increase students’ ability to cope independently at college or university.
The support is run on an appointment basis: our employment consultants can meet students at their college or university, or students can visit our offices, if this is practical. We have offices in London and Glasgow.
Our student support service is funded by students’ Disability Student Allowance (DSA). This must be in place before we can offer our service, unless funding is available from other sources.
As we are funded through DSA, our main aims are to make sure everyone involved with the student has an understanding of ASD, and that the student is clear about the work they must do in order to complete their course.
As each student’s needs are different we suggest that students, or a representative, contact us to talk about what support is available and if our service can meet their needs.
Contact us
To find out more about our student support service and costs, contact:
Vicky Little
Student and Graduate Support Co-ordinator
Tel: 020 7704 7450
Email: victoria.little@nas.org.uk
If you live or study in Scotland, contact:
Anna Williamson (Scotland)
Tel: 0141 285 7104
Email: anna.williamson@nas.org.uk
Also in this section:
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Related resources
Relevant areas/articles elsewhere on this website
- University: starting at
- University: how to support students with Asperger syndrome
- Contact Prospects
Relevant documents for downloading
 
The Government’s Green Paper on social care reform, published last month, mentions the possibility of moving some disability benefits from being a cash benefit and incorporating it into social care funding, administered on a person’s behalf by a local authority.
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The NAS will be responding to the Green Paper. We will produce a summary of how the Green Paper proposals could affect people with autism.
Tell us what you think about the Green Paper proposals
We want to know what you think of the possibility of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) being integrated into social care funding. This will inform our official response to the Government.
To let us know your thoughts, email policy@nas.org.uk
What we think
DLA in its current form, or elements of it, is a crucial benefit for many people with autism and their families. Integrating DLAÂ into local authority social care funding would have a profound effect on those people. We have serious concerns about the possibility of such a policy being introduced.
Many people with autism and their families rely on the money they receive from DLA, and to abolish DLA in its current form would have disastrous consequences for these groups. DLA is a non-means-tested, cash benefit, with no restrictions on use, introduced to help disabled people to cover the additional costs incurred by having a disability. Those additional costs still exist. The Green Paper does not make clear how people with disabilities would be expected to cover costs under an alternative system.
We also have concerns that people with autism and their families who have traditionally struggled to access local authority support would have similar problems accessing any new support paid for with DLA, but at the discretion of the local authority. We could experience a ‘postcode lottery’ based on local decision-making, and are concerned that some people with autism would miss out.
Furthermore, integrating DLA into local authority funding seems contrary to the Government’s personalisation agenda, as it would be taking control over spending away from individuals.
The other side of the argument is that some people who receive Attendance Allowance and DLA are already financially well off. In an environment in which local authorities are cash-strapped and using eligibility criteria to provide care to only those with the very highest support needs, perhaps this money could be better spent on making sure that lower-level services are available to those who need them?
Further information
Here are some points to consider:
- This is a Green Paper at present. This means that it is a proposal by the Government which will be consulted upon and debated. It is not legislation. The consultation period runs until mid-November 2009. At the NAS, we understand that the way the Green Paper has been reported on some websites may lead people to assume that after the consultation period, their DLA will stop. This is not the case. If you get DLA or Attendance Allowance at the moment, we would seek to reassure you that there is no immediate threat to your entitlement within, or at the end of, the consultation period. Any changes, if any are made at all, could take years to come into force. Â
- The Green Paper refers to ‘disability benefits’. This is often taken as referring to Attendance Allowance and the care component of DLA (the mobility component is usually left out of this definition). The focus of the Green Paper though, is far more on Attendance Allowance than DLA. The inclusion of DLA is hinted at rather than made explicit, but we will monitor the situation closely to establish any proposed changes to DLA.Â
- The Green Paper consultation ends in November 2009, and will be followed by a White Paper before it can begin the legislative process. Therefore, there is very little chance that we will see legislation before the next general election. A new government formed after the election may have different ideas.
- There is currently no legislation, or even guidance, about what DLA or AA should be spent on. It would, therefore, be a major U-turn by the Government if they were to stop DLA and Attendance Allowance being cash benefits. If Government attempted to make this change, it would undoubtedly face strong opposition from individuals, organisations, and some politicians. It could also be challenged in the higher courts, quite possibly the European courts.Â
- The Green Paper mentions protection for existing DLA/Attendance Allowance recipients and this is a characteristic of benefit changes. ‘Transitional protection’ is quite common and means that if a benefit is amended or phased out, existing recipients of that benefit retain their entitlement to it. Again, though, this is something we will monitor closely.
Related resources
Relevant areas/articles elsewhere on this website
 
Andrew Hyde
Although depression is the mental disorder that most people associate with suicidal behavior, a new study reveals that a wide range of mental disorders increase the odds of thinking about suicide and making suicide attempts.
While depression is indeed one of the strongest predictors of suicidal thoughts across many different countries, it is disorders characterized by anxiety and poor impulse-control that best predict which people act on such thoughts-especially in developing countries, says a multi-country study published in this week’s open access journal PLoS Medicine.
Using data from over 100,000 individuals in 21 countries participating in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys, Matthew Nock (Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) and colleagues investigated which mental health disorders increase the odds of experiencing suicidal thoughts and actual suicide attempts, and how these relationships differ across developed and developing countries. The researchers collected and analyzed data on the lifetime presence and age-of-onset of mental disorders and of nonfatal suicidal behaviors using structured interviews.
While mental disorders are among the strongest known predictors of suicide, the multi-country study was initiated because people often have more than one mental disorder at a time and little is known about which disorders are uniquely predictive of suicidal behavior, the extent to which disorders predict suicide attempts beyond their association with suicidal thoughts, and whether these associations are similar across developed and developing countries, say the authors.
The authors found that mental disorders are present in approximately half of people who seriously consider killing themselves and two-thirds of those who make a suicide attempt. Overall, mental disorders were equally predictive of suicidal thoughts and attempts in developed and developing countries, with a key difference being that the strongest predictors of suicide attempts in developed countries were mood disorders, whereas in developing countries impulse-control, substance use, and post-traumatic stress disorders were most predictive.
“These findings provide a more fine-grained understanding of the associations between mental disorders and subsequent suicidal behavior than previously available and indicate that mental disorders are predictive of suicidal behaviors in both developed and developing countries,” say the authors, but “future research is needed to further delineate the mechanisms through which people come to think about suicide and subsequently progress from suicidal thoughts to attempts.”
Nock MK, Hwang I, Sampson N, et al. Cross-National Analysis of the Associations among Mental Disorders and Suicidal Behavior: Findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. PLoS Med 6(8):e1000123 [Abstract]
Meredith Manning
To people outside the disability community, it may not seem like such a big deal: create a sports program where people with disabilities can compete, make friends and achieve their personal best.
But for any athlete who has participated in the Special Olympics, the dream of having a fair forum to play and be recognized is profound.
Today, many of us are mourning the recent loss of Eunice Shriver, the mother, advocate and strident supporter of disability rights who created the Special Olympics in 1962.Â
What began as a summer camp in Shriver’s backyard grew into a network of players, coaches, mentors and supporters that now reaches around the globe.Â
At The Arc of San Francisco where I work, I know how much this program means to the clients we serve. People with developmental disabilities are often isolated and lack opportunities to make friends in the community. But through the Special Olympics, hundreds of our clients with Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy and other disabilities have an opportunity to connect with others while enjoying the fun and excitement of healthy competition.
This outspoken advocate, visionary leader and great friend to people with disabilities will be mourned by the community whom she served so passionately for over half a century.
Eunice Shriver: July 10, 1921- August 11, 2009.
http://www.examiner.com/x-15004-SF-Disability-Examiner~y2009m8d11-Eunice-Shriver-A-Champion-Mourned
 
Article Date: 10 Aug 2009 – 0:00 PDT
In response to a recent surge in studies that integrate medicine and music, SAGE, the world’s leading independent academic and professional publisher, is pleased to launch Music and Medicine in July, a new interdisciplinary journal that will incorporate the research that combines the two disciplines.
This new official Journal of the International Association for Music and Medicine is peer reviewed and edited by Joanne Loewy, DA, LCAT, MT-BC, Director of the distinguished Louis Armstrong Center for Music & Medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, and David Aldridge, PhD, FRSM, Director of the notable Nordoff-Robbins Zentrum, Witten, for applied music in health care practice and research, Germany. With the goal of bringing together information that is currently scattered across many disciplines and throughout many publications, Music and Medicine will focus on studies that integrate the science of medicine with the art of music, and the art of medicine with the science of music.
The journal covers a number of subjects about how music and medicine interact, including:
- Analgesia and music sedation
- Cancer care: active and receptive music approaches
- Cardiology and rhythm
- Dementia, stroke and music memory
- Infant stimulation
- Music during surgery
- Stress response and music relaxation
“Our intention is to provide a venue for the development of theory based on practice, and we will draw on specific research in music and medicine,” said co-editor Loewy.
“We invite participation through dialogue about the impact that music has upon the brain, for human physiology, and in developing unique clinical areas, such as sleep investigations and pain management,” said co-editor Aldridge.
Music and Medicine will be published bi-annually in 2009 and quarterly beginning in 2010 with an innovative journal launch strategy – free online access for the first three years for individuals through December 2011.
Source:
Jim Gilden
SAGE Publications
 
Rory HoyÂ
10 August 2009
Rory Hoy, 21, from Birkham View, Knaresborough, said he was ecstatic that his song Y’Know What I’m Sayin’ had been played on Craig Charles’ BBC Radio 6 show.
“I was so surprised it was played, I’m just thrilled by that, ” he said.
The track is from Standing on Dust, Rory’s new record, which follows last year’s Cosmic Child.
“It’s more funk-influenced than the last one, a mixture of funk music, breakbeats and hip-hop, with twanging wah-wah guitars, ” the former St Aidan’s pupil said.
“It’s more dance-friendly really, though there are some chill-out tunes as well. I don’t sing on it, but I do a bit of scratching and sampling.”
Rory was signed to American DJ Freddy Fresh’s label Howlin’ Records last year. He lists his other influences as Fatboy Slim, DJ Shadow and The Chemical Brothers.
Reviews
His first album was released to excellent reviews, winning words of praise from group Jurassic 5, and Standing on Dust has met with a similar response.
“I’m absolutely delighted by all the things people have been saying, ” Rory said.
His DVD, Autism and Me, has also proved extremely popular, winning six national awards, one of which was presented by Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels director Guy Ritchie. Rory explained why he wanted to make the 20-minute film.
“There are lots of books written by non-autistic people and they don’t know what it’s like to be autistic, just as I don’t know what it’s like be non-autistic, ” he said.
“I thought it would be good to explain everything.”
As well as his endeavours in music and film, Rory works as a video technician at St Aidan’s and spends Thursday at St John’s School in Knaresborough, teaching pupils about computers.
“I absolutely love doing it, ” he said.
…For more about Rory, go to: http://www.myspace.com/roryhoy
Read Article in Full:Â http://www.wetherbynews.co.uk/harrogate-news/FEATURE–Musician-making-waves.5539877.jp
 
By Bill McGee, special for USA TODAY
On the one hand, commercial aviation remains the safest mode of transportation in this country. Yet millions of people-perhaps about 15% of the population, according to a recent poll-remain afraid to board an airplane.
When I last wrote about this topic in 2004, 9/11 was still fresh in many travelers’ minds. I detailed a variety of remedies, ranging from self-help courses to books and videos. And of course I provided statistical evidence in an appeal to logic. But I may not have adequately addressed just how real such fears can be to those who suffer from aerophobia.
Like many others who have urged their fellow travelers to book a flight, I’ve come to see that logic is not enough to assuage such very real concerns.
Copyright 2009 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.