« July 2008 | Main | September 2008 »
August 28, 2008
Experts say clusters of unvaccinated children are cause for alarm
The Chicago Tribune (8/26, Shelton, Williams-Harris) reported that although numerous studies have "found no link between vaccinations and autism," some experts "note that autism tends to emerge at the same age children receive their shots, leading to a false sense of cause and effect."
And, some parents narratives about their children's experiences with vaccines spread "so easily...online, that pediatricians say they are spending unprecedented time answering questions about vaccinations, from mercury fears to concerns over the increasingly intense schedule of shots."
In addition, "parental suspicion is now so high that public health officials fear it could undermine one of the most important advances in medical history," that is, herd immunity. For instance, "last week, federal officials reported that measles cases in the U.S. have reached their highest level in more than a decade, with nearly half of the cases involving children of parents who opted against vaccination."
While "immunization rates overall remain high," a number of health officials contend that "clusters of unvaccinated children are cause for alarm."
Related Links:
- "Kids' vaccinations face risky resistance," Deborah L. Shelton and Deanese Williams-Harris, Chicago Tribune, August 26, 2008.
Posted by admin at 10:39 AM
Columnist offers advice for dealing with stressed-out workers
On the front page of the Wall Street Journal's (8/26, D1) Personal Journal section, Elizabeth Bernstein writes in the Health Journal column that "mental-health experts say they're seeing increasing signs of stress this year, with more people seeking professional help for mental strain brought on by financial or work issues."
In fact, since "last spring, calls to employee-assistance programs (EAPs) -- which help people with mental-health and personal problems -- have risen about 10 percent, according to the Employee Assistance Professionals Association." In a worst-case scenario, bosses should be on the lookout for warning signs of "office violence," such as "direct threats, menacing gestures, or statements."
Anyone "who appears to be a threat should be dealt with by managers immediately and carefully, with the help of security," experts advise. But, "the vast majority of people suffering from mental stress in the workplace don't become violent." Some warning "signs that something is wrong" are "changes in behavior, including work patterns, eating habits, or drinking." Bernstein advises bosses of overstressed employees to "offer only work-related help," such as giving out the number to the company's EAP.
Related Links:
- "When a Co-Worker is Stressed Out," Elizabeth Bernstein, Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2008.
Posted by admin at 10:35 AM
Number of veterans suffering from undiagnosed mild traumatic brain injuries remains unknown
On its front page, the New York Times (8/26, A1, Alvarez) reports that "a growing tide of combat veterans" is returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan with mild traumatic brain injuries, or concussions, caused by powerful explosions.
As many as 300,000, or 20 percent, of combat veterans who regularly worked...away from bases" may "have suffered at least one concussion, according to the latest Pentagon estimates." The concussions may leave many with "longer-term problems that can include...persistent memory loss, headaches, mood swings, dizziness, hearing problems, and light sensitivity. These symptoms, which may be subtle and may not surface for weeks or months after their return, are often debilitating," and could lead "to financial problems, job losses, divorce, and mental-health issues."
Last year, the Department of Veterans Affairs began "screening all Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who come in for clinical help. So far, 33,000 of 227,015, about 15 percent, have screened positive for mild brain injury since April 2007." It remains unclear, however, "how many service members, particularly those who fought earlier in the war, remain unscreened, and whose injuries go undiagnosed."
Related Links:
- "War Veterans’ Concussions Are Often Overlooked," Lizette Alvarez, New York Times, August 25, 2008.
Posted by admin at 10:31 AM
Experts say parents accompanying children to school should strike balance between support, suffocation
On its website, ABC News (8/22, Childs, Chitale) reported that "many parents remain unsure as to whether they're doing more good than harm when tagging along with their kid for the first day of class."
According to child-development experts, "while parental accompaniment can be important in making a child feel secure at school, parents must be very careful to strike a balance between support and suffocation."
Psychiatrist David Fassler, M.D., of the University of Vermont College of Medicine, stated, "Going to school by yourself is an important developmental step for children."=2 0He cautioned parents that "hanging on too tightly can send a message that you don't think the child can do it on his or her own."
Jan Harp Domene, the national president of the Parent Teacher Association, urged parents of young children "to institute a five-minute limit on the first day, staying only long enough to ensure that their child is settled in."
Related Links:
- "http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AnxietyNews/story?id=5629257&page=1,"Dan Childs and Radha Chitale, ABC News, August 22, 2008.
Posted by admin at 10:28 AM
August 20, 2008
Research suggests association between bipolar disorder and genes controlling function of ion channels
PsychCentral (8/18, Nauert) reported that there may be "an association between" bipolar disorder "and variation in two genes that make components of channels that manage the flow of the elements into and out of cells, including neurons," according to a study published online in the journal Nature Genetics.
For the study, Pamela Sklar, M.D., Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues, examined "about 1.8 million sites of genetic variation in 10,596 people -- including 4,387 with bipolar disorder." The team found "two genes showing the strongest association among 14 disorder-associated chromosomal regions." Specifically, a "[v]ariation in a gene called Ankyrin 3 (ANK3) showed the strongest association with bipolar disorder."
In addition, "[v]ariation in a calcium-channel gene found in the brain showed the second strongest association with" the "disorder. This CACNA1C protein similarly regulates the influx and outflow of calcium." The study's findings "point to the possibility that bipolar disorder might stem, at least in part, from malfunction of ion channels." MedWire (8/19, Czyzewski) also reports the study.
Related Links:
- "Genetic Link For Bipolar, Rick Nauert, Ph.D., PsychCentral, August 18, 2008.
Posted by admin at 01:07 PM
Patient advocates may endanger mentally ill, public by fighting for patients' right to refuse treatment, some mental-health experts say
On the front page of the Wall Street Journal (8/16, A1), Elizabeth Bernstein and Nathan Koppel write in the Page One column that "[w]ith the help of government-funded advocates, William Bruce," a patient diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, "was discharged from a" Maine "psychiatric hospital against his doctor's wishes," only to kill his mother two months later.
Under "a little-known government-funded advocacy program for psychiatric patients," called the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness program (PAIMI), patient "advocates ... appear[ed] to have fought for" Bruce's "right to refuse treatment, to have coached him on how to answer doctors' questions, and to have resisted the medical staff's efforts to contact his parents."
Created in "1986 to curb abuse and neglect of the mentally ill," the PAIMI program is operated by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and "funds protection-and-advocacy agencies in each state." While "[p]roponents of patient advocates say they're essential to protecting the rights of the mentally ill," many "mental-health veterans argue that advocates are endangering" both "the mentally ill and the public by too often fighting for patients' right to refuse treatment."
Related Links:
- "A Death in the Family," Elizabeth Bernstein and Nathan Koppell, wall street Journal, August 16, 2008.
Posted by admin at 01:04 PM
More American women received contraceptive services from healthcare providers between 1995 and 2002, survey find
HealthDay (8/13, Doheny) reported that, according to a survey published in the Oct. issue of the American Journal of Public Health, "[m]ore U.S. women are availing themselves of contraceptives services, such as birth-control pill prescriptions."
Researchers at New York's Guttmacher Institute "examined the 1995 and 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to detect patterns and trends in the use of sexual and reproductive healthcare services." The investigators found that "[o]verall, the percentage of women receiving all sexual and reproductive healthcare services -- including no t only birth control, but also such services as STD testing and Pap tests -- remained constant at 74 percent." But, "the percentage of American women who said they received contraceptive services rose from 36 percent to 41 percent."
Lead investigator Jennifer Frost, Dr.P.H., noted that "the increase mainly occurred in adolescents, women older than 30, and women with household incomes greater than 150 percent of the federal poverty level," WebMD (8/13, Colihan) added. Notably, "since the mid-1990s, there have been changes on the birth-control front, with more demand for contraceptive services, and insurance more often covering the cost of birth control."
Related Links:
- "More U.S. Women Getting Birth Control Services," Kathleen Doheny, HealthDay, August 13, 2008.
Posted by admin at 01:00 PM
Panel finds no evidence single abortion causes significant mental-health problems
The Wall Street Journal (8/14, D6, Simon) reports that on Wednesday, the American Psychological Association said that "there is 'no credible evidence' that a single, elective abortion causes mental-health problems for adult women."
The "conclusion -- posted on the group's website -- didn't address possible mental-health effects on teenagers, who account for about 17 percent of all abortions in the U.S." Nearly "half of the 1.2 million abortions a year in this country are to women who have had one or more prior abortions; they were also left out of the report's conclusion." But, the "association called for more research on these groups, along with more carefully designed studies in general."
In addition, the "report dismissed as unreliable some peer-review studies that found a possible link between abortion and depression or substance abuse."
Related Links:
- "Study Fails to Find Link On Abortion, Mental Health," Stephanie Simon, Wall Street Journal, August 14, 2008.
Posted by admin at 12:57 PM
Grady Memorial Hospital faces acute shortage of psychiatric beds
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/6, White, Miller) reported that Atlanta's "safety-net hospital," Grady Memorial, "is issuing alerts to the Atlanta medical community that it can't take any more mentally ill patients."
Grady currently "operates one of the country's largest psychiatric emergency departments, handling 15,000 to 16,000 emergency visits a year, including children in crisis.
In the past, many patients have been transferred to state-run hospitals after being evaluated and stabilized at Grady," but "those transfers have slowed dramatically as the state mental hospitals deal with their own capacity problems."
Grady's situation "echoes a national trend: a shortage of psychiatric beds that forces people who need them, including children, to be 'boarded' in emergency departments across the country, according to a survey by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP)." ACEP president Linda Lawrence, M.D., stated, "The lack of access to psychiatric care is creating a very dangerous situation for people with mental illness, and for emergency patients in general."
Related Links:
- "No room for new mental patients," Gayle White and andy Miller, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 6, 2008.
Posted by admin at 12:51 PM
August 07, 2008
Medications to combat Alzheimer's disease remain elusive
The Los Angeles Times (7/28, Roan) reports that "Alzheimer's disease research is at a crossroads, according to several scientists attending" the Alzheimer's Assn. 2008 International Conference.
The five Alzheimer's drugs that are currently available "treat the symptoms of the disease, such as memory problems and mental confusion," but "do not cure, halt, or even slow the disease process."
This year "was supposed to herald the arrival of the first disease-modifying drug. ... Instead, it's been marked by two failed clinical trials." Medical investigators, however, remain optimistic. A top researcher in the field, Paul Aisen, M.D., of the University of California-San Diego, said, "We have a long way to go. However, I have no doubt we are making progress, and that major advances can be expected in the next few years."
Dr. Aisen added that "[t]he setbacks have not convinced scientists that the disease is incurable," and "[d]ozens of...experimental medications are in the pipeline."
Related Links:
- "Drugs to reverse Alzheimer’s disease prove elusive," Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2008.
Posted by admin at 03:09 AM
Panic disorder may affect six million adults, NIMH estimates
The Albany Democrat-Herald /Chicago Tribune (7/26, Pallant) reported, "Panic disorder affects about six million American adults, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and is twice as common in women as it is in men."
The American Psychiatric Association defines "a panic attack as a sudden, intense episode of fear or discomfort where there is no real danger. A panic attack will reach a peak within 10 minutes," and is "accompanied by at least four of the following symptoms: palpitations or accelerated heart rate; sweating; trembling or shaking; sensations of shortness of breath or smothering; feeling of choking; chest pain or discomfort; nausea or abdominal distress; feeling dizzy, unsteady, or faint; feelings of unreality or being detached from oneself; fear of losing control, or going crazy; fear of dying; numbness or tingling sensations," and "chills or hot flushes."
The Tribune pointed out that "[p]anic attacks become panic disorder when the symptoms aren't ignored, and the fear of the next attack is so overwhelming that it becomes life-altering."
Related Links:
- "Panic attacks: Those overwhelming feelings of fear are biological false alarms," Susan Kutchin Pallant, Chicago Tribune, July 20, 2008.
Posted by admin at 03:06 AM
Government says more than 22,000 veterans have sought help from suicide hot line
In continuing coverage from previous editions of Headlines, the AP (7/28, Euphrat) reports, "More than 22,000 veterans have sought help from a special suicide hot line in its first year, and 1,221 suicides have been averted, the government says."
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) "teamed up with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to launch the hot line last July after years of criticism that the VA wasn't doing enough to help wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan." To date, the VA "has spent $2.9 million on the hot line." The VA "hot line receives up to 250 calls per day."
According to Janet Kemp, national suicide prevention coordinator for the VA, "callers are divided evenly between veterans from the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam wars." The VA currently estimates that "6,500 veterans take their own lives" annually.
Related Links:
- "Suicide hot line got calls from 22,000 veterans," Katherine Euphrat, AP on Yahoo.Com, July 28, 2008.
Posted by admin at 03:04 AM