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October 31, 2008
Army to collaborate with NIMH to study causes of suicide
The New York Times (10/30, A18, Alvarez) reports, "Conceding it needed outside help in figuring out why the suicide rate among service members was rising, the Army announced plans on Wednesday to collaborate with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in an ambitious five-year project to identify the causes and risk factors of suicide."
The Army plans to "make thousands of soldiers available to researchers for interviews, and will provide access to its many databases, including those with medical, personnel, criminal, and deployment histories. Researchers will draw from a cross section of the Army, and will include soldiers who have just joined the service, or are training for war, and those who have returned from war."
Times notes that "suicides in the Army have been climbing since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2007, 115 soldiers killed themselves, a rate of 18.1 per 100,000 people." Data indicate that "the pace of suicides by soldiers in 2008 could eclipse last year's."
Related Links:
- "Army and Agency Will Study Rising Suicide Rate Among Soldiers," Lizette Alvarez, New York Times, October 30, 2008.
Posted by admin at 02:13 PM
October 25, 2008
"The Mind and Music of Leonard Bernstein" presented by Maryland Psychiatric Society
Dr. Richard Kogan will be speaking at Goucher College on October 25th about famed composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. The program, entitled "The Mind and Music of Leonard Bernstein," will begin with registration at 6:30pm at the Kraushaar Auditorium.
The main talk will begin at 7:00, followed by a question and answer session at 8:30, and then a dessert reception at 9:00.
The program is expected to cover the connection between hyperthymic temperament and bipolar disorder as well as explore music's role in alleviating depression and accessing ecstatic states. approved as continuing education credit for physicians, social workers, psychologists and counselors and therapists.
Tickets for the event are $45 for Maryland Psychiatric Society members and $60 for non-members. More information can be found at either the Maryland Psychiatric Society website or by viewing/printing the PDF brochure.
Posted by admin at 01:55 PM
Dr. Richard Kogan writes about composers and mental illness
Richard Kogan, a Juilliard-trained concert pianist and a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, writes about the effects of psychiatric illness on composers throughout the ages in the Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin.
He writes:
The relationship between Rachmaninoff's illness and his music intrigues me, for I'm a psychiatrist by day and a concert pianist by night. Ten years ago, the American Psychiatric Association asked me to give a presentation on the connection between creativity and mental illness. Until that time, my careers had progressed on parallel tracks. But that experience helped me appreciate the synergy between the two domains. My psychiatric training enabled me to identify patterns of illness in the life stories of the great composers, and this understanding gave me insight into the creative process.
Among the composers he discusses are Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin and Bernstein.
Related Links:
- "Chords of Disquiet," Richard Kogan, Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin, Spring 2008.
Posted by admin at 01:40 PM
WBJC Interviews Richard Kogan
WBJC 91.5 FM in Baltimore recently interviewed Dr. Richard Kogan, psychiatrist and concert pianist.
Dr. Richard Kogan will be speaking at Goucher College on October 25th about famed composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. See further information about the talk in our announcement here.
The link below will download the interview to your computer as an MP3 file for playback in any program or music player. Some web browsers may play the file directly.
Richard Kogan Interview on WJBC Radio (5.5MB MP3 File)
Note: We will likely add an in-page player at a future date.
Posted by admin at 12:47 PM
The New York Times (10/1, A18, Carey) reports that new research suggests that long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (LTPP) "can be effective against some chronic mental problems, including anxiety and borderline personality disorder." In a study published in the Oct. 1 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers reviewed "23 studies of such treatment involving 1,053 patients, [and] the researchers concluded that the therapy, given as often as three times a week, in many cases for more than a year, relieved symptoms of those problems significantly more than did some shorter-term therapies." "In fact, the number of therapy sessions the patients had was directly correlated to improvements in symptoms," HealthDay (9/30, Gordon) noted. WebMD (9/30, Wilbert) added that the study suggested "that patients with complex mental disorders who completed LTPP were better off than 96 percent of patients in comparison groups. Complex mental disorders included personality disorders, chronic mental disorders lasting at least a year, complex depressive or anxiety disorders, or those with two or more mental disorders." In an accompanying editorial, JAMA's deputy editor, Richard M. Glass, M.D., "argues that LTPP is being used less these days, at least in part because it is not as cost-effective as medication with brief supportive visits." He wrote, "This trend appears to be strongly related to financial incentives and other pressures to minimize costs." The Los Angeles Times's (9/30, Roan) Booster Shots blog also covered the story. Related Links: - "Psychoanalytic Therapy Wins Backing," Benedict carey, New York Times, October 1, 2008.
Posted by admin at 02:48 PM
Christopher Lukas is a successful Emmy award winning writer. His older brother Tony was a New York Times journalist who won two Pulitzer prizes. Tony suffered depressions, plagued by feelings of not being good enough, and committed suicide. In his book Blue Genes, Christopher examines their lives and relationships and their shared experiences growing up in their gifted but suicide and depression haunted family. When they were children their mother committed suicide, but they were told only that she died and immediately rushed away to residential school. Grandmother, uncle, aunt, and best friend were also suicides, and father, an eminent civil rights lawyer, drank himself to death. Christopher reveals his feelings of abandonment and anger and guilt in response to these suicides. He fears he might follow the self-destructive family pattern, but he compares himself to Tony. Tony was dangerously obsessed with a need to out compete his rivals. Christopher writes, “While I eventually took these matters up with psychoanalysts, Tony took them up with no one.” Related Links: - Blue Genes at Doubleday Publishing
Posted by admin at 02:41 PM
CQ (9/26, Johnson) reports, "The Senate was expected to act as early as Friday on a bill that rolls together several provisions relating to veterans" healthcare. The House already "passed the measure (S 2162) Thursday by voice vote." That measure, among other things, would authorize "$1.9 billion for veterans medical facility projects and major medical fa cility leases" and "$8 million through fiscal 2012 for the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for research." The House "also passed another broad veterans' measure Thursday that would" accomplish several things, including requiring the Department of Veterans Affairs to "implement regulations for notifying veterans who claim medical benefits about the status of their requests in simple terms." Related Links:
Posted by admin at 12:42 PM
Medscape (9/25, Busko) reported that a study of "a nationally representative sample of kindergarten-aged children and their mothers" suggests that "women who are both depressed and in physically abusive relationships are more than twice as likely as women who are not depressed or abused to spank their children, regardless of the child's behavior." For the study, researchers "analyzed data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort." They judged which mothers "had clinically significant depressive symptoms based on their r esponses to a 12-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale questionnaire." They found that, "compared with those with no depressive symptoms, mothers who were depressed were almost 60 percent more likely to spank their child; mothers who were both depressed and had violent arguments with their partners were 2.5 times more likely to spank their child." Moreover, the "risks of spanking remained the same after further adjustment for either positive or negative child behavior." The study is published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. Related Links: - "Depressed, Abused Mothers More Likely to Spank Their Children," Marlene Busko, MedScape, September 25, 2008.
Posted by admin at 12:37 PM
CQ (9/25, Wayne) reports that the Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would "renew funding for community health centers, primary care clinics for low-income people and the uninsured, with broad support from lawmakers in both parties." The legislation passed by voice-vote after a "substitute amendment" was adopted. "The amended bill would authorize $13.1 billion for the centers through fiscal 2012." It "also includes reauthorizations of programs that encourage health providers to work in areas considered medically underserved and health programs for rural areas." The bill now heads to the House of Representatives. Related Links:
Posted by admin at 12:32 PM
The Wall Street Journal (9/25, D6, Zhang) reports that "Congress is on the verge of clearing legislation to require most employers and health insurers to put mental health on par with physical illnesses." Legislation passed Tuesday by the House and Senate will guarantee parity "for hospital stays and doctor visits, as well as co-payments and deductibles. Plans that offer out-of-network coverage for physical problems will have to add equivalent mental coverage." Still, "the legislation doesn't specify what disorders must be covered." One behavioral health consultant "said there is consensus that major problems such as serious depression, schizophrenia, and substance abuse should be covered, but" she noted that "employers differ whether to cover autism, attention-deficit disorder, and some others." The legislation also "doesn't require insurance plans sold to individuals, employers with fewer than 50 workers, or those that don't provide any health coverage, to offer mental health coverage." Along with the bill's shortcomings, the AP (9/25, Reking) notes that it "still faces some hurdles before getting to President Bush for his signature." The House and the Senate's bills differed in that "the House bill focused strictly on mental health parity, [but] the Senate bill also covered the renewal of dozens of popular tax breaks for businesses and individuals. The two chambers will have to pass an exact, final version before it can become law, but time is quickly passing for this Congress." Modern Healthcare (9/24, Zigmond) also covered the story. Related Links: - "Mental-Health Bill on Tap," Jane Zhang, Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2008.
Posted by admin at 12:25 PM
WebMD (9/22, Doheny) reported that "deaths from accidental drug overdoses have increased dramatically in recent years, and prescription painkillers account for much of the problem, according to research presented [Monday] at the National Safety Council meeting." Janet Froetscher, the president and CEO of the council, said that, "in 2006, about 24,000 people died in the U.S. from accidental drug overdoses," which is "a 100 percent increase from 2000." The largest increase "in these accidental poisonings is among men and women of working age, 20 to 64, and is mainly due to abusing prescription pain medicines such as oxycodone, methadone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, and buprenorphine." According to Froetscher, "the most rapid growth in accidental poisoning deaths during the past decade occurred in those 45 to 64 years old...followed by those 25-44 and then 15-24." Froetscher, "citing data from the" Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that "prescription opioids account for more than 38 percent of the deaths." Related Links: - "Drug Overdose Deaths on the Rise," Kathleen Doheny, WebMD, September 22, 2008.
Posted by admin at 12:20 PM
October 14, 2008
Study suggests psychodynamic psychotherapy may be effective against some chronic mental problems
- "Study Shows Greater Effectiveness for Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy," caroline wilbert, WebMD, September 30, 2008.
A Brother's Suicide
October 03, 2008
Senate may vote Friday on veterans' mental healthcare bill
Study suggests mothers with depression may be more likely to spank their children regardless of child's behavior
- ABSTRACT "The relationship between maternal depression, in-home violence and use of physical punishment: What is the role of child behaviour?," Silverstein M, Augustyn M, Young R, Zuckerman B., Disease in Childhood, September 11, 2008.Senate passes bill to renew funding for community health centers, clinics for low-income patients
Mental health parity faces obstacles before being signed into law
- "Mental-health parity bills OK'd; next step unclear," Jessica Zigmund, Modern Healthcare, September 24, 2008.
Researcher says deaths from accidental drug overdoses may have increased dramatically