News In Brief
All the articles below, except where noted, were culled from the wonderful email news service of Ken Pope. Contact him at kspope@kspope.com
Clues Help Identify Psychological Seizures. Neurology. June 13 ‘06.
Up to 30 percent of those diagnosed with epilepsy don’t actually have the disorder. They have psychological nonepileptic seizures, or psychogenic seizures, that are caused by psychological conditions, not by the abnormal electrical activity in the brain that causes epileptic seizures. Because these nonepileptic seizures are similar to epileptic seizures, they can be difficult to diagnose.
“Right now there is an average of seven to nine years from the time someone first has these seizures and when they are correctly diagnosed with psychological nonepileptic seizures. During that time, they are given drugs for epilepsy that do not treat their problem and they undergo repeated testing - they pay a price physically, socially and financially.”
In the simplest of the three studies, researchers reviewed videos of 208 people whose seizures were monitored at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, AZ. They found that 50 out of 52 people with psychological nonepileptic seizures closed their eyes during seizures, while 152 out of 156 people with epileptic seizures opened their eyes during seizures.
The Grim Neurology of Teenage Drinking. NY Times. July 4th ’06. Katy Butler
“Mounting research suggests that alcohol causes more damage to the developing brains of teenagers than was previously thought, injuring them significantly more than it does adult brains. The findings, though preliminary, have demolished the assumption that people can drink heavily for years before causing themselves significant neurological injury. And the research even suggests that early heavy drinking may undermine the precise neurological capacities needed to protect oneself from alcoholism.
The most alarming evidence of physical damage comes from federally financed laboratory experiments on the brains of adolescent rats subjected to binge doses of alcohol. These studies found significant cellular damage to the forebrain and the hippocampus. And although it is unclear how directly these findings can be applied to humans, there is some evidence to suggest that young alcoholics may suffer analogous deficits. Studies conducted over the last eight years by federally financed researchers in San Diego, for example, found that alcoholic teenagers performed poorly on tests of verbal and nonverbal memory, attention focusing and exercising spatial skills like those required to read a map or assemble a precut bookcase.”
New Method Gauges Weight-Loss Surgery Risk. Duke U. Med. Center
Five characteristics increased the risk of death or complications from bariatric surgery:
- BMI (body mass index - a calculation of weight versus height) of higher than 50. The normal range is between 18.5 and 25.
- Being male.
- Hypertension - the condition is typically related to cardiovascular diseases, which can also increase risk.
- Pulmonary embolus (clot) risk - if patients have had or are at risk for having a blood clot in the lung, their risk may be increased.
- Being over the age of 45.
Psychologists’ job outlook: Good news and bad. The National Psychologist. Vol. 15, #4, July-August. James Bradshaw.
There’s good news for psychologists as a whole in the latest occupational outlook from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics — but not necessarily for independent practitioners. “Overall employment of psychologists is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2014,” states the 2006-07 Edition of the bureau’s Occupational Outlook Handbook.
But the devil’s in the details.
Although the handbook notes that “about four out of 10 psychologists are self-employed, compared with less than one out of 10 among all professional groups,” the job outlook is best for those employed by someone else.
The increased demand, the handbook predicts, will be greatest in schools, hospitals, social service agencies, mental health centers, substance abuse treatment clinics, consulting firms and private companies.
Demand is projected to be strongest for those holding doctorates from leading universities in applied specialties, such as counseling, health and school psychology. In those areas psychologists with only master’s degrees will be at a disadvantage because of doctorate requirements for many openings.
What Clients Find Helpful in Psychotherapy: Developing Principles for Facilitating Moment-to-Moment Change. Journal of Counseling Psychology. Vol. 53, #3. Heidi Levitt, Mike Butler,& Travis Hill.
Clients who had completed psychotherapy were interviewed about the significant experiences and moments they recalled within their sessions. These interviews were analyzed using grounded theory, creating a hierarchy of categories that represent what clients find important in therapy. From the hermeneutic analysis of the content of these categories, a list of principles was constructed to guide the moment-to-moment process of psychotherapy practice. The authors respond to the call for qualitative outcome studies and demonstrate how qualitative psychotherapy research can lead to empirically derived principles that then can become the foundation of future research and psychotherapy integration efforts.” The author note states that reprint requests may be sent to Heidi Levitt, Department of Psychology, University of Memphis Memphis, TN 38152; E-mail: hlevitt@memphis.edu
Antidepressant Drug Therapy and Suicide in Severely Depressed Children and Adults: A Case-Control Study. Archives of General Psychiatry. Vol. 63, #8. Mark Olfson, Steven C. Marcus, &and David Shaffer
The Food and Drug Administration has issued a boxed warning concerning increased suicidal ideation and behavior associated with antidepressant drug treatment in children and adolescents. It is unknown whether antidepressant agents increase the risk of suicide death in children or adults.
To estimate the relative risk of suicide attempt and suicide death in severely depressed children and adults treated with antidepressant drugs vs those not treated with antidepressant drugs. In adults (aged 19-64 years), antidepressant drug treatment was not significantly associated with suicide attempts (odds ratio [OR], 1.10; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.86-1.39 [521 cases and 2394 controls]) or suicide deaths (OR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.52-1.55 [86 cases and 396 controls]). However, in children and adolescents (aged 6-18 years), antidepressant drug treatment was significantly associated with suicide attempts (OR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.12-2.07 [263 cases and 1241 controls]) and suicide deaths (OR, 15.62; 95% CI, 1.65-infinity [8 cases and 39 controls]).
In these high-risk patients, antidepressant drug treatment does not seem to be related to suicide attempts and death in adults but might be related in children and adolescents. These findings support careful clinical monitoring during antidepressant drug treatment of severely depressed young people.
Making the link between depression, disability. Employee Benefit News. Leah Carlson Shepherd.
Something that exacerbates health problems, produces prolonged absences and worsens employers’ headaches over medical costs is hard to ignore. So it’s easy to see why businesses are starting to recognize the negative influence depression has on disability claims. Depression was a leading cause in 5% of long-term disability claims and 4% of short-term disability claims between in 2004 and 2005, estimates Constantine Gean, chief medical officer at UnumProvident, a Chattanooga, Tenn.-based disability insurance vendor.
Mental Health Problems of Prison and Jail Inmates (NCJ-213600). Doris J. James & Lauren E. Glaze.
More than half of all prison and jail inmates, including 56 percent of state prisoners, 45 percent of federal prisoners and 64 percent of local jail inmates, were found to have a mental health problem, according to a new study published today by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The findings represent inmates’ reporting symptoms rather than an official diagnosis of a mental illness. The study determined the presence of mental health problems among prison and jail inmates by asking them about a recent history or symptoms of mental disorders that occurred in the last year.
Among the inmates who reported symptoms of a mental disorder: 54 percent of local jail inmates had symptoms of mania, 30 percent major depression and 24 percent psychotic disorder, such as delusions or hallucinations. 43 percent of state prisoners had symptoms of mania, 23 percent major depression and 15 percent psychotic disorder. 35 percent of federal prisoners had symptoms of mania, 16 percent major depression and 10 percent psychotic disorder.
Female inmates had higher rates of mental health problems than male inmates -- in state prisons, 73 percent of females and 55 percent of males; in federal prisons, 61 percent of females and 44 percent of males; and in local jails, 75 percent of females and 63 percent of males.
Mental health problems were primarily associated with violence and past criminal activity. An estimated 61 percent of state prisoners and 44 percent of jail inmates who had a mental health problem had a current or past violent offense. About a quarter of both state prisoners (25 percent) and jail inmates (26 percent) had served three or more prior sentences to incarceration.
Inmates with a mental health problem also had high rates of substance dependence or abuse in the year before their admission -- 74 percent of state prisoners and 76 percent of local jail inmates were dependent on or abusing drugs or alcohol. 37 percent of state prisoners and 34 percent of jail inmates said they had used drugs at the time of their offense. 13 percent of state prisoners and 12 percent of jail inmates had used methamphetamines in the month before their offense.
The findings in this report were based on a nationally representative sample of prisoners (in 2004) and jail inmates (in 2002). Approximately 14,500 state prisoners, 3,700 federal prisoners and 7,000 jail inmates completed face-to-face interviews.
The report can be found at: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/mhppji.htm
Nicotine Levels Raised. Washington Post. 8/30/06. (Forwarded to the PA Psych Assoc. Email List by Robert Griffin. Republished with permission. Eds.)
[Griffin] Some brands have more than a 30% increase in nicotine. The last time I checked, 3,000 children start smoking every day, 1,000 of whom will eventually die from it. Since quitting smoking is extremely difficult, and most people can’t or don’t, prevention is life saving.
“The amount of nicotine in most cigarettes rose an average of almost 10 percent between 1998 and 2004, with brands most popular with young people and minorities registering the biggest increases and highest nicotine content, according to a new study.
Nicotine is highly addictive, and while no one has studied the effect of the increases on smokers, the higher levels theoretically could make new smokers more easily addicted as well as make it harder for established smokers to quit.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083001418.html
